Re: OTish - Setting RoyalRender up with Redshift ?

[Jason S]

Hi, sorry for the empty reply (ctrl-enter = send),
  I was about to forward the thread to someone to whom it may also be of 
interest.

Cheers!

On 01/03/18 11:16, Jason S wrote:
> On 01/03/18 11:06, Morten Bartholdy wrote:
>> Thanks for the rundown Mirko. I guess I will try and find time to 
>> take a closer look.
>>
>> Cheers
>>

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Re: OTish - Setting RoyalRender up with Redshift ?

[Jason S]

On 01/03/18 11:06, Morten Bartholdy wrote:
> Thanks for the rundown Mirko. I guess I will try and find time to take a 
> closer look.
>
> Cheers
>
>
>
>> Den 3. januar 2018 klokken 16:49 skrev Mirko Jankovic 
>> :
>>
>>
>> Thinkbox does have that sales thing going on but as I remember there is
>> annual license for $49 per slave.
>> You install Repository on one  machine it can be render slave as well but
>> it is better to have it on dedicated server, and you install clients on
>> render slaves.
>> They connect to repository server over LAN and also you can even run it on
>> different location so it can connect over web as well.
>> But Assuming you have all in LANB lets stay on that.
>> License server is also installed on server machine and other comp connects
>> to it.
>> Both repository and license server installations are fairly simple and
>> straight forward.
>> And that is it.
>> You also have submission scripts that are installed with simple exe files
>> and configured automatically for submitting render tasks from 3d apps.
>> Other then that.. and yes it does have great redshift support allowing you
>> to setup concurrent tasks and also GPUs per frame as well all from
>> submission script and Deadline handles the rest.
>>
>> Let me know if you need any other details.
>>
>> Also they have bin great as well providing even temporary licenses for
>> testing out everything fully before buying so that is also doable to
>> arrange with them as well.
>> As soon as they answer email that is.. or phone I guess that could be
>> faster.
>>
>> If you decide to go and try out that route feel free to call for any
>> additional assistance with setup, although they have good support too but
>> sometimes someone else can be faster ;)
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jan 3, 2018 at 4:34 PM, Morten Bartholdy 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Mirko,
>>>
>>> We are long time RR users but stuff like this might make us look
>>> elsewhere. I have no time for tinkering with sysadmin stuff that I just
>>> really want to work, and quickly :) Time spent on that is less time for
>>> producing pixels.
>>>
>>> So what is the basic setup procedure in Deadline?
>>> One thing though - Thinkbox can apparently not be bothered with posting
>>> pricing - you actually have to contact them to get to know -> oldschool ->
>>> sucks.
>>>
>>> Morten
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
 Den 3. januar 2018 klokken 16:18 skrev Mirko Jankovic <
>>> mirkoj.anima...@gmail.com>:

 this is not helping and maybe a bit out of the place but have you tried
 deadline instead? it has fantastic redshift support and stupid simple to
 setup as well

 On Wed, Jan 3, 2018 at 3:47 PM, Morten Bartholdy 
 wrote:

> I am trying to set up RoyalRender for Redshift, and have run into a
>>> snag.
> Holger explains the proces in the documentation like shown below. My
> problem is I have no idea how to add a commandline flag in the options of 
> the RR/win_rrClient.bat link. I am sure many of you have done this, so a 
> nudge in the right direction will be much appreciated.
>
> Thanks - Morten
>
>
> 
> Dual Mode:  service +  interactive application mode
> 
>
> If you do not have a second GPU card, then you have to start the
> rrClient manually in your interactive session (Application Mode).
>
> To start the client in interactive mode, you can just add a link to the
> win_rrClient.bat file in the RR  Root and place it into your "Startup"
> start-menu folder.
>
>
> The disadvantage of an interactive mode is that you have to login on the 
> machine.
>
> And if you have not setup an (plain password) auto-login, then your
> rrClient is not running if you startup the machine.
>
> Therefore you can run two clients.
> Keep the service running as usual.
>
>
> Create a link to RR/win_rrClient.bat (via right-click in windows 
> explorer).Edit the properties and add the commandline flag 
> -UITakeOverService
> The interactive client will start and stays in an invisible mode.
> The service will disable itself, but it does NOT abort a render that
>>> is in
> progress.
> Once the service is disabled, the service puts itself into invisible
>>> mode.
> And the interactive client takes over.
>
>
> You might want to use additional commandline flags like:
>
> -IgnoreWorkingHours
>
>
> Do not disable the interactive client during working hours
>
> -ShutdownEvenIfLoggedIn
>
>
> Temporally enables the setting "Shutdown even if a user is logged in"
>
> -MapGlobalDrives
>
>
> Map the drives set in rrConfig at startup.
>
> -NoPassOnClose
>
>
> The Client does not ask for a password if you 

MMEEERRRYYY CHRISTMASSS EVERYONE!!!!

[Jason S]

Like the title says :D
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Re: Safe to delete the default pass?

