RE: DAT showreel 2015
Solid reel. And interesting idea btw, delivering the model-texture-shading part only. Especially since startups tend to go fullservice. Good luck to you guys. sven From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Ivan Vasiljevic Sent: Monday, May 04, 2015 10:32 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: OT: DAT showreel 2015 Hi guys, Sorry for this off topic. This is our first show reel ever! :) So I wanted to post it here, plenty of SI works... http://digitalassettailors.com/portfolio/showreel-2015/ We will be at FMX this year, so if anybody wants to chat with us let me know! Best. Ivan -- Ivan Vasiljevic - Lighting TD Founder, Digital Asset Tailors - web:http://digitalassettailors.com/ email: i...@digitalassettailors.com
Forcing Softimage to evaluate its graph in a batch session
We're running splice in Softimage to render out a pointcloud using a renderer written in KL. So the renderer lives in an operator on the pointcloud. When we open this scene using xsibatch the splice operator doesn't get evaluated. Just like any other part of the scene wouldn't. Because it doesn't have to, because it isn't displayed anywhere. Is there a way to force softimage to evaluate its graph without a viewport? Would really appreciate some input on this. Thanks! -Leonard
Re: Softimage Icon Removed from Mudbox?
Hi, i'm not into coding, but if it's something easy as replacing some lines i could try. I've using the Softimage 2014SP2 as my base, i have installed the 2015(soon i'll update that), for Mudbox i have the last 2014, and the last 2015 versions. I'm not planing to use Softimage 2015 until SP2 comes out, so i would love to send files from Mudbox 2015 to Softimage 2014, and viceversa. I know in practice it's impossible but in theory what you say could work. Hope you could remember what you need to do or test that again, it could help a lot of guys here. Thanks, On Tue, May 5, 2015 at 3:21 PM, skuby sku...@gmail.com wrote: I've manually fixed this in the past with version mis-matches. C:\Users\All Users\Autodesk\Synergy\. Somewhere in there you'll find editable files that are in ascii. It might take a little trial and error, but last I remember I figured the whole thing out and had it working in 10 minutes. that got like a 2013/14 version of Soft sending/recieving to a 2015 version mb/ -something like that, been a while and I dont' have any of the apps handy on this machine to give perfect instructions. You will probably have an easier time if you have an old MB 2014/2015 install which you can refer to / copy/pasta bits from. -pretty confident you could get this working somehow if you really wanted On Fri, May 1, 2015 at 10:44 PM, Tenshi S. tenshu...@gmail.com wrote: I think Mudbox will be better with a tool like Zspheres, when they put a solution like that to create the base for models, i'll be more than happy; because Mudbox it's easy and most of the tools necessary are there. More brushes and presets are welcome, too. On Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 7:17 PM, Tim Leydecker bauero...@gmx.de wrote: a 1:1 copy of some of the best ZBrush brushes (dam standard springs to mind) would have been nice, something ZBrush Dynamesh as a surprise extension, too. How about some new presets, some vector tooltips/brush images, just a little well deserved love. Mudbox is so nice in how easy it can be picked up and used (compared to ZBrush´s GUI and methodology) it´s sad that it´s been left out like that. Still, I took the treetrunk example, retopoed, subdivided it to some 50 million polygons by mistake and Mudbox kept itself responsive... Am 01.05.2015 um 01:03 schrieb Tenshi S.: Your right. Few updates in 2016. Less than 4 features and a few bug fixes. For a new version one will expect something more. At least 10 features and 20 bug fixes. =/ On Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 3:00 PM, Tim Leydecker bauero...@gmx.de wrote: Relax. I don´t want to miss the new Relax brush in Mudbox 2016. That´s the only green bracketed (highlight what´s new option = 1) I found sofar. I´m sure there´s more inovations but it´s in another package? Am 30.04.2015 um 21:50 schrieb Mirko Jankovic: well just stay on mudbox 2015 then as well. not like they made anything interesting in 2016 anyway On Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 9:07 PM, Tenshi S. tenshu...@gmail.com wrote: Mudbox to Softimage, It's something i'll miss a lot then, it works really good. Maya to Softimage and viceversa, too. Damn... how the heck they remove this thing? It's really important feature, it saves a lot of time. If they don't want to give us a 2016 version, at least they'll try to put those lines of codes to make it work in the 2015SP2(i hope that's coming?) version. On Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 12:34 AM, Tim Leydecker bauero...@gmx.de wrote: It would be a very welcome functionality, especially when being dealt an old Softimage 2015 along with everything else labeled 2016 as part of a new suite package. In the past, I found it difficult to run differently labeled versions, e.g. Softimage 2012 with Maya 2014 or Mudbox 2014 simultaneously, due to lmtools telling me there´s no license available, that could well be a setup error on my end or a misunderstanding of the suite licensing scheme but if that´s the root of the problem, that Softimage2015 +Mudbox2016 will not easily serve themselves in sharing a (suite)license, then it would be a good time to adress that, too? Cheers, tim Am 30.04.2015 um 06:20 schrieb Raffaele Fragapane: Yeah, I reckon they should add it back in. AD has back pedalled on some minor things like this before, so it might still happen, and it would be a welcome grace to a userbase that has, frankly speaking, already been slighted pretty hard. It certainly won't happen though if part of that user base takes the pessimist approach and claims it never worked, when it did, or because they don't need it assumes other don't either. On Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 12:52 PM, Greg Punchatz g...@janimation.com wrote: It and goZ are huge time savers! Huge! It does seem to me this would fall into the AD should do it I the SPs until the Soft support being promised until 2016 It is just a few lines of code Luc, can you do us old softies a favor and send the request the
Storing edge selection to list in python
Hi guys, Could someone maybe give a pointer on how to solve this little puzzle. I have an some edges selected on an object, i need to store their index's to a list in python and call it back, but i have no clue on how to access the edge id's and write it down. If anyone could help me out here it would be awesome. Cheers, Ogi.
