STEP BY STEP USE MAYA’S MATRIX NODES FOR EFFICIENT RIGGING
01 POSITION THE CONTROL
The first step is to use the Match Transformations tool to quickly reposition and reorient the control, so it matches the target joint. Once moved you will see that the control has values on its attributes, but these need to be cleared. Freezing the transforms could help, but this would also reset the rotational axis too.
This is where an offset group would help because it would move those values to the parent group.
02 THE NEW OFFSET GROUP
If you look in the control’s attribute editor, you will see a new option is available. The Transform Offset Parent Matrix tab was introduced in Maya 2020 and is where you will find the new offset parent matrix values.
The Matrix section holds the raw data which, to be honest, can be a little confusing to explain. Thankfully, Autodesk has also included the Composition tab,
which converts this into a more userfriendly layout.
03 TRANSFER THE VALUES
What you can do is treat the Composition tab as an offset group, so this can hold the initial transform values for you. All you need to do is copy each attribute from the top section, down to the bottom. Each translate and rotate attribute can be copied over, but you can also transfer the scale and shear attributes too depending on what you need.
04 REMOVE DOUBLE TRANSFORM
What you will probably notice is that the control has moved. It now has double the values applied, once in the main Transform tab and again in the Composition tab. All you need to do now is set all the main translate and rotate attributes to zero, moving the control back and clearing the values for you – all while retaining that all-important orientation.