Re: Bifrost graph - Really trying but it's not happening

[Ben Beckett]

Houdini works why waste your time

On Tue, 18 Feb 2020 at 20:59, Ben Beckett  wrote:

> Hi
>
> Why do you just make it work like Naiad that worked perfectly
>
> Please
>
> Something is defo wrong now
>
> On Tue, 18 Feb 2020 at 20:36, Jonah Friedman  wrote:
>
>> Hi Chris, I'm the Product Owner of the Bifrost graph. I'd be happy to
>> answer any questions about it. What specifically are you trying to do?
>>
>> The graph is different from ICE in several ways, but it's very open and
>> very powerful.
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 18, 2020 at 4:16 AM Chris Marshall 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> OK So is Bifrost graph years away from getting close to ICE or am I
>>> missing something?
>>> I really am trying to figure it out, but either I'm doing something
>>> wrong or it's very very limited.
>>> Anyone got anywhere with it?
>>> Thanks
>>> Chris
>>>
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>>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>>
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Re: Bifrost graph - Really trying but it's not happening

[Ben Beckett]

Hi

Why do you just make it work like Naiad that worked perfectly

Please

Something is defo wrong now

On Tue, 18 Feb 2020 at 20:36, Jonah Friedman  wrote:

> Hi Chris, I'm the Product Owner of the Bifrost graph. I'd be happy to
> answer any questions about it. What specifically are you trying to do?
>
> The graph is different from ICE in several ways, but it's very open and
> very powerful.
>
> On Tue, Feb 18, 2020 at 4:16 AM Chris Marshall 
> wrote:
>
>> OK So is Bifrost graph years away from getting close to ICE or am I
>> missing something?
>> I really am trying to figure it out, but either I'm doing something wrong
>> or it's very very limited.
>> Anyone got anywhere with it?
>> Thanks
>> Chris
>>
>> --
>> Softimage Mailing List.
>> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>
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Re: [Maya] Spring equivalent?

[Ben Beckett]

Hi David

Hair curves driving a bone chain.

Ben

On Tue, 28 Jan 2020 at 08:00, David Saber  wrote:

> Hey all, I hope you are still alive and kicking!!
>
> I'd like to know what's the Maya equivalent for Softimage's springs? To
> animate follow through on joints?
>
> Thanks!
>
> David
>
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Re: who's busy

[Ben Beckett]

Get him to contact David at animated people, or Simon Percy at Darkside
animation

On 22 September 2017 at 14:17, Chris Marshall 
wrote:

> I should also mention he's previously worked in TV motion graphics, so has
> a number of years experience in the industry. He took a year out to do the
> MA and wanted to move to London.
> Cheers
>
>
> On 22 September 2017 at 14:16, Chris Marshall 
> wrote:
>
>> Hi All,
>> I'm trying to help a young guy who was one of my students when I ran the
>> VFX MA in University of South Wales last year. He's just moved to London is
>> desperately looking for a break into the industry. He's very capable on
>> Nuke and After effects and is looking for any roto type work to get him
>> some experience. So does anyone know who might be hiring at the moment?
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Chris
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Chris Marshall
> Mint Motion Limited
> 029 20 37 27 57
> 07730 533 115
> www.mintmotion.co.uk
> www.dot3d.com
>
>
>
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Re: Using Agile Scrum in vfx production

[Ben Beckett]

Its defiantly assumes we don't mind working weekends!

On 6 January 2017 at 17:06, Marc-Andre Carbonneau <
marc-andre.carbonn...@ubisoft.com> wrote:

> Oh and I know Jira looks very ugly to artists but you can customize it to
> make it work and "look" the way you want.
> ;)
>
> -Original Message-
> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-bounces@
> listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Marc-Andre Carbonneau
> Sent: January-06-17 11:45 AM
> To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List. https://groups.google.com/
> forum/#!forum/xsi_list 
> Subject: RE: Using Agile Scrum in vfx production
>
> I don't believe this was mentionned yet but Jira from Atlassian is a very
> good task tracking tool and has all the Agile methodology implemented
> (Kabaan waterfalls, Agile etc...) and about 3 years ago, Shotgun
> implemented a way to talk to Jira. Might be worth checking it out. Haven't
> tested myself yet and now I can't find it on Shotgun's website... :S
>
> MAC
>
> -Original Message-
> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-bounces@
> listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Maurice Patel
> Sent: January-05-17 1:40 PM
> To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List. https://groups.google.com/
> forum/#!forum/xsi_list 
> Subject: RE: Using Agile Scrum in vfx production
>
> It is hard to say - it is whatever tools work best for you and your team
> to understand the scope of the backlog. It could well be a whiteboard that
> you update every meeting to start. I'd at least start there for a few
> tests. Once you get an understanding for it and feel it works you can
> formalize it with some digital tools. This is actually not really the hard
> part of agile.
>
> There are a few other things to take into consideration when implementing
> agile:
> - How ready is the team to change the way they work? If the team is
> hierarchical or you have team leaders who very much want to be in control
> (micromanage) it is going to take a cultural shift in the team before agile
> can be successful
> - How good is the team at scoping work? The better you are at that the
> easier it is to migrate to agile methods
>
> Scrum works well when everyone is aligned as to what needs to get done its
> priority and its effort. The meeting than can focus on impediments and
> resolving them. This is the real value of agile the continual course
> correction that can happen on a daily basis. But its only effective if
> everyone has a voice and everyone has a common if understanding on terms
> and scope. Agile works badly if you spend the entire meeting discussing how
> long it takes to do each task.
>
> You also need a strong scrum master to keep meetings on track (they are
> facilitators not managers but they need to be empowered) and the product
> owner (vfx sup) needs to understand their role is not to micromanage or
> even to direct the scrum but to provide guidance on what needs to be done.
> So team dynamics are pretty critical here. The product owner defines what
> needs to be done - the scrum team figures out how much it can do and how it
> needs to be done.
>
> You will have to go through several sprints before you can figure out
> exactly how much can be done realistically and whether you are scoping
> correctly.
>
> The challenge is that agile is a means of fast iteration and collaboration
> - but to work you actually need to establish some things well in advance -
> such as methods of scoping and prioritizing work. Agile methods can provide
> tools for that too - such as epics and stories that are used to define the
> importance of a feature set - but you can use your own. An important thing
> to consider is ROI of work. Although it is impossible to actually quantify
> you typically need some way of establishing the value of different types of
> work. Having a good knowledge of the priority, effort and ROI of every item
> in the backlog leads for much easier discussions
>
> Maurice Patel
> Tél:  514 954-7134
> Cell: 514 242-6549
>
> -Original Message-
> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-bounces@
> listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of javier gonzalez
> Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2017 12:43 PM
> To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List. https://groups.google.com/
> forum/#!forum/xsi_list 
> Subject: Re: Using Agile Scrum in vfx production
>
> About the implementation,  its better a simple white board for the kanban
> board or use some agile tools for this and to calculate a burndown chart
> etc?
> Thank for the link maurice, i think i will ask to some software
> development friends.
>
> 2017-01-05 11:42 GMT-05:00, Maurice Patel :
> > It is an interesting article and as pointed out VFX shares a lot of
> > commonality with the problems faced in software development where
> > iterations, ‘feature creep,’ the subjective nature of 

Re: Maya Help (Legacy Particles)

[Ben Beckett]

Thank you Ben

On 6 December 2016 at 15:06, Ben Barker <ben.bar...@gmail.com> wrote:

> It's been awhile for me but I believe you can use a per-particle age
> attribute, (agePP maybe?) to check the age of the particle in your
> expression.
>
> From there you can do a few things to apply the force. You could manually
> read/add the force inside the runtime expression rather than connecting the
> force. You could simply add velocity purely in the expression (ease of this
> depends on the force you want to emulate). Or Maya also has this somewhat
> dirty feature where if you give the particle a PP attribute with the
> correct name it will allow you to control field magnitude inside the
> expression on a PP basis:
>
> https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/
> cloudhelp/2017/ENU/Maya/files/GUID-CFEFD7A0-0236-4CE9-8C71-
> B7A94C7C1E7D-htm.html
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 6, 2016 at 9:08 AM, Ben Beckett <nebbeck...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I would love to do it in ice but if I leave no one can fix it, not that
>> any one can use Maya particles there any way!
>>
>> On 6 December 2016 at 13:17, Rob Wuijster <r...@casema.nl> wrote:
>>
>>> Just do it in ICE, and forget about the Maya legacy stuff. It's a
>>> unworkable system, keen on afflicting massive headaches..
>>>
>>> Or just grab Houdini ;-)
>>>
>>> Rob
>>>
>>> \/-\/\/
>>>
>>> On 6-12-2016 14:03, Ben Beckett wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi all
>>>
>>> Easy to do in ice and any other software, but particles in Maya is nuts.
>>>
>>> All I want to do is birth spheres from a objects surface (easy), But
>>> then have them grow a bit (scale up) and then on a "per particle basis"
>>> when they get to a certain size move away from there position of birth with
>>> a force.
>>>
>>> In ice I would of done it with a state machine, any thing like that in
>>> maya.
>>>
>>> Its like a alka seltzer effects.
>>>
>>> Any help would be great!
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> Ben
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Softimage Mailing List.
>>> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com with 
>>> "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
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>>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
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Re: Maya Help (Legacy Particles)

[Ben Beckett]

I would love to do it in ice but if I leave no one can fix it, not that any
one can use Maya particles there any way!

On 6 December 2016 at 13:17, Rob Wuijster <r...@casema.nl> wrote:

> Just do it in ICE, and forget about the Maya legacy stuff. It's a
> unworkable system, keen on afflicting massive headaches..
>
> Or just grab Houdini ;-)
>
>
> Rob
>
> \/-\/--------\/
>
> On 6-12-2016 14:03, Ben Beckett wrote:
>
> Hi all
>
> Easy to do in ice and any other software, but particles in Maya is nuts.
>
> All I want to do is birth spheres from a objects surface (easy), But then
> have them grow a bit (scale up) and then on a "per particle basis" when
> they get to a certain size move away from there position of birth with a
> force.
>
> In ice I would of done it with a state machine, any thing like that in
> maya.
>
> Its like a alka seltzer effects.
>
> Any help would be great!
>
> Thanks
> Ben
>
>
> --
> Softimage Mailing List.
> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com with 
> "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>
>
>
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Maya Help (Legacy Particles)

[Ben Beckett]

Hi all

Easy to do in ice and any other software, but particles in Maya is nuts.

All I want to do is birth spheres from a objects surface (easy), But then
have them grow a bit (scale up) and then on a "per particle basis" when
they get to a certain size move away from there position of birth with a
force.

In ice I would of done it with a state machine, any thing like that in maya.

Its like a alka seltzer effects.

Any help would be great!

Thanks
Ben
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Re: Xsi particles to 3dmax

[Ben Beckett]

Hi

I was a XSI user but we switch to 3d max. We currently are using max 2106
and am looking at doing some particle in XSI because maya is becoming a
problem, and ice is what I know.

If we are able to (Someone is looking into it) it would be Soft 2015/max
2016.

Caching them to Alembic would I guess be the way. Thanks for your help.

Ben

On 12 May 2016 at 16:11, Pierre Schiller <activemotionpictu...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> What kind of particles? there´s an Ice strand to fibermesh er... brush..
> to maya and another Softimage ICE particle sims to MAX on youtube.
> It is always armed (build) from softimage to external apps.
>
> Basically you CACHE your particles to NCache or you Export them by Caching
> your sim and using Alembic exporter. What version of SI and MX are you
> using?
>
> On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 9:46 AM, Ben Beckett <nebbeck...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi all
>>
>> Is it possible!
>>
>> Thanks
>> Ben
>>
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>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Portfolio 2013 <http://be.net/3dcinetv>
> Cinema & TV production
> Video Reel <https://vimeo.com/3dcinetv/reel2012>
>
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If you Own 3d max or your on subscription can you use a copy of Xsi

[Ben Beckett]

Hi all

If you Own 3d max or your on subscription for 3dmax, can you use a copy of
Xsi in production.