Re: How do you get distance from output camera via a script
Here's one way to do it: http://darkvertex.com/wp/2010/06/05/python-distance-between-2-vectors/ /Jens On Mon, May 4, 2015 at 9:39 PM, Bradley Gabe witha...@gmail.com wrote: Here's the pseudo code -Create 3 vector3 objects -Set the first two to the global transforms of the first 2 scene objects -Set the third vector3 to the subtraction of the first 2 vector objects -Return the length of the third vector3 object Sent from my iPhone On May 4, 2015, at 1:57 PM, Greg Punchatz g...@janimation.com wrote: Hey all we are trying to figure out how to get an objects distance from the camera vis a script. I am not doing the coding but I thought I could help Dave find an answer here.He is neck deep in another script an and he was struggling fining it via the documentation. I thought maybe one of you nice people might be able to point us in the right direction. Thanks Greg -- Jens Lindgren VFX Supervisor Lead TD Magoo 3D Studios http://www.magoo3dstudios.com/
Re: Softimage Blender (1 year later) + MayaLT 2016 ?'s (indie/ game dev centric/ UE4)
I can answer some of the Maya LT related questions: Trax absence is a minus, but overall I'm used to the graph editor, so no big deal. - Some of the deformers are missing, one of them is the cage deformer who I use extensively in Soft and in Maya LT I really miss it...also the delta mush is missing, which is quite a nice addition, but I also notice that in standard Maya its kinda broken, not sure if its only a problem that I have or the model I'm currently working is broken, but it works whenever it feels...strange... I'm currently using Apex Cloth plugin, and it works pretty well...I've used it for both cloth simulation ( takes 5 minutes to setup ) and for hair simulation with good results. Gator is why I currently switch back and forth to Softimage in order to get things done quickly, and the transfering attributes in Maya is a bit annoying, but its there ( not as good as Gator however ). Big problem which currently Maya LT have is the lack of python scripting, which kills the UE4 plugin called ART ( autorigger ) which I use a lot currently and its pretty good. You can of course build or use other rigs, but overall with UE4 I found very easy and quick the rigging process. Cheers 2015-05-05 16:37 GMT+02:00 skuby sku...@gmail.com: Hey yall, long time no see. Thought I would give you guys an over-view of my Softimage transition to Blender, 1 year in. (Been with Softimage for almost 9 years trained at VFS, Before that I was all Maya 6+ dedicated years, then off and on use, before that I was 3DSMax/just starting out). If there is any interest, I can suggest some options/settings/tips/tricks for Blender to help anyone trying to get into it from a Softimage background, just ask, I'm happy to oblige. I also I have some questions about Maya LT 2016 owners at the very end. TLDR: I'm seriously pursuing an independent project in UE4 in my free-time Blender has been pretty awesome, it has shortcomings, has promise, has some stuff that is better than anything out there, it's a mixed bag overall. -Probably going to have to get a Maya LT 2016 subscription very soon (because of the sad state of Blender FBX and reading a litany of eerily similar FBX issues in Houdini which would have been my first choice before Maya), literally going to use Maya as a glorified exporter, otherwise mostly quite happy in Blender!. - Blender FBX/Normals (grade D-) : Current biggest problems with Blender for game dev, is it's pretty horrible custom FBX solution and it's lackluster support (and only recently) for direct control over normals, tangents, bi-normals, etc.. It does have solid SMD export for Valve workshop stuff, but if your focus is on Unity/UE4, expect difficulties frustrations that I suspect will last until late into the year if not much longer. Poly-modeling (B+): A few settings you need to know about, and whalakazam, you get something that is nearly as good as Softimage poly modeling. It even does a few things far better than Softimage ever did, I find it to be far superior to Maya in this category. It has become, and will remain my full-time go to modeling application. (I have fully abandoned Softimage for better or worse) UI/Customizability (A-): It's fully open to customize or extend, and the Blender hot-key system once you learn it, is quite good the default hotkeys aren't even half-bad but they aren't perfect either. There are a plethora of very well done free and paid add-ons. UI seems quirky at first, but once you learn it, you realize it's hiding a lot of power under the hood. UI and Customize-ability is one of Blender's best features *but it's not immediately apparent, and takes reasonable dedication to fully appreciate. It's better than Softimage and Maya on this front (for indie/small studio), however nothing to this day matches Softimages perfected defaults and standard hot-key set and it's near perfect consistency through-out different sections of the system, out of the box, -but surprisingly, Blender is by far, the closest of all to Softimage's elegance even though that is a tall order to fill. Documentation/Tutorials (A+): Mostly Free and a few good paid tutorials, out the wazzzooo. The only software out there that I have used with equal tutorial/community support is Unreal Engine 4. UV's: (C-): Do-able, and the automatic stuff just works a lot better than Maya 2015's when I last tried it. Some fine tune editing works quite well, while a few things related to fine tuning after automatic results, are frustratingly/maddening and time consuming, and that's what drops the entire grade (it would be very difficult to explain in text). I found Softimage to have B+/A- UV features once you mastered it. Sculpting (B+/A-): For raw poly power, it's no ZBrush/Mudbox (Mudbox being my favorite of the two, aka. I hate the ZBrush UI) However, if you follow some specific workflow