[Jason S]

Ya, and there is no important reason you'd want to do that,

I only found that out when trying to put something more relevant to what 
the scene was as scene root name,
only to find things not getting evaluated left an right lol


On 12/15/17 15:15, Matt Lind wrote:
> It's especially bad if you rename the scene root to be the same name as the
> scene's file name.
>
> While it's technically allowed to rename scene root, delete default pass,
> etc.  It's really not advised.
>
> Matt
>
>
>
>
> Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2017 19:26:01 +0100
> From: "Sven Constable" 
> Subject: RE: Safe to delete the default pass?
> To: "'Official Softimage Users Mailing List.
>
> Renaming the scene root? Wow, I never thought of that!
> Sven
>
>
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Re: Safe to delete the default pass?

[Jason S]

Indeed, I too have had issues renaming or deleting the default pass.

That, or also renaming the "Scene_Root".



On 12/15/17 11:54, Sven Constable wrote:
> Thanks guys. I think I'll keep it safe then.
>
> Sven
>
> -Original Message-
> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
> [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Morten
> Bartholdy
> Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2017 11:01 AM
> To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List.
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__groups.google.com_forum_-23-21forum_xsi-5Flist=DwICAg=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA=oMhAl7tRoq7_EQbHao1djI4aX9t7u-l29TXrros8JQ4=X08_OhiaLlGnZKPHOMoI9f0dvg4Dqz2w3Hc0SoKdDxo=
> Subject: Re: Safe to delete the default pass?
>
> My experience exactly back when I started using passes. I haven't deleted a
> Default Pass ever since.
>
> MB
>
>
>
>> Den 13. december 2017 klokken 20:31 skrev Matt Morris :
>>
>>
>> Still use them religiously, if only to by default hide any new
>> geometry or lights in the scene. Last time I worked with a scene
>> without the passes would randomly not show any contents, and for lack
>> of anything else to blame...
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 13 Dec 2017 7:28 pm, "Sven Constable"  wrote:
>>
>>> Hey List,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> back in the days it was troublesome to delete the default pass
>>> AFAIK. Is it still a problem? Did anyone encounter problems doing it?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Sven
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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Re: some very useful tools for the "maya converts" out here....

[Jason S]

Maybe that (slightly) makes-up for lack of in-context multi-editing of 
anything anywhere?
or a bit of In-context Multi editing of some things?

On 11/29/17 9:49, Morten Bartholdy wrote:
> Definately big thanks to Arvid, and you Rob - anything that can alleviate the 
> madness is very welcome.
>
> MB
>
>
>
>
>> Den 23. november 2017 klokken 15:52 skrev Rob Wuijster :
>>
>>
>> For everyone who have missed these tools:
>>
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__lightshader.de_documentation_attributecontrol_=DwICaQ=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA=J6k-qus95TUW0XQWYEqxrpJI3cyibAjAc8r4wX6i6Pw=cO6bvrDQL3dSMxD4kbZeYNFrDegoHxQPopDHZOCF7yY=
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__lightshader.de_documentation_lightcontrol_=DwICaQ=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA=J6k-qus95TUW0XQWYEqxrpJI3cyibAjAc8r4wX6i6Pw=oSapnI0P27CkRGoZ8fgK9Xrg6Qd5QRYZq_-1qzv8NKA=
>>
>> A huge thanks to Arvid making these tools public! :-)
>>
>> -- 
>>
>>
>> cheers!
>>
>> Rob
>>
>> \/-\/\/
>>
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Re: animated object visibility and image sequences offset

[Jason S]

  
  

  Have you tried setting a keyframe 
  on the sequence offset?
  (or 2 keys in case the same thing is happening as viz anim)
  and perhaps locking it?
  
  And perhaps even storing the one key anim in a mixer clip ::
  - Mark the offset param (with the obj selected) 
  and -> store marked parameter & set for the length of your
  shot.
  
  
  For the visibility, is it consistently the first keyframe that's
  ignored? 
  of so, perhaps setting another one ?  
   (after 0, and before the next one)
  
  
  I Wonder if it's a deadline interpretation thing.
  
  
  On 11/17/17 18:52, Mirko Jankovic wrote:


  I have a weird thing happening that wasted me hours
and hours. 
First there was a referenced model and inside were couple
  textures images sequences. I had to offset them and it all
  looks fine inside live SI. But when sent to render over
  deadline and farm, offset is not working anymore. Loading
  scene again, all seems good. 
Then made model local.. still no good.. also in another
  occasion key framed visibility on an object lost a key. Yes it
  lost a key on frame 0 but there was still key on like in the
  mid of animation where is it supposed to be.
Ok fixed again sent to farm and again now second object
  lost 2nd key so instead of going invisible and not rendering
  it si still rendering...


And this happens in multiple scenes in this project but
  especialy iwith offset for image sequences. 
Doesn;t mater if it is referenced model or local.. 


