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Selection sets are used to organize controls into groups, or sets, in the animate state. These sets can then be used to select, hide, pin, and isolate groups of controls. Selection sets are only displayed when you are in the animate state.
Selection sets are stored with the geometry when you exit the animate state. When you re-enter the animate state, you will see the selection sets you defined earlier.
Selection sets can be managed either in its own pane, or in a HUD window that is embedded in the animate state:
Selection sets pane
The selection sets pane offers the full functionality of working with and managing selection sets, including options for importing, mirroring, and editing sets, as well as the ability to customize the display of the pane.
To create a selection sets pane tab:
-
Click the
New Tab icon at the top of a pane.
-
Choose New Pane Tab Type ▸ Animation ▸ APEX Selection Sets.
Selection sets HUD
A selection sets HUD window is automatically created and displayed in the viewport when you enter the animate state. The HUD offers a more streamlined selection of options for working with and managing selection sets within the viewport. There are also slight differences in the placement of icons between the HUD and the selection sets pane.
Selection sets structure ¶
There are three top-level categories of selection sets:
User-defined selection sets
Users can create sets from a selected group of controls.
Current Selection
A special set that contains the currently selected controls in the animate state. Users cannot make changes to this set.
All Controls
A special set that contains all the controls in the current scene. Users cannot make changes to this set.
Selection sets are organized in a tree structure with a hierarchy of controls for each character in the set:
-
At the top level is the
selection set
-
Under the selection set is the
character
-
Under the character is the
rig
-
Under the rig are the
controls in the rig
To the right of each item in the tree structure is a number that indicates the number of controls in the item’s subtree. If the name of the item contains a pattern, this number represents the number of controls matched by the pattern, and an additional descriptor, PATTERN
, is appended after the number. For example, a pattern that matches 10 controls in a rig could be displayed in the tree structure as:
* 10, PATTERN
.
Selection set icons ¶
In the following table, an item is a character, rig, or control in the selection set tree structure.
Icon |
Functionality |
---|---|
|
User-defined sets |
|
Currently selected controls |
|
Character |
|
Character is visible, or all characters in the set are visible |
|
Some of the characters in the set are visible |
|
Character is hidden, or all characters in the set are hidden |
|
Rig |
|
Control |
|
Control is visible, or all controls in the group are visible |
|
Some of the controls in the group are visible |
|
Control is hidden, or all controls in the group are hidden |
Icon |
Functionality |
---|---|
|
Primary control - the control on which the transform handle is placed |
|
Item is isolated |
|
Some of the items in the group are isolated |
|
The isolating functionality is currently disabled, but when isolating is enabled, this item is isolated. |
|
Control is selected, or all controls in the group are selected |
|
Some of the controls in the group are selected |
|
Control is not selected, or none of the controls in the group are selected |
|
Item is pinned |
|
Some of the items in the group are pinned |
|
Item is un-pinned, or all items in the group are un-pinned |
Creating and modifying sets ¶
To... | Do this |
---|---|
Create a set from a selection of controls |
|
Create an empty set |
or In the selection sets pane, choose Edit ▸ Create Empty Set. |
Create a nested selection set |
Drag and drop a set into another set. or
|
Reorganize the tree structure |
Drag and drop sets within the tree structure. |
Add or remove controls from a set |
|
Remove an item from a set |
In the selection sets HUD, |
Remove a set |
or
|
Remove all sets |
In the selection sets pane, choose Edit ▸ Clear Sets. |
Duplicate a set |
or
The duplicate set is named |
Rename a set |
or
|
Rename sets using a pattern |
For example, if the current set names are |
Color a set |
or
or
|
Clear the color on a set |
or
|
Working with selection set items ¶
With selection sets, you can select, display, pin, and isolate groups of controls. You also have the option to show or hide full character geometries.
In the following table, an item is a character, rig, or control in the selection set tree structure.