Re: Softimage Blender (1 year later) + MayaLT 2016 ?'s (indie/ game dev centric/ UE4)
Thank you for taking the time, I'm still in xsi and will probably stay there for another 2-3 years before making a choice. This info is interesting as realtime is getting more important. The thing I'd be interested in case you have run into it in is how blender handles huge amounts of objects and curves. (10k+) which is the only thing that has ever bothered me in xsi. Think for example landscape data with tons of curves. thank you, Fabian On 5 May 2015 at 16:37, skuby sku...@gmail.com wrote: Hey yall, long time no see. Thought I would give you guys an over-view of my Softimage transition to Blender, 1 year in. (Been with Softimage for almost 9 years trained at VFS, Before that I was all Maya 6+ dedicated years, then off and on use, before that I was 3DSMax/just starting out). If there is any interest, I can suggest some options/settings/tips/tricks for Blender to help anyone trying to get into it from a Softimage background, just ask, I'm happy to oblige. I also I have some questions about Maya LT 2016 owners at the very end. TLDR: I'm seriously pursuing an independent project in UE4 in my free-time Blender has been pretty awesome, it has shortcomings, has promise, has some stuff that is better than anything out there, it's a mixed bag overall. -Probably going to have to get a Maya LT 2016 subscription very soon (because of the sad state of Blender FBX and reading a litany of eerily similar FBX issues in Houdini which would have been my first choice before Maya), literally going to use Maya as a glorified exporter, otherwise mostly quite happy in Blender!. - Blender FBX/Normals (grade D-) : Current biggest problems with Blender for game dev, is it's pretty horrible custom FBX solution and it's lackluster support (and only recently) for direct control over normals, tangents, bi-normals, etc.. It does have solid SMD export for Valve workshop stuff, but if your focus is on Unity/UE4, expect difficulties frustrations that I suspect will last until late into the year if not much longer. Poly-modeling (B+): A few settings you need to know about, and whalakazam, you get something that is nearly as good as Softimage poly modeling. It even does a few things far better than Softimage ever did, I find it to be far superior to Maya in this category. It has become, and will remain my full-time go to modeling application. (I have fully abandoned Softimage for better or worse) UI/Customizability (A-): It's fully open to customize or extend, and the Blender hot-key system once you learn it, is quite good the default hotkeys aren't even half-bad but they aren't perfect either. There are a plethora of very well done free and paid add-ons. UI seems quirky at first, but once you learn it, you realize it's hiding a lot of power under the hood. UI and Customize-ability is one of Blender's best features *but it's not immediately apparent, and takes reasonable dedication to fully appreciate. It's better than Softimage and Maya on this front (for indie/small studio), however nothing to this day matches Softimages perfected defaults and standard hot-key set and it's near perfect consistency through-out different sections of the system, out of the box, -but surprisingly, Blender is by far, the closest of all to Softimage's elegance even though that is a tall order to fill. Documentation/Tutorials (A+): Mostly Free and a few good paid tutorials, out the wazzzooo. The only software out there that I have used with equal tutorial/community support is Unreal Engine 4. UV's: (C-): Do-able, and the automatic stuff just works a lot better than Maya 2015's when I last tried it. Some fine tune editing works quite well, while a few things related to fine tuning after automatic results, are frustratingly/maddening and time consuming, and that's what drops the entire grade (it would be very difficult to explain in text). I found Softimage to have B+/A- UV features once you mastered it. Sculpting (B+/A-): For raw poly power, it's no ZBrush/Mudbox (Mudbox being my favorite of the two, aka. I hate the ZBrush UI) However, if you follow some specific workflow guidelines, Blender has quite an amazing sculpting tool-set and so far it is my favorite sculpting package overall because of the ability to go back and forth between low-res base mesh poly-modeling and right back to sculpting detail and or proto-typing. Two types of sculpting, traditional for normal map/displacement/finished work and another type for rapid proto-typing, that allows you to create/collapse geometry on the fly, so you can proto-sculpt infinitely without caring 1 bit about the underlying mesh as it will create or delete geo as needed. Has all your standard base brush needs, can make most any brush, some limitations but minor and I only have 1 single sculpting add-on for Boolean cuts which works nicely, I've seen many,
