As part of my demo reel, I created a rigging toolkit for my work in Maya. The different GUI interfaces are accessed via Maya shelf buttons. So far I've created 3 windows with numerous functionality.

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I started with the "CV Controls Kit." I have found that there are always certain CV shapes that I use for making my rig controls. Yes, I could have just made shelf buttons, but I found using a separate window to be more functional. This way I could free up space on the current shelf and still have all my shapes in a single convenient area. Another common issue is color overriding. It's easy to do, but a rather long and repetitive process. Having a few scripted buttons at my disposal, streamlines that process ten fold. So now I can change all the controls inside my rig at once versus having to go through the process on an individual basis. Since I sometimes need to create much more customized control shapes, I included several tools to do so. Finally I needed a way to make my controls renderable. The process I utilize, involves changing the CV curves into polygons.

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The next GUI is the "Renaming Kit." Keeping organized while building a rig is key. So it's only natural that a fast naming process be utilized. There really isn't too much to talk about with this window. Maya already has several tools for this, but they usually aren't anywhere near each other. So I wanted to bring them altogether in a simple and easy to use window.

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The biggest toolkit I made was the "Rigging Toolkit." It has all the commonly used windows at the top, followed by a constraints section with quick maintain offset access. The bottom half of the window has 3 tabs. The Joints tab has basic joint building tools. As well as IK tools and IK Spline tools. Finally I scripted out some quick joint chain buttons to help speed up my process. The second tab deals with connecting CV controls to the rig. I needed a fast way to mirror the controls from one side of the rig to the other. This allows for exact positioning on a symmetrical rig. Using this tool removes all possible human error in trying to recreate a control. I also created several scripts for fast alignments and padding. Basically the padding tool creates several groups on a selected object to allow more control for automated actions. Finally, I made a button for my global control. It contains 3 layers of global controls and a credits icon. The last tab contains some attribute sets and several prebuilts systems. There is also an IK/FK Tool Kit" that makes it easy to build an IK/FK system for an arm or a leg. All that I need to do is select the various controls and let the script do the rest.