fuel 3d scanner
Has anyone used this scanner yet http://www.fuel-3d.com/product/ We are looking at getting a hand held scanner that can give us a reasonably dense mesh and colour textures. Kind regards Angus table width=100% border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 style=width:100%; tr td align=left style=text-align:justify;font face=arial,sans-serif size=1 color=#99span style=font-size:11px;This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the permission of the University. Only authorised signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the personal views and opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in writing to the contrary. /span/font/td /tr /table
Re: fuel 3d scanner
I would suggest to try both Skanect and ReconstructMe which use Kinect ( so 3d data on the fly ) and Agisoft photoscan ( which extract 3d data from pictures ) I've scanned some heads and, together with Zbrush and decimation master/Zremesher, it gives pretty good results Texturing wise I would go with Agisoft, both Skanect and ReconstructMe lacks in texture quality due to the poor resolution of the Kinect camera Cheers Nicolas 2014-02-11 14:27 GMT+01:00 Angus Davidson angus.david...@wits.ac.za: Has anyone used this scanner yet http://www.fuel-3d.com/product/ We are looking at getting a hand held scanner that can give us a reasonably dense mesh and colour textures. Kind regards Angus table width=100% border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 style=width:100%; tr td align=left style=text-align:justify;font face=arial,sans-serif size=1 color=#99span style=font-size:11px;This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the permission of the University. Only authorised signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the personal views and opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in writing to the contrary. /span/font/td /tr /table
Re: fuel 3d scanner
If you want to begin doing tests on the fly, kinect and skanect are the best choices. I am currently using them for scanning sets for later reference on matchmoving and fx. For scanning people is not the best but gives good results for extras in crowds. A simple example i made for human figure: http://vimeo.com/79236919 Hope it helps! F. 2014-02-11 10:36 GMT-03:00 Nicolas Esposito 3dv...@gmail.com: I would suggest to try both Skanect and ReconstructMe which use Kinect ( so 3d data on the fly ) and Agisoft photoscan ( which extract 3d data from pictures ) I've scanned some heads and, together with Zbrush and decimation master/Zremesher, it gives pretty good results Texturing wise I would go with Agisoft, both Skanect and ReconstructMe lacks in texture quality due to the poor resolution of the Kinect camera Cheers Nicolas 2014-02-11 14:27 GMT+01:00 Angus Davidson angus.david...@wits.ac.za: Has anyone used this scanner yet http://www.fuel-3d.com/product/ We are looking at getting a hand held scanner that can give us a reasonably dense mesh and colour textures. Kind regards Angus table width=100% border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 style=width:100%; tr td align=left style=text-align:justify;font face=arial,sans-serif size=1 color=#99span style=font-size:11px;This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the permission of the University. Only authorised signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the personal views and opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in writing to the contrary. /span/font/td /tr /table
Re: fuel 3d scanner
The Fuel scanner looks nice, but I can't help noticing it doesn't exist as a shipping product yet! The sample scans look nice, but there's no way to tell from what they make available on their site how much work is involved in getting from raw scan data to finished mesh. That said, if they can deliver that quality at that price with reasonable ease of use, I might want one too.
Re: fuel 3d scanner
Downloaded the models from their site and for that money is not the best on the market...primesense carmine is also recomendable, or asus xtion...if you have budget go for artec. Although new kinect for xbox one rocks, but still there is no windows version available on the market... F. 2014-02-11 11:49 GMT-03:00 Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com: The Fuel scanner looks nice, but I can't help noticing it doesn't exist as a shipping product yet! The sample scans look nice, but there's no way to tell from what they make available on their site how much work is involved in getting from raw scan data to finished mesh. That said, if they can deliver that quality at that price with reasonable ease of use, I might want one too.
ice syflex rest pose
Hi chaps, is there any way to reset the initial rest pose for a syflex sim without deleting and recreating the syflex cloth node? cheers, matt -- www.matinai.com
Re: AnimSchool Picker for Softimage
THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!! :) :) This made my day. David. On Monday, February 10, 2014 2:29 PM, David Gallagher davegsoftimagel...@gmail.com wrote: Hey all! We are soon releasing our AnimSchool Picker plugin for Softimage. We offer this free to the public. http://www.animschool.com/pickerInfo.aspx If anyone would like to test it, please email me: da...@animschool.com Thanks! Dave G
Re: AnimSchool Picker for Softimage
Amazing David! Thank you for sharing this! 2014-02-11 9:55 GMT-06:00 David Rivera activemotionpictu...@yahoo.com: THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!! :) :) This made my day. David. On Monday, February 10, 2014 2:29 PM, David Gallagher davegsoftimagel...@gmail.com wrote: Hey all! We are soon releasing our AnimSchool Picker plugin for Softimage. We offer this free to the public. http://www.animschool.com/pickerInfo.aspx If anyone would like to test it, please email me: da...@animschool.com Thanks! Dave G
Re: ice syflex rest pose
Hi Matt, Classic Syflex or ICE Syflex? On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 10:35 AM, Matt Morris matt...@gmail.com wrote: Hi chaps, is there any way to reset the initial rest pose for a syflex sim without deleting and recreating the syflex cloth node? cheers, matt -- www.matinai.com
Re: ice syflex rest pose
Hi Alan, talking ice syflex, 2014sp2. cheers, matt On 11 February 2014 16:05, Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Matt, Classic Syflex or ICE Syflex? On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 10:35 AM, Matt Morris matt...@gmail.com wrote: Hi chaps, is there any way to reset the initial rest pose for a syflex sim without deleting and recreating the syflex cloth node? cheers, matt -- www.matinai.com -- www.matinai.com
Re: ice syflex rest pose
Try moving the ice tree up / down in the construction stack then back under the simulation. This has been working for me this week. Eric T. On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:37:13 AM, Matt Morris wrote: Hi Alan, talking ice syflex, 2014sp2. cheers, matt On 11 February 2014 16:05, Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.com mailto:alan.fregt...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Matt, Classic Syflex or ICE Syflex? On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 10:35 AM, Matt Morris matt...@gmail.com mailto:matt...@gmail.com wrote: Hi chaps, is there any way to reset the initial rest pose for a syflex sim without deleting and recreating the syflex cloth node? cheers, matt -- www.matinai.com http://www.matinai.com -- www.matinai.com http://www.matinai.com
Re: ice syflex rest pose
Hey Eric, thanks, I'll give it a go. cheers! On 11 February 2014 16:49, Eric Thivierge ethivie...@hybride.com wrote: Try moving the ice tree up / down in the construction stack then back under the simulation. This has been working for me this week. Eric T. On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:37:13 AM, Matt Morris wrote: Hi Alan, talking ice syflex, 2014sp2. cheers, matt On 11 February 2014 16:05, Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.com mailto:alan.fregt...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Matt, Classic Syflex or ICE Syflex? On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 10:35 AM, Matt Morris matt...@gmail.com mailto:matt...@gmail.com wrote: Hi chaps, is there any way to reset the initial rest pose for a syflex sim without deleting and recreating the syflex cloth node? cheers, matt -- www.matinai.com http://www.matinai.com -- www.matinai.com http://www.matinai.com -- www.matinai.com
Survey - how would you do this?
An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was 'good enough'. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow - like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: - Cannot use ICE - Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. - Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. - Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes - and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. - Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet's size/shape/tilt/orbit. - Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. - Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready.GO! Matt
Re: point clouds from soft to Max?
Got the clouds in just fine through the send to function. Found it worked better when I started the sofware conversation from Max. Any body know how to send over the rotations? Seems they're currently just points in space...can you even send rotations? On Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 7:24 PM, Chris Johnson chr...@topixfx.com wrote: Thanks guystried the send too max but it didn't work...kept getting an error. I'll simplify the scene and try again. Real flow is an option as I have a license...I'll give that a try too. Cheers. On Feb 10, 2014 6:06 PM, Bruno-Pierre Jobin bpjo...@gmail.com wrote: I had this problem three months ago and I used the realflow plugins in order to get my point from xsi to Max. You can export (cache) your point cloud in bin format and import it back in max using the plugin that's available in pflow. Remember to set the padding correctly when reading in Max though otherwise particles won't show up. You can download them for free on the nextlimit website. Hope this helps -- Bruno-Pierre Jobin On Feb 10, 2014, at 5:09 PM, Chris Johnson chr...@topixfx.com wrote: I'm sure this has been covered a dozen timesI'll have to go dig through the google groups. Thought I'd ask though. I have a point cloud/particle system I'm liking in Softimage and now want to bring it too max and apply Geo instances to the point cloud in Max. I can get Alembic over fine but can't access it in p-flow. Importing an nCache doesn't look right...points are not doing the same thing they were in Softimage? Is there a set in stone work flow out there for this?
