Raycast a locator with Maya Bifrost
- Alexandre Alin
- Sep 19, 2023
- 1 min read
Updated: Apr 7, 2025
Hey everyone!
Here's a quick tutorial on how to raycast a locator's position onto a target geometry. This technique is super useful for things like terrain-following tangents or, as shown here, a facial rig where locators follow the surface geometry. It gives you the flexibility to automate the Z-axis transformation in a joint-based facial rig setup.
There are probably tons of other creative ways to use this, so feel free to experiment!Oh, and you can download a free sample scene just below.
Enjoy, and see you in the next blog post!
Hello! Thank you for the excellent videos. I am trying to use raycasting as a relative novice in Maya and am hitting a roadblock in the bifrost editor. When I go to create connection value box in the bifrost editor (minute 4 in the second video) I don't have at all the same right click menu options that you do. Mine instead are "create compound", "create backdrop", "select all in graph", etc. If you can advise on the proper setup to access the value option that would be most helpful!