Anyone else was running to similar issues with animated
  sequences?
Now only solution is to render whole scene and then render
  additional path pass with only that object from live SI
  session... 
Pain :(

  
  

  
  ᐧ
  
  
  
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Re: Semi OT coolness : Michael Arias

[Jason S]

  
  
He looks exactly the same as 20 years
  ago except with gray hairs lol 
  
  On 11/15/17 15:24, Olivier Jeannel wrote:


  So, I'm "friend" with Michael Arias on FB !  :)
I followed a link to his site, and found that cool bio :
  
  
  http://michaelarias.net/Vitae/
  



My wednesday flashback ;)


  
  
  
  
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Re: SISideBar in Maya

[Jason S]

  
  

  I wonder how Maya users would find those collection of tools
  alltogether.
  
  Like there wasn't any match transforms until when? 
  and existing scripts around were (and/or integrated ones are
  still?) pretty iffy.
  
  Global/Local transforms seems pretty wonky.. 
  though I highly suspect that this isn't due to his implementation.
  
  now.. how about the explorer... the construction stack..
  -reliable- passes... (and/or everything generally reliable)... 
  sanity when rigging  ... ICE ...      ... . ...
  
  
  On 11/14/17 18:14, Jonathan Moore wrote:


  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all
that jazz but the groove is in the spaces between the notes... ;
  
  
On 14 November 2017 at 23:08, Pierre
  Schiller 
  wrote:
  

  I can jump into maya right now, bar and redshift.
Let´s keep on modding it. 
  
  Great kudos to the developer!


  

  On Tue, Nov 14, 2017 at 5:58
PM, Mirko Jankovic 
wrote:

  Already look soo much nicer then
original maya cr**.. that is it.. eat maya from
inside!!! :)


  
  ᐧ
  

  
On Tue,
  Nov 14, 2017 at 11:49 PM, Steven Caron 
  wrote:

  
  

  
I saw this one GitHub and
  it made me happy...
  
  
  https://github.com/ShikouYamaue/SISideBar
  
  
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14T5_Ak4dAE
  
  
  
  
  Steven


  

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-- 

  

  

  
Mirko
Jankovic
  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: M "Paddington & The Christmas Visitor

[Jason S]

  
  

  The thing is, the requirement of many specialized & very
  technical artists over long periods of time can be especially
  resource intensive.
  And I think it's precisely why soft is still around.
  
  While of course not as prominently 
  (mostly I think because of the lingering "Quickly!" fear factor)
  
  But in those cases I think it's fair to say that it's mostly to
  circumvent the now I think rather unfortunate (and rather harsh)
  reality of things you describe ::
   “Get big, get niche or get lost”
  
  Some might find that as ideal, while others might find that as
  grossly inefficient and specific to the very few very big shops
  out there, which would definitely still have their place in a more
  diversified environment. 
  
  I too like both big and small,
   but see the small (yet "world class") as an equally important
  part as the big.
  
  I personally know of a number of shops (in my own local area) that
  basically closed up, not for failure to 'move-on' but quite
  directly -because- of the resources that 'moving-on' involved
  getting to finished results, while satisfying clients and making
  due all at the same time, ... and the whole sha-bang.
  
  Stories about not being able live-up to material on their own reel
  were abound.
  
  The small shops that are actually still around, are mostly the
  ones that went-on using soft
  (exceptions may apply)
  
  Rather unfortunate if you ask me,
  but fortunately Softimage is still around! 
  
  
  On 11/08/17 13:20, Jordi Bares wrote:


  
  below
  

  
On 8 Nov 2017, at 16:30, Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>
  wrote:


  
  
Thats really awesome and
  perfectly integrated! 
  
  Though it makes me miss the times when things like
  this popped-up from all sorts of shop sizes around.
  Such as things you'd find sprinkled around the "Great
  work done with Softimage" thread.
  

  
  

  
 (armies of artists is
  almost a prerequisite now to get high level things
  done.

  

  
  
  
  
My heart is split in two; on one side I love the
  romantic small team that really own the shots and produces
  amazing work, on the other side I love big challenges that
  are nowadays flowing to the biggest places and require
  highly specialised artists to produce at film level during
  many many shots in a consistent way.


I suspect the trick for big shops is to be flexible
  enough so artists still feel they can exercise their
  craft, while being able to tackle big projects. And for
  the smaller studios my guess is that they will have to
  position themselves as true visual pioneers and
  innovators, while providing a boutique hotel kind of
  experience to clients. The middle ground is going to be a
  difficult place to be.


Like an old friend and mentor told me once, “Get big,
  get niche or get lost”


But then of course the outsourcing factor comes into
  play and I may be totally wrong… :-P


jb
PS. In any case, the good old times with Softimage were
  magical…


  
  

  
 But regardless, that's
  absolutely flawless, (and very cute!) work!
  Kudos!
  