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
With those restrictions, get a super fast animator to animate them by hand. Eric T. On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:23:31 PM, Matt Lind wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: -Cannot use ICE -Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. -Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. -Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. -Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. -Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. -Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready…..GO! Matt
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
use Fabric. but I guess that's considered custom. :-) On 2/11/2014 8:46 PM, Eric Thivierge wrote: With those restrictions, get a super fast animator to animate them by hand. Eric T. On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:23:31 PM, Matt Lind wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: -Cannot use ICE -Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. -Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. -Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. -Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. -Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. -Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready…..GO! Matt
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
You wouldn't last long in games with that attitude. Matt -Original Message- From: Eric Thivierge [mailto:ethivie...@hybride.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:46 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Cc: Matt Lind Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? With those restrictions, get a super fast animator to animate them by hand. Eric T. On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:23:31 PM, Matt Lind wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: -Cannot use ICE -Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. -Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. -Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. -Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. -Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. -Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready…..GO! Matt
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
Wouldn't restricting use of ICE mean you have no access to the out of the box particle tools? -- Joey Ponthieux LaRC Information Technology Enhanced Services (LITES) Mymic Technical Services NASA Langley Research Center __ Opinions stated here-in are strictly those of the author and do not represent the opinions of NASA or any other party. -Original Message- From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Eric Thivierge Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:46 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? With those restrictions, get a super fast animator to animate them by hand. Eric T. On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:23:31 PM, Matt Lind wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: -Cannot use ICE -Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. -Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. -Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. -Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. -Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. -Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready…..GO! Matt
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
Considering that the typical distance from one asteroid to the next is many thousands of kilometers, you really shouldn't have any issues with collisions if you scale them properly. At your scale of 40 SI units for the asteroid belt, each asteroid would be well sub-pixel in diameter anyway, so I would create a torus to represent the belt, make it only very slightly opaque and call it a day. Sent from my iPhone On Feb 11, 2014, at 1:23 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: - Cannot use ICE - Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. - Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. - Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. - Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. - Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. - Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready…..GO! Matt
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
F*ck. Fat finger. The rest: We have tight restrictions for making MMORPG style games. One of them being we have to think simple as there's no way to fully predict how an asset will be used once it's made available in the game. Designers and scripters will pull whatever they can get their hands on and use them for whatever purpose they can think of. Kind of the everything looks like a nail when you have a hammer problem. Matt -Original Message- From: Matt Lind Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:47 AM To: 'Eric Thivierge'; softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: RE: Survey - how would you do this? You wouldn't last long in games with that attitude. Matt -Original Message- From: Eric Thivierge [mailto:ethivie...@hybride.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:46 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Cc: Matt Lind Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? With those restrictions, get a super fast animator to animate them by hand. Eric T. On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:23:31 PM, Matt Lind wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: -Cannot use ICE -Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. -Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. -Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. -Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. -Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. -Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready…..GO! Matt
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
Are all games made in an environment from what seems to be the early 90's? And true I probably wouldn't last long in games. I like using new technology too much. :) Eric T. On 2/11/2014 2:47 PM, Matt Lind wrote: You wouldn't last long in games with that attitude. Matt -Original Message- From: Eric Thivierge [mailto:ethivie...@hybride.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:46 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Cc: Matt Lind Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? With those restrictions, get a super fast animator to animate them by hand. Eric T. On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:23:31 PM, Matt Lind wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: -Cannot use ICE -Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. -Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. -Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. -Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. -Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. -Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready…..GO! Matt
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
re: collision avoidance -- how big are the asteroids WRT the toroidal volume? the requirement for varying linear (meaning orbital I guess?) speeds needs to be balanced against the volume of space that each sweeps through. the position jitter I guess I would try to do via clever parenting and use of the randomize data entry command for transform values. On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 2:46 PM, Eric Thivierge ethivie...@hybride.comwrote: With those restrictions, get a super fast animator to animate them by hand. Eric T. On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:23:31 PM, Matt Lind wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was 'good enough'. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow - like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: -Cannot use ICE -Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. -Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. -Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes - and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. -Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet's size/shape/tilt/orbit. -Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. -Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready.GO! Matt
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
Softimage doesn't have a particle system anymore. ICE replaced it. To answer your question - yes. Matt -Original Message- From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Ponthieux, Joseph G. (LARC-E1A)[LITES] Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:48 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: RE: Survey - how would you do this? Wouldn't restricting use of ICE mean you have no access to the out of the box particle tools? -- Joey Ponthieux LaRC Information Technology Enhanced Services (LITES) Mymic Technical Services NASA Langley Research Center __ Opinions stated here-in are strictly those of the author and do not represent the opinions of NASA or any other party. -Original Message- From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Eric Thivierge Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:46 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? With those restrictions, get a super fast animator to animate them by hand. Eric T. On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:23:31 PM, Matt Lind wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: -Cannot use ICE -Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. -Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. -Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. -Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. -Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. -Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready…..GO! Matt
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
No ICE huh.. I know! I know! Go to the grocery store. Buy a pack of lunch meat, the smelliest cheese you can find, and some monkey bread. Return to work and make your lunch from the ingredients. Whilst everyone is running away from the smell of the cheese, cheat and use ICE. I know, I broke the spirit of the challenge. Guilty as charged. But I bet Ed liked the solution. :) -- Joey Ponthieux LaRC Information Technology Enhanced Services (LITES) Mymic Technical Services NASA Langley Research Center __ Opinions stated here-in are strictly those of the author and do not represent the opinions of NASA or any other party. -Original Message- From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Matt Lind Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:54 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: RE: Survey - how would you do this? Softimage doesn't have a particle system anymore. ICE replaced it. To answer your question - yes. Matt -Original Message- From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Ponthieux, Joseph G. (LARC-E1A)[LITES] Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:48 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: RE: Survey - how would you do this? Wouldn't restricting use of ICE mean you have no access to the out of the box particle tools? -- Joey Ponthieux LaRC Information Technology Enhanced Services (LITES) Mymic Technical Services NASA Langley Research Center __ Opinions stated here-in are strictly those of the author and do not represent the opinions of NASA or any other party. -Original Message- From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Eric Thivierge Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:46 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? With those restrictions, get a super fast animator to animate them by hand. Eric T. On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:23:31 PM, Matt Lind wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: -Cannot use ICE -Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. -Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. -Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. -Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. -Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. -Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready…..GO! Matt
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
The focus in games is to make software that is entertaining for our customers. Much of the problem solving in 3D is on the engine side. On the content creation side, such as in Softimage, the focus is to integrate or mimic the engine or find ways of efficiently getting data to/from the engine. The critical part is to abstract game specific data so it is not tied to the content creation software, and inversely abstract the content creation software's isms from making it into the game engine. Do this while still providing an environment that artists can work quickly and efficiently. Not as easy as it sounds. The problem that is most encountered in Softimage and other 3D apps is you can't go low level enough to do what you need. Softimage doesn't really support custom classes and data structures as first class citizens in their API. Therefore, most implementations of toolsets are working around those limitations which often requires venturing into the dusty corners of the software where few people travel resulting in discovery of many bugs preventing you from reaching your goals. As for making games, it taxes your brain a lot more than film/video to figure out how to pull off an effect or implement an idea. Basically, your MacGyver skills are really put to the test. Matt -Original Message- From: Eric Thivierge [mailto:ethivie...@hybride.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:50 AM To: Matt Lind; softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? Are all games made in an environment from what seems to be the early 90's? And true I probably wouldn't last long in games. I like using new technology too much. :) Eric T. On 2/11/2014 2:47 PM, Matt Lind wrote: You wouldn't last long in games with that attitude. Matt -Original Message- From: Eric Thivierge [mailto:ethivie...@hybride.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:46 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Cc: Matt Lind Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? With those restrictions, get a super fast animator to animate them by hand. Eric T. On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:23:31 PM, Matt Lind wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: -Cannot use ICE -Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. -Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. -Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. -Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. -Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. -Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready…..GO! Matt
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
