Re: anyone know how ICE "get closest location" actually works under the hood?

[Ed Manning]

Thanks, Steve!

On Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 1:30 AM Steven Caron  wrote:

> I am not suggesting you copy it... read the comments and treat it as a
> guide as how to make your own. Jerome left really detailed comments!
>
> On Mon, Mar 30, 2020 at 6:47 PM Ben Paschke 
> wrote:
>
>> Oh man! I would if I could!!
>>
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Re: anyone know how ICE "get closest location" actually works

[Ed Manning]

Thanks, Matt -- this is very helpful info. The brilliant kid developer we
have working on this (a few years out of Stanford CS) went ahead and just
built it in several hours night before last. It seems to work really well
on splines; he's working on generalizing to surfaces next. Performance is
pretty amazing on a fairly high-end GeForce GPU. 1M particles, all *inside*
the cutoff distance, getting closest location on a curve, and pulling
tangency and position data from there, runs at  > 60fps.





On Mon, Mar 30, 2020 at 7:05 PM Matt Lind  wrote:

> 'Get closest Locations' is patent protected, so you won't be able to do
> anything commercial from the algorithm as implemented (but you may be able
> to find it's description at the patent office).
>
> I spoke with the author of that tool at great length a few years ago as I
> had questions about certain behaviors (bugs).  He said the patented part
> of
> importance is the acceleration structures, which is a tree to store
> results
> of the searches.  The benefits come from making certain assumptions about
> when the tree needs to be updated in order to avoid unnecessary
> computation.
>
> Location finding on meshes is basic linear algebra.  You can derive it
> yourself using the following:
>
> - distance equation (Pythagorean)
> - the plane equation
> - point inside a triangle
> - projections
> - vector dot product (aka inner scalar product)
> - vector cross product
> - determinant
> - linear transformations
> - fundamental understanding of barycentric coordinates.
>
> For example, finding closest vertex is no more complicated than iterating
> through all the vertices of the mesh and computing the Pythagorean
> distance
> (d = sqrt( x^2 + y^2 + z^2) ), then choosing the vertex with the smallest
> value of d.  If you want closest location, the computation is a bit more
> involved, but same general principle.  In either case, you need to make
> sure
> the origin of your search is in the same coordinate space as your mesh.
> That's where linear transformations and projections come into play.
>
> Brute force techniques are accurate and easy to implement, but perform
> slowly.  That may be adequate for situations where performance is not
> critical such as a pick session.  However, If you want speed, you'll need
> a
> more intelligent method to search only the parts of the mesh which are
> likely to produce the desired result.  That can get complex really fast
> depending on your situation.
>
> I can't speak too much about implementation on a GPU other than to say you
> have to organize your data and algorithm to consider race conditions and
> other usual issues of multi-threaded environments.
>
> Matt
>
>
>
> Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2020 21:41:31 -0400
> From: Ed Manning 
> Subject: anyone know how ICE "get closest location" actually works
> under the hood?
> To: "Softimage Users Mailing List." 
>
> need to reverse-engineer it in c++
>
> thanks!
>
>
>
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Re: anyone know how ICE "get closest location" actually works under the hood?

[Ed Manning]

touchdesigner. Should have mentioned we need it run on the GPU.

On Mon, Mar 30, 2020 at 1:06 AM Steven Caron  wrote:

> I don't know the exact implementation but generally speaking they are
> spatial queries backed by some sort of an acceleration structure with some
> barycentric coordinates to get a polygon position/location. Assuming your
> mesh data structure has attributes to interpolate you can do that with the
> weights I believe.
>
> Are you reverse-engineering in Softimage or another program?
>
> On Sun, Mar 29, 2020 at 6:42 PM Ed Manning  wrote:
>
>> need to reverse-engineer it in c++
>>
>> thanks!
>>
>>
>> --
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>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>
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anyone know how ICE "get closest location" actually works under the hood?

[Ed Manning]

need to reverse-engineer it in c++

thanks!
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Re: Softimage mailing list: 2019 by the numbers

[Ed Manning]

Still using XSI, rendering in Redshift, though with RTX/Optix/etc., much of
that might soon switch to Unreal Engine (which is already our primary
visualization platform).



On Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 12:09 PM patrick nethercoat <
patr...@brandtanim.co.uk> wrote:

> Heartbreaky indeed.
>
> I'm still using it but moving to Cinema4D (and Houdini) for freelancing
> now and finding with great reluctance that although a lot of the workflow
> isn't as good as Soft, there are so many tools that are miles ahead. The
> C4D splines toolset alone is a massive time saver. Soft was really
> neglected in some areas.
>
> On Tue, 14 Jan 2020 at 10:58, adrian wyer 
> wrote:
>
>> using it every day, although im the last one in the studio, everyone else
>> on Houdini and Maya
>>
>>
>>
>> and although i can still do stuff quicker than other software, im
>> starting feel the gaps in what you can do with Soft
>>
>>
>>
>> breaks my heart that it's never going to be updated
>>
>>
>>
>> a
>>
>>
>>
>> Adrian Wyer
>> Fluid Pictures
>> 4th Floor
>> 4 Bath Place
>> Rivington Street
>> London
>> EC2A 3DR
>> ++44(0) 207 684 5575
>>
>>
>> adrian.w...@fluid-pictures.com
>>
>> https://u9432639.ct.sendgrid.net/wf/click?upn=lIXdN6W56FnEjHCwrBXqOq0HQNpV0huvAGw1zu6Xp8eVQuk2cNZiNFjx2k-2FfTNcheFfpiVb5gBjGpm0Nj5Q4IwbU-2BeHvtoxntfL8t-2B7V0CvlXkN1-2B6gjJdOdplnnLTD9EcyKa5mPY5sqLO3EBjBjmG2qRQ9Rcnn3IVzXsL-2FEfWjqDOW9wSlk0-2F06FZA9BA-2Fy4S2Y0rVa3tKbQBE6XNlvvr9vN4YVjCF1GiQeYCmzAJTQJwjTZ-2F-2F3vJUcYQXZpWdQtFqLAUDo2xtphRFHGL6FFM82-2FGpZ5VBVZ-2BRl-2BF1db77JFwJj5oRKP0PisUKGhdDLqqCni6qp-2FOnM5cYPb45sJaoeZxqgvIOJK-2BHpPE2N3-2BbWls1LHSDwfp-2BW2kq20YZB_a6oQc7tnfcb0GKvoO27fPkrQ0ATQyF1SDBXJOg7-2FbuQo8nbT-2BRbl58mK2kC8Jtp31kDmpEH89z4v8VaAYubNp-2FoYzcSuoESsprdQQrKVLcLasLT6xCz9ARb9ZUPmrDazMmud-2BlkfrNYiSJFtNbNLt6smWYNl5oQhVPXrsJ-2Ft5-2BEloezhbAd2MZD-2Bj7MwETybr8usUBi2Q82k69Ld2JL08BVpDrItBVv9bsLMv6RX8-2FNTCBwUFISWJW65GxTBYZqO
>>  
>> >  >
>>
>>
>>
>> Fluid Pictures Limited is registered in England and Wales.
>> Company number:5657815
>> VAT number: 872 6893 71
>> --
>>
>> *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
>> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Martin Yara
>> *Sent:* 14 January 2020 09:36
>> *To:* Official Softimage Users Mailing List.
>> https://u9432639.ct.sendgrid.net/wf/click?upn=lIXdN6W56FnEjHCwrBXqOq0HQNpV0huvAGw1zu6Xp8eVQuk2cNZiNFjx2k-2FfTNchiLG9o7ECJDJ0Mw-2FRzSlfldhFWvv2G7M9xrogMv-2BiUgrG-2BmCVAfC2HxBWG0Czpbw8UUe9Xkbh68Twjp-2FiA-2FSErDaB0QMN6TZInAAMY3U5tTiO1pHL3fqc59MeZ53LOZG-2Fxgw7w1ET7NsZfhM1NrTIoU8e4itqB8an6cilichw7ugVnCs-2Bwed9bSquuodJl4wL3PlTXpIO5wcLvXRKdeVH9y21eTxSCC-2BtePGujDIoyzH5jURKuoZK-2BYjNwa1xWhX6-2FJlj0XpxMu73BSuQpOPW36PCkKqtKsZwyN7FyaG-2FuCO5BSowGgfiuDKLoGbXoNYILkdF5CN8IcLGcvBnbj3pyQ-3D-3D_a6oQc7tnfcb0GKvoO27fPkrQ0ATQyF1SDBXJOg7-2FbuQo8nbT-2BRbl58mK2kC8Jtp31kDmpEH89z4v8VaAYubNp9V6vD9Srk7B792KAhpXo7T-2FZ-2FWzNEg6iri7C-2BfaUbwY6C-2BNsovmawYeizPFdW5QzC2YgaO9U90Vpso6k6jyJ7HlG39Ul5MCIytREG1L8cZwBsc2AIEO9xgSp5X1Fi4nzd4WMyRjkIudDXwU6cMElu0fCgx7AsZRIpB5Bi8FbjRv
>>  
>> 

Re: The Softimage mailing list

[Ed Manning]

I'll stop using Soft when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Does look like it's time to learn Blender, though.

Houdini is working more and more like Soft with every release. Or I should
probably say the artist-centric part of its workflow is. So maybe I'll go
there instead of Blender, but Blender + Epic support is really enticing...



On Wed, Nov 13, 2019 at 10:17 AM Mirko Jankovic <
mirko.yanko...@protonmail.com> wrote:

> I've rendered bunch of projects done with octane in blender and they were
> all pure crap compared to redshift. rendering 5 times longer and still
> haveing bunch of noise, just to name one of the issues.
> I have no idea how someone can even compare cycles and redshift :))
> sorry but... so long way from facts...
>
>
>
> ‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐
> On Wednesday, 13 November 2019 15:47, Marc-Andre Carbonneau <
> marc-andre.carbonn...@ubisoft.com> wrote:
>
> What about Octane with Blender?
>
>
>
> *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com <
> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com> *On Behalf Of *Gerbrand Nel
> *Sent:* November 13, 2019 9:29 AM
> *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
> *Subject:* Re: The Softimage mailing list
>
>
>
> On 2019/11/12 01:30, Stephen Davidson wrote:
>
> If only Redshift would work with Blender.
>
> Why??? Cycles is so much better imho. I wish cycles worked in houdini so I
> can get rid of redshift.
>
> So long, and thanks for all the fish
>
> -- Softimage Mailing List. To unsubscribe, send a mail to
> softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com with “unsubscribe” in the
> subject, and reply to confirm.
>
>
>
>
> --
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Re: Jurassic Park: Fallen World to open this friday - Jurassic Park legacy.

[Ed Manning]

test

On Wed, Jun 20, 2018 at 12:22 PM, Pierre Schiller <
activemotionpictu...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi, I just found out this documental. Pretty cool:
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.youtube.com_watch-3Fv-3DoelBtZHkL4c=DwIFaQ=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA=ocacuPqCuHQEJS4eyGmsG2MSD2xoBYxWSWmJdAa7UMA=LK2VPp8oyy9nd8tbCqtn9Ak9dNclHcXAvXftKHkBYVI=
> 
>
> I remember when I first saw Jurassic Park, I thought "those dinos sure
> look alive" (unlike any other previous stop-motion movie (which I also
> loved).
>
> Question: Is the "when the dinos ruled the earth" banner on the museum´s
> Trex fight with the velociraptor scene, a "cloth simulation"? or is it
> rigged?
>
> Anyone knows the project? How was that "perfectly synch"? with the roar?
> Is that scene done with Softimage 3D?
>
> Thanks.
>
>
> * www.3dcinetv.com
> 
> - 3D.VFX.Post - Click on socials:*
> *
> 
> 
> 

Re: Any Dinosaurs Still Lurking?

[Ed Manning]

I still read the list pretty regularly, but have found the S/N ratio
degraded compared to a few years ago.

I still use Softimage a lot, along with Unreal and Touchdesigner. Real-time
is getting to the fun creative exploration place that VFX was in for so
many decades (for me at least).

Touchdesigner is getting more and more capable, and is very ICE-like in a
lot of ways (which is not really surprising given its roots in Houdini).
It's really becoming my tool of first resort for a lot of things. And many
important parts have already been moved onto the GPU, so performance for
certain things is insane. Particle counts in the millions in real-time or
near-real-time, for example.

Dinosaurs are still around in IRL, anyway -- we call them "birds" now.

:-)
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Re: Softimage/Maya 2105 worth?

[Ed Manning]

On Wed, Apr 4, 2018 at 11:45 AM, Chris Marshall <chrismarshal...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> How does ICE get phased out?
>

Slowly.

But actually -- Touchdesigner.


>
> On 4 April 2018 at 02:42, Pierre Schiller <activemotionpictu...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I am forgetting basic stuff such modeling shortcuts, since most of the
>> time I'm dedicated to tame Blender. 17 different editors/interacion modes
>> are nothing short for a generalist...all for the big change october this
>> year, then the planet will know if it was all worth the wait (and
>> training)
>> ;)
>>
>> I gotta finish my homage 3d stereo animation to say good bye to €15k in
>> my life. (value of the acquire and training). Thanks AD, for the dump of
>> the value of an automobile directly to the trash can...
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Apr 3, 2018, 10:44 Ed Manning <etmth...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Probably not much, since you can't legally transfer your license, except
>>> as an asset in the sale of an entire business.
>>>
>>> I also imagine that it's find-able as a crack in several corners of the
>>> Internet, so if anyone really wanted a copy they could get it for free.
>>>
>>> It's too bad. If I could legally buy more perpetual licenses for, say,
>>> $500 US each, I probably would. There's a lot of value in having working
>>> ICE seats for me. But I think I'm one of very few still using it regularly
>>> in production -- and I'm preparing to phase it out.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Apr 3, 2018 at 10:05 AM, Leoung O'Young <digim...@digimata.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Now that Softimage/Maya 2015 a few years old and EOL, just curious what
>>>> is it worth?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> Leoung
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Softimage Mailing List.
>>>> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
>>>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
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>>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>
>>
>> --
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>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Chris Marshall
> Mint Motion Limited
> 029 20 37 27 57
> 07730 533 115
> www.mintmotion.co.uk
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.mintmotion.co.uk=DwMFaQ=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA=DBP8MUKVtM-FrtaaEHfvB0PtjZdvPN1-o-6QAFLQ6Yc=B75Gp1BLWzZR2p9AWYFjDW9SOHSWdJ4Z1ytkQ64YJVo=>
> www.dot3d.com
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.dot3d.com=DwMFaQ=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA=DBP8MUKVtM-FrtaaEHfvB0PtjZdvPN1-o-6QAFLQ6Yc=5qX4jYa0GrK8tQvTG8btDCv6YHLqJU7o1j3uRI2cSKc=>
>
>
>
> --
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Re: Softimage/Maya 2105 worth?

[Ed Manning]

Probably not much, since you can't legally transfer your license, except as
an asset in the sale of an entire business.

I also imagine that it's find-able as a crack in several corners of the
Internet, so if anyone really wanted a copy they could get it for free.

It's too bad. If I could legally buy more perpetual licenses for, say, $500
US each, I probably would. There's a lot of value in having working ICE
seats for me. But I think I'm one of very few still using it regularly in
production -- and I'm preparing to phase it out.



On Tue, Apr 3, 2018 at 10:05 AM, Leoung O'Young 
wrote:

> Now that Softimage/Maya 2015 a few years old and EOL, just curious what
> is it worth?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Leoung
>
> --
> Softimage Mailing List.
> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>
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Re: Anyone have SI 2015 offline help documentation library they can share?

[Ed Manning]

Thanks!

