So… here is something special. A little while ago, Technical Artist Alex Mann sowed off a Shelf Building Rig in Maya. The system using MASH nodes in Maya to act as a shelf-building asset, automatically generating books and shelves. (watch the video example below)
If you have seen any of Itoo’s RailClone examples, this would be similar. You can make the shelf building rig any size, and it will automatically fill in stuff to make it into more bookcases.
If you wondered how it was done, as I have wondered, there is good news. Alex Mann kindly started his project with Ian Waters, who now shows us how.
Ian walks through the basic principles to create a packaged and flexible asset in Maya with MASH at the heart.
Ian takes the work a set further by packing up the shelf building rig as an asset. This makes a nice clean package. An asset is an easy way to use and alter the shelves without the clutter and confusion of the underlying nodes that make it work.
