More python: making useful tools (Patreon)

The last thing about Python was about working on a rigify utility- that's still something I'm going to work on as part of my own work flow (and hopefully release to benefit others) but it's a bigger project thing than I was anticipating... so I've put that on the back burner. Instead, I've been working on this lattice rigging tool that makes adding lattice rigs a lot easier to integrate into the main rig of a character.

Here's a video showing an ugly example (but also why lattices can be advantageous):

https://youtu.be/4oULr9mFdzw?si=D9VycIyVV0B7PFv6

I recently got two important features working, detecting the lattice object for the From Armature and a button for removing the lattice rig.

https://youtu.be/-jC14Fr1pkg?si=nmizW4xEmqFIT6Ch

It all works pretty well (if you know how to use it) but I definitely think I need to do some robust error checking. It can be janky if you make a mistake, like If you don't select the right stuff, it could get half way through the process and bork stuff which isn't good. I'd rather not have my add-on do more harm than good when someone besides me might be using it.

Also I'm thinking I might just go with a strict naming convention- originally I wanted to keep it open so you *could* name it stuff and the prefixes/suffixes weren't necessary but I think it might be better to enforce strict naming. Why? Because you can quickly fill up your scene with objects you don't want touch directly (each "lattice rig" is a lattice and an armature so if you have lattice rigs on eyebrows, eyelids, lips, ears, that's already 8 objects for one character because the left and right side are separate things)

It would just be best to have things like the lattice rigs named in a consistent way, makes it a lot easier to keep track of lattice rig stuff.

One other thing I was working on Python-wise is a tool that is probably more helpful to my specific needs than it might be for others- "Character simplify." It's the same idea as the simplify option in the scene panel but specifically for characters. This allows the user to add objects to a list and turn on/off modifiers that can impact viewport performance (It also hides the objects in the list but the sake of demonstration they're still shown)

The reason this is useful (to me anyway) is because sometimes I spend way too long just to do this simple task- find all the relevant meshes for a character to enable/disable modifiers and show/hide stuff when checking the models that will be rendered and how they line up with viewport versions. Really helps when testing fluids while working on a character's animation, since the fluids depend on what the geometry of the objects in the simulation is like in the viewport.

Right now it works great for one character but I'd like to support an arbitrary number of characters so you can quickly toggle the more detailed versions of them. If that's a tool you might find useful, let me know. I'll develop it more with users who aren't myself in mind!

Anyway I've been working on important stuff too, just been doing Python coding because 1. I needed to do something different for a bit and 2. these are handy tools, especially the lattice one. I wanted to have that done so I could add lattice rigs to Taylor's face for the scene at the end when he does a bit talking.

Here's some of money shot scene though, there should be a post going up at the same time as this one that's more about the animation stuff itself and not python stuff.

(Edit: there was a post that I was writing but somehow it got messed up, maybe it's from writing them at the same time... and the last saved draft was one before I wrote the bulk of the post. I'll re-write it and have it up after I get some sleep, I'm sorry >_>)