Re: Goodbyes (was this is the end...)

[Byron Nash]

I echo many of the thank you's expressed here. Without the expertise of
this list I would have never completed many of the jobs I have encountered
in my career. I especially cherish the times getting to meet many of you at
Matt's dinners at SIGGRAPH. Those are some of the best times in my career.
I know you all will go onto success in whatever direction you head.
Softie's are a special breed and not to be underestimated! I don't get a
chance to crack open Softimage much anymore and 3D just isn't the same.

Godspeed all.

On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 1:21 PM, John Payne  wrote:

> Just checked the list after a hiatus.  A big thanks and round of applause
> to Mr Gabe, Eric Mootz, Guillame, Anto Matkovic, Jonah Friedman, Thiago,
> Helge Mathee,
> Eric Thivierge, Nika Ragua, Stephen Blair, Alan Fregtman, Andy Moorer,
> Fabricio Chamon, Julian Johnson, Ciaran Moloney, Todd Akita, Paul Smith
> and all the other folks who have posted tutorials, answered a question on
> the list, created ICE compounds, shaders, addons and plugins or
> administered a web site.
> I know I've left out some names here so please forgive me.
> I've had the pleasure of working with some of you in NYC and wanted to say
> that all the extra time you guys put into this work, most of it unpaid and
> on top of the
> punishing hours this industry demands, is appreciated by me and I'm sure
> everyone on the list.
> I could not have accomplished most of the shots on my reel without your
> efforts and It's allowed me to get home (sometimes) at a decent hour to see
> my family.
>
> Cheers!
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 21, 2016 at 11:57 AM, Andrew Prostrelov 
> wrote:
>
>> still use XSI and dig through api
>>
>> 2016-02-20 0:51 GMT+03:00 Mirko Jankovic :
>>
>>> would take gulag before maya any time!
>>>
>>> On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 10:48 PM, Sven Constable <
>>> sixsi_l...@imagefront.de> wrote:
>>>
 Amazing. Thank you!

 I was wrong about the 6 month maya punishment. Don't be too scared.
 It's actually only 3 month maya or *6 month in a russian gulag*.



 all the best :)

 sven



 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *pedro santos
 *Sent:* Friday, February 19, 2016 10:15 PM

 *To:* Softimage Mailing List
 *Subject:* Re: Goodbyes (was this is the end...)



 Hey Sven.
 Yeah, I didn't use my french canadian there, eheh.
 Video is downloadable now.

 Cheers



 On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 1:53 PM, Sven Constable <
 sixsi_l...@imagefront.de> wrote:

 Very useful. Could you also make the video downloadable, for future
 reference?

 And dude, you pronounced Softimage wrong! This will prosecuted with at
 least 6 month in Maya. ;)



 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *pedro santos
 *Sent:* Friday, February 19, 2016 2:11 PM
 *To:* Softimage Mailing List
 *Subject:* Re: Goodbyes (was this is the end...)



 Always go out with a BANG right? :D

 https://vimeo.com/155962323

 Cheers



 On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 11:37 AM, Laurence Dodd 
 wrote:

 That looks great, expensive, but great



 On 19 February 2016 at 03:34, Sam Cuttriss  wrote:

 Greetings all.

 I only lurk occasionally.

 But im very appreciative of all the guidance the tinkers out there have
 provided over the years.

 curious where everyone has ended up,

 Im developing hand held CNC equipment these days:

 http://www.shapertools.com



 if anyone is in the bay area and wants to check it out message me.

 _sam









 On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 6:42 PM, Kris Rivel  wrote:

 Still lurking too. Wish I had more time to read all the threads here.
 Incredibly grateful for all the help everyone has given me over the many
 years and all the contacts I've made. I hope it never goes away. Soft is
 still the best tool out there...sad that its quietly fading away.

 Kris



 On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 7:39 PM, Adam Sale  wrote:

 Rules of engagement :-)



 On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 11:48 AM, Eric Turman 
 wrote:

 stupid key shortcuts...

 *R*eturn *O*n *I*nvestment

 or

 *R*ules *O*f *E*ngagement

 which one?



 On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 1:46 PM, Eric Turman 
 wrote:

 *R*eturn *O*n *I*nvestment



 On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 1:39 PM, Olivier Jeannel 

Please explain Maya pivot points to a Softimage thinker

[Byron Nash]

I'm trying to get some objects zero-ed out in Maya but keep running into
what I assume is a paradigm difference between how Maya and Soft handle
center points and transforms. In Soft, I can move the center/pivot and it
will change the transform values. So, I can reset the center to be in the
middle of the geometry and then zero the position to get the object to snap
back to the world center or parent center. In Maya, moving the pivot does
not seem to change the transform of the object when you move the pivot. So
I can't then zero the values and get the objects to return to zero.
Sometimes, the object and it's center are clearly NOT at zero but that's
what the values say. There are some Local Space/World space values in the
attribute editor, but I can't figure out how to get things reset properly.

Any help from a Softimage perspective is appreciated.

Re: Please explain Maya pivot points to a Softimage thinker

[Byron Nash]

Thanks for clearing that up. At least I know I'm not doing it wrong. That
youtube clip has "the workaround" demonstrated. It's clear that this is
just ingrained in the Maya users workflow. I asked a few around me how to
do what I needed to do and everyone just looked confused.

Needs to have a "make it work like Softimage" mode.

One new things I saw in that tutorial was the Snap Together Tool. That's
pretty cool. Will definitely be using that.

On Wed, Nov 4, 2015 at 12:02 PM, Olivier Jeannel <facialdel...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> LOL !
>
> On Wed, Nov 4, 2015 at 5:43 PM, Gerbrand Nel <nagv...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Agreed...
>> Rather watch this.
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmtzQCSh6xk
>> It makes more sense.
>> G
>>
>> On 04/11/2015 18:13, Sebastien Sterling wrote:
>>
>> This is actually quite sickening to watch, but cheers Francois, at least
>> we know what we are dealing with.
>>
>> On 4 November 2015 at 15:46, Francois Lord <flordli...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Does this help?
>>> https://youtu.be/Z8zVjLoHWjk?list=PLP5KnnScX57byOldVy9rQlBRARrX6gy4b
>>>
>>>
>>> On 2015-11-04 09:34, Byron Nash wrote:
>>>
>>>> I'm trying to get some objects zero-ed out in Maya but keep running
>>>> into what I assume is a paradigm difference between how Maya and Soft
>>>> handle center points and transforms. In Soft, I can move the center/pivot
>>>> and it will change the transform values. So, I can reset the center to be
>>>> in the middle of the geometry and then zero the position to get the object
>>>> to snap back to the world center or parent center. In Maya, moving the
>>>> pivot does not seem to change the transform of the object when you move the
>>>> pivot. So I can't then zero the values and get the objects to return to
>>>> zero. Sometimes, the object and it's center are clearly NOT at zero but
>>>> that's what the values say. There are some Local Space/World space values
>>>> in the attribute editor, but I can't figure out how to get things reset
>>>> properly.
>>>>
>>>> Any help from a Softimage perspective is appreciated.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>

Re: Friday Flashback #244

[Byron Nash]

I got a lot of use out of BatchServe.

On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 6:16 PM, Pierre Schiller <
activemotionpictu...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Oh my! Now I know where Afanasy got it's idea and interface. I believe
> I had seen this back on xsi 4. This is not available nowadays...is it?
> On Oct 9, 2015 1:54 PM, "Stephen Blair"  wrote:
>
>> BatchServe 1.5 in #SOFTIMAGE|XSI 3.0
>> A demo by Chinny
>>
>> http://wp.me/powV4-3en
>>
>

Re: proper render settings for redshift

[Byron Nash]

Tim, when I set all my Softimage Color Management Prefs to off the colors
don't look correct in the region. I am interpreting all the input textures
correctly as either sRGB or Linear as needed. I do not have Automatically
Correct Color Inputs (Redshift Settings) or Apply Gamma Correction (Pass)
enabled. It looks correct when I have all the boxes ticked in the Softimage
Color Management prefs.

On Fri, Jun 19, 2015 at 9:22 AM, Tim Crowson tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com
 wrote:

  To echo Ognjen here... We have all our Soft Color Management Prefs
 unchecked, and we let Redshift handle everything. If you're rendering to a
 color space like sRGB, then in the 'Output' tab in the RS settings, under
 the Gamma section, set the File Output to either 'Use Display Gamma' or
 'Use Custom Gamma' set to 2.2. If you're still seeing textures washed out,
 then their Color Profile may be defaulting to Linear, which would cause the
 wash-out (since you're rendering to sRGB 2.2).

 Back on the Output settings tab in RS, you might also want to enable
 'Automatically Correct Color Inputs', depending on your workflow.

 Now, I almost always add a color correction node to all my color tetxures
 in my shader trees, but I leave the values at their defaults. This is just
 to give me controls later at the shot level. I certainly don't drop the
 gamma to 0.45 on all the color correct nodes. That's simply not necessary
 if RS is handling it anyway, and XSI's color management stuff is off.

 -Tim



 On 6/18/2015 2:54 PM, Kris Rivel wrote:

 Thanks Ognjen. I did what you suggested but I'm still getting a slightly
 washed out render that's a bit brighter. Must be something else I'm missing?

 On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 3:43 PM, Ognjen Vukovic ognj...@gmail.com wrote:

 Actually i dont think you should be color correcting your shader nodes,
 that doesnt sound like a very smart thing to do. All the native color
 managment settings in the softimage settings should be off by default, and
 then you leave redshift to correct everything for you, all you have to do
 is to make sure that your displacement images are set to linear in the
 image node, and color textures are set to srgb, and that you have
 Automatically correct color inputs switched on in the redshift settings
 to correct all your shader color parameters. Theres no need for anything
 else then that. In redshift your display gamma will be set to 2.2 and
 output will be linear for exr by default.

 On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 9:32 PM, Kris Rivel  krisri...@gmail.com
 krisri...@gmail.com wrote:

 Great thanks...was hoping it was just a few settings and not tweaking
 each shader...but it is what it is. Is there another way via just exposure
 settings in Photoshop and render settings in Soft?

 On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 3:16 PM, Pierre Schiller 
 activemotionpictu...@gmail.com wrote:

   Straight to the pie:
  1. For shaders (so they don´t look washed out) place a Color
 correction node. And set their gama into 0.45 (that´s 1 divided by 2.2).
 The shaders will look nice again.
  2. For the texture files (images), go to their adjust tab, find
 Color Profile (should be on linear) and there for you see it washed out.
 Set it to SRGB and you should see your textures in wondercolor. :)

  This is all assuming you already checked the boxes on
 FilePreferencesDisplayColor managment and ticked:
  Apply to:
  Render regions and viewports
  Render pass and preview
  Shader balls
  UI widgets
  FX Viewers.
  And of course checking all your gamma values are on 2.2

  Hope this helps.
  David.


 On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 12:53 PM, Kris Rivel  krisri...@gmail.com
 krisri...@gmail.com wrote:

  I'm a virgin to the whole linear/gamma lighting method. I'm old
 school and render out 8bit stuff mostly. I noticed in reshift, the default
 gamma setting makes everything in the region, render, etc. look light and
 washed out. Changing it to 1 looks normal. But if I want to properly 
 render
 out exr, what should I have these set to? After rendering and wanting to 
 do
 some post work in photoshop...what should my space be set to so I'm
 seeing/working with the right thing?

  Kris




 --
  Portfolio 2013 http://be.net/3dcinetv
  Cinema  TV production
 Video Reel https://vimeo.com/3dcinetv/reel2012





 --

Re: [Softimage] accessing single points of an object in ICE

[Byron Nash]

Thanks Christian, I think I have it working now. The array stuff always
confuses me. The only strange thing is that I could only get the proper
position when running the final output through a Linear Interpolate set to
.5.

[image: Inline image 1]

On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 1:13 PM, Christian Keller chris3...@me.com wrote:

 Use a build array from set node with the positions. Then a select in array
 with the id +/- whatever to put it on the position.
 You've to filter that, because you don't wanna set something on the even
 points. That means piping it through a filter node. Odd/even is easy with
 modulo...
 You've to set the position array into a separate variable first, otherwise
 it would not work with the filter node.
 Sure you figure that out !

 --
 Christian Keller
 Visual effects|direction
 m  +49 179 69 36 248

 chris3...@me.com
 Vimeo.com/channels/96149

 Am 17.06.2015 um 17:52 schrieb Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com:

 Digging up this old thread. I'm trying to get some data from one set of
 points and apply them to another set within one polygon object. I see how
 some of the examples shown in this thread can access one point, but what
 about every even or odd numbered point? I'd like the odd points to share Y
 position with the next even point. How can I find and apply the position
 data of (Vertex Index -1)?

 Thanks!

 On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 8:49 AM, Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 Cool! I wouldn't have thought of using that. :)

 Good job exploring stuff, Chris,

-- Alan


 On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 6:20 AM, Chris Marshall
 chris.marsh...@eclipsecreative.co.uk wrote:
  Ah Hah! Got it working.
  Took some grappling, but was simple solution in the end. From the
 original
  working setup where you filter the element index, if you run the output
 of
  the filter node through a Get Maximum in Set node, this gives you
 *just*
  the single vector. This is confirmed by showing the values, before this
 node
  you get zeros on the cube etc, after this node you just get the one
 vector
  values displayed at the origin. So it's only spitting out the stuff
 wanted.
  Phew!
  Thanks again.
  Chris
 
  Chris Marshall wrote:
 
  Thanks for the explanation. It does appear to be confusing. It looks
 like
  the tools for accessing sets are limited, though it might be possible
 to get
  the data required with some fiddling. I'll have a dabble.
  Thanks
  Chris
 
  javier wrote:
 
  I quickly scanned thrugh this email, I think the answer is that points
  in a polymesh are not part of an array but part of a set. so you are
  extracting the selected element in the array per point, that means all
  points.
 
  It seems to me that ICE is built using 2 differetn paradigmns for
  point access. Arrays and Sets.
  A particle cloud or a Polygon's points are points in the set, so
  youhave to either use the statistics nodes or in your case, I think
  getting the point by ID should do it. Im not in front of xsi, but i
  think you could grab the point array, enter the id index into an id
  node and then maybe plug into a filter node? I agree is a bit
  confusing
 
 
  Converting arrays to sets seems quite easy if the array is of vectors.
  you get your array and create a point cloud and stick the array into
  the AddPoints, then you can grab the point positions as set.
  I havent tried the opposite.
 
 
 
 
  ___
  Softimage mailing list
  Softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
  http://listproc.autodesk.com/mailman/listinfo/softimage
 
 
 ___
 Softimage mailing list
 Softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 http://listproc.autodesk.com/mailman/listinfo/softimage

Re: [Softimage] accessing single points of an object in ICE

[Byron Nash]

Digging up this old thread. I'm trying to get some data from one set of
points and apply them to another set within one polygon object. I see how
some of the examples shown in this thread can access one point, but what
about every even or odd numbered point? I'd like the odd points to share Y
position with the next even point. How can I find and apply the position
data of (Vertex Index -1)?

Thanks!

On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 8:49 AM, Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.com
wrote:

 Cool! I wouldn't have thought of using that. :)

 Good job exploring stuff, Chris,

-- Alan


 On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 6:20 AM, Chris Marshall
 chris.marsh...@eclipsecreative.co.uk wrote:
  Ah Hah! Got it working.
  Took some grappling, but was simple solution in the end. From the
 original
  working setup where you filter the element index, if you run the output
 of
  the filter node through a Get Maximum in Set node, this gives you
 *just*
  the single vector. This is confirmed by showing the values, before this
 node
  you get zeros on the cube etc, after this node you just get the one
 vector
  values displayed at the origin. So it's only spitting out the stuff
 wanted.
  Phew!
  Thanks again.
  Chris
 
  Chris Marshall wrote:
 
  Thanks for the explanation. It does appear to be confusing. It looks like
  the tools for accessing sets are limited, though it might be possible to
 get
  the data required with some fiddling. I'll have a dabble.
  Thanks
  Chris
 
  javier wrote:
 
  I quickly scanned thrugh this email, I think the answer is that points
  in a polymesh are not part of an array but part of a set. so you are
  extracting the selected element in the array per point, that means all
  points.
 
  It seems to me that ICE is built using 2 differetn paradigmns for
  point access. Arrays and Sets.
  A particle cloud or a Polygon's points are points in the set, so
  youhave to either use the statistics nodes or in your case, I think
  getting the point by ID should do it. Im not in front of xsi, but i
  think you could grab the point array, enter the id index into an id
  node and then maybe plug into a filter node? I agree is a bit
  confusing
 
 
  Converting arrays to sets seems quite easy if the array is of vectors.
  you get your array and create a point cloud and stick the array into
  the AddPoints, then you can grab the point positions as set.
  I havent tried the opposite.
 
 
 
 
  ___
  Softimage mailing list
  Softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
  http://listproc.autodesk.com/mailman/listinfo/softimage
 
 
 ___
 Softimage mailing list
 Softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 http://listproc.autodesk.com/mailman/listinfo/softimage

Re: Friday Flashback #227

[Byron Nash]

ZOP/POZ/OPZ here as well. Do I sense a need for a nostalgia t-shirt
featuring those three keys?  ;-)

On Sat, Jun 6, 2015 at 11:24 AM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.com wrote:

 I made the transition to the s key although it felt really weird at
 first. I definitely was able to work faster in Softimage|3D vs.
 Softimage|XSI. Capability-wise, XSI blows 3D out of the water, but man, I
 could get work done super-fast in 3D.

 On Sat, Jun 6, 2015 at 4:39 AM, Rob Chapman tekano@gmail.com wrote:

 me too! sticky S key waaay too complicated once muscle memory of ZOP
 is in effect

 On 6 June 2015 at 00:15, Grahame Fuller grahame.ful...@autodesk.com
 wrote:
  I still use ZOP navigation whenever I fire up Softimage. I never got
 used to the S key – tried to a few times but quickly fell back into old
 habits every time.
 
  gray
 
  From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Greg Punchatz
  Sent: Friday, June 05, 2015 7:06 PM
  To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
  Subject: Re: Friday Flashback #227
 
  BTW: a colleague of mine is still using the P-O-Z keys for navigating
 in XSI. I don't understand this but hell if he's used to it, why not :)
 
  That's me! Someone once said O is for old :)
 
  On Fri, Jun 5, 2015 at 3:32 PM, Derek Jenson derekjen...@hotmail.com
 mailto:derekjen...@hotmail.com wrote:
  The combo hot keys made Soft 3D fast. That feature never made it to XSI.
 




 --




 -=T=-

OT: Sample AOV's shot

[Byron Nash]

I'm teaching an intro to compositing course at a local college. Coming up
is a discussion on how to comp shots with AOV passes. Does anyone know of a
source to download a shot to do a test comp with? Everything I have here at
the office is commercial based and probably wouldn't be ok to take into the
school due to copyrights and whatnot. Certainly there are some example
files out there with creative commons or open usage but I can't locate it.

Anyone have any sources?

Thanks

Byron

Re: Sample AOV's shot

[Byron Nash]

I made a quick still frame with some AOV's in Redshift with a car model I
had lying around. Also, I did find one sample frame of some Vray passes in
one multilayer EXR. Would be nice to locate something over some footage so
they can practice matching to plate but will make do with what I have for
now. I'm sure they will be thoroughly confused with just the still frames!
I don't currently have the cream of the crop in students unfortunately.

On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 4:42 PM, Eugene Flormata eug...@flormata.com
wrote:

 Yahh.. but at least he can make a quick one i guess??
 with the scene already set up if the links work

 On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 1:23 PM, Angus Davidson angus.david...@wits.ac.za
  wrote:

  Ahh though Byron was looking for background video to comp over ;)

Re: Sample AOV's shot

[Byron Nash]

Awesome Fabian. I'll take a look. Thanks!

On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 5:50 PM, Fabian Schnuer Gohde list@gohde.no
wrote:

 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vlc8ltkl9b81zhc/AABY6BIJV3qCm-4bwyufZENaa?dl=0

 I made this a few years ago for a rendering course, contains a quick bit
 of footage and matching HDR taken here in Bergen, Norway. (HDR intensity is
 modified by eyeballing it in the env map settings) Contains xsi and maya
 scene with tracked camera and with mray setups, just opened the xsi scene
 and gave it a quick clean, still works a treat at first glance, it's a 2015
 scene now, if that's a problem I can mail you the old un-cleaned one (v9)
 The Maya scene I wont touch again unless you buy me a nice house to live
 out the rest of my days in, recovering from that act.

 There is a finished sample clip, that was all done straight out xsi since
 comping it would have required 2 or 3 days to explain and I only had a few
 hours if I remember correctly.