  On 11/08/17 5:09, Jordi Bares wrote:


  
  I hope there is a making of to show what
was done, because it was very very big project and
required an army of artists.
  
  
  Just look at the hair/cloth multilayered
details, the effects, the number of props to
replicate perfectly (the sleigh to start with) and
all the fx on Paddington contact with the show… lots
and lots of it.
  
  
  My biggest insight was to see a film
pipeline at full speed on Paddingto2 and others, up
close and

Re: M "Paddington & The Christmas Visitor

[Jason S]

  
  
Thats really awesome and perfectly
  integrated! 
  
  Though it makes me miss the times when things like this popped-up
  from all sorts of shop sizes around. Such as things you'd find
  sprinkled around the "Great work done with Softimage" thread.
  (armies of artists is almost a prerequisite now to get high level
  things done)
  
  But regardless, that's absolutely flawless, (and very cute!) work!
  Kudos!
  
  On 11/08/17 5:09, Jordi Bares wrote:


  
  I hope there is a making of to show what was done,
because it was very very big project and required an army of
artists.
  
  
  Just look at the hair/cloth multilayered details,
the effects, the number of props to replicate perfectly (the
sleigh to start with) and all the fx on Paddington contact with
the show… lots and lots of it.
  
  
  My biggest insight was to see a film pipeline at
full speed on Paddingto2 and others, up close and being able to
compare it with a typical advertising one. Inspiring to say the
least.
  
  
  Jb
  
  
  
  
  
  

  On 8 Nov 2017, at 08:23, Rob Wuijster  wrote:
  
  


  Loved it! Absolute top notch work, and
  kudos to everybody involved!
  I can only hope you got a decent time schedule to do
  all this in ;)
  
  Would love to hear more on the production side of
  things, as it sounds very interesting. :)
  
  Rob

\/-\/\/
  On 8-11-2017 0:20, Graham D.
Clark wrote:
  
  
Thanks for the insight Jordi.
  Would love to know more, hopefully there's a breakdown
  reel for part of it one day.

  

  

  

  

  Graham D Clark

phone:
  why-I-stereo
http://www.imdb.me/grahamdclark

http://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamclark
  
  

  

  

  

  
  
  On Tue, Nov 7, 2017 at 5:27
PM, Jordi Bares 
wrote:

  
No worries, it is certainly all
  the snow effect, layout of snow on buildings
  and festoons, dressing of xmas decorations and
  many many other little effects everywhere
  (like the sack RBD sim) it was a ton of work.


From particles, grains, RBDs,
  Fluids for the drag of the truck, etc… a lot
  of it.


The hair and cloth was Maya as the
  main asset was the real one from the movie.


Hope it helps



jb
  

  




  
On 7 Nov 2017, at 20:18,
  Graham D. Clark 

  wrote:


  Congrats
Jordi, that's awesome work. Really
like the look.
I know some of it's
  obvious but can you elaborate on
  the FX parts done in Houdini?
Cheers
  
  
 

Re:

[Jason S]

  
  

  On 11/06/17 17:21, Jordi Bares wrote:
  
Very probably you (or many others) may have not
  stumbled across it yet, but inevitably will, that is a fact as
  the format changes.


jb
  
  
  "Inevitably"..  like it will "inevitably" stop working  
  (Quickly!!)
  
  but in the mean time...  generally, arguably for so many things,
  nothing works better than Softimage.  
  
  It's like an easy to use Houdini (otherwise not at-all easy),
  fully and deeply integrated in an easy to use Maya (ALSO otherwise
  not at-all easy, friendly or forgiving)..  The Softimage advantage
  can be a too great to ignore advantage with at least a good decade
  left in it if not much more.
  
  Investigating all these programs..
  I still find myself  dumbstruck by what Softimage managed to do.
  
  It's like unbelievable.
  
  


  

  On 6 Nov 2017, at 18:34, Jonathan Moore 
wrote:
  
  
I use Alembic as my main interchange
  format and I rarely have problems (at least that weren't
  caused by user error in the first place!). The new builds
  of Crate are being maintained by Alon Gibli from PSYOP as
  they still use Soft alongside Maya (at least that's been
  the case so far).
  
  
  Jordi, the points you raise are valid, but
luckily they haven't reared their ugly head as yet.


  

  


  

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Re: Friday Flashback #319

[Jason S]

  
  
Twister was like a standalone passes
  system, which I never used, but is supposed to be a direct
  precursor to the (still most reliable) XSI passes 
  
  On 11/03/17 19:32, Sven Constable wrote:


  
  
  
  
I wonder what
that Ctrl Tree button was supposed to do. Well, obviously to
control a tree, but that means there were shader trees
inside ppgs. Unlike the later solution with the render tree,
unifying the shading from start to end in one editor.
 
Sven
 

  
From:
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On
  Behalf Of Ed Harriss
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2017 4:55 PM
To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list
Subject: RE: Friday Flashback #319
  

 
It’s amazing how much the interface changed
  from concept to product.
 