I should not have despaired so quickly when I got those 404s

On Wed, Mar 7, 2018 at 2:36 PM, Sven Constable <sixsi_l...@imagefront.de>
wrote:

> Not gone. Here you can find the online help  and the downloadable offline
> version:
> https://knowledge.autodesk.com/search-result/caas/
> downloads/content/autodesk-softimage-documentation.html
>
>
>
> Sven
>
>
>
> *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-bounces@
> listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Ed Manning
> *Sent:* Wednesday, March 07, 2018 8:16 PM
> *To:* Official Softimage Users Mailing List. 
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__groups.google.com_=DwIBaQ=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA=leUCguhUzh2qfDzBBdGGXdf5FdkySdI5K_u5FJgVW2I=nKidT2N36_zLQbNMtzKEBavs8yNOCvJBXU3qbv5VYE8=
> forum/#!forum/xsi_list
> *Subject:* Anyone have SI 2015 offline help documentation library they
> can share?
>
>
>
> I should've downloaded it, and now the online help is gone.
>
>
>
>
>
> --
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> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
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Anyone have SI 2015 offline help documentation library they can share?

[Ed Manning]

I should've downloaded it, and now the online help is gone.
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Re: Friday Flashback #326

[Ed Manning]

I seem to remember getting a closed-door demo of Twister that included the
ability to render Alias/Wavefront scenes. Could that have been a dream?

On Fri, Jan 12, 2018 at 7:34 PM, Grahame Fuller  wrote:

> You’re not incorrect — it was indeed heavily dependent on mental ray.
> “Interactive mental ray” was how marketing phrased it. It had shader
> presets and “phenomena”, render passes, etc.
>
>
>
> gray
>
>
>
> *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-bounces@
> listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Sven Constable
> *Sent:* Friday, January 12, 2018 7:22 PM
> *To:* 'Official Softimage Users Mailing List. 
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__groups.google.com_=DwIFaQ=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA=6463iWxu3UEOAKrlE9X79iNdMkssw6v31ECDrX2PIxI=P1neL1h2sQYTa-md--xYsoNYUl6PFIKGaAhbNSCzgT8=
> forum/#!forum/xsi_list' 
> *Subject:* RE: Friday Flashback #326
>
>
>
> You're sure? To my knowledge, Twister originally was codename for the
> interactive version of mental ray combined with node-based shader workflow,
> planned for SI|3D as well as Sumatra/XSI. Focused on the latter of course
> because of the shader tree idea, what later became the render tree.
>
> I'm probably wrong. I find this really interesting. Tell me more,please :)
>
>
>
> Sven
>
>
>
> *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-bounces@
> listproc.autodesk.com ] *On
> Behalf Of *Grahame Fuller
> *Sent:* Saturday, January 13, 2018 1:04 AM
> *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
> *Subject:* RE: Friday Flashback #326
>
>
>
> Twister was the codename for a product that was going to allow you to
> import files from SOFTIMAGE|3D, override/add materials, lights, etc., and
> then render on a farm. It was meant to fill the gap before the release of
> Rayflex, the first codename for SI3D’s replacement.
>
>
>
> But Twister stole resources from Rayflex, making it even later. Twister
> itself ran late. At some point, Rayflex morphed into Sumatra (XSI v1). The
> requirement to make Twister compatible with Sumatra too meant that it
> couldn’t be ready before Sumatra itself.
>
>
>
> Twister was never released as a product, but bits of it made it into XSI.
> However, the render farm component was never implemented. It was nothing
> more than a UI panel with blinking lights.
>
>
>
> gray
>
>
>
> *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-bounces@
> listproc.autodesk.com ] *On
> Behalf Of *Sven Constable
> *Sent:* Friday, January 12, 2018 6:38 PM
> *To:* 'Official Softimage Users Mailing List. 
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__groups.google.com_=DwIFaQ=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA=6463iWxu3UEOAKrlE9X79iNdMkssw6v31ECDrX2PIxI=P1neL1h2sQYTa-md--xYsoNYUl6PFIKGaAhbNSCzgT8=
> forum/#!forum/xsi_list
> '
> 
> *Subject:* RE: Friday Flashback #326
>
>
>
> first friday flashback, I quite didn't understand. Was this somehow
> related to a predecessor to UniversalBatch?
>
>
>
> *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-bounces@
> listproc.autodesk.com ] *On
> Behalf Of *Stephen Blair
> *Sent:* Friday, January 12, 2018 10:29 PM
> *To:* Official Softimage Users Mailing List. 
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__groups.google.com_=DwIFaQ=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA=6463iWxu3UEOAKrlE9X79iNdMkssw6v31ECDrX2PIxI=P1neL1h2sQYTa-md--xYsoNYUl6PFIKGaAhbNSCzgT8=
> forum/#!forum/xsi_list
> 
> *Subject:* Friday Flashback #326
>
>
>
> Graphic rough for the Twister render farm
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__wp.me_powV4-2D3un=DwIFaQ=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA=6463iWxu3UEOAKrlE9X79iNdMkssw6v31ECDrX2PIxI=bq-qYDF--pxkoiCTa-tzLtoeUNTc3FSypD1wHahQN6c=
> 
>
> --
> 

Re: All MOOTZOID plugins are for free now! Thanks, Eric!

[Ed Manning]

Wow, Eric. Thank-you!  And Merry Christmas.

On Fri, Dec 22, 2017 at 2:42 AM, Vincent Langer 
wrote:

> Thank you, Eric!!!
>
> I am curious what he will do next - any rumors?
>
> Merry xmas everbody
>
> 2017-12-21 18:07 GMT+01:00 Sven Constable :
>
>> Wow, that is one christmas gift. Thanks, Eric.
>>
>> Im a bit surprised that he also quit the Cinema, Maya, Modo part of the
>> plugin development. I would have thought there are some costumers.
>>
>>
>>
>> Sven
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
>> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Oliver Weingarten
>> *Sent:* Thursday, December 21, 2017 5:33 PM
>> *To:* Official Softimage Users Mailing List.
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__groups.google.com_forum_-23-21forum_xsi-5Flist=DwIFaQ=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA=8gCjFoOoDlg15rjrILI7WMGHd3aOp51GIV7SDlHDD9Y=ZEs8L4ccCO64nre-WQ09GounikjV4NGqvJmN3CnY0IQ=
>> 
>> *Subject:* All MOOTZOID plugins are for free now! Thanks, Eric!
>>
>>
>>
>> Hey there,
>>
>> as Eric moves on to something else, he decided to make all his plugins
>> available for free!
>> Read his post here:
>>
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.si-2Dcommunity.com_community_viewtopic.php-3Ff-3D5-26t-3D6833=DwIFaQ=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA=8gCjFoOoDlg15rjrILI7WMGHd3aOp51GIV7SDlHDD9Y=QdbL7o4HG2BxuxX53z5JV5d95ShWj2ucFWiRAkiVZqM=
>> 
>>
>> Cheers,
>> oli
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Softimage Mailing List.
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>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Vincent Langer
> Anne.Frank-Str. 17
> 74354 Besigheim
> +49 176 965 177 61 <+49%20176%2096517761>
> www.vincentlanger.com
> 
>
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Re: M "Paddington & The Christmas Visitor

[Ed Manning]

semi-off-topic, and fully ridiculous:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.huffingtonpost.com_entry_paddington-2Dchristmas-2Dcommercial-2Dmarks-2Dand-2Dspencer-5Fus-5F5a03d362e4b0937b510f8bc1-3Fncid-3Dinblnkushpmg0009=DwIBaQ=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA=gDCf5LVSmWj1NrlH9Yxg6BUZaZExHlwYyVQ-KfQPkBs=X7FyukG5QdC6lvNEhoClqNSOurMDUaa0uGFcxhC7E5c=
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Re: OT Maya Q - default cameras clipping planes

[Ed Manning]

make sure you have the gradient background turned off...

On Fri, Oct 6, 2017 at 9:17 AM, Ponthieux, Joseph G. (LARC-E1A)[LITES II] <
j.ponthi...@nasa.gov> wrote:

> I was able to replicate all the way back to Maya 2014. But don’t have
> anything older installed. The same thought occurred to me that it seemed
> strange to not have been caught by now.
>
>
>
> Joey
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-bounces@
> listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Brent McPherson
> *Sent:* Friday, October 06, 2017 5:59 AM
> *To:* r...@casema.nl; Official Softimage Users Mailing List.
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__groups.google.com_forum_-23-21forum_xsi-5Flist=DwIFaQ=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA=88e6lQ5Muq_dkc_QUSx6CNTen-DRe-UZPc5-eh8m008=3qt5FL6UgdZN_57rpfRQU2SKsqh6FOChe4ZD3dsQe4I=
>  <
> softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
>
> *Subject:* RE: OT Maya Q - default cameras clipping planes
>
>
>
> Yes, it could be a known issue.
>
>
>
> I was referring to the fact I (personally) had never heard anyone mention
> it in the modeling area where I have (mostly) worked since joining the Maya
> team.
>
> --
>
> Brent
>
>
>
> *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-bounces@
> listproc.autodesk.com ] *On
> Behalf Of *Rob Wuijster
> *Sent:* 06 October 2017 10:15
> *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
> *Subject:* Re: OT Maya Q - default cameras clipping planes
>
>
>
> That sounds odd to me, as apparently this behavior is there since the
> first release of Maya 2016. Maybe already in 2015 as well.
> But hopefully this little nugget of annoyance will be fixed in the next SP
> of 2018.
>
>
>
> Rob
>
>
>
> \/-\/\/
>
> On 6-10-2017 10:22, Brent McPherson wrote:
>
> No problem. I'm really surprised this is the first time I've heard about this 
> issue...
>
> --
>
> Brent
>
>
>
> -Original Message-
>
> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
> [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
> ] On Behalf Of Ponthieux, Joseph G. 
> (LARC-E1A)[LITES II]
>
> Sent: 05 October 2017 18:25
>
> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
>
> Subject: RE: OT Maya Q - default cameras clipping planes
>
>
>
> Brent,
>
>
>
> Thanks! I had not been able to get around to submitting it yet.
>
>
>
> Joey
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -Original Message-
>
> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
> [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
> ] On Behalf Of Brent McPherson
>
> Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2017 12:07 PM
>
> To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List. 
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__groups.google.com_forum_-23-21forum_xsi-5Flist=DwIGaQ=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA=IPWu-N_w2ofkgXSwipB-xc4RMHrBL8P0YyaTdHzPV5k=dhlZth5P7jGw2KRbG6HhIOabzQtDDjrDhf_CQTh2IeA=
>    
>
> Subject: RE: OT Maya Q - default cameras clipping planes
>
>
>
> I entered a bug for this:
>
>
>
> MAYA-87698 - Large objects are incorrectly framed in the 3D ortho views
>
>
>
> The workaround is to just select the ortho camera in the outliner and 
> increase the translation channel but I agree it looks like a bug due to the 
> fact it does translate the ortho camera a little bit if you pan and then 
> frame.
>
>
>
> Thanks.
>
> --
>
> Brent
>
>
>
> -Original Message-
>
> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
> [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
> ] On Behalf Of Ponthieux, Joseph G. 
> (LARC-E1A)[LITES II]
>
> Sent: 05 October 2017 14:31
>
> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
>
> Subject: RE: OT Maya Q - default cameras clipping planes
>
>
>
>
>
> It seems this might be a bug actually. I posted this to the Area yesterday 
> and the only response I got back seems to confirm that. I'm finding that 
> there are times when Frame Selection actually does affect the lens position, 
> but for some reason it seems like it is broken in most cases for the ortho 
> panels. What Default View is doing is correctly positioning the lens outside 
> the extent of the geometry by positioning the Z. When you hit Frame Selection 
> again, you're then setting the ortho width and that frames the XY.
>
>
>
> It does not appear to have any issues setting camera position for non-ortho 
> cameras. So this must be an error in how it resolves the framing in ortho 
> mode only.
>
>
>
> You will find that the predefined Front Bookmark also works correctly setting 
> the Z position like you would expect, and when the camera doesn’t reposition 
> properly after a Frame Selection, if you just alt-middle click drag the 
> camera a little to one side or the other, then frame selection 

Re: OT: 13inch laptop for occasional noodling in Houdini...

[Ed Manning]

I'm very happy with my Razer Blade for Softimage ICE and Unreal. A bit
noisy when doing something taxing, but the Core EGPU works nicely and is
nearly silent itself.
.

On Sun, Jul 16, 2017 at 3:36 PM, Tom Kleinenberg  wrote:

> I'm kind of looking at a laptop for myself although it's 3 or 4 on the
> list of potential "big" purchases. For my side I've been looking at having
> something with a Thunderbolt port as a must to hook up an external GPU if
> needed. It might be something you want to consider, particularly if you are
> considering Redshift/other GPU based processing.
>
> Apart from that, it does look good. My wife has a previous gen Lenovo
> Thinkpad Yoga, which has a stylus and that's quite useful sometimes but the
> specs are worse.
>
>
> 
>  Virus-free.
> www.avast.com
> 
> <#m_3767991708672010170_DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
>
> On 14 July 2017 at 20:26, Dan Yargici  wrote:
>
>> Hello Softimage peoples.
>>
>> I've been waiting for the new HP Envy range of 13inch laptops to arrive
>> since the announcement in May so I can finally replace my current, ancient,
>> (2006 - eeek!) machine.
>>
>> The new Envy range seemed to have all the boxes ticked for my needs, with
>> modern ports (no Thunderbolt 3 though), dedicated graphics (the new Nvidia
>> MX150 with 2gb of vram), fingerprint reader, webcam in the correct place
>> (looking at you, Dell) etc.  However, since it's release I've been told to
>> my amazement that HP have no plans for a 16gb model, only 8gb.
>>
>> Now, the machine will mostly be for casual use, but I may want to
>> occasionally do some noodling in Houdini at home so I just thought I'd do a
>> quick poll here to gauge people's opinions.  Obviously the kind of Houdini
>> work I'd be doing would be pretty lightweight geometry experiments and
>> simple sims due to the obvious constraints also thrown up by using a mobile
>> CPU.
>>
>> So what do you think?  I'm not going to be able to wait for the
>> inevitable follow up version and like I say it's got pretty much every
>> other box ticked.  Aside from the RAM issue, for this price no other
>> machine comes close in the 13inch segment imo.
>>
>> Here are the specs:
>>
>> http://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=2GE75EA=ABU=NTB
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> Dan.
>>
>> (Also posted to the Houdini list.)
>>
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Re: CAD files from rhino

[Ed Manning]

+1 for SimLab.

On Fri, Jun 9, 2017 at 2:22 AM, Enter Reality <3dv...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Guys, I've been dealing a lot with CAD files lately, one of the most
> plug solution is to export the file from you CAD software ( I usually
> use JT ) and import everything into SimLab and from there export in
> FBX...its surprisingly fast and I never had export problems, except for CAD
> files using Nurbs surfaces, but I haven't tested Rhino yet, so you can give
> it a try with the 14 days trial.
>
> 2017-06-09 8:03 GMT+02:00 Olivier Jeannel :
>
>> while looking for a definition of non-manifold vertices, I found this.
>> http://3dprintingninja.blogspot.fr/2014/12/non-manifolds-
>> automatic-fixing-methods.html
>> no idea if its worthy.
>> I would try the houdini way, I'm sure there's a sop somewhere that has a
>> function to solve this...
>>
>>
>> 2017-06-09 1:59 GMT+02:00 Eugene Flormata :
>>
>>> ahh, yeah I've been trying to fix it in maya at the moment.
>>> it keeps deleting faces and messing up the normals
>>> so i tried it in rhino, it didn't delete faces as much as just mess up
>>> the normals
>>> was hoping there would be way to avoid manual cleanup
>>>
>>> On Thu, Jun 8, 2017 at 3:45 PM, Graham Bell  wrote:
>>>
 If you’re exporting the data as a STEP or JT file, then once it’s been
 meshed then it’s probably better to fix that mesh in Max/Maya/whatever. Not
 much point going back to Rhino, although sometimes though mesh normal
 appear fixed, they’ve shown up in renders and we’ve had to go back to 
 Rhino.