Thanks
Ben
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Xsi particles to 3dmax

[Ben Beckett]

Hi all

Is it possible!

Thanks
Ben
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Max question

[Ben Beckett]

Hi All

I was just wondering. Whats the best way to set a project in Max, without
adding any additional default structure folders.

like Maya set project.

This help me navigate to my scene quickly, its a pain going through a big
drive with loads of other jobs.

Have I missed something.

Cheers
Ben

Re: Max question

[Ben Beckett]

cheers

On 28 April 2015 at 21:06, Vladimir Jankijevic v.jankije...@gmail.com
wrote:

 you said willy? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrBj3u5dPgM - watch
 at your own risk :)


 On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 3:58 PM, Chris Johnson chr...@topixfx.com wrote:

 Not sure there is a way? You can set the original structure path to
 anywhere via CustomizeConfigure user paths. However that will set up a
 folder structure.

 I find from my short time being in Max that users don't tend use that
 folder structure and tend to make up their own and save things a little
 willy nilly? But that could just be my co-workers.



 On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 10:57 AM, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 Hi All

 I was just wondering. Whats the best way to set a project in Max,
 without adding any additional default structure folders.

 like Maya set project.

 This help me navigate to my scene quickly, its a pain going through a
 big drive with loads of other jobs.

 Have I missed something.

 Cheers
 Ben

Re: Billowing smoke

[Ben Beckett]

sexy voice!

On 31 March 2015 at 17:01, Cristobal Infante cgc...@gmail.com wrote:

 Cool! thanks for the workflow tip ;)

 On 31 March 2015 at 16:23, Ciaran Moloney moloney.cia...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 He's not using the super-secret workflow that makes opencl in Houdini
 smoke at least a little worthwhile:


 http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forumItemid=172page=viewtopict=25234

 On Tue, Mar 31, 2015 at 4:15 PM, Ciaran Moloney moloney.cia...@gmail.com
  wrote:

 40 frames per minute vs 1.2 frames per second not exactly blowing my
 mind.

 On Tue, Mar 31, 2015 at 4:07 PM, Cristobal Infante cgc...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 and if you have a nice GPU like a titan X:

 https://vimeo.com/123128103

 On 31 March 2015 at 16:04, Cristobal Infante cgc...@gmail.com wrote:

 This appeared today on the sidefx vimeo channel, possibly to late and
 not what you need but still interesting :)

 https://vimeo.com/123657201

 On 31 March 2015 at 13:05, Chris Marshall chrismarshal...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 Oh yes, cool! I think that'll do what I need.
 Thanks a lot!


 On 30 March 2015 at 20:59, Schoenberger x...@digidragon.de wrote:


 For the old school way: Check the SI sample scenes.
 https://vimeo.com/123662527

 I have created some ICE nodes to mimic the rotation of the cloud
 chunks.
 It is simply based on the observation that particles rotate away
 from the center.
  No Fluids= fast to simulate+render, over-all movement/scale can be
 adjusted with splines and cages, refinement without changing the
 movement.

 You just need a few particles. And you should probably not use many
 more, otherwise you loose the cell shape.
 Many overlapping particles with small density break the billowing
 look. And do not reduce the size.
 If you want to use use more, carve more of the particle away, that
 you have a few cell spikes.
 Render even less particles to view how you shape them via the render
 tree. And use the thumbnails in the render tree that you know what you 
 are
 tweaking.


 Holger Schönberger
 technical director
 The day has 24 hours, if that does not suffice, I will take the night


  --
 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Rob Chapman
 *Sent:* Monday, March 30, 2015 6:11 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: Billowing smoke

  heres an old school particle volume  way you could still use
 slipstream with. demo scene with link

 https://vimeo.com/45430754



 On 30 March 2015 at 16:50, Chris Marshall chrismarshal...@gmail.com
  wrote:

  OK yes looks very cool
 Thanks


 On 30 March 2015 at 16:37, adrian wyer 
 adrian.w...@fluid-pictures.com wrote:

   emfluid for sure!


  --

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Chris
 Marshall
 *Sent:* 30 March 2015 16:34
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Billowing smoke



 Hi,

 i need to do some thick billowing smoke and have Slipstream and
 Fury, but I'm struggling to get that thick smoke look. Just wondering 
 if
 anyone can help or what alternative solutions are there?

 Thanks

 Chris




 --

 Chris Marshall
 Mint Motion Limited
 029 20 37 27 57
 07730 533 115
 www.mintmotion.co.uk





 --

 Chris Marshall
 Mint Motion Limited
 029 20 37 27 57
 07730 533 115
 www.mintmotion.co.uk

Re: Aw: OT Maya: ncache hell

[Ben Beckett]

Maya 2016!

On 18 February 2015 at 04:23, Adrian Graham adrian.gra...@autodesk.com
wrote:

 Hey guys, the best way to retime nCaches is in the Trax editor. Select the
 cached node and open the editor. You’ll see a bar representing the length
 of your cache on disk. You can expand/compress this bar to achieve the
 retiming you desire. You can’t ramp-in/ramp-out the speed, unfortunately.
 Not without extremely unpredictable results, that is.

 Now it gets tricky, so I recorded a couple of videos (in .swf format) to
 maybe provide a bit of insight:

 nCache_retiming_01.swf
 https://autodesk.box.com/s/ves0ye66ny9sc0y78a8ck8xi8af2zyns
 nCache_retiming_02.swf
 https://autodesk.box.com/s/bxwfnuupxw11fz9tvfr94k72djb9fwfv

 Also, as I mentioned at the end of the second video, a suggestion from one
 of our devs here is to goal ‘classic’ particles to your nParticles
 (post-retiming), cache those out and render them, rather than the
 nParticles:

 You could export it as a classic particle cache (with dynExport) , and
 then create a classic particle shape with exactly the same set of
 attributes as you exported. (which means that you either have to explicitly
 specify the list of PP attrs so that you don't end up with ramp input
 attrs, or you may need to add any extra cached attrs to the classic
 particle system).

 Hope this helps,
 Adrian

 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Gerbrand Nel
 Sent: Monday, February 16, 2015 4:59 AM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Re: Aw: OT Maya: ncache hell

 Ugh
 Well thanks for the heads-up.
 G
 On 16/02/2015 11:50, Leo Quensel wrote:
 I've been through this hell.
 Long story short: Do it in Softimage, it is next to impossible to do it
 properly in Maya and it is a buggy mess.

 Gesendet: Montag, 16. Februar 2015 um 10:45 Uhr
 Von: Gerbrand Nel nagv...@gmail.commailto:nagv...@gmail.com
 An: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 
 Betreff: OT Maya: ncache hell
 Hey guys
 So I have to re-time my particles in Maya, and no one seems to know how
 to do this properly.
 Do you guys know if I can bring them into softimage, re-time, and then
 re-export the ncache to maya?
 Even if you know how to do it with houdini, please shout!
 Thanks guys

Re: Sad days...

[Ben Beckett]

It does not need to stop here, we all going to be trying out new software,
Were a knowledgeable bunch. It could evolve.

Ben

On 3 February 2015 at 19:25, Jordi Bares Dominguez jordiba...@gmail.com
wrote:

 Such an amazing job you did with Softimage Creatives… sad thing to loose
 it but you are right.

 sniff.

 jb


  On 3 Feb 2015, at 18:23, a...@andynicholas.com wrote:
 
  The timing is to do with the expiry of the web hosting. It's not really
 about
  the money, but more to do with the fact that we stopped having the
 meetings over
  a year ago after The Announcement, and we currently don't have any plans
 to
  restart.
 
  Cheers,
  A
 
 
  On 03 February 2015 at 18:00 olivier jeannel olivier.jean...@noos.fr
 wrote:
 
 
  Does it really have to close ? Is this about money for the website ?
 
  Le 02/02/2015 10:39, Jon Hunt a écrit :
 
  This is sad times,
  A big thanks to the Softimage Creatives Team. I always left these
 event
  either inspired, informed, half cut or well networked. Truth be told it
  usually would be all of these!
  Its a shame I got to only meet a few of you Softies and if the
  community should arise in a different from and some spare
 hands/help/supoort
  is needed then give us a hola.
 
  Thanks again,
 
  Jon
 
 
  On Mon, Feb 2, 2015 at 8:27 AM, Laurence Dodd laure...@porkpie.tv
  mailto:laure...@porkpie.tv  wrote:
  Denial is getting much harder these days. Thanks guys.
 
 
   On 2 February 2015 at 01:27, Jason S jasonsta...@gmail.com
  mailto:jasonsta...@gmail.com  wrote:
  I would rather identify Softimage related declines as
  Bullshit days.
 
 
On 02/01/15 18:49, Matt Morris wrote:
 
 
 
  Man I loved the atmosphere of that first meeting!
  Ok we had some sound troubles, but the enthusiasm
  and just the sheer amount of people there made it
  feel like SI still had a future. Thanks for the
  good times Andy and everyone there!
 
 
On Sunday, 1 February 2015, Jacob Gonzalez
  jacobgo...@gmail.com mailto:jacobgo...@gmail.com  wrote:
  sad indeed!!
 it was certainly great stuff what you guys put together
  with SIC!!
 
 J
 
 On Sunday, 1 February 2015, a...@andynicholas.com
  a...@andynicholas.com wrote:
  One last tribute as our web hosting is
  about to run out...
 
  http://www.softimagecreatives.com
  http://www.softimagecreatives.com
 
 
  A huge thanks to all of you who supported us.
 
  Andy
 
--
www.matinai.com http://www.matinai.com
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   --
   Laurence Dodd
   Porkpie Animation
   E: laure...@porkpie.tv mailto:laure...@porkpie.tv
   W: www.porkpie.tv http://www.porkpie.tv
   M: 07570 702 576
   T: 01273 278 382
 
 
 
 
 

Re: more maya......

[Ben Beckett]

Its a easy fix. go, file, new scene, click the little box set it once in
there.

Once you open one new scene from there all scenes will be it until you
change it.

If you crash before you close maya you will need to redo it.

Ben

On 4 November 2014 13:39, Sebastien Sterling sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com
wrote:

 Chin up buddies, chin up. (cry)

 On 4 November 2014 11:17, Gerbrand Nel nagv...@gmail.com wrote:

  Yup.. been there.. still waiting for my composure though
 G

 On 2014-11-04 12:47 PM, Andi Farhall wrote:

 maybe i just need to sit quietly here for a bit a regain my composure.

  The first hour of my day taken up by figuring out why my fps resets
 itself every time I start a new scene. They should have called it Caveat.

  as you were.


 ...
 http://www.hackneyeffects.com/
 https://vimeo.com/user4174293
 http://www.linkedin.com/pub/andi-farhall/b/496/b21


  http://www.flickr.com/photos/lord_hackney/
 http://spylon.tumblr.com/

  This email and any attachments to it may be confidential and are
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 If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you must neither
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 Please contact the sender if you believe you have received this email in
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.emp and .emp2

[Ben Beckett]

Does any one know if the above are the same.

Has any one ever used emReader to read .emp files with out the 2 at the end!

Cheers
Ben

Re: .emp and .emp2

[Ben Beckett]

Thank you

On 15 September 2014 16:09, Eric Mootz e...@mootzoid.com wrote:

 Hi Ben,

 .emp2 is the file format that came with 2nd version of emPolygonizer,
 i.e. emPolygonizer2, and .emp is a very old format of the very first
 emPolygonizer. It is in fact so old I ask myself where those files possibly
 come from ;)

 Any way, neither emReader nor any of the current emPolygonizer versions
 can read is.

 Maybe those files aren't even polygonizer files?

 Best,
 Eric




 Am 15.09.2014 15:38, schrieb Ben Beckett:

  Does any one know if the above are the same.

 Has any one ever used emReader to read .emp files with out the 2 at the
 end!

 Cheers
 Ben

Re: OT Maya: Skinning

[Ben Beckett]

In fairness it 's the same, it just looks different, less colourful. Though
you should consider you morph's first before you bind your mesh. Adding
additional morphs target after a bind can cause you headaches.