-Ed
www.EdHarriss.com
(Not dead yet!)
 
 

  
From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
  [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
  On Behalf Of Stephen Blair
  Sent: Friday, November 3, 2017 11:43 AM
  To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list
  
  Subject: Friday Flashback #319
  

 

  
Twister shader balls 

  https://wp.me/powV4-3tJ

  

  
  
  
  
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Re: Fabric engine is gone

[Jason S]

  
  

  I agree with everything you said..

And I'm also saddened to see fabric close-up it's doors,
especially in this already diversity deprived environment.
& all the best to the FE team!

On 10/27/17 17:59, Jonathan Moore wrote:
  
  
MPC and PSYOP output some great work with Fabric
  Engine but in the end I always felt it was too narrowly aimed
  at senior TD's with plenty of programming experience. The
  success of ICE was fuelled by the compounds that acted as a
  gateway drug to the inner workings. I thought maybe that
  Kraken would develop into that gateway drug, but after seeing
  experienced riggers feeling out of their comfort zone, soon
  realised it wasn't to be.
  
  
  When Eric Mootz joined the team I thought maybe that
would bring about tools for technically minded artists who
weren't necessarily TD's.
  
  
  Whatever the reasons I feel for the FE team after all
their hard efforts. But I feel as one door closes others
will open for them, folk with that much talent don't remain
jobless for long.


  
  
  On 10/28/17 5:19, Michael Amasio wrote:


  That's too bad.
This is rough market.  There's not much money in
  developing better solutions.  I guess we'll ride out our DCC's
  with ancient architecture, and wait till one of us becomes a
  billionaire and funds something cutting edge.
I'd love to here more of the story of what
  happened from some of the developers.


Guess I'll finally follow you to Houdini,
  Oliver.
  
  
On Oct 28, 2017 12:31 AM, "Olivier
  Jeannel" 
  wrote:
  
http://fabricengine.com
  
  


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Re: Softimage - not going away...

[Jason S]

  
  
On 10/25/17 17:01, Mathieu Leclaire
  wrote:


  
  I hear you, but how will you compete
for a job when everyone else is using nail guns and you are only
using a hammer? If all these new kids can do the job 100x faster
then you can, why would they hire you instead? I'm not saying
you can't do a good job with a hammer, but it'll take more time
so you'll need to charge more money to compensate. You better
make sure you're freaking amazing with that hammer if you want
them to come back to you.
  


There is no doubt that becoming at least familiar if not functional
in a variety of solutions can be good practice and a goo measure (if
only for eventually down the line), 
The same goes for in general staying aware of the current state of
things.

But If we are still having this conversation almost 5 years post
eol, 
if only it was -mostly- about the force of habit or "comfort zones".

Or if even after serious evaluations and experiences, despite
reduced talent base and a number of other obstacles, XSI continues
to persists, I'd hardly think it's due to stubborn muscle memory... 
but mostly -because- of the main "problem" being :: XSI quite
arguably remains the nail gun in a great number of situations by a
still pretty considerable margin.

There is no doubt capability to do anything in alternatives are
there, 
(or even more capability or depth in some areas, -sometimes- more
performance in raw FPS, or sometimes not)
but similarly, if only the "speed of XSI" had to do with raw FPS, as
opposed to general "no-brainer-ism" or fixing things by merly
fiddling a little, or how in both time or requirements to get from A
to B in real life scenarios, can often be more efficient by like a
factor of 10
(without exaggeration), with little to no compromise in terms of
flexibility (mostly approachable).

In other words, in many fronts has XSI been the computer, and we've
been waiting for typewriters to first get lamps before getting
solid-state micro switchers.

Or creation in general in XSI -- like modeling?, rigging? shading?
scene/render management?  procedural process authoring? (all still
major parts of doing CG last time I checked) 
all remain comparatively quite a bit more intuitive, "direct", an
reliable.
(which I must admit may contribute to making XSI really comfortable)

And I think that will only change once exactly that situation would
considerably change.
(H v22? ... maybe?)
That, or once XSI would physically stop working, whichever comes
first (at this pace, it seems the latter would come first, while not
likely being anytime soon).

You know the old saying that "XSI has really good
  <>"
to this day relative to other solutions, we didn't know how good
Softimage "workflow" really was, until lots of us started to look at
other workflows.

In any event, you're an artist looking for jobs? learn what is the
most used out there.
If you're a shop or freelancer, and have the privilege and or
possibility of working with Soft while it's possible, -- apart that
you are benefiting from what is lined-up to be quite possibly if not
probably a one in a lifetime thing (or a one time only cumulative
combinations of things together at once), -- I think it's also
beneficial for the entire CG arena as it's already been to a quite
large degree, since keeping it alive also contributes to sustaining
what continues to be a definite reference, giving rise to all sorts
of constructive comparisons, ending-up being mostly around general
usability and around ... --workflow--.