To... | Do this |
---|---|
Select or deselect items |
Select the item in the tree structure. or In the selection sets pane, click the or
or In the selection sets pane, select the item, and choose Manage ▸ Select Selected Sets or De-Select Selected Sets. |
Show or hide controls |
Click the or
or In the selection sets pane, select the item, and choose Manage ▸ Show Selected Sets or Hide Selected Sets. Note When the isolating functionality is enabled, the showing/hiding of controls is disabled (the |
Change the control that has its handle displayed when the set is selected |
In the selection sets pane, |
Isolate or de-isolate items |
Isolating controls hides all other controls except for the selected controls. In the selection sets HUD, Ctrl+Shift click on the or In the selection sets pane, click in the or
or In the selection sets pane, select the item, and choose Manage ▸ Isolate Selected Sets or De-Isolate Selected Sets. |
Enable/Disable the isolating functionality |
In the selection sets HUD, or In the selection sets pane, click |
Clear the isolate state of all sets |
or In the selection sets pane, ⌃ Ctrl click the or In the selection sets pane, choose Manage ▸ Clear All Isolated. |
Pin or unpin items |
Pinned items remain in the channel list. When you set a keyframe, you are keying all the items that are pinned. Click the or
or In the selection sets pane, select an item, and choose Manage ▸ Pin Selected Sets or Un-Pin Selected Sets. |
Clear all pinned sets |
In the selection sets pane, ⌃ Ctrl click the or In the selection sets pane, choose Manage ▸ Un-Pin All. |
Show or hide characters |
Click the or
or
or In the selection sets pane, choose Manage ▸ Show All Characters. |
Fully expand or collapse a subtree |
Hold ⇧ Shift and click on the or
or In the selection sets pane, select an item, and choose Manage ▸ Recursively Expand Selected Sets or Recursively Collapse Selected Sets. |
Show only selection set items with a particular name |
At the bottom of the selection sets pane, turn on Filter, and enter a pattern for filtering the item names. Only sets with item names that match the pattern are displayed in the selection sets tree structure. |
Mirroring sets ¶
The mirroring operation allows you to create a set for one side of the character that mirrors an existing set on the other side of the character. For example, if you have a set L_set
that contains the control L_arm
, the mirroring operation allows you to quickly create another set called R_set
that contains control R_arm
.
Specify how mirrored sets are named ¶
To specify how mirrored sets are named in the mirroring operation:
-
Select Mirror ▸ Edit Set Name Remap Patterns.
-
Change Left Set Pattern and Right Set Pattern to how you want to mirror the set names.
-
Click OK.
Specify how mirrored controls are named ¶
By default, Mirror ▸ Use Patterns from Rig is turned on, which specifies that mirrored controls are to be named based on the mirror pattern on the rig. The mirror pattern is stored in the mirror_pattern
detail attribute on the character rig. The following is an example of the mirror_pattern
attribute:
"mirror_pattern":{ "left_pattern":"*_l", "right_pattern":"*_r"
See mirror pose in the animate state for more information on how to set the mirror pattern on a rig using the APEX Configure Character SOP.
To override the rig mirror pattern and explicitly set how mirrored controls are named:
-
In the selection sets pane, turn off Mirror ▸ Use Patterns from Rig.
-
Select Mirror ▸ Edit Mirror Remap Patterns.
-
Change Left Pattern and Right Pattern to how you want to mirror the control names.
-
Click OK.
To... | Do this |
---|---|
Mirror a set |
or
If the original set name matches the set pattern in Manage ▸ Edit Set Name Remap Patterns, the mirrored set will be pattern-renamed to the opposite side. If the original set name does not match the set pattern in Manage ▸ Edit Set Name Remap Patterns, the mirrored set will be named |
Change the pattern used to name mirrored sets |
|
Change the pattern used to name mirrored controls |
|
Explicitly set the pattern for naming mirrored controls instead of using the mirror pattern in the rig |
|
Working with patterns ¶
Selection sets support the use of patterns in character, rig, and control names. Patterns can allow you to apply a group of controls to any number of characters in the scene, which is useful when creating or importing generic sets made for multiple characters. You can also use patterns to specify that a set includes all the controls in a character.
Patterns can be expanded back to the actual names of the character, rig, or control. Expanding a pattern is essentially the reverse operation of defining a pattern.
In the following table, an item is a character, rig, or control in the selection set tree structure.
To... | Do this |
---|---|
Change a pattern for an item |
For example:
The number beside the item name is the number of controls matched by the set, and an additional descriptor, PATTERN, is appended after the number. |
Expand all patterns in a set |
Replaces all the patterns with the character/control names.
or In the selection sets pane, select a set, and choose Edit ▸ Expand Patterns in Selected Sets. |
Apply a set to all characters |
or In the selection sets pane, select a set, and choose Edit ▸ Apply to All Characters. A hierarchy for each character will appear under the set. If Edit ▸ Separate Sets for Each Character when Applying is turned on, a separate set will be created for each character. |
Apply a set to selected characters |
A hierarchy for each character will appear under the set. If Edit ▸ Separate Sets for Each Character when Applying is turned on, a separate set will be created for each character. |
Create a separate set for each character when expanding a pattern |
or In the selection sets pane, turn on Edit ▸ Separate Sets for Each Character when Applying. When applying a set to all or selected characters (using Apply to All Characters or Select Characters to Apply to), a separate set is created for each character. |
Remove the original set when creating separating sets for characters |
This option is used in conjuction with making separate sets for each character when expanding a pattern. Turn on Edit ▸ Remove Original Set when Separating Sets for Characters. The original set will be deleted after creating the new sets for each character. |
Turn an item name into a wildcard pattern |
For characters, the character name changes to For controls, the control name changes to |
Importing and exporting sets ¶
Selection sets are generally stored in an attribute on the scene’s geometry for the animate state. There is also the option to import sets to and from files on disk, as well as from another node in the scene that contains geometry with the correct selection set attribute.
To... | Do this |
---|---|
Export all sets to a file |
|
Export selected sets to a file |
|
Import sets from a file |
|
Import sets from a node |
|