I should probably mention we don’t do realism here. Think comic book style with a little Anime thrown in. Given the dimensions of the belt, asteroids could be up to 1 SI unit in diameter for the really large rocks. The camera might move through this belt, so the fact they’re small shouldn’t be so readily dismissed. This isn’t film/video where you can sweep the stuff you don’t see under the carpet. Matt From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Bradley Gabe Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:48 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? Considering that the typical distance from one asteroid to the next is many thousands of kilometers, you really shouldn't have any issues with collisions if you scale them properly. At your scale of 40 SI units for the asteroid belt, each asteroid would be well sub-pixel in diameter anyway, so I would create a torus to represent the belt, make it only very slightly opaque and call it a day. Sent from my iPhone On Feb 11, 2014, at 1:23 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.commailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: - Cannot use ICE - Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. - Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. - Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. - Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. - Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. - Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready…..GO! Matt
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
I have to plus one on the hand animation...do a couple meteors on a circle scale each one a litte differently. Duplicate that a number of time and offset that. Then look for nasty collisions...done. On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 3:01 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: The focus in games is to make software that is entertaining for our customers. Much of the problem solving in 3D is on the engine side. On the content creation side, such as in Softimage, the focus is to integrate or mimic the engine or find ways of efficiently getting data to/from the engine. The critical part is to abstract game specific data so it is not tied to the content creation software, and inversely abstract the content creation software's isms from making it into the game engine. Do this while still providing an environment that artists can work quickly and efficiently. Not as easy as it sounds. The problem that is most encountered in Softimage and other 3D apps is you can't go low level enough to do what you need. Softimage doesn't really support custom classes and data structures as first class citizens in their API. Therefore, most implementations of toolsets are working around those limitations which often requires venturing into the dusty corners of the software where few people travel resulting in discovery of many bugs preventing you from reaching your goals. As for making games, it taxes your brain a lot more than film/video to figure out how to pull off an effect or implement an idea. Basically, your MacGyver skills are really put to the test. Matt -Original Message- From: Eric Thivierge [mailto:ethivie...@hybride.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:50 AM To: Matt Lind; softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? Are all games made in an environment from what seems to be the early 90's? And true I probably wouldn't last long in games. I like using new technology too much. :) Eric T. On 2/11/2014 2:47 PM, Matt Lind wrote: You wouldn't last long in games with that attitude. Matt -Original Message- From: Eric Thivierge [mailto:ethivie...@hybride.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:46 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Cc: Matt Lind Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? With those restrictions, get a super fast animator to animate them by hand. Eric T. On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:23:31 PM, Matt Lind wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was 'good enough'. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow - like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: -Cannot use ICE -Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. -Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. -Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes - and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. -Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet's size/shape/tilt/orbit. -Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. -Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready.GO! Matt
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
Well, a quick solution will be 1. create a group of asteroids and add the animation of the asteroids. 2. create the torus that will hold up the asteroids belt. 3. Instanciate the group of asteroids. 4. Create a object to cluster constrain of the asteroids group in dispersed points in the torus. 5. Randomize the torus to create the jittering of the position of the asteroids group. 6. Animate the rotation of the torus. 2014-02-11 14:06 GMT-06:00 Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com: I should probably mention we don't do realism here. Think comic book style with a little Anime thrown in. Given the dimensions of the belt, asteroids could be up to 1 SI unit in diameter for the really large rocks. The camera might move through this belt, so the fact they're small shouldn't be so readily dismissed. This isn't film/video where you can sweep the stuff you don't see under the carpet. Matt *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Bradley Gabe *Sent:* Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:48 AM *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com *Subject:* Re: Survey - how would you do this? Considering that the typical distance from one asteroid to the next is many thousands of kilometers, you really shouldn't have any issues with collisions if you scale them properly. At your scale of 40 SI units for the asteroid belt, each asteroid would be well sub-pixel in diameter anyway, so I would create a torus to represent the belt, make it only very slightly opaque and call it a day. Sent from my iPhone On Feb 11, 2014, at 1:23 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was 'good enough'. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow - like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: - Cannot use ICE - Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. - Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. - Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes - and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. - Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet's size/shape/tilt/orbit. - Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. - Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready.GO! Matt
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
Do it by hand. Create null in center of Planet. Call it Parent_Mom. Create Volume Previz Torus Helper. Create Asteroid in Origin. Create Null. Name Null Asteroid_P001. Parent Asteroid to Asteroid_P001. Animate Asteroid Rotation (its tumbling) in Origin. Snap Asteroid_P001 to Torus. Parent Asteroid_P001 to Parent_Mom. Duplicate Asteroid_P001, resulting in Asteroid_P002. Snap Asteroid_P002 to Torus. Create Null, call it Parent_Spin. Parent Parent_Mom to Parent_Spin. Animate Rotation (Y) of Parent_Spin. Create Null, name it Parent_Dad. Name Planet Forever21Planet, parent Forever21 and Parent_Spin to Parent_Dad. Duplicate Asteroid_P002 as often as you need and snap to Torus. Duplicate Parent_Spin, rename Parent_Spin_faster. Adjust Animation to spin faster. Delete any Asteroids you don´t like, offset animations where neccessary or desired. Rinse, repeat. Play. On 11.02.2014 20:23, Matt Lind wrote: The question: but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions?
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
$10 says you can't use instances On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 3:13:50 PM, Emilio Hernandez wrote: Well, a quick solution will be 1. create a group of asteroids and add the animation of the asteroids. 2. create the torus that will hold up the asteroids belt. 3. Instanciate the group of asteroids. 4. Create a object to cluster constrain of the asteroids group in dispersed points in the torus. 5. Randomize the torus to create the jittering of the position of the asteroids group. 6. Animate the rotation of the torus. 2014-02-11 14:06 GMT-06:00 Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com mailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com: I should probably mention we don’t do realism here. Think comic book style with a little Anime thrown in. __ __ Given the dimensions of the belt, asteroids could be up to 1 SI unit in diameter for the really large rocks. The camera might move through this belt, so the fact they’re small shouldn’t be so readily dismissed. This isn’t film/video where you can sweep the stuff you don’t see under the carpet. __ __ __ __ Matt __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ *From:*softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Bradley Gabe *Sent:* Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:48 AM *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com *Subject:* Re: Survey - how would you do this? __ __ Considering that the typical distance from one asteroid to the next is many thousands of kilometers, you really shouldn't have any issues with collisions if you scale them properly. __ __ At your scale of 40 SI units for the asteroid belt, each asteroid would be well sub-pixel in diameter anyway, so I would create a torus to represent the belt, make it only very slightly opaque and call it a day. Sent from my iPhone On Feb 11, 2014, at 1:23 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com mailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: __-__Cannot use ICE __-__Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. __-__Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. __-__Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. __-__Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. __-__Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. __-__Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready…..GO! Matt
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
I'd go with animated sprites for the asteroids. As for jitter, the old school way would be to the coder to do it in the game engine. Otherwise, I'd animated the torus size very slightly with some offsets -Original Message- From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Eric Thivierge Sent: 11 February 2014 20:16 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? $10 says you can't use instances On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 3:13:50 PM, Emilio Hernandez wrote: Well, a quick solution will be 1. create a group of asteroids and add the animation of the asteroids. 2. create the torus that will hold up the asteroids belt. 3. Instanciate the group of asteroids. 4. Create a object to cluster constrain of the asteroids group in dispersed points in the torus. 5. Randomize the torus to create the jittering of the position of the asteroids group. 6. Animate the rotation of the torus. 2014-02-11 14:06 GMT-06:00 Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com mailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com: I should probably mention we don’t do realism here. Think comic book style with a little Anime thrown in. __ __ Given the dimensions of the belt, asteroids could be up to 1 SI unit in diameter for the really large rocks. The camera might move through this belt, so the fact they’re small shouldn’t be so readily dismissed. This isn’t film/video where you can sweep the stuff you don’t see under the carpet. __ __ __ __ Matt __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ *From:*softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Bradley Gabe *Sent:* Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:48 AM *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com *Subject:* Re: Survey - how would you do this? __ __ Considering that the typical distance from one asteroid to the next is many thousands of kilometers, you really shouldn't have any issues with collisions if you scale them properly. __ __ At your scale of 40 SI units for the asteroid belt, each asteroid would be well sub-pixel in diameter anyway, so I would create a torus to represent the belt, make it only very slightly opaque and call it a day. Sent from my iPhone On Feb 11, 2014, at 1:23 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com mailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: __-__Cannot use ICE __-__Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. __-__Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. __-__Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. __-__Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. __-__Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. __-__Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units,
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
It's too bad about the *No ICE* rule because it's not terribly hard to write a pointcloud exporter to whatever format the engine takes. On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 2:23 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was 'good enough'. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow - like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: - Cannot use ICE - Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. - Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. - Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes - and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. - Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet's size/shape/tilt/orbit. - Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. - Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready.GO! Matt
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
create couple models of asteroids for variety, LOD for each of them. let programmers do instancing, duplication and animation in engine and deal with nasty math On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 9:19 PM, Tim Leydecker bauero...@gmx.de wrote: Do it by hand. Create null in center of Planet. Call it Parent_Mom. Create Volume Previz Torus Helper. Create Asteroid in Origin. Create Null. Name Null Asteroid_P001. Parent Asteroid to Asteroid_P001. Animate Asteroid Rotation (its tumbling) in Origin. Snap Asteroid_P001 to Torus. Parent Asteroid_P001 to Parent_Mom. Duplicate Asteroid_P001, resulting in Asteroid_P002. Snap Asteroid_P002 to Torus. Create Null, call it Parent_Spin. Parent Parent_Mom to Parent_Spin. Animate Rotation (Y) of Parent_Spin. Create Null, name it Parent_Dad. Name Planet Forever21Planet, parent Forever21 and Parent_Spin to Parent_Dad. Duplicate Asteroid_P002 as often as you need and snap to Torus. Duplicate Parent_Spin, rename Parent_Spin_faster. Adjust Animation to spin faster. Delete any Asteroids you don´t like, offset animations where neccessary or desired. Rinse, repeat. Play. On 11.02.2014 20:23, Matt Lind wrote: The question: but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions?