Ben


On 3 September 2014 20:34, Eric Thivierge ethivie...@hybride.com wrote:

 Yes that is the one and only skinning tool I hear of these days in Maya. :)


 On Wednesday, September 03, 2014 3:29:58 PM, Will Sharkey wrote:

 Im attempting to paint weights on a fairly complex creature and it is
 a bit of a pain. I seem to recall people saying that the built in
 weighting tools in Maya aren't great. What were other options?

 I think somebody mentioned ngSkinTools and that seems pretty cool. Is
 that still a top choice?

 At least the relax/smooth tool looks like it works in the ngSkinTools
 demo, the built in smooth tool in Maya frustrating.

 cheers

Re: OT Maya: Skinning

[Ben Beckett]

I see what your saying. But i have been know to Bind then remove the
default weights and then paint it back, as per what I need. But I suggest
some loud music in your head phones, to drown out the angry voices in your
head!

or do it in soft and fbx it back save off the weights and load them on to
your maya rig.

Ben


On 3 September 2014 21:20, Will Sharkey willjshar...@gmail.com wrote:

 honestly I have a lot of joints in this character and Im finding it
 difficult to get even smoothing along many joints. The only way I can see
 to do this is to 'flood' the mesh, which isnt what i want, I was hoping
 just to paint the smooth but thats not giving me good results either.


 On Wed, Sep 3, 2014 at 4:12 PM, Rob Chapman tekano@gmail.com wrote:

 What is the issue, speed of interaction with dense geometry or complexity
 of model hierarchies?
  On 3 Sep 2014 20:30, Will Sharkey willjshar...@gmail.com wrote:

 Im attempting to paint weights on a fairly complex creature and it is a
 bit of a pain. I seem to recall people saying that the built in weighting
 tools in Maya aren't great. What were other options?

 I think somebody mentioned ngSkinTools and that seems pretty cool. Is
 that still a top choice?

 At least the relax/smooth tool looks like it works in the ngSkinTools
 demo, the built in smooth tool in Maya frustrating.

 cheers

Lagoa

[Ben Beckett]

Hi all

Am having a play with Lagoa

It would be nice to achieve a look like in Thiago video (In Particular the
first 4 clips) where when the particles crash and there still is larger
chunks remaining in the sim.

http://vimeo.com/13457383

Can any one recommend any setting, for inelastic and Elasticity.

Am using the highly Breakable material at the moment.

Any idea would be fantastic.

Thanks
Ben

Re: Lagoa

[Ben Beckett]

Just saw this,

http://vimeo.com/11250519

1 million inelastic points does that also mean elastic setting are set
 zero or solve Elasticity is switched off.

Cheers


On 24 August 2014 11:56, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi all

 Am having a play with Lagoa

 It would be nice to achieve a look like in Thiago video (In Particular the
 first 4 clips) where when the particles crash and there still is larger
 chunks remaining in the sim.

 http://vimeo.com/13457383

 Can any one recommend any setting, for inelastic and Elasticity.

 Am using the highly Breakable material at the moment.

 Any idea would be fantastic.

 Thanks
 Ben

Re: OT Maya: push deformer

[Ben Beckett]

Thanks Gerbrand


On 20 August 2014 14:39, Jason S jasonsta...@gmail.com wrote:

  Lol! Yeah I know I parethesise lots   :)


 On 08/20/14 9:04, Francois Lord wrote:

 Hey Jason, have you been programming in Lisp lately?
 Just askin'.
 ;)

 On 20-Aug-14 01:05, Jason S wrote:


 As mentionned, I may totally be disproven,
 (especially with the all the expectation for it to be at least ICE (or
 more) )

 And to be honest, while being fully aware that many dedicated people
 including yourself are working hard to make Bifrost something great,
 (which is the main thing that I'm sure will make it at least very good)
 I must admit that despite that, I -do- wish it would somewhat more or less
 'fail' just enough for the floor to be, lets say freed-up (in a
 non-aggressive/non-invasive way) for other players also making great things
 to have a shot, but while not being completely bent on having the entire
 floor for themselves.

 Cause as it stands now, it could very well be the case that good or less
 good, there would just not be any comparison base, or any (remaining)
 choices to choose from, like it can arguably be (already) the case today.
 (being -clearly- not out of mere circumstance or (at-all) achieved with
 means that anyone (except AD) would identify as being -fair- or
 'non-destructive')

 And if hoping for an outcome (with diversity) is being delusional,
 (which I hardly think it is)  then may that be as it may.

Re: OT Maya: push deformer

[Ben Beckett]

On the subject of Soup

I love these plugins as well and also for them hard to install. My shelf
never worked as well.

If any one out there has any idea's that would be great.

Ben


On 16 August 2014 12:51, Marco Godinho macgodi...@gmail.com wrote:

  does maya have a relax or smooth deformer?

 Yes, the cMuscleSystem node can be used as smooth or relax deformer.

 http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/2010help/files/Muscle_Nodes_cMuscleSystem_node_.htm

 The rest point positions are stored when you create the node but I believe
 you can reset this rest state later (never tried, sorry) .

 The scripts that create the deformer will throw an error if you try to
 stack more than one, you can change those scripts or trick them by creating
 any other deformer before applying a new cMuscleSystem, afterwards you can
 delete the extra deformer (a cluster does the trick just fine).

 Hope it helps,
 Marco




 On 13 August 2014 12:24, Gerbrand Nel nagv...@gmail.com wrote:

  Ok now for the next problem.. does maya have a relax or smooth deformer?

 G
 On 2014-08-13 12:29 PM, Raffaele Fragapane wrote:

 That's probably a better way to do it, working on components isn't a
 Deformer and will eventually bite you in the arse.
 On 13 Aug 2014 19:18, Gerbrand Nel nagv...@gmail.com wrote:

  oh cool, thanks Ben.
 I just figured out another way.
 I used a texture deformer, with no texture, just a white color and set
 my strength to -1.
 Seems to work pretty well too.
 G

 On 2014-08-13 11:07 AM, Ben Beckett wrote:

 it's in Edit Mesh  Transform component
 select your mesh and pull the z translate in or out

  Ben


  On 13 August 2014 09:33, Gerbrand Nel nagv...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hey guys
 Doing a bifrost job at the moment, and I would like to flatten my
 liguid mesh a bit.
 I'm thinking something like the softimage push deformer would work.
 Is there something like this in Maya, and would it work on a bifrost
 mesh?
 Thanks guys
 G

Re: OT Maya: push deformer

[Ben Beckett]

it's in Edit Mesh  Transform component
select your mesh and pull the z translate in or out

Ben


On 13 August 2014 09:33, Gerbrand Nel nagv...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hey guys
 Doing a bifrost job at the moment, and I would like to flatten my liguid
 mesh a bit.
 I'm thinking something like the softimage push deformer would work.
 Is there something like this in Maya, and would it work on a bifrost mesh?
 Thanks guys
 G

Re: OT Maya: Spring Dynamics in Maya

[Ben Beckett]

We have to ask why do autodesk feel the need to add bonus tool. They should
just come with the software.




On 2 August 2014 01:22, Sebastien Sterling sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com
wrote:

 Hey Will,

 Maya bonus tools might be what you are looking for (free addon for maya):

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5oPTUHN-5U#t=67

 Dynamic joints added in bonus tools 2013

 Hope this helps.

 Give everyone at PB my best ;P


 On 1 August 2014 22:52, Jeremie Passerin gerem@gmail.com wrote:

 Hey Will,

 I think they attach rig to a simulated hair strand... I'm not quite sure
 but heard something like that.
 Also MT_springs = Gear Springs. It's part of the contribution from Helge
 to Gear.
 The code is open source by the way, so it shouldn't be too difficult to
 port it to Maya.

 Good luck in your research.
 Jeremie


 On 1 August 2014 14:12, Will Sharkey willjshar...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hello,

 I posted this at maya_he3d google group but there is so little traffic,
 only 2 posts over there today and I think they were all from me!

 I wonder if you all could shed some light on spring dynamics in Maya,
 maybe something similar to mt springs or the cool spring solvers in gear.

 What are some good solutions or tools to achieve this? I noticed there
 is a Jiggle Deformer but that seems point based as opposed to an offset on
 a controller. Any information would be much appreciated.

 Thanks!

Re: Alembic workflow question/problem

[Ben Beckett]

You could prebake there positions


On 25 July 2014 10:36, Ho Chung Nguyen hochung.ngu...@autodesk.com wrote:

 You might have to also export the parent hierarchy of those extra items,
 cause the animation is in their transforms.
 Do you have a scene we can help look into?

 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Byron Nash
 Sent: Friday, July 25, 2014 1:42 AM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Alembic workflow question/problem

 I'm testing out the Alembic cache workflow to get characters from Maya to
 Softimage. The enveloped characters are coming in good but sometimes the
 parented objects don't receive the animation. Extra items like hats,
 glasses and eyeballs are having trouble because they aren't enveloped. It
 seems like I'm just missing a checkbox or something when I send it out but
 I can't figure it out. Right now we are using Maya 2014 and Softimage 2015.
 Could go to Maya 2015 if needed.

 Thanks for any tips!

 Byron

Re: Alembic workflow question/problem

[Ben Beckett]

In the past I cached and then cached with Alembic


On 25 July 2014 12:11, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.com wrote:

 You could prebake there positions


 On 25 July 2014 10:36, Ho Chung Nguyen hochung.ngu...@autodesk.com
 wrote:

 You might have to also export the parent hierarchy of those extra items,
 cause the animation is in their transforms.
 Do you have a scene we can help look into?

 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Byron Nash
 Sent: Friday, July 25, 2014 1:42 AM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Alembic workflow question/problem

 I'm testing out the Alembic cache workflow to get characters from Maya to
 Softimage. The enveloped characters are coming in good but sometimes the
 parented objects don't receive the animation. Extra items like hats,
 glasses and eyeballs are having trouble because they aren't enveloped. It
 seems like I'm just missing a checkbox or something when I send it out but
 I can't figure it out. Right now we are using Maya 2014 and Softimage 2015.
 Could go to Maya 2015 if needed.

 Thanks for any tips!

 Byron

Re: Hanging basket

[Ben Beckett]

ncloth is your baby


On 27 June 2014 20:57, Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com wrote:

 Is there an obvious out of the box solution for simulating a basket or
 other rigid object being held by multiple ropes/chains? It's definitely
 beyond the rope sim since the rigid object has mass and is affected by
 gravity. Probably don't have time to RD a complex ICE solution from
 scratch.

Re: OT: What strong features have you found in your new transition software that SI didn´t have?

[Ben Beckett]

Maya is VERY SLOW


On 2 June 2014 10:47, Cristobal Infante cgc...@gmail.com wrote:

 I believe nodal shading for C4D is coming very soon, it's one of the top
 requests from uesrs..


 On 2 June 2014 10:30, David Saber davidsa...@sfr.fr wrote:

 Thanks Perry for your testimonial about C4D. How does non linearity
 feels? Obvious example: going back to modelling after skining?
 David

Re: Free Student version of Softimage - Doesn't allow batch render - Any workarounds

[Ben Beckett]

Does this work just a idea good luck

put the following code into a Nopepad .txt change the .txt to .exe . add
your file path and the pass name. run the file

@echo off
call C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Softimage 2012
SP1\Application\bin\setenv.bat
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Softimage 2012 SP1\Application\bin\XSIBatch.exe
%*

xsibatch -r -scene Filepath\###.scn -pass PassName -verbose full


On 26 April 2014 12:08, Angus Davidson angus.david...@wits.ac.za wrote:

  No worries. I haven’t tried it on Maya. I seem to recall when I was
 grumbling to Graham about it a few years back he did mention that it was
 across the board I could be wrong though.