 All is herewith licensed under
 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ to cover your behind,
 anyone else here can use it for teaching if it's helpful but please keep it
 on the list. There is a Stanford dragon in there, not sure about the lic on
 that.

 Password xsilist Link is valid for 7 days and upload complete in about
 1h with the blessings of the gods in the cloud.

 Best of luck,
 Fabian

 On 26 May 2015 at 23:18, Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com wrote:

 I made a quick still frame with some AOV's in Redshift with a car model I
 had lying around. Also, I did find one sample frame of some Vray passes in
 one multilayer EXR. Would be nice to locate something over some footage so
 they can practice matching to plate but will make do with what I have for
 now. I'm sure they will be thoroughly confused with just the still frames!
 I don't currently have the cream of the crop in students unfortunately.

 On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 4:42 PM, Eugene Flormata eug...@flormata.com
 wrote:

 Yahh.. but at least he can make a quick one i guess??
 with the scene already set up if the links work

 On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 1:23 PM, Angus Davidson 
 angus.david...@wits.ac.za wrote:

  Ahh though Byron was looking for background video to comp over ;)

Re: End of the ride

[Byron Nash]

Thanks for all you have done over the years and your participation in the
list. Keep us posted on where you end up.

Byron

On Wed, May 13, 2015 at 9:03 AM, Nicolas Esposito 3dv...@gmail.com wrote:

 Sorry to see you go Graham, all the best in the future :-)

 2015-05-13 14:46 GMT+02:00 Greg Punchatz g...@janimation.com:

 Thanks for all the fish

 and the best of luck to you in the future.

 On Wed, May 13, 2015 at 6:08 AM, Martin Chatterjee 
 martin.chatterjee.li...@googlemail.com wrote:

 All the best to you, Graham!

 Cheers, -M

 --
Martin Chatterjee

 [ Freelance Technical Director ]
 [   http://www.chatterjee.de   ]
 [ https://vimeo.com/chatterjee ]

 On Wed, May 13, 2015 at 11:50 AM, Martin Yara furik...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 I haven't had the pleasure to meet you in real life, but it is really
 sad. I've always enjoyed your posts and discussions in different forums and
 emails. Always helpful, cool and calm even when you were being attacked by
 angry softies.

 Thanks for all these years, and good luck.

 Martin

 On Wed, May 13, 2015 at 12:50 PM, Pierre Schiller 
 activemotionpictu...@gmail.com wrote:

 That's how legends retire: when they are on top. What more can I say?
 I really wish you the best and that you may continue inspire people on the
 path you choose (hopefully fabric engine) hhehhh..
 Cheers.
 On May 12, 2015 6:00 PM, Graham Bell bell...@gmail.com wrote:

 I hadn't wanted to make any kind of announcement, but reading
 Stephens latest Flashback thread and the discussions on where peoples
 journey with Softimage first started, it's kinda made me realise that 
 mine
 has basically ended.
 And as I'm posting here, I didn't want to fly under false colours, so
 to speak.

 As of the start of this month, I'm no longer at Autodesk, The
 bloodline of european Softimage AE's from Ben, Chinny, and James, to 
 myself
 has now ended.

 Perhaps it's time to start earning an honest living again. lol :-)

Re: Very OT: for the love of your career.. try houdini

[Byron Nash]

Does Redshift have any plans for Houdini? Have you all found there are many
opportunities for remote Houdini work? I wonder since it's a smaller market
share that the competent artists may be able to negotiate better
circumstances like remote or better pay?

On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 9:54 AM, Francois Lord flordli...@gmail.com wrote:

 If you are a Softimage power user, it will take a lot of time to get back
 to that level in Houdini. However, you don't need to be a Houdini power
 user to use Houdini. Learn the basics (basic modeling, basic UVs, basinc
 animation, etc) and then choose an area where you want to dive first. Most
 people choose simulation because it's where Houdini really excels, but you
 don't have to do like everyone. If you choose lookdev, you will quickly
 realize that Mantra is very much like Arnold. You end up being up and
 running very quickly, and can work on production shots.

 Houdini is a lot more fun to learn and work with than all the rumors I
 heard about it over the years. And no, it's not just for technical people.


 On 18-Mar-15 08:51, Leendert A. Hartog wrote:

 I might have quoted too much in my previous post. The idea that you're
 thrown back to (almost) entry-level skill set, competing against people
 straight out of collage is a plight,
 one would imagine, every Softimage user will have to suffer as it takes
 time to get back on track (on a serious level with new software
 regardless of which software he or she choses.
 I just expressed my concerns that in the end this wouldn't take any
 less long with Houdini (although the ride would undoubtedly be more
 enjoyable, one would think).
 And the sentiments towards Autodesk go without saying, I guess... ;)

 Greetz
 Leendert

 Gerbrand Nel schreef op 18-3-2015 om 13:23:

 and got to a point where I can compete against people straight out of
 collage.

Re: Very OT: for the love of your career.. try houdini

[Byron Nash]

Like a dream Jordi. :-)

On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 12:13 PM, Jordi Bares Dominguez 
jordiba...@gmail.com wrote:

 I agree with Francois, little steps, start with the simple stuff, from
 modelling and animation, rigging (SOPs specially) and lighting, then move
 into VEX and VFX also in chunks, fluids, pyro, then particles and last DOPs
 (dynamics) which is where the meat is.

 With regards with Redshift, I really hope so.

 Regarding freelance work... you will have less competition for a high end
 market that is desperate for talent. How does it sound?

 ;)

 jb


 On 18 Mar 2015, at 14:37, Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com wrote:

 Does Redshift have any plans for Houdini? Have you all found there are
 many opportunities for remote Houdini work? I wonder since it's a smaller
 market share that the competent artists may be able to negotiate better
 circumstances like remote or better pay?

 On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 9:54 AM, Francois Lord flordli...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 If you are a Softimage power user, it will take a lot of time to get back
 to that level in Houdini. However, you don't need to be a Houdini power
 user to use Houdini. Learn the basics (basic modeling, basic UVs, basinc
 animation, etc) and then choose an area where you want to dive first. Most
 people choose simulation because it's where Houdini really excels, but you
 don't have to do like everyone. If you choose lookdev, you will quickly
 realize that Mantra is very much like Arnold. You end up being up and
 running very quickly, and can work on production shots.

 Houdini is a lot more fun to learn and work with than all the rumors I
 heard about it over the years. And no, it's not just for technical people.


 On 18-Mar-15 08:51, Leendert A. Hartog wrote:

 I might have quoted too much in my previous post. The idea that you're
 thrown back to (almost) entry-level skill set, competing against people
 straight out of collage is a plight,
 one would imagine, every Softimage user will have to suffer as it takes
 time to get back on track (on a serious level with new software
 regardless of which software he or she choses.
 I just expressed my concerns that in the end this wouldn't take any
 less long with Houdini (although the ride would undoubtedly be more
 enjoyable, one would think).
 And the sentiments towards Autodesk go without saying, I guess... ;)

 Greetz
 Leendert

 Gerbrand Nel schreef op 18-3-2015 om 13:23:

 and got to a point where I can compete against people straight out of
 collage.

Re: Very OT: for the love of your career.. try houdini

[Byron Nash]

How are you finding your new found Houdini knowledge to be fitting into the
needs of the marketplace? Are there many shops adopting it? Or are you a
lone wolf or able to turnkey shots for people? I too have found Maya
unintuitive and uninspiring. Houdini looks interesting but I'm wary of
jumping on something that I'll never get to use. Unlike many of you here, I
am in a small market so there aren't many 3D jobs to go around.

On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 3:49 PM, Simon Reeves si...@simonreeves.com wrote:

 I always worry that Houdini is not such a friendly app to be used as
 a 'backbone' as you (Jordi) phrase it.
 But I'm basing that on the logic that most of our 3d artists will HAVE to
 use it, but that's not really the case...

 I've started to settle into the idea that maya is OK for being the
 base, (after some love) so perhaps this is the moment I need to give
 Houdini a proper look before I fall down into the abyss of Maya.


 On Tuesday, 17 March 2015, Jordi Bares Dominguez jordiba...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 That certainly is a great approach but even better is if you go in the
 other direction, use Houdini as the backbone and render from
 Mantra/Arnold/Octane/PRMan/3Dlight/whatever as the FX live inside Houdini
 and therefore it is the natural backbone.

 Ultimately you will be using a myriad of tools that will funnel “dumb”
 cached data (just baked geometry, particles with attributes and little
 more) to Houdini and from there you are free to assemble your scenes as you
 need to.

 Furthermore, if you need to scale you will find Houdini excels at that so
 imho it is a no brainer.

 hope it helps

 jb


 On 17 Mar 2015, at 18:15, Manuel Huertas Marchena lito...@hotmail.com
 wrote:

 I am wondering if any of you guys working in film use houdini for digital
 asset production, or is it still more of a fx tool for most part? (having
 said that I do realize that houdini is not and end to end solution or
 all kinds of assets, but still I feel that there is a lot of stuff that
 could/can be created using  a procedural approach,
 ex: buildings, concept modeling, snow, rocks, trees, props...etc..)




 --


 Simon Reeves
 London, UK
 *si...@simonreeves.com si...@simonreeves.com*
 *www.simonreeves.com http://www.simonreeves.com*
 *www.analogstudio.co.uk http://www.analogstudio.co.uk*

Re: OT: Epic going completely crazy

[Byron Nash]

What do you all think the viability is for learning something like UE4 and
using that knowledge to earn income. I'm speaking mostly about
opportunities other than working at a large game studio. What are the use
cases in smaller markets or remote working situations?

On Wed, Mar 11, 2015 at 9:35 AM, Nicolas Esposito 3dv...@gmail.com wrote:

 They're not the only one working on it ;) ...so I guess there will be
 alembic stuff available in short time

 2015-03-11 14:14 GMT+01:00 Francisco Criado malcriad...@gmail.com:

 Hi Nicolas,

 the kl 360 plugin is gonna be free via github, it would be nice if they
 publish the alembic one too :)

 F.


 2015-03-11 10:01 GMT-03:00 Nicolas Esposito 3dv...@gmail.com:

 I think they used a techinque similar to this
 http://www.kolor.com/livepano one, I also notice that they made a 360
 viewer inside UE4, so I guess they combined that with 3d geometry inside
 UE4 and...well...its pretty amazing!

 2015-03-11 13:34 GMT+01:00 Francisco Criado malcriad...@gmail.com:

 It seems this guys wrote an alembic plugin! sweet :)
 http://blog.kiteandlightning.la/
 By the way, their last vr demo The Insurgent is pretty amazing, still
 wondering how they incorporated the live footage into the engine with that
 quality.

 F.


 2015-03-09 10:35 GMT-03:00 Gerbrand Nel nagv...@gmail.com:

  I don't know about you guys, but for me the coolest thing would be,
 proper alembic support.
 I just want to use it as a render at first, so I don't care if the
 alembic reader is slow, as long as the render is nice and fast :)
 Building interactive content will come a bit later for me.
 G

 On 09/03/2015 07:18, Francisco Criado wrote:

  Well, this is interesting:

 http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_contenttask=viewid=3067Itemid=66

  F.


 2015-03-07 13:27 GMT-03:00 Tom Kleinenberg zagan...@gmail.com:

 Has any idea negotiated a custom deal? That seems to be the most
 obvious way to get a cap. Obviously, that would be subject to strict 
 NDA's
 but it would be interesting to know at what level in terms of gross 
 revenue
 people have been able to negotiate.

 On 7 March 2015 at 07:27, Eric Cosky e...@cosky.com wrote:

 As a game dev, I have some concerns about the royalties of Unreal.
 It's a fantastic engine that I enjoy very much, and it may very well be 
 the
 right choice in many cases but I do wish they had a cap on the 
 royalties.
 If nothing else, the royalties should be carefully considered against 
 the
 alternatives. I wrote a post explaining my thoughts in more detail
 here http://bit.ly/1zAgU6P. It came out a few days before they
 cut the monthly fee, but as you will see in the post that cost really 
 was
 just a drop in the bucket that doesn't change the big numbers.

  Of course, none of this applies if you aren't subject to royalties
 which is bound to be a good percentage of people in this list.


 On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 2:19 AM, Adam Seeley adammsee...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 Some more comparisons..


 http://blog.digitaltutors.com/whats-better-deal-unreal-engine-4-unity-5/



 On 3 March 2015 at 21:49, Perry Harovas perryharo...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 Thanks everyone.

  So (just to be clear, because i don't think I was) I was trying
 to get vertex level animation (not morph targets) into UE4.
 So I want to rig and envelope a character (or object) in another
 app (like Soft or C4D) and animate it with bones.
 Then I want to cache the animation of the deforming mesh, and
 export that out to UE4 without the bones, just the animated mesh.

  I wanted to avoid FBX because, well, it is FBX and has been
 horribly varied and spotty with regards to stability and reliability 
 over
 the years.
 Alembic is lighter weight, faster to load large caches, far more
 stable and reliable (although this is, of course, also partly 
 dependent on
 the target application
 that hosts the importer).

  The only reason I mentioned morph targets is that many people
 that were users of UE4 had suggested that the way to get vertex level
 animation
 into UE4 was by using morph targets and doing one morph per frame
 manually. Seemed a bit stupid to do it by hand, to me.

  Am I being ridiculous to not just use FBX? Does FBX work well
 with vertex animation?

  If I was near my machine I would just try it myself, but I won't
 be for a while.

  Thanks again

  Perry



 On Mon, Mar 2, 2015 at 4:47 PM, Francisco Criado 
 malcriad...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi Perry,
 you can import animated models and characters wih fbx, and you
 have two ways, with the animation embeded or importing animations 
 separated
 and then aplying them in different ways.
 I had an issue with an animated rope through nulls like skeletons
 and didnt go to well, but i'm new to unreal too so there must be 
 some way i
 don't know yet.
 Morph targets are quite simple, on unreal engine youtube channel
 there is a lot of info.
 Nicolas, what do you think?
 Hope it helps.
 F.

 On Monday, March 2, 2015, Perry Harovas perryharo...@gmail.com
 wrote:

Re: Subscription Transition for New Software Licenses

[Byron Nash]

Do you all not think that probably all software will go to a service model?
Not that I'm entirely in favor one way or the other, it just seems like
that's the way things are headed. I haven't minded the Adobe CC move that
much. At least I can stay current and not have to bicker with the company
about upgrades every year or so.

Re: ICE: Randomized circular clump

[Byron Nash]

I seem to have it working. See the screenshot for what I did.

Here's what happens in the shot: I generated a bunch of points on a polygon
and used a texture map to filter them. It's basically a satellite view of
our state with the nighttime lights. The points of light then need to
coagulate in the center of the state. It would end up looking like you just
scattered them around a central point.

The tree is really slow right now. I think it might be the generate sample
set that I'm using to get the points to start with.

On Thu, Nov 6, 2014 at 6:34 AM, patrick nethercoat patr...@brandtanim.co.uk
 wrote:

 Can you give us a bit more of an idea what you're aiming for? Animate into
 a round blurry shape from what/where?

 On 5 November 2014 18:05, gareth bell garethb...@outlook.com wrote:

 emit from a spherical/cylinderical volume?

 --
 From: byronn...@gmail.com
 Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2014 12:56:51 -0500
 Subject: ICE: Randomized circular clump
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com

 I need to animate my points into a round blurry shape. Both randomize and
 turbulence generate a squarish volume of points. I have tried a few
 approaches to make them clump but haven't gotten anything yet. I'm sure
 it's something simple I'm overlooking. This is an unsimulated cloud.

 Tips appreciated

 Byron




 --
 Brandt Animation
 www.brandtanim.co.uk
 020 7734 0196

ICE: Randomized circular clump

[Byron Nash]

I need to animate my points into a round blurry shape. Both randomize and
turbulence generate a squarish volume of points. I have tried a few
approaches to make them clump but haven't gotten anything yet. I'm sure
it's something simple I'm overlooking. This is an unsimulated cloud.

Tips appreciated

Byron

Re: SemiOT: organizing images textures

[Byron Nash]

Between *** ...looks like iTunes and Lightroom had a baby...*, and ***The
interface icons look a bit like they were designed by the person who makes
the Baby Einstein videos., *I think you may have a fallback career as a
software reviewer Paul. :-)

Thanks for sharing your comprehensive research of these tools. It's very
helpful.

-Byron

Re: Mouse

[Byron Nash]

@sven, I'm also using a similar vertical monitor setup. I have it on the
right though. I find I like the extra vertical space when dealing with
layers in an AE comp. Haven't found my ideal Softimage setup for it yet.

On Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 5:08 PM, Sven Constable sixsi_l...@imagefront.de
wrote:

 I'm also using wacoms everywhere. Regarding the dual monitor 'problem', I
 came up with this: If you have two 16:10 screens and you put one in
 portrait mode/vertical, the resulting area is nearly 16:10 again. So you
 can use the tablet with 1to1 proportions (no remapping from the wacom
 surface to the screen surface) und you utilitize the entire surface of the
 tablet. Well not exactly because theres a blind spot in one corner.



 With Softimage I'd like to have at least one big sceen for editors/ICE
 etc. So these will use the second (horizontal) monitor and the primary is
 for everything else. But I can switch to have the user cam view on the big
 screen and some other combinations on the fly



 Looks like this:
 http://www.imagefront.de/tmp/softimage_dual_24inch_screens.jpg



 cheers,

 sven



 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Byron Nash
 *Sent:* Tuesday, September 30, 2014 4:55 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: Mouse



 I'm with Gerbrand, I don't currently have a mouse connected. I've used a
 Wacom solely since the late 90's. I just wish Wacom made a dual monitor
 aspect ratio model.



 On Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 10:52 AM, Gerbrand Nel nagv...@gmail.com wrote:

 I don't even have a mouse
 Wacom everything, even counterstrike and COD :)
 G


 On 2014-09-30 04:30 PM, Stephen Davidson wrote:

 I have used the Logitech performance wireless mouse

 http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/performance-mouse-mx



 for over 5 years. Good, overall.

 Complaints?  needs recharging often. The buttons will eventually wear
 out

 over time. For the pricegood value.



 On Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 6:35 AM, Martin Yara furik...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi !



 It isn't a very common topic in this list, but what mouse are you using ?

 do anyone use a trackball? or something else? like a 3d connexion space
 navigator ?



 My mouse middle button is kinda broken lately (double clicks when I'm
 single clicking or simply doesn't do anything) so I'm looking for buying a
 new one. Do you have any recommendation?



 I used to like Logitech mice but since they changed to a metallic wheel
 that is almost unusable I don't buy them anymore. The last one costed me
 $100+ and had to return it the next day because the new wheel was a piece
 of garbage.



 And since we use a middle click quite a lot, I'm looking for something
 that isn't extremely hard to click like those Logitech and some Microsoft
 ones.



 I'm using a Razer Deathadder right now and so far it was perfect, until my
 middle click started to fail sometimes. I would buy a new Deathadder, even
 if it is named Deathadder, but Razer's new cloud based drivers that require
 internet connection and an account are a deal breaker for me. Specially if
 there is a possibility that I'll have to work in my client's office.



 Talking about middle click, Surface Pro 3 doesn't have a middle click, and
 the stencil buttons are unusable in anything but Microsoft OneNote or
 something like that, and are not configurable. At all.

 /SP3 rant off.



 cheers,



 Martin





 --

 Best Regards,
 *  Stephen P. Davidson*

 *   (954) 552-7956 %28954%29%20552-7956*
 sdavid...@3danimationmagic.com

 *Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic*


- Arthur C. Clarke

 http://www.3danimationmagic.com

Re: Glasswoks Lycra

[Byron Nash]

Very nice spot.

On Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 5:41 AM, Alastair Hearsum hear...@glassworks.co.uk
wrote:

  Thanks for the compliment.
 Yes Softimage and Redshift
 Great result from the team here at Glassworks and such a good director
 work with.



  Alastair Hearsum
 Head of 3d
 [image: GLASSWORKS]
  http://www.glassworks.co.uk[image: Facebook]
 http://www.facebook.com/pages/Glassworks/150976168270682 [image:
 Twitter] https://twitter.com/GlassworksVFX [image: Vimeo]
 https://vimeo.com/glassworksamsterdam [image: Instagram]
 http://instagram.com/glassworksvfx/
  See our latest work *here*. http://www.glassworks.co.uk/
  33/34 Great Pulteney Street
 London
 W1F 9NP
 T +44 (0)20 7434 1182
 glassworks.co.uk http://www.glassworks.co.uk
  Glassworks Terms and Conditions of Sale can be found at glassworks.co.uk
  (Company registered in England with number 04759979. Registered office 25
 Harley Street, London, W1G 9BR. VAT registration number: 86729)
  Please consider the environment before you print this email.
  DISCLAIMER: This e-mail and attachments are strictly privileged, private
 and confidential and are intended solely for the stated recipient(s). Any
 views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not
 necessarily represent those of the Company. If you are not the intended
 recipient, be advised that you have received this e-mail in error and that
 any use, dissemination, forwarding, printing, or copying of this e-mail is
 strictly prohibited. If this transmission is received in error please
 kindly return it to the sender and delete this message from your system.
  On 30/09/2014 18:55, olivier jeannel wrote:

 http://www.glassworks.co.uk/video/lycra-moves-yousearch-type=allterm=all

 Beautifull film, out of curiousity are we still speaking softimage here ?