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
I meant that Matt was going to say that you can't instance stuff as one additional restriction... On 2/11/2014 3:28 PM, Emilio Hernandez wrote: Well not $10 bucks but a sample scene will say yes. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49626349/Asteroids.scn 2014-02-11 14:19 GMT-06:00 Tim Leydecker bauero...@gmx.de mailto:bauero...@gmx.de: Do it by hand. Create null in center of Planet. Call it Parent_Mom. Create Volume Previz Torus Helper. Create Asteroid in Origin. Create Null. Name Null Asteroid_P001. Parent Asteroid to Asteroid_P001. Animate Asteroid Rotation (its tumbling) in Origin. Snap Asteroid_P001 to Torus. Parent Asteroid_P001 to Parent_Mom. Duplicate Asteroid_P001, resulting in Asteroid_P002. Snap Asteroid_P002 to Torus. Create Null, call it Parent_Spin. Parent Parent_Mom to Parent_Spin. Animate Rotation (Y) of Parent_Spin. Create Null, name it Parent_Dad. Name Planet Forever21Planet, parent Forever21 and Parent_Spin to Parent_Dad. Duplicate Asteroid_P002 as often as you need and snap to Torus. Duplicate Parent_Spin, rename Parent_Spin_faster. Adjust Animation to spin faster. Delete any Asteroids you don´t like, offset animations where neccessary or desired. Rinse, repeat. Play. On 11.02.2014 20:23, Matt Lind wrote: The question: but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions?
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
ahhh ok. hahaha. I double checked the instructions and it didn't say anything about not using instances... Cheers! 2014-02-11 14:36 GMT-06:00 Eric Thivierge ethivie...@hybride.com: I meant that Matt was going to say that you can't instance stuff as one additional restriction... On 2/11/2014 3:28 PM, Emilio Hernandez wrote: Well not $10 bucks but a sample scene will say yes. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49626349/Asteroids.scn 2014-02-11 14:19 GMT-06:00 Tim Leydecker bauero...@gmx.de: Do it by hand. Create null in center of Planet. Call it Parent_Mom. Create Volume Previz Torus Helper. Create Asteroid in Origin. Create Null. Name Null Asteroid_P001. Parent Asteroid to Asteroid_P001. Animate Asteroid Rotation (its tumbling) in Origin. Snap Asteroid_P001 to Torus. Parent Asteroid_P001 to Parent_Mom. Duplicate Asteroid_P001, resulting in Asteroid_P002. Snap Asteroid_P002 to Torus. Create Null, call it Parent_Spin. Parent Parent_Mom to Parent_Spin. Animate Rotation (Y) of Parent_Spin. Create Null, name it Parent_Dad. Name Planet Forever21Planet, parent Forever21 and Parent_Spin to Parent_Dad. Duplicate Asteroid_P002 as often as you need and snap to Torus. Duplicate Parent_Spin, rename Parent_Spin_faster. Adjust Animation to spin faster. Delete any Asteroids you don´t like, offset animations where neccessary or desired. Rinse, repeat. Play. On 11.02.2014 20:23, Matt Lind wrote: The question: but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions?
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
I mean, I used the regular model instance of the Edit-duplicate/instantiate-single model. No ICE instances in the sample scene. Cheers. 2014-02-11 14:39 GMT-06:00 Emilio Hernandez emi...@e-roja.com: ahhh ok. hahaha. I double checked the instructions and it didn't say anything about not using instances... Cheers! 2014-02-11 14:36 GMT-06:00 Eric Thivierge ethivie...@hybride.com: I meant that Matt was going to say that you can't instance stuff as one additional restriction... On 2/11/2014 3:28 PM, Emilio Hernandez wrote: Well not $10 bucks but a sample scene will say yes. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49626349/Asteroids.scn 2014-02-11 14:19 GMT-06:00 Tim Leydecker bauero...@gmx.de: Do it by hand. Create null in center of Planet. Call it Parent_Mom. Create Volume Previz Torus Helper. Create Asteroid in Origin. Create Null. Name Null Asteroid_P001. Parent Asteroid to Asteroid_P001. Animate Asteroid Rotation (its tumbling) in Origin. Snap Asteroid_P001 to Torus. Parent Asteroid_P001 to Parent_Mom. Duplicate Asteroid_P001, resulting in Asteroid_P002. Snap Asteroid_P002 to Torus. Create Null, call it Parent_Spin. Parent Parent_Mom to Parent_Spin. Animate Rotation (Y) of Parent_Spin. Create Null, name it Parent_Dad. Name Planet Forever21Planet, parent Forever21 and Parent_Spin to Parent_Dad. Duplicate Asteroid_P002 as often as you need and snap to Torus. Duplicate Parent_Spin, rename Parent_Spin_faster. Adjust Animation to spin faster. Delete any Asteroids you don´t like, offset animations where neccessary or desired. Rinse, repeat. Play. On 11.02.2014 20:23, Matt Lind wrote: The question: but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions?
