Usual Manipulations

Several nodes need to be connected to other nodes to work correctly. Those nodes always own an attribute prefixed with "in" (e.g. the In Skeleton attribute of a Motion Locator) and whose field is attached to a Map button.

 

 

To map two nodes together, first select the node to be mapped (i.e. a Skeleton Root Node in the example above), then select the node owning the attribute to be mapped (i.e. a Motion Locator in the example above) and click on the Map button of this latter. If the mapping went well, the field is updated with the name of the mapped node and a connection is visible in the Maya Hypergraph.

 

 

 

Notice that, if the Map button is clicked on a field that already has been mapped, its value is overridden.

 

Some attributes can be mapped with several nodes of the same types (e.g. the In Behaviors attribute of an Entity Type node can be linked to several Behavior nodes).

 

 

It is possible to map nodes one by one (as done with Simple Field) or to map several nodes at once by first selecting all the nodes to map (i.e. the Trigger Nodes in the example above), then selecting the node owning the attribute to be mapped (i.e. another Trigger node in the example above), and click on the Map button of this latter.

 

If the mapping went well, the field is updated with the names of the mapped nodes and connections are visible in the Maya Hypergraph.

 

In this type of field, a value cannot be overridden. The only way to change the order or the values of the field is to unmap / remap nodes.

 

Some triggers or behaviors sometimes require to be mapped to some Maya objects. As behaviors and triggers are Maya nodes, they can be selected directly from the Outliner. But sometimes, it can be easier to select them directly from the Behavior Editor: first select the node to map, then while pressing the Shift button, select the behavior or trigger from the Behavior Editor and click on the Map button of this latter.

 

Once a mapping has been made, the only way to unmap two nodes is to delete the connection in the Hypergraph. The field is updated automatically.

 

Obviously, there is no need to unmap a field to change its value. Simply override it by mapping with another node.

 

 

Complex fields also have an Unmap button. To unmap a previously mapped node, first select it, then select the node owning the attribute to be unmapped and click on the Unmap button. The field is updated automatically. As for mapping, it is possible to unmap several nodes at once.

Notice that a node can also be unmapped by deleting its connection in the Hypergraph.

 

To connect a particle field to a particle system, select both nodes in the Outliner and go to Maya Fields Menu / Affect Selected Object(s).

 

To disconnect a particle field to a particle system, delete all the connections between the two nodes in the Hypergraph