Gus, 4, and Wiley, 2

Their roto skills aren't yet quite what they should be...

On Mar 31, 2012, at 10:53 PM, Nathan Rusch wrote:

> Still recovering from last night here. What’s your excuse? ;)
>  
> -Nathan
> 
>  
> From: Bill Gilman
> Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2012 10:43 PM
> To: Nuke user discussion
> Subject: Re: [Nuke-users] global proxy format setting?
>  
> But of course…  please forgive my California-centric solipsism, and here's a 
> little gem from my time down at Weta:
>  
> "When you're working 7 days, every night is a Friday night!"
>  
> On Mar 31, 2012, at 10:25 PM, Ron Ganbar wrote:
> 
>> It's Sunday morning here, which is working day here... :-)
>> 
>> R
>> 
>> On Apr 1, 2012 7:42 AM, "Bill Gilman" <[email protected]> wrote:
>> What are all you people doing responding to this thread on a Saturday 
>> night?!?
>>  
>> This is what's wrong with VFX, right here.  ;-)
>>  
>> I agree that every approach has it's own set of problems.  We're doing 4K 
>> stereo with LOTS of iterations and creative changes in versions.  It's more 
>> important for us to get rough iterations than finished work, at least at 
>> this stage.  I'm sure there will be version issues, but we're trying to take 
>> the step to the next level as a facility so we're trying to standardize 
>> basic parts of the pipeline.  Using proxies is kind of a live QA of our 
>> system in other ways.  Truth be told, as soon as something looks too soft to 
>> the wrong person, I'm sure we'll have to bump everything up to 4K.  'Til 
>> then, however…
>>  
>>  
>>  
>> On Mar 31, 2012, at 9:23 PM, Nathan Rusch wrote:
>> 
>>> Hugo: It’s definitely easy to initially set such a system up from a 
>>> development standpoint, but when you start getting into situations where 
>>> versions of comp input sequences (mattes, paint work, lighting/fx renders, 
>>> etc.) are iterating rapidly and concurrently, having to ensure that all the 
>>> input sequences are synchronized to their local counterparts is more 
>>> trouble than it’s worth.
>>>  
>>> Even if, for example, you forcefully disable proxy mode when a comp renders 
>>> on the farm, you can still run into edge cases where the artist has been 
>>> working in proxy mode, but what they have been looking at is outdated, so 
>>> you end up potentially wasting a fairly significant chunk of farm time. Now 
>>> in theory this SHOULDN’T happen if you keep a properly-versioned output 
>>> pipeline, but that doesn’t mean it won’t, and things like this ALWAYS go 
>>> wrong in crunch. Plus, since artists are working on multiple shots and will 
>>> likely switch between 3 or 4 before lunch, they almost certainly won’t 
>>> remember what versions of everything were synced when for which shots.
>>>  
>>> Having been there and back (at a small, maneuverable studio, no less), this 
>>> is based on my experiences, so obviously, different people will have 
>>> different approaches and opinions. Because central storage is the pretty 
>>> much the most important part of your studio, it just seems like a better 
>>> investment to put money into improving its performance and network layout 
>>> than to spend developer time and money maintaining a compromise/workaround 
>>> solution. Simple things like avoiding layered EXRs and other 
>>> performance-averse formats like TIFF, managing compression and bit-depth 
>>> settings intelligently to make good use of existing storage, and tuning 
>>> your network filesystem appropriately can all go a long way.
>>>  
>>>  
>>> Ron: 
>>> os.path.realpath(os.path.join(nuke.root()['project_directory'].value(), 
>>> read['file'].value()))
>>>  
>>>  
>>> -Nathan
>>> 
>>>  
>>> From: Ron Ganbar
>>> Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2012 8:52 PM
>>> To: Nuke user discussion
>>> Subject: Re: [Nuke-users] global proxy format setting?
>>>  
>>> Basically you are all talking about a custom Read node that is tied to your 
>>> project / sequence / shot setup and that has all these functions built in.
>>> In that case a lot of this becomes vert practical. The Read node can make 
>>> local copies and use them if they exists, and read from the Network if they 
>>> don't. I used a setup like this several times (even back in Shake days) and 
>>> it works very well.
>>> On a small studio scale, I just never saw anyone put the effort in to do 
>>> this properly. This is when it becomes a pain in the backside.
>>>  
>>> Incidentally, in case you are using the Project Directory path in the 