   From: Jon Hunt jonathan.m.h...@gmail.com
 Reply-To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com 
 softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Date: Saturday 26 April 2014 at 12:51 PM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Re: Free Student version of Softimage - Doesn't allow batch
 render - Any workarounds

Thanks for the response Angus,

  The student has a 3 minute film to render, each scene has 70 or so
 reference models.
 When you load each scene you have to press OK this many times to the
 dialogue box that says its been created in a student version.
  Absolute hindrance.
  Got a fix but its a good 20 minute fix per shot just to be able to
 render...

  Hate asking this but I wonder if this is the the same with Maya? If so,
 I shall definatley need to start looking at our licensing.

  Thanks,

  Jon






 On Sat, Apr 26, 2014 at 4:28 AM, Angus Davidson angus.david...@wits.ac.za
  wrote:

  Hi Jon

  This is the major reason why we switched to the arc Licences. The EDU,
 Commercial and the Free Student version all had interop issues. The worst
 begin the contamination from the free version. What we do now is allow the
 students to bring in their own workstations and we lend them a licences for
 the duration of the course. That way we ensure that we are all on the same
 version,.

  Its bloody stupid that we have to do that . But its the only way we
 could practically not run into batch render issues.


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Mornning Autodesk

[Ben Beckett]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWBUl7oT9sA

Mayas Render Layers Can Really Kill a job

[Ben Beckett]

If your not working on the master layer, there lot of pain to be endured.

Working with Maya's render layers is like working with a red hot poker up
ya bum! It lts like a child you need to have eyes in the back of your head
to make sure it does not screw up.

If I owned a small studio and wanted to waste a lot of time redoing shading
I would use maya.

What can we do about render layers, nothing!, because autodesk has done
nothing about fixing it since some wonky person over at mental ray added
them.

Heck the words pass
*contribution*https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=firefox-ahs=cLIrls=org.mozilla:en-GB:officialchannel=rcsq=contributionspell=1sa=Xei=pdMqU5GFDoSihgfBjIBoved=0CCoQvwUoAAbiw=1606bih=678maps
puts the shiver through me.

Ben

mdd writer for maya

[Ben Beckett]

Hi

I need your help does any one know of a of a free mmd plugin for maya.

Its needs to be a mdd nothing else. point  oven licence is taking to long
to come through.

Cheers#
Ben

Re: Retirement.....

[Ben Beckett]

Houdini


On 4 March 2014 11:55, nick name creator3dstu...@gmail.com wrote:

 The future is bright.
 Not for XSI users, obviously.


 On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 1:45 PM, Sofronis Efstathiou 
 sefstath...@bournemouth.ac.uk wrote:



 Was it announced - been in lectures all morning?



 Arse




 http://www.jigsaw24.com/news/news/11949-autodesk-softimages-retirement-what-you-need-to-know/







 Sofronis Efstathiou

 Postgraduate Framework Leader and BFX Competition  Festival Director

 Computer Animation Academic Group

 *National Centre for Computer Animation*


 Email: sefstath...@bournemouth.ac.uk



 Tel: +44 (0) 1202 965805



 Profile: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/sofronisefstathiou


 Student Work:

 http://www.youtube.com/NCCA3DAnimation

 http://www.youtube.com/NCCADigitalFX

 http://www.youtube.com/NCCAAnimation



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 cid:image006.jpg@01CF21AB.FD567660]http://www.bfxfestival.com/competition/



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Re: tips on working with dense reference models?

[Ben Beckett]

I had a very heavy crab once in a scene, I had the Low d mesh visable and
non renderable, and the HD mesh Hidden and renderable.

I did this so I did not have to switch out my ref's

The scenes may have take a few min more to open but it work great.

But Standin are brill

Ben


On 24 December 2013 01:29, Peter Agg peter@googlemail.com wrote:

 If moving between resolutions is a pain then you can always have visible
 low-res geo with the high res stuff hidden. You don't get the same speed
 boost that you get with multiple resolutions, but sometimes it's enough to
 make it workable.


 On 23 December 2013 18:33, Cristobal Infante cgc...@gmail.com wrote:

 another way is to use 2 resolutions for your reference models. One very
 low res, and only switch to the highres when you are ready to render. The
 trick is to use the same rig so the animation sticks.

 If you want to give this a shot I recommend you download the scn toc
 manager created by Alok to switch those models from outside the scene.

 The standin route is great if you are rendering with Arnold IMHO.

 good luck!



 On Monday, 23 December 2013, Paul Griswold wrote:

 Thanks Alan!  Yep, this is all solid, non-deforming stuff (CAD data).  I
 have rigged it all with nulls the way you mention.  The problem I'm having
 is just updating when I scrub the timeline.  Even if the object has zero
 animation, simply scrubbing the timeline causes Softimage to freeze for
 several seconds.

 I'm actually testing Redshift for this one.  They've got a stand-in, but
 it's very alpha IMHO.  You either get a box or a full representation of the
 geometry.  There's nothing in-between, yet.  VRay's implementation looks
 somewhat nifty - I think they give you a bunch of points in the shape of
 your object.

 It sounds like the fastest solution would be to decimate the geometry
 and use it as a stand-in.

 I just wasn't sure why there's such a huge difference in performance
 between local and reference.  It's really significant.

 Thanks!

 Paul

  ᐧ


 On Mon, Dec 23, 2013 at 1:05 PM, Alan Fregtman 
 alan.fregt...@gmail.comwrote:

  Is it as simple as building low res stand-ins and offloading?

 Pretty much... yeah.

 Is it a solid, (mostly if not completely) non-deforming thing like a
 vehicle? If that's the case, you may wanna consider making a null hierarchy
 where each null contains a selection of meshes that move as one.

 For example, a regular solid car's rig might be: car body, left/right
 front/back wheel rotation and left/right front/back wheel brakes, so 9
 nulls. Animating those 9 nulls will be way lighter than dealing with
 hundreds or thousands of parts deforming or individually constrained to
 whatever, plus it's less data for the Delta property to keep track of. By
 the way, I like to call these nulls segment nulls.

 If you're dealing with mentalray or Arnold, both have the standins
 concept that works quite well, especially in Arnold. (Maybe XSI Vray does
 it too, not sure.)

 You'll want a standin per segment and if you name your standins the
 same as your segment nulls in a separate resolution, then it's very easy to
 animate a very light rig that is high-res compatible. Also makes it a piece
 of cake to republish update geo and shading by simply reexporting the
 standin files.

 At work we had stupid mesh density in Pacific Rim's control pod
 stilts and this *segmented workflow *of standin nulls constrained to
 a rig worked out great. ;)


 On Mon, Dec 23, 2013 at 11:09 AM, Paul Griswold 
 pgrisw...@fusiondigitalproductions.com wrote:

 I don't work a lot with reference models, but I am now.  The mesh is
 dense and has a lot of parts to deal with.  When the mesh is local,
 Softimage handles it fine.  But when it's reference, just moving through
 the timeline takes 8-10 seconds per frame.  Even in Bounding Box mode,
 Softimage grinds to a halt.

 Can anyone point me to any FAQs or guidelines on working with heavy
 reference models?

 Is it as simple as building low res stand-ins and offloading?

 Thanks  Merry Christmas!

 -Paul

 ᐧ

Inspire GLG

[Ben Beckett]

I know a few of us crossed this chaps path!

http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/crime/2012/10/02/shropshire-businessmen-to-face-trial-for-theft-and-fraud/

Ben

Re: mb feathertools cache issue

[Ben Beckett]

With the re grooming you could just save out your old weight maps and
reapply them

Maybe as long as you have not edited the mesh!

Ben


On 5 November 2013 15:41, Jonny Grew jonny.g...@gmail.com wrote:

 Just thought I'd give you an update about this...

 Mr MB had a look at our scenes and encountered the same problem with
 reading the cache - the feather instances appeared on frame 1 but
 disappeared on subsequent frames.

 As there were some nested models under the main chicken model it was
 thought that there was confusion with ICE recognising certain elements of
 the setup... I ran a test by removing the nested models and there was no
 change - still a problem reading the cache.  His suggestion was it was a
 soft cache reading error as it was a little sporadic with the errors we
 were getting.

 After much faffing and eliminating every conceivable thing from the list
 of things that could cause an issue we started over. Removed EVERYTHING
 other than the meshes to be surfaced with feathers.  The feathers were
 remade and then I reapplied the rig with saved out envelope weights.  So
 far so good. Maybe the issue was with the initial build of the feather
 system?  No answer but problem solved. Although the re-grooming of the
 feathers obviously adds time, at least we have a setup that works including
 writing the cache out from referenced animation models and applying it to
 referenced render models.

 Thanks for your thoughts.

 Jonny



 On 4 November 2013 19:53, Sandy Sutherland sandy.mailli...@gmail.comwrote:

 You might be right Jonny, been a while since I used it.  I am sure you
 can look see what attributes are being written and find the instance one -
 it is most likely an integer that can then be fed into an instance node.

 S.


 On 2013/11/04 9:01 PM, Jonny Grew wrote:



 The problem is, Sandy, that I cannot recreate the instancing section of
 the ice tree. The compound for MB feather tools is not explorable. You
 simply point it at an instance group but the allocation of each individual
 feather instance is defined by an envelope weight on a duplicate of the
 render mesh (called the envelope mesh) Under the hood this will give the
 particles a custom attribute (I'm guessing) that is used to inform which
 instance each particle should use-the same goes for size and rate but
 driven by a weight map that is local to the render mesh.  Determining which
 attribute is being used and how is what I would need to know in order to
 use on a secondary ice tree by using the set instance geometry node in my
 'cache read' particle cloud.

 MB looking at it but cache issue could be down to how the feather tools
 were set up originally or some kind of internal confusion due to the fact
 we have 3 separate feather tool setups all referencing the same instance
 feather group.

 Will report back when I know more.

 Jonny

Re: mb feathertools cache issue

[Ben Beckett]

I have been working with this feather tool for two years now my formula to
make it work is:

Step1
In scene one
Create the feathers with mbfeather tool on your character save this as a
base scene

Step2
PolyMesh Duplicate the feathers (this example is for one type of feathers)

Step3
With that *poly mesh* of the feathers, save it out as a obj and texturing
that.(remeber to set the UVs before export)

Step4
In scene two, I animate the bird.
Then point caching animated Character and a applying the cache to the
mbfeather character in your base scene, the character now movers and the
feathers go with him.

Step5
cache the mbfeathers* Poly mesh* as it still is linked to the mbfeathers
sim

Step6
apply the cache to the exported obj, in scene two, the animated scene.

Works nicely
Ben


On 4 November 2013 16:05, Jonny Grew jonny.g...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hello list,

 Just wondered if anyone can shed any light on some issues we have with mb
 feather tools

 When we're caching out the pointcloud we're getting sporadic results in
 reading the cache back.

 We have 3 separate mb feather tool setups (body, head and wings) all under
 different models. These all reference the same feather group in it's own
 model) and all nodes have been switched to say 'this_model' as advised
 within the documentation.

 We're using 6 different feathers and populating the surface using the
 envelope weights on the 'envelope mesh' that determines which feather
 within the feather group goes where. This all works great when live but
 when caching out we're finding that either:
 1/The instances aren't there (the particles are - you can see if you
 change the pointcloud display property to point)
 2/Certain feathers are missing (ie feather 3 and 4).

 You can force the instances to be visible by adding another ice tree on
 the empty cache read point cloud with a 'set instance geometry' node,
 however this only populates with the first feather in the feather group. -
 As the compounds are locked we're not sure what attribute we could use to
 ensure that the correct feathers are in the correct place.

 It appears that when things do sporadicly work that they only do from a
 single scene.  Exporting the model from this scene and caching causes even
 weirder results which means it looks like using reference models in our
 animation scenes is a no-go. We'll have to export animation action clips,
 apply them into this scene that sporadicly works and export the ICE Cache
 into our render scene.

 Any pointers much appreciated on stating our blindingly obvious faults or
 hooky work-arounds.

 Cheers
 Jonny

Re: mb feathertools cache issue

[Ben Beckett]

I found this plugin brill but its a bit of a fiddle, There is a addon out
there that will export all the feathers together as one mesh.

