Intro to Grouping, Constraining, Parenting, Node Connecting, Set Driven Key, Direct Connection (Connection Editor) & Expressions (Coding Connections)

Grouping lets you rotate, flip, move, or resize all shapes or objects at the same time as though they were a single shape or object. You can also change the attributes of all of the shapes in a group at one time, such as adding a shape fill or effect, or an effect to a picture.

Constraints let you constrain the position, orientation, or scale of an object to other objects. Further, with constraints you can impose specific limits on objects and automate animation processes. Is a relationship between two objects: the target object, the one who leads the movement, and the constrained, driven by the target object. There are several types of constraints that depend on the axis you need to constrain to the leading object: translation (point), rotation (orient) and scale – parent constraint is for both translation and rotation.

Parenting: as shown in the picture above Parenting connection in Maya involves a child, subordinate to the parent, and a parent. There is no group node and it takes an object and put it underneath the other object node.

Node connections:

Maya scenes are a visual representation of the node graph every object you create in maya is represented by a node or more. An “object”, such as a sphere, is built from several nodes: a creation node that records the options that created the sphere; a transform node that records how the object is moved, rotated, and scaled; and a shape node that stores the positions of the spheres control points. I have used a the node connection in week 2 to maintain the value of a steppingstone to animate its squash and stretch: I linked the object node to another node that I have used to correct the value, and to another that put the value to square root and the last one which divided the value into 1.

Set Driven key: a way to link one attribute to another in different nodes or the same node to optimise a rig or an animation strategy. With the Set Driven Key window, you can link objects so that one object’s attributes can drive or dictate the attributes of another object to perform ‘Condition based’ animations.