Fixing Problems With The Pixo Jr Rig

Pixo Jr is a great rig for learning animation, which you can read all about here.  You can also see a series of short tutorials for animation beginners, showing how to make the lamp hop.  But Pixo is an old rig (2006) and works less well in Maya today.  This is because of Maya's implementation of Parallel Evaluation, designed to make rigs perform faster in the Viewport.  Part of the Pixo Jr's rig is not behaving correctly in this new evaluation mode.  To see how to fix it - scroll down below. 

Change Evaluation Mode From Parallel to DG

Change Evaluation Mode to DG

The solution is to change Evaluation Mode to DG. To do this, go to Windows > Settings and Preferences and then in the Settings > Animation category, change the drop down menu for Evaluation Mode from "Parallel" to the older mode "DG".

Pixo Jr Lamp

Pixo Jr

To see more about using Pixo Jr for learning animation in Maya, follow the links below:

• Pixo Jr - a great rig for learning animation - read all about Pixo here
• Watch a series of short tutorials for animation beginners, showing how to make the lamp hop
• Pixo Jr Animation with Lisa Springett  

Lighting in Arnold and Maya
To see some simple lighting setups for the Pixo Jr lamp in Arnold, as well as how to export a render sequence in Arnold, and how to export a movie file in Adobe Premiere, follow the links below:

• Basic Lighting in Arnold - Sky Shader
• Basic Lighting in Arnold in Maya - Physical Sky
• Create a Starry Sky in Arnold and Maya with Arnold Skydome
• Export a Render Sequence in Arnold & Maya
• Export a movie file in Adobe Premiere

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To apply for one of our courses, follow this link.