 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Eugene Flormata
 *Sent:* 08 June 2017 23:29
 *To:* Official Softimage Users Mailing List.
 https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list <
 softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
 *Subject:* Re: CAD files from rhino



 yeah it's a step file

 whoops, I'm exporting out to polymesh, fbx. from a step file.
 even if I re-import the mesh back into rhino, and try to clean the
 non-manifold vertices the mesh normals get all messed up

 On Thu, Jun 8, 2017 at 3:26 PM, Graham Bell  wrote:

 STEP file or maybe a JT file?



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>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
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Re: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

[Ed Manning]

No nVidia, no CUDA, so no go.

On Tue, Jun 6, 2017 at 10:00 AM, Mirko Jankovic 
wrote:

> Like every other mac thing in history of macs and 3d. Overpriced and not
> too good for that line of work
> ᐧ
>
> On Tue, Jun 6, 2017 at 3:44 PM, Marc-Andre Carbonneau <
> marc-andre.carbonn...@ubisoft.com> wrote:
>
>> Hey guys,
>>
>> What do you think of the newly announced iMac Pro coming this December?
>>
>> https://www.apple.com/imac-pro/
>>
>>
>>
>> They’re reaching out to 3D artists and to highly computer intensive users.
>>
>>
>>
>> What about what you get for the price tag?
>>
>> MAC
>>
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>>
>
>
>
> --
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> *http://www.cgfolio.com/mirko-jankovic
> *
>
> Need to find freelancers fast?
> www.cgfolio.com
>
> Need some help with rendering an Redshift project?
> http://www.gpuoven.com/
>
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Re: redshift vdb + depth fading.

[Ed Manning]

Maybe you can attenuate the density directly in the VDB ICE tree? based on
distance to camera or ray length?

Or create another, intersecting VDB volume of constant density?



On Fri, Sep 16, 2016 at 12:29 PM, Adam Seeley <adammsee...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'll double check.. I did try spitting out all AOV's to see what I got and
> it just seemed to be Volume_lighting & Volume Tint that showed anything
> reasonably useful.
>
> There aren't any handles into the Volume_Material node to help attenuate
> anything.
>
> A.
>
> On 16 September 2016 at 17:08, Ed Manning <etmth...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Maybe the depth AOV is usable? (Haven't tried it myself with VDB clouds)
>>
>> On Fri, Sep 16, 2016 at 11:42 AM, Adam Seeley <adammsee...@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi folks,
>>>
>>> Is there a way to fade off the VDB shader into the distance.
>>>
>>> Getting some nice clouds using pre-made VDBs but need some haze for
>>> comping.
>>>
>>> The pass Volume shader/fog shader doesn't seem to want to play nicely.
>>>
>>> Not having much luck.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Adam.
>>>
>>> *gazes at Houdini tutorials*
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
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Re: redshift vdb + depth fading.

[Ed Manning]

Maybe the depth AOV is usable? (Haven't tried it myself with VDB clouds)

On Fri, Sep 16, 2016 at 11:42 AM, Adam Seeley  wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> Is there a way to fade off the VDB shader into the distance.
>
> Getting some nice clouds using pre-made VDBs but need some haze for
> comping.
>
> The pass Volume shader/fog shader doesn't seem to want to play nicely.
>
> Not having much luck.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Adam.
>
> *gazes at Houdini tutorials*
>
>
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Any Softimage generalists still active in NYC area?

[Ed Manning]

I am looking at a project that would require one very solid generalist,
with some very good texture/matte painting skills for an
"Earth-from-low-oribit" type of shot. Most likely rendering in Redshift, so
some VDB fluid rendering experience is also desirable.

Please contact me off-list at etmthree (at) yahoo (dot) com.
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Re: Problems with motionblur and ILT Boolean object

[Ed Manning]

what are ILT Booleans?

On Wed, Jun 29, 2016 at 6:04 PM, Morten Bartholdy 
wrote:

> I am creating a fluid in a bottle with animated surface using ILT
> Booleans. This works fine and is pretty smooth. However when rendering with
> Arnold I get crashing when turning on deformation motion blur, which I need
> for other parts which deform during the shot. I have tried exporting the
> geo sequence as alembic and importing it again, which works fine until
> turning on deformation motionblur.
>
> Does someone here know - is there something I need to do to get this
> working?
>
> //Morten
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Re: Color from particles to Legolizer?

[Ed Manning]

Hey Morten --

You might also look into Eric Mootz's emTools; pretty sure you can use some
of them to get exactly what you want, possibly without the Legolizer itself
(if there are compatibility issues).

I'm pretty sure I did what you're trying to do a few years ago for a spec
piece, but I have no recollection whatsoever of how I did it!  :-)  At
least you can be confident that it must be possible and not too difficult
if I managed it.



On Thu, Jun 2, 2016 at 11:00 AM, Morten Bartholdy 
wrote:

> Hi Ed,
>
> Great compund :)
> I will try those and see what I get.
>
> //Morten
>
>
>
> > Den 2. juni 2016 klokken 12:38 skrev Ed Schiffer :
> >
> >
> > Hi Morten
> >
> > thanks for using my compound :)
> > as a guess, I'd go with Get Closest Locations and Switch Context nodes,
> but
> > I always get confused with context as well.
> >
> > wish you luck.
> > cheers
> >
> > On Wed, 1 Jun 2016 at 15:27 Morten Bartholdy 
> wrote:
> >
> > > Hmm, I forgot to actually ask if someone has an idea regarding how to
> grab
> > > these colors or more specifically how to hook them into the legolizer
> > > compounds.
> > >
> > > //MB
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > Den 1. juni 2016 klokken 15:08 skrev Morten Bartholdy <
> > > x...@colorshopvfx.dk>:
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > I am playing with Ed Shiffers and Giuliu Toninis fine Legolizer
> > > compounds and ran into a snag. I would like to get colors for my
> Legolizer
> > > Lego bricks either from a particle pointcloud or from voxels from a
> fluid
> > > simulation so I can make nice Lego explosions with it. I have yet to
> figure
> > > out how to do this as I run into context mismatch issues.
> > > >
> > > > Thanks!
> > > >
> > > > //Morten
> > > > --
> > > > Softimage Mailing List.
> > > > To unsubscribe, send a mail to
> softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
> > > with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
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> > > Softimage Mailing List.
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> > > with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
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Re: Momentum / implosiafx plugins

[Ed Manning]

thank you, Oleg.

I was literally just wishing I had Momentum for the project I'm working on.
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Re: Maya the server destroyer

[Ed Manning]

It's not Maya's fault. It's how the render manager, in this case Royal, has
its options set.

There is something bad about Maya and certain read/write operations over
network, but I don't think this is that.

Unless you're trying to render on Windows render nodes to a Linux or OS X
server running a bad SMB stack.

In which case you might as well be in the Sarlacc Pit.



On Fri, May 20, 2016 at 3:46 PM, Sven Constable <sixsi_l...@imagefront.de>
wrote:

> Maya also loads the scene at every frame? I was thinking only 3dsmax had
> this awful behavior. If they would know how elegant softimage batch
> rendering actually is…
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Ed Manning
> *Sent:* Friday, May 20, 2016 9:15 PM
> *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
> *Subject:* Re: Maya the server destroyer
>
>
>
>- use the "render local" option, which writes the images to a temp
>directory on the render machines, then copies to the server.
>- set chunk size to a large number to minimize the number of times the
>scene has to be loaded by the network machines
>- turn off any unnecessary aovs
>- try to set up local simulation caches on the render machines
>- don't know what renderer you're using, but most can save you a lot
>of disk read if you convert all textures to tiled mipmapped versions
>- for that matter, you might want to set up local texture caches too.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, May 20, 2016 at 1:16 PM, Steve Parish <porkypar...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> My Maya misery continues..
>
>
>
> We can't seem to be able to submit jobs without bringing the server to its
> knees. Anything with simulation or large scenes just jams everything up. I
> can only really submit to 3 machines.
>
>
>
> We're using Royal Render..
>
>
>
> Any suggestions?
>
>
>
> Thanks
>
> Steve P
>
>
> --
> Softimage Mailing List.
> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>
>
>
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Re: Maya the server destroyer

[Ed Manning]

check your logfiles to see where the biggest latencies are.

On Fri, May 20, 2016 at 3:30 PM, Ed Manning <etmth...@gmail.com> wrote:

> and stagger the start times -- Royal might have a built-in delay option
> for this. that way the machines don't all hit the server at once for the
> same files.
>
>
>
> On Fri, May 20, 2016 at 3:28 PM, Ed Manning <etmth...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> and if your renderer supports proxies (I think most of them do), use them!
>>
>> On Fri, May 20, 2016 at 3:14 PM, Ed Manning <etmth...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>- use the "render local" option, which writes the images to a temp
>>>directory on the render machines, then copies to the server.
>>>- set chunk size to a large number to minimize the number of times
>>>the scene has to be loaded by the network machines
>>>- turn off any unnecessary aovs
>>>- try to set up local simulation caches on the render machines
>>>- don't know what renderer you're using, but most can save you a lot
>>>of disk read if you convert all textures to tiled mipmapped versions
>>>- for that matter, you might want to set up local texture caches too.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, May 20, 2016 at 1:16 PM, Steve Parish <porkypar...@gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> My Maya misery continues..
>>>>
>>>> We can't seem to be able to submit jobs without bringing the server to
>>>> its knees. Anything with simulation or large scenes just jams everything
>>>> up. I can only really submit to 3 machines.
>>>>
>>>> We're using Royal Render..
>>>>
>>>> Any suggestions?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks
>>>> Steve P
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Softimage Mailing List.
>>>> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
>>>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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Re: Maya the server destroyer

[Ed Manning]

and stagger the start times -- Royal might have a built-in delay option for
this. that way the machines don't all hit the server at once for the same
files.



On Fri, May 20, 2016 at 3:28 PM, Ed Manning <etmth...@gmail.com> wrote:

> and if your renderer supports proxies (I think most of them do), use them!
>
> On Fri, May 20, 2016 at 3:14 PM, Ed Manning <etmth...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>- use the "render local" option, which writes the images to a temp
>>directory on the render machines, then copies to the server.
>>- set chunk size to a large number to minimize the number of times
>>the scene has to be loaded by the network machines
>>- turn off any unnecessary aovs
>>- try to set up local simulation caches on the render machines
>>- don't know what renderer you're using, but most can save you a lot
>>of disk read if you convert all textures to tiled mipmapped versions
>>- for that matter, you might want to set up local texture caches too.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, May 20, 2016 at 1:16 PM, Steve Parish <porkypar...@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> My Maya misery continues..
>>>
>>> We can't seem to be able to submit jobs without bringing the server to
>>> its knees. Anything with simulation or large scenes just jams everything
>>> up. I can only really submit to 3 machines.
>>>
>>> We're using Royal Render..
>>>
>>> Any suggestions?
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> Steve P
>>>
>>> --
>>> Softimage Mailing List.
>>> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
>>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>>
>>
>>
>
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Re: Maya the server destroyer

[Ed Manning]

and if your renderer supports proxies (I think most of them do), use them!

On Fri, May 20, 2016 at 3:14 PM, Ed Manning <etmth...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>- use the "render local" option, which writes the images to a temp
>directory on the render machines, then copies to the server.
>- set chunk size to a large number to minimize the number of times the
>scene has to be loaded by the network machines
>- turn off any unnecessary aovs
>- try to set up local simulation caches on the render machines
>- don't know what renderer you're using, but most can save you a lot
>of disk read if you convert all textures to tiled mipmapped versions
>- for that matter, you might want to set up local texture caches too.
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, May 20, 2016 at 1:16 PM, Steve Parish <porkypar...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> My Maya misery continues..
>>
>> We can't seem to be able to submit jobs without bringing the server to
>> its knees. Anything with simulation or large scenes just jams everything
>> up. I can only really submit to 3 machines.
>>
>> We're using Royal Render..
>>
>> Any suggestions?
>>
>> Thanks
>> Steve P
>>
>> --
>> Softimage Mailing List.
>> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>
>
>
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Re: Maya the server destroyer

[Ed Manning]

   - use the "render local" option, which writes the images to a temp
   directory on the render machines, then copies to the server.
   - set chunk size to a large number to minimize the number of times the
   scene has to be loaded by the network machines
   - turn off any unnecessary aovs
   - try to set up local simulation caches on the render machines
   - don't know what renderer you're using, but most can save you a lot of
   disk read if you convert all textures to tiled mipmapped versions
   - for that matter, you might want to set up local texture caches too.




On Fri, May 20, 2016 at 1:16 PM, Steve Parish  wrote:

> My Maya misery continues..
>
> We can't seem to be able to submit jobs without bringing the server to its
> knees. Anything with simulation or large scenes just jams everything up. I
> can only really submit to 3 machines.
>
> We're using Royal Render..
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Thanks
> Steve P
>
> --
> Softimage Mailing List.
> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>
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Re: Alembic advices

[Ed Manning]

On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 7:41 AM, Morten Bartholdy 
wrote:

> Actually I meant Animate->Plot->Shape
>

Huh! Not disagreeing -- I'm pretty sure your judgement is better than mine
on this  :-)  -- just wondering, why use shape plots? I thought they had
downsides compared to pointcaches (temporal sampling/interpolation, heavier
data).
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Re: Alembic advices

[Ed Manning]

On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 11:28 AM, Olivier Jeannel 
wrote:

> Shape plot ?
>
> Think he means Plot>Shape Manager>Write>ICEcache?

;-)
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Re: Looking for Softimage animators

[Ed Manning]

Well, Paul, I'm sure you're inundated with responses, and I'll say right up
front that I have no character animation skills.

If your project does move forward and you need anyone for
lighting/generalist/ICE work, do keep me in mind working for/with you is
something I'd give up my right nut for.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/etmthree

https://vimeo.com/etmthree

best of luck, hope it's a hit!



On Fri, May 6, 2016 at 10:47 AM,  wrote:

>
> (I’m not sure if this is the way to start a new thread, so apologies if it
> tags this on the end of a different one)
>
> I’m looking for a few animators to help me make a high profile TV series
> for which the pilot has been green-lit and the full series is highly likely.
>
> Its performance capture character work along the lines of the following
> Greg Mutt videos I made a few years ago and to the same or higher level of
> quality.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o9Fod9KigU
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zko-WEcKQ8
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQuToiab2uU
>
> I need people that will process the character animation. Its a matter of
> applying the motion capture data and doing any tweaks to make it look
> great.
> About 90% of the animation is automatic as it was on Greg, but there are
> some minor tweaks that need to be done on each shot, and hands will be
> fully key-framed this time.
>
> The main challenge is in the sheer volume of shots we need to get through.
> We are trying to pull off something ridiculously ambitious for the budget
> and schedule, so you have to not be scared by the idea of working very fast
> and efficiently . Also, generalist skills are very useful.
>
> The start date for the pilot is scheduled for the 11th of July and it will
> run for 7 weeks.
>
> We are based near Bath,  in the UK and you’ll have to work on-site.
>
> If you’re interested, reply to me at p...@bustykelp.com
>
>
>
>
>
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Re: polygonizer and small particles

[Ed Manning]

On Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 6:01 AM, Chris Marshall 
wrote:

> I've done quite a bit of this and the only way I could get a tighter 'fit'
> was to scale everything up.
>

When I've had to do something that requires a scale change to work
properly, I've sometimes been able to do the "scale-up" in ICE by: get
PointPosition => multiplyByScalar => set PointPosition, then doing whatever
scale-dependent operations, then reversing the scaling. Sometimes these can
all live in one ICEtree, sometimes they may have to be applied as
sequential trees. You can make the reverse scaling automatic even in
multiple trees by passing the scale factor as a new attribute, then getting
that value in the reverse.
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Re: polygonizer and small particles

[Ed Manning]

On Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 6:22 AM, Chris Marshall 
wrote:

> Another solution you might be able to try, which I've used in certain
> situations, is to create a polygon object in ICE with Convert Instances to
> Mesh on an empty Polygon Mesh, from your particle cloud. Obviously you need
> to use a simple sphere or icosohedron as the instanced particle. You can
> then shrinkwrap your polygoniser object onto this, for a super tight fit.
>

Oh, that's smart. Wish I'd thought of that a few weeks ago when I was
trying to do something similar. I imagine you could then run a relax/smooth
on the wrapped mesh to reduce the "blocks in a sock" look.
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Re: Modulo ? Modulo ?