Anyhoo, 
Cheers!
-J


  

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Re: I'm lost / Which Software fills the void / help!?

[Jason S]

  
  

  I agree that what comes closest to XSI is
  MayaHoudiniBlenderModoC4d 
  (all of them, and none of them)
  
  Pick any one, and you'll be lacking one or more important aspects,
  
  and I do mean -important-,  relative to what XSI allowed, there is
  no way around it.
  
  Pick Maya Houdini combo? then you (and your potential
  team-members) 
  will find yourself(-selves) needing to get specialized in one area
  or another if not already versed, therefore eventually needing
  more (specialized) team-members to cover different areas,
  
  And if already versed, it's something which you would already know
  even before starting 
  (then possibly not starting, or starting later)
  
  
  Because you can't specialize in everything, 
  becoming fluent in vex can take years and I think also Houdini
  devs also don't like the term "user-friendly"
  For Maya, managing rigging alone can be an entire very-complicated
  and involving field in itself ( even for the simplest of rigs, I
  kid you not )
   as opposed to animating which is fine...  ... when the rig is
  well made.
  
  And despite Maya being industry standard, finding capable
  specialized technical talent to handle such complication , or
  rather such considerable amounts of confusion and messiness
  (relative to XSI), can be somewhat difficult as they remain rare,
  and that also goes for dedicated TD's (with an emphasis on the 'T
' in "TD")

  
  That's apart from all the problems from the fact that it's made
  assuming workarounds (also often very technical) can be made
  around how things are by default.
  
  And although v2018 has addressed a number of issues from 2017,
  many have qualified maya's bugginess as "rampant".
 
   If you go to the area's maya page, it's like a flow of issues
  often around regular everyday things often as benign as selecting
  things, or grabing handles, moving points, framing things,
  and a few "do this, and crash" are in there(2018), as if issues
  often only shifted someplace else when solved.
  
  
  Otherwise Pick C4d or Modo or Blender, and you'll hit one
  limitation or another, as soon things become more involving,
  elaborate, or specific, which would require either downsizing your
  expectations, or migrating your project - or some aspects of it to
  Houdini (for the special things)  or Maya for other things (along
  with everything that entails), starting the circle all over again.
  
  So short answer,  ( I think objectively speaking, after looking
  into different things for a while  when asking myself the same
  question )
  basically  ->  NO.  There IS no XSI replacement,  ... there is
  MayaHoudiniBlenderModoC4d.
  (that while XSI continues to exists)
  
  
  As if rights to paintbrushes were bought and retired,
  leaving only either crayola crayons, -OR- DIY paintbrush building
  kits with heavy technical manuals getting into endless procedures
  about how to go about melting the little bits of metal to fashion
  the little brush holding peice, etc..
  
  So that means ... crayons,  becoming technical-brush-building
  specialists,
  or having a number of brush-building specialists at your side, ...
  or no more painting.
  
  Or ... you can pick-up the brush you know just works, and just go
  ahead painting,
  to do what you do as a painter, while (comparatively very
  efficiently) getting to what you had in mind (then becoming
  actually reachable without literally -tons- of technical
  considerations).
  
  In XSI we also build brushes (tools), 
  but by means of painting a picture of a brush  ( very visual
  process ) , 
  before literally actually using the brush we just painted  lol.
   ( all very interactive and ... artistic ) 
  
   
  
  anyhoo,
  
  Good luck!
  -J
  
   
  On 10/07/17 14:30, Jonathan Moore wrote:


  I love Houdini but it's still missing the mark in
terms of having the rounded 'artist friendly' toolset of XSI.


The SideFX guys came to London this week and held an event
  called 'Procedural in Motion' which was targeted at those of
  us the use Houdini for non VFX stuff (motion design in
  particular). There's a bunch of interesting presentations but
  the one that caught my attention the most was the final panel
  discussion which featured a few folk from this list. - Participants:

Lawrence Parkhurst (SKY), Will MacNeil (The Mill), Simon
French (ETC), Tim Bolland (Glassworks), Pétur Breki
Bjarnason (Jellyfish Pictures) - 
 

OT: Re: Multiple objects copy

[Jason S]

  
  
On 09/25/17 11:52, Jonathan Moore
  wrote:
  Fire wiped out my studio - lost a lot of vintage synth
hardware, to go along with my workstations and the insurance
company a proving to be an upward battle.
  
  
  Wow that's nuts.   
  
  I hope you didn't loose any data (or other irreplaceable things)
  along with those synths
  and I hope you get cool new hardware out of your misfortune, 
  (and anything else that insurance are suppose to cover in those
  very circumstances)
  
  best of luck,
  J
  
  On 09/25/17 11:52, Jonathan Moore wrote:


  That looks like excellent performance Oliver.


I've been using the new 'for each' compiled sop methodology
  for copy stamping (in those limited situations where the SOP's
  are compilable) and have been happy with the speed of the
  results but can't say I've been measuring.


