charlestumare Our pleasure! Thanks for the kudos!
- The "mirroring" in zBuilder doesn't actually modify the geometry in the scene.
The expectation is that you already have the "mirrored" muscle geometry in the scene.
It will filter the contents of the zBuilder python object and apply the values used by tissues, attachments, fibers etc. from one side to the other.
Here is the excerpt from the documentation:
"What that does is put the left muscles in object and does searches for l at beginning of name and replaces with r. Sometimes you need to do a couple search and replaces and you do that like so:
z = zva.ZivaSetup()
z.retrieve_from_scene_selection()
z.string_replace('l','r')
z.string_replace('l','r')
z.apply()
that will again replace l with r if at beginning of line AND replace l with r anywhere it finds it.
currently for mirroring to work, the zNodes need to be named with some naming convention that can be search and replaceable so it can identify the opposite side."
- The speed of the fascia solve is an area where we expect to see some significant improvements in the coming months . . .
For the time being, if replicating the fascia by using a "tissue", I'd make the following suggestions . . .
A. Start with the default tetSize - so that you can iterate quickly.
B. One the zTet node, floor the painted weights to a value of "1.0"
C. Make sure that "fillInterior" if set to "off"
D. Increase your "surfaceRefinement" number (gradually increase the number until the tet mesh is high enough resolution to capture the details you're interested in.
E. For areas that don't require as much fidelity, reduce the value of the zTet node's weight map.
If replicating the fascia using "cloth"
You'll want to significantly reduce the stiffness values on the zMaterial node, in order to allow the fascia to stretch.
- Andy was demonstrating a new feature that will be made available in the near future.
For the time being, you can use whatever Maya mechanism to dive the excitation attribute on the zFiber node.
N.B. if using a SetDrivenKeyframe, the maya UI has a bug where the window fails when you attempt to open it if there is a painted zFiber map (the Maya window doesn't know how to deal with compound multi attributes)
You can work around this by adding attributes to an intermediary node, connecting the attributes of this node the the zFiber excitation and then adding the SetDrivenKeyframes between the intermediary node and the joint you would like to use to actuate the zFiber excitation.
Cheers!