Softimage SDK Programmer's Guide > Customizing Softimage using the SDK > Character Development Kit >

# Example: Making an Octopus Rig

This example build an octopus rig. It consists of:

- A head component (MakeHead command)

- Eight tail components for the tentacles (MakeTail command)

- A few rig icon components for controls (MakeRigIcon command).

A collections of guide nulls are passed to each command to position the elements.

    // build list of guide object positions and names
    BuildGuideArrays();

    var Octopus = new Object();

    /*
    	MAKE MODEL AND GLOBAL SRT ICON
    */
    Octopus.Model = ActiveSceneRoot.AddModel();
    Octopus.Model.Name = "Octopus"
    Octopus.GlobalSRT = makeRigIcon(Octopus.Model, 4,
    									 0,0,0, 			//position
    									 1,1,1,   			//icon length,width,height
    									 893, 			//color
    									 "GlobalSRT"		 //name
    						);

    //Make the main octopus controller
    Octopus.BodyCtrl = makeRigIcon(Octopus.GlobalSRT, 2,
    									 0,4.5,0, 			//position
    									 5,1.4,5,   			//icon length,width,height
    									 253, 			//color
    									 "BodyCtrl"			 //name
    						);

    //Make the tentacle control (manipulate to settle the tentacles)
    Octopus.TentacleCtrl = makeRigIcon(Octopus.BodyCtrl, 2,
    									 0,4.5,0, 			//position
    									 2.5,1,2.5,   		//icon length,width,height
    									 49, 			//color
    									 "TentacleCtrl"			 //name
    						);

    Octopus.TentacleCtrl.Kinematics.AddConstraint("Pose",Octopus.BodyCtrl,true);

    /*
    	MAKE THE HEAD
    */
    guidecoll = CreateGuideColl(guidepos, guidename, Array(0,1,2));

    Octopus.Head = MakeHead(Octopus.BodyCtrl, //head parent
    						guidecoll, //guide collection
    						"Octo",					 //object name prefix
    						1,					//spine head and neck
    						0,					//head type (ignored unless creating box shadow)
    						3,					 //number of vertebrae
    						1,					 //stretch spine
    						null, //spine sliders
    						null, //ear guide collection
    						0,					 //shadow type
    						null); //shadow parent

    DeleteObj( guidecoll );

    /*
    	MAKE THE TENTACLES
    */

    guidecoll = CreateGuideColl(guidepos, guidename, Array(3,4,5,6,7));

    	var lXfm = XSIMath.CreateTransform();
    	lXfm.SetIdentity();
    	lXfm.SetRotationFromXYZAnglesValues(0,2*3.1415/8,0);

    	Octopus.Tentacles = new Array();

    	for(i=0;i<8;i++)
    	{
    		OffsetGuideColl(guidecoll, lXfm);
    		Octopus.Tentacles[i] = MakeTail(Octopus.BodyCtrl, //head parent
    								guidecoll,				 //guide collection
    								6,					 //number of bones
    								0,					 //shadow type
    								null);				 //shadow parent

    		 Octopus.Tentacles[i].Root.Kinematics.AddConstraint("Pose",Octopus.TentacleCtrl,true);
    	}

    DeleteObj( guidecoll );
    Translate(Octopus.BodyCtrl, 0, 2, 0, siRelative, siView, siObj, siXYZ, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, 0);

    //----------------------------------------------
    // Build an array of guide positions and names
    //----------------------------------------------
    function BuildGuideArrays()
    {

    	guidepos  = new Array();
    	guidename = new Array();

    	for (i=0;i<33;i++)
    	{
    		guidepos[i] = XSIMath.CreateVector3();
    	}
    	i=0;

    	//0 to 2
    	guidepos[i].Set(0,5,0);					guidename[i++] = "SpineBase";
    	guidepos[i].Set(0,7,0);					guidename[i++] = "SpineBaseDepth";
    	guidepos[i].Set(0,9,0);					guidename[i++] = "SpineEndDepth";

    	//3 to 7
    	guidepos[i].Set(1,5,0);					guidename[i++] = "TentacleBase";
    	guidepos[i].Set(3,5,0);					guidename[i++] = "Tentacle1";
    	guidepos[i].Set(5,5,0);					guidename[i++] = "Tentacle2";
    	guidepos[i].Set(7,5,0);					guidename[i++] = "Tentacle3";
    	guidepos[i].Set(9,5,0);					guidename[i++] = "TentacleTip";

    }

    //-------------------------------------------------------
    // From array of positions and names created in BuildGuideArrays(),
    // create a collection of guide nulls
    //-------------------------------------------------------
    function CreateGuideColl( in_aGuidePositions, in_aGuideNames, in_Indices)
    {

    	var lXfm = XSIMath.CreateTransform();
    	var guidecoll = new ActiveXObject("XSI.Collection");

    	var idx;
    	for(idx=0; idx<in_Indices.length; idx++)
    	{

    //		logmessage(in_Indices[idx] + "  " + in_aGuideNames[in_Indices[idx]]);
    		guidecoll.Add( GetPrim("Null", in_aGuideNames[in_Indices[idx]]) );
    		lXfm.SetTranslation(in_aGuidePositions[in_Indices[idx]]);
    		guidecoll(idx).Kinematics.Global.Transform = lXfm;
    	}

    	return guidecoll;
    }

    function OffsetGuideColl( in_GuideColl, in_OffsetXfo)
    {
    	var GuideXfm, idx;
    	for(idx=0; idx<in_GuideColl.count; idx++)
    	{
    		GuideXfm = in_GuideColl(idx).Kinematics.Global.Transform;
    		GuideXfm.Mul(GuideXfm,in_OffsetXfo);
    		in_GuideColl(idx).Kinematics.Global.Transform = GuideXfm;
    	}
    }