The bit that bugs me at the moment about compiled SOP loops
  is that there's very little in the world of procedural
  modeling that's compilable, because so many key modelling
  SOP's have yet to be 'verbified' (or upgraded to SOP 2.0 to
  give it it's other SIdeFX nomenclature). The promise is there
  but at the moment there's limited use case scenarios for
  compiled SOPs outside of destruction.


I'll have a dig into your file when I'm back up and running
  as it looks very promising. Fire wiped out my studio - lost a
  lot of vintage synth hardware, to go along with my
  workstations and the insurance company a proving to be an
  upward battle. G!
  
  


  

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Re: Can the Softimage/Maya from SP2 to SP6

[Jason S]

  
  
On 09/21/17 20:37, Sven Constable
  wrote:
  
I was just referring to regular service packs, that were updates to the
their specific version. I have no idea what is a 'critical' update. 


[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Jason S
On 09/21/17 17:15, Sven Constable wrote:


  AFAIK any version always included any updates within its version. It's 
not an upgrade, its an update.


Aren't you now entitled to only 'critical' updates?  was that the case then?

  
  
  I think it's just recently that 'regular service packs'  (not
  extensions or updates that add functionality)
  are considered as a "subscription advantage".  (except for big
  bugs)
  
  I guess to further entice recurring customers, but not just by
  means of providing 'good products'. 
  

  
forums.autodesk.com/t5/moving-to-subscription/what-am-i-left-with-once-my-maintenance-expires/td-p/6934331/page/2
  
  felice.s wrote:

  Hi @davidh2
  
  
  Products without an
  active maintenance plan or subscription are not
  entitled to receive incremental technology/product
  value such as service packs,
  version updates, product enhancements, etc. 
  
  
  However, downloads to
  repair functionality, such as hot-fixes for urgent
  and/or pervasive issues, as well as security
  patches are available to everyone regardless of
  contract status.
  

  

  Does not compute. Service
packs are downloads to repair
functionality, and should therefore be provided to
all customers regardless.  []
  

  

  
  
  
  

  

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Re: Can the Softimage/Maya from SP2 to SP6

[Jason S]

On 09/21/17 17:15, Sven Constable wrote:
> AFAIK any version always included any updates within its version. It's not
> an upgrade, its an update.

Aren't you now entitled to only 'critical' updates?  was that the case then?


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Re: Maya - what were they thinking 2 - transforms

[Jason S]

  
  
On 09/17/17 19:16, Jason S wrote:


  
  
On 09/17/17 18:39, Anto Matkovic wrote:
  
  

  I'm
talking more from practical side. Let's say, once your
plane landed into jungle, how to make dinner of worms
:), which worm is better, so on.
  Regarding


Node Editor, someone definitively won't use it to build
a chain of deformers by bringing and connecting nodes,
because in this case, plain connect is simply not enough
to get things to work.
  Transformations


are different story, connect here works immediately,
making possible to build really nice and complex
interactions.

  
  
  No doubt, but I don't think that this takes anything away form any
  of the points mentioned in this thread,
  
  Points that similarly don't seem to take anything away of how
  complex node interactions can be with the node editor.
  


Hi, Just to clarify,  "No doubt" was for node interactions bit, I
have no doubt quite intricate interactions can be made.

Which worm is "better"? I guess that can mostly have to do with what
we are used to, and can depend alot on contexts,
but XSI sure had(and very-much still has) a pretty great deal of
stuff going for it, relative to the best of them.



  

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Re: Maya - what were they thinking 2 - transforms

[Jason S]

  
  

  On 09/17/17 18:39, Anto Matkovic wrote:


  
I'm
  talking more from practical side. Let's say, once your
  plane landed into jungle, how to make dinner of worms :),
  which worm is better, so on.
Regarding

  Node Editor, someone definitively won't use it to build a
  chain of deformers by bringing and connecting nodes,
  because in this case, plain connect is simply not enough
  to get things to work.
Transformations

  are different story, connect here works immediately,
  making possible to build really nice and complex
  interactions.
  


No doubt, but I don't think that this takes anything away form any
of the points mentioned in this thread,

Points that similarly don't seem to take anything away of how
complex node interactions can be with the node editor.


  

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Re: Maya - what were they thinking 2 - transforms

[Jason S]

  
  
On 09/15/17 15:16, Anto Matkovic wrote:


  
Whatever
works for you. For example I never tried to key the global
transform in SI, always used constraint instead, because
this clearly shows what's going on. Also followed 'one
object one transform' 'rule', that is, never more than one
constraint or _expression_ per object - this makes it easier
to connect to another structure, reset, so on. But that's
just me. It's always possible to hide some null, after all.


  


Hum. I don't think it's just for what works for me..   --> * (see
footquote)

In Maya (as I think I understand) , once you freeze your object, 
-it- becomes the center of itself (for things to be relative to it),

and looses all references to Universe 0 does it not (?)
(also kind-of like many public companies actually ;) )

Then where are it's 'universal pose' values after it's frozen?  
(where is the object in universal space?)

