Tag objects as controllers

You can create dedicated Controller nodes so you can:

• Identify which models are meant to control animation
• Control visibility based on mouse proximity
• Define custom pickwalk hierarchies

To tag objects with controller nodes

1. Select the object you want tag.
2. In the Rigging menu set, choose Tag as Controller or Parent Controller from the Control menu.
3. Modify the controller attributes in the Attribute Editor.

To show controller nodes

Select Display > Show menu, select Show Controllers.
Note: Controllers only appear in Viewport 2.0.

Controller tag attributes

When you select a controller, the following attributes appear in the Attribute Editor

Controller

Shows the name of the selected controller tag.

Caching

Turn Caching on to temporarily store input node evaluations in the cache. When Maya needs these evaluations (as input to the node), it uses the information stored in the cache rather than re-evaluating the input node. If no changes have been made to the node, it redraws more quickly. The cache is destroyed when you edit an attribute. Note that caching uses more memory, which could affect Maya's performance.

See the Caching section in the Evaluation Toolkit topic for more.

Node state

Changing the node state can improve performance. You can select one of three node states:

Normal	Causes the node to behave normally, according to the defined settings and effects. This is the default.
HasNoEffect	Disables any effects on the node so that fewer calculations are necessary at the time of redraw. The effect does not render until you reset the Node State back to Normal. Maya evaluates the nodes in the node’s history, but not the node itself. For example, if you translate a cluster to deform a geometry, then set the Node State of the cluster node to HasNoEffect, the geometry appears undeformed, as though the translation had not occurred. To view the effect, change the Node State back to Normal.
Blocking	Temporarily hides the node and does not display the results of any input (input evaluations) to the node. This can speed the redraw. It is also useful when you have complex scenes and want to edit only one aspect of a node. Blocked nodes do not render. For example, if you have a complex revolved surface and want to edit the curve, but don’t want to wait while the curve redraws, select Blocking and edit the curve. To display the modified revolved surface, reset the Node State to Normal.
Waiting-Normal	Internal use only.
Waiting-HasNoEffect	Internal use only.
Waiting-Blocking	Internal use only.

Note:

• The HasNoEffect state has a different meaning for each node type. Some node types do not implement the state, in which case the state acts just like “Normal”.
• The “Waiting” node states are used internally by Maya to keep track of nodes that are waiting for a view update in the Hypergraph. You should not normally set nodes to a “Waiting” state.

Controller object

Shows the name of the controller object to which the tag is attached.

Visibility mode

Lets you show or hide controllers. See Set controller visibility.

Cycle walk sibling

Lets you return to first child node when pickwalking. For example, if you 3 nodes named 0, 1, 2 that are siblings. If you select node 0 and pickwalk right , node 1 is selected, pickwalk right once more and 2 is selected. Pickwalk right once more and the slection cycles back to node 0. See Define a custom pickwalk hierarchy.

Parent

Shows the name of the controller object designated as Parent. See Parent Controller in the Control menu

Parentprepopulate/Prepopulate

Activates/disables pre-population with the controller mechanism in the Evaluation Manager when building. See Include Controllers in Evaluation Graph in the Increase performance with the Evaluation Graph topic,

Note:

• Manage controller visibility with the Set controller visibility options.
• You can filter out controller objects independent of their type (NURBs, locator or shape) in the Show submenu . Available with Viewport 2.0 only. (See Working in Viewport 2.0.)
• Create your own pickwalk hierarchy with Define a custom pickwalk hierarchy.
• Turn on/off controller prepopulation with the Include Controllers in Evaluation Graph setting in the Animation (Settings) preferences.