[Ed Manning]

On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 6:19 AM, Christopher Crouzet <
christopher.crou...@gmail.com> wrote:

> The 6/4 result is to be expected and is not related to a rounding issue
> but simply to the nature of randomness—setting a ratio of 0.5 doesn't
> guarantee a 50-50% split, it only means that the distribution will tend
> towards this goal, especially when the number of samples will be high
> enough (and 10 samples definitely isn't much at all).
>
> Yes!  ICE factory nodes have inherent problems with small sample sets
(precise numbers of particles). "Generate Sample Set," for example, which
lurks within many factory compounds, but cannot be edited, has this
tendency. I think this is one reason you find so many people who do
deterministic particle animations (e.g. non-simulated ICE trees for strand
animations like, say, LKLightning) end up building their own "emitters" and
other compounds from really low-level components or in C++.

I ran into this recently when trying to use factory nodes to build a very
simplified simulation framework that operated on very small populations of
particles that had to emit at precise locations at precise intervals. Every
so often, I'd get some "missing" particles and some doubled ones. I think
this actually happens in simulations all the time, but we don't care since
we're generally looking for large numbers of particles and
statistically-accurate aggregate behavior rather than precision.
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Re: Semi OT Softimage pic pluggin for mac ?

[Ed Manning]

.pic is, I think, a deprecated "picture" filetype in Mac-OS-world. So
Quicktime or Preview thinks it should be able to open it but fails. There
once was a Quicktime 7 extension someone made for .pic maybe, but I doubt
it's supported now.

to avoid confusion, everyone I know sends jpegs, or if image quality is
critical, .png or .tiff. If the client is super Web-centric, maybe .gif

Of course, your client may be reviewing and making grading decisions about
your 4K image on a smartphone in direct sunlight in a moving vehicle...

have you checked rray.de/xsi/ ?

On Fri, Apr 8, 2016 at 3:22 PM, Olivier Jeannel 
wrote:

> Hi guys,
>
> Is this possible to open on a Mac, in After Effects, a .pic picture ?
>
> Not very aware of the mac universe here, and i need to communicate with
> "them" :/
>
> Thanks ! :)
>
>
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Re: Wrapped

[Ed Manning]

Totally AWESOME.

And I dare say, it could only have been done by such a small artist-centric
team in Softimage. Just thinking about how I'd have to go about it in a
Maya-only environment makes me shudder. With a small army of great TDs,
maybe... Or a few kickass Houdini TDs and Maya animators, mmmaybe? But the
art would suffer.

Maurice, I hope you can and will convey to others at AD what this means.

Roman, please share a making-of soon!  And if you have any plant compounds
you'd like to share...

Bravissimo.



On Wed, Apr 6, 2016 at 10:36 AM, Tim Crowson  wrote:

> Impressive!
>
> On Wed, Apr 6, 2016 at 7:28 AM Chris Marshall 
> wrote:
>
>> wow
>>
>> On 6 April 2016 at 15:17, adrian wyer 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> we did a similar 'plants taking over new york' piece a couple of years
>>> back all softimage/arnold and i can feel your pain as far as managing
>>> large scale growing plant setups i assume there's a lot of animated
>>> stand-ins going on?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> would be great to see a making of!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> a
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
>>> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Jordi Bares
>>> *Sent:* 06 April 2016 15:14
>>> *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
>>> *Subject:* Re: Wrapped
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> This is brutal undertaking, deserves more than a congratulation but
>>> quite an standing ovation.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> wow… fantastic piece
>>>
>>> jb
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 6 Apr 2016, at 15:05, patrick nethercoat 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Crikey, that's a pretty immense feat. Well done.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 6 April 2016 at 14:49, Maurice Patel 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> That was an amazing and beautiful film and it stirred strong conflicting
>>> emotions of delight, sadness and inevitability. Thank you for sharing!
>>>
>>> Maurice Patel
>>> Tél:  514 954-7134
>>> Cell: 514 242-6549
>>>
>>> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
>>> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Roman Kaelin
>>> Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2016 5:48 AM
>>> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
>>> Subject: Wrapped
>>>
>>> Hi Gang,
>>>
>>> After a very successful and long festival stretch our graduation short
>>> film "Wrapped" is finally online. It's been a while, but I felt I needed to
>>> share it on the list since I've gotten a lot of useful tips and help over
>>> the course of the production. Thanks to everyone who contributed!
>>>
>>> The whole project was mainly done in Softimage and Arnold and I'm happy
>>> we can finally share it.
>>>
>>> https://vimeo.com/161599224
>>>
>>> Geerz,
>>> Roman
>>> --
>>>
>>> ROMAN KAELIN
>>> Director & Visual Effects Artist
>>>
>>> mobile +41786384626
>>> email romen.kae...@gmail.com
>>>
>>> www.romankaelin.com
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Softimage Mailing List.
>>> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
>>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Brandt Animation
>>>
>>> www.brandtanim.co.uk
>>> 020 7734 0196
>>>
>>> --
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>>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Chris Marshall
>> Mint Motion Limited
>> 029 20 37 27 57
>> 07730 533 115
>> www.mintmotion.co.uk
>> www.dot3d.com
>>
>>
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>
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Re: "Saving Environments" taking a long time on save

[Ed Manning]

Thanks, Henry -- I may try that.

In the meantime, I discovered that the scene save was timing out while
trying to access a server that the SI project at the remote site is on,
which was odd because I had gotten rid of all file references to it and all
the paths in the scene are relative in any case.

I then found that getting rid of any ABCexport properties that the scene
has eliminates the issue. Weirdly, the properties don't seem to have any
file reference attached to them, and in any case, the only exports done
have been to a local drive at this site, not to that server.

So for now I'll just be deleting the exportABC props, though I would like
to determine where it's saving path data.



On Fri, Mar 11, 2016 at 10:18 AM, ISCS, Inc <hk-v...@iscs-i.com> wrote:

> Ed,
>
> If you are on a linux environment, you can issue an strace command on the
> softimage process id before you invoke the save and compare the output of
> both installs. On windows, this is somewhat more of a challenge, but there
> are tools to trace this as well and this vendor's tools do just that:
> http://www.smidgeonsoft.prohosting.com/.
>
> Cheers,
> Henry
>
> Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab® S
>
>
> ---- Original message 
> From: Ed Manning <etmth...@gmail.com>
> Date: 03/11/2016 9:18 AM (GMT-05:00)
> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
> Subject: "Saving Environments" taking a long time on save
>
> I have 2 nearly identical installs of Softimage, in different locations,
> with synced and mirrored databases.
>
> In one location, everything is normal, and save operations are quick. In
> the other, identical scenes, with mirrored paths, save quickly, except
> during the "saving environments" phase, when it hangs for a good 15-20
> seconds, occasionally more.
>
> I can't find any docs online describing what Soft is actually doing during
> the "Saving Environments" portion of a save, so debugging this has been
> difficult.
>
> Is it the "environments" that you can see through the Explorer when
> working with simulations (of which there are many live in the scenes)? Are
> they being put somewhere besides the project database?
>
> Any ideas?
>
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"Saving Environments" taking a long time on save

[Ed Manning]

I have 2 nearly identical installs of Softimage, in different locations,
with synced and mirrored databases.

In one location, everything is normal, and save operations are quick. In
the other, identical scenes, with mirrored paths, save quickly, except
during the "saving environments" phase, when it hangs for a good 15-20
seconds, occasionally more.

I can't find any docs online describing what Soft is actually doing during
the "Saving Environments" portion of a save, so debugging this has been
difficult.

Is it the "environments" that you can see through the Explorer when working
with simulations (of which there are many live in the scenes)? Are they
being put somewhere besides the project database?

Any ideas?
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Re: ICE - how to align instances to edges?

[Ed Manning]

I think there might be something in Eric Mootz's emTools that does
alignment to edges?

On Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at 7:22 PM, Morten Bartholdy 
wrote:

> I am tinkering with a simple method for creating a cityscape in ICE using
> scatter tools. Julien Carmagnac SiScatter does most of what I need with
> insetting instances from edges and even scattering, but I am missing one
> important functionality. I need to be able to align the x or z axis of the
> instances to the tangent of the closest border edge, and then add a little
> randomization to the y rotations. I have looked deep into the compounds and
> tried different ways to get the edge tangent, but alas my ICE skills come
> up
> short here. Any scattering tool would do I guess - Milan Vaseks Scatter
> Tools or
> even simple nonsimulated emissions, but I need this extra alignment
> method. I
> tried Juliens Generate instance on Curve too, but it requires edge curves
> to be
> selected and extracted, plus it seems the instances seem to be flipped 180
> deg
> on the y-axis between isntances without any way to control it.
>
> I have attached a screenshot showing a simple test where the A example is
> what I
> need, and B is what I get with Generate instance on Curve.
>
> Any ideas on this will be much appreciated.
>
> Best
> Morten
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disappearing ICE compounds in menu?

[Ed Manning]

Here's a weird one.

Every so often, with no outward signal, the ICE tree editor seems to lose
the pointer to the factory ICE compounds. They disappear from the menu,
they won't appear in the search box. The workgroup and User compounds are
unaffected -- I can still see them. I can navigate to the location and
import the factory compounds, I can navigate a browser to the location and
drag and drop from there to the ICE editor, I can copy and paste them from
existing instances in ICE trees -- I just can't get them in the menu and
search box.

The only way I've found to restore them to the ICE menu is to restart
Softimage.

Any ideas what might be causing this?
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Re: ICE Internal Cache

[Ed Manning]

pretty sure you could:

Get PointPosition => Build Array From Set => Set Data (self.myDataArray {or
whatever name you choose})

Then use a Get Data node referencing "self.myDataArray" if in the same
ICEtree, or referencing the geo or pointcloud you set the data on if
applying to other geo.

I think it needs to get more complex if you're building the pointPosition
array from a pointcloud that has a varying number of points, like a sim in
which particles are being created or deleted...

On Fri, Feb 26, 2016 at 9:12 PM, Jeremie Passerin 
wrote:

> Hey guys,
>
> I'm not sure if there is many people left on that list to answer, but I
> thought I'll give it a shot.
>
> I was wondering if there is a way with ICE to cache point position per
> frame internaly without saving to file.
> I'm thinking maybe I could build an array of point position, and then read
> from that... not sure how to do that though.
>
> Any idea ?
>
> Thanks,
> Jeremie
>
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Re: City generator?

[Ed Manning]

And holy crap, if you Google "procedural City" there's a lot out there!
Probably not much using Softimage, but maybe something cheap -- there seem
to be Unity plug-ins for it.

https://www.google.com/search?q=procedural+city=X=1C1CHFX_enUS657US657=2=1187=1014=isch=u=univ=0ahUKEwj09eD6rpPLAhUJez4KHZY4DhIQsAQIHA


On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 11:44 AM, Ed Manning <etmth...@gmail.com> wrote:

> You could also try reaching out to Christian Gotzinger, who did this
> several years ago now  :
>
> https://vimeo.com/40777017
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 11:34 AM, Ed Manning <etmth...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> found this on rray.de/xsi:
>>
>> http://www.paoloemilioselva.it/citygenerator.html
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 10:11 AM, Morten Bartholdy <x...@colorshopvfx.dk>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks Chris, but I am looking for something that allows for more
>>> irregular and
>>> organic looking cityscapes. I found the tool I was thinking of -
>>> unfortunately
>>> it was not ICE based:
>>>
>>> http://www.esri.com/software/cityengine
>>>
>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFRqSJFp-I0
>>>
>>>
>>> Morten
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> > Den 25. februar 2016 klokken 15:31 skrev Chris Marshall
>>> > <chrismarshal...@gmail.com>:
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > I did this really simple one:-
>>> >
>>> > https://vimeo.com/5200892
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > On 22 February 2016 at 13:00, Morten Bartholdy <x...@colorshopvfx.dk>
>>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > > Thanks Sven - I will check that one out :)
>>> > >
>>> > > MB
>>> > >
>>> > >
>>> > >
>>> > > > Den 22. februar 2016 klokken 13:51 skrev Sven Constable
>>> > > > <sixsi_l...@imagefront.de>:
>>> > > >
>>> > > >
>>> > > > Theres also CityEngine. I have no clue about pricing.
>>> > > > http://www.esri.com/software/cityengine
>>> > > >
>>> > > >
>>> > > > -Original Message-
>>> > > > From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
>>> > > > [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of
>>> Morten
>>> > > > Bartholdy
>>> > > > Sent: Monday, February 22, 2016 11:07 AM
>>> > > > To: Userlist, Softimage
>>> > > > Subject: City generator?
>>> > > >
>>> > > > I thought I once saw an ICE based City Generator system for XSI,
>>> but I
>>> > > might
>>> > > > be mistaken. I found two systems on rray.de/xsi which look a bit
>>> > > rudimentary
>>> > > > - I am looking for something that allow you to do road and
>>> cityblock
>>> > > layout
>>> > > > and position buildings procedurally based on that. Do any of you
>>> know of
>>> > > a
>>> > > > good system, even if not xsi based?
>>> > > >
>>> > > > Cheers
>>> > > > Morten
>>> > > > --
>>> > > > Softimage Mailing List.
>>> > > > To unsubscribe, send a mail to
>>> softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
>>> > > with
>>> > > > "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>> > > >
>>> > > > --
>>> > > > Softimage Mailing List.
>>> > > > To unsubscribe, send a mail to
>>> softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
>>> > > with
>>> > > > "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>> > > --
>>> > > Softimage Mailing List.
>>> > > To unsubscribe, send a mail to
>>> softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
>>> > > with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>> > >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > Chris Marshall
>>> > Mint Motion Limited
>>> > 029 20 37 27 57
>>> > 07730 533 115
>>> > www.mintmotion.co.uk
>>> > www.dot3d.com
>>> > --
>>> > Softimage Mailing List.
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>>> with
>>> > "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>> --
>>> Softimage Mailing List.
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>>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>>
>>
>>
>
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Re: City generator?

