Ai_Standin Pipeline Toolbox - Arnold for Maya  

What does it do:

This set of tools automates an aiStandin workflow that:

Drastically improves viewport performance: Easily animate in a fully set-dressed environment even on a relatively low-end PC by having your environment assets cached to the GPU and automatically instanced on import. Improved Render Times: Use of standin's and instances drastically reduces the amount of calculations necessary at rendertime. Assists Parallel Workflow: Assets can be modified in their home scene and are automatically updated throughout all scenes for everyone as assets are updated onto the shared file repository. Network Functionality: Share updates instantly within a team, across a network of workstations by automatically updating changes to a network repository. Asset Library: Creates a dynamically updating Asset Library to easily fetch assets without the need to leave Maya or navigate folder structures.

These scripts have been extensively closed-beta tested on a sample of up to 58 participants across 8 short films.

Tool Breakdown: 

Set Paths:

Sets various variables and settings to allow correct functioning of the rest of the aiStandin tools.

This is a legacy button for as the functionality is automatically called whenever needed by other scripts.

Publish:

Creates or Updates the selected Asset as a ".ass" and a backup ".mb" file with automated file structure and naming convention

both inside your set project and in the local or network directory specified in the "ai_standin_toolset_settings.json" file.

Import:

Opens a library window showing all of your available standin's for import. Select one and hit "Ok" to bring it into your scene.

If the standin is already present in the scene it will automatically be created as an instance to maximise responsiveness, reserve RAM, and minimise scene size.

Instance_Duplicate

Duplicates the selected object as an instance. This is not limited to standIn's. It can be used for Mesh too.

This script's function acts to maximise responsiveness, reserve RAM, and minimise scene size.

ToInstance:

Converts all selected objects into instances of the first selected object. 

This is for a situation when you have multiple shape nodes of the same asset, whether they are aiStandin's or anything else. 

ToStandin:

If your scene or parts of your scene have been blocked out or set dressed already using inefficient mesh, this script can be used to replace the selected object with an asset selected from your library.

ToGEO:

If your scene is comprised of standin's but for whatever reason you need as asset to be replaced with its respective source mesh, this script will do so.

SetViewType:

Change how all selected aiStandin's are displayed in the viewport simultaneously.

Options include, shaded geo, point cloud, per object bounding boxes and bounding box.

TexOverRide:

Toggle's shader overriding in batch for all of your selected standins. This controls whether the selected aiStandin asset will use the shaders inside its ".ass" file or use a shader assigned to in in the scene.

Subdiv:

This script sets your Arnold subdivide at rendertime settings on all selected mesh to the desired number. It also sets the Adaptive space to work with instanced assets.

ViewPort+:

Improves the performance of Viewport 2.0 by optimizing settings for functionality over the beauty provided by default. This script also searches your scene for all skinned mesh and sets it to cache playback resulting in more accurate timing for animation on consecutive runthroughs.

Installation Instructions:

1. Copy the folder called "ai_standin_toolset" to a location in your Maya path such as "C:\Users\{Username}\Documents\maya\scripts"

2. Place the "ai_standin_toolset_settings.json" file in "{Maya Project Directory}/scripts" to control your settings and preferences on a per-project basis.

3. Inside of Maya, load in the shelf "shelf_StandinWorkflow_v4_2.mel".

    a. Go to your shelf options by clicking the cog icon on the left side of your shelf area.

    b. Select "Load Shelf"

    c. Load in the shelf "shelf_StandinWorkflow_v4_2.mel". Maya will automatically copy it to the shelf directory and use that copy going forward so you do not need to place it anywhere specific.

Updates:

This version includes a wide range of minor bug fixes, stability improvements, optimisations, quality of life improvements, and changes in preparation for future features.

Some notable changes include:

• Python 3 Compatibility
• Maya 2022 Compatibility
• The latest version of "MakeSubdivide" has been added to the shelf.
• The latest version of "Viewport 2.0 Optimiser" has been added to the shelf.
• Stability improvements and Bugfixes