Re: Softimage Blender (1 year later) + MayaLT 2016 ?'s (indie/ game dev centric/ UE4)
Dude, Nicolas. Thank you so much! Fabian. Honestly, I have no idea I would just be guessing. Feel free to send me a scene in .fbx and I will try it and see if I can come to any opinion on the performance. On Tue, May 5, 2015 at 9:57 PM, Nicolas Esposito 3dv...@gmail.com wrote: I can answer some of the Maya LT related questions: Trax absence is a minus, but overall I'm used to the graph editor, so no big deal. - Some of the deformers are missing, one of them is the cage deformer who I use extensively in Soft and in Maya LT I really miss it...also the delta mush is missing, which is quite a nice addition, but I also notice that in standard Maya its kinda broken, not sure if its only a problem that I have or the model I'm currently working is broken, but it works whenever it feels...strange... I'm currently using Apex Cloth plugin, and it works pretty well...I've used it for both cloth simulation ( takes 5 minutes to setup ) and for hair simulation with good results. Gator is why I currently switch back and forth to Softimage in order to get things done quickly, and the transfering attributes in Maya is a bit annoying, but its there ( not as good as Gator however ). Big problem which currently Maya LT have is the lack of python scripting, which kills the UE4 plugin called ART ( autorigger ) which I use a lot currently and its pretty good. You can of course build or use other rigs, but overall with UE4 I found very easy and quick the rigging process. Cheers 2015-05-05 16:37 GMT+02:00 skuby sku...@gmail.com: Hey yall, long time no see. Thought I would give you guys an over-view of my Softimage transition to Blender, 1 year in. (Been with Softimage for almost 9 years trained at VFS, Before that I was all Maya 6+ dedicated years, then off and on use, before that I was 3DSMax/just starting out). If there is any interest, I can suggest some options/settings/tips/tricks for Blender to help anyone trying to get into it from a Softimage background, just ask, I'm happy to oblige. I also I have some questions about Maya LT 2016 owners at the very end. TLDR: I'm seriously pursuing an independent project in UE4 in my free-time Blender has been pretty awesome, it has shortcomings, has promise, has some stuff that is better than anything out there, it's a mixed bag overall. -Probably going to have to get a Maya LT 2016 subscription very soon (because of the sad state of Blender FBX and reading a litany of eerily similar FBX issues in Houdini which would have been my first choice before Maya), literally going to use Maya as a glorified exporter, otherwise mostly quite happy in Blender!. - Blender FBX/Normals (grade D-) : Current biggest problems with Blender for game dev, is it's pretty horrible custom FBX solution and it's lackluster support (and only recently) for direct control over normals, tangents, bi-normals, etc.. It does have solid SMD export for Valve workshop stuff, but if your focus is on Unity/UE4, expect difficulties frustrations that I suspect will last until late into the year if not much longer. Poly-modeling (B+): A few settings you need to know about, and whalakazam, you get something that is nearly as good as Softimage poly modeling. It even does a few things far better than Softimage ever did, I find it to be far superior to Maya in this category. It has become, and will remain my full-time go to modeling application. (I have fully abandoned Softimage for better or worse) UI/Customizability (A-): It's fully open to customize or extend, and the Blender hot-key system once you learn it, is quite good the default hotkeys aren't even half-bad but they aren't perfect either. There are a plethora of very well done free and paid add-ons. UI seems quirky at first, but once you learn it, you realize it's hiding a lot of power under the hood. UI and Customize-ability is one of Blender's best features *but it's not immediately apparent, and takes reasonable dedication to fully appreciate. It's better than Softimage and Maya on this front (for indie/small studio), however nothing to this day matches Softimages perfected defaults and standard hot-key set and it's near perfect consistency through-out different sections of the system, out of the box, -but surprisingly, Blender is by far, the closest of all to Softimage's elegance even though that is a tall order to fill. Documentation/Tutorials (A+): Mostly Free and a few good paid tutorials, out the wazzzooo. The only software out there that I have used with equal tutorial/community support is Unreal Engine 4. UV's: (C-): Do-able, and the automatic stuff just works a lot better than Maya 2015's when I last tried it. Some fine tune editing works quite well, while a few things related to fine tuning after automatic results, are frustratingly/maddening and time consuming, and that's what drops the
Softimage Blender (1 year later) + MayaLT 2016 ?'s (indie/ game dev centric/ UE4)