Re: Mouse

[Byron Nash]

I'm with Gerbrand, I don't currently have a mouse connected. I've used a
Wacom solely since the late 90's. I just wish Wacom made a dual monitor
aspect ratio model.

On Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 10:52 AM, Gerbrand Nel nagv...@gmail.com wrote:

  I don't even have a mouse
 Wacom everything, even counterstrike and COD :)
 G

 On 2014-09-30 04:30 PM, Stephen Davidson wrote:

 I have used the Logitech performance wireless mouse
 http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/performance-mouse-mx

  for over 5 years. Good, overall.
 Complaints?  needs recharging often. The buttons will eventually wear
 out
 over time. For the pricegood value.

 On Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 6:35 AM, Martin Yara furik...@gmail.com wrote:

  Hi !

  It isn't a very common topic in this list, but what mouse are you using
 ?
 do anyone use a trackball? or something else? like a 3d connexion space
 navigator ?

  My mouse middle button is kinda broken lately (double clicks when I'm
 single clicking or simply doesn't do anything) so I'm looking for buying a
 new one. Do you have any recommendation?

  I used to like Logitech mice but since they changed to a metallic wheel
 that is almost unusable I don't buy them anymore. The last one costed me
 $100+ and had to return it the next day because the new wheel was a piece
 of garbage.

  And since we use a middle click quite a lot, I'm looking for something
 that isn't extremely hard to click like those Logitech and some Microsoft
 ones.

  I'm using a Razer Deathadder right now and so far it was perfect, until
 my middle click started to fail sometimes. I would buy a new Deathadder,
 even if it is named Deathadder, but Razer's new cloud based drivers that
 require internet connection and an account are a deal breaker for me.
 Specially if there is a possibility that I'll have to work in my client's
 office.

  Talking about middle click, Surface Pro 3 doesn't have a middle click,
 and the stencil buttons are unusable in anything but Microsoft OneNote or
 something like that, and are not configurable. At all.
 /SP3 rant off.

  cheers,

  Martin




  --

  Best Regards,
 *  Stephen P. Davidson*

 *(954) 552-7956 %28954%29%20552-7956 *sdavid...@3danimationmagic.com

 *Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic*


- Arthur C. Clarke

 http://www.3danimationmagic.com

Re: Mouse

[Byron Nash]

@Ed, http://ergo.contour-design.com/ergonomic-mouse/contour-mouse We have
one here and I like using it. The scroll wheel on the thumb is nice.

On Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 2:56 PM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote:

 Does anyone know of a decent true 3-*button* mouse?  I.e. not a scroll
 wheel, but an honest-to-goodness button in the middle?  I've been trying to
 find one for years that isn't just some old-stock ball-driven mouse.

Re: VFX-UX

[Byron Nash]

Godpseed on your new career direction. Thanks for participating on the list
all these years.

On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 8:46 AM, Eric Thivierge ethivie...@hybride.com
wrote:

 Good luck Eric! From one Eric to another...

  Den 22. september 2014 kl. 08:15 skrev Eric Lampi
 ericla...@gmail.com mailto:ericla...@gmail.com:


 Hi All,

 I was getting off a plane in Austin on my way to SXSW
 when I read the news about Soft being discontinued.
 Even though, as I said for a long time, I expected it
 to happen, it was still a shock. That was the day I
 unsubscribed to this list.

 For a variety of reasons and for quite some time, I
 had been trying find something else to do. The state
 of the industry is pretty awful compared to even just
 a few years ago. Soft being killed was the last straw.
 I started using Soft 3D in 1995 and next year would
 have been 20 years since I began my 3D career in NYC.

 So instead of continuing on and having to learn a
 whole new set of tools, it was time to seriously
 evaluate my future in VFX. I was at the point where if
 one more person asked me to make a car out of smoke
 and turn it into 3 dragons made of water and one made
 out of fire, I was going to shoot myself.

 I decided to go in an entirely new direction and began
 coursework to become a User Experience (UX) designer,
 which I completed a short time ago.

 I spent a great deal of time on this list and I have
 to thank all of you who have pitched in over the years
 and helped me out. You're a great group of people. I
 felt a little bad having just signed off like I did,
 so on that note...

 So long and thanks for all the fish.

 Eric

Re: Friday Flashback #189

[Byron Nash]

What year did it become free? I ran that thing as long as I could.

On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 10:38 AM, Stephen Blair stephenrbl...@gmail.com
wrote:

 News from 11 Dec 2002 -- Softimage|XSI BatchServe is available immediately
 from authorized resellers. Through December 22, it is available at the
 introductory price of $495 per client license or $15,000 for a site license.
 http://wp.me/powV4-35Z

ICE: Color Attributes on polygon islands in Motion Tools

[Byron Nash]

We are working on an effect using Gustavo's Motion Tools kit. Getting stuck
trying to pull the color from the point cloud and put it onto the islands.
Anyone done this and have any tips? We are trying to get the color piped
into a CAV map.

Thanks

Re: ICE: Color Attributes on polygon islands in Motion Tools

[Byron Nash]

I think we got it working using self.color instead of using the CAV. I'll
post again if a different approach worked in case anyone runs into this
later.


On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 11:44 AM, Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com wrote:

 We are working on an effect using Gustavo's Motion Tools kit. Getting
 stuck trying to pull the color from the point cloud and put it onto the
 islands. Anyone done this and have any tips? We are trying to get the color
 piped into a CAV map.

 Thanks

Change License from Standalone to Network?

[Byron Nash]

I tried editing the setenv.bat file as illustrated by Steve Blair on the
ex-si blog. It still won't grab a license. Does that approach still work? I
also added the license server to the license.env.

Byron

Re: Change License from Standalone to Network?

[Byron Nash]

Sorry, I'm running around like a chicken with it's head cut off this week.

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2012/08/softimage-family-changing-from-standalone-to-network-licensing.html

Softimage 2015



On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 5:02 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote:

 Might help if you point us to the approach you tried.  Also, which version
 of Softimage are you using?



 Matt









 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Byron Nash
 *Sent:* Wednesday, August 06, 2014 1:49 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Change License from Standalone to Network?



 I tried editing the setenv.bat file as illustrated by Steve Blair on the
 ex-si blog. It still won't grab a license. Does that approach still work? I
 also added the license server to the license.env.



 Byron

Re: Change License from Standalone to Network?

[Byron Nash]

Thanks, re-installing now.


On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 5:18 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote:

 That is the regular procedure and applies to all versions of Softimage
 except 2015.  2015 uses a different licensing model which mirrors the
 subscription updates used by other Autodesk products.  That’s why you can
 no longer have Softimage 2015 and 2015 SP1 (when it becomes available)
 installed side by side on your computer.





 Matt











 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Byron Nash
 *Sent:* Wednesday, August 06, 2014 2:08 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: Change License from Standalone to Network?



 Sorry, I'm running around like a chicken with it's head cut off this week.




 http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2012/08/softimage-family-changing-from-standalone-to-network-licensing.html



 Softimage 2015





 On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 5:02 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com
 wrote:

 Might help if you point us to the approach you tried.  Also, which version
 of Softimage are you using?



 Matt









 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Byron Nash
 *Sent:* Wednesday, August 06, 2014 1:49 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Change License from Standalone to Network?



 I tried editing the setenv.bat file as illustrated by Steve Blair on the
 ex-si blog. It still won't grab a license. Does that approach still work? I
 also added the license server to the license.env.



 Byron

Re: Change License from Standalone to Network?

[Byron Nash]

Yep, changed all the values in setenv.bat and license.env. Re-installed and
chose network but it still goes to standalone now. Might have to get in
touch with support.


On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 6:29 PM, Stephen Blair stephenrbl...@gmail.com
wrote:

 Did you also change SOFTIMAGE_LICENSE_METHOD  in License.env ?


 On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 5:39 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com
 wrote:

 I don’t know if re-installing is necessary.  Did you try editing the
 licpath.lic file in your 2015 installation?





 Matt









 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Byron Nash
 *Sent:* Wednesday, August 06, 2014 2:26 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: Change License from Standalone to Network?



 Thanks, re-installing now.



 On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 5:18 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com
 wrote:

 That is the regular procedure and applies to all versions of Softimage
 except 2015.  2015 uses a different licensing model which mirrors the
 subscription updates used by other Autodesk products.  That’s why you can
 no longer have Softimage 2015 and 2015 SP1 (when it becomes available)
 installed side by side on your computer.





 Matt











 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Byron Nash
 *Sent:* Wednesday, August 06, 2014 2:08 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: Change License from Standalone to Network?



 Sorry, I'm running around like a chicken with it's head cut off this
 week.




 http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2012/08/softimage-family-changing-from-standalone-to-network-licensing.html



 Softimage 2015





 On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 5:02 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com
 wrote:

 Might help if you point us to the approach you tried.  Also, which
 version of Softimage are you using?



 Matt









 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Byron Nash
 *Sent:* Wednesday, August 06, 2014 1:49 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Change License from Standalone to Network?



 I tried editing the setenv.bat file as illustrated by Steve Blair on the
 ex-si blog. It still won't grab a license. Does that approach still work? I
 also added the license server to the license.env.



 Byron

Re: Alembic workflow question/problem

[Byron Nash]

Thanks for the tips. We seemed to overcome it by enveloping the extra bits,
but that could be an issue if we get into eyeball animation. Sending you a
direct link Ho.


On Fri, Jul 25, 2014 at 7:12 AM, Ben Beckett nebbeck...@gmail.com wrote:

 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

Alembic workflow question/problem

[Byron Nash]

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: Convert strands to curves

[Byron Nash]

Awesome. Thanks.


On Mon, Jun 30, 2014 at 2:37 PM, gareth bell garethb...@outlook.com wrote:

 http://vimeo.com/13069069

 How about this?


 --
 From: byronn...@gmail.com
 Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 13:56:20 -0400
 Subject: Re: Convert strands to curves
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com


 Bump, is there a solution for this?


 On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 1:24 PM, john clausing jclausin...@yahoo.com
 wrote:

 Is there a way to convert strands to curves? i have a good result on
 behavior with the strands, but am having a heck of a time getting geometry
 to work with the strands.
 If i could link curves to strands, i could easily deform the geometry on
 the curves.

 any ideas?
 thanks all,

 john

Re: Best Modeling Practices question

[Byron Nash]

The creature will be the focal point of one shot and reasonably large in
frame. The biggest pain against the single sided membrane I'm working
against it getting it surfaced cleanly. The front of the wing has volume
and it was modeled with T intersections as it loops back on itself. I just
see it being a case where one side or another not being able to hide the
seam. I'm most of the way finished adding the other side in and stitching
it back around.


On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 11:26 PM, Raffaele Fragapane 
raffsxsil...@googlemail.com wrote:

 Having done, at this point, bats, dragons, flying dinos, and other types
 of membranes all over the place, not if you're after anything realistic
 looking even quarter field.

 SSS, translucency, occlusion, edge specs and all just don't work out.
 There is also a massive difference in texture between the inside of a
 membrane and the outside, and displacement rarely, if ever, plays well with
 single sided surfaces.

 You get at best crowd quality levels of look-dev out of one sided
 membranes.

 As for Maya's wrap deformer, it's pretty embarassing. You are usually
 better off with rivets on a deforming surface and using NGSkin to make the
 weighting bearable (it has some decent tools to deal with those cases).
 If you can write your own, and even that is a pain given Maya is
 considerably deficient in dealing with point subsets access and pairing,
 do, if not, the wrap deformer is like rolling the dice against bad odds.
 You will occasionally win, most of the time you won't.


 On Wed, Jul 2, 2014 at 7:52 AM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com
 wrote:

 If the surface is thin, why do you need a backside at all?  Can't you
 just use two-sided shading?


 Matt



 -Original Message-
 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Eric Thivierge
 Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2014 2:47 PM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Re: Best Modeling Practices question

 It's just not the same... :(

 not to mention you can't edit the deformer for fringe cases of bad
 deformation.

 On Tuesday, July 01, 2014 5:16:44 PM, Sebastien Sterling wrote:
  you can do this in maya, with the wrap deformer ... i feel so cheap
  now :(





 --
 Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it
 and let them flee like the dogs they are!

Best Modeling Practices question

[Byron Nash]

When modeling a thin object like a bat or pterosaur wing, what is
considered the best approach to avoid interpenetration when rigged? I am
cleaning up a purchased model and the wing has no thickness. I'm sure this
will hold up ok on screen but wondering what an experienced modeler would
do? Mudbox seems to hate how this model is put together and I'm about to
add the other wing side in. My only reserve is that when rigged, we may
have issues keeping the front and back from penetrating.

I'd love to hear what some practiced riggers and animators think.

Thanks,
Byron

Re: Best Modeling Practices question

[Byron Nash]

I'm not sure where the animation is taking place, maybe in Maya since
that's where the rig exists. I mainly need to get it painted and cleaned up
for now.Thanks for the tips though, they are helpful.


On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 4:27 PM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.com wrote:

 What Eric said, with the ICE cage. Alternatively if for some reason ICE is
 not an option for you,you can always GATOR it from a non-double sided,
 weighted wing geometry to ensure that both the top and the bottom are
 weighted the same.

 -=Eric Turman


 On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 3:20 PM, Eric Thivierge ethivie...@hybride.com
 wrote:

 What Sebastian said plus you can deform the wing membrane by a non-double
 sided, rigged wing geometry using the various ICE Cage deformers out there
 as well. We did this on Walking With Dinosaurs quite a bit.

 Eric T.


 On Tuesday, July 01, 2014 4:16:46 PM, Sebastien Sterling wrote:

 the wing thickness needs to match up, the verts on both sides need to
 match up, this way when weighted identically, the two sides of the
 thickness move in unison, this is easily done using the apply
 thickness ICE deformer, you could potentially just have that live,
 depending on your needs, however i don't think the out of the box ICE
 deformer respects uv's. i'd just freeze it, and weight it as such, an
 other threat of interpenetration might come from your topology being
 inadequate for the deformation you want to perform, mesh density can
 also be a big issue. if the topology is to sparse interpenetration
 will occur if the mesh is stresed.

 so


 - make sure both sides match, as close as possible at a vertex level.

 - make sure your weighting is identical on both sides of the thickness

 - try and fix topology if it isn't clean

 - make sure your mesh is dense enough to support the kind of
 deformations you need.

 hope this helps.

 good luck


 On 1 July 2014 20:21, Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com
 mailto:byronn...@gmail.com wrote:

 When modeling a thin object like a bat or pterosaur wing, what is
 considered the best approach to avoid interpenetration when
 rigged? I am cleaning up a purchased model and the wing has no
 thickness. I'm sure this will hold up ok on screen but wondering
 what an experienced modeler would do? Mudbox seems to hate how
 this model is put together and I'm about to add the other wing
 side in. My only reserve is that when rigged, we may have issues
 keeping the front and back from penetrating.

 I'd love to hear what some practiced riggers and animators think.

 Thanks,
 Byron






 --




 -=T=-

Re: Convert strands to curves

[Byron Nash]

Bump, is there a solution for this?


On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 1:24 PM, john clausing jclausin...@yahoo.com
wrote:

 Is there a way to convert strands to curves? i have a good result on
 behavior with the strands, but am having a heck of a time getting geometry
 to work with the strands.
 If i could link curves to strands, i could easily deform the geometry on
 the curves.

 any ideas?
 thanks all,

 john

Hanging basket

[Byron Nash]

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.

OT: Looking for freelancers

[Byron Nash]

We just landed a cool VFX spot and are in need of a few more people to help
out. The spot involves integrating CG with live action plates in a dream
like environment. We would prefer US talent and people willing to travel to
us for at least part of the time. Remote work will be considered if the
talent is right for the role. We are looking for folks who are able to put
a full day's worth of work in so people with day jobs are discouraged at
this time. The start is mid July and the delivery is Mid August. We will
probably run a mixed pipeline so knowledge of various tools is a plus. We
are located in Charlotte, NC.

Email my work address by...@editatjoes.com with your reel if you would like
to be considered.

Thanks!
Byron

Re: OT: Now that the grief over softimage, how did you get over your it on your daily basis?

[Byron Nash]

Answering the original question. Once the announcement was made, it has
created a near impossible environment for me to use Softimage. My employer
already scowled at my use of SI and now he has a reason to dictate me use
another app. We bought a seat of C4D and I'm trying to get up to speed in
it. The only way now that I can run something through SI is if I can
demonstrate a problem only solved in SI or am completely solo(freelance).
Otherwise I'm hemmed in and have to use what they tell me. It was an uphill
battle before fighting for Softimage but now it's a cliff face. For all
those who are able to keep on going, don't take it for granted!

Byron


On Fri, May 23, 2014 at 9:18 AM, Luc-Eric Rousseau luceri...@gmail.comwrote:

 On Fri, May 23, 2014 at 8:36 AM, Jordi Bares jordiba...@gmail.com wrote:
  Can I ask you Luc-Eric how is that the same engine was not put in XSI?
 the
  whole HQV reinvention seems to me like I am missing something.
 
  If you ware allowed to discuss what was the behind that decision? I am
 sure
  it made sense to someone but I still don't get it.

 The HQV project in Softimage was small project we could do in one
 release.  It was about finishing the already-begun MetaSL
 implementation in the viewport, which you could enable with an
 environment variable in Softimage 2010, and fixing a few things like
 transparency and texturing issues that have been asked for a long
 time.  It ended up being a bit more complicated, but we still managed
 to do it with a few people.

 It's not a new viewport, it's just installing realtime shaders in the
 same Softimage viewing code as before.  It's the same thing as the
 OpenGL real time shader mode.

 Now Viewport 2.0 in Maya or Max... those are  huge multi-year project
 with dozens of people, and work continues.  You need to change many
 thing in your app to modernize it to the new viewing philosophy and
 detach it from the old OpenGL and old ways of thinking/coding.  A few
 years ago, when the plan for Softimage 2014 was made, nitrous and vp
 2.0 were both young and struggling so it wasn't obvious at all.

Re: Whats an efficient workflow for importing .IGS?

[Byron Nash]

We eventually had to get Polytrans to keep receiving engineering files from
our clients. It seems to handle conversions well and takes a lot of formats.


On Mon, May 19, 2014 at 2:31 PM, Ryan Maguire rpmagu...@gmail.com wrote:

 I haven't found a decent way of getting .IGS files into softimage without
 having to rebuild parts of the mesh.  I have tried 3ds max and everything
 always imports flawlessly in that software, I guess this . I have tried
 exporting .FBX  .OBJ. I can never get into softimage without issues.

 -Ryan

Re: Photoshop tree generator

[Byron Nash]

Extendscript can access the hard drive as far as creating files and
folders, writing and reading and deleting. Is that what you mean? A script
log for both AE and PSD would be invaluable. I've submitted multiple
feature requests for it.


On Thu, May 8, 2014 at 5:10 AM, Doeke Wartena doeke.wart...@gmail.comwrote:

 take a look at processing.org it's really nice.


 2014-05-08 7:50 GMT+02:00 Martin furik...@gmail.com:

 It isn't scripting friendly though (nor AE is). You have scriptlistener
 for logs but you have to close PS, activate the plugin, relaunch PS, and do
 the opposite after you're done. It should have an echo commands, show log
 or something like that.

 PS doesn't support Python directly so I would have to call that .py
 through a JavaScript to be able to execute it inside PS, so usually I just
 write in JavaScript.

 The downside is that AFAIK JavaScript doesn't have access to your hard
 disk like JScript does so you would have to use VBS or Python for that and
 call it through a JavaScript.


 Martin
 Sent from my iPhone

  On 2014/05/08, at 8:48, Alok Gandhi alok.gandhi2...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  Photoshop is scriptable. I have made some scripts in python for
 personal use.
 
  Also comtypes is a better option for dispatching instead of win32com.
 
  Sent from my iPhone
 
  On May 7, 2014, at 8:38 PM, Doeke Wartena doeke.wart...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 
  sad photoshop still sucks.
  They really should support scripting. And actions are also bad, they
 can help but i often end up programming in another language to get the job
 done.
 