[Ed Manning]

You could also try reaching out to Christian Gotzinger, who did this
several years ago now  :

https://vimeo.com/40777017


On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 11:34 AM, Ed Manning <etmth...@gmail.com> wrote:

> found this on rray.de/xsi:
>
> http://www.paoloemilioselva.it/citygenerator.html
>
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 10:11 AM, Morten Bartholdy <x...@colorshopvfx.dk>
> wrote:
>
>> Thanks Chris, but I am looking for something that allows for more
>> irregular and
>> organic looking cityscapes. I found the tool I was thinking of -
>> unfortunately
>> it was not ICE based:
>>
>> http://www.esri.com/software/cityengine
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFRqSJFp-I0
>>
>>
>> Morten
>>
>>
>>
>> > Den 25. februar 2016 klokken 15:31 skrev Chris Marshall
>> > <chrismarshal...@gmail.com>:
>> >
>> >
>> > I did this really simple one:-
>> >
>> > https://vimeo.com/5200892
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On 22 February 2016 at 13:00, Morten Bartholdy <x...@colorshopvfx.dk>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > > Thanks Sven - I will check that one out :)
>> > >
>> > > MB
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > > Den 22. februar 2016 klokken 13:51 skrev Sven Constable
>> > > > <sixsi_l...@imagefront.de>:
>> > > >
>> > > >
>> > > > Theres also CityEngine. I have no clue about pricing.
>> > > > http://www.esri.com/software/cityengine
>> > > >
>> > > >
>> > > > -Original Message-
>> > > > From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
>> > > > [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of
>> Morten
>> > > > Bartholdy
>> > > > Sent: Monday, February 22, 2016 11:07 AM
>> > > > To: Userlist, Softimage
>> > > > Subject: City generator?
>> > > >
>> > > > I thought I once saw an ICE based City Generator system for XSI,
>> but I
>> > > might
>> > > > be mistaken. I found two systems on rray.de/xsi which look a bit
>> > > rudimentary
>> > > > - I am looking for something that allow you to do road and cityblock
>> > > layout
>> > > > and position buildings procedurally based on that. Do any of you
>> know of
>> > > a
>> > > > good system, even if not xsi based?
>> > > >
>> > > > Cheers
>> > > > Morten
>> > > > --
>> > > > Softimage Mailing List.
>> > > > To unsubscribe, send a mail to
>> softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
>> > > with
>> > > > "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>> > > >
>> > > > --
>> > > > Softimage Mailing List.
>> > > > To unsubscribe, send a mail to
>> softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
>> > > with
>> > > > "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>> > > --
>> > > Softimage Mailing List.
>> > > To unsubscribe, send a mail to
>> softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
>> > > with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>> > >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Chris Marshall
>> > Mint Motion Limited
>> > 029 20 37 27 57
>> > 07730 533 115
>> > www.mintmotion.co.uk
>> > www.dot3d.com
>> > --
>> > Softimage Mailing List.
>> > To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
>> with
>> > "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>> --
>> Softimage Mailing List.
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>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>
>
>
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Re: City generator?

[Ed Manning]

found this on rray.de/xsi:

http://www.paoloemilioselva.it/citygenerator.html



On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 10:11 AM, Morten Bartholdy 
wrote:

> Thanks Chris, but I am looking for something that allows for more
> irregular and
> organic looking cityscapes. I found the tool I was thinking of -
> unfortunately
> it was not ICE based:
>
> http://www.esri.com/software/cityengine
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFRqSJFp-I0
>
>
> Morten
>
>
>
> > Den 25. februar 2016 klokken 15:31 skrev Chris Marshall
> > :
> >
> >
> > I did this really simple one:-
> >
> > https://vimeo.com/5200892
> >
> >
> >
> > On 22 February 2016 at 13:00, Morten Bartholdy 
> wrote:
> >
> > > Thanks Sven - I will check that one out :)
> > >
> > > MB
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > Den 22. februar 2016 klokken 13:51 skrev Sven Constable
> > > > :
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Theres also CityEngine. I have no clue about pricing.
> > > > http://www.esri.com/software/cityengine
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > -Original Message-
> > > > From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
> > > > [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Morten
> > > > Bartholdy
> > > > Sent: Monday, February 22, 2016 11:07 AM
> > > > To: Userlist, Softimage
> > > > Subject: City generator?
> > > >
> > > > I thought I once saw an ICE based City Generator system for XSI, but
> I
> > > might
> > > > be mistaken. I found two systems on rray.de/xsi which look a bit
> > > rudimentary
> > > > - I am looking for something that allow you to do road and cityblock
> > > layout
> > > > and position buildings procedurally based on that. Do any of you
> know of
> > > a
> > > > good system, even if not xsi based?
> > > >
> > > > Cheers
> > > > Morten
> > > > --
> > > > Softimage Mailing List.
> > > > To unsubscribe, send a mail to
> softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
> > > with
> > > > "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Softimage Mailing List.
> > > > To unsubscribe, send a mail to
> softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
> > > with
> > > > "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
> > > --
> > > Softimage Mailing List.
> > > To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
> > > with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Chris Marshall
> > Mint Motion Limited
> > 029 20 37 27 57
> > 07730 533 115
> > www.mintmotion.co.uk
> > www.dot3d.com
> > --
> > Softimage Mailing List.
> > To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
> with
> > "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
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Re: OT: sequence file browser

[Ed Manning]

>
>
> Or you can (right click in Explorer or go to the view tab - in W8 and
> onwards) "view>group by>name" and then you will have expandable and
> collapsible named sequences directly in Windows. The only downside is it
> organizes it all expanded I think.
>

When I do this I just get 3 groups for whatever attribute I group by: A-H,
I-P, and Q-Z.

Apparently Vista used to group by single letters but no later versions.
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Re: Please explain Maya pivot points to a Softimage thinker

[Ed Manning]

In Maya-land, 10 clicks or so to get something done *is* "simple."



On Thu, Jan 14, 2016 at 6:37 AM, Oliver Weingarten 
wrote:

> OMG,  really? I just watched that video and saw that "workaround" is
> officially shown without any shame?? Around 10 steps to change the
> "center", really??  It leaves me speechless and angry again, that this
> "industry standard" survived and Soft got doomed. A shame
>
>
>
> Am 14.01.2016 um 11:31 schrieb Ognjen Vukovic:
>
> No, but i am sure somebody is working on a script as we speak.
>
> On Wed, Jan 13, 2016 at 11:26 PM, Ed Schiffer 
> wrote:
>
>> isn't there a plugin to facilitate all these transforms already?!?
>>
>> On 6 November 2015 at 18:22, Pierre Schiller <
>> activemotionpictu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> HHAHAHHAHAHA. "twice after every crash", it "crashed me" hahhahhahahha.
>>>
>>> On Fri, Nov 6, 2015 at 9:46 AM, Gerbrand Nel < 
>>> nagv...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
 When I'm forced to work in maya, I make a point to watch that video at
 least once every morning, and twice after every crash.. it keeps me insane
 ;)  which is perfect for working in maya
 G

 On 06/11/2015 09:50, Christian Keller wrote:

 That explains a lot ;)

 --
 Christian Keller
 Visual effects|direction
 m  +49 179 69 36 248 <%2B49%20179%2069%2036%20248>

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

 Am 04.11.2015 um 17:43 schrieb Gerbrand Nel < 
 nagv...@gmail.com>:

 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.
>>
>
>



>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Portfolio 2013 
>>> Cinema & TV production
>>> Video Reel 
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> www.edschiffer.com
>>
>
>
>

Re: Redshift users?

[Ed Manning]

2 years on Redshift. Saved my business, and made lighting/rendering fun
again.

You can put together an RS-based killer workstation for $2500 that
outperforms $10K worth of VRay- or Arnold-based hardware.

Only volume shading has been missing and it has that now, as well as a new
PBR system that makes wonderful sense. And anyway, as an individual/small
shop, the barrier to doing significant volumetric work is still the
simulation/iteration time, not the render time, so I tend to avoid it.



On Tue, Jan 5, 2016 at 8:59 AM, Ivan Vasiljevic  wrote:

> One lic here, but I would still give advantage to Arnold over RS.
>
> On Tue, Jan 5, 2016 at 2:50 PM, Stephen Davidson 
> wrote:
>
>> Every render I run,  on Softimage is run through Redshift. I have been
>> using Redshift since Beta,  and am a very happy customer.  No volumetrics,
>>  yet,  though.
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jan 5, 2016, 7:32 AM Morten Bartholdy 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Out of curiosity - how many of you have started using or completely
>>> switched to Redshift?
>>>
>>>
>>> Regards
>>>
>>> Morten
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
>
> --
> Ivan Vasiljevic
> -
> Lighting TD
> Founder, Digital Asset Tailors
> -
> web:http://digitalassettailors.com/
> email:  i...@digitalassettailors.com
>
>
>

Re: Color shift w/ QuickTime

[Ed Manning]

Hey John --

Happy New Year. How have you been? I only just saw this, so you probably
figured out something already.

This is SUCH an old headache -- I think Apple and Microsoft have both
handled this horribly for nearly 20 years.

I've used each of these workarounds, with varying degrees of success,
depending mostly on what the QTs are being used for -- ingest or playback:

1. Do everything on a Mac, or at least the final conform & output to QT.
But doublecheck the results on both Mac and Win!

2. Assuming you're on Windows, and have an NVidia card -- go to NVidia
settings, and make sure that they look like this: [image: Inline image 1]
--this will at least make things look decent on *your* machine (as long as
you're not using H264 or another codec that compresses the dynamic range
severely; I recommend MP4). It's usually not worth trying to get a
Windows-based client person to make this adjustment... and of course you
need to check that the results look correct on a Mac as well.

3. After making the QT, open it, go to Window>show Movie Properties>video
Track>Visual Settings and change "Transparency" from "Dither Copy" (the
default) to "Straight Alpha". Close the Properties window and save the QT
file. This is usually universally effective (again H264 won't have
completely black blacks or white whites), but often makes playback stuttery
or slow with large movie files in QT Player.

4. Make the Quicktime in Nuke from an uncompressed image sequence output
from AE or ME.There are some output settings that you might have to mess
with, but I can't recall them ATM.

5. After making the Quicktime, open it, and adjust the A/V Controls to
"fix" the brightness and contrast, then re-save it and send to the client
(this only works if the client is viewing it using QT Player).

6. If the QT is ONLY being used for review and not ingest, eye-match a
color-correction in After Effects for the QT output (and save it as a
preset!), avoid H264, and, IIR, make sure "use legacy Quicktime Gamma
settings" is checked in the project color settings.

Let me know how you ended up fixing it.

Ed

On Thu, Dec 10, 2015 at 7:45 PM, John Clausing 
wrote:

> Hey all
>
> We're making a sequence in 3D that's lit and rendered fine, (Arnold ,
> exr), composited in Nuke, and rendered from Nuke as 8 bit . Tiffs..then
> brought into After Effects to edit and make a QT, for Facebook.
>
> Up until the QT is made, the color is just right, upon viewing the QT, the
> gamma is off and looks less saturated and dull.
>
> If I bring the QT back into AE or Nuke it is fine
>
> Clearly this is a QT viewer issue long known, but the client doesn't like
> it and insists on QTs for its FB postings
>
> Any thoughts? We've tried every color adjustment we can think of from QT
> Pro, media encoder and various color settings in Project Settings in AE
>
> Thoughts? Thanks,
>
> John
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>

looking for softimage + ICE artist in NYC

[Ed Manning]

Hi everybody --

I'm at a client shop and we might need a Softy who's very experienced and
good with ICE for a week or two right away. Must be local to NYC.
Design/mograph background a plus.

Please contact: will.arn...@imaginaryforces.com and
ed.mann...@imaginaryforces.com if you have the skills and availability.

Thanks!

Re: Update Referenced Material Library from any scene?

[Ed Manning]

you could merge all the compunds into one big compund and export that...



On Wed, Oct 7, 2015 at 10:24 AM, David Saber  wrote:

> Thanks guys.
> I didn't try compounds yet for this specific need.
> I believe one can export and import a whole material library at once, but
> with compounds, you need to export each materials one by one, not?
> See you!
> David
>
> On 2015-10-07 09:55, Rob Wuijster wrote:
>
> Yes, you can export as one file, and import again.
> It might be a good thing to search the archive of the list for this
> subject, as there are a few going into this.
>
>
>

Re: SP2???

[Ed Manning]

That is wonderful news

On Thu, Sep 17, 2015 at 2:19 AM, Hsiao Ming Chia <
hsiao.ming.c...@autodesk.com> wrote:

> Yes, there is another one coming soon.
>
> Thanks,
> Hsiao Ming
>
> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Tenshi .
> Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2015 2:19 AM
> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
> Subject: Re: SP2???
>
> I'm waiting for that too. Please AD, do it. 2015 SP1 has a few things to
> fix. :)
>
> On Wed, Sep 16, 2015 at 5:46 AM, Leendert A. Hartog  > wrote:
> I might have missed the announcement, if so, sorry, but can we still
> expect a Softimage 2015 Service Pack 2 and if so, when will it be released?
>
> Greetz
> Leendert
> AKA Hirazi Blue
> Softimage hobbyist, admin at si-community.com &
> xsiforum.de
>
>

Re: ICE Bend Deformer

[Ed Manning]

talented chipmunk!  ;-)

On Wed, Sep 2, 2015 at 5:30 PM, pedro santos  wrote:

> A chimpmunk released an ICE Bend defomer :>
> https://vimeo.com/138074155
>
> Enjoy!
>
> --
>
>
>
> *--[image:
> http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s202/animatics/probiner-sig.gif]Pedro
> Alpiarça dos Santos >>  http://probiner.xyz/ 
> *
>

Re: OT: Mouse recommendations

[Ed Manning]

http://ergo.contour-design.com/ergonomic-mouse/contour-mouse

On Monday, June 22, 2015, Adam Seeley adammsee...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi Folks,

 I'm need of a decent mouse, tired of squeezing my hand around a small one
 (fnar!)

 .. any glowing recommendations out there?

 Ideally wireless with a dock.

 Logitech performance seems popular.

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-Performance-MX-Wireless-Mouse/dp/B002L3TSKC/

 Thasnk,

 Adam.

Re: OT: Houdini: a few image plane questions

[Ed Manning]

for After Effects use of multicannel .exrs:
http://www.fnordware.com/ProEXR/

it's actually a really nice workflow once you get used to it.  Though much
better in Nuke or other node/channel based compositors

On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 10:45 AM, Cristobal Infante cgc...@gmail.com
wrote:

 In regards to your after effects question, I think there is a plugin that
 allows you to extract buffers.

 To get additional buffers, you need to create an attribute and then call
 it from inside the shader with a Bind.
 If it's not inside the shader it will not show on the final render.

 If this is not clear, have a look at this video:

 https://vimeo.com/98484834








 On 16 June 2015 at 15:36, Gerbrand Nel nagv...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hey guys.
 I'm getting to the rendering part of this job, and have found image
 planes in mantra.
 They seem really cool, but I've hit a few snags.

 First of all, They seem to render into either one big EXR file, or into
 multiple exr files, but each image plane goes into its own exr channel.
 This makes them pretty useless in afterfx.
 Is there a way to get them to render like frame buffers in softimage,
 where each channel goes into its own exr, but not into some obscure channel
 within that exr.
 Alternatively, do you guys know of a fast way to export these channels
 into the rgba channels of a new exr?

 Second question.
 In softimage I used frame buffers to render mattes for objects in my
 scene.
 Can this be done with image planes?
 I tried creating a color parameter in my shader, and then calling that as
 a new image plane, but I just got a black frame and errors.
 Thanks for reading guys
 G

Re: GATOR - A feature in Softimage since 2008

[Ed Manning]

On Thu, May 28, 2015 at 11:42 AM, Luc-Eric Rousseau luceri...@gmail.com
wrote:


 Somebody could totally write yet another attribute transfer tool, but
 I think what people love IMHO is how XSI's data is structured which
 allows such a tool to be implemented.

 Correct!  It's not the fact that GATOR exists; it's the usability and
artist-friendliness of the workflow that make the difference.

Re: Re: Softimage Icon Removed from Mudbox?

[Ed Manning]

On Wed, Apr 29, 2015 at 11:14 AM, Luc-Eric Rousseau luceri...@gmail.com
wrote:

 great! then you won't miss it.

 For once I agree unreservedly with Luc-Eric!

Some of the complaining here reminds me of the old joke:

The food is terrible here!
Yes, and such small portions!

Re: OT: Hypershade changes in Maya 2016

[Ed Manning]

Y'know...

I get the impression that some people would be, maybe not happier, but more
satisfied, if Maya *didn't* get any of the workflow enhancements or other
changes many of us have been asking for.  I miss Softimage more every day I
have to use Maya (but fortunately, I can still use Softimage when it's up
to me), but the negative attitude of some people, while understandable, is
totally counterproductive.

