So, I spent a few days figuring out how to get maya windows and panels and layouts and buttons to actually do what I wanted. It was a battle, but in the end they are simpler than I thought. When you are building a window, you are parenting objects inside of it and inside of each other. Once that clicked I was able to set up a hierarchy that worked.
Note about GUI's. Some animators like them, some don't. The Cenk Rig gui is so attractive and nice looking I decided to make GUI's for our characters, and was surprised to find that one of our animators wasn't happy about it (which was unfortunate, cuz I had already spent 3 days making them). So, pro's and con's of GUI's.
Pros:
GUI's are pretty straightforward to use and very organized. Its hard to lose a control, and they are out of the way.
The Rigger is in complete control of everything that is happening in the GUI. It is super easy to lock things down and make sure every control is making beautiful shapes.
Cons:
The animator is not in complete control of everything. :) A GUI can put limits on the rig that the animator fights against.
Harder to make one control do lots of things, might lead to more controls if you aren't careful.
There are definitely more, but thats all I got for now. In a perfect world, an animator would be given a rig that is unlimited, looks beautiful in all poses, and is super easy to control. On this film, we decided to go with GUI's cuz they look cool mainly :D Would I do them again? Probably, but simpler. I tried to take every possible micro control and hook it up in the GUI, and I don't think our animators are ever going to use em. Possibly have both? Meh. Take a poll, see what your animators like.
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