Broken Constraints in MA files for Maya 2012

Rigging
1

Here’s an odd problem I’m trying to fix.

I am referencing a TSM2 rig into Maya 2012, then constraining the TSM2 controls to a separate skeleton (in order to drive the TSM2 rig with the animation on the second skeleton. But when the scene is saved as an MA file and reloaded the constraints stop working. Save it as an MB and they work fine. Any ideas what I need to be looking for here?

It wasn’t a problem a few days ago, everything was saved as MA. It only seems to be recently that it’s started to happen.

2

Off the top of my head:

  • Are you working with animation layers?
  • Are you seeing any node clashing? If you make two sets of arms in TSM2 or do a second round of auto-rigging while the old rig is still in the scene for example, the names will clash and rename themselves. This usually works, but could be investigated for bugs, especially when referencing.
  • Any new plugins installed recently?
  • Is the constraining rig referenced as well? (I assume so) You might want to take a look at Mark Jackson’s blog this to see if it is relevant: Mark Jackson : Mutterings of a PipelineTD: Lost Animation when loading Referenced Rigs
3

Only the TSM2 rig is referenced. The other skeleton that’s driving that is actually in the scene (imported). There’s no animation layers involved. I don’t know about node clashing… since the scene works as an MB I assume that’s not an issue. No new plugins installed recently either… it’s a bit of a mystery. I may simply be forced to save as an MB for certain asset types.

4

Also check your namespace editor and see if anything bizarre happened or if there are any that you didn’t expect. Maybe somehow you ended up with some hidden nested namespaces. (grasping here.)

No errors or warnings when opening the file or setting things up?