I have to make a living using the tools that are available. Autodesk killed
my tool of choice in favor of a less-usable one, which frustrates and
angers me, as well as cutting my productivity (and value to my clients).
But for anybody to look at long-asked-for changes to the tool AD have
chosen to develop, and run them down on the basis of, well, not much other
than preconceived opinion, does. not. help.

Maya is becoming more like Softimage? About time! Move more in that
direction! Autodesk -- you still have a lot to answer for, but you actually
seem to be trying to deliver on some of the things you've said.  I'm not
going to say great job! because we don't praise people for simply doing
what they're supposed to do (see Chris Rock on this topic).

Re: baVolume fog pass with sprites

[Ed Manning]

CardOpacity might work better -- instead of the reset raycount, it uses a
property called ray_continue or some such, which has fewer interactions
with other things.

On Fri, Mar 13, 2015 at 3:58 PM, pete...@skynet.be wrote:

 I think Rob is right on this one - replacing the sprite shader with a
 constant should work (crank up the raydepth!) and should not affect the
 look of the volume

 the reason this happens is that the sprite shader is a bit of a hack: it
 resets the raycount when a ray enters it - so you get proper transparency
 for endless overlapping sprites without having to increase the raydepth -
 but it can create problems such as this one where volumes don’t work well
 with the sprite shader.


 -Original Message- From: adrian wyer
 Sent: Friday, March 13, 2015 4:54 PM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: RE: baVolume fog pass with sprites


 sprite shader on rectangle particles, using original people alphas as
 cutouts

 works fine in beauty, but not as hold out with the volume

 tried different volume shaders (basic fog and such) get the same incorrect
 render... put it down to something the sprite shader is doing with
 transparency rays

 in then end i will live without the people in the volume pass, as the final
 comp is degraded to look like a 1940 bw photo

 a

 -Original Message-
 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Rob Chapman
 Sent: 13 March 2015 15:22
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Re: baVolume fog pass with sprites

 oof. which shaders you tried for the sprites?  constant shader, sprite
 or card/opacity .?


 1 of them should work. if you are using physical light or sky for
 rendering you may have to crank up some values in the sprite shader to
 10k
 to get them to work as it should

 On 13 March 2015 at 14:50, adrian wyer adrian.w...@fluid-pictures.com
 wrote:

 hi guys, trying to render a non homogenous fog pass for a shot, that has
 sprite shader cut outs of people on particle cards



 getting a very odd render result where the people are lighter than the
 surrounding fog!



 anyone seen this and found a solution?



 ideally don't want a solution that changes the RGB as the client has

 signed

 it off!



 thanks



 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: Maya thinks they're clever....and that's the problem

[Ed Manning]

Yes.  Of course different people will have different logic.

One would hope that the UI team for any product would:

   1. identify *which* people are the primary user base
   2. create a *consistent* set of design and interaction standards that
   address the needs of the primary user base best
   3. explain the logic behind the choice of standards in the product
   documentation
   4. maintain consistency in the application of those standards.

AD has not done a very good job of this.  Nor, to be fair, has any software
manufacturer in our market space (Adobe, I'm looking at you...).  But Maya
is currently among the worst offenders in the AD arsenal.

Re: sprite?

[Ed Manning]

Maybe...


   1. start with camera facing straight along, say, Z-axis
   2. make your sprite a poly grid
   3. set a 2 point constraint to the camera and the animated null; disable
   it for now
   4. put the polygon at the right distance infront of camera for the pixel
   coverage you want.
   5. set a position limit in Z with current Z coordinate as both max and
   min
   6. enable the 2-point constraint
   7. if the camera has to animate, then I think you could parent the whole
   thing to a null and have it work in camera local space

Alternatively, you could just do the 2-point constraint and write an
expression that scales the sprite poly according to camera distance, but
that seems like math to me, so I normally wouldn't try.  ;-)



On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 2:18 PM, Ponthieux, Joseph G. (LARC-E1A)[LITES] 
j.ponthi...@nasa.gov wrote:

  Hi yall….





 I have a null in my scene.



 I want to constrain a bitmap to it and always have it face the camera.



 I know how to do this, position constrain grid with texture to null,
 orient constrain grid to camera, blah blah.  But I want to maintain a grid
 size that is screen relevant not scene relevant. So I don’t want to do this
 old school.



 Instead I’d like to attach a sprite to the null instead, have it render a
 set pixel size instead of a world space size, but I don’t really want to
 use ICE or particles since it’s only a single object, that just seems
 overkill.



 Is there a simpler way to accomplish this kind of thing?





 --

 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.

Re: Buy Softimage - is this a real shop?

[Ed Manning]

from their FAQ: *Is there a need to register on the manufacturers website?*

As we sell OEM programs, we have already registered our software and so
there is no need for you to do this again.
uh-huh...

On Wed, Nov 12, 2014 at 9:21 AM, Leo Quensel le...@gmx.de wrote:

 At this price point it screams scam/pirated software.

 *Gesendet:* Mittwoch, 12. November 2014 um 15:17 Uhr
 *Von:* Vincent Langer m...@vincentlanger.com
 *An:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Betreff:* Buy Softimage -  is this a real shop?
  hi there,

 is this a real shop?

 http://www.topsoftpoint.com/browse/search/?q=softimage

 cheers,
 Vincent

 --
 Vincent Langer
 Uhlandstr. 29
 71634 Ludwigsburg
 +49 176 965 177 61
 www.vincentlanger.com

Re: Camera Field Guides

[Ed Manning]

On Tue, Nov 11, 2014 at 3:29 PM, François Painchaud fpainch...@gmail.com
wrote:

  Too bad you can't set width and height separately.

 I agree. As a workaround, is there a way to display a rotoscope-like image
 (with transparency) IN FRONT of the scene viewed by a camera in the
 viewport?


Oh that's easy! It's called an Image Plane!

Step 1: click the send to Maya button...

Re: Thaigo's company Lagoa is being acquired by Autodesk for $62M

[Ed Manning]

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/03/le-divorce-2

-- summarizes why acquisitions are usually a bad idea (not for the people
who profit from being bought though!).  Since acquisitions have essentially
been AD's business model for the last several years...

On Wed, Oct 29, 2014 at 10:19 AM, Emilio Hernandez emi...@e-roja.com
wrote:

 AD buying companies does not mean that AD will further develop what they
 are buying.

 After a couple years they will say that at the end it was not worth it...
 and is better to EOL them, cause now they have better technology...

 ---
 Emilio Hernández   VFX  3D animation.

Re: Stand-Alone to Network license?

[Ed Manning]

On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 8:27 PM, Jason S jasonsta...@gmail.com wrote:

  Can't render Mi2's,
 Can't 'SendTo' non-synched versions,
 can't buy latest (or -last-) version of SI, weather or not you're a long
 time user/customer looking to replace -recent existing- licences.
 can't not rent,
 can't, can't...

 You CAN take it or leave it.. it's your choice, it's up to you.


At the point you're at, Patrick, I'd probably download a crack, get that
running, and publicly dare AD to come after me. It's not as if you didn't
try to play by the rules. It's not as if your use of a crack economically
hurts them, since using any other AD product isn't a viable option. They've
simply made it impossible for you to actually use a product you
legitimately bought.

Re: Off topic but useful tip: 27 Korean WQHD (2560X1440) LEDMonitors are awesome and cheap!

[Ed Manning]

I'm thinking VERY seriously about using a Vizio 50 4K TV as a monitor...

Re: Off topic but useful tip: 27 Korean WQHD (2560X1440) LEDMonitors are awesome and cheap!

[Ed Manning]

US$999.00

http://www.amazon.com/VIZIO-P502ui-B1-50-Inch-Ultra-Smart/dp/B00MK39H68

On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 3:11 PM, Manuel Huertas Marchena 
lito...@hotmail.com wrote:

 btw I meant... u2713h

  ehh haha 50 inch ! thats another league... mmm what about color
 accuracy?
 how much is one of those?



 IMDB http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4755969/ | Portfolio
 http://envmanu.com http://envmanu.carbonmade.com/| Vimeo
 http://vimeo.com/manuelhuertasmarchena | Linkedin
 http://www.linkedin.com/in/manuelhuertas


 --
 Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 15:04:53 -0400
 Subject: Re: Off topic but useful tip: 27 Korean WQHD (2560X1440)
 LEDMonitors are awesome and cheap!
 From: etmth...@gmail.com
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com

 I'm thinking VERY seriously about using a Vizio 50 4K TV as a monitor...

Re: Off topic but useful tip: 27 Korean WQHD (2560X1440) LEDMonitors are awesome and cheap!

[Ed Manning]

I have 2 23 and on 22 on my desk now .  I could use the 50 and get back
half the desk area these 3 occupy and have nearly twice the # of pixels,
and no split bezels

On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote:

 US$999.00

 http://www.amazon.com/VIZIO-P502ui-B1-50-Inch-Ultra-Smart/dp/B00MK39H68

 On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 3:11 PM, Manuel Huertas Marchena 
 lito...@hotmail.com wrote:

 btw I meant... u2713h

  ehh haha 50 inch ! thats another league... mmm what about color
 accuracy?
 how much is one of those?



 IMDB http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4755969/ | Portfolio
 http://envmanu.com http://envmanu.carbonmade.com/| Vimeo
 http://vimeo.com/manuelhuertasmarchena | Linkedin
 http://www.linkedin.com/in/manuelhuertas


 --
 Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 15:04:53 -0400
 Subject: Re: Off topic but useful tip: 27 Korean WQHD (2560X1440)
 LEDMonitors are awesome and cheap!
 From: etmth...@gmail.com
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com

 I'm thinking VERY seriously about using a Vizio 50 4K TV as a monitor...

Re: Off topic but useful tip: 27 Korean WQHD (2560X1440) LEDMonitors are awesome and cheap!

[Ed Manning]

Your concerns ar what is keeping me from just going ahead and ordering
one.  I'd like to see one in the wild and see it run off a DVI output
before I drop that much money on it

On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 3:56 PM, Manuel Huertas Marchena 
lito...@hotmail.com wrote:

 Thanks for the link Ed. What you say makes sense in regards to space
 instead of having multiple monitors.
  I also thought about getting a tv as a monitor some weeks ago, but the
 color accuracy  quality for 3d work scares me a bit as I've said on a
 previous message (specially as what I do most is lookdev/textures 
 lighting and some comp)  If I dont know someone that have used one yet for
 cg related stuff I will need to trust amazon user reviews on that matter...
 have you used one of those previously?

 cheers




 IMDB http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4755969/ | Portfolio
 http://envmanu.com http://envmanu.carbonmade.com/| Vimeo
 http://vimeo.com/manuelhuertasmarchena | Linkedin
 http://www.linkedin.com/in/manuelhuertas


 --
 Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 15:27:18 -0400
 Subject: Re: Off topic but useful tip: 27 Korean WQHD (2560X1440)
 LEDMonitors are awesome and cheap!
 From: etmth...@gmail.com
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com

 I have 2 23 and on 22 on my desk now .  I could use the 50 and get back
 half the desk area these 3 occupy and have nearly twice the # of pixels,
 and no split bezels

 On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote:

 US$999.00

 http://www.amazon.com/VIZIO-P502ui-B1-50-Inch-Ultra-Smart/dp/B00MK39H68

 On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 3:11 PM, Manuel Huertas Marchena 
 lito...@hotmail.com wrote:

 btw I meant... u2713h

  ehh haha 50 inch ! thats another league... mmm what about color
 accuracy?
 how much is one of those?



 IMDB http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4755969/ | Portfolio
 http://envmanu.com http://envmanu.carbonmade.com/| Vimeo
 http://vimeo.com/manuelhuertasmarchena | Linkedin
 http://www.linkedin.com/in/manuelhuertas


 --
 Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 15:04:53 -0400
 Subject: Re: Off topic but useful tip: 27 Korean WQHD (2560X1440)
 LEDMonitors are awesome and cheap!
 From: etmth...@gmail.com
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com

 I'm thinking VERY seriously about using a Vizio 50 4K TV as a monitor...

Re: BRDF Anisotropic CD Shader

[Ed Manning]

Been a while since I had to do in MR, but I seem to remember that the T2S
approach works with the mia_arch shader or Felix Geremus's mia_advanced
shader if you jump through a couple hoops of vector coordinate conversion.
Maybe -- get intersection point, convert from camera to world, then world
to object, which would go into the texture coordinate input for the normals?

Been too long to be more helpful, sorry!



On Wed, Oct 15, 2014 at 4:21 PM, Ed Schiffer edschif...@gmail.com wrote:

 you also have an example within the Arnold documentation ::

 https://support.solidangle.com/display/AFMUG/Specular#Specular-Anisotropy

 On Wed, Oct 15, 2014 at 4:19 PM, Jason S jasonsta...@gmail.com wrote:

  XSI passes are also very old but.. :)

 I think it's also RRay but see attachment.


 On 10/15/14 14:17, Vladimir Jankijevic wrote:

 oh my, that's old :) a lot of memories streaming in :)

 On Wed, Oct 15, 2014 at 2:03 PM, Rob Chapman tekano@gmail.com
 wrote:

 mr Jankin to the rescue again..?

  http://xsi.jankin.com/anisotropic_patterns/



 On 15 October 2014 18:28, olivier jeannel olivier.jean...@noos.fr
 wrote:

 Hi guys,
 Back in the days with a Tek2Shoot shader it was possible to achieve a
 CD-like or brushed metal (with rounds) shader.

 How would I do that nowaday ?







 --
 www.edschiffer.com

Re: subscription benefit question

[Ed Manning]

google autodesk home use license

If you have a valid (in support/subscription for sure, maybe also if it's a
perpetual?) license, you can simply fill out an online form requesting a
home use license.  AD will then send you a serial # that you can use in
standalone mode which I believe expires in 13 months.  Since SI is EOL,
maybe you could talk them into making it permanent.  If you do that, I'd
try to tie it to a physically portable MAC address like a bluetooth USB
adapter, though I don't know if AD would be receptive.

On Wed, Oct 15, 2014 at 6:21 PM, phil harbath phil.harb...@jamination.com
wrote:

   My reseller told me about a subscription benefit where you can use a
 license at home, does anyone have any experience with that.  I am wondering
 how that works.

Re: Glasswoks Lycra

[Ed Manning]

Ditto.  total gamechanger. Redshift is literally the only thing that kept
me from closing up shop. I had priced out new multicore render nodes, and
licenses for VRay and Arnold, as well as testing Arion, Octane and more
obscure options, and the numbers just didn't make sense.  I was going to
just not be able to continue doing the type of remote work my clients
expect on the schedules they need, and make enough money for it to be worth
doing.

For example, I'm just putting 2 new render machines online - they're refurb
Dell workstations that cost $450 each, with an additional 16GB RAM, ($190
each), an auxiliary drive bay power supply ($25!) and 2 GTX 780s
($850/pair).  So each render node's hardware was about $1500, the Redshift
license is $500, and I get much better performance from each node than I
see from brand-new $10K 20-core CPU render boxes.

Re: Glasswoks Lycra

[Ed Manning]

On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 2:52 PM, Simon van de Lagemaat 
si...@theembassyvfx.com wrote:

 So SLI seems to be the most cost efficient method i.e. double the power
 per physical box...  nice thing is you can probably upgrade those GPU's
 across a few generations without upgrading the rest of the system since the
 PCI specs don't change much and power draw tends to decrease with newer
 cards.

 I mean, it's not cheap but I'll assume the dollar per flops ratio is way
 higher.


Actually, SLI doesn't enter into it -- Redshift doesn't use it, and if your
cards are wired up with an SLI bridge, you need to disable it in the nVidia
settings.

Re: Glasswoks Lycra

[Ed Manning]

On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 3:49 PM, Simon van de Lagemaat 
si...@theembassyvfx.com wrote:

 But still distributing one frame across two cards right?

 yes.  IIR, the docs say up to 8 cards per host.  though there is a decline
in returns, so I think most people don't go over 3.

