RigFlow Toolkit for Maya

RigFlow is a Character Technical Art toolkit for Autodesk Maya. It converts recurring rigging, skinning and animation-export checks into an artist-facing preflight workflow with conservative automation and traceable FBX delivery.

Version 0.2.0

v0.2 builds on the functionally validated v0.1 baseline and adds the production-oriented architecture planned in the project roadmap:

• Session Report v2 --- Scene Validation, Rig Audit, Safe Fix events and multiple exports remain accumulated in one session.
• Preflight Dashboard / Run All --- one click runs all registered scene + rig checks and returns READY, READY_WITH_WARNINGS or BLOCKED.
• Validator Registry --- new validators can be registered without changing the main UI.
• Clip Queue + Batch Export --- queue multiple clips, enable/disable rows and export sequentially with per-clip status.
• Export Presets --- packaged JSON profiles for Unreal Engine, Unity and Custom/Studio; additional presets can be added without UI edits.
• Safe Fix Framework --- confirmation, one Maya undo chunk, automatic revalidation and rollback when the target error is not cleared.
• OpenMaya Skin Scanner --- bulk weight reads through maya.api.OpenMayaAnim.MFnSkinCluster, with automatic fallback to the v0.1 cmds.skinPercent path.
• Details Panel --- full result metadata/nodes plus copy-to-clipboard.
• Installer helpers --- Maya .mod writer and shelf-button installer.
• Automated pure-Python tests for session state, preflight, registry and presets.

Validation status: v0.2.0 has completed manual QA in Autodesk Maya 2026.3 on Windows for the tested production workflows, including Preflight / Run All, Validate, Rig Audit, Safe Fix + Maya Undo, clip-range validation, export blocking, multi-clip FBX batch export, Unity/Unreal preset-side FBX generation, post-export scene integrity, and the OpenMaya skin-weight scanner. The scanner was benchmarked on a 10,201-vertex skinned mesh with a T19C median of 8.092 ms (reported median throughput: 1,260,612 vertices/sec). Unity and Unreal Engine were not installed, so engine-side FBX import remains unverified. See docs/V0.2_VALIDATION_CHECKLIST.md for the evidence status and remaining unverified checklist items.

Repository layout

rigflow-maya/
├─ README.md
├─ CHANGELOG.md
├─ LICENSE
├─ rigflow/
│  ├─ __init__.py
│  ├─ version.py
│  ├─ compat.py
│  ├─ config.py
│  ├─ result.py
│  ├─ session.py
│  ├─ preflight.py
│  ├─ registry.py
│  ├─ validators.py
│  ├─ rig_audit.py
│  ├─ skin_scanner.py
│  ├─ safe_fix.py
│  ├─ presets.py
│  ├─ clip_exporter.py
│  ├─ report.py
│  ├─ installer.py
│  ├─ ui.py
│  └─ launcher.py
├─ presets/
│  ├─ unreal.json
│  ├─ unity.json
│  └─ custom.json
├─ sample/
│  └─ rigflow_config.json
├─ scripts/
│  ├─ build_demo_scene.py
│  └─ install_rigflow.py
├─ modules/
│  └─ RigFlow.mod.template
├─ tests/
└─ docs/
   └─ V0.2_VALIDATION_CHECKLIST.md

Launch in Maya

The v0.1-compatible launch path remains valid:

import sys
sys.path.insert(0, r"C:/PATH/TO/rigflow-maya")

import rigflow
rigflow.show()

To reload during development:

import importlib
import rigflow.ui
importlib.reload(rigflow.ui)
rigflow.ui.show_window()

Optional installation

Once the repository root is on sys.path, run inside Maya:

from rigflow.installer import write_module_file, install_shelf_button
write_module_file()
install_shelf_button()

write_module_file() creates RigFlow.mod in the current Maya user modules folder. Restart Maya once so the module is discovered automatically. The shelf button opens RigFlow directly.

Recommended v0.2 demo flow

1. Run scripts/build_demo_scene.py inside Maya.
2. Open RigFlow and choose Preflight → Run All.
3. Show the accumulated PASS/WARN/ERROR counts and the blocking state.
4. Open Validate, select a problem, and use Select Problem.
5. Open Rig Audit, force normalizeWeights=0, run the audit, and demonstrate Safe Fix + automatic revalidation + Maya Undo.
6. Open Export, choose the root joint and target preset.
7. Add at least three clips to the queue and use Export Enabled.
8. Save the JSON report and show the independent scene_validation, rig_audit, safe_fixes, exports, preflight and config_snapshot sections.

Design principles

• Artist-facing: readable checks, direct selection, explicit preflight state.
• Non-destructive export: animation export uses a temporary baked skeleton copy and removes it after export.
• Conservative automation: only explicitly approved fixes are exposed automatically.
• Traceable: checks, fixes, environment metadata, presets and per-clip outcomes are reportable.
• Extensible: validators and export profiles are registries/data rather than UI hard-coding.
• Performance-aware: OpenMaya bulk scanning is used where possible while retaining a conservative fallback.

Current scope boundary

v0.2 still exports animation skeleton clips rather than a full duplicated skinned-character package. Full skeleton + skinned mesh export, bind-pose validation, constraint audits, animation-curve audits, template skeleton comparison and mirror/symmetry checks remain v0.3 work.

Tests outside Maya

From the repository root:

python -m pytest -q

The automated tests intentionally cover Maya-independent logic only. Maya-dependent workflows were also exercised manually in Autodesk Maya 2026.3; the evidence status and remaining unverified items are recorded in docs/V0.2_VALIDATION_CHECKLIST.md.

License

MIT --- see LICENSE.