I've seen at Glassworks, if that person want to give it out I suggest you
set up a new thread to see if this person comes forward. He all over this
list, so he may!

Start your title with some thing like, this was once a thread
Freeze ICE tree to geometry?

Ben


On 4 November 2013 16:53, Jonny Grew jonny.g...@gmail.com wrote:

 Cheers, guys.

 So it appears that with either of these methods we can only get it to work
 with one feather type?

 Am I missing something?

 As we can't access the attribute that defines the feather type (1-6 within
 the group) the set instance doesn't look like an option and the polymesh
 duplicator only allows one instance object too? I seem to remember that
 momentum has an instance to geometry function but the studio I'm at doesn't
 have it. Is there another instance to geometry script out there? I can't
 seen to find one.

 Cheers
  On Nov 4, 2013 4:24 PM, Sandy Sutherland sandy.mailli...@gmail.com
 wrote:

  We did it this way too on Zam - but you can only use one instance this
 way, unless things have changed since then?

 S.

 On 2013/11/04 6:22 PM, Ben Beckett wrote:

  I have been working with this feather tool for two years now my formula
 to make it work is:

  Step1
 In scene one
 Create the feathers with mbfeather tool on your character save this as a
 base scene

  Step2
 PolyMesh Duplicate the feathers (this example is for one type of feathers)

  Step3
 With that *poly mesh* of the feathers, save it out as a obj and
 texturing that.(remeber to set the UVs before export)

  Step4
 In scene two, I animate the bird.
 Then point caching animated Character and a applying the cache to the
 mbfeather character in your base scene, the character now movers and the
 feathers go with him.

  Step5
 cache the mbfeathers* Poly mesh* as it still is linked to the mbfeathers
 sim

  Step6
 apply the cache to the exported obj, in scene two, the animated scene.

  Works nicely
 Ben

Expression help please

[Ben Beckett]

Hi all

If I had 2 nulls, null1 and null2 and I want null2 to move 50% of the
distance null1 has moved

what would the expression be, that would write in the kine.global.posx,
posy  posz of null2

This sound like a good old fashion maths question!!

Any help would be brill.

Cheers
Ben

Re: Expression help please

[Ben Beckett]

Ok alls good thanks I made it work thanks


On 2 July 2013 14:08, Alok Gandhi alok.gandhi2...@gmail.com wrote:

 In case you want to know the distance traveled from the current position
 of the null, what you need is a scripted operator. It will not be possible
 with expressions.


 On Tue, Jul 2, 2013 at 8:59 AM, Vladimir Jankijevic 
 vladi...@elefantstudios.ch wrote:

 you are still not clear in respect to what the first null is moving. How
 should the second null know what distance the first null has moved, if you
 don't specify the point from which you measure the distance. Thank about it





 --

Re: Creation: Horde - new Softimage integration

[Ben Beckett]

It looks birll, but now much coding do you need to know to make it work


On 1 May 2013 22:21, Jeremie Passerin gerem@gmail.com wrote:

 Woow, this is very impressive. The integration of the real-time render in
 amazing.


 On 1 May 2013 08:02, olivier jeannel olivier.jean...@noos.fr wrote:

  Not at all, SI is just the best software ever ^^

 Le 01/05/2013 15:30, Alan Fregtman a écrit :

 Almost unavoidable when the majority of your staff worked at Softimage in
 the past. hehe :p http://fabricengine.com/company/team/

  Outstanding work yet again. Kudos, Fabric Team! :D



 On Wed, May 1, 2013 at 9:11 AM, Enrique Caballero 
 enriquecaball...@gmail.com wrote:

 yep amazing.  I love how they actually care about integrating into
 Softimage as well.


 On Wed, May 1, 2013 at 8:55 PM, olivier jeannel olivier.jean...@noos.fr
  wrote:

  Wow !
 Super innovative ! Makes me hyper enthousiastic (the hysteric way) each
 time I watch your demos guys :D


 Le 01/05/2013 03:42, Paul Doyle a écrit :

  Hi guys – I've held off posting any updates on Horde as I knew we had
 a sweet Softimage/ICE integration in the pipe. The nice thing with our
 locomotion system is that it lends itself well to closer shots when you're
 working with a few characters - and combined with ICE that makes for some
 really interesting options. Helge has only scratched the surface with this,
 but already you can see just how awesome the combination is.



 1)  Reel: https://vimeo.com/61358674

 2)  Maya integration info:
 http://fabricengine.com/creation-modules/inside-maya/ (there's more of
 a breakdown here that we don't duplicate in the Softimage section, so I
 recommend looking here first).

 3)  Softimage integration:
 http://fabricengine.com/creation-modules/inside-softimage/

 4)  Main page: http://fabricengine.com/creation-modules/horde/


 We're currently in closed alpha/beta - if you're a commercial studio
 and you'd like to help with the testing program, please drop me a line.

  Cheers,

  Paul

Re: Triggerfish?

[Ben Beckett]

It's no trick you. Firstly you have to tell the company concerned you will
be billing through a company so you do not go no there books. When you do
your return it is better if the are multi sources of income coming from
different places.

The best thing to do is talk to a good accountant he or she may cost more
but you will be better off for it.




On 26 April 2013 08:45, Ben Davis benjamincliffordda...@gmail.com wrote:

 @Ben - Out of curiosity, what are the limits of doing your company trick?
 Can you stay more than 3 months for a long job? What if you have family,
 kids in school, etc?

 --
 Ben Davis

 www.moondog-animation.com

 +33 6 88 48 54 50


 On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 12:40 AM, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.comwrote:

 If  you works as a company director, selling your services as a company
 the visa problem goes away (effectively a freelancer).
 Meaning you pay your tax as a reg company in the place were your company
 is Reg, a little more paper work, but you can travel, and the employer pays
 a company not a person.

 If your single I highly recommend marring a accountant like me. it make
 for a easy life!

 All the big companies sell there services every were!

 one bonus, More paper work = less tax

 just my two cents or pence


 On 25 April 2013 22:22, David Gallagher davegsoftimagel...@gmail.comwrote:

 On 4/25/2013 4:16 PM, Andy Moorer wrote:

 There are some seriously skilled softimage talents who were at
 triggerfish, if there are any producers lurking the list this downsizing
 has resulted in a number of at-large artists of a caliber and experience
 level which would ordinarily be very difficult to find at all..

 It's frustrating seeing studios in LA and NyC desperate for experienced
 softimage talent but unable to hire outside of the states because of visa
 issues. Time to grumble at my congressional rep (that's sure to fix it,
 right?)


 Which L.A./N.Y. Softimage studios are hiring?

Re: Triggerfish?

[Ben Beckett]

If  you works as a company director, selling your services as a company the
visa problem goes away (effectively a freelancer).
Meaning you pay your tax as a reg company in the place were your company is
Reg, a little more paper work, but you can travel, and the employer pays a
company not a person.

If your single I highly recommend marring a accountant like me. it make for
a easy life!

All the big companies sell there services every were!

one bonus, More paper work = less tax

just my two cents or pence


On 25 April 2013 22:22, David Gallagher davegsoftimagel...@gmail.comwrote:

 On 4/25/2013 4:16 PM, Andy Moorer wrote:

 There are some seriously skilled softimage talents who were at
 triggerfish, if there are any producers lurking the list this downsizing
 has resulted in a number of at-large artists of a caliber and experience
 level which would ordinarily be very difficult to find at all..

 It's frustrating seeing studios in LA and NyC desperate for experienced
 softimage talent but unable to hire outside of the states because of visa
 issues. Time to grumble at my congressional rep (that's sure to fix it,
 right?)


 Which L.A./N.Y. Softimage studios are hiring?

Camera Focal Length

[Ben Beckett]

Hi

Maya's cameras clearly have a defined Focal Length Tab.

Where in Soft is this because sitting with the Driector yesterday soft
really did it self no favours, I was telling him how it a great app is but
he now not having any of it.

On the camera prop's menu there is the Focal Length but its in (mm)
, can it be switch, and why mm's.

Thanks
Ben

Re: Camera Focal Length

[Ben Beckett]

Sorry maybe I have confussed I mean the standard numbers such as 40mm 35mm
22mm lenz, When he said lets try a 40mm lenz how does that equate in soft

Thanks


On 18 April 2013 11:10, Jens Lindgren jens.lindgren@gmail.com wrote:

 Yeah the Film Aperture should really be in mm in Softimage... Don't get
 why it's in inches.

 /Jens


 On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 12:08 PM, Leonard Koch 
 leonardkoch...@gmail.comwrote:

 I would think because mm is the standard in focal lengths.
 Lenses' focallengths and also sensor sizes - which also play a role in
 how much the camera sees - are always given in mm.
 On Apr 18, 2013 11:44 AM, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi

 Maya's cameras clearly have a defined Focal Length Tab.

 Where in Soft is this because sitting with the Driector yesterday soft
 really did it self no favours, I was telling him how it a great app is but
 he now not having any of it.

 On the camera prop's menu there is the Focal Length but its in (mm)
 , can it be switch, and why mm's.

 Thanks
 Ben






 --
 Jens Lindgren
 --
 Lead Technical Director
 Magoo 3D Studios http://www.magoo3dstudios.com/

Re: Camera Focal Length

[Ben Beckett]

Thanks that brill to know, thankyou everyone


On 18 April 2013 11:32, Jens Lindgren jens.lindgren@gmail.com wrote:

 On the Projection Plane tab:
 Enable it, set Film Aperture X to 0.9354 (the value of a Arri Alexa
 camera), chose whatever lens in mm in the Focal Length field.

 /Jens


 On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 12:26 PM, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.comwrote:

 Sorry maybe I have confussed I mean the standard numbers such as 40mm
 35mm 22mm lenz, When he said lets try a 40mm lenz how does that equate in
 soft

 Thanks


 On 18 April 2013 11:10, Jens Lindgren jens.lindgren@gmail.comwrote:

 Yeah the Film Aperture should really be in mm in Softimage... Don't get
 why it's in inches.

 /Jens


 On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 12:08 PM, Leonard Koch leonardkoch...@gmail.com
  wrote:

 I would think because mm is the standard in focal lengths.
 Lenses' focallengths and also sensor sizes - which also play a role in
 how much the camera sees - are always given in mm.
 On Apr 18, 2013 11:44 AM, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi

 Maya's cameras clearly have a defined Focal Length Tab.

 Where in Soft is this because sitting with the Driector yesterday soft
 really did it self no favours, I was telling him how it a great app is but
 he now not having any of it.

 On the camera prop's menu there is the Focal Length but its in (mm)
 , can it be switch, and why mm's.

 Thanks
 Ben






 --
 Jens Lindgren
 --
 Lead Technical Director
 Magoo 3D Studios http://www.magoo3dstudios.com/





 --
 Jens Lindgren
 --
 Lead Technical Director
 Magoo 3D Studios http://www.magoo3dstudios.com/

Re: Camera Focal Length

[Ben Beckett]

Well there is no confussion in Maya as such, it just seem very odd in soft.
It maybe base on real world settings, but for a dum nut like me some times
maya seem to have it nailed.


On 18 April 2013 11:37, Rob Wuijster r...@casema.nl wrote:

  not really getting it.

 If you set the proper settings for the backplane, the focal length lens
 settings are as they are.
 There's no 'equate in soft' setting for lenses, all 3D apps follow real
 world mechanics.


 Rob

 \/-\/\/

 On 18-4-2013 12:26, Ben Beckett wrote:

  Sorry maybe I have confussed I mean the standard numbers such as 40mm
 35mm 22mm lenz, When he said lets try a 40mm lenz how does that equate in
 soft

  Thanks


 On 18 April 2013 11:10, Jens Lindgren jens.lindgren@gmail.com wrote:

  Yeah the Film Aperture should really be in mm in Softimage... Don't get
 why it's in inches.