Re: Mouse

[Ed Manning]

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: Mouse

[Ed Manning]

thanks Byron!  I'm gonna get one of those.

On Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 3:17 PM, Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com wrote:

 @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: Fuel-3d Scanner

[Ed Manning]

On Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 7:34 PM, Stephen Davidson magic...@bellsouth.net
wrote:

 Be forewarned... does not work well with transparent and/or shiny objects


is there a non-contact scanner that does?

Re: Fabric news: new customers, rigging framework and the Fabric50

[Ed Manning]

...and the server appears to be down.  Guess there's too many of us not
at SIGGRAPH


On Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 7:44 PM, Paul Doyle technove...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi everyone – we’re flat out at Siggraph but I wanted to share some
 announcements with you, as we think this is big news.



 First – new customers. We’re announcing new site license deals with Double
 Negative, Psyop and Blur – as you can see from the press release, they have
 some pretty nice things to say!
 http://fabricengine.com/fabric-software-signs-three-deals-and-introduces-new-pricing-model/



 Second – Fabric50. This is BIG. http://fabricengine.com/fabric50/ FIFTY
 permanent commercial licenses of Fabric Engine, FREE to any studio, no
 strings attached. We’re ready to push Fabric _*everywhere*_.



 Third – Kraken. This is the open-source rigging project led by Eric
 Thivierge at Hybride. http://fabricengine.com/kraken/



 Lastly – it’s Siggraph, here’s our new reel: https://vimeo.com/103159093 -
 here are our user groups if you want to see more:
 http://fabricengine.com/siggraph/



 Thanks to everyone for the ongoing support. I hope you can see from these
 announcements that we’re heading in the right direction and looking to make
 Fabric a standard in the industry. Hit me up for a beer if you're at Sigg.



 Cheers,



 Team Fabric

Re: Softimage Alembic Plug-In with Selective Import

[Ed Manning]

Sorry, sent too soon!

meant to add that while I can pick scene objects, I can't get them into
the import list -- clicking add to import list clears the picker but
doesn't add any entries to the list.


On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 8:59 PM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote:

 Thanks, Ho.

 I'm probably doing something wrong, but after installing the components,
 when I do file=alembic=import alembic... I don't get a PPG that looks
 like the one in the docs.  Most of the PPG components are just missing.

 I noticed also that the english Dictionary file is 0KB and completely
 empty of any text.  Is this correct?

 I did try substituting the japanese Dictionary file, and got the proper
 dialog and was able to navigate, but was still unable to get the importer
 to attach alembic data to a scene object.

 Any insights welcome!


 On Thu, Jul 17, 2014 at 5:03 AM, Nuno Conceicao 
 nunoalexconcei...@gmail.com wrote:

 Thanks Ho
 Please keep in mind the wetransfer link will expire in a couple weeks, if
 you need me to resubmit it using other means please let me know.

 Cheers

 Nuno


 On Thu, Jul 17, 2014 at 4:20 AM, Ho Chung Nguyen 
 hochung.ngu...@autodesk.com wrote:

 Hi Nuno

 Thanks for identifying this issue, we’ve logged it in our database.

 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Nuno Conceicao
 Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2014 7:09 PM
 To: No name
 Subject: Re: Softimage Alembic Plug-In with Selective Import

 Sorry Ho, but the mesh I'm importing shows no new ICE attributes, if I
 do the color map lookup I also don't get any color from the color at
 vertices either.
 If I import this .abc file in maya I immediately see one of the CAVs
 (bifrostVelocity)
 So either the Alembic importer in Softimage doesn't support these CAVs
 or I need to force ICE to read them somehow from the file (haven't managed
 to do that either)
 I'm supplying a link to the .abc file I'm using for this test   if want
 to have a look (attachment wont work). http://we.tl/0eGt6wcODE

 Thanks

 On Tue, Jul 8, 2014 at 3:19 AM, Ho Chung Nguyen 
 hochung.ngu...@autodesk.commailto:hochung.ngu...@autodesk.com wrote:
 Hi Nuno,

 Any property in the .abc file will be imported as ICE attribute.
 You’ll need to add node Color Map Lookup to the RenderTree to render
 vertex colors.
 Note that setting the Vertex Color Display Property on the material will
 not work if its RenderTree doesn’t have the Color Map Lookup node. Besides
 this property is only meant for the viewport rendering.

 [cid:image003.jpg@01CF9A96.1D2A7F50]mailto:
 [cid:image003.jpg@01CF9A96.1D2A7F50]

 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Nuno Conceicao
 Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2014 12:13 AM
 To: No name
 Subject: Re: Softimage Alembic Plug-In with Selective Import
 This is good news, at least Autodesk is doing something good to help
 smooth things out in a future transition.

 If I may request little a feature for this plugin, I notice that Alembic
 is not importing Vertex Color maps even though they are present on the .abc
 file exported from Maya.
 Is this something that can be implemented in a future update?

 On Fri, Jul 4, 2014 at 12:04 PM, Leendert A. Hartog hirazib...@live.nl
 mailto:hirazib...@live.nlmailto:hirazib...@live.nlmailto:
 hirazib...@live.nl wrote:
 Interesting.
 Would you please consider registering at the si-community,
 so all these goodies get announced there as well?

 Greetz
 Leendert
 AKA Hirazi Blue

 --

 Leendert A. Hartog AKA Hirazi Blue
 Administrator NOT the owner of si-community.comhttp://si-community.com
 http://si-community.com

Re: Maya, not that complicated...

[Ed Manning]

And always will be...

On Friday, July 25, 2014, Maurício Cuencas maurici...@live.com wrote:

 And people still talk about Softimage. Maya is the future!

 --
 Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 17:40:28 -0400
 From: jasonsta...@gmail.com
 javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','jasonsta...@gmail.com');
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','softimage@listproc.autodesk.com');
 Subject: Re: Maya, not that complicated...

 Lol, maybe it was to create a myth that Maya isn't generally
 over-complicated for nothing :)




 On 07/25/14 17:09, olivier jeannel wrote:

 https://vimeo.com/87262473

Re: Anyone seen that New Foundry Colorway Demo ?

[Ed Manning]

On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 11:06 AM, Marc-Andre Carbonneau 
marc-andre.carbonn...@ubisoft.com wrote:

  Wow… couldn’t they have protected themselves better?

 Why didn’t TF offer to buy them or the product and make it part of their
 product offering?


That's only a cost/benefit question for most businesses. The likely answer
is that once the legal team decided that there was no significant legal
obstacle to replicating the functionality, and the dev team estimated the
effort to do so, the total cost was lower to do it internally than to buy
Motiva or their IP (which might not have been for sale anyway).

Maybe not the most ethically pure thing to do, but not on the face of it
improper.

Often sucks to be the little guy. They have my sympathy.

Re: Maya 2015 Node Editor

[Ed Manning]

We Softies are all one-eyed men...


On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 2:17 PM, Eric Thivierge ethivie...@hybride.com
wrote:

 The biggest misconception that I've been met with while interacting with
 long time Maya users about changing things is that they think I'm trying to
 turn Maya into Softimage, when in reality, I know that the workflow in Maya
 is slow and archaic and can be more efficient / improved. I really don't
 think they realize how inefficient they actually are and are comfortable in
 their learned way to work.

 Eric T.


 On Tuesday, July 15, 2014 2:11:32 PM, Jordi Bares wrote:

 I didn't say the purpose was to make Maya like Softimage.

 Jordi Bares
 jordiba...@gmail.com mailto:jordiba...@gmail.com

Re: XSI hair and Random Generation

[Ed Manning]

IIR, this is indeed an old issue that I remember seeing in MR.  I think
it's not a bug per se, but a limitation of how XSI hair primitives are
internally dependent on previous frames' data. I don't think there was ever
any workaround other than doing all the hair consecutively on one machine.
Maybe some way of caching the hair?

Re: Retopo using surface emited particle positions

[Ed Manning]

Well, there are a lot of decent meshers out there, including the built-in
one which is based on an older version of Eric Moootz's excellent
emPolygonizer.  Not in ICE, but MeshLab has a lot of good tools for this
sort of thing.

The real issue, for reptoplogy to be most useful for animation, is that you
need your new topology to have good edgeloop structure and flow as well as
variable detail.  Much harder!

Re: Ideas for star fields?

[Ed Manning]

D'oh!

YEARS I've wasted not knowing this.

And of course now the knowledge has an expiration date.


On Tue, Jun 24, 2014 at 8:11 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote:

 You don't need expressions.  The rotation can be corrected with a
 create_transform node:

 1) Render  [Render] Render  Pass Options...
 2) In the pass PPG, click the Environment's Add button and choosing
 Environment shader from the popup dialog.  Double click the shader to
 inspect in a PPG.
 - choose your image
 - adjust shader settings as desired.
 3) Open scene explorer and press U to inspect the current pass.
 4) Select the Environment property under the pass root.
 5) Press 7 to open the rendertree.  You should see the blue
 Environment shader connected to the orange current Pass.  Your image clip
 should be connected to the tex input of the environment shader.
 6) From the shader presets, click and drag Processing  Math 
 Create_transform into the rendertree workspace.  Connect its output to the
 transform input of the environment shader.
 - adjust transform as desired.


 Matt





 -Original Message-
 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Nancy Jacobs
 Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2014 2:27 PM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Re: Ideas for star fields?

 Good point, if I use expressions to correct the rotation problems re the
 environment map and any SI world null rotation parameters... They have to
 be connected in a strange manner, at least as of 2014. Don't imagine
 they've fixed that...

 Thanks,
 Nancy

 On Jun 24, 2014, at 1:22 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote:

  If you're just going to create a sphere with specks on it, why don't you
 use an environment shader?  That does the same work without having to
 create a sphere, deal with camera rigs, or mess up your ray depth
 computations in the render.
 
 
  Matt
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  -Original Message-
  From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
  [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of
  Ponthieux, Joseph G. (LARC-E1A)[LITES]
  Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2014 6:25 AM
  To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
  Subject: RE: Ideas for star fields?
 
  Oh and one other thing. You may find that constraining the star field
 sphere position directly to your camera and forcing the sphere orientation
 to remain in sync with the scene will produce the best results. Render the
 stars out as a pass and comp everything over them as the base image. By
 doing this the stars will always maintain an exact distance from the
 camera and since stars are such an incredible distance from us in space the
 illusion is remarkably similar. It will also make the appearance of the
 stars much more predictable as you can set them for what you want and you
 no longer have to worry about that appearance changing other than camera
 orientation.
 
  --
  Joey Ponthieux
  LaRC Information Technology Enhanced Services (LITES) Mymic Technical
  Services NASA Langley Research Center
  __
  Opinions stated here-in are strictly those of the author and do not
 represent the opinions of NASA or any other party.
 
 
  -Original Message-
  From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-
  boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Ponthieux, Joseph G.
  (LARC- E1A)[LITES]
  Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2014 9:13 AM
  To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
  Subject: RE: Ideas for star fields?
 
  The problem is that you are using Hubble images. Hubble images are
  high res and beautiful but often are only representative of a single
  focal point in space. What you want is a star map that is a
  cylindrical projection suited for your sphere. You will find the maps
  you need at this link. In particular the high res Tycho maps are
 probably what you want.
 
  http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a00/a003500/a003572/
 
  When you map these onto your sphere you will notice that the center
  of your sphere of the focal point of a disc or ring  of stars.
  You'll see the ring form on the inner side of the sphere. There
  were three maps historically,  Tycho, Hipparcos, and Yale. The
  following links contain them but these do not look like the highest res
 versions.
 
  http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/3d_resources/assets/tycho8.html
 
  http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/3d_resources/assets/hipp8.html
 
  http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/3d_resources/assets/yale8.html
 
 
  Each was created at different resolutions and star counts. One is
  synthetic I think, and that I believe is the Yale map based upon the
  Tycho catalog. The map is of higher contrast and may lack a lot of
  the intermediate or diminished stars so it may be useful in some
  circumstances. You'll have to figure out what the basic appearance is
  that you are looking for and a combination of the maps may be what
  you want. As you probably have 

Re: SOFTIMAGE|UeberTage 2014...any interest??

[Ed Manning]

TransitionSoftware|UeberTage?

Joint sponsorship from Maxon, Foundry, and Side Effects?


On Tue, Jun 3, 2014 at 5:43 AM, Stephan Haitz sha...@3d-agenten.de wrote:

  Hi Oliver,

 of course the Ubertage should happen Need helping hands?

 Perhaps the ubertage can be continued further with a wider topic than
 Softimage? As alternative / independent CG Event? No we listen to our
 users but don´t care companies involved...

 greetings

 Stephan


  HI there!

 Due to certain decisions coming from AD this year, I have serious trouble
 to get sponsors for this year (ultimate?) UeberTage event. Resellers just
 have a very minor interest in Softimage right now...

 So I would like to check you interest before I start even harder to get
 some money and a nice line-up together for this year.
 You might vote here:

 http://www.si-community.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=36t=5271

 If not, just reply here, please...I´ll

 Thanks!

 cheers,
 oli

Re: Multiple Fcurve Nodes - One Input?

[Ed Manning]

use rescale nodes in place of the Wrap nodes.  Plug the scalar value into
the input value port of the rescale.

Depending on what ranges you want to have control over,and whether your
scalar values are normalized, you might want to plug the fcurve into either
the max output or max input.  Probably the max output, for most
applications.




On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 1:23 PM, pedro santos probi...@gmail.com wrote:

 [image: http://s29.postimg.org/hc4wi1lcn/screenshot_15.png]

 I face this problem regularly as I want one curve profile input to control
 several scalar inputs, but alike Reference Inputs it's always one per node
 :(


 I was thinking about this problem and remembered a LightWave node Wrap
 like here:

 [image: http://s29.postimg.org/a7n390e3b/screenshot_14.png]

 Basically it remaps a scalar according to a function. and several scalars
 can be remapped with a single function through a Wrap node per scalar.

 So my question is: Is there a way to use the scalar output of a single ICE
 FCurve node and have it remap/wrap several scalar inputs?

 Cheers

Re: Multiple Fcurve Nodes - One Input?

[Ed Manning]

d'oh!  sorry, I was half-awake when I wrote that.

let me think about it again...


On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 1:57 PM, pedro santos probi...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hey Ed.
 Maybe I got you wrong, but reproducing that doesn't seem to make it
 happen, since the curve remapping takes place inside the FCurve node and
 needs the scalar input. Rescale does a linear remapping.

 The problem is really that the Fcurve Profile input is exclusive per
 node. Are there other Curve remapping nodes that would support one profile
 curve for multiple nodes?

 [image: https://i.imgur.com/kJ99IiE.png]

 Cheers


 On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 6:34 PM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote:

 use rescale nodes in place of the Wrap nodes.  Plug the scalar value
 into the input value port of the rescale.

 Depending on what ranges you want to have control over,and whether your
 scalar values are normalized, you might want to plug the fcurve into either
 the max output or max input.  Probably the max output, for most
 applications.




 On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 1:23 PM, pedro santos probi...@gmail.com wrote:

 [image: http://s29.postimg.org/hc4wi1lcn/screenshot_15.png]

 I face this problem regularly as I want one curve profile input to
 control several scalar inputs, but alike Reference Inputs it's always one
 per node :(


 I was thinking about this problem and remembered a LightWave node Wrap
 like here:

 [image: http://s29.postimg.org/a7n390e3b/screenshot_14.png]

 Basically it remaps a scalar according to a function. and several
 scalars can be remapped with a single function through a Wrap node per
 scalar.

 So my question is: Is there a way to use the scalar output of a single
 ICE FCurve node and have it remap/wrap several scalar inputs?

 Cheers





 --
 [img]http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s202/animatics/avatar_1.gif[/img]

Re: Multiple Fcurve Nodes - One Input?

[Ed Manning]

yeah, I'm not sure if there is a way to use a single curve node's values to
remap multiple inputs...