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
Can you use ICE to plot out a layout, and then convert it over to explicit controls? Or are you trying to design a system that can randomize, in game, on the fly? Sent from my iPad On Feb 11, 2014, at 1:49 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: F*ck. Fat finger. The rest: We have tight restrictions for making MMORPG style games. One of them being we have to think simple as there's no way to fully predict how an asset will be used once it's made available in the game. Designers and scripters will pull whatever they can get their hands on and use them for whatever purpose they can think of. Kind of the everything looks like a nail when you have a hammer problem. Matt -Original Message- From: Matt Lind Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:47 AM To: 'Eric Thivierge'; softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: RE: Survey - how would you do this? You wouldn't last long in games with that attitude. Matt -Original Message- From: Eric Thivierge [mailto:ethivie...@hybride.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:46 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Cc: Matt Lind Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? With those restrictions, get a super fast animator to animate them by hand. Eric T. On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:23:31 PM, Matt Lind wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: -Cannot use ICE -Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. -Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. -Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. -Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. -Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. -Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready…..GO! Matt
Houdini to Softimage
Hello. I created a Flip simulation in Houdini and I'm trying to bring the Particles to Softimage, I'm exporting Alembic in Houdini, but I can't import in Softimage, I'm using Exocortex Alembic 1.1 in Softimage. ' ERROR : Alembic: [alembic] Error reading file: IArchive::IArchive( iFileName ) I search in internet a solution with the realflow plugin .bin, but it would be much better to have a control with Alembic Any help? Cheers. Paulo Duarte -- www.pauloduarte.ws
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
Nice challenge… I would approach in a brute force way by using path animation with multiple nulls, apply a linear interpolation L(0,100) to the nulls and copy a few rocks onto the nulls (instances). Then apply jitter to the curve, The rotation on the rocks I would apply on the rocks themselves before they are instanced as with so many copies any chance of seeing a pattern would be minimal. Then I would copy paste the curves as many times required and change the radius of the curve. Surely will be heavy but you could do this in 20 minutes. If you have to exactly mimic a torus then you could first extract the curves although then you would have to copy paste for ages… may be a hybrid by using a shape key to the curves to match the curves extracted? Jordi Bares jordiba...@gmail.com On 11 Feb 2014, at 19:23, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: - Cannot use ICE - Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. - Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. - Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. - Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. - Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. - Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready…..GO! Matt
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
Instances are allowed Matt From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Eric Thivierge Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 12:37 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? I meant that Matt was going to say that you can't instance stuff as one additional restriction... On 2/11/2014 3:28 PM, Emilio Hernandez wrote: Well not $10 bucks but a sample scene will say yes. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49626349/Asteroids.scn [http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/8965/erojamailpleca.jpg] 2014-02-11 14:19 GMT-06:00 Tim Leydecker bauero...@gmx.demailto:bauero...@gmx.de: Do it by hand. Create null in center of Planet. Call it Parent_Mom. Create Volume Previz Torus Helper. Create Asteroid in Origin. Create Null. Name Null Asteroid_P001. Parent Asteroid to Asteroid_P001. Animate Asteroid Rotation (its tumbling) in Origin. Snap Asteroid_P001 to Torus. Parent Asteroid_P001 to Parent_Mom. Duplicate Asteroid_P001, resulting in Asteroid_P002. Snap Asteroid_P002 to Torus. Create Null, call it Parent_Spin. Parent Parent_Mom to Parent_Spin. Animate Rotation (Y) of Parent_Spin. Create Null, name it Parent_Dad. Name Planet Forever21Planet, parent Forever21 and Parent_Spin to Parent_Dad. Duplicate Asteroid_P002 as often as you need and snap to Torus. Duplicate Parent_Spin, rename Parent_Spin_faster. Adjust Animation to spin faster. Delete any Asteroids you don´t like, offset animations where neccessary or desired. Rinse, repeat. Play. On 11.02.2014 20:23, Matt Lind wrote: The question: but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions?
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
Pay up ;-) Matt -Original Message- From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Eric Thivierge Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 12:16 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? $10 says you can't use instances On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 3:13:50 PM, Emilio Hernandez wrote: Well, a quick solution will be 1. create a group of asteroids and add the animation of the asteroids. 2. create the torus that will hold up the asteroids belt. 3. Instanciate the group of asteroids. 4. Create a object to cluster constrain of the asteroids group in dispersed points in the torus. 5. Randomize the torus to create the jittering of the position of the asteroids group. 6. Animate the rotation of the torus. 2014-02-11 14:06 GMT-06:00 Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com mailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com: I should probably mention we don’t do realism here. Think comic book style with a little Anime thrown in. __ __ Given the dimensions of the belt, asteroids could be up to 1 SI unit in diameter for the really large rocks. The camera might move through this belt, so the fact they’re small shouldn’t be so readily dismissed. This isn’t film/video where you can sweep the stuff you don’t see under the carpet. __ __ __ __ Matt __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ *From:*softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Bradley Gabe *Sent:* Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:48 AM *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com *Subject:* Re: Survey - how would you do this? __ __ Considering that the typical distance from one asteroid to the next is many thousands of kilometers, you really shouldn't have any issues with collisions if you scale them properly. __ __ At your scale of 40 SI units for the asteroid belt, each asteroid would be well sub-pixel in diameter anyway, so I would create a torus to represent the belt, make it only very slightly opaque and call it a day. Sent from my iPhone On Feb 11, 2014, at 1:23 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com mailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: __-__Cannot use ICE __-__Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. __-__Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. __-__Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. __-__Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. __-__Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. __-__Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready…..GO!
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
Here's something quick and dirty just I made. http://youtu.be/-77ALwrySsQ Hope this gives you some inspiration. -manny SI Mobu Support -Original Message- From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Matt Lind Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 5:03 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: RE: Survey - how would you do this? Pay up ;-) Matt -Original Message- From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Eric Thivierge Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 12:16 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? $10 says you can't use instances On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 3:13:50 PM, Emilio Hernandez wrote: Well, a quick solution will be 1. create a group of asteroids and add the animation of the asteroids. 2. create the torus that will hold up the asteroids belt. 3. Instanciate the group of asteroids. 4. Create a object to cluster constrain of the asteroids group in dispersed points in the torus. 5. Randomize the torus to create the jittering of the position of the asteroids group. 6. Animate the rotation of the torus. 2014-02-11 14:06 GMT-06:00 Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com mailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com: I should probably mention we don’t do realism here. Think comic book style with a little Anime thrown in. __ __ Given the dimensions of the belt, asteroids could be up to 1 SI unit in diameter for the really large rocks. The camera might move through this belt, so the fact they’re small shouldn’t be so readily dismissed. This isn’t film/video where you can sweep the stuff you don’t see under the carpet. __ __ __ __ Matt __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ *From:*softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Bradley Gabe *Sent:* Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:48 AM *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com *Subject:* Re: Survey - how would you do this? __ __ Considering that the typical distance from one asteroid to the next is many thousands of kilometers, you really shouldn't have any issues with collisions if you scale them properly. __ __ At your scale of 40 SI units for the asteroid belt, each asteroid would be well sub-pixel in diameter anyway, so I would create a torus to represent the belt, make it only very slightly opaque and call it a day. Sent from my iPhone On Feb 11, 2014, at 1:23 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com mailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: __-__Cannot use ICE __-__Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. __-__Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. __-__Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. __-__Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. __-__Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum.
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
Sorry my money is tied up in my MMO accounts right now... On 2/11/2014 5:03 PM, Matt Lind wrote: Pay up ;-) Matt
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
Thanks for clarifying Matt. So then my sample scene is totaly feasible in this scenario. Ok Eric. One beer to go on your tab. Cheers! 2014-02-11 16:36 GMT-06:00 Eric Thivierge ethivie...@hybride.com: Sorry my money is tied up in my MMO accounts right now... On 2/11/2014 5:03 PM, Matt Lind wrote: Pay up ;-) Matt
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
Here's my take on it (will take an hour or so before the link shows up) https://vimeo.com/86461624 7 minutes to set up, but no collision avoidance. Not sure how best to automate collision avoidance without ICE or scripting. Maybe rigid body dynamics with a big convex hull? But that's not allowed I suppose ;-) Christian On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 8:23 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was 'good enough'. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow - like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: - Cannot use ICE - Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. - Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. - Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes - and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. - Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet's size/shape/tilt/orbit. - Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. - Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready.GO! Matt