Re: Let's Share Contacts

[Byron Nash]

If it's a group primarily used to maintain a list of contacts, LinkedIn
would be best. If this also needs to be a place with lots of posts back and
forth, I agree that it should be something else. It seemed like the
original intent of this thread was to share contact info to stay in touch.
LinkedIn would be a great fit for that purpose. You could create a private
group if people are worried about it getting diluted with non 'listers'


On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 10:25 AM, Paulo César Duarte paulocdua...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 I think google groups is easier to see the posts, replying, searching
 subjects, I think is faster, a lot of us don't visit often linkedin, but
 the email is much more widely used.


 2014-03-31 10:30 GMT-03:00 Diana David dianarcda...@gmail.com:

 A Portuguese group?! didn't know about that!! cool :D



 2014-03-28 7:57 GMT+00:00 Tenshi S. tenshu...@gmail.com:

 Great initiative.
 Maybe we can create a good Softimage circles in google, skype list, or a
 new facebook community group. Although there is one Softimage group in
 facebook, but in Portuguese.



 On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 12:40 AM, Alok Gandhi alok.gandhi2...@gmail.com
  wrote:

 Hi All,

 As I see, some people are less frequent on the list these days. Some
 are leaving for good, others are not tuning in at all.

 Sooner or later, all of us will bid goodbye to each other, or the list
 may close.

 It would be awesome if we can keep in touch.

 Many of us are connected by twitter, google plus, facebook already but
 it would be great if we can have each others mail id for future.

 Kindly share you mail on this thread so that people who like to keep
 touch can keep it for records.

 Mine is:
 alokdotgandhi2002atgmaildotcom

 --





 --
 D  I  A  N  A  D  A  V  I  D
 http://goog_1392998810www.dianadavid.webuda.com
 e  mail:   dianarcda...@gmail.com





 --
 www.pauloduarte.ws

Re: Let's Share Contacts

[Byron Nash]

Is there a way to import a list of addresses in for 'pre-approval'? The
only hangup with that is many folks will have a different address
associated with linkedin than here.


On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 1:10 PM, David Saber davidsa...@sfr.fr wrote:

 I just created a subgroup in the Softimage XSI Linked In group. It's
 called : XSI Mailing List Contacts backup. Linked In users have to
 request being part of this group. But I don't know how to make it more
 private. There's no option to make it invisible. The 2666 users of the
 regular group may click on request membership , how will I know if they
 are on the mailing list?
 David

Re: Let's Share Contacts

[Byron Nash]

How about we create a Softimage or ex-Softimage group on LinkedIn? I agree
with Graham on LinkedIn being handy. Email addresses and jobs change over
time. I think there already may be a Softimage user group on there, not
sure if that's good enough or not.


On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 3:04 PM, Paulo César Duarte
paulocdua...@gmail.comwrote:

 I think we could make another google groups, any name to suggest?

 - softimageus...@googlegroups.com
 - xsi4e...@googlegroups.com



 paulocdua...@gmail.com


 2014-03-28 15:53 GMT-03:00 Ognjen Vukovic ognj...@gmail.com:

 Maybe a linkedin group  could be created. I know there are loads of them
 already but one just to stand as a backup to this list.


 On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 7:39 PM, Graham D Clark 
 mailgrahamdcl...@gmail.com wrote:

 mailgrahamdcl...@gmail.com
 But Linked in is the best way I've been able to stay in touch with
 industry people, and every couple years I hire a lot if CG VFX people so
 it's been great to find people when needed via LinkedIn
 http://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamclark

 Graham D Clark, Head of Stereography, Deluxe 3D dba Stereo D
 phone: why-I-stereo
 http://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamclark

 On Mar 27, 2014, at 10:40 PM, Alok Gandhi alok.gandhi2...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 Hi All,

 As I see, some people are less frequent on the list these days. Some are
 leaving for good, others are not tuning in at all.

 Sooner or later, all of us will bid goodbye to each other, or the list
 may close.

 It would be awesome if we can keep in touch.

 Many of us are connected by twitter, google plus, facebook already but
 it would be great if we can have each others mail id for future.

 Kindly share you mail on this thread so that people who like to keep
 touch can keep it for records.

 Mine is:
 alokdotgandhi2002atgmaildotcom

 --





 --
 www.pauloduarte.ws

Re: Siggraph in Vancouver this year

[Byron Nash]

Wish I could make it this year but am unable to. Vancouver was my last
SIGGRAPH and I really enjoyed the location. Have fun!


On Thu, Mar 20, 2014 at 6:54 AM, Eric Thivierge ethivie...@gmail.comwrote:

 Hey Greg,

 Not vegan. I love cheese and milk too much. :D

 I'm just vegetarian. Actually flexitarian. I only eat local, free range,
 hormone free meat. Not so easy to find all the time and sometimes go months
 without meat.

 I appreciate your efforts Adam.

 Thanks,
 Eric T.
 On Mar 19, 2014 10:53 PM, Adam Sale adamfs...@gmail.com wrote:

 Fortunately, there are lots of vegan and veggie places and hybrids in the
 city. I can do a little scouting to find somewhere inclusive that serves a
 decent number of people. Good to get on it early too, because the
 convention season and bookings will be in full swing in a month or so.


 On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 7:30 PM, Paul Doyle technove...@gmail.comwrote:

 We went to lunch recently and that was the only vegetarian option. I
 was not sympathetic :)

 Congrats on the weight loss!

 On 19 March 2014 22:17, Greg Punchatz g...@janimation.com wrote:
  OT- While I do eat meat... the last half of this year I have gone to a
 15
  percent meat , 80 percent veggies (nocarb veggies) and 5 percent
 carb... I
  still have a few pounds to go but I am leaner and meaner by over 45
  pounds 38 inch waist to I think 32... my 34s are falling off me
 and just
  have not tried a pair of 32s on...which is my goal.
 
  Eric- I am presuming vegan?? or do you delve into the fishies? I
 presuming
  the reasons for Paul's suggestion is a lot of people are surprised that
  ceasar salads are chalk full of Anchovies
 
 
  On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 7:24 PM, Greg Punchatz g...@janimation.com
 wrote:
 
  Adam... BC style it is... I think that is a reason alone to come to
  siggraph this year... after this year I could use a little northern
  lights SOFTIMAGE STYLE!!
 
 
  On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 7:03 PM, Eric Thivierge ethivie...@gmail.com
 
  wrote:
 
  Just one request for a Veggie friendly place if possible. :) Even if
 it's
  just one dish.
 
  Eric T.
 
  
  Eric Thivierge
  http://www.ethivierge.com
 
 
  On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 8:00 PM, Adam Sale adamfs...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 
  For sure Matt. Keep me in the loop as to your plans...  I was ok
 with
  the Brazilian food last time around, but could have done without
 the chicken
  hearts.
  Maybe we can all do an outing to the Amsterdam Cafe / vapor lounge
 , and
  then really chow down afterwards... lol.
  BC Style
 
 
 
  On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 2:48 PM, Matt Lind 
 ml...@carbinestudios.com
  wrote:
 
  Not sure if I'm going or not as it'll be on the heels of us
 releasing
  our game, but I was planning to hold my annual dinner should I
 attend.  If
  you want, we can work together to share duties.
 
 
 
 
 
  Matt
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
  [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of
 Adam Sale
  Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2014 12:55 PM
  To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
  Subject: Siggraph in Vancouver this year
 
 
 
  Hey All.. Sigg is in my neck of the woods this year. Anyone
 planning to
  attend this year.
 
  Dinner and drinks, or other such debauchery?
 
 
 
  Adam
 
 
 
 
 

Re: Cinema 4D an option?

[Byron Nash]

My boss just bought us a copy during the sale they have right now. For all
the mograph stuff we do it will probably come in handy. I'm not sure how
much it's going to help us trying to pursue more high end VFX work though.
I mentioned Houdini to him and that went nowhere. All he can think about is
finding freelancers to fill seats. There probably isn't a Houdini person
within 300 miles of here.

Byron


On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 3:00 PM, Leoung O'Young digim...@digimata.comwrote:

 I see there are a lot of discussion of Modo, Houdini and even Blender as
 an option excluding AD products, but not much has been talk about Cinema4D.
 It is definitely cheaper. Anyone else looking at it as an option?

 Thanks,
 Leoung

Re: Update to the Softtimage Transition Plan

[Byron Nash]

A question related to the Suites. Am I understanding it correctly that
since we have a Maya Premium Suite now that includes Softimage, we will be
upgraded to the Ultimate Suite at a later time? This would include a seat
of Maya and Max, correct? When would that take place?


On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 3:18 PM, Leoung O'Young digim...@digimata.comwrote:

 Hi Maurice,

 I found out I have one 2011 Essential license which I can upgrade, the
 other 3 licenses are too old.
 Beside upgrading just that license, can I expand that license to an
 advance with render nodes and
 do I have rent options after the end of March timeline?

 Thanks,
 Leoung


 On 07/03/2014 3:04 PM, Maurice Patel wrote:

 Yes it would.
 If you need to scale production you will have two options. You will be
 able to purchase a 3 month or 1 year rental of the transition bundle to
 increase your Softimage seats or you can purchase the bundle itself. If you
 purchase the bundle new you will have the same rights as if you obtained it
 by transitioning from a Softimage license. Please note these options are
 only available to customers who own Softimage already.
 maurice

 Maurice Patel
 Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134


 -Original Message-
 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-bounces@
 listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Jason S
 Sent: Friday, March 07, 2014 2:02 PM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Re: Update to the Softtimage Transition Plan


 Would that also extend  ability to scale (get new licences) ? (at the
 very least for existing customers?)



 On 03/07/14 13:44, Maurice Patel wrote:

 Hi everyone,

 I have an update to the Softimage Transition Plan to share with you:

 When we created the initial Softimage transition plan our desire was to
 provide our customers with an easy, no-cost path to transition  to either
 3ds Max or Maya.  We have been monitoring all of your feedback on the
 forums, including many direct conversations with our customers, and have
 made adjustments to the transition offering to address your concerns.  As
 we had previously announced, a program is available to all Softimage
 customers on Subscription providing you with the option of migrating to 3ds
 Max or Maya via a bundle that will include a Softimage license until April
 2016.  Based on your feedback we will be adding the ability to continue to
 access Softimage indefinitely with your Subscription entitlement even after
 we stop support on Softimage in April 2016.   We have heard you and we want
 to make sure you can continue to be able to access your Softimage projects
 even after the retirement of Softimage.  Our intention was not to create
 more burden on you with this difficult change.

 As many of you have also asked about this, we would also like to clarify
 what will happen if you do not want to transition: your licenses will not
 stop working. Any licenses you have purchased are yours. They are perpetual
 licenses and will continue working whether you are on Subscription or not.
 You will continue to be able to contact support if you need to move a
 license to a new machine.

 maurice
 Maurice Patel
 Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134

Re: Article in La Presse, Montreal Newspaper about Softimage's retirement

[Byron Nash]

So what will happen to the dev team in Asia? I assume they will be busy for
another year doing bug fixes and maintenance, but after that?

Also, I hate to think of the pain of the big shops having to transition
like Hybride, Animal Logic, Blur... ouch.


On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 2:46 PM, Rob Chapman tekano@gmail.com wrote:

 The announcement will not result in layoffs


 anyone wonder why?

 *cough*

 because immediately upon acquisition half left and half were moved to Maya
 / Games / or wherever but most definitely Away from Softimage.

 poor, poor Adsk tried so hard. Marc petit has invested in Fabric Engine
 right..?I do not understand his motivations right here with this
 bullshit lets rewrite history propoganda.  I remember tweeting to him a few
 years ago about the sorry state of Softimage and the lack of any effort by
 Adsk to help it and his reply..

 Softimage is in good hands

Re: Salvage the list.

[Byron Nash]

+1 on not rushing. Autodesk isn't going to shut this thing down tomorrow. I
agree that an alternative should be sought, but we have time to choose
wisely.


On Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 11:42 AM, David Rivera 
activemotionpictu...@yahoo.com wrote:

 So official posting for everyone to know (and get cached on google´s
 bots) are: softimage.tv, and si-community ?
 Or vimeo channels? Please help us so the whole planet knows. Also Twitter
 with official account for this list, it´s a point missing.

 thank you all, guys. We´re really making this hard news trhough.
 David R.




   On Wednesday, March 5, 2014 11:28 AM, Francisco Criado 
 malcriad...@gmail.com wrote:
  the original idea was to make a new mailing list that will not only give
 home to the ones that will keep using softimage, but also the ones that
 will migrate to other software, and coninue sharing ideas, workflows and
 methods to translate softimage workarounds to other software too.
 So the name related to softimage wouldnt work in my opinion.

 F.




 2014-03-05 13:16 GMT-03:00 Gustavo Eggert Boehs gustav...@gmail.com:

 Xsi orphans

 Em quarta-feira, 5 de março de 2014, Leendert A. Hartog 
 leender...@planet.nl escreveu:


  Naming it shouldn't pose too much of a problem: simply recall it the
 XSI-mailing list as opposed to Autodeskian Softimage one

 Leendert

 Leendert A. Hartog - Softimage hobbyist
 AKA Hirazi Blue - Administrator @, NOT the owner of si-community.com







 --
 Gustavo E Boehs
 Dpto. de Expressão Gráfica | Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina |
 http://www.gustavoeb.com.br/

Re: Retirement.....

[Byron Nash]

I agree Enrique, the XSI-List is a big part of the reason Softimage was so
awesome.


On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 11:33 AM, Enrique Caballero 
enriquecaball...@gmail.com wrote:

 hopefully you all will stick around on this list, or move as a group. as
 I've grown to rely on this mailing list whenever I've had trouble or needed
 some advice. I don't think I could match this community if i tried.



 On Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 12:27 AM, Doeke Wartena clankil...@gmail.comwrote:

 They should have included a free version for maya and max users years
 ago. That way the might have could sink another boat by now.
 I will switch in 2 years to modo or houdini.

 Sad softimage was sold to satan.


 2014-03-04 17:24 GMT+01:00 Daniel H vfxc...@gmail.com:

 Ok Ed. This is the stage I'm at.

 10 LET denial = 1
 20 LET anger = 0
 30 GOTO 40
 40 IF denial = 1 THEN GOTO 50
 50 LET anger = anger + 1
 60 PRINT HATE, HATE, HATE, BUT LOATHE AUTODESK ENTIRELY!
 70 PRINT anger
 80 IF anger = 1 THEN GOTO 50
 90 END

 You can paste it here: http://www.calormen.com/jsbasic/ It runs. :)

 Daniel
 VFXM



 On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 9:36 AM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote:

 Stage 1 lasted nearly 5 years. It's only natural to spend a few days in
 stage 2.


 The stages, popularly known by the acronym *DABDA*, include:

Re: Salvage the list.

[Byron Nash]

If the list ever morphs into something new, I would like to cast a vote
that it stay an email discussion list and not be a forum. I feel like lists
have more accountability and are easier to keep up with.

Just my $.02


On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 9:10 PM, Emilio Hernandez emi...@e-roja.com wrote:

 I totally agree with what you've said Sebastien.  And I believe that
 SI-Communtiy is that right place for us to go, and keep it going.  Many has
 been shared here.  Knowledge, passion, dislikes, etc., and that is what
 have made the community so strong.

 I believe that we need a refresh.

 I have a deep respect for all the members on this list.  I have recieved
 so much from all of you.

 Been said that, I apologyze if some of my actions in this list made feel
 anyone uncomfortable.  Never meant no harm to anyone.

 A little bit of overpassion for the latest events.

 People that know me, know about my passion for my work, for my friends and
 my seriousness when it comes to work, to deliver, to share, to teach, and
 learn.

 It is not because my entire life swings around Softimage.  It is because
 with Softimage I have achieved amazing things that I could only imagine
 before in my dreams.  It is like Softimage is connected to my mind in some
 other ways that I haven't found in other 3d softwares.

 Each time I see other's work, it never stops surprising of the
 possibilities that in all this years I still need to explore.

 Well, this is my last post in this list regarding this matter.

 If someone would ever needs of my knowledge or hands.  I will be there.

 Always glad to help.

 Trully yours

 Emilio Hernández
 (The guy with the annoying and ugly signature)


 ---
 Emilio Hernández   VFX  3D animation.


 2014-03-04 19:44 GMT-06:00 Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com:

 You don't seem to be aware of many things these days Luc-eric :P. no...
 that wasn't fair of me i apologize.

 My point was more to the effect that we should not wait for such plans to
 occur.
 Allowing people to ease into a new routine

 Yes Francisco, i too think a new list would be a good option. one that
 represents other demographics as well would make sense

 Emilio, you are a true SI soldier and i share your passion, I'm not
 encouraging an exodus here, but instigating an initiative to safeguard the
 knoledge of this list, that knowledge is its members and we both know that
 many here will not have the choice not to transition, i'd like these people
 to have a place too, and i don't think a banner should be held aloft as a
 heavy reminder of what we have lost. it would only lead to wat ever new
 structure to become a mourning wall. i hope you understand

 (please don't hate me !) :(


 On 5 March 2014 01:09, Luc-Eric Rousseau luceri...@gmail.com wrote:

 I'm not aware of plans to shut down this list. If there were, the Google
 group could be used as a backup
  On Mar 4, 2014 7:53 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 My fellows, friends, comrades.

 The recent events that have befallen our community enunciate a breaking.

 After this nothing or very little will be the same. People will shortly
 be departing for uncertain pastures. One way or another, a long journey
 through the night awaits us all, and we will find new lights and some will
 find new apps to call home.

 But I think that it is important we take steps to preserve this
 community even if our paths seem to be at a crossing. For the knowledge and
 solace woven here, surely they can not take.

 If we are to move to a new list or to regroup around an existing
 resource, eg: SI-community, we should do so soon before someone comes along
 and shuts down this list scattering us to the winds of which not all of us
 may find their way back.

 I salute you all you are,were,and will be forever the best and fines
 this industry could hope for.


 - A statue of one of the old kings they must have hacked his head off.

 - But look ! [...] He wears a crown again, a crown of flowers like
 small stars.They cannot conquer forever.

 - J.R.R Tolkien

Fire FX

[Byron Nash]

I'm putting together bid recommendations for a spot with some CG fire in
it. For those that have gone through this before, what techniques should I
consider. emFluid? My boss asked me to look into Maya but I know ICE a lot
better than Maya's FX system. The look is trails of flames, not huge
volumes of fire from explosions.

Re: Re[2]: Fire FX

[Byron Nash]

Great tips guys. We have Softimage and Maya here, so potentially FumeFX or
emFluid / BA shaders are both options. I just need to pick one and run with
it. I'm reluctant to use Maya since I haven't done any of that type of work
in it. Does FumeFX have a steep learning curve?


On Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 4:07 PM, Artur Woźniak artur.w...@gmail.com wrote:

  The core sim was never the problem with XSI.
 The problem is render and from what I heard Holger's fluid shader solves
 the problem.
 I never had the chance to use it (studio's weird politics) even though I
 am a huge XSI+Arnold freak. It was always fumeFX for me to save the day as
 you can whip out sims with great look in an instant. I know, 3DS Max. This
 is the only reason for me to use that.

  Artur Woźniak
  %2B48%20663%20749%20222

 3D Generalist
 https://vimeo.com/83506156
 https://vimeo.com/user3560131/videos

 -- Wiadomość oryginalna --
 Od: Ahmidou Lyazidi ahmidou@gmail.com
 Do: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Wysłano: 2014-03-03 20:51:20
 Temat: Re: Fire FX


 emFluid and Holger's fluid shader is the way to go!

  ---
 Ahmidou Lyazidi
 Director | TD | CG artist
 http://vimeo.com/ahmidou/videos
 http://www.cappuccino-films.com


 2014-03-03 19:57 GMT+01:00 Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com:

 I'm putting together bid recommendations for a spot with some CG fire in
 it. For those that have gone through this before, what techniques should I
 consider. emFluid? My boss asked me to look into Maya but I know ICE a lot
 better than Maya's FX system. The look is trails of flames, not huge
 volumes of fire from explosions.

Re: Windows 8

[Byron Nash]

So, to sum it all up from everyone. Windows 8 is faster and better except
that it's terrible. Did I get that right?


On Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 9:19 AM, Ognjen Vukovic ognj...@gmail.com wrote:

 And then  theres this...

 http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/threshold-be-called-windows-9-ship-april-2015


 On Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 11:30 AM, Nuno Conceicao 
 nunoalexconcei...@gmail.com wrote:

 Its definitely faster to boot than windows 7


 On Sat, Jan 11, 2014 at 2:08 AM, Emilio Hernandez emi...@e-roja.comwrote:

 I am about to install windows 8.  Just wanted to ask if it is worth it
 or not.

 Any increase in performance?

 Strange issues with Softimage?

 Thx.

Re: rumor, Soft dead within the next year

[Byron Nash]

When switching over to Redshift, are you all typically redoing the shaders
using the Redshift ones or trying to rely on the compatibility with
standard ones? I'm interested to check it out but would like to approach it
correctly.

