Creating multi-curve controls

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When building controls,

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you may want them to be constructed out of a

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number of different curves but still just be one control

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like this foot control. For example,

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we have the main foot but there are also these separate tour.

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Ideally, this would need to be a single control.

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Unless of course, you are needing to also animate each toe separately,

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we could just parent the toast to the foot.

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So now they all move together.

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The problem is the animator can still select the tours.

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So ideally, we want them all combined into a single control.

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So let's undo that

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first, we need to expose each curve's shape nodes

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here we are.

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So we have the transform nodes above

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and below them are the shape nodes.

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What we need to do is move the shape nodes.

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So they are instead parented to the main foot controls, transform node.

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Now looking at things we could just select it and move it up. Right.

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Well, no,

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if you try this, it moves the transform too and all we want is a shape node.

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So how do we separate it and move it?

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Well, I'm afraid it's time for a bit. More mel script.

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But don't worry, this is a nice easy piece of code.

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All we need to do is select the shape node

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and then the transform we want to move it to.

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And then we use this

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parent minus R

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minus S,

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the minus R flag will keep the shape node where it is in virtual space.

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Whereas minus S specifies that we are working with a shaped node.

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If I select that and press enter to run it,

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the shape node moves and leaves the transform behind.

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Let's do the big toe next.

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And the other tours.

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If you find that when you're doing this,

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the curve moves away from its original position,

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try freezing the transforms before you repent

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the shape node.

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OK. Good.

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They are all part of a single control. Now,

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it doesn't matter where we select it. It now selects it as if it's a single curve.

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All we need to do next is delete these transform nodes

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and look, you can see all the shape nodes listed here in the channel box.