Hey yall, long time no see. Thought I would give you guys an over-view of my Softimage transition to Blender, 1 year in. (Been with Softimage for almost 9 years trained at VFS, Before that I was all Maya 6+ dedicated years, then off and on use, before that I was 3DSMax/just starting out). If there is any interest, I can suggest some options/settings/tips/tricks for Blender to help anyone trying to get into it from a Softimage background, just ask, I'm happy to oblige. I also I have some questions about Maya LT 2016 owners at the very end. TLDR: I'm seriously pursuing an independent project in UE4 in my free-time Blender has been pretty awesome, it has shortcomings, has promise, has some stuff that is better than anything out there, it's a mixed bag overall. -Probably going to have to get a Maya LT 2016 subscription very soon (because of the sad state of Blender FBX and reading a litany of eerily similar FBX issues in Houdini which would have been my first choice before Maya), literally going to use Maya as a glorified exporter, otherwise mostly quite happy in Blender!. - Blender FBX/Normals (grade D-) : Current biggest problems with Blender for game dev, is it's pretty horrible custom FBX solution and it's lackluster support (and only recently) for direct control over normals, tangents, bi-normals, etc.. It does have solid SMD export for Valve workshop stuff, but if your focus is on Unity/UE4, expect difficulties frustrations that I suspect will last until late into the year if not much longer. Poly-modeling (B+): A few settings you need to know about, and whalakazam, you get something that is nearly as good as Softimage poly modeling. It even does a few things far better than Softimage ever did, I find it to be far superior to Maya in this category. It has become, and will remain my full-time go to modeling application. (I have fully abandoned Softimage for better or worse) UI/Customizability (A-): It's fully open to customize or extend, and the Blender hot-key system once you learn it, is quite good the default hotkeys aren't even half-bad but they aren't perfect either. There are a plethora of very well done free and paid add-ons. UI seems quirky at first, but once you learn it, you realize it's hiding a lot of power under the hood. UI and Customize-ability is one of Blender's best features *but it's not immediately apparent, and takes reasonable dedication to fully appreciate. It's better than Softimage and Maya on this front (for indie/small studio), however nothing to this day matches Softimages perfected defaults and standard hot-key set and it's near perfect consistency through-out different sections of the system, out of the box, -but surprisingly, Blender is by far, the closest of all to Softimage's elegance even though that is a tall order to fill. Documentation/Tutorials (A+): Mostly Free and a few good paid tutorials, out the wazzzooo. The only software out there that I have used with equal tutorial/community support is Unreal Engine 4. UV's: (C-): Do-able, and the automatic stuff just works a lot better than Maya 2015's when I last tried it. Some fine tune editing works quite well, while a few things related to fine tuning after automatic results, are frustratingly/maddening and time consuming, and that's what drops the entire grade (it would be very difficult to explain in text). I found Softimage to have B+/A- UV features once you mastered it. Sculpting (B+/A-): For raw poly power, it's no ZBrush/Mudbox (Mudbox being my favorite of the two, aka. I hate the ZBrush UI) However, if you follow some specific workflow guidelines, Blender has quite an amazing sculpting tool-set and so far it is my favorite sculpting package overall because of the ability to go back and forth between low-res base mesh poly-modeling and right back to sculpting detail and or proto-typing. Two types of sculpting, traditional for normal map/displacement/finished work and another type for rapid proto-typing, that allows you to create/collapse geometry on the fly, so you can proto-sculpt infinitely without caring 1 bit about the underlying mesh as it will create or delete geo as needed. Has all your standard base brush needs, can make most any brush, some limitations but minor and I only have 1 single sculpting add-on for Boolean cuts which works nicely, I've seen many, quite nice looking sculpting add-ons that I haven't yet explored, it's deep and it's being actively developed. Texture Painting (B+/A- to use but quirky to learn): First time setup is a bit to learn, but once you figure it out, you get VERY nice easy to work with multi-layered texture painting, full pressure sensitive painting support / basic but reasonable default brush library and good brush settings available for each, can paint into any map slot you like with multiple layers. Animation/Rigging/Blend Shapes(D-/A- great in it's own right but needs FBX/etc.
Re: Storing edge selection to list in python
si = Application log = LogMessage sel = si.Selection if sel.Count 0: if SubComponent in sel(0).Type: log(list(sel(0).SubComponent.ElementArray)) On Tuesday, May 05, 2015 10:03:11 AM, Ognjen Vukovic wrote: Hi guys, Could someone maybe give a pointer on how to solve this little puzzle. I have an some edges selected on an object, i need to store their index's to a list in python and call it back, but i have no clue on how to access the edge id's and write it down. If anyone could help me out here it would be awesome. Cheers, Ogi.