Thanks,
Byron


On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 11:41 AM, Emilio Hernandez emi...@e-roja.com wrote:

 It sounds promising.  I don't know.

 The funny thing is that Quadros actually render slower than GTX in my
 experience. As they have lower CUDA cores.  My GTX470 alone rendered faster
 than a Quadro 3000.  As the GTX is more focused to games and Quadros to
 faster video display processing, the Quadros have a lower memory bandwith
 and less CUDA cores.  At least from the last comparisions I have doing in
 the Nvidia site.  Actually I was planning to upgrade my GTX470 to a GTX
 780Ti instead of the Titan.  A few bucks off the price and it has excellent
 specs.

 GTX 780 Ti GPU Engine Specs:
 2880CUDA Cores
 875Base Clock (MHz)
 928Boost Clock (MHz)
 210Texture Fill Rate (GigaTexels/sec)

 GTX 780 Ti Memory Specs:
 7.0 GbpsMemory Clock
 3072 MBStandard Memory Config
 GDDR5Memory Interface
 384-bitMemory Interface Width
 336Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec)


 From this numbers what you are looking for, is to see which GPU will
 perform faster are the number of CUDA Cores and the memory bandwith.  The
 higher the better.  As the memory bandwith is how fast the data can be
 transfered to memory to be processed by the CUDA cores.

 Some guys are already using Redshift with RoyalRender.  I don't how fast
 they are rendering, but now you can have a render farm with cheap
 processors and a couple of this GPU inside.

 A quick example.

 The same scene in round numbers per frame in my machine.

 Arnold:   15 min
 Redhsfit:  4 min

 So you can expect at least a reduction of 73% in your render times.










 2014/1/8 Dan Yargici danyarg...@gmail.com

 Anyone tried using gpubox with Redshift?

 http://renegatt.com/



 On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 3:55 PM, Stephen Davidson 
 magic...@bellsouth.netwrote:

 +1 here. Redshift is faster on one machine than Mentalray on two of the
 same CPU (i7 950)
 and I am using a Nvidia Quadro FX 3800 (older card)
 I would imagine multiple CUDA cards would be lightning fast.
 Redshift is also so well integrated into Softimage. Very little
 learning to be up and running in a short time.
 Basically, just a few custom shaders, the rest are the existing shaders.

 Well worth the $100 Beta and then $300 more when the first release comes
 out.
 The tech support is outstanding. I was an Alpha user. Very happy.


 On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 10:55 PM, Emilio Hernandez emi...@e-roja.comwrote:

 Hey Sebastian have you tried Redshift.  The beta is only 100USD and it
 works like a charm, it is full integrated into Softimage and unless you are
 going to do Hair or Strands it is worth every penny.  Specially for a one
 man show.  Forget about CPU and use the GPU.

 In my case I can continue working while I am rendering and that is
 surely a big added value.

 Faster than MR and faster than Arnold, and zero flickering with GI in
 animation.






 2014/1/7 Sebastien Sterling sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com

 9000€... it's going to be tough, but your worth it :)


 On 6 January 2014 13:34, Sven Constable sixsi_l...@imagefront.dewrote:

 Maybe true but one thing to keep in mind is you don't have to spend
 extra money for mental ray (at least no significant amount). For one man
 shows like me mr is still useful. I use it on a small farm with 8 nodes
 plus the workstation. Switching to arnold will cost me 9000€ . Thats
 roughly the same cost that my whole DCC apps are about. I see mr like I 
 see
 the FXTree...it's does not compete to nuke but it's integrated in soft 
 and
 already there.  I agree that there aren't any reasons to stay with mr
 except the the expense factor and legacy things.

 sven

 -Original Message-
 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Tim Leydecker
 Sent: Monday, January 06, 2014 12:12 PM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Re: rumor, Soft dead within the next year

 Now while we are at it.

 I´m currently preparing assets that need to be free of 3rd party
 functionality.

 This means I have to set them up with a mR shading network to start
 folks off with.

 mental ray. The common thing between 3DSMax, Maya and Softimage.

 Please.

 Kill it.

 It´s not getting anyone anywhere anymore. I don´t want to discuss
 details or legacy reasons.

 Kill it. It´s over. It won´t come back.

 Selling three different DCC apps that actually share the fact that
 you will first have to invest in a 3rd party renderer to get something
 looking half way decent out of them can´t be the most ideal situation 
 but a
 pretty nice way of creating an industry standard of wasting people´s life
 with forcing them in personal overtime.

 What a crap.

 Really.

 Provide a renderer that actually works as advertised. Or 

Re: Redshift3D Render

[Byron Nash]

I'm pretty excited about GPU rendering as a concept and this is the first
time I've tried it in a DCC app. I have to say it's really nice to be doing
Render Region renders and never peg out the CPU. I typically have a lot of
things open and switch around a lot and having the CPU free to run other
things is a big plus.


On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 5:13 PM, Tim Leydecker bauero...@gmx.de wrote:

 For a current list of features available as well as a roadmap,
 I would like to suggest to just go and give it a free try:

 https://www.redshift3d.com/get-redshift

 Yes, actually you don´t even have to commit to spending $100 directly,
 the Free Beta Trial gives you 30 days of full access to Redshift.

 A special benefit of this free trial option is that you could actually
 try out how a bunch of machines would run using redshift in a farm or knot.

 Reading the docs doesn´t require a login:

 http://docs.redshift3d.com/Default.html


 Redshift is a really well balanced renderer and I wholehartedly trust in
 it´s success.

 With the above opportunity available it is a good time to test it in your
 production scenario
 and wheight it against VRay and Arnold, which are also both very nice
 plattforms with
 enough momentum to also be around for quite a while.

 I am sure Redshift is a valuable addition to that arsenal.

 Cheers,

 tim








 On 08.01.2014 22:44, Emilio Hernandez wrote:

 Backing up Tim, in the forums there is actually a hair test in Softimage
 with a simple phong shader.  And IMHO it looks nice.




 2014/1/8 Tim Crowson tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com mailto:tim.crowson@
 magneticdreams.com


 They've stated pretty clearly that Hair and Strand support is the
 next big thing to come... shouldn't be too long now...

 -Tim



 On 1/8/2014 3:36 PM, Daniel Kim wrote:

 I found some weird result of displacement map with Redshift.
 Elevation is okay, but sometimes I could see weird connection of UVM. All
 UVM boders wasn't smooth and I had no
 idea how to fix it. Arnold has that option though : / But more
 option I need is... hair @__@ and ICE strand


 ---
 Daniel Kim
 Animation Director  Professional 3D Generalist
 http://www.danielkim3d.com
 ---




 On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 10:31 AM, Emilio Hernandez 
 emi...@e-roja.commailto:
 emi...@e-roja.com wrote:

 Displacement and bump map are there and they work beautiful.
  They event implement a scalar change range into the displacement node.




 2014/1/8 Tim Crowson tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com mailto:
 tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com


 I'll repost what I said in the other thread

 We started using Redshift back in March and pretty much use
 it exclusively now. Of course it all depends on the needs of the project
 (and there are still some real
 limitations).  The RS dev team is top notch though. I'm
 really excited to see how things will be at the end of this calendar year.
  Redshift development is
 progressing at a fantastic rate, and the pricing is very
 competitive. For facilities, even small ones, it does require that you
 spend some time considering your
 hardware and infrastructure, especially if you want to start
 converting CPU farms for GPU rendering, or augmenting them. Fortunately,
 Redshift isn't licensed per GPU,
 but per machine, and that should provide some breathing room.

 To be honest (and I realize we have many Arnold folks here),
 here at Magnetic we evaluated our rendering options (MR, vRay, 3Delight,
 Arnold). I even started working
 on a Soft-to-Modo pipeline. Among these Arnold was the clear
 winner. That said, we felt that to be useful for us in production, Arnold
 was too costly a solution for
 us, both financially and in render time, /considering the
 kinds of projects we do/ . Then Redshift came along and despite its
 infancy, really turned our heads. We

 cautiously began using it on productions, and it has since
 proven itself for us.

 Again, it all depends on what kind of project you're working
 on! You need to evaluate it for yourself of course, but for smaller houses
 like us, it allows us to
 produce better looking content faster, while staying in
 Softimage. And in this economy, we can't argue with that.

 -Tim



 On 1/8/2014 2:53 PM, Paul Griswold wrote:

 I've been using it along side Arnold for quite a while now.
  I just finished a project for CES entirely in Redshift.

 I think Redshift falls more into the category of a VRay
 competitor rather than Arnold.  Redshift isn't open the way Arnold is  I
 don't think they intend it to be.

 I've found it to be extremely fast and stable in most
 cases, but being just out of alpha there 

Object Label Framebuffer is different on each frame

[Byron Nash]

I just rendered a pass and added a, Object Label framebuffer to it. Every
frame is a different color for each object. I've never seen this before and
am not sure how to correct it.
Thanks for any help.

Byron

Re: positivity

[Byron Nash]

The positivity is appreciated. After spending the last month or so mostly
working in another package I appreciate Softimage even more than I already
did. I agree that keeping the outflow of head turning work can attract
users and change perceptions.

Merry Christmas and Happy New year to all!


On Fri, Dec 20, 2013 at 7:24 AM, Morten Bartholdy x...@colorshopvfx.dkwrote:

   Very well put Adrian. I am as concerned as anyone about the future of
 my favorite tool but the future lies in may ways in our hands, as we are in
 a position to nudge things in the direction we want. Positivity is
 generally a good mindset, and it certainly applies here.



 I miss Porls bright observations on life in general BTW :)



 Morten Bartholdy

 VFX Supervisor

 gimmickvfx.com






 Den 20. december 2013 kl. 12:50 skrev adrian wyer 
 adrian.w...@fluid-pictures.com:

Hey guys, just wanted to raise some points regarding the general mood
 of users and the future of our little group



  Lately the list has been falling into the habit of turning many threads
 into a doom saying, end-of-the-world kind of vibe (not discounting my self
 here)



  When i first joined this list (and the much missed Discussion list) it
 was an invaluable resource for shared knowledge, instruction, encouragement
 and feedback (both positive and negative) also it was great place to find
 out about cheese and monkeys! (i'm looking at you Ed)



  While i still find the list to be a hugely valuable resource for
 techniques and news, we are occasionally running into the doom laden tech
 equivalent of Godwin's law!

  This list is a gift, as many of you know, when compared with other
 online forums/mailing lists, in that it's mostly self moderated and, on the
 whole, a nice place to hang out.

  There's obviously been some doubt and uncertainty regarding the future
 of our software (no different from many other package's forums, the
 industry IS constantly shifting), and believe me i have a VERY vested
 interest in the continued use of Soft, i have NO intention of abandoning
 ship at the first sign of choppy waters. (frankly i'd rather step away from
 the computer, than be forced to learn an older/inferior application)
 But there IS a future, the app isn't dead, the community might be smaller,
 but there is still a wealth of skill and experience here, and i hope, by
 force of will, we'll be able to keep the fires burning!



  If anything is going to bring about the end of Softimage as we know it,
 it won't be some bean counter in an office at Autodyne (cyberdesk?) it will
 be the lack of users



  While we can't 'make' autodesk push soft, our work speaks volumes for
 it's quality, and that work is getting better and more high profile than
 it's been in ages.

  What we CAN do is tell people in the industry how enabling the software
 is, how it helps us hit deadlines, create amazing imagery and break
 technical boundaries that other DCC apps really do struggle with. By
 spreading the word other software users and students get to hear what a
 great app it is, they might try it, they might get hooked, and then we
 benefit by having a new talent pool. If there's demand, then more courses
 will be taught using the app and as long as freelancers keep coming up
 through the ranks, there'll be a demand for new versions of the software
 (and new innovations and features)

  I have friends who've come across from other apps to use Soft, primarily
 for ICE, but then have realised what a great all round app it is come
 for the ICE, stay for the object model/rendertree/passes etc, etc, etc!



  I'm not preaching/ranting (much) i just want to put it on a public space
 that i love my software, i believe we are empowered to help keep it alive,
 and they'll get it off me when they pry it from my cold dead fingers!!



  oh and merry christmas, you cheesy monkey boys (and girls)



  a



  Adrian Wyer
 Fluid Pictures
 75-77 Margaret St .
 London
 W1W 8SY
 ++44(0) 207 580 0829


 adrian.w...@fluid-pictures.com

  www.fluid-pictures.com



  Fluid Pictures Limited is registered in England and Wales .
 Company number:5657815
 VAT number: 872 6893 71

Re: Image Modeler alternatives?? looking for something with 32bit import/export functionality.

[Byron Nash]

Take a look at this one. http://www.agisoft.ru/products/photoscan
I have messed with the demo but don't own it. The stuff they have on the
site is pretty impressive.


On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 2:32 PM, Paul Griswold 
pgrisw...@fusiondigitalproductions.com wrote:

 I haven't done much more than play with it, but I thought 123D Catch could
 do something like that.

 -Paul




 ᐧ


 On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 2:25 PM, Rob Wuijster r...@casema.nl wrote:

  Hi all,

 As Image Modeler still works, but slowly starting to show it's age (no
 HDRI /32bit file input), I'm looking for something similar.
 Something I can use to (re)create a scene from a HDRI panorama or set of
 stills, and being able to project the HDRI image back on top of the geo.
 After that export to FBX or alike and import into Softimage.

 Unfortunately 16bit is the best you get with ImageModeler. It's too bad
 the app is dead now. :-\

 So Tips and links appreciated.

 P.S. I know about Nuke's 8 new modeling tools, but that's a bit on the
 expensive side, same with Mari ;-)

 --

 cheers,

 Rob

 \/-\/\/

Re: Static Turbulence

[Byron Nash]

Thanks guys. Paul's video is exactly the problem I had. I think I figured
out the step one of his video and will be taking it to the next step based
on his approach.


On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 12:34 PM, olivier jeannel
olivier.jean...@noos.frwrote:

  Paul Smith propose something, I think in this video :
 https://vimeo.com/66054707

 Le 11/12/2013 04:13, Eric Lampi a écrit :

  No it wouldn't,  I misunderstood what he was using it with.

  Thanks


 Freelance 3D and VFX animator

 http://vimeopro.com/user7979713/3d-work


 On Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 7:16 PM, Benoit Delaunay 
 delaunay@gmail.comwrote:

 Eric, I don't think it would work if the mesh is animated with an
 enveloppe or another deformer.


  Byron I had the exact same problem a few weeks ago and fixed it with the
 xocean compound. Voronoi noise is quite nice :)

Static Turbulence

[Byron Nash]

I have an animated ground plane mesh I brought in from Maya as a FBX cache.
I need to add some high frequency noise to it and send it back. My first
pass has nice noise with a quick turbulence node but it sort of swims as
the mesh moves through space. I'd like to set my offset on the first frame
for the noise and then have it be the same throughout the sequence. I tried
piping the turbulence into a custom set data node and then in another ICE
tree read that data and move the points accordingly. It seems like it's
still swimming. I'm guessing the set data node is reading the turbulence
every frame? What's the best way to do what I'm asking?

Thanks!

Byron

Re: Static Turbulence

[Byron Nash]

Yes, it wasn't that. The issue was my ground was moving around and ended up
getting different turbulence values as it moved through space. Maybe it's a
result of the FBX cache?  I think I found a way to fix it, however
un-elegant. I made a copy of the original and froze it. Created an ice tree
to calculate the turbulence offset and stored it. Then in the animated
version added that offset value to the mesh. Seems to work.


On Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 4:57 PM, Grahame Fuller grahame.ful...@autodesk.com
 wrote:

 Did you turn off Is Animated?

 gray

 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Byron Nash
 Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 4:47 PM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Static Turbulence

 I have an animated ground plane mesh I brought in from Maya as a FBX
 cache. I need to add some high frequency noise to it and send it back. My
 first pass has nice noise with a quick turbulence node but it sort of
 swims as the mesh moves through space. I'd like to set my offset on the
 first frame for the noise and then have it be the same throughout the
 sequence. I tried piping the turbulence into a custom set data node and
 then in another ICE tree read that data and move the points accordingly. It
 seems like it's still swimming. I'm guessing the set data node is reading
 the turbulence every frame? What's the best way to do what I'm asking?

 Thanks!

 Byron

Re: AE Help request

[Byron Nash]

Are you trying to scale the render in the Output Module? If so, don't. I
would suggest using one the of the presets in Adobe Media Encoder to start.
If you need to scale the comp, be sure to use Use Maximum Render Quality
and Render at Maximum Depth. One of those switches uses a bicubic scaler
which is better.


On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 1:08 PM, Angus Davidson
angus.david...@wits.ac.zawrote:

  And apologies for not changing the thread title

  Hi Guys

  Quick question. We are having a lot of issues in after effects (which I
 don’t know – I can get it to work in Nuke but I don’t have the time to redo
 all of their comps) where we are getting a lot of pixilation on the final
 AE render. Currently using H264 max quality, streaming off which has always
 worked well in the past. This is AE6.

  I have checked the image sequences and they are great. Anyone have a
 suggested codec / setting which is not prone to this.

  As this is a student render its at half HD i.e. 1280 x 720 not not the
 best of resolutions to begin with.

  Kind regards

  Angus

   From: Angus Davidson angus.david...@wits.ac.za
 Reply-To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com 
 softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Date: Wednesday 13 November 2013 at 8:00 PM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Re: Freeze ICE tree to geometry

   Hi Guys

  Quick question. We are having a lot of issues in after effects (which I
 don’t know – I can get it to work in Nuke but I don’t have the time to redo
 all of their comps) where we are getting a lot of pixilation on the final
 AE render. Currently using H264 max quality, streaming off which has always
 worked well in the past. This is AE6.

  I have checked the image sequences and they are great. Anyone have a
 suggested codec / setting which is not prone to this.

  As this is a student render its at half HD i.e. 1280 x 720 not not the
 best of resolutions to begin with.

  Kind regards

  Angus

   From: Chris Marshall chrismarshal...@gmail.com
 Reply-To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com 
 softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Date: Wednesday 13 November 2013 at 7:35 PM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Re: Freeze ICE tree to geometry

   Hi,
 Just following this thread up. Is there a way of freezing instanced ICE
 geometry, into a single poly object? I DON'T need it to be live, just want
 to bake it.
 Thought this might be doable without plugins.
 Thanks
 Chris




 On 4 November 2013 17:56, Jonny Grew jonny.g...@gmail.com wrote:

 Cheers Andreas - I know about that one and know it works a treat but the
 studio I'm working at doesn't have it.  Have heard about em_topolizer2 too
 and price wise I might be able to convince them to spend some money but
 ideally I was looking for something that could do it without having to go
 through a laborious process of trying to get money spent!!



  *-- *
 *Jonny Grew Ltd *
  *www.Jonnygrew.com http://www.Jonnygrew.com*
 *http://vimeo.com/jonnygrew/showreel2013*http://vimeo.com/jonnygrew/showreel2013
  *07855 212722*

  Jonny Grew Limited is registered in England and Wales.
 Company number:07735521
 VAT number: 122713057


   This email and any attachments to it may be confidential and are
 intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any
 views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not
 necessarily represent those of Jonny Grew Ltd.

 If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you must neither
 take any action based upon its contents, nor copy or show it to anyone.

 Please contact the sender if you believe you have received this email in
 error.




 On 4 November 2013 17:52, Vincent Langer m...@vincentlanger.com wrote:

 Or em_topolizer2 - it is awesome!!

 cheers,
 Vincent


 2013/11/4 Andreas Böinghoff boeingh...@s-farm.de

  Check Momentum - Geometry Tools - Instancer.

 It creates for you a polygon mesh with all our Instances in it. Its
 live, but is merged! If your mashes are not to big that could be a way.

 Andreas


 On 11/4/2013 6:39 PM, Jonny Grew wrote:

 Following on from my thread about issues of importing and ICE Cache for
 my MB feather tools it's been recommended I start another thread to see if
 anyone can point out a script/tool to convert my instanced geometry
 (multiple instanced objects) to geometry. - Hopefully this remains live so
 I can point cache it out for the render scene for submitting to the farm.

  It seems that PolyMesh Duplicate only allows one instance
 Taking a look at guillaume's 'create poly mesh from instance shape'.

  Any more recommendations or pointers out there?!

  Cheers
 Jonny



  --




  ANDREAS BÖINGHOFF

 3D Artist




  schönheitsfarm production

 GmbH  Co. KG


schönheitsfarm

 hamburg

   lippmannstrasse 79

   22769 hamburg

   t   +4940 432 91 200

   f   +4940 432 91 222





 schönheitsfarm

 düsseldorf

   steinstraße 11

   40212 düsseldorf

   t   +49211 913 701 

Re: AE Help request

[Byron Nash]

Yeah, I *never* do any compression out of AE. I always use AME, or Episode
or something else.