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
Excellent ! Le 11/02/2014 23:22, Manny Papamanos a écrit : Here's something quick and dirty just I made. http://youtu.be/-77ALwrySsQ Hope this gives you some inspiration. -manny SI Mobu Support -Original Message- From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Matt Lind Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 5:03 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: RE: Survey - how would you do this? Pay up ;-) Matt -Original Message- From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Eric Thivierge Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 12:16 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? $10 says you can't use instances On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 3:13:50 PM, Emilio Hernandez wrote: Well, a quick solution will be 1. create a group of asteroids and add the animation of the asteroids. 2. create the torus that will hold up the asteroids belt. 3. Instanciate the group of asteroids. 4. Create a object to cluster constrain of the asteroids group in dispersed points in the torus. 5. Randomize the torus to create the jittering of the position of the asteroids group. 6. Animate the rotation of the torus. 2014-02-11 14:06 GMT-06:00 Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com mailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com: I should probably mention we don’t do realism here. Think comic book style with a little Anime thrown in. __ __ Given the dimensions of the belt, asteroids could be up to 1 SI unit in diameter for the really large rocks. The camera might move through this belt, so the fact they’re small shouldn’t be so readily dismissed. This isn’t film/video where you can sweep the stuff you don’t see under the carpet. __ __ __ __ Matt __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ *From:*softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Bradley Gabe *Sent:* Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:48 AM *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com *Subject:* Re: Survey - how would you do this? __ __ Considering that the typical distance from one asteroid to the next is many thousands of kilometers, you really shouldn't have any issues with collisions if you scale them properly. __ __ At your scale of 40 SI units for the asteroid belt, each asteroid would be well sub-pixel in diameter anyway, so I would create a torus to represent the belt, make it only very slightly opaque and call it a day. Sent from my iPhone On Feb 11, 2014, at 1:23 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com mailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: __-__Cannot use ICE __-__Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. __-__Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. __-__Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. __-__Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. __-__Final output must be able to exist with
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
Link not working here.. Le 11/02/2014 23:58, Christian Gotzinger a écrit : Here's my take on it (will take an hour or so before the link shows up) https://vimeo.com/86461624 7 minutes to set up, but no collision avoidance. Not sure how best to automate collision avoidance without ICE or scripting. Maybe rigid body dynamics with a big convex hull? But that's not allowed I suppose ;-) Christian On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 8:23 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com mailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was 'good enough'. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow -- like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: -Cannot use ICE -Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. -Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. -Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes -- and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. -Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet's size/shape/tilt/orbit. -Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. -Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready.GO! Matt
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
Vimeo tells me that the video starts converting in 35 minutes. Link should work then, sorry about the inconvenience. On Wed, Feb 12, 2014 at 12:03 AM, olivier jeannel olivier.jean...@noos.frwrote: Link not working here.. Le 11/02/2014 23:58, Christian Gotzinger a écrit : Here's my take on it (will take an hour or so before the link shows up) https://vimeo.com/86461624 7 minutes to set up, but no collision avoidance. Not sure how best to automate collision avoidance without ICE or scripting. Maybe rigid body dynamics with a big convex hull? But that's not allowed I suppose ;-) Christian On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 8:23 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.comwrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was 'good enough'. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow - like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: - Cannot use ICE - Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. - Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. - Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes - and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. - Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet's size/shape/tilt/orbit. - Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. - Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready.GO! Matt
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
...and how do you propose we get the ICE data into the engine while fitting into existing game play AND not introducing bugs AND not introducing more work for the engineering staff AND not requiring file format changes which would force us to re-export all assets which precede it - we have nearly 9 year of backlog which would need to be supported? In film/video terms, imagine introducing your next tool required you re-submit every shot back to the render farm to be re-rendered and forwarded to every department afterwards to redo their work (compositing, fx, color correct, audio, editing, conforming, etc...) - when 90% of the work is in the can and people are already working 16 hours days 7 days a week. Probably wouldn't be a popular decision. When resources are scarce, solutions issued to artists of limited knowledge/skill must be in a form they can manage unsupervised which are also safe from jeopardizing the production. Matt From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Alan Fregtman Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 12:33 PM To: XSI Mailing List Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? It's too bad about the No ICE rule because it's not terribly hard to write a pointcloud exporter to whatever format the engine takes. On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 2:23 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.commailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was 'good enough'. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow - like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: - Cannot use ICE - Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. - Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. - Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes - and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. - Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet's size/shape/tilt/orbit. - Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. - Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready.GO! Matt
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
Very nice. Very similar to what I told the artist yesterday. The main difference being I advised him to use the NURBS torus instead of NURBS disc. My thinking at the time was to activate tangency and normal in the surface constraint to align their axes along the surface tangents, then deactivate the constraint using the R(-N,N), where N is the # SI Units to translate the asteroids in local Y, to push the asteroids in/out of the torus' surface to jitter the positions. The problem I ran into is Softimage treated the selection of asteroids like a branch selection and translated them uniformly in the same direction, instead of translating them individually along their own axes. Plan B was to increase subdivisions on the torus and use the shape randomization like you and Emilio did to provide the randomization. Matt -Original Message- From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Manny Papamanos Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:22 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: RE: Survey - how would you do this? Here's something quick and dirty just I made. http://youtu.be/-77ALwrySsQ Hope this gives you some inspiration. -manny SI Mobu Support -Original Message- From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Matt Lind Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 5:03 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: RE: Survey - how would you do this? Pay up ;-) Matt -Original Message- From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Eric Thivierge Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 12:16 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? $10 says you can't use instances On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 3:13:50 PM, Emilio Hernandez wrote: Well, a quick solution will be 1. create a group of asteroids and add the animation of the asteroids. 2. create the torus that will hold up the asteroids belt. 3. Instanciate the group of asteroids. 4. Create a object to cluster constrain of the asteroids group in dispersed points in the torus. 5. Randomize the torus to create the jittering of the position of the asteroids group. 6. Animate the rotation of the torus. 2014-02-11 14:06 GMT-06:00 Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com mailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com: I should probably mention we don’t do realism here. Think comic book style with a little Anime thrown in. __ __ Given the dimensions of the belt, asteroids could be up to 1 SI unit in diameter for the really large rocks. The camera might move through this belt, so the fact they’re small shouldn’t be so readily dismissed. This isn’t film/video where you can sweep the stuff you don’t see under the carpet. __ __ __ __ Matt __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ *From:*softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Bradley Gabe *Sent:* Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:48 AM *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com *Subject:* Re: Survey - how would you do this? __ __ Considering that the typical distance from one asteroid to the next is many thousands of kilometers, you really shouldn't have any issues with collisions if you scale them properly. __ __ At your scale of 40 SI units for the asteroid belt, each asteroid would be well sub-pixel in diameter anyway, so I would create a torus to represent the belt, make it only very slightly opaque and call it a day. Sent from my iPhone On Feb 11, 2014, at 1:23 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com mailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
1 Beer for you. :) Matt From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Emilio Hernandez Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:39 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? Thanks for clarifying Matt. So then my sample scene is totaly feasible in this scenario. Ok Eric. One beer to go on your tab. Cheers! [http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/8965/erojamailpleca.jpg] 2014-02-11 16:36 GMT-06:00 Eric Thivierge ethivie...@hybride.commailto:ethivie...@hybride.com: Sorry my money is tied up in my MMO accounts right now... On 2/11/2014 5:03 PM, Matt Lind wrote: Pay up ;-) Matt