Re: Forcing Softimage to evaluate its graph in a batch session
Thanks Jason. Yeah that is interesting information. I had already figured that part out though (see my response to Renaud). It is very neat though to see it all described in detail. We're now having this weird issue of splice not being able to pull ice attributes when forced to evaluate this way. I will report back here once I have that sorted out. On Tue, May 5, 2015 at 8:31 PM, Jason S jasonsta...@gmail.com wrote: On 05/05/15 9:15, Leonard Koch wrote: We're running splice in Softimage to render out a pointcloud using a renderer written in KL. Sounds cool! Would this help? (see related tip) from here: http://softimage.wiki.softimage.com/index.php?title=Custom_Operators_%28XSISDK%29#Forcing_an_operator_to_update Forcing an operator to update A common scripting problem is that a scene that works well in the UI may not work properly when processed via a script, especially when running in batch mode. This happens most frequently when dealing with simulation situations such as Syflex, Hair, Particles or export of animation or with Custom Operators. The reason is because XSI is highly optimized and does not call the update method of an operator unless something pulls the objects that the operator outputs too. In other words, XSI does not generate data unless it is asked for. This *pull* often occurs when the object is drawn on the screen because XSI wants to determine the exact accurate visual representation of the script. The result is that an operator may have its inputs changed, which puts it into a *dirty* state, but not automatically update itself. Fortunately XSI is not dependent on its UI, so other scenarios, including the SDK and rendering can also cause a pull of the scene graph. For example if an operator modifies the geometry of an object, then any SDK code that retrieves the geometry will provoke the necessary Updates. So a script that wishes to perform some sort of batch simulation or animation export should be sure to access the affected objects using the SDK at each frame change. *Related Tip: *Some custom operators that run simulations need to be dirty each time the frame position changes. Use the CustomOperator.AlwaysEvaluate property to establish this behavior. (The older workaround was animate a parameter of the operator. This parameter could be hidden and just served the purpose of making the operator dirty at each frame) On 05/05/15 9:15, Leonard Koch wrote: We're running splice in Softimage to render out a pointcloud using a renderer written in KL. So the renderer lives in an operator on the pointcloud. When we open this scene using xsibatch the splice operator doesn't get evaluated. Just like any other part of the scene wouldn't. Because it doesn't have to, because it isn't displayed anywhere. Is there a way to force softimage to evaluate its graph without a viewport? Would really appreciate some input on this. Thanks! -Leonard
Re: Forcing Softimage to evaluate its graph in a batch session
Yeah, we had the same problem but for us it was for rendering. We had put our SpliceOp on a Null and since Arnold was never pulling the null data, the operator was never evaluated and it didn't render. So we put the Splice Op on a mesh, a very tiny sphere that was being passed to Arnold so the SpliceOp was then evaluated. That worked for us, but I've been wondering if there's a better way to force the evaluation of the SpliceOp in Batch mode. Let us know if you find anything better, but you could try something like that. Put the SpliceOp on an object and force a render of that object (render a temporary black frame if you need to) and that will pull the SpliceOp evaluation and do what you want it to do. It's not the most elegant solution, but it's an idea worth trying I think. -Mathieu On 05/05/2015 6:04 PM, Leonard Koch wrote: Thanks Jason. Yeah that is interesting information. I had already figured that part out though (see my response to Renaud). It is very neat though to see it all described in detail. We're now having this weird issue of splice not being able to pull ice attributes when forced to evaluate this way. I will report back here once I have that sorted out. On Tue, May 5, 2015 at 8:31 PM, Jason S jasonsta...@gmail.com mailto:jasonsta...@gmail.com wrote: On 05/05/15 9:15, Leonard Koch wrote: We're running splice in Softimage to render out a pointcloud using a renderer written in KL. Sounds cool! Would this help? (see related tip) from here: http://softimage.wiki.softimage.com/index.php?title=Custom_Operators_%28XSISDK%29#Forcing_an_operator_to_update Forcing an operator to update A common scripting problem is that a scene that works well in the UI may not work properly when processed via a script, especially when running in batch mode. This happens most frequently when dealing with simulation situations such as Syflex, Hair, Particles or export of animation or with Custom Operators. The reason is because XSI is highly optimized and does not call the update method of an operator unless something pulls the objects that the operator outputs too. In other words, XSI does not generate data unless it is asked for. This /pull/ often occurs when the object is drawn on the screen because XSI wants to determine the exact accurate visual representation of the script. The result is that an operator may have its inputs changed, which puts it into a /dirty/ state, but not automatically update itself. Fortunately XSI is not dependent on its UI, so other scenarios, including the SDK and rendering can also cause a pull of the scene graph. For example if an operator modifies the geometry of an object, then any SDK code that retrieves the geometry will provoke the necessary Updates. So a script that wishes to perform some sort of batch simulation or animation export should be sure to access the affected objects using the SDK at each frame change. *Related Tip: *Some custom operators that run simulations need to be dirty each time the frame position changes. Use the CustomOperator.AlwaysEvaluate property to establish this behavior. (The older workaround was animate a parameter of the operator. This parameter could be hidden and just served the purpose of making the operator dirty at each frame) On 05/05/15 9:15, Leonard Koch wrote: We're running splice in Softimage to render out a pointcloud using a renderer written in KL. So the renderer lives in an operator on the pointcloud. When we open this scene using xsibatch the splice operator doesn't get evaluated. Just like any other part of the scene wouldn't. Because it doesn't have to, because it isn't displayed anywhere. Is there a way to force softimage to evaluate its graph without a viewport? Would really appreciate some input on this. Thanks! -Leonard
