Maya Utilities - Mesh Rivet

[david-cattermole]

Feature

Add a utility module that can be used to "rivet" a transform node to a mesh.
This can be helpful for matchmove Quality Checking techniques, and for querying surface-based transforms, or surface relative deformer rigs ("Surface Cluster").

There are a few different techniques for "riveting" in Maya, each is has good and bad points.
Most techniques use the underlying mesh data structure (such as vertices, or edges), or use other data such as UVs.

nearestPointOnMesh and nearestPointOnCurve nodes

We can use nodes to directly get transform data from a point on a Mesh or NURBS curve.

We can use the nearestPointOnMesh plug-in with Maya, for meshes. This will only work on polygon meshes (which is the most common use-case).

Curves are handed with nearestPointOnCurve.

rivet.mel Technique

This tool uses polygon edges converted into NURBS curves, then placing a point at the average of two different NURBS curves.

https://www.highend3d.com/maya/script/rivet-button-for-maya

djRivet.mel - Follicle Technique

Follicle nodes (with Maya's legacy hair system) can be used to convert a UV point into a 3D transform.

https://www.highend3d.com/maya/script/djrivet-mel-for-maya

[david-cattermole]

This tool (without the follicle rivet support) has been added as part of 9e5a1eb, and will be available in the next v0.4.x and v0.5.x releases.