Picker File Distribution

Picker Searchs Paths

MG-Picker Studio searchs 3 Basic paths and any count of other paths for the desired picker:

  1. Picker nodes fully inside the Maya scene. A picker could be stored as a node, which is of Maya’s build-in type subdivSurfaceVarGroup, and usually has a node name ending with a suffix _MGPIKR; The image used by an in-scene picker node will be stored in the Maya scene directory/pickerimages folder.

  2. Picker nodes partially Inside the Maya scene. From MG-Picker Studio v1.7, The picker nodes can choose not to contain any picker contents, instead, it contains just a file path attribute, that points to a picker file. This is the preferable way to distribute your picker since the edit and maintenance of the picker file is separated from your rig Maya scene, yet your picker can be loaded with the clue in the picker node. The file path support environment variables denoted by $ or ${}, as well as 3 predefined variables:

  • ${M_PROJ_DIR}: Current Maya project directory.

  • ${MAYA_CURRENT_SCENE_DIR}: Current Maya scene directory.

  • ${M_CURRENT_ASSET_DIR}: Current asset Maya scene directory. Say the asset is referenced, it will still give you the asset scene directory instead current Maya scene directory.

Examples:

  • $M_PROJ_DIR/picker/pickerName/pickerfile.mgpkr

  • ${M_SCENE_DIR}_picker/pickerName/pickerfile.mgpkr

  • D:/workarea/projects/${MyProjectName}/pickerName/pickerfile.mgpkr

  • /path/to/$MyProjectName/$MyPickerName/${MyPickerName}.mgpkr

  1. Maya scene directory/pickers subfolder. You could publish your picker data and images within the Maya scene directory/pickers / PickerName folder and will be auto-searched.

  2. Maya user applicaton directory / MG_PickerData / Picker Project. In Windows, its My Document/maya/MG_PickerData/. Picker data stored within the current project name will be auto-searched.

  3. Other paths added in the MG-Picker Studio Preference dialog.

💡 These searching paths setting are actually stored in as a file called SearchingPathConfig.ini in maya/version/scripts/MG-PickerStudio/MGPicker_UserConfig directory.

Share this file among the pipeline so everybody shares the same searching rule.

Distribute picker files/nodes in your production pipeline

Since now you know the search paths MG-Picker Studio uses to search and load the pickers, you know how to distribute your picker data in the pipeline.

Notice that only the in-scene picker node could be auto-loadable when a new scene is opened. But wait, there are more ways: Using programming way, which is the most customizable, but need bit of programming .

You can define two class inherit from MGP.loader.MGPickerRigListerBase and MGP.loader.MGPickerLoaderBase.

MGPickerRigListerBase is for listing out all the rig asset names in your Maya scene, or a certain category of assets, such as characters, props, etc.

MGPickerLoaderBase is for returning a picker full path for an asset name, so it can be loaded.

With these two classes, you enable MG-Picker studio to auto-load pickers for all assets in your Maya scene, and also auto-load pickers for a specific rig based on selection.

Check out here for more information.

The Portability of Picker Images

Check here for the tips on picker images portability.