On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 5:41 PM, Adam Seeley adam_see...@yahoo.com wrote:

 Once you get salad involved there's bound to be trouble.


 You could try rendering the comp out using a high MoJpeg setting and then
 re-encode straight out of QT for an H264. I find QT will give a better
 compression than AE.

 Adam
 -
 http://www.linkedin.com/in/adamseeleyukhttp://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=21162305
  https://vimeo.com/adamseeley https://vimeo.com/album/2280465




   --
  *From:* Angus Davidson angus.david...@wits.ac.za
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Sent:* Wednesday, 13 November 2013, 19:12

 *Subject:* Re: AE Help request

 Hi Byron

  No scaling involved.  In more testing I found that they have a
 vinaigrette type effect that might be the source of the problem.

  Kind regards

  Angus

   From: Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com
 Reply-To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com 
 softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Date: Wednesday 13 November 2013 at 9:01 PM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Re: AE Help request

   Are you trying to scale the render in the Output Module? If so, don't.
 I would suggest using one the of the presets in Adobe Media Encoder to
 start. If you need to scale the comp, be sure to use Use Maximum Render
 Quality and Render at Maximum Depth. One of those switches uses a
 bicubic scaler which is better.


 On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 1:08 PM, Angus Davidson angus.david...@wits.ac.za
  wrote:

  And apologies for not changing the thread title

  Hi Guys

  Quick question. We are having a lot of issues in after effects (which I
 don’t know – I can get it to work in Nuke but I don’t have the time to redo
 all of their comps) where we are getting a lot of pixilation on the final
 AE render. Currently using H264 max quality, streaming off which has always
 worked well in the past. This is AE6.

  I have checked the image sequences and they are great. Anyone have a
 suggested codec / setting which is not prone to this.

  As this is a student render its at half HD i.e. 1280 x 720 not not the
 best of resolutions to begin with.

  Kind regards

  Angus

   From: Angus Davidson angus.david...@wits.ac.za
 Reply-To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com 
 softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Date: Wednesday 13 November 2013 at 8:00 PM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Re: Freeze ICE tree to geometry

   Hi Guys

  Quick question. We are having a lot of issues in after effects (which I
 don’t know – I can get it to work in Nuke but I don’t have the time to redo
 all of their comps) where we are getting a lot of pixilation on the final
 AE render. Currently using H264 max quality, streaming off which has always
 worked well in the past. This is AE6.

  I have checked the image sequences and they are great. Anyone have a
 suggested codec / setting which is not prone to this.

  As this is a student render its at half HD i.e. 1280 x 720 not not the
 best of resolutions to begin with.

  Kind regards

  Angus

   From: Chris Marshall chrismarshal...@gmail.com
 Reply-To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com 
 softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Date: Wednesday 13 November 2013 at 7:35 PM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Re: Freeze ICE tree to geometry

   Hi,
 Just following this thread up. Is there a way of freezing instanced ICE
 geometry, into a single poly object? I DON'T need it to be live, just want
 to bake it.
 Thought this might be doable without plugins.
 Thanks
 Chris




 On 4 November 2013 17:56, Jonny Grew jonny.g...@gmail.com wrote:

 Cheers Andreas - I know about that one and know it works a treat but the
 studio I'm working at doesn't have it.  Have heard about em_topolizer2 too
 and price wise I might be able to convince them to spend some money but
 ideally I was looking for something that could do it without having to go
 through a laborious process of trying to get money spent!!



  *-- *
 *Jonny Grew Ltd *
  *www.Jonnygrew.com http://www.jonnygrew.com/*
 *http://vimeo.com/jonnygrew/showreel2013*http://vimeo.com/jonnygrew/showreel2013
  *07855 212722*

  Jonny Grew Limited is registered in England and Wales.
 Company number:07735521
 VAT number: 122713057


   This email and any attachments to it may be confidential and are
 intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any
 views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not
 necessarily represent those of Jonny Grew Ltd.
  If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you must neither
 take any action based upon its contents, nor copy or show it to anyone.
  Please contact the sender if you believe you have received this email in
 error.




 On 4 November 2013 17:52, Vincent Langer m

Controlling the roll per point of a curve deform?

[Byron Nash]

Where does Softimage get the starting point of the roll value in a curve
deform? I'm working on one of the classic gift bow tying animation. In the
modelling and animation process I'd like to be able to control how and
where the ribbon is twisting. I see that the ICE curve deform has a roll
fcurve but how can I assign the roll to the curve itself?
--
To unsubscribe: mail softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com with subject 
unsubscribe and reply to the confirmation email.

Re: OT: How low can you go (Hardware)

[Byron Nash]

Also, the cost of buying an AD product from scratch is something to budget
for. At least with Adobe stuff you can get in at an affordable monthly
rate. I guess you could rent from AD for a bit?


On Fri, Sep 13, 2013 at 4:28 PM, Tim Leydecker bauero...@gmx.de wrote:

 I would like to advise having a sour bite off reality first.

 Very simplified and overly black and white dramatised into a nutshell:

 You´ll need enough funds to cover at least 4-6 months of your
 costs of living (including everything from rent to taxhealthcare).

 That is if you plan on taking on your own clients and working from at home,
 which means you have to kickstart yourself into a full-fledged, responsible
 businessperson, office manager, IT guy, producer and artist while making
 rounds for new contacts, finding the opportunity, getting the job, doing
 it,
 delivering it and waiting for it to get paid.

 I would like to advise you look into just freelancing, e.g. you get
 booked
 by a company, they bring you in, you work there on their equipment and you
 leave them
 with a smile when you´re done. That´s hard enough to get into but doesn´t
 give you the
 burden of having to invest into personal equipment on top of securing your
 cost of
 living for the first few months.

 Judging from your email adress, you may want to look into utopiapeople.comor
 vfxjobs.com

 Remote 3D jobs (e.g. working from home) are quite rare, it´s far more
 common to bring
 in freelancers (including the travelaccomodation expenses) as needed in
 my personal
 experience. Concept design or highly specialized tasks can be an exception.

 Even if you land just a junior position, you should expect/gain a
 reasonably good day rate
 and hopefully at decent work experience out of working at a new shop.

 Another thing to realize is that working freelance means you may have to
 embrace months
 of downtime as natural and don´t just expect to multiply your day rate by
 180 days/year,
 which some fellow employees may tend to do when you´re judged on what you
 ask per day.

 That can lead to some tension and misbehaviour. Everybody seems to forget
 about all the taxes, too.

 Cheers,

 tim

 P.S: I don´t have an SSD here but would advise you make sure you have at
 least 16 or 24 GB of RAM.









 On 13.09.2013 21:01, Johan Forsgren wrote:

 Hey all, I'm currently hold a permanent position i small studio, but I'm
 starting to wonder if freelancing isn't the way to go for me, This brings
 me to the question of hardware,
 and I'm wondering if any of you freelancers can't give your input on what
 the minimum spec for a workstation should be.

 I cant afford anything beyond basic, really the no 1 reason that I'm
 thinking about freelancing is the complete lack of zero's on my bank
 statement. But it also limits my options
 equipment-wise quite a bit. I'm thinking something-ish like this:

 intel i5-3350P
 8 gig ram
 geforce 640 gtm
 no ssd :(
 So I guess my question here is if there's possible to do simpler 3d work
 on a personal workstation like this? I understand that its POSSIBLE but how
 badly will I want to chew my
 arm of after say 6 months of freelancing doing product viz and motion
 graphics?

 --
 JOHAN FORSGREN
 CG ARTIST
 Phone + 46 31 752 20 00  johan.forsg...@edithouse.se mailto:
 johan.forsgren@**edithouse.se johan.forsg...@edithouse.se
 Direct  + 46 31 752 20 07Follow Edithouse at at
 twitter.com/edithouse 
 http://www.twitter.com/**edithousehttp://www.twitter.com/edithouse
 
 example's logo http://www.edithouse.se/

 Edit house Film Works   www.edithouse.se http://www.edithouse.se/
 Lilla Bommen 4a, S-411 04 Göteborg, Sweden  www.twitter.com/edithouse
 http://www.twitter.com/**edithouse http://www.twitter.com/edithouse

Re: Softimage Rental?

[Byron Nash]

In contrast, it seems Adobe is trying harder to innovate than AD. If AD is
following, let's hope they start following in that regard as well.

$0.02


On Mon, Sep 9, 2013 at 1:17 PM, Angus Davidson angus.david...@wits.ac.zawrote:

  Apart from the glaring omission of SI from that list the things that
 worries me in the FAQ is that rental options dont have previous version
 rights. Unless I have read that incorrectly your SOL if your client needs
 you to work on a older version.

  One wonders how much if any thought has gone into this at all.

   --
 *From:* Rob Wuijster [r...@casema.nl]
 *Sent:* 09 September 2013 05:38 PM

 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: Softimage Rental?

   not seeing Softimage on that list

 Rob

 \/-\/\/

 On 9-9-2013 17:18, Eric Thivierge wrote:

 So are we going to be getting a rental option?

 http://www.autodesk.com/buy/us-prices



 -
 No virus found in this message.
 Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
 Version: 2013.0.3392 / Virus Database: 3222/6648 - Release Date: 09/08/13



 This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is 
 confidential. If you have received this communication in error, please notify 
 us immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or 
 disseminate this communication without the permission of the University. Only 
 authorised signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of 
 the University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this 
 message may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the 
 personal views and opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the 
 views and opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All 
 agreements between the University and outsiders are subject to South African 
 Law unless the University agrees in writing to the contrary.

Re: Nike Evolution and a community thank you

[Byron Nash]

Very nice work and professional writeup Andy. Thanks for sharing the
information. Doing comprehensive recaps like that really help build the
community and encourage positive mind-share about these workflows and tool
choices.


On Fri, Aug 2, 2013 at 1:47 PM, Rob Chapman tekano@gmail.com wrote:

 Royale has been kind enough to agree to share the system out to the
 community, through Leonard, some time after the final project wraps

 bravo! I dont think Royale are a maya only studio anymore after this
 and congrats to thier team for embracing pretty radical changes to an
 existing pipeline. hopefully other studios will see the swift 
 advantageous moves of Softimage joining the party.  Its a really good
 idea giving this stuff out afterwards as

 a) someone could come up with something even more creative with it
 b) it forces you to evolve the next level as everyone has the same
 capabilities now :)

 in my opinion, strands and threading effects are enjoying a bit of a
 'lens flare' or 'morph'  stage right now and seem pretty popular in
 advertising gimmick. but I also think that Softimage strands
 implementation have (thus far) only just scratched the surface of what
 is possible visually, we are only let down by the so called
 advertising *creatives* imagination.. so yes, am looking forward to
 seeing the rest of the spots and seeing how the LKfabric turned out
 and how this latest fad will evolve.

 cue

 Rhythim Is Rhythim's 'Strings of Life'
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiCEGXGm-z0

 have a great weekend y'all



 On 2 August 2013 19:10, Meng-Yang Lu ntmon...@gmail.com wrote:
  Nice one Andy!
 
  I really do feel Soft's strengths are these type of jobs requiring
 creative
  ways to build various objects.  Just wanted to point out the mark of a
 great
  supe is one who graciously credits the team for their hard work.  Again,
  pretty stellar work considering the time and the budget.
 
  -Lu
 
 
  On Thu, Aug 1, 2013 at 9:05 PM, Andy Moorer andymoo...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 
  Hi gang. I wanted to give a shout out to the folks who worked on Nike
  Evolution, it just posted. Those who weren't involved, this is a pretty
 nice
  story...
 
  A young studio, Royale, got interested in this ICE buzz and invited a
  number of us from the list to visit the studio and work on a commercial.
  Their designers had been watching cool stuff on ICE for a while,
 admiring
  Tim Borgmanns work and the tools Eric was writing, and had tried
 Exocortex's
  tools for maya. They decided this was pretty neat and when they got a
 chance
  to reach out, they took it.
 
  The brief was to take what Digital Domain had accomplished (about a year
  ago?) with Biomorph and introduce a new product with an effect
 similar to
  the Biomorph knitting sequence... But with a small team, for a very
 short
  produvtion duration and a fraction of the budget.
 
  Oh and three commercials, not 1.
 
  These are the times we live in.
 
  Given this challenge, Royale turned to the ICE community they had been
  eyeing... names were passed around and folks talked to and consulted.
 In the
  end I wound up CG sup, leaning heavily on Ciaran Moloney as lighting
 lead
  and Leonard Kotch as a tool builder. Steven Caron took a short break
 from
  Whiskytree to lend a hand with some pipeline tools and general
 expertise,
  Billy Morrison dove in with me on VFX, and aside from that we had the
 help
  and assistance of Royale's maya artists and designers. And not a few of
 you
  on the list helped by offering the studio names and advice when
 contacted.
 
  So the job was greenlit and we started the clock - about three weeks,
 from
  installing Softimage to delivery.
 
  http://youtu.be/932FiLPe4kc
 
  We rented a farm and populated it with 25 Arnold nodes, the folks at
  SolidAngle were awesome, plugged everything in and made the spot. Our
  principal tool was ICE, specifically a very cool and robust system
 Leonard
  Kotch put many hard hours in to create which we called LKFabric and
  inspired by the example Psyop's Jonah Froedman has set earlier, Anto's
 knit
  the strands, and earlier work Polynoid did with their carbon spot.
 
  Leonard went all the way with LKFabric... it let us manage some of the
  complexity of trying to get the major components of the shoe to weave
  themselves procedurally, from fibers, to threads, to cloth. Because the
 next
  spot, which we're wrapping up right now, required us to get in on
 individual
  fibers in extreme macro shots, Leonard built the system in an
 abstracted out
  manner, unsimulated, and supporting motion blur etc. I would send him
 pages
  and pages of feedback and requests, and he chewed away at it like a
 trouper.
  Pretty outstanding Leonard, I owe you many beers.
 
  Royale has been kind enough to agree to share the system out to the
  community, through Leonard, some time after the final project wraps.
 
  Ciaran, Billy and Steven worked similarly hard and with the same good
  cheer we see so often 

Default Pedestrian Rig

[Byron Nash]

What's the easiest way to get some more animations onto the Default
Pedestrian? The rigs in the menus don't fit his scale and I rather have
some IK in there than try to FK the whole thing. I don't have a lot of time
to make a rig, I just need something simple.

Thanks

Re: Default Pedestrian Rig

[Byron Nash]

Yeah, the crown one. MOTOR kept blowing it up, but I'm sure I just did
something kooky.


On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 5:23 PM, Adam Sale adamfs...@gmail.com wrote:

 or are you referring to the pedestrian used for crowd?



 On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 2:23 PM, Adam Sale adamfs...@gmail.com wrote:

 MOTOR?
 Tag the rig and load some MOTOR files?


 On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 2:09 PM, Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com wrote:

 What's the easiest way to get some more animations onto the Default
 Pedestrian? The rigs in the menus don't fit his scale and I rather have
 some IK in there than try to FK the whole thing. I don't have a lot of time
 to make a rig, I just need something simple.

 Thanks

Re: CrowdFX: Animation States

[Byron Nash]

OK, I think that sort of answers my question. You have to use *Define
Animation States* node to set up the states right? Where does that node
plug into for the defining?


On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 10:18 PM, Chris Chia chris.c...@autodesk.com wrote:

 Hello Byron,
 You could do the following.


 1.   CrowdFx  Simulation  New Basic Crowd

 2.   CrowdFx  Actors  Inspect Actor Proxies

 3.   Use the Import in the ActorProxies PPG

 4.   In the same PPG, Select your model and Click on Inspect Animations

 5.   Bring your action sources and apply the actions.

 6.   CrowdFx   Crowd  Draw Directional Emitter

 7.   CrowdFx  Simulation  Inspect Crowd Simulation Tree

 8.   You can now Define the Animation States in the
 Crowd.Point_Cloud.Animation_Blending,Animation_Definition.


 Regards,
 Chris


 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Byron Nash
 Sent: Friday, May 10, 2013 4:18 AM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: CrowdFX: Animation States

 I'm trying to set up a basic stadium crowd. I have tried following the
 help docs and used the New Crowd with Collision Avoidance and also New
 Basic Crowd. I have the actors emitting properly and I have set the
 velocity to 0 since I want them to stay put. I'm getting tripped up with
 the States though. In the Behavior tree the Set Animation State node does
 not include the 3 animations I chose when I imported the actor. I do see
 those animations if I drill into the Get Animations Sources Core node. How
 do I get those actions to show up for use in the States tree?

Re: CrowdFX: Animation States

[Byron Nash]

Actually, after looking at the sample scenes again, I don't see the Define
Animation State node anywhere. When I get a default pedestrian and a basic
pedestrian crowd, I still don't get the animation sources to show up in the
drop down box inside Set Animation State node.


On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 9:33 AM, Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com wrote:

 OK, I think that sort of answers my question. You have to use *Define
 Animation States* node to set up the states right? Where does that node
 plug into for the defining?


 On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 10:18 PM, Chris Chia chris.c...@autodesk.comwrote:

 Hello Byron,
 You could do the following.


 1.   CrowdFx  Simulation  New Basic Crowd

 2.   CrowdFx  Actors  Inspect Actor Proxies

 3.   Use the Import in the ActorProxies PPG

 4.   In the same PPG, Select your model and Click on Inspect
 Animations

 5.   Bring your action sources and apply the actions.

 6.   CrowdFx   Crowd  Draw Directional Emitter

 7.   CrowdFx  Simulation  Inspect Crowd Simulation Tree

 8.   You can now Define the Animation States in the
 Crowd.Point_Cloud.Animation_Blending,Animation_Definition.


 Regards,
 Chris


 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Byron Nash
 Sent: Friday, May 10, 2013 4:18 AM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: CrowdFX: Animation States

 I'm trying to set up a basic stadium crowd. I have tried following the
 help docs and used the New Crowd with Collision Avoidance and also New
 Basic Crowd. I have the actors emitting properly and I have set the
 velocity to 0 since I want them to stay put. I'm getting tripped up with
 the States though. In the Behavior tree the Set Animation State node does
 not include the 3 animations I chose when I imported the actor. I do see
 those animations if I drill into the Get Animations Sources Core node. How
 do I get those actions to show up for use in the States tree?

Re: CrowdFX: Animation States

[Byron Nash]

Nevermind, I found it. If it was written down in the docs I missed it. You
need to define each state in the* Animation Definition* compound in
the *Animation
Blending* tree.

I'm sure I'll be back with a thousand more questions shortly. ;-)


On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 9:52 AM, Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com wrote:

 Actually, after looking at the sample scenes again, I don't see the Define
 Animation State node anywhere. When I get a default pedestrian and a basic
 pedestrian crowd, I still don't get the animation sources to show up in the
 drop down box inside Set Animation State node.


 On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 9:33 AM, Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com wrote:

 OK, I think that sort of answers my question. You have to use *Define
 Animation States* node to set up the states right? Where does that node
 plug into for the defining?


 On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 10:18 PM, Chris Chia chris.c...@autodesk.comwrote:

 Hello Byron,
 You could do the following.


 1.   CrowdFx  Simulation  New Basic Crowd

 2.   CrowdFx  Actors  Inspect Actor Proxies

 3.   Use the Import in the ActorProxies PPG

 4.   In the same PPG, Select your model and Click on Inspect
 Animations

 5.   Bring your action sources and apply the actions.

 6.   CrowdFx   Crowd  Draw Directional Emitter

 7.   CrowdFx  Simulation  Inspect Crowd Simulation Tree

 8.   You can now Define the Animation States in the
 Crowd.Point_Cloud.Animation_Blending,Animation_Definition.


 Regards,
 Chris


 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Byron Nash
 Sent: Friday, May 10, 2013 4:18 AM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: CrowdFX: Animation States

 I'm trying to set up a basic stadium crowd. I have tried following the
 help docs and used the New Crowd with Collision Avoidance and also New
 Basic Crowd. I have the actors emitting properly and I have set the
 velocity to 0 since I want them to stay put. I'm getting tripped up with
 the States though. In the Behavior tree the Set Animation State node does
 not include the 3 animations I chose when I imported the actor. I do see
 those animations if I drill into the Get Animations Sources Core node. How
 do I get those actions to show up for use in the States tree?

Re: CrowdFX: Animation States

[Byron Nash]

Thanks for the tips Adam. Some parts of it are beginning to make sense but
I still have that wandering in the dark feeling. I'm only needing to do a
fairly simple stadium crowd for wide shots. I think the hardest parts are
going to be dealing with the quantity of characters and getting them
exported to the people rendering them.


On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 12:24 PM, Adam Sale adamfs...@gmail.com wrote:

 Yes, and also remember that for move based states, you should have all the
 action sources in the one move state listed from slowest to fastest
 velocity so the crowd can pick the appropriate source based on the actors
 velocity.

 I didn't come up with a better way to treat idle based actions, other than
 having them added as one action per state. So with 4 idle actions, I used 4
 states with unique names.