Re: Softimage Blender (1 year later) + MayaLT 2016 ?'s (indie/ game dev centric/ UE4)
Fabian. I remembered this here for nature stuff (I have no experience with it but that might give you some ideas on large/nature scenes) http://thenatureacademy.blenderguru.com/sp/7612-the-nature-academy-live-now Also, less nature specific, but creating/editing curves in blender isn't great atm, it works but it's not great ( you start with a default s curve and have to edit it, no drawing points ). Animating along a path I think works fine. However, extruding/lofting along a curve in Blender is a complete mess, just fyi. I finally got it to work months back when I was learning, it's implemented really weirdly. I don't like how it works at all, it's just odd and cumbersome and seems like something they just haven't gotten around to updating in a long while. There maybe be separate modeling add-ons that do a better job for lofting/extruding along a curve. It's not a feature that I use all of the time, but it's annoying when-ever it comes up. On Tue, May 5, 2015 at 10:25 PM, skuby sku...@gmail.com wrote: Dude, Nicolas. Thank you so much! Fabian. Honestly, I have no idea I would just be guessing. Feel free to send me a scene in .fbx and I will try it and see if I can come to any opinion on the performance. On Tue, May 5, 2015 at 9:57 PM, Nicolas Esposito 3dv...@gmail.com wrote: I can answer some of the Maya LT related questions: Trax absence is a minus, but overall I'm used to the graph editor, so no big deal. - Some of the deformers are missing, one of them is the cage deformer who I use extensively in Soft and in Maya LT I really miss it...also the delta mush is missing, which is quite a nice addition, but I also notice that in standard Maya its kinda broken, not sure if its only a problem that I have or the model I'm currently working is broken, but it works whenever it feels...strange... I'm currently using Apex Cloth plugin, and it works pretty well...I've used it for both cloth simulation ( takes 5 minutes to setup ) and for hair simulation with good results. Gator is why I currently switch back and forth to Softimage in order to get things done quickly, and the transfering attributes in Maya is a bit annoying, but its there ( not as good as Gator however ). Big problem which currently Maya LT have is the lack of python scripting, which kills the UE4 plugin called ART ( autorigger ) which I use a lot currently and its pretty good. You can of course build or use other rigs, but overall with UE4 I found very easy and quick the rigging process. Cheers 2015-05-05 16:37 GMT+02:00 skuby sku...@gmail.com: Hey yall, long time no see. Thought I would give you guys an over-view of my Softimage transition to Blender, 1 year in. (Been with Softimage for almost 9 years trained at VFS, Before that I was all Maya 6+ dedicated years, then off and on use, before that I was 3DSMax/just starting out). If there is any interest, I can suggest some options/settings/tips/tricks for Blender to help anyone trying to get into it from a Softimage background, just ask, I'm happy to oblige. I also I have some questions about Maya LT 2016 owners at the very end. TLDR: I'm seriously pursuing an independent project in UE4 in my free-time Blender has been pretty awesome, it has shortcomings, has promise, has some stuff that is better than anything out there, it's a mixed bag overall. -Probably going to have to get a Maya LT 2016 subscription very soon (because of the sad state of Blender FBX and reading a litany of eerily similar FBX issues in Houdini which would have been my first choice before Maya), literally going to use Maya as a glorified exporter, otherwise mostly quite happy in Blender!. - Blender FBX/Normals (grade D-) : Current biggest problems with Blender for game dev, is it's pretty horrible custom FBX solution and it's lackluster support (and only recently) for direct control over normals, tangents, bi-normals, etc.. It does have solid SMD export for Valve workshop stuff, but if your focus is on Unity/UE4, expect difficulties frustrations that I suspect will last until late into the year if not much longer. Poly-modeling (B+): A few settings you need to know about, and whalakazam, you get something that is nearly as good as Softimage poly modeling. It even does a few things far better than Softimage ever did, I find it to be far superior to Maya in this category. It has become, and will remain my full-time go to modeling application. (I have fully abandoned Softimage for better or worse) UI/Customizability (A-): It's fully open to customize or extend, and the Blender hot-key system once you learn it, is quite good the default hotkeys aren't even half-bad but they aren't perfect either. There are a plethora of very well done free and paid add-ons. UI seems quirky at first, but once you learn it, you realize it's hiding a lot of power under the hood. UI and
Re: Softimage Icon Removed from Mudbox?
I've manually fixed this in the past with version mis-matches. C:\Users\All Users\Autodesk\Synergy\. Somewhere in there you'll find editable files that are in ascii. It might take a little trial and error, but last I remember I figured the whole thing out and had it working in 10 minutes. that got like a 2013/14 version of Soft sending/recieving to a 2015 version mb/ -something like that, been a while and I dont' have any of the apps handy on this machine to give perfect instructions. You will probably have an easier time if you have an old MB 2014/2015 install which you can refer to / copy/pasta bits from. -pretty confident you could get this working somehow if you really wanted On Fri, May 1, 2015 at 10:44 PM, Tenshi S. tenshu...@gmail.com wrote: I think Mudbox will be better with a tool like Zspheres, when they put a solution like that to create the base for models, i'll be more than happy; because Mudbox it's easy and most of the tools necessary are there. More brushes and presets are welcome, too. On Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 7:17 PM, Tim Leydecker bauero...