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
...and how do you propose we get the ICE data into the engine while fitting into existing game play AND not introducing bugs AND not introducing more work for the engineering staff AND not requiring file format changes which would force us to re-export all assets which precede it - we have nearly 9 year of backlog which would need to be supported? By writing as script that will convert the ICE Tree animation into regular objects with baked out animation. Then you're free to use whatever archaic devilry on them you normally would. On 11 February 2014 23:26, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: 1 Beer for you. J Matt *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Emilio Hernandez *Sent:* Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:39 PM *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com *Subject:* Re: Survey - how would you do this? Thanks for clarifying Matt. So then my sample scene is totaly feasible in this scenario. Ok Eric. One beer to go on your tab. Cheers! 2014-02-11 16:36 GMT-06:00 Eric Thivierge ethivie...@hybride.com: Sorry my money is tied up in my MMO accounts right now... On 2/11/2014 5:03 PM, Matt Lind wrote: Pay up ;-) Matt
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
You're ignoring one of the rules - no scripting. Matt From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Peter Agg Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 3:46 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? ...and how do you propose we get the ICE data into the engine while fitting into existing game play AND not introducing bugs AND not introducing more work for the engineering staff AND not requiring file format changes which would force us to re-export all assets which precede it - we have nearly 9 year of backlog which would need to be supported? By writing as script that will convert the ICE Tree animation into regular objects with baked out animation. Then you're free to use whatever archaic devilry on them you normally would. On 11 February 2014 23:26, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.commailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: 1 Beer for you. :) Matt From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Emilio Hernandez Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:39 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? Thanks for clarifying Matt. So then my sample scene is totaly feasible in this scenario. Ok Eric. One beer to go on your tab. Cheers! [http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/8965/erojamailpleca.jpg] 2014-02-11 16:36 GMT-06:00 Eric Thivierge ethivie...@hybride.commailto:ethivie...@hybride.com: Sorry my money is tied up in my MMO accounts right now... On 2/11/2014 5:03 PM, Matt Lind wrote: Pay up ;-) Matt
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
Whoops, while cleaning up my account I managed to delete the video. The correct (and now working) link is: https://vimeo.com/86464710 On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 11:58 PM, Christian Gotzinger cgo...@googlemail.com wrote: Here's my take on it (will take an hour or so before the link shows up)
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
Good job - very impressive! Not sure collisions will be avoided, but looks very convincing. What I find interesting is every solution so far has gravitated towards the parameter randomization feature - R(start,end). I thought for sure at least one person would open the expression editor and plot out some randomized FCurves or do something in the animation mixer. I'm curious to know if everybody would choose the same solution if the asteroids had to be 2D sprites? Or if the number of polygons and keyframes were capped to specific amount of data? Matt From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Christian Gotzinger Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 4:14 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? Whoops, while cleaning up my account I managed to delete the video. The correct (and now working) link is: https://vimeo.com/86464710 On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 11:58 PM, Christian Gotzinger cgo...@googlemail.commailto:cgo...@googlemail.com wrote: Here's my take on it (will take an hour or so before the link shows up)
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
Maybe it could work as well.I think of rendering sequences of a bunch of individual rotating asteriods with camera locked down on them, maybe 10 different ones. So you end up with small rez little videos with a rotating asteroid in the middle.And use the same technique with simple gridsbut with orientation constraints to the camera? Worth to try. Only thing is lighting will be baked out in thoses sprite textures.. So hopefully your camera doesnt travel to much and keeps looking in the same light/sprite light direction relation...cool to see everyone chipping in!!sly Sylvain Lebeau // SHEDV-P/Visual effects supervisor1410, RUE STANLEY, 11E ÉTAGE MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC) H3A 1P8T 514 849-1555 F 514 849-5025WWW.SHEDMTL.COMhttp://WWW.SHEDMTL.COMVFX Curriculum 03: Compositing Basicsmail to: s...@shedmtl.com On Feb 11, 2014, at 7:43 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote:Good job - very impressive! Not sure collisions will be avoided, but looks very convincing.What I find interesting is every solution so far has gravitated towards the parameter randomization feature - R(start,end). I thought for sure at least one person would open the _expression_ editor and plot out some randomized FCurves or do something in the animation mixer.I’m curious to know if everybody would choose the same solution if the asteroids had to be 2D sprites? Or if the number of polygons and keyframes were capped to specific amount of data?MattFrom:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]On Behalf OfChristian GotzingerSent:Tuesday, February 11, 2014 4:14 PMTo:softimage@listproc.autodesk.comSubject:Re: Survey - how would you do this?Whoops, while cleaning up my account I managed to delete the video.The correct (and now working) link is:https://vimeo.com/86464710On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 11:58 PM, Christian Gotzinger cgo...@googlemail.com wrote:Here's my take on it (will take an hour or so before the link shows up)
Re: Houdini to Softimage
Hi Paulo,Have you tried to post on the Exocortex alembic list? I am sure Marshall and Ben can help you out with this.You should enroll ... exocortex-alem...@googlegroups.comcheers!slySylvain Lebeau // SHEDV-P/Visual effects supervisor1410, RUE STANLEY, 11E ÉTAGE MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC) H3A 1P8T 514 849-1555 F 514 849-5025WWW.SHEDMTL.COMhttp://WWW.SHEDMTL.COMVFX Curriculum 03: Compositing Basicsmail to: s...@shedmtl.com On Feb 11, 2014, at 4:34 PM, Paulo César Duarte paulocdua...@gmail.com wrote:Hello.I created a Flip simulation in Houdini and I'm trying to bring the Particles to Softimage, I'm exporting Alembic in Houdini, but I can't import in Softimage, I'm using Exocortex Alembic 1.1 in Softimage. ' ERROR : Alembic: [alembic] Error reading file: IArchive::IArchive( iFileName )I search in internet a solution with the realflow plugin .bin, but it would be much better to have a control with Alembic Any help?Cheers.Paulo Duarte-- www.pauloduarte.ws
Re: Houdini to Softimage
If you're on H13, use the Alembic ROP and make sure you're not using the default format. Use HDF5 instead. On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 8:24 PM, Sylvain Lebeau s...@shedmtl.com wrote: Hi Paulo, Have you tried to post on the Exocortex alembic list? I am sure Marshall and Ben can help you out with this. You should enroll ... exocortex-alem...@googlegroups.com cheers! sly *Sylvain Lebeau // SHED* V-P/Visual effects supervisor 1410, RUE STANLEY, 11E ÉTAGE MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC) H3A 1P8 T 514 849-1555 F 514 849-5025 WWW.SHEDMTL.COM http://www.shedmtl.com/ http://WWW.SHEDMTL.COM http://www.shedmtl.com/ VFX Curriculum 03: Compositing Basics mail to: s...@shedmtl.com On Feb 11, 2014, at 4:34 PM, Paulo César Duarte paulocdua...@gmail.com wrote: Hello. I created a Flip simulation in Houdini and I'm trying to bring the Particles to Softimage, I'm exporting Alembic in Houdini, but I can't import in Softimage, I'm using Exocortex Alembic 1.1 in Softimage. ' ERROR : Alembic: [alembic] Error reading file: IArchive::IArchive( iFileName ) I search in internet a solution with the realflow plugin .bin, but it would be much better to have a control with Alembic Any help? Cheers. Paulo Duarte -- www.pauloduarte.ws inline: Screen Shot 2013-10-03 at 12.15.25 AM.png
Re: Houdini to Softimage
i was expecting you Vincei swear...lolsly Sylvain Lebeau // SHEDV-P/Visual effects supervisor1410, RUE STANLEY, 11E ÉTAGE MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC) H3A 1P8T 514 849-1555 F 514 849-5025WWW.SHEDMTL.COMhttp://WWW.SHEDMTL.COMVFX Curriculum 03: Compositing Basicsmail to: s...@shedmtl.com On Feb 11, 2014, at 8:55 PM, Vincent Fortin vfor...@gmail.com wrote:If you're on H13, use the Alembic ROP and make sure you're not using the default format. Use HDF5 instead.On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 8:24 PM, Sylvain Lebeau s...@shedmtl.com wrote: Hi Paulo,Have you tried to post on the Exocortex alembic list? I am sure Marshall and Ben can help you out with this. You should enroll ... exocortex-alem...@googlegroups.comcheers!sly Sylvain Lebeau // SHED V-P/Visual effects supervisor1410, RUE STANLEY, 11E ÉTAGE MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC) H3A 1P8 T 514 849-1555 F 514 849-5025WWW.SHEDMTL.COMhttp://WWW.SHEDMTL.COM Screen Shot 2013-10-03 at 12.15.25 AM.png VFX Curriculum 03: Compositing Basics mail to: s...@shedmtl.com On Feb 11, 2014, at 4:34 PM, Paulo César Duarte paulocdua...@gmail.com wrote: Hello.I created a Flip simulation in Houdini and I'm trying to bring the Particles to Softimage, I'm exporting Alembic in Houdini, but I can't import in Softimage, I'm using Exocortex Alembic 1.1 in Softimage. ' ERROR : Alembic: [alembic] Error reading file: IArchive::IArchive( iFileName )I search in internet a solution with the realflow plugin .bin, but it would be much better to have a control with Alembic Any help?Cheers.Paulo Duarte-- www.pauloduarte.ws
Re: Houdini to Softimage
Hi Paulo, Can you share an *.abc file with us so we can investigate why it is crashing? We should support both Ogawa and HDF5 formats, but something could be going wrong. Best regards, -ben On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 4:34 PM, Paulo César Duarte paulocdua...@gmail.com wrote: Hello. I created a Flip simulation in Houdini and I'm trying to bring the Particles to Softimage, I'm exporting Alembic in Houdini, but I can't import in Softimage, I'm using Exocortex Alembic 1.1 in Softimage. ' ERROR : Alembic: [alembic] Error reading file: IArchive::IArchive( iFileName ) I search in internet a solution with the realflow plugin .bin, but it would be much better to have a control with Alembic Any help? Cheers. Paulo Duarte -- www.pauloduarte.ws -- Best regards, Ben Houston Voice: 613-762-4113 Skype: ben.exocortex Twitter: @exocortexcom http://Clara.io - Professional-Grade WebGL-based 3D Content Creation
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
I did this with a curve deform, animating a few values. It give the inner-circle rocks a faster motion than the outmost parts. The belt is a single object. You can adjust the gaps between the rings if you switch the viewport to 'Sync with current mode and using modeling construction mode. Not very interactive though. There is no avoidance or collision. THe belt geo is heavy, maybe to much for a game engine, I dont know. But the scene is very light. https://vimeo.com/86475294 From: mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [ mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Matt Lind Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 8:24 PM To: mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Survey - how would you do this? An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was 'good enough'. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow - like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: - Cannot use ICE - Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. - Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. - Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes - and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. - Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet's size/shape/tilt/orbit. - Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. - Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready...GO! Matt