 Not sure if thats the best way to handle it, but I found it easy this way
 to pick and choose the appropriate state to pull based on the logic in the
 Behavior ICE tree.

 Also make sure that you define state transitions to account for all of the
 possible permutations from one state to another, and make sure you define
 whether or not the transition is bi-directional or one directional.

 Crowd makes a lot of sense once you have gone through it a couple of
 times. I really enjoy the changes that were made for 2014.

 Adam


 On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 7:31 AM, Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com wrote:

 Nevermind, I found it. If it was written down in the docs I missed it.
 You need to define each state in the* Animation Definition* compound in
 the *Animation Blending* tree.

 I'm sure I'll be back with a thousand more questions shortly. ;-)


 On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 9:52 AM, Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com wrote:

 Actually, after looking at the sample scenes again, I don't see the
 Define Animation State node anywhere. When I get a default pedestrian and a
 basic pedestrian crowd, I still don't get the animation sources to show up
 in the drop down box inside Set Animation State node.


 On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 9:33 AM, Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com wrote:

 OK, I think that sort of answers my question. You have to use *Define
 Animation States* node to set up the states right? Where does that
 node plug into for the defining?


 On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 10:18 PM, Chris Chia chris.c...@autodesk.comwrote:

 Hello Byron,
 You could do the following.


 1.   CrowdFx  Simulation  New Basic Crowd

 2.   CrowdFx  Actors  Inspect Actor Proxies

 3.   Use the Import in the ActorProxies PPG

 4.   In the same PPG, Select your model and Click on Inspect
 Animations

 5.   Bring your action sources and apply the actions.

 6.   CrowdFx   Crowd  Draw Directional Emitter

 7.   CrowdFx  Simulation  Inspect Crowd Simulation Tree

 8.   You can now Define the Animation States in the
 Crowd.Point_Cloud.Animation_Blending,Animation_Definition.


 Regards,
 Chris


 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Byron Nash
 Sent: Friday, May 10, 2013 4:18 AM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: CrowdFX: Animation States

 I'm trying to set up a basic stadium crowd. I have tried following the
 help docs and used the New Crowd with Collision Avoidance and also New
 Basic Crowd. I have the actors emitting properly and I have set the
 velocity to 0 since I want them to stay put. I'm getting tripped up with
 the States though. In the Behavior tree the Set Animation State node does
 not include the 3 animations I chose when I imported the actor. I do see
 those animations if I drill into the Get Animations Sources Core node. How
 do I get those actions to show up for use in the States tree?

CrowdFX: Animation States

[Byron Nash]

I'm trying to set up a basic stadium crowd. I have tried following the help
docs and used the New Crowd with Collision Avoidance and also New Basic
Crowd. I have the actors emitting properly and I have set the velocity to
0 since I want them to stay put. I'm getting tripped up with the States
though. In the *Behavior* tree the *Set Animation State *node does not
include the 3 animations I chose when I imported the actor. I do see those
animations if I drill into the *Get Animations Sources Core* node. How do I
get those actions to show up for use in the States tree?

Re: Softimage Jedi Training

[Byron Nash]

I'm interested. ICE and topics on pulling things off in short turnaround
are helpful. Any kind of workflow tips and practices are really helpful. I
recall the live event you guys did at SIGGRAPH was super informative for
someone like me who works in a vacuum. Watching other people do high end
work teaches you a lot.




On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 8:52 AM, javier gonzalez javi09warr...@gmail.comwrote:

 Record the class and more people will be interested.





 2013/3/28 Adam Sale adamfs...@gmail.com

 The whole kit looks like it would be interesting. A scheduled class would
 be tough for me to make as well what with kids / sched. If there were some
 sort of archived classes we could check out on our own time after delivery
 of your live sessions, that would be awesome.




 On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 8:28 AM, John Clausing jclausin...@yahoo.comwrote:

 It would be impossible for me to make any scheduled class,. But
 if you record it a la Ted, I'll buy it!

 ICE, rigging, ICE

 Sent from my iPhone

 On Mar 28, 2013, at 12:53 AM, Bradley Gabe witha...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi Softimage Users!

 I have only a few more months before I'm off to grad school full time
 and thought it might be mutually beneficial for our community to come up
 with some sort of Softimage Jedi training regimen in order to impart some
 wisdom, while at the same time helping me stash away some funds to pay for
 cappuccinos when I have to pull all-nighters  for my exams.

 Something I was thinking about, (in an effort not to overlap any of
 Raffaele's excellent training work) rather than creating a bunch of videos,
 was to set up a class using GoToMeeting where we can distribute scene data
 and solve problems interactively. This would allow real time questions and
 feedback, but more importantly,  provide insight into the problem solving
 process, and how decisions are made along the way, which is something the
 video course format doesn't provide. For all students, I would provide an
 extensive package of custom tools to add to the problem solving arsenal.

 What I'm curious to learn is, what areas of technical animation in
 Softimage would users be most interested in learning? For example:

- Basic rigging (fundamentals)
- Advanced rigging (secondary and tertiary animation control)
- Designing custom deformers using ICE (facial animation, volume
retention, etc)
- Adding secondary effects under short deadline (flesh jiggle,
springs, muscle effects)
- Using scripting for problem solving
- Developing custom tools using the Softimage UI
- Developing custom tools using PySide UI
- Understanding ICE (fundamentals)
- Other

 -Bradley

Re: Softimage Jedi Training

[Byron Nash]

What kind of length and frequency are you thinking? Is this one long class
or several sessions stretched out weekly? I'm sure that will play into the
availability of everyone.


On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 2:02 PM, Bradley Gabe witha...@gmail.com wrote:

 Thanks for the feedback everyone. So it seems like the consensus is to do
 a live class with a handful of people and record the event, then edit the
 results into a video package for everyone else. Anyone who's been to one of
 my live events could vouch for the notion that I tend to keep things pretty
 well structured and moving along, even when we stop and discuss process or
 get alternative techniques.

 My only concern would then be finding participants for the live class,
 when everyone might just want to wait for the videos later. :-)

 -Bradley

Re: Rendering to video and formats

[Byron Nash]

 the performance
 of a high end NLE station – even if things have certainly come a long way.

 Just my 2 cent and random thoughts.


 *From:* Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com
 *Sent:* Wednesday, March 20, 2013 10:16 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: Rendering to video and formats

 Most of the stuff we work with on the commercial side is 1920x1080 -
 23.976fps because that is the resolution and frame rate most commercials
 are shot with. On rare occasions we work in 29.97 and 1280x720. Youtube and
 Vimeo support 1920x1080 these days so I just prefer to go full raster even
 if the target is web use.

 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 12:57 PM, Stephen Davidson magic...@bellsouth.net
 wrote:
 Hi Joey,
   Most of my stuff ends up in broadcast.
 I use 1280 x 1080 1.5 pixel aspect ratio and 1.7778 picture aspect ratio
 (16x9)
 I use this because it conforms to DVCPRO 100 specs.
 I use After Effects to composite my animation layers so I can
 dial up the final output format there, depending on what edit system is
 being used for the final edit.

 I also stick to 29.97 unless strobing motion is an issue. If it is an
 issue, then I render
 60fps and deal with either the motion blur or field interlacing in After
 Effects.

 I hope this helps.

 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 12:31 PM, Ponthieux, Joseph G. (LARC-E1A)[LITES] 
 j.ponthi...@nasa.gov wrote:
 Hi folks,

 Its been several years since I’ve had to deal with this so I thought I
 would ask what the current practice is for most folks now that HD has
 really taken hold.

 For the record I have experience with standard def video going back to 1
 inch type C and U-matic almost 30 years ago. In recent time we had a fairly
 decent workflow rendering to D1/DV resolution and compositing to DV QT/AVI
 for efficient  video output.

 However, I’m not sure what the standard practice is today regarding a
 similar workflow with HD. Further I’m finding the high end 1080 formats to
 be quite expensive regarding render time, disk capacity, and playback
 efficiency.

 So the questions I have are:

 1.   What is the most common rendering resolution you use for 3D?

 2.   What video format/hertz are you targeting/using?

 3.   What is the best or most efficient HD format for
 compositing/rendering straight to a video playback file which can then be
 read into a non-linear editor, in my case Premiere Pro or Final Cut?

 In general I’m looking for a silver bullet approach similar to the old:
 720x480-QuicktimeDV-Final Cut approach. (720x480-MS DV AVI-Premiere
 Pro for the Adobe folks).

 I expect everyone is using 16:9 today and 4:3 is obsolete so how does this
 translate to a modern HD format and for that matter which HD format.

 I realize all of this today  is dependent on whether your focused on 720
 or 1080 and may also be dependent upon the broadcast production equipment
 you are using.  What I’m mostly interested in is what is the most efficient
 render format to quickly get me to a native non-linear editing file and
 maintain long term viability.

 I’m also interested in anyone thoughts regarding hertz as well. As an OLD
 video guy, I’m inclined to gravitate towards the 30/29.97 fps. But frankly
 don’t have a clue what the accepted standard is these days in HD since at
 one time 60p was the holy grail.

 I’m not currently limited to a specific video hardware platform as we have
 no specific dedicated broadcast equipment. Everything is delivered via
 multimedia at the moment, however, there may come a time when editing in a
 dedicated editing suite may become necessary.

 Thanks

 --
 Joey Ponthieux
 LaRC Information Technology Enhanced Services (LITES)
 Mymic Technical Services
 NASA Langley Research Center
 __
 Opinions stated here-in are strictly those of the author and do not
 represent the opinions of NASA or any other party.



 --
 Best Regards,
 *  Stephen P. Davidson**
**(954) 552-7956**
 *sdavid...@3danimationmagic.com
 *Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic*

 - Arthur C. Clarke
  http://www.3danimationmagic.com/
   http://www.3danimationmagic.com/

Re: Adobe Maxon join forces

[Byron Nash]

I think the point is that it would not take much effort at all for AD to
add minimal export functions to export camera and nulls to AE. We don't
need the kitchen sink, just a reliable camera and some nulls.


On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 7:04 PM, Raffaele Fragapane 
raffsxsil...@googlemail.com wrote:

 Have you seen C4D's integration though? It is by far one of their
 strongest points, and unlikely to be beaten anytime soon.

 It's only natural though, they made a huge impact in the motion graphics
 market, and that's a core feature for them that sees both time invested in
 dev and a lot of user feedback and interest.

 But yeah, you should have a look :) It has a very extensive I/O for scene
 elements, names, edl-like entry points, timeline, passes and settings.

 I don't think AD will ever have the reason to, or the userbase rolling
 things around, Maxon does in those regards.


 On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 3:59 AM, Stephen Davidson 
 magic...@bellsouth.netwrote:

 I have been using Softimage/XSI with After Effects for over 20 years
 and find them to be quite compatible.
 What do you want to work better? Maybe I can help.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 12:04 PM, Paul Griswold 
 pgrisw...@fusiondigitalproductions.com wrote:

 I really wish Softimage worked better with After Effects.


 http://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2013/03/and-now-for-something-slightly-different-ae-and-cinema-4d.html#comments

 -Paul




 --

 Best Regards,
 *  Stephen P. Davidson**
**(954) 552-7956
 *sdavid...@3danimationmagic.com

 *Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic*


- Arthur C. Clarke

 http://www.3danimationmagic.com




 --
 Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it
 and let them flee like the dogs they are!

Re: Rendering to video and formats

[Byron Nash]

Most of the stuff we work with on the commercial side is 1920x1080 -
23.976fps because that is the resolution and frame rate most commercials
are shot with. On rare occasions we work in 29.97 and 1280x720. Youtube and
Vimeo support 1920x1080 these days so I just prefer to go full raster even
if the target is web use.


On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 12:57 PM, Stephen Davidson
magic...@bellsouth.netwrote:

 Hi Joey,
   Most of my stuff ends up in broadcast.
 I use 1280 x 1080 1.5 pixel aspect ratio and 1.7778 picture aspect ratio
 (16x9)
 I use this because it conforms to DVCPRO 100 specs.
 I use After Effects to composite my animation layers so I can
 dial up the final output format there, depending on what edit system is
 being used for the final edit.

 I also stick to 29.97 unless strobing motion is an issue. If it is an
 issue, then I render
 60fps and deal with either the motion blur or field interlacing in After
 Effects.

 I hope this helps.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 12:31 PM, Ponthieux, Joseph G. (LARC-E1A)[LITES] 
 j.ponthi...@nasa.gov wrote:

 Hi folks,

 ** **

 Its been several years since I’ve had to deal with this so I thought I
 would ask what the current practice is for most folks now that HD has
 really taken hold.

 ** **

 For the record I have experience with standard def video going back to 1
 inch type C and U-matic almost 30 years ago. In recent time we had a fairly
 decent workflow rendering to D1/DV resolution and compositing to DV QT/AVI
 for efficient  video output.

 ** **

 However, I’m not sure what the standard practice is today regarding a
 similar workflow with HD. Further I’m finding the high end 1080 formats to
 be quite expensive regarding render time, disk capacity, and playback
 efficiency.

 ** **

 So the questions I have are:

 ** **

 **1.   **What is the most common rendering resolution you use for 3D?
 

 ** **

 **2.   **What video format/hertz are you targeting/using?

 ** **

 **3.   **What is the best or most efficient HD format for
 compositing/rendering straight to a video playback file which can then be
 read into a non-linear editor, in my case Premiere Pro or Final Cut?

 ** **

 In general I’m looking for a silver bullet approach similar to the old: *
 ***

 720x480-QuicktimeDV-Final Cut approach. (720x480-MS DV AVI-Premiere
 Pro for the Adobe folks). 

 ** **

 I expect everyone is using 16:9 today and 4:3 is obsolete so how does
 this translate to a modern HD format and for that matter which HD format.
 

 ** **

 I realize all of this today  is dependent on whether your focused on 720
 or 1080 and may also be dependent upon the broadcast production equipment
 you are using.  What I’m mostly interested in is what is the most efficient
 render format to quickly get me to a native non-linear editing file and
 maintain long term viability.

 ** **

 I’m also interested in anyone thoughts regarding hertz as well. As an OLD
 video guy, I’m inclined to gravitate towards the 30/29.97 fps. But frankly
 don’t have a clue what the accepted standard is these days in HD since at
 one time 60p was the holy grail. 

 ** **

 I’m not currently limited to a specific video hardware platform as we
 have no specific dedicated broadcast equipment. Everything is delivered via
 multimedia at the moment, however, there may come a time when editing in a
 dedicated editing suite may become necessary. 

 ** **

 Thanks

 ** **

 --

 Joey Ponthieux

 LaRC Information Technology Enhanced Services (LITES)

 Mymic Technical Services

 NASA Langley Research Center

 __

 Opinions stated here-in are strictly those of the author and do not 

 represent the opinions of NASA or any other party.

 ** **




 --

 Best Regards,
 *  Stephen P. Davidson**
**(954) 552-7956
 *sdavid...@3danimationmagic.com

 *Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic*


- Arthur C. Clarke

 http://www.3danimationmagic.com

Re: Clumps and chunks of material

[Byron Nash]

Nice, that's a gem. Thanks for the link Nick and for the files Andy.


On Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 3:50 AM, Nick Angus n...@altvfx.com wrote:

  Have you check out Andy’s file?
 http://vimeo.com/groups/ice/videos/59750442

 Some great ideas in there!

 ** **

 N

 ** **

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Byron Nash
 *Sent:* Thursday, 14 February 2013 12:29 AM

 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Clumps and chunks of material

 ** **

 I am working on a shot where a large heavy object lands in a grassy area.
 I'd like to have nice crumbly dirt clods go flying when it impacts. So far
 I haven't gotten anything that makes the particles clump together. Momentum
 RBD gives nice results for rock like objects. I've tried some Lagoa
 approaches but can't get anything usable so far. Anyone have any tips on
 direction to head? 

Re: Render Tree: Transfer Modes unpredictable

[Byron Nash]

Matt, I did notice that the alpha value made a difference but I can't get
anything usable when it's not 0 or 1.

I'll look into the Color Basic Ed, thanks.


On Fri, Feb 1, 2013 at 2:58 PM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote:

 transfer modes are the devil.  Other than alpha blending and mix modes, I
 try to avoid the mix nodes altogether.  use the color basic if you want a
 true multiply.



 On Fri, Feb 1, 2013 at 2:39 PM, Matt Morris matt...@gmail.com wrote:

 It gets multiplied by the alpha value as well, which is probably what
 is darkening your texture. This seems completely wrong to me too...

 On 01/02/2013, Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com wrote:
  Does anyone else feel like the transfer modes in the Mix nodes do not
  behave as expected? When I try multiplying a texture over another, I get
  darkening in the white areas. Maybe Softimage doesn't do the same math
 that
  I'm used to with Adobe products that I'm used to? Shouldn't the white
 areas
  of a texture when multiplying have no effect?
 
  Byron
 


 --
 www.matinai.com

Re: Normal shader for Softimage ?

[Byron Nash]

Digging up an old thread here. What settings for the Scalar change range
are needed in the Normal pass setup? I'm not getting correct results in
Normality.

I have :
Vector State(Normals) - Vector Coordinate Conversion (Normals  Camera) -
Vector to Scalar -
Scalar Change Range (feeding R and G channels)-
Incidence (inverted  feeding B channel) -
RGBA Combine - Constant Material




On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 10:34 AM, Stephen Davidson
magic...@bellsouth.netwrote:

 Hi Steven,

   I just tried your method and it is MUCH better. Thanks.
 That tutorial, that I posted, is not very good, then.

 Just curious, though Why do you put a constant material between
 the RGBA_Combine and the Material Surface  port?
 Couldn't I just hook the RGBA Combiner directly into
 the Material Surface port? I don't see any difference.
 I obviously need to learn more about the render tree. :)



 On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 1:56 AM, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:

 can't you just recreate the shader he makes in the tutorial?

 i watched the tutorial up until he goes into nuke. we dont have a
 'samplerInfo' node but we have the components necessary..

 vector state node set to normal vector
 vector coordinate converter, set to normal, and to camera
 vector to scalars
 use some scalar change range nodes like he does, one for x and one for y
 then combine them using rgba combine node
 also an incidence node for the 'facing ratio'. make sure you invert it.

 took me almost the same amount of time it took me to watch the tutorial :0

 s

 On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 10:18 PM, Adrian Lopez vfxw...@gmail.com wrote:

 Been experimenting with Eric's emPolygonizer 3, and I want to fake
 refraction using a normal map pass.. as done 
 herehttp://cgmotionbox.com/2011/10/using-a-maya-normal-shader-for-rendering-refraction-pass/,
 for comping in ae using the Normality plugin.  The problem is, I cant find
 a straightforward Normals Shader for softimage.  Everything I find is some
 convoluted process involving ultimapper or some reatime shader..   Is there
 really no such shader available for our beloved Soft?
  --
 Adrian Lopez
 CEO.Producer.Director
 Liquid Light Digital
 www.liquidlightdigital.com





 --

 Best Regards,
 *  Stephen P. Davidson**
**(954) 552-7956
 *sdavid...@3danimationmagic.com



  http://www.3danimationmagic.com Check My 
 BLOGhttp://3danimationmagic.blogspot.com

 My Website is *GREEN*, Is yours?

 [image: affiliate_link]http://www.fatcow.com/join/index.bml?AffID=626478

Re: Surface Flowing Particles

[Byron Nash]

On this topic, what's a good way to grow the particles organically. For
example, have particles grow or change outwardly from a point of origin?
Similar to how a moss or other growth would encompass an object.


On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 1:32 PM, Rob Chapman tekano@gmail.com wrote:

 not really :)

 so this move to closest location now worked as expected then or not?   if
 the 'hand' or surface is moving or deforming you could also account for a
 velocity force from the closest location as well.  point position is not
 the only thing you can get from a location.


 On 29 January 2013 18:13, Nuno Conceicao nunoalexconcei...@gmail.comwrote:

 This actually gives an undesired result, basically the particles kind of
 stay inert not really following the surface (that is deforming/moving
 underneath) imagine u have a ball on your hand and move it quickly, the
 ball inertia makes it stay where it is then it drops/sticks to the closest
 surface (could be your other hand or the floor)
 :)

 What i really want is for them to move on the skin surface, lets say from
 the tip of your index finger to the base of the finger, while your hand is
 moving...
 Hope this makes my point a bit clearer :)




 On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 5:39 PM, Sandy Sutherland 
 sandy.sutherl...@triggerfish.co.za wrote:

  If you use the get closest location - then the position it returns you
 can feed right into a self.PointPosition set data node - if you type into
 the search box 'set point position' then you should find a node.  If you
 put that setup after any other forces or move nodes, then it will make the
 movements then stick the points to the surface.

 S.

