Multiply divide utility node

Maya
1

Can some one explain how to use this? It is mentioned as an aside in the "MEL Fundamentals" certified courseware, and the page that explains it in the help files, provides no examples. Anytime I try putting it in a script I get "unsupported used of multilyDivide node"

I'm completely baffled.

2

Well, you plug one value into input1
and you plug one value into input2
you set the node to either Muliply or Divide
and you get the result at the node's output

example:
I make an attribute that goes from 0 to 5
I connect that attribute to a multiplyDivide node's input1x
I make input2x equal to 10
then I conect outputx to the rotation of a sphere

When the attribute equals 0 the rotation of the sphere equals 0, when the attribute equals 5 the rotation of the sphere equals 50.

It's not a command, it's a node.

Hope this helps.

-James

3

That helps alot. Thanks.

So it is a renderNode, that needs to be applied to a material......interesting.

That would mean that the MEL materials from A|W need some work, since the project it is referenced in, doesn't even cover it, or how to use it. Seems silly to tell you to use what you just learned to do something, and then have the way to do it be using things that weren't covered.

Ah well.......we continue on.

Thanks again

4

Well, it's not a renderNode per se. It's just a node. (maybe you're using renderNode to mean any node) Maybe I'm confused on this. (maybe it is a renderNode because it sits in the render Utilities list) It doesn't necisarilly have to have anything to do with materials at all. I use it in skeletal rigging all the time.

It's just a way of manipulating numbers and doesn't care where those number came from or are going to. It just multiplies(or divides) it's inputs and spits the result out. sort of like a graphical representation of an experssion.
input1 * input2 = output

Does that make any sense?

-James

5

If it's not specific to materials or anything, how do I create one?

Here is what I want to do, I have a custom attribute whose range is 0 to 10. I want to connect this attribute to two other attributes, the first I want the value to equal the custom attribute (1 through 10), the other I want to equal 1/10th of the custom value (.1 through 1).

How would I add in the multiplyDivide node?

6

I figured out how to do it.

Thanks,