 /Jens


 On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 12:08 PM, Leonard Koch 
 leonardkoch...@gmail.comwrote:

 I would think because mm is the standard in focal lengths.
 Lenses' focallengths and also sensor sizes - which also play a role in
 how much the camera sees - are always given in mm.
  On Apr 18, 2013 11:44 AM, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.com wrote:

   Hi

  Maya's cameras clearly have a defined Focal Length Tab.

  Where in Soft is this because sitting with the Driector yesterday soft
 really did it self no favours, I was telling him how it a great app is but
 he now not having any of it.

  On the camera prop's menu there is the Focal Length but its in (mm)
 , can it be switch, and why mm's.

  Thanks
  Ben






  --
 Jens Lindgren
 --
 Lead Technical Director
 Magoo 3D Studios http://www.magoo3dstudios.com/


  No virus found in this message.
 Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
 Version: 2013.0.3272 / Virus Database: 3162/6252 - Release Date: 04/17/13

Re: Camera Focal Length

[Ben Beckett]

NIce thanks, this is what am saying.


On 18 April 2013 11:48, Martin furik...@gmail.com wrote:

 You need to enable Projection Plane and specify the Film Aperture.
 You may need to convert mms to inches because SI only uses inches for Film
 Aperture.

 You could also create a custom property like this:

 http://www.softimageblog.com/archives/65

 This addon is a little old so you may need to modify it to support newer
 standards.
 It works even with the default film aperture locked and automatically
 converts the orientation to the vertical/horizontal equivalent.

 SI should have something like that by default.

 M.Yara

Re: deleating Particals

[Ben Beckett]

The modula works good but the random value is better in this case thanks
for all your help guys

Cool
Ben


On 10 April 2013 20:52, Peter Agg peter@googlemail.com wrote:

 For what it's worth, I'd actually recommend giving every each particle a
 random value between 0 and 1, then delete any over 0.5. It's not as clear
 cut as the modulo way, but it means you get to re-seed the values if you
 don;t like the result - where as you're kinda suck with whatever ID the
 particle is given otherwise.

 Depends on what you're doing, of course. If you have a billion points to
 make a vapour you're probably not as fussed!


  On 10 April 2013 20:23, Rob Chapman tekano@gmail.com wrote:

 welcome to logic my fren


 On 10 April 2013 21:19, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.com wrote:

 Sweet it work Am no sort why but I will read it through Thanks


 On 10 April 2013 20:11, Gustavo Eggert Boehs gustav...@gmail.comwrote:

 Not infront of SI but you could Get IDs and run them through modulo
 node (using 2 as input).
 It basically returns the leftover of a division... in your case, odds
 will always return 1.

 More here:
 http://xsisupport.com/2009/10/24/using-the-modulo-node/


 2013/4/10 Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.com

 Hi Everyone

 I have to may particals and I want to reduce the cache by haft.

 I want to deleat if your odd or even with a condition.

 Am playing but if any one could say how to to save me some time thta
 would be brill

 Thanks All
 Ben




 --
 Gustavo E Boehs
 http://www.gustavoeb.com.br/blog

Re: deleating Particals

[Ben Beckett]

Yep I made a super heavy bug swarm and I need to take out a few to render
it.


On 11 April 2013 03:51, Andy Moorer andymoo...@gmail.com wrote:

 Sometimes when the opportunity presents itself (such as a weekend
 available to cache on a local machine) I like to save out the maximum
 density I can in a given timeframe simply because its easier to remove data
 than to not have it at all or build up density by interpolating between
 particles or the like.

 In regards to simple workflows... I have a couple of easy-to-build
 compounds I keep handy (though its just as easy to build them as you go)
 one which assigns particles a random number between 1-100, another which
 tests for that value against a defined threshold for deletion or whatever.
 It makes it very quick to be able to build structures which act on a
 certain percentage of particles or to modulate other values with that
 number.

 By always using the same compound/logic I free myself from having to give
 it any particular attention or thought, I just drop the compounds in and
 know what I'm going to get. Simple but useful, and since it is (for better
 or worse) my own logic instead of one of the factory compounds I know what
 is happening under the hood and don't have to worry about unexpected
 results, pre-set contexts, or other caveats.

 Same goes for a number of other simple tools - the most useful being one
 which returns a uniformly random vector of a defined magnitude. The factory
 randomize by cone compounds irritate me. :)

Re: Maya realtime viewport

[Ben Beckett]

thats nice but:

Why don't you now in 2014 sort your render layers out so we can remove
objects.

or spank the Muppet that created  the the system at mental ray!


On 11 March 2013 18:13, Szabolcs Matefy szabol...@crytek.com wrote:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6vnCotQ5Yw

 ** **

 TheExtension pack with Dx11 for Maya again (of course)

 ** **

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Szabolcs Matefy
 *Sent:* Monday, March 11, 2013 6:49 PM

 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* RE: Maya realtime viewport

 ** **

 Actually if it can display realtime tessellation, and a complex shader, I
 do not think that animation playback is crappy…I think, I start to
 understand, why game developers turn to maya…And it doesn’t matter how much
 I love modeling in Softimage, the once glorious viewport is now mediocre…*
 ***

 ** **

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Marc-Andre
 Carbonneau
 *Sent:* Monday, March 11, 2013 6:26 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* RE: Maya realtime viewport

 ** **

 Very nice but how’s the animation playback? ;)

 ** **

 ** **

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Szabolcs
 Matefy
 *Sent:* 11 mars 2013 13:13
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Maya realtime viewport

 ** **

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5fOwSmSaW8feature=youtu.be

 ** **

 Now that IS what I call High Quality Viewport…

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Re: FBX I/O camera weirdness

[Ben Beckett]

One word Crosswalk



On 14 January 2013 12:08, Xavier Lapointe xl.mailingl...@gmail.com wrote:

 It's been a while since I touched fbx ( :D ), but I remember having that
 kind of issue and it was somehow related to the fbx/crosswalk version.
 Using an older one would avoid weird behaviour (Something like 2010 .. ).
 Or at least the same version between Maya and Soft ... is that the case?

Re: Motion vector for ReelSmart MB

[Ben Beckett]

Hi Olivier

Your best using this http://www.alamaison.fr/3d/lm_2DMV/lm_2DMV_ref.htm

Create a pass, add the shader as a over ride,

Setting you render options here is key so follow the section
*2) Render Options Settings*
*and*
*3) Normalize*


Ben


On 14 January 2013 12:34, Ian Baxter ianbaxt...@gmail.com wrote:

 What are you comping in?
 I would try Raster Motion and make sure you render scanline or you won't
 get the camera contribution.




 On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 10:24 AM, olivier jeannel olivier.jean...@noos.fr
  wrote:

 Hi list,

 I'm post processing a crowdFX sequence. I'd like to enhance the motion
 blur a bit, I'm having a rotative camera movement.
 I thought I'd output a MotionVector Pass using  Motion_Vector(mip) pass
 shader.
 I'm just running some test atm.

 1/Is this the correct shader ?
 2/It's a bit long to render, it's computing several frames, right ?
 3/Then I guess I'm supposed to cache the whole sim, right ?

 Thank's

Re: Particle Sim question

[Ben Beckett]

Brill Rob That's sorted it.


Thanks


On 13 January 2013 12:45, Rob Chapman tekano@gmail.com wrote:

 and.. if you wanted to try the other way of splitting your particles into
 numerical amounts use the 'modulo' math node like below - this basically
 splits your particle amount into half

 ive used element index as input because no doubt, like myself, you never
 used to bother to save the Particle ID with the cache when you were
 starting out with ICE :)

 cheers

 Rob







 On 13 January 2013 11:58, Rob Chapman tekano@gmail.com wrote:

 few things Ben,

 so you are using MR? - have you tried creating Stand-ins and instancing
 these rather than geometry? Ive managed to get a animated crowd of 80k+ low
 to mid res characters with stand-ins that normal instanced particles would
 not render due to memory limitations.

 easiest way (imo) to split the cache up would be to partition it. get
 some very big cubes to divide up the scene space and use If the 'point in
 volume' node to detect if the particle is inside the cube or not  delete.

 cheers

 Rob


 On 13 January 2013 11:44, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi All

 I was wondering I have a particle sim that is cached I need to instance
 the cache with a bug there quite a few and when it goes to render it said
 no way! Computer said NO.

 So it bring me to ask a question does any one know how  I could split
 the cache or even split it in to 5 scenes, am thinking.

 What am thinking is that I need is to delete every second particle lets
 say with a condition.

 I have tried with no luck maybe this does not work with a cache am
 thinking!

 I would love to to keep every other like every 5th or 9th for example.

 Is there any one that could point me in the right direction please.

 Thanks
 Ben
 Happy new year everyone!

Re: Particle clumping technique

[Ben Beckett]

Hi Vladimir

What does self.partID do am a little lost in the sim stack wondered if you
had time to basically explain

nice job though

Thanks
Ben



On 8 January 2013 11:42, Tim tim_boll...@hotmail.co.uk wrote:

 I'm just playing around with it now, and I'm wondering if there is a way
 to generate clumps in simulation mode, and still get the forces to work
 correctly? I have set it up so clumps are created every frame (which works
 as expected) but It seems when I try to apply forces to this It breaks the
 simulation completely and all the points disapear.

 I'm not sure if I'm setting this up wrong, or it's a limitation with this
 kind of set up. Basically I'm trying to get smokey dirt to fall from a
 character over time.

 I have attached an image to show how I structured the tree.


 Regards,

 Tim


 On 07/01/2013 19:17, Sebastian Kowalski wrote:

 here you go, thats one of the first prototypes I've made.
 the whole system evolved a bit after the catrice project (had to reuse it
 on an other job), but the essential idea seems not to differ from vladimirs
 solution. (hope thats true, didn't had a look yet ;) )
 you need to set a custom id value to each member of a cluster of points
 (clump id).
 in that case all clumps have the same amount of points.

 in that scene file its just a drag force, dissolving the clumps. when you
 need some more forces you have to use the position average of every clump,
 and apply the needed force from that.
 i am gonna share the more sophisticated scenes too, just need to
 comment them a bit.

 i should say that the initial idea came from tim borgmann, I've just
 implemented it in an icy way ;)

 take care
 sebastian

Re: FBX and soft is rubbish

[Ben Beckett]

Hi Chris

Alls good, Sorry if I was a bit well way!

But Cross walk is brill all. I was give a load of mocap to sort very late.

Importing them in to XSI seems never to work the way one would expect, the
key are all over the place. I guess they come in at 30 or 24 fps never 25.

But Importing via Maya back to xsi via crosswalk works a treat. but bit
long winded!

So It leaves me with one question why can't we force the FPS on FBX imports
into XSI.

Hope everyone a happy new thanks
Ben


On 29 December 2012 10:12, Chris Chia chris.c...@autodesk.com wrote:

 Hi Ben,
 Have you tried Crosswalk?
 And what exactly do you wish to achieve?


 Regards,
 Chris


 On 28 Dec, 2012, at 8:12 AM, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.commailto:
 nebbeck...@gmail.com wrote:

 more option on import would be nice.





 On 28 December 2012 00:07, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.commailto:
 nebbeck...@gmail.com wrote:
 Am I missing something

 To import a FBX in to soft is pile of #$%?? there no FPS seting so it all
 was Fup

 Sort it out Autodesk

 So the only way for a while one has been able to do it is via another app
 like Maya

 So the way I do it is maya import FBX

 check it at the right FPS

 expoxt via cros walk back to soft

 TIT wa#k

Re: FBX and soft is rubbish

[Ben Beckett]

more option on import would be nice.