On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 2:17 PM, pedro santos probi...@gmail.com wrote:

 No, I'm the one who apologizes, since the way I posed the question in the
 first post was leading to that answer, because there's probably no way to
 get an FCurve node without any input to modulate scalar values, the
 remapping happens inside the node. So maybe the solution is in another node
 or workflow. Don't know any other way of having a Curve in ICE though...

 Thanks


 On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 7:14 PM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote:

 d'oh!  sorry, I was half-awake when I wrote that.

 let me think about it again...


 On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 1:57 PM, pedro santos probi...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hey Ed.
 Maybe I got you wrong, but reproducing that doesn't seem to make it
 happen, since the curve remapping takes place inside the FCurve node and
 needs the scalar input. Rescale does a linear remapping.

 The problem is really that the Fcurve Profile input is exclusive per
 node. Are there other Curve remapping nodes that would support one profile
 curve for multiple nodes?

 [image: https://i.imgur.com/kJ99IiE.png]

 Cheers


 On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 6:34 PM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote:

 use rescale nodes in place of the Wrap nodes.  Plug the scalar value
 into the input value port of the rescale.

 Depending on what ranges you want to have control over,and whether your
 scalar values are normalized, you might want to plug the fcurve into either
 the max output or max input.  Probably the max output, for most
 applications.




 On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 1:23 PM, pedro santos probi...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 [image: http://s29.postimg.org/hc4wi1lcn/screenshot_15.png]

 I face this problem regularly as I want one curve profile input to
 control several scalar inputs, but alike Reference Inputs it's always one
 per node :(


 I was thinking about this problem and remembered a LightWave node
 Wrap like here:

 [image: http://s29.postimg.org/a7n390e3b/screenshot_14.png]

 Basically it remaps a scalar according to a function. and several
 scalars can be remapped with a single function through a Wrap node per
 scalar.

 So my question is: Is there a way to use the scalar output of a single
 ICE FCurve node and have it remap/wrap several scalar inputs?

 Cheers





 --
 [img]
 http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s202/animatics/avatar_1.gif[/img]





 --
 [img]http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s202/animatics/avatar_1.gif[/img]

Re: Multiple Fcurve Nodes - One Input?

[Ed Manning]

Oh -- I'm not good at all with arrays, but maybe you could build an array
from the set of input values you have, apply the fcurve to the array
values, then use the array indices from the original input values to output
the remapped values?

Smarter people, please chime in anytime!


On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 2:32 PM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote:


 yeah, I'm not sure if there is a way to use a single curve node's values
 to remap multiple inputs...


 On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 2:17 PM, pedro santos probi...@gmail.com wrote:

 No, I'm the one who apologizes, since the way I posed the question in the
 first post was leading to that answer, because there's probably no way to
 get an FCurve node without any input to modulate scalar values, the
 remapping happens inside the node. So maybe the solution is in another node
 or workflow. Don't know any other way of having a Curve in ICE though...

 Thanks


 On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 7:14 PM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote:

 d'oh!  sorry, I was half-awake when I wrote that.

 let me think about it again...


 On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 1:57 PM, pedro santos probi...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hey Ed.
 Maybe I got you wrong, but reproducing that doesn't seem to make it
 happen, since the curve remapping takes place inside the FCurve node and
 needs the scalar input. Rescale does a linear remapping.

 The problem is really that the Fcurve Profile input is exclusive per
 node. Are there other Curve remapping nodes that would support one profile
 curve for multiple nodes?

 [image: https://i.imgur.com/kJ99IiE.png]

 Cheers


 On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 6:34 PM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote:

 use rescale nodes in place of the Wrap nodes.  Plug the scalar value
 into the input value port of the rescale.

 Depending on what ranges you want to have control over,and whether
 your scalar values are normalized, you might want to plug the fcurve into
 either the max output or max input.  Probably the max output, for most
 applications.




 On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 1:23 PM, pedro santos probi...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 [image: http://s29.postimg.org/hc4wi1lcn/screenshot_15.png]

 I face this problem regularly as I want one curve profile input to
 control several scalar inputs, but alike Reference Inputs it's always one
 per node :(


 I was thinking about this problem and remembered a LightWave node
 Wrap like here:

 [image: http://s29.postimg.org/a7n390e3b/screenshot_14.png]

 Basically it remaps a scalar according to a function. and several
 scalars can be remapped with a single function through a Wrap node per
 scalar.

 So my question is: Is there a way to use the scalar output of a
 single ICE FCurve node and have it remap/wrap several scalar inputs?

 Cheers





 --
 [img]
 http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s202/animatics/avatar_1.gif[/img]





 --
 [img]http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s202/animatics/avatar_1.gif[/img]

Re: MediaFileParserServer.exe not releasing on aborted renders

[Ed Manning]

The real issue is not that it fails to release the movie file (though
that's an issue too) -- it is somehow asserting control of the actual
render output stub file, and failing to release *that.*  That and the fact
that the mediaParserServer.exe process keeps running after the abort -- try
doing an abort of a frame in progress and you'll see a *second*
MediaFileParserServer.exe process open up.  Trying to kill the zombie
process kills both, and then of course the Softimage instance that's
running loses its ability to read movie files.

But thanks for logging the bug!

Is there no other way for us to report SI bugs? I could find nothing on the
Autodesk bug report page that would allow me to do so.


On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 10:17 PM, Hsiao Ming Chia 
hsiao.ming.c...@autodesk.com wrote:

 MediaFileParserServer was introduced in 2012.
 It was added as a way to support Quicktime for the 64-bit version of
 Softimage.

 I will log an issue with it not releasing the movie file on abort.

 Thanks,
 Hsiao Ming

 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Stephen Blair
 Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 12:30 AM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Re: MediaFileParserServer.exe not releasing on aborted renders

 It's a 32-bit app for dealing with Quicktime. I don't see it in the 2011
 install folder, but I do in 2012 SP1.

 C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Softimage 2012
 SP1\Application\bin\MediaFileParserServer



 On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 11:43 AM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.commailto:
 etmth...@gmail.com wrote:
 definitely part of XSI, and I'm nearly certain it's new in 2014.

 On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 3:13 AM, Ales Dlabac adla...@gmail.commailto:
 adla...@gmail.com wrote:
 Are you sure it's part of XSI? We are dealing with locked files too(even
 without using any mov file in scene) but I never noticed that application.

 On Tue, May 27, 2014 at 3:31 PM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.commailto:
 etmth...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hey --

 I guess this is the only place to bring up bugs for Soft now?!?

 Okay, Soft now starts something called MediaFileParserServer.exe whenever
 any sort of movie file is present in a scene. If you start a render and
 then abort it, for some reason, even though there's no obvious reason for
 an executable that deals with input formats to care about output images,
 you can't delete the stub file that an aborted render often leaves behind;
 Windows thinks MediaFileParserServer.exe is using that stub file.

 You can't kill the MediaFileParserServer.exe process without putting Soft
 in an unstable state, so you have to kill Soft in order to release the lock
 on the stub file.

 I don't recall ever seeing this executable in the process viewer -- is it
 new for 2014? My workaround will be to not use movie files, which will be
 inconvenient as a lot of image sequence assets from my clients get
 delivered to me as .mov or .avi.

Re: MediaFileParserServer.exe not releasing on aborted renders

[Ed Manning]

Actually, I am on sub; just missed that one.  Thanks for the link!


On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 8:47 AM, Stephen Blair stephenrbl...@gmail.com
wrote:

 Assuming you are not subscription...

 As previously posted on this list April 30th, by Jill Ramsay

 http://download.autodesk.com/us/support/report_a_bug.html?SelProduct=Softimage



 On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 8:01 AM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote:

 The real issue is not that it fails to release the movie file (though
 that's an issue too) -- it is somehow asserting control of the actual
 render output stub file, and failing to release *that.*  That and the fact
 that the mediaParserServer.exe process keeps running after the abort -- try
 doing an abort of a frame in progress and you'll see a *second*
 MediaFileParserServer.exe process open up.  Trying to kill the zombie
 process kills both, and then of course the Softimage instance that's
 running loses its ability to read movie files.

 But thanks for logging the bug!

 Is there no other way for us to report SI bugs? I could find nothing on
 the Autodesk bug report page that would allow me to do so.


 On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 10:17 PM, Hsiao Ming Chia 
 hsiao.ming.c...@autodesk.com wrote:

 MediaFileParserServer was introduced in 2012.
 It was added as a way to support Quicktime for the 64-bit version of
 Softimage.

 I will log an issue with it not releasing the movie file on abort.

 Thanks,
 Hsiao Ming

 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Stephen Blair
 Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 12:30 AM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Re: MediaFileParserServer.exe not releasing on aborted renders

 It's a 32-bit app for dealing with Quicktime. I don't see it in the 2011
 install folder, but I do in 2012 SP1.

 C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Softimage 2012
 SP1\Application\bin\MediaFileParserServer



 On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 11:43 AM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.commailto:
 etmth...@gmail.com wrote:
 definitely part of XSI, and I'm nearly certain it's new in 2014.

 On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 3:13 AM, Ales Dlabac adla...@gmail.commailto:
 adla...@gmail.com wrote:
 Are you sure it's part of XSI? We are dealing with locked files too(even
 without using any mov file in scene) but I never noticed that application.

 On Tue, May 27, 2014 at 3:31 PM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.commailto:
 etmth...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hey --

 I guess this is the only place to bring up bugs for Soft now?!?

 Okay, Soft now starts something called MediaFileParserServer.exe
 whenever any sort of movie file is present in a scene. If you start a
 render and then abort it, for some reason, even though there's no obvious
 reason for an executable that deals with input formats to care about output
 images, you can't delete the stub file that an aborted render often leaves
 behind; Windows thinks MediaFileParserServer.exe is using that stub file.

 You can't kill the MediaFileParserServer.exe process without putting
 Soft in an unstable state, so you have to kill Soft in order to release the
 lock on the stub file.

 I don't recall ever seeing this executable in the process viewer -- is
 it new for 2014? My workaround will be to not use movie files, which will
 be inconvenient as a lot of image sequence assets from my clients get
 delivered to me as .mov or .avi.

Re: MediaFileParserServer.exe not releasing on aborted renders

[Ed Manning]

definitely part of XSI, and I'm nearly certain it's new in 2014.


On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 3:13 AM, Ales Dlabac adla...@gmail.com wrote:

 Are you sure it's part of XSI? We are dealing with locked files too(even
 without using any mov file in scene) but I never noticed that application.


 On Tue, May 27, 2014 at 3:31 PM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hey --

 I guess this is the only place to bring up bugs for Soft now?!?

 Okay, Soft now starts something called MediaFileParserServer.exe whenever
 any sort of movie file is present in a scene. If you start a render and
 then abort it, for some reason, even though there's no obvious reason for
 an executable that deals with input formats to care about output images,
 you can't delete the stub file that an aborted render often leaves behind;
 Windows thinks MediaFileParserServer.exe is using that stub file.

 You can't kill the MediaFileParserServer.exe process without putting Soft
 in an unstable state, so you have to kill Soft in order to release the lock
 on the stub file.

 I don't recall ever seeing this executable in the process viewer -- is it
 new for 2014? My workaround will be to not use movie files, which will be
 inconvenient as a lot of image sequence assets from my clients get
 delivered to me as .mov or .avi.

MediaFileParserServer.exe not releasing on aborted renders

[Ed Manning]

Hey --

I guess this is the only place to bring up bugs for Soft now?!?

Okay, Soft now starts something called MediaFileParserServer.exe whenever
any sort of movie file is present in a scene. If you start a render and
then abort it, for some reason, even though there's no obvious reason for
an executable that deals with input formats to care about output images,
you can't delete the stub file that an aborted render often leaves behind;
Windows thinks MediaFileParserServer.exe is using that stub file.

You can't kill the MediaFileParserServer.exe process without putting Soft
in an unstable state, so you have to kill Soft in order to release the lock
on the stub file.

I don't recall ever seeing this executable in the process viewer -- is it
new for 2014? My workaround will be to not use movie files, which will be
inconvenient as a lot of image sequence assets from my clients get
delivered to me as .mov or .avi.

Re: Export Pointclouds for other apps

[Ed Manning]

Hello,

There's *another* update of emTopolizer2 available, yessiree!
Even though the last update was only six weeks ago, this new version
(v.2.3) has quite some fixes, many little improvements and - most
importantly - a new set of compounds called ***Particle Cache File***.
These new ICE compounds allow you to read, write and convert many different
particle cache file formats, such as '.bgeo', '.bin', '.pdb', 'mc' and
'.ptc', making it easy to import some alien particles into an ICE Tree or
export lovely ICE particles to another application such as Houdini, Maya,
and so on. For a complete list of supported file formats please check out
the chapter Supported File Formats in the emTopolizer2 online
documentation.

The following video tutorial demonstrates the usage of these new compounds:
http://vimeo.com/95729676

The new addon can be found here:
http://www.mootzoid.com/plugin/emtopolizer2

To order or upgrade you can either go to the order page
http://www.mootzoid.com/order or just drop me an email.

Thanks!

Take care,
Eric


PS: to unsubscribe from the Mootzoid newsletter:
http://www.mootzoid.com/newsletter

Re: Houdini Weaknesses

[Ed Manning]

For NYC anyway, the main weakness is the small base of trained artists.
Then there's the fact that most of them are fairly senior TD-types who
charge justifiably high rates, and are either overqualified for most
artist-level assignments, or just not character animators since most of the
Houdini artists I know are focused on FX and sim work (assuming that
Houdini's character animation tools are in fact up to the job). Then
there's the relatively high cost of Houdini itself, the lack of Arnold
support, the steep learning curve that makes it hard to train anyone but a
dedicated staff artist in Houdini...

Don't misunderstand -- it's an awesomely powerful tool in the right hands;
I wish I had taken the time to learn it years ago.  But just as I wouldn't
want to run a woodshop that did all of its work using, say, CNC mills and
lathes instead of hand tools, I wouldn't want to run a small commercial CG
shop with just Houdini.  I mean, you *could* do it, and the work could be
done at awesome quality, but it would be pretty strange workflow at times
and very expensive I think.

Re: state error

[Ed Manning]

you could make it work in the viewport by making any particles with zero
size have zero alpha...


On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 1:05 PM, adrian wyer adrian.w...@fluid-pictures.com
 wrote:

  very clever, cross linking twitter and the list i see what you did
 there!

 anyhoo, Rob was right... kind of

 the particles aren't scaled up until the first interaction, however in the
 display, they appear as points (not the spheres that they are) but when you
 render they are still 0 size

 it works, but it looks like it isn't in the viewport

 a

  --
 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *patrick nethercoat
 *Sent:* 30 April 2014 17:59
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: state error

  you need to check for and delete any local fussball hipsters.


 On 30 April 2014 17:56, Rob Chapman tekano@gmail.com wrote:

  I think there is a problem between the keyboard and the chair.. :)

 screengrab maybe?


 On 30 April 2014 17:48, adrian wyer adrian.w...@fluid-pictures.comwrote:

  hey guys, simple setup that should work but obviously i'm being a bit
 dim

 i have a grid with particles emited from it, they have 0 speed and zero
 size

 im moving a cube through the particles, and using test inside volume
 triggering a state change, in state 1 i set the particle size to 1

 it works, except after emission on frame 2, the particles scale up to 1,
 and stay there until the first frame when the volume goes through the first
 particle, then the state machine behaves as expected

 any ideas?

 this is so simple, but infuriatingly, it won't behave!

 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






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

Re: Softimage 2015 stability?

[Ed Manning]

So this is interesting...

Are there to be no bugfixes for 2015? That would certainly be an issue that
would lead me to ignore the release altogether. Is there anything in 2015
that isn't in 2014 that you couldn't just live without?

Re: Humanize Maya project

[Ed Manning]

does a UI like this have a performance hit?