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
The solution is 100% art driven in this case and cannot rely on game engine logic or engineering resources. If it could, there wouldn't be a challenge ;-) Cannot use ICE, but you can use expressions, constraints, or animation mixer to set up and plot out to explicit controls later if you prefer. A junior or staff level artist must be able to setup and complete the task unsupervised in 30 minutes or less. Must also avoid creating any bugs such as leaving temporary data in the scene or methods that require such tactics. Bugs that make their way into the game engine are very expensive to find, fix, and QA. Therefore, great emphasis should be placed on technique and working cleanly. Matt -Original Message- From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Bradley Gabe Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 1:00 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? Can you use ICE to plot out a layout, and then convert it over to explicit controls? Or are you trying to design a system that can randomize, in game, on the fly? Sent from my iPad On Feb 11, 2014, at 1:49 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: F*ck. Fat finger. The rest: We have tight restrictions for making MMORPG style games. One of them being we have to think simple as there's no way to fully predict how an asset will be used once it's made available in the game. Designers and scripters will pull whatever they can get their hands on and use them for whatever purpose they can think of. Kind of the everything looks like a nail when you have a hammer problem. Matt -Original Message- From: Matt Lind Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:47 AM To: 'Eric Thivierge'; softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: RE: Survey - how would you do this? You wouldn't last long in games with that attitude. Matt -Original Message- From: Eric Thivierge [mailto:ethivie...@hybride.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:46 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Cc: Matt Lind Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? With those restrictions, get a super fast animator to animate them by hand. Eric T. On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:23:31 PM, Matt Lind wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: -Cannot use ICE -Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. -Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. -Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. -Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s size/shape/tilt/orbit. -Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. -Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready…..GO! Matt
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
This could work if normal mapping was used on the sprites, but animated texture sequences would likely be too expensive for a slow sequence like this. If the asteroids moved quickly, then it could be more doable as fewer frames would be needed. The tricky part with the sprite solution is to keep the asteroids from staring at the camera and flipping in an attention-grabbing way if the camera should travel through the asteroid belt and get close to some of the rocks. Matt From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Sylvain Lebeau Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 5:17 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? Maybe it could work as well. I think of rendering sequences of a bunch of individual rotating asteriods with camera locked down on them, maybe 10 different ones. So you end up with small rez little videos with a rotating asteroid in the middle. And use the same technique with simple gridsbut with orientation constraints to the camera? Worth to try. Only thing is lighting will be baked out in thoses sprite textures.. So hopefully your camera doesnt travel to much and keeps looking in the same light/sprite light direction relation... cool to see everyone chipping in!! sly Sylvain Lebeau // SHED V-P/Visual effects supervisor 1410, RUE STANLEY, 11E ÉTAGE MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC) H3A 1P8 T 514 849-1555 F 514 849-5025 WWW.SHEDMTL.COMhttp://www.shedmtl.com/ http://WWW.SHEDMTL.COMhttp://www.shedmtl.com/ [cid:image001.jpg@01CF2760.D4051400] VFX Curriculum 03: Compositing Basics mail to: s...@shedmtl.commailto:s...@shedmtl.com On Feb 11, 2014, at 7:43 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.commailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: Good job - very impressive! Not sure collisions will be avoided, but looks very convincing. What I find interesting is every solution so far has gravitated towards the parameter randomization feature - R(start,end). I thought for sure at least one person would open the expression editor and plot out some randomized FCurves or do something in the animation mixer. I'm curious to know if everybody would choose the same solution if the asteroids had to be 2D sprites? Or if the number of polygons and keyframes were capped to specific amount of data? Matt From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Christian Gotzinger Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 4:14 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? Whoops, while cleaning up my account I managed to delete the video. The correct (and now working) link is: https://vimeo.com/86464710 On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 11:58 PM, Christian Gotzinger cgo...@googlemail.commailto:cgo...@googlemail.com wrote: Here's my take on it (will take an hour or so before the link shows up) inline: image001.jpg
RE: Survey - how would you do this?
We don't miss ICE as much as you'd think. What hurts us more is the lack of development in the fundamental tools outside of ICE such as the texture editor, modeling, data management, animation and envelope editing, and so on. ICE allows you to create many arbitrary effects on a whim, but is also locked into the way Softimage works and not the way we need to work. ICE doesn't really address the kinds of problems we need solved, or issues that can't already be solved by other means even if they aren't as slick. ICE doesn't support the data we need supported. For example, we'd like to make some ICE modeling tools, but since ICE doesn't support custom properties and other userdata in topology operations, any time an artist makes a topology edit to an asset, the meta data would be lost creating bugs in our game next time the asset is exported. For the few areas where ICE would be useful, it either has bugs or feature limitations making it more of a liability than a help. That's why we don't use it. ICE needs more work to be a viable option for us. Matt From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Sylvain Lebeau Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 8:00 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? of course!!! my god... how doest it's like to be hand cuffed? no ice, no nothing!! good luck Matt! good challenge! sly Sylvain Lebeau // SHED V-P/Visual effects supervisor 1410, RUE STANLEY, 11E ÉTAGE MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC) H3A 1P8 T 514 849-1555 F 514 849-5025 WWW.SHEDMTL.COMhttp://www.shedmtl.com/ http://WWW.SHEDMTL.COMhttp://www.shedmtl.com/ [cid:image001.jpg@01CF2769.1560ABA0] VFX Curriculum 03: Compositing Basics mail to: s...@shedmtl.commailto:s...@shedmtl.com On Feb 11, 2014, at 10:38 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.commailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: This could work if normal mapping was used on the sprites, but animated texture sequences would likely be too expensive for a slow sequence like this. If the asteroids moved quickly, then it could be more doable as fewer frames would be needed. The tricky part with the sprite solution is to keep the asteroids from staring at the camera and flipping in an attention-grabbing way if the camera should travel through the asteroid belt and get close to some of the rocks. Matt From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Sylvain Lebeau Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 5:17 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? Maybe it could work as well. I think of rendering sequences of a bunch of individual rotating asteriods with camera locked down on them, maybe 10 different ones. So you end up with small rez little videos with a rotating asteroid in the middle. And use the same technique with simple gridsbut with orientation constraints to the camera? Worth to try. Only thing is lighting will be baked out in thoses sprite textures.. So hopefully your camera doesnt travel to much and keeps looking in the same light/sprite light direction relation... cool to see everyone chipping in!! sly Sylvain Lebeau // SHED V-P/Visual effects supervisor 1410, RUE STANLEY, 11E ÉTAGE MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC) H3A 1P8 T 514 849-1555 F 514 849-5025 WWW.SHEDMTL.COMhttp://www.shedmtl.com/ http://WWW.SHEDMTL.COMhttp://www.shedmtl.com/ image001.jpg VFX Curriculum 03: Compositing Basics mail to: s...@shedmtl.commailto:s...@shedmtl.com On Feb 11, 2014, at 7:43 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.commailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: Good job - very impressive! Not sure collisions will be avoided, but looks very convincing. What I find interesting is every solution so far has gravitated towards the parameter randomization feature - R(start,end). I thought for sure at least one person would open the expression editor and plot out some randomized FCurves or do something in the animation mixer. I'm curious to know if everybody would choose the same solution if the asteroids had to be 2D sprites? Or if the number of polygons and keyframes were capped to specific amount of data? Matt From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Christian Gotzinger Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 4:14 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? Whoops, while cleaning up my account I managed to delete the video. The correct (and now working) link is: https://vimeo.com/86464710 On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 11:58 PM, Christian Gotzinger cgo...@googlemail.commailto:cgo...@googlemail.com wrote: Here's my take on it (will take an hour or so before
Nesting custom properties
Evening I will be managing an obscene number of parameters, a number that requires that I keep things somewhat structured rather than just dumping everything into a single custom property. Since we are apparently unable to create hierarchies of parameters (see https://groups.google.com/d/topic/xsi_list/OkUqJFjOqP0/discussion ) my current plan is to use nested CustomProperties in the following manner: Gradient Marker_1 Red Green Blue Marker_2 Red Green ... Where gradient and marker_1/marker_2 are custom properties, and red/green/blue are parameters. I am primarily posting to ask whether there isn't a better way of doing this, but assuming the answer to that is no, I was wonder if it is possible to accomplish purely with C++. With scripting you would just use AddProp to create the CustomProperty, setting the parent property as the input. In C++ the only way to add a custom property is, as far as I can tell, by calling AddCustomProperty, but this method is not available to a CustomProperty as it is not derived from SceneItem. Calling the native AddProp to do the job wouldn't be much of a problem, but I do prefer to keep my code, ehem, *pure*. Also not a fan of spamming the console. Cheers