   *   *
 Sandy Sutherland sandy.sutherl...@triggerfish.co.za | Technical
 Supervisor
http://triggerfish.co.za/en
  http://www.facebook.com/triggerfishanimation
http://www.twitter.com/triggerfishza
   --
 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] on behalf of Nuno Conceicao [
 nunoalexconcei...@gmail.com]
 *Sent:* 29 January 2013 19:31

 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: Surface Flowing Particles

   Sorry, Rob, not really sure what you mean with set closest location


 On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 5:02 PM, Rob Chapman tekano@gmail.comwrote:

 also a get closest location (your surface)  set closest location
 will stick your particles to the surface but still allow them to move
 around with forces and simulation.



 On 29 January 2013 16:57, Renaud Bousquet renaud.bousq...@modusfx.com
 wrote:
  Hello,
 
  Something like this could help you for particles movements.
  http://vimeo.com/36709750
 
  Create a vector flow then use it as a force for your particles via
 closest
  location.
  Hope it can help you!
 
  RB
 
 
  On 29/01/2013 11:14 AM, Nuno Conceicao wrote:
 
  Hi guys, just came across this task where basically I need to create
 a
  kind of growing particles effect (Ex: foam/bubbles) where the
 particles
  move, multiply and grow on a deforming surface.
 
  Basically, cant use stick to surface, flow around surface also
 doesnt work
  since the particles need to kind of stay on the surface at all
 times. Cant
  get Slide on surface to work properly too.
 
  Using an expanding weight-map kind of gets something close but quite
  different to what i wish to achieve, the problem is that the
 particles
  should also move and slide, so they cant be stuck on the surface,
 but follow
  its deformation..
 
  I also tried a process using states to make the particles spawn once
 they
  achieve a certain size, pop into 2 or 3 smaller bubbles which in
 turn pop
  again into smaller ones, but couldn't get them to follow the surface
  properly.
 
  I guess that might be several approaches for the issue, maybe someone
  knows a compound that does something similar that could maybe be
 adapted to
  this purpose.
 
  Cheers
 
  Nuno
 
 
 

Re: capturing spherical HDRi's?

[Byron Nash]

I find that the slowest thing on set is capturing all the exposures. I
don't have a tool like the Promote Controller or any other device to
automatically fire off the brackets. After seeing a video of the author of
the HDRI Handbook on set, I'm convinced the fastest method is a pano rig
like the nodal ninja with a spherical fisheye and something to fire the
brackets automatically. In and out very quickly.


On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 9:08 AM, Jahirul Amin aminjahi...@yahoo.com wrote:

 Slightly off topic but this is pretty interesting stuff...

 http://fxguide.com/fxguidetv/fxguidetv-165-scott-metzger-on-mari-and-hdr/

 J



 On 16 Jan 2013, at 13:19, Morten Bartholdy x...@colorshopvfx.dk wrote:

  We do pretty much the same - a fisheye lens shooting in 3 directions for
 good overlap, 10 exposures via software control and stitch the result into
 a fairly highres LatLong HDRI 360. This is good for lighting and in most
 cases reflections too, but hardly enough resolution for a background. The
 software control for multiple exposures makes for better quality HDRI's as
 clouds, cars and pedestrians move less, and we can get in and record the
 HDRI in about a 10th of the time we used to without it, in all only some 5
 minutes break for the crew for one HDRI. The Director and 1st AD will be
 much happier too.



 The chrome ball comes in to use in tight spaces where it is hard to fit in
 a camera on a tripod, but it is mostly sttting and collecting dust on a
 shelf these days. Mind you, if we had more time on a shoot I would like to
 have a chrome ball and a grey ball and have them in front of the liveaction
 camera just after the clapper - it would help setting up HDRI's and lights
 and balance the whole thing faster when lighting your scenes.



 Morten






 Den 16. januar 2013 kl. 12:11 skrev Anthony Martin 
 anthonymarti...@googlemail.com:

These days I use the chrome ball just for light positioning reference.
 For capturing the actual HDRI I'll use a fish eye lens on a DSLR, nodal
 ninja attached to a tripod and then shoot between 8-10 images (including
 direct above and direct below) covering the scene.
  Then load these into PTGui Pro and let it stitch them into a LongLat
 HDRI. Works like a charm. Both quick to do on set and quick to assemble
 when you get back to the office.
  Digital Tutors actually have a good set of lessons on this.
 http://www.digitaltutors.com/11/training.php?pid=599autoplay=1


  On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 9:22 AM, Cristobal Infante  cgc...@gmail.com  
 wrote:


 It really depends how much time you think you will have on set. Most of
 the times this can be a major issue, since they may need to move
 the lighting setup several times in one day and you don't want to be the
 guy slowing everything down!

 the chrome ball is probably the fastest method and still does the
 trick. So if you need to capture a lighting setup fast this will be your
 best bet. Defently worth getting one in any case (garden mirror balls).



 On Wednesday, 16 January 2013, Rob Wuijster wrote:

   Yes, there's a version 2 out of the book, there's a page on the hdrlabs
 website explaining the book and has links to Amazon for the paperback and
 ebook.

 The site, forum and book are -the- main sources of information on this.
 Of course there are other sites dealing with this, but hdrlabs has it
 condensed into one big package.

Rob Wuijster
E
r...@casema.nl
\/-\/\/


 On 15-1-2013 23:09, Byron Nash wrote:

 I found the book HDRI Handbook really helpful on that site. I think they
 have a newer version since I read it.


  On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 4:27 PM, Paul Griswold 
 pgrisw...@fusiondigitalproductions.com  wrote:

   Hey guys -

 I've been asked to help out on the show Film Riot, and one of the
 things we were discussing is creating your own HDR images.

 I know HDRLabs has a ton of great info, but I was curious to know if
 anyone else had any good info or resources on the subject that I could pass
 along.

 It's not something I normally do, so I wanted to make sure I was
 giving them up-to-date info.

 Thanks,

 Paul

  No virus found in this message.
 Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
 Version: 2013.0.2890 / Virus Database: 2638/6034 - Release Date: 01/15/13

Re: capturing spherical HDRi's?

[Byron Nash]

I found the book HDRI Handbook really helpful on that site. I think they
have a newer version since I read it.


On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 4:27 PM, Paul Griswold 
pgrisw...@fusiondigitalproductions.com wrote:

 Hey guys -

 I've been asked to help out on the show Film Riot, and one of the things
 we were discussing is creating your own HDR images.

 I know HDRLabs has a ton of great info, but I was curious to know if
 anyone else had any good info or resources on the subject that I could pass
 along.

 It's not something I normally do, so I wanted to make sure I was giving
 them up-to-date info.

 Thanks,

 Paul

Re: Adjust Shadow density with Physical Sky/Sun?

[Byron Nash]

For the time being, I put an extra infinite light in there pointing
straight down. I ran across another post saying you needed to crank the
intensity way up to see it. Earlier I couldn't get any lights to make a
difference other than the sun but I am now aware of the need for extremely
strong lights in a physical setup. I'll look into your solution Jason.
Thanks for the very thorough response.


On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 7:49 PM, Jason S jasonsta...@gmail.com wrote:

 **
 Sorry didn't see your post, didn't know shadow softness also works for
 shadow transparency thanks!


 Also saw that there is an extra but one of my sentances :)


 *On a material level
  but you can pipe Ambient Occlusion nodes in your materials' ambient
 slot *

Adjust Shadow density with Physical Sky/Sun?

[Byron Nash]

I'm unexperienced using the Physical Sky/Sun setup. I'm trying to adjust my
shadow/fill ratio on the image and am having trouble finding how to raise
the level of the shadows. I have the Photographic Exposure shader on my
pass as well. Where can I adjust how dark the shadow areas are with this
setup? I tried adding an infinite light overhead to fill in a bit but it
makes no difference in the render as well as adjusting the ambience.

Thanks
Byron

Re: ICE: Rotate away from vector

[Byron Nash]

I'm finally back to working on this problem. I have the rotation vectors
lined up for the most part. Is the best way to actually to the particle
rotation to drive a Set Particle Orientation with a Axis and Angle to
Rotation? That final part is stumping me for some reason.


On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 9:51 AM, Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com wrote:

 Thanks for the tips everyone. I'll be looking very closely at that
 tutorial you linked Rob. That example of the flowers bending is pretty
 close to what I need.



 On Mon, Dec 17, 2012 at 7:06 PM, Rob Chapman tekano@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi Byron

 heres a different approach but a similar effect if you worry about the
 deformation of the grass,  https://vimeo.com/27071564
 dont think I bothered with rotations, just kept each strand 'tip'
 always outside the geometry volume of the obstacle with some other
 simple rules based on optimisation and velocity of collision. follow
 the links for a tutorial and example scene files  compound.

 best

 Rob

 On 17 December 2012 22:28, Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com wrote:
  I'm working on a quick rig to mimic how grass gets bent over by a
 wheel. I
  have something working along a single axis but I would like it to always
  rotate away from the effector object. The thing that is stumping me is
 how
  to break out the Orientation node to manipulate the axis  the particles
 are
  rotating from. I figure I will find the vector between the point and the
  object and then use that to rotate around.

Re: 2012 list retrospective

[Byron Nash]

Good times Stephen, thanks for the data dump.


On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 10:15 AM, Ciaran Moloney moloney.cia...@gmail.comwrote:

 For a single post, I'd say Andy Jones. But, he would also win for value
 per word. His stuff is pure gold.



 On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 3:05 PM, Dan Yargici danyarg...@gmail.com wrote:

 I wonder who'd win on post length?  I guessing Matt Lind, or Raff...
  hmmm...

Re: ICE: Rotate away from vector

[Byron Nash]

Thanks for the tips everyone. I'll be looking very closely at that tutorial
you linked Rob. That example of the flowers bending is pretty close to what
I need.


On Mon, Dec 17, 2012 at 7:06 PM, Rob Chapman tekano@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi Byron

 heres a different approach but a similar effect if you worry about the
 deformation of the grass,  https://vimeo.com/27071564
 dont think I bothered with rotations, just kept each strand 'tip'
 always outside the geometry volume of the obstacle with some other
 simple rules based on optimisation and velocity of collision. follow
 the links for a tutorial and example scene files  compound.

 best

 Rob

 On 17 December 2012 22:28, Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com wrote:
  I'm working on a quick rig to mimic how grass gets bent over by a wheel.
 I
  have something working along a single axis but I would like it to always
  rotate away from the effector object. The thing that is stumping me is
 how
  to break out the Orientation node to manipulate the axis  the particles
 are
  rotating from. I figure I will find the vector between the point and the
  object and then use that to rotate around.

Re: Semi OT : Charging the modelling

[Byron Nash]

Over here in the US I see a lot of people working for in-house freelance
rates from home on their own equipment. This seems unwise to me since
hardware/software and other costs are not really taken into account. To me,
there is a difference between going into a company and working with their
clients on their equipment versus working at home on your own setup. I
think these trends are creating a false sense of value to clients. In the
long run freelancers cannot maintain this economy and the clientele will
be accustomed to artificially low rates.


On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 8:16 AM, Szabolcs Matefy szabol...@crytek.comwrote:

 Yep. I consider the 100 EURO / day as a it’s-just-1 cent-above-to-say-no
 rate…but I was told it’s way above the average, so it was funny. Especially
 knowing that how much the client charges for the models I made :D

 ** **

 ** **

 ** **

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Octavian Ureche
 *Sent:* Monday, November 19, 2012 1:34 PM

 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: Semi OT : Charging the modelling

 ** **

 Yap, forgot about tax expenses (they changed the legislation here a couple
 of years ago, and now they

 roam around 5% for small companies, so one tends to neglect that). Other
 places have it much higher, from what it seems.

 ** **

 Also forgot to add a very important expense (bad eastern european
 habit...) that has a very strong influence on rate: software
 maintance/upgrade costs, and also leasing costs for specialised tools.

 ** **

 As a sidenote, i found out through the years, that sometimes it is better
 to incorporate than to work as a legal freelacer, as taxes are usually
 lower this way (5% vs 20% here - insane, right?). But this one may really
 only apply to this part of the world. Also as a freelancer suing someone is
 a lot harder (or at least threatening to sue - that one usually does the
 trick). Plus, getting an accountant and starting to tackle the financial
 side of a business is a must, as it opens up a world of hurt, knowledge and
 possibilities which every artist should go through to survive in this
 industry.

 ** **

 Cheers,

 Octav

 ** **

 On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 12:10 PM, olivier jeannel olivier.jean...@noos.fr
 wrote:

 I think it's overall true every where.
 On a side note, I'd add that in France when a company hire someone at 100
 e/day (salary) it cost 200e/day to the company due to taxes. And on the
 100e, the worker has to release back some money for his own taxes, of
 course.

 On the over side, the freelance *seems* to cost more but you can join him
 on weekend and on holydays ;)




 Le 19/11/2012 10:25, Octavian Ureche a écrit :

 This is interesting, and i think it mostly revolves around making certain
 things clear beforehand. 

 Notice that whenever you do the math based on what an employee's rate
 would be, you always come up

 with ridiculously low sums of money from a freelance perspective.

 At first glance, 100 eur/day to me feels like borderline insulting for a
 freelance rate.

 But, if we do a little basic math, at that rate, an employee would get 2k
 / month, and that includes healthcare and vacation. Which for eastern
 european standards, is a very good salary.

 Now as a freelancer, jobs are usually scarce (except if u're on a roll,
 which i don't think happens that often).

 So you need to plan your lifestyle accordingly. Backup plans and savings
 are crucial. Also as a freelancer you have to add extra expenses to your
 rates, like electricity, renderfarm costs (if u'r pulling heavy stuff that
 you can't possibly render at home), subcontracting costs (we all need a
 hand from time to time), rent for the apt you're living in, food, heating
 or cooling expenses etc. That adds a considerable amount of money to that
 rate. Something which does not apply to an employee which basically gets
 all this for free at the working place (apart from food maybe). The studio
 on the other hand adds these to it's hourly rate, which includes employee
 expenses.

 So while in theory, 100 eur/day sounds like a good fulltime salary, for a
 freelancer, it would give a whole new meaning to life (survival training
 might be necessary here).

 ** **

 Keep in mind, everything i wrote, is based on eastern european experience,
 but i presume it's the same 

 everywhere else. Numbers vary, but the theory stays the same.

 ** **

 Peace,

 O

 ** **

 On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 10:32 AM, Szabolcs Matefy szabol...@crytek.com
 wrote:

 Wow, very nice information. However, there were times, when I was told I
 am fairly expensive with my 100Euros (without VAT) rate per day...And I'm
 in Eastern Europe as well, and the statement was made by a company in the
 UK.

 Cheers


 Szabolcs


 -Original Message-
 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 

Re: Expression Question

[Byron Nash]

OK, good to know. I was trying to apply how expressions work in After
Effects I guess. I'll break it out into more objects.


On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 1:37 PM, Peter Agg peter@googlemail.com wrote:

 Yeah, the usual way around it is to have 2 different objects with 2
 different drivers/operators, then you can blend a constraint between the
 two of them via a custom parameter.



 On 19 November 2012 18:34, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote:

 An Expression is an operator in Softimage.  When an operator’s output
 ports drive a parameter, the parameter is under full control of the
 operator.  As long as the parameter is driven by the operator, the only
 control you have is the parameter value via the operator’s output.  The
 only way to regain manual control of the parameter is to mute or delete the
 operator.

 ** **

 Matt

 ** **

 ** **

 ** **

 ** **

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Byron Nash
 *Sent:* Monday, November 19, 2012 10:28 AM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Expression Question

 ** **

 I have a simple expression question. I have some custom parameters
 driving the animation of other objects. I would like to have a check box
 that should link one parameter to the other. It sort of works but the value
 does not change when I disable the check box. Here is my expression.

 ** **

 *cond( AWD_Mower.Mower_Controls.Lock_Wheel_Height == 1,
 AWD_Mower.Mower_Controls.Front_Wheel_Height,
 AWD_Mower.Mower_Controls.Rear_Wheel_Height )*  

 ** **

 In case it's not obvious from the expression, I have two sliders,
 Front_Wheel_Height, and Rear_Wheel_Height. And a checkbox called
 Lock_Wheel_Height. According to my expression, shouldn't the
 Rear_Wheel_Height slider be adjustable when the check box is off? I have
 the expression on the Rear_Wheel_Height. When I disable the check box,
 the slider jumps to a fixed value and will not change. When I enable it, it
 follows the first slider as expected. 

 ** **

 Thanks,

 Byron

Re: Expression Question

[Byron Nash]

I just moved the conditional to the next layer down(a null) that is driving
the rotation. I think I worded that wrong.


On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 2:12 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote:

 You don’t need more objects, you need more parameters.

 ** **

 If you create an ‘offset’ parameter for each of the custom parameters you
 already have, you can add them into your expression to give you the control
 you want without having to resort to additional objects and constraints.**
 **

 ** **

 Basically, you’re making the expression a little more complex to save from
 adding unnecessary stuff to the scene.

 ** **

 Matt

 ** **

 ** **

 ** **

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Byron Nash
 *Sent:* Monday, November 19, 2012 10:51 AM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: Expression Question

 ** **

 OK, good to know. I was trying to apply how expressions work in After
 Effects I guess. I'll break it out into more objects.

 ** **

 On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 1:37 PM, Peter Agg peter@googlemail.com
 wrote:

 Yeah, the usual way around it is to have 2 different objects with 2
 different drivers/operators, then you can blend a constraint between the
 two of them via a custom parameter.

 ** **

 ** **

 On 19 November 2012 18:34, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote:

 An Expression is an operator in Softimage.  When an operator’s output
 ports drive a parameter, the parameter is under full control of the
 operator.  As long as the parameter is driven by the operator, the only
 control you have is the parameter value via the operator’s output.  The
 only way to regain manual control of the parameter is to mute or delete the
 operator.

  

 Matt

  

  

  

  

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Byron Nash
 *Sent:* Monday, November 19, 2012 10:28 AM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Expression Question

  

 I have a simple expression question. I have some custom parameters driving
 the animation of other objects. I would like to have a check box that
 should link one parameter to the other. It sort of works but the value does
 not change when I disable the check box. Here is my expression.

  

 *cond( AWD_Mower.Mower_Controls.Lock_Wheel_Height == 1,
 AWD_Mower.Mower_Controls.Front_Wheel_Height,
 AWD_Mower.Mower_Controls.Rear_Wheel_Height )*  

  

 In case it's not obvious from the expression, I have two sliders,
 Front_Wheel_Height, and Rear_Wheel_Height. And a checkbox called
 Lock_Wheel_Height. According to my expression, shouldn't the
 Rear_Wheel_Height slider be adjustable when the check box is off? I have
 the expression on the Rear_Wheel_Height. When I disable the check box,
 the slider jumps to a fixed value and will not change. When I enable it, it
 follows the first slider as expected. 

  

 Thanks,

 Byron

 ** **

 ** **

Re: Implosia v1 error

[Byron Nash]

Oleg pointed out that my model had some double edges that were created by
the polygonizer and fluid shaper. I tried the Delete Double Edges compound
but that didn't work. Once I tediously removed all the double edges,
Implosia worked well. I'm not sure how to avoid the double edges with
polygonizer. It was happening along some of the seams between inputs.

On Sun, Oct 21, 2012 at 11:36 PM, Adam Sale adamfs...@gmail.com wrote:

 bit late.. just came across this in my drafts folder.. Are there any
 overlapping polygons Byron? I found overlapping polys kills Implosia..

 Adam

 On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 2:47 PM, Oleg Bliznuk gbo...@gmail.com wrote:

 Could you send me your model ?

Re: Object Label Channel... Nevermind

[Byron Nash]

Thanks for the info Eric and Ciaran. I will give that a shot.

On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 12:05 PM, Eric Lampi ericla...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hey Ed,

 Here you go. They were talking about an ObjectID shader, but it seems like
 this is pretty much the same thing as the current Object Label channel.

 http://www.si-community.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=28t=340start=10

 Eric



 On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 11:13 AM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote:

 hey eric -- could you post the links you found? (I'm feeling to lazy to
 google that string myself!)  ;-)

 On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 11:03 AM, Eric Lampi ericla...@gmail.com wrote:

 Murphy's Law applied to email lists, 5 minutes after you send off a help
 post, you find what you need. I did a search on ObjectID instead of Object
 Label after seeing someone refer to it...

 Thanks anyway,

 Eric

 --
 Freelance 3D and VFX animator

 http://vimeopro.com/user7979713/3d-work





 --
 Freelance 3D and VFX animator

 http://vimeopro.com/user7979713/3d-work

Caustics Only Pass

[Byron Nash]

Is there a way I can just render out the caustics on a surface and not the
light? I have been trying some things with the visibility and Ray_Type
switch but can't get it to work. It seems like there would be a way to get
a pass like this out.