>>> Project Settings panel, then use a ./rest/of/my/path/seq.%04d.dpx how do 
>>> you resolve this easily via python?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Ron Ganbar
>>> email: [email protected]
>>> tel: +44 (0)7968 007 309 [UK]
>>>      +972 (0)54 255 9765 [Israel]
>>> url: http://ronganbar.wordpress.com/
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 1 April 2012 06:43, Hugo Leveille <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> How do you find it impractical? Having a script that copies the network 
>>> file to a local raid and set it in proxy path is quite practical and easy 
>>> to manage, not matter how many artist, no? Unless I misunderstand you.
>>>  
>>> Id like to have your view on this.
>>>  
>>> Thanks
>>> 
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>> 
>>> On 2012-03-31, at 11:30 PM, "Nathan Rusch" <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Yeah, localizing files is definitely nice (preferable to proxies like you 
>>>> said), but it becomes rapidly impractical once you exceed a certain number 
>>>> of artists.
>>>>  
>>>> -Nathan
>>>> 
>>>>  
>>>> From: Hugo Leveille
>>>> Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2012 8:24 PM
>>>> To: Nuke user discussion
>>>> Subject: Re: [Nuke-users] global proxy format setting?
>>>>  
>>>> What you'll want more often than other is a 1:1 local version of a network 
>>>> file. Not a mixed resolution
>>>> 
>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>> 
>>>> On 2012-03-31, at 11:20 PM, "Nathan Rusch" <[email protected]> 
>>>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Once you cross that nebulous critical point where you go from using 
>>>>> proxies occasionally to regularly, chances are you’re thinking about 
>>>>> writing scripts/tools to handle it automagically.
>>>>>  
>>>>> In your example, it would be possible to parse out the resolution string 
>>>>> from the image path, but the easier choice would be to simply hand Nuke 
>>>>> the path to the proxy sequence and let it set the format for you (using 
>>>>> read['proxy'].fromUserText('/my/proxy/path')). This would also let you to 
>>>>> work with a more generalized directory structure. An extremely simplified 
>>>>> example would be something like:
>>>>>  
>>>>> /pfcluster/Alphaville/PRODUCTION/01_joyluck/RENDERS/3D_ELEMENTS/joyluck_lightTex_v019_ln/LaserGlow/full/joyluck_lightTex_v019_ln_LaserGlow.####.exr
>>>>>  
>>>>> /pfcluster/Alphaville/PRODUCTION/01_joyluck/RENDERS/3D_ELEMENTS/joyluck_lightTex_v019_ln/LaserGlow/proxy/joyluck_lightTex_v019_ln_LaserGlow.####.exr
>>>>>  
>>>>> This way you won’t need to worry about doing any parsing, and can just 
>>>>> set the proxy knob if that directory exists, or leave it blank otherwise.
>>>>>  
>>>>> To be honest, however, proxies are enough of a pain that the benefits 
>>>>> rarely outweigh the potential for mixups and mistakes, even              
>>>>> at 4k and above.
>>>>>  
>>>>> -Nathan
>>>>> 
>>>>>  
>>>>> From: Bill Gilman
>>>>> Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2012 6:39 PM
>>>>> To: Nuke user discussion
>>>>> Subject: Re: [Nuke-users] global proxy format setting?
>>>>>  
>>>>> Hi Hugo
>>>>> 
>>>>> First off, thanks for the code.  It doesn't seem to be working for me but 
>>>>> maybe it will after you get a chance to play with it.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Out of curiosity, how hard would it be to parse, say, a resolution 
>>>>> directory and change it to the proxy res?  Would this be best done with 
>>>>> TCL or Python?  eg.:
>>>>> 
>>>>> /pfcluster/Alphaville/PRODUCTION/01_joyluck/RENDERS/3D_ELEMENTS/joyluck_lightTex_v019_ln/LaserGlow/4096x3112/joyluck_lightTex_v019_ln_LaserGlow.####.exr
>>>>>                             ^ ^ ^
>>>>> 
>>>>> would become
>>>>> 
>>>>> /pfcluster/Alphaville/PRODUCTION/01_joyluck/RENDERS/3D_ELEMENTS/joyluck_lightTex_v019_ln/LaserGlow/1024x778/joyluck_lightTex_v019_ln_LaserGlow.####.exr
>>>>>                             ^ ^ ^
>>>>> 
>>>>> But my real question is:  everybody has to do this with shots they're 
>>>>> using proxies for?  That seems really nuts to me.  I can't imagine 
>>>>> everyone has automatic scripts to do this sort of thing. 
>>>>>  
>>>>> Here's to it
>>>>>  
>>>>> Bill
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Nuke-users mailing list
>>>>> [email protected], http://forums.thefoundry.co.uk/
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>>  
>> 
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>  
> 
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