On 28 December 2012 00:07, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.com wrote:

 Am I missing something

 To import a FBX in to soft is pile of #$%?? there no FPS seting so it all
 was Fup

 Sort it out Autodesk

 So the only way for a while one has been able to do it is via another app
 like Maya

 So the way I do it is maya import FBX

 check it at the right FPS

 expoxt via cros walk back to soft

 TIT wa#k

Re: congrats to centreNAD

[Ben Beckett]

Can we see a wire mesh



On 20 December 2012 11:01, Cristobal Infante cgc...@gmail.com wrote:

 Well done!


 http://www.lapresse.ca/videos/actualites/201212/19/46-1-canular-de-laigle-le-making-of-.php/ebcdcf6cf0a240b9872184f400d7522e


 C

 On 20 December 2012 10:57, Matt Morris matt...@gmail.com wrote:

 For the 16 million views and counting in under 48 hours, amazing job by
 the students there!

 http://youtu.be/CE0Q904gtMI



 --
 www.matinai.com

Re: congrats to centreNAD

[Ben Beckett]

Sweet just seen it  very good, I think I saw it first on the Suns website



On 20 December 2012 11:04, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.com wrote:

 Can we see a wire mesh



 On 20 December 2012 11:01, Cristobal Infante cgc...@gmail.com wrote:

 Well done!


 http://www.lapresse.ca/videos/actualites/201212/19/46-1-canular-de-laigle-le-making-of-.php/ebcdcf6cf0a240b9872184f400d7522e


 C

 On 20 December 2012 10:57, Matt Morris matt...@gmail.com wrote:

 For the 16 million views and counting in under 48 hours, amazing job by
 the students there!

 http://youtu.be/CE0Q904gtMI



 --
 www.matinai.com

Easy Ice question

[Ben Beckett]

HI all

If I had a bunch of particles shaped as a cone and a way from zero, how
would one rotate them from there center using ice.

Currently am freezing the ice tree and  then rotating them this works, but
I would love to know how to rotate a bunch of points in ice.

Any ideas would be brill


Thanks
Ben

Re: Easy Ice question

[Ben Beckett]

the need to spin lets say like a tornado

Thanks for helping


On 11 December 2012 15:27, Stephen Blair stephenrbl...@gmail.com wrote:

  Set Particle Orientation?


 On 11/12/2012 10:25 AM, Andi Farhall wrote:

  you could try spin particle or the rotate vector nodes for an
 automated approach. If you want to rotate each one very specifically in a
 different way you could have more trouble….. no  idea about that one.

 ** **

 cheers,

 ** **

 Andi.

 ** **

 ** **

 ** **

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [
 mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.comsoftimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
 *On Behalf Of *Ben Beckett
 *Sent:* 11 December 2012 15:04
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Easy Ice question

 ** **

 HI all

 ** **

 If I had a bunch of particles shaped as a cone and a way from zero, how
 would one rotate them from there center using ice.

 ** **

 Currently am freezing the ice tree and  then rotating them this works, but
 I would love to know how to rotate a bunch of points in ice.

 ** **

 Any ideas would be brill

 ** **

 ** **

 Thanks

 Ben

Re: Easy Ice question

[Ben Beckett]

well it not missing but he never got that far to explain the funnel up bit.

Thanks
Ben


On 11 December 2012 16:13, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.com wrote:

 Those tut's are brill but it the rotation around the curve bit he missing

 B


 On 11 December 2012 15:55, César Sáez cesa...@gmail.com wrote:

 Bradley Gabe to the rescue :)

 ICE Demo: Building a Force from a Curve
 http://vimeo.com/1313863

 Vortex Control
 http://vimeo.com/1330615

Re: Easy Ice question

[Ben Beckett]

Am going to give it a bash in a hour or so, I will let you know how I get
on thanks every one


On 11 December 2012 16:33, patrick nethercoat patr...@brandtanim.co.ukwrote:

 not quite sure what you're missing from Brad'z vidz. the 'funnel up bit'
 (I'm guessing you mean the force along the curve rather than around it?) is
 dealt with in the first 'build force from curve' vid. This one adds the
 rotational component.
 Or am I missing the point?

 P



 On 11 December 2012 16:14, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.com wrote:

 well it not missing but he never got that far to explain the funnel up
 bit.

 Thanks
 Ben


 On 11 December 2012 16:13, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.com wrote:

 Those tut's are brill but it the rotation around the curve bit he missing

 B


 On 11 December 2012 15:55, César Sáez cesa...@gmail.com wrote:

 Bradley Gabe to the rescue :)

 ICE Demo: Building a Force from a Curve
 http://vimeo.com/1313863

 Vortex Control
 http://vimeo.com/1330615

Re: Any one running Window 8 yet

[Ben Beckett]

Hi

Thanks
Forgetting back, on that i think am going to stay with what works at the
mo, until am force to do it.

Ben


On 10 December 2012 16:45, Leoung O'Young digim...@digimata.com wrote:

 I upgraded one of my systems from win7 pro to win8 and I tried to install
 XSI V7.1, everything went fine with the installation, sees the license
 servers but
 when I tried to run XSI, it gave me an error can't find an interactive
 license. I even open the up the ports in the firewall




 On 12/10/2012 6:02 AM, Ben Beckett wrote:

 Before the end of the year I hear it cheep, has any one switch is it any
 good

 Any thoughts
 Thanks
 Ben

Re: Exporting ASS for rendering standin

[Ben Beckett]

Cool thanks




On 14 November 2012 23:13, Gene Crucean emailgeneonthel...@gmail.comwrote:

 Not to mention that time savings is only one aspect of why you would want
 to use a standin.

 As far as speed is concerned though... look at it this way. If you have a
 huge asset that doesn't move, you export once. Render frame 1. Now what
 happens at frame 2? No more export, just render ;)




 On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 3:08 PM, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:

 the time savings is in scene export time.  look for this line in the
 script editor history pane...

 # INFO : [sitoa] Exported Frame 1001 to Arnold in 12.245 sg

 render your scene without the standing and with the standin, compare them
 and see what your savings is. if there is no savings there must be
 something wrong.

 s



 On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 2:48 PM, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.comwrote:

 Hi All

 Just quick one.

 The way I see it is that if I export a large scene to the ass format so
 when I render it renders quicker.

 Though I still have to export the Ass file before I render, So if am not
 doing it when I render, were is the time saving it still needs to be
 exported either way .

 Any one have any thoughts on this or am I talking rubbish!

 Thanks
 Ben





 --
 Gene Crucean - Emmy winning - Oscar nominated VFX Supervisor / iOS-OSX
 Developer / Filmmaker / Photographer
 ** *Freelance for hire* **
 www.genecrucean.com

 ~~ Please use my website's contact form on www.genecrucean.com for any
 personal emails. Thanks. I may not get them at this address. ~~

Re: Python Heads Please spread the love

[Ben Beckett]

Thanks you guys your brill. Am at home now but in the morning I will look
at it again. If any one has any other idea's thats great.

Thankyou
Ben


On 6 November 2012 22:47, Xavier Lapointe xl.mailingl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Should have been a little more explicit on that one.

 Like Raff and Eric said, don't patch it. Use the dispatch fix coming with
 pywin32.

 Also, make sure to use the Python installer (64bits), and reinstall
 pywin32 64 bit.

 You can use the 2.7 version I think without having trouble:
 http://python.org/download/

 One you have both 64bit version installed if python 2.7 and pywin32, you
 should be ok.

Re: Strands Question

[Ben Beckett]

Hi Adam

In the create Strand node, It might fix your problem if you tick on reverse
strand direction.

Thanks
Ben


On 22 October 2012 17:54, Adam Sale adamfs...@gmail.com wrote:

 Dang.. forgot that I had built it in a 2014 Beta..

 Here is a link with a similar simple setup for 2012

 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/z8p4v5kkh24fqhg/PlWaklwcbU/Raintest2012.scn

 Frame 27 is the first instance of this extra tail on the newly spawned
 blue particles..

 Just not remembering how to fix this one..
 Thanks for any help..

 Adam


 On Mon, Oct 22, 2012 at 12:47 AM, Thomas Volkmann 
 li...@thomasvolkmann.com wrote:

 **
  Unfortunately the scene crashes at startup... at least on my machine :/

  /Thomas


 Adam Sale adamfs...@gmail.com hat am 22. Oktober 2012 um 05:35
 geschrieben:

 Hey folks, Its been a while since I've used strands, and I recently came
 across an issue that I can't remember how to fix. Searching archives yields
 no useful results, as I'm not sure how to frame my query.

  If I emit Strands from particles ( like rain streaks), and then spawning
 particles based on collisions with say a grid, the spawned particles
 inherit the strands, but they have this behavior where the strands are
 actually ahead of the actual particle from which they are supposed to
 trail. In the create Strands Dialogue, there is a Reverse Strand direction
 option, but this doesn't do it.

  Its easiest to see this on frames 15 and 16 of the dropbox attach.

  Heres a link to a scene so you can see what I mean.. I feel like this is
 one of those duh moments...

  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/z8p4v5kkh24fqhg/hOZ9aew6n9

  Thanks for any thoughts..

 Adam

Setting a value on a emiter

[Ben Beckett]

Hi List

I was wondering if I had two emitters, and I wanted to give the particles
coming out of emitter 1  a value  of 1 and particles coming out of emitter
2 a value 2.

Or in another terms, emitter 1 would all have a ID of 1 and emitter 2 would
all have a ID of 2 so later I could filter and make them do something
different.

Any help would be brill
Thanks
Ben

Re: Soft - Maya : 23.98 to 24 FPS Problem

[Ben Beckett]

While we are on this subject, does am one know how to force maya to open
and have the scene prefs  all ready set at lets say 25fps not 24fps. its
caused us some problems in the past.

Ben

On 27 September 2012 14:35, Alok Gandhi alok.gandhi2...@gmail.com wrote:

 I agree, personally I would stay with 24.00. But in this case it was
 clients requirement. We received the plates at 23.98 and delivery will be
 at 23.98.




 On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 9:27 AM, Christian Keller chris3...@me.comwrote:

 I'd stay with 24 fps. 23.98 could give you all sort of headaches with im
 and export . Also motionblur in 3d and rendered motion vectors could behave
 strangely.
 We had this in a recent project with nuke and si/Arnold .
 But there was no time to investigate where the origin of the problems had
 been ...

 --
 christian keller
 visual effects|direction

 m +49 179 69 36 248
 f +49 40 386 835 33
 chris3...@me.com

 gesendet von meinem iDing

 Am 27.09.2012 um 14:39 schrieb Marc-Andre Carbonneau 
 marc-andre.carbonn...@ubisoft.com:

 Ahaha same for 3DSMAX.

 Oh and sot rue about the multi-ppg…grr! The comfort Softimage gives
 makes it so hard to switch to other DCC.

 ** **

 Now is it possible to do all this in Modo? ;)

 ** **

 ** **

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [
 mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.comsoftimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
 *On Behalf Of *Greg Punchatz
 *Sent:* 26 septembre 2012 17:12
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: Soft - Maya : 23.98 to 24 FPS Problem

 ** **

 We bring the animation in Maya, but in Maya there is no custom FPS
 setting available

 Wow is that true??? and this is the next generation app AD thinks is the
 strongest of the lotLOL next thing you  will tell me is that in maya
 you cant edit PPGs in multi mode ;)
 --

 *Greg Punchatz*

 *Sr. Creative Director*
 Janimation
 214.823.7760
 www.janimation.com 

 On 9/26/2012 4:03 PM, Alok wrote:

 We have tracked and animated objects in Softimage at 23.98 fps. We bring
 the animation in Maya, but in Maya there is no custom FPS setting
 available. The closest is 24 FPS, so obviously the animation does not
 match. The only solution I can think is to quickly script to scale the
 FCurves.

 Does that seems to be the approach or is there anything else I can do
 differently.

 Any help much appreciated.

 Thanks.

 --
 image001.gif

 ** **




 --

Re: Soft - Maya : 23.98 to 24 FPS Problem

[Ben Beckett]

You Star! Luc

On 27 September 2012 16:12, Luc-Eric Rousseau luceri...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 9:47 AM, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  While we are on this subject, does am one know how to force maya to open
 and have the scene prefs  all ready set at lets say 25fps not 24fps. its
 caused us some problems in the past.

 there is a magic trick to set your scene defaults..  In File menu,
 click the [ ] option button next to New Scene and that will change
 your default for all new scene.

Re: Random offset image sequence based on particle ID

[Ben Beckett]

Hi Olivier

Could you test the particle id with a condition if the id is in this range
set this! if in another range set this!

