Using "Stand-In" objects...
 

Does Maya allow you to animate with "stand-in" geometry?

Suppose you have a large scene with tons of detailed geometry,
could you display a "rough version" of those objects, that you quickly
model yourself, then have Maya render the actual complex
geometry?

An example might be a dynamic simulation with many things
interacting, how would you tell Maya to swap the objects for
simplified (rough poly) versions of the objects for interaction,
but each time you do a test render or batch render, Maya would
automatically use the full detailed geometry in any render.

A better example might be doing character animation with IK,
that instead of deforming the limbs with every move of a handle,
just animate with stand-in boxes, but any render will be of the
full deformed character...


Daniel

Not sure how to do it with dynamic simulations (I only know how to do a falling box...), but with characters, yes, you can do this. There are several different approaches, but you can use stand-in objects for fast manipulation and then render only the fully-rigged mesh.

Not sure how to do it either but Pre-Render and Post-Render mel scripts (render globals) might be the answer...

Pre-Render is executed right before rendering and Post-Render right after the rendering is completed. I've used this to change the poly smooth divisions.

Mainly what I do to keep testing simulation-time to a minimum, is to just use a lower amount of particles for testing, then at rendertime, increase the rate to taste.

I believe, although I've never used it, that there is somethin called, "Dynamic Layers" that might be of help here?

Check the docs to see if it exsists, and what it does.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help:)