@gmx.de wrote: a 1:1 copy of some of the best ZBrush brushes (dam standard springs to mind) would have been nice, something ZBrush Dynamesh as a surprise extension, too. How about some new presets, some vector tooltips/brush images, just a little well deserved love. Mudbox is so nice in how easy it can be picked up and used (compared to ZBrush´s GUI and methodology) it´s sad that it´s been left out like that. Still, I took the treetrunk example, retopoed, subdivided it to some 50 million polygons by mistake and Mudbox kept itself responsive... Am 01.05.2015 um 01:03 schrieb Tenshi S.: Your right. Few updates in 2016. Less than 4 features and a few bug fixes. For a new version one will expect something more. At least 10 features and 20 bug fixes. =/ On Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 3:00 PM, Tim Leydecker bauero...@gmx.de wrote: Relax. I don´t want to miss the new Relax brush in Mudbox 2016. That´s the only green bracketed (highlight what´s new option = 1) I found sofar. I´m sure there´s more inovations but it´s in another package? Am 30.04.2015 um 21:50 schrieb Mirko Jankovic: well just stay on mudbox 2015 then as well. not like they made anything interesting in 2016 anyway On Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 9:07 PM, Tenshi S. tenshu...@gmail.com wrote: Mudbox to Softimage, It's something i'll miss a lot then, it works really good. Maya to Softimage and viceversa, too. Damn... how the heck they remove this thing? It's really important feature, it saves a lot of time. If they don't want to give us a 2016 version, at least they'll try to put those lines of codes to make it work in the 2015SP2(i hope that's coming?) version. On Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 12:34 AM, Tim Leydecker bauero...@gmx.de wrote: It would be a very welcome functionality, especially when being dealt an old Softimage 2015 along with everything else labeled 2016 as part of a new suite package. In the past, I found it difficult to run differently labeled versions, e.g. Softimage 2012 with Maya 2014 or Mudbox 2014 simultaneously, due to lmtools telling me there´s no license available, that could well be a setup error on my end or a misunderstanding of the suite licensing scheme but if that´s the root of the problem, that Softimage2015 +Mudbox2016 will not easily serve themselves in sharing a (suite)license, then it would be a good time to adress that, too? Cheers, tim Am 30.04.2015 um 06:20 schrieb Raffaele Fragapane: Yeah, I reckon they should add it back in. AD has back pedalled on some minor things like this before, so it might still happen, and it would be a welcome grace to a userbase that has, frankly speaking, already been slighted pretty hard. It certainly won't happen though if part of that user base takes the pessimist approach and claims it never worked, when it did, or because they don't need it assumes other don't either. On Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 12:52 PM, Greg Punchatz g...@janimation.com wrote: It and goZ are huge time savers! Huge! It does seem to me this would fall into the AD should do it I the SPs until the Soft support being promised until 2016 It is just a few lines of code Luc, can you do us old softies a favor and send the request the send up the ranks to send to apps back in? Did Maya and Max lose their send to soft connections too? I think we are in our right to ask for this small gesture from AD Thanks for listening Luc... I know there is nothing you can promise, but give it a shot for those of us you used to your clients. g Sent from my iPhone
Re: Forcing Softimage to evaluate its graph in a batch session
On 05/05/15 9:15, Leonard Koch wrote: We're running splice in Softimage to render out a pointcloud using a renderer written in KL. Sounds cool! Would this help? (see related tip) from here: http://softimage.wiki.softimage.com/index.php?title=Custom_Operators_%28XSISDK%29#Forcing_an_operator_to_update Forcing an operator to update A common scripting problem is that a scene that works well in the UI may not work properly when processed via a script, especially when running in batch mode. This happens most frequently when dealing with simulation situations such as Syflex, Hair, Particles or export of animation or with Custom Operators. The reason is because XSI is highly optimized and does not call the update method of an operator unless something "pulls" the objects that the operator outputs too. In other words, XSI does not generate data unless it is asked for. This pull often occurs when the object is drawn on the screen because XSI wants to determine the exact accurate visual representation of the script. The result is that an operator may have its inputs changed, which puts it into a dirty state, but not automatically update itself. Fortunately XSI is not dependent on its UI, so other scenarios, including the SDK and rendering can also cause a "pull of the scene graph". For example if an operator modifies the geometry of an object, then any SDK code that retrieves the geometry will provoke the necessary Updates. So a script that wishes to perform some sort of batch simulation or animation export should be sure to access the affected objects using the SDK at each frame change. Related Tip: Some custom operators that run simulations need to be dirty each time the frame position changes. Use the CustomOperator.AlwaysEvaluate property to establish this behavior. (The older workaround was animate a parameter of the operator. This parameter could be hidden and just served the purpose of making the operator dirty at each frame) On 05/05/15 9:15, Leonard Koch wrote: We're running splice in Softimage to render out a pointcloud using a renderer written in KL. So the renderer lives in an operator on the pointcloud. When we open this scene using xsibatch the splice operator doesn't get evaluated. Just like any other part of the scene wouldn't. Because it doesn't have to, because it isn't displayed anywhere. Is there a way to force softimage to evaluate its graph without a viewport? Would really appreciate some input on this. Thanks! -Leonard
Re: OT: DAT showreel 2015
Very nice reel! congratulations for your work. F. On Monday, May 4, 2015, Fabricio Chamon xsiml...@gmail.com wrote: Great reel Ivan!! Keep up the good work Em segunda-feira, 4 de maio de 2015, Ivan Vasiljevic klebed...@gmail.com javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','klebed...@gmail.com'); escreveu: Hi guys, Sorry for this off topic. This is our first show reel ever! :) So I wanted to post it here, plenty of SI works... http://digitalassettailors.com/portfolio/showreel-2015/ We will be at FMX this year, so if anybody wants to chat with us let me know! Best. Ivan -- Ivan Vasiljevic - Lighting TD Founder, Digital Asset Tailors - web:http://digitalassettailors.com/ email: i...@digitalassettailors.com -- Sent from Gmail Mobile