Ben

On 18 September 2012 07:56, olivier jeannel olivier.jean...@noos.fr wrote:

 Hi gang,

 I know how to set image-texture based on particle ID (image01 set to
 particle ID 01, image02 set to particle ID 02,etc.)

 I'd like to have one image sequence (a video), with time offseted based on
 Particle ID. Example :
 Particle 01 gets sequence from 0 to 100, particle 02 gets sequence from 50
 to 150, etc.

 How do I achieve that ? I'd really like to avoid having 100 various videos
 filling my hard drive...

 Thanks !

Re: Ping

[Ben Beckett]

Thanks

On 10 September 2012 12:59, Leonard Koch leonardkoch...@gmail.com wrote:

 Yes, this is visible for me.


 On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 1:57 PM, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.com wrote:

 Just want to know if any one can see this mail

 Thanks
 Ben

Re: Belly Wobble Ice

[Ben Beckett]

Tim that would be nice if you get time

Thanks
Ben

On 30 April 2012 08:59, Sandy Sutherland sandy.sutherl...@triggerfish.co.za
 wrote:

  We wish - due to getting stung by the node disconnecting thing on our
 last show - we have stuck with 2011 SAP SP1 for this show - so we just look
 with longing at the new versions - don't even have time to play with them!


 S.

 _
 Sandy Sutherland
 Technical Supervisor
 sandy.sutherl...@triggerfish.co.za
 _




   --
 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] on behalf of Tim Marinov [
 tim.mari...@gmail.com]
 *Sent:* 30 April 2012 09:39

 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: Belly Wobble Ice

   BTW You can also use syflex.The cool thing about it is that doesn't
 have to be under simulation stack so you don't have to create a second mesh
 to do the jiggle over envelope.And also is very fast.When I get a time(hope
 today or tomorrow)I will post a video on Vimeo how it works.



 On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 9:29 AM, Adam Sale adamfs...@gmail.com wrote:

 yes.. And fast..


 On Sun, Apr 29, 2012 at 11:18 PM, Sandy Sutherland 
 sandy.sutherl...@triggerfish.co.za wrote:

  BTW Verlet is suprisingly simple - we are using it in our fur and
 feather system now.

 Cheers


 S.

 _
 Sandy Sutherland
 Technical Supervisor
 sandy.sutherl...@triggerfish.co.za
 _




   --
 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] on behalf of Ben Beckett [
 nebbeck...@googlemail.com]
 *Sent:* 28 April 2012 18:36

 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: Belly Wobble Ice

   Thats the word it all come flowing back, Thanks

 On 28 April 2012 16:55, Sandy Sutherland 
 sandy.sutherl...@triggerfish.co.za wrote:


 http://softimage.wiki.softimage.com/xsidocs/idef_deforms_VerletIntegration.htm

 Good info there!

 S.

 _
 Sandy Sutherland
 Technical Supervisor
 sandy.sutherl...@triggerfish.co.za
 _




   --
 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] on behalf of pete...@skynet.be[
 pete...@skynet.be]
 *Sent:* 28 April 2012 15:14
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: Belly Wobble Ice

 search for ‘verlet’ in the ice tree – that should get you started
 you can drive it with a weightmap

  *From:* Ben Beckett nebbeck...@googlemail.com
 *Sent:* Saturday, April 28, 2012 2:37 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Belly Wobble Ice

  Hi list

 Some time ago there was a video out there that a very kind person made
 on how to use ice to achieve some secondary motion in a characters belly
 thought the painting of a weight map.

 I did save it for times like this but it gone!

 Would any one know of this or have some suggestion how could do it.

 Thanks a bunch
 Ben

Curves

[Ben Beckett]

Hi List

I have a couple of characters which have had a mocap applied as a action.
Effectively there baked curves.

Am cleaning up the curves and and doing a bit of retiming but what am
finding the curves won't let me switch them to either stepped linear or
spine in fact these option is greyed out. It would be nice if I could spine
them!

Am using 2012

All the best
Ben

Belly Wobble Ice

[Ben Beckett]

Hi list

Some time ago there was a video out there that a very kind person made on
how to use ice to achieve some secondary motion in a characters
belly thought the painting of a weight map.

I did save it for times like this but it gone!

Would any one know of this or have some suggestion how could do it.

Thanks a bunch
Ben

Re: Intro to the new team (was RE: Softimage development)

[Ben Beckett]

If it takes the soft boys and girls to fix maya than that can't be a bad
thing, we know we love the way they made soft work. let hope no one from
the Maya team is trying to better soft!

Ben
On 20 April 2012 14:33, Rob Chapman tekano@gmail.com wrote:

 Thanks Brent, I'm not sure what to believe, still pretty shocked, from
 my perspective it looks right now like things are changing for the
 better of Maya and for worse for Softimage. Survival of the fittest
 and all that,  is this why we got a dinosaur primitive in the last SAP
 release - a not so subtle hint of things to come.

 Oh and am expected to believe all of the previous Soft Dev team
 collectively came up with the idea of working on Maya themselves did
 they? and they suggested it to the powers that be at AD and they said
 - wow what a fantastic idea, lets do it!  Cynical and glass half empty
 perhaps, but you really expect us last remaining folk who work within
 a Softimage only based pipeline to be happy and optimistic about this?

 A smooth transition to what?



 On 20 April 2012 14:11, Brent McPherson brent.mcpher...@autodesk.com
 wrote:
  Things change. It is a simple fact of life.
 
  Sometimes change is good and sometimes it is bad. You can believe what
 you want but some of us are optimistic and have done everything we can to
 try and make this a smooth transition.
 
  Now excuse me while I go and refill my half-full coffee cup... ;-)
  --
  Brent
 
  -Original Message-
  From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Rob Chapman
  Sent: 20 April 2012 13:57
  To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
  Subject: Re: Intro to the new team (was RE: Softimage development)
 
  'Until you manage to reverse the information flow, then the people will
 remain subjected to the sick message dished out from the top'  , Noam
 Chomsky
 
 
 
  On 20 April 2012 13:35, Stefan Andersson ste...@madcrew.se wrote:
  hahaha!! So the whole team is gone, and replaced by games people in
  Singapore. Do you actually believe that WE will believe that nothing
  will change?? Excuse me but... what?
 
  Yeah right
 
 
 
 
  On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 1:24 PM, Brent McPherson
  brent.mcpher...@autodesk.com wrote:
 
  Ummm, all the devs are moving on to the new project and we are
  keeping the team together.
 
  All the Softies have had a hand in training the Singapore team to
  make sure the transition is a smooth one. They have not been scared
  to jump into such a large product so I'm excited to see what they can
  do. As Chun-Pong mentioned there are some very experienced Softimage
  devs in the consulting team in Montreal that still work on Softimage
  and many of their fixes get rolled into each release. Everyone
  involved with Softimage over the past few years is still around so the
 knowledge is not going anywhere.
  --
  Brent
 
  From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
  [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Steven
  Caron
  Sent: 19 April 2012 22:41
  To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
  Subject: Re: Intro to the new team (was RE: Softimage development)
 
  stay calm, there are others still around... unless they are leaving
 too.
  sean, marc-andre, yanick, brent... those are just off the top of my
 head.
 
  dont forget all the support guys too! stephen, graham, siddarth,
 matthew..
  i am sure i am missing someone...
 
  s
 
  On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 2:33 PM, Rob Chapman
  tekano@gmail.commailto:tekano@gmail.com wrote:
  incredulous, absolve the the entire known dev team ( except Brent
  stays
  yes?) into fecking Maya, plan it for over year, whilst denying
  everything and that nothing is going to happen to Softimage.
  seriously?
 
 
 
 
  --
 
  STEFAN ANDERSSON // Creative Director // Mad Crew AB //
  http://www.madcrew.se
 
 
 

Re: 2012 SAP stability (or... not so much...)

[Ben Beckett]

Hi I had similar problems and they we solve through switching off, under
Pref data management, Detect corrupted meshes.

Thanks
Ben

On 18 April 2012 15:28, Tim Crowson tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com wrote:

  So... I renamed my User directory. Soft created a new one of course. The
 first thing I did was start adding some of my projects back in the Project
 Manager. I added 5 projects, and as I set my Default project, Softimage
 froze and required me to kill it.

 I'll get familiar with Process Monitor and see if I can learn more about
 what's causing this. Could something in a project's system file cause a
 crash?
 -Tim




 On 4/18/2012 9:19 AM, Tim Crowson wrote:

 Thanks, I'll try renaming my User folder. I have already stripped out
 unnecesary plugins, but there are a few that I still need to use that must
 be kept locally to my User directory.

 I'll see what renaming does.

 -Tim

 On 4/18/2012 6:14 AM, Stephen Blair wrote:

 Hi

 Support hasn't seen any trend in general instability cases for 2012.SAP.
 I would suspect something specific to your situation.

 That post is more about a startup crash.
 Here's an intro to Process 
 Monitor:http://xsisupport.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/process-monitor-101/


 You can try running Process Monitor to see what's going on.
 Often I use it to look for conflicts (wrong DLLs, other apps, ...)

 Do you get a chance to send a CER report?

 Did runonce.bat report any errors?

 Try renaming your User folder, so that you are running with the default 
 preferences and settings, and with no extra plugins or workgroups.
 (User folder = C:\Users\blairs\Autodesk\Softimage_2013)

 If you install anything in the Factory install folder (C:\Program 
 Files\Autodesk\Softimage2013), remove it.




 There was a similar thread awhile ago:



 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Len Krenzler
 Sent: March-15-12 12:58 PM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Re: 2012 SAP stability

 Hi Adrian,

 I had some similar issues a about a month ago.  In my case this is what 
 solved it.  Turn OFF Threaded Optimization in the Nvidia control panel 
 (assuming you're using Nvidia cards).  This seemed to be causing all sorts of 
 UI related crashes, especially with render region and the rendertree.

 Of course I have no idea if this is the same issue for you but it's worth a 
 try.

 Cheers - Len

 On 3/15/2012 10:40 AM, adrian wyer wrote:
 how's everyone getting on with 2012 SAP?

 just lately we seem to have hit a wall of crashes and scene corruption, and 
 im not sure whether this is caused by our new server, changed working 
 practice or general ropeyness in the software

 artists will be working on scenes, that seem fine, then out of the blue, 
 when, for example, opening a ppg, or a rendertree soft will hang, or just 
 plain disappear!

 once this has happened the scene becomes practically unusable some 
 respite after blowing away the local user folder, but generally crippling to 
 workflow

 this is all on win7x64, wondering whether it's a windows update related 
 issue.

 driving me insane!

 /end rant

 a





 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Tim Crowson
 Sent: April-17-12 10:04 PM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Re: 2012 SAP stability (or... not so much...)

 Thank you Xavier, I'll take a look at these.
 -Tim C.

 On 4/17/2012 8:50 PM, Xavier Lapointe wrote:
 An article from xsisupport that might be related:
 http://xsisupport.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/the-case-of-the-missing-registry-values/


 2012/4/17 Xavier Lapointe 
 xl.mailingl...@gmail.commailto:xl.mailingl...@gmail.com 
 xl.mailingl...@gmail.com
 Might be handy:
 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

 2012/4/17 Xavier Lapointe 
 xl.mailingl...@gmail.commailto:xl.mailingl...@gmail.com 
 xl.mailingl...@gmail.com
 I don't know what you've tried so far except runonce and the user's Autodesk 
 folder reset, but I would also suggest to remove all external 
 addons/plugins/workgroup (not provided with Soft), and see if you experience 
 the same crash. If you don't, then you know your problem lies somewhere in 
 there. Having a virgin Autodesk directory would be a good thing too, I've 
 seen crashes with custom UI Layout sometimes, even if they were not in use.

 You could also try any equivalent of strace (linux) on windows ... I think 
 there's one. Might tell you at which point it's crashing.





 --
 Xavier



 --
 Xavier

 --



 Tim Crowson
 Lead CG Artist


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