In XSI there is "Neutral Pose" which allows to reset to that, 
but there is always a (read/writable, and resettable) reference to 0
universe.

and as previously covered, where are it's  'local pose'  values once
it's a child of something?

 it's doable but ... ... complicated  (for simple things)
(more nulls forever)


And consequently, I really don't think any advantage of   "dual
coordinates"  has to do with   'keying global transforms' 

but rather (as you probably know inside) ::  
--> there is -always-  'local'    ( parent relative values..  
--and what you normally animate in XSI--  ) 
and 'global' (universal) coordinates,   -- both coordinates for
reference, keying, driving or just setting (or -resetting-),
that are intricately part of absolutely everything, and there all
the time.

Without the need for redundant transient items that can accumulate
quite fast, and clutter up everything ,
 ( speaking by sometimes already finding too many control items in
XSI and always trying to simplify as much as possible )
and without the need to calculate or deduce those (super useful)
values when wanting to reference (or drive) them.  --> *

and the previously mentionned  "sea of relationships"  can also
very-much include how relations are represented in the node editor,
with little to no abstraction to a way of doing things that
(historically) has been recognized as over-bloated or
over-complicated.  --> **



* from 2005 (about clutter and things) 
http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php?t-173245.html

... in maya there are many things where i wonder what the hell
is going on. 
very often i parented an object into another and couldn't define
the coordinates correctly any more. and much more things.

a further example:
after having mirrored and smoothed an object, maya has generated
4 additional objects to the scene 
(2 transform groups, the low-poly mirror and the smoothed mesh).


working with blendshapes also generates some more objects, so
the whole scene gets very confusing after a little time. 

if you don't give a name to EVERY little thing (even if it's a
texture node), efficient working gets nearly impossible.

every object is connected to many nodes - the complete program
seems to be a big net, 
and it's your job to navigate through it. (really annoying under
time pressure)

while working with nurbs surfaces you should better clean up the
history (delete modifier stack) 
or maybe you get double transformations, can't move a parented
objects correctly or get other problems like that.


**  from 2016 about Maya transforms
http://forums.fabricengine.com/discussion/585/maya-transforms

... as I was saying in the beginning, there is not reason
to try to have a Maya transform.
 It is an old thing that caries with it many problems. 

It tries to give many features that in theory sound great, like
the possibility to set its pivots, 
but in practice it's simply way to
  complicated, convoluted, over-designed, 
resulting in a huge object (considering the context of its
typical use) that it's slower than what it should, 
not mentioning the headache it gives every time you have to deal
with it in the API.
  
My suggestion?  You have Fabric now, that allows you to
  stay away from the bloated Maya's transform as much as you
  can. 

Learn instead how to handle Xfos, and do what you want
  with those. 

Care 

Re: Maya - what were they thinking 2 - transforms

[Jason S]

  
  
On 09/15/17 5:15, Anto Matkovic wrote:


  
There's
  neutral pose in SI. However, that ''hidden parenting''
  could be a risky business, too.  
  

I'm sure sometimes access to some under the belly
  things in these "higher level centers" could be useful, or to
  perhaps have some
  yet more basic nulls?, 
  but for the overwhelming majority of the time, it sure made things
  easier to understand conceptually what was happening and why,
  while taking  bunch of complication away.
which I presume were made to be
higherlevel, precicely for that reason.. (with usefriendliness
in mind)
for something as basic
  or as elemental as kinematics.

  Not necessarily or only for isolated relationships between
  a few items (like camera rigs), 
  but mostly when following these relationship while making a mental
  image of what is doing what, 
  in what can quickly become  a sea of relationships  (and of
  complication and confusion) the moment setups need to be even
  moderately elaborate.
  And consequently involves quite a bit more "brainload" even after
  getting use to it.
  
  And I have to agree with what Thomas said;

On 09/09/17 7:07, Tom Kleinenberg
  wrote:

 Unless you've used XSI you're unlikely to understand
  how useful that "dual-coordinate" method was.
  
  

  

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Re: Maya - what were they thinking 2 - transforms

[Jason S]

 back to world zero and rework it there, I then drop it back
into the hierarchy below Roll where it was originally
located. When back in the hierarchy I execute Reset on
GeometryMaster again. It should then move to be in exactly
the same place it was before relative Roll, assuming I’ve
managed not change the Geo’s relation to transform and pivot
zero too drastically.
 
To
summarize:
Select
geometry object
Unparent
Reset
Transformations
Edit
object at world zero coordinates
Reinsert
object into hierarchy
Reset
Transformations
 
If
you develop a good set of habits in structuring and managing
your hierarchies, placing at least one group transform above
each geometry object, that kind of thing, its fairly
painless. The parenting required is relative the
articulation that is needed.
 
This
way of doing things may not likely be familiar  if you’re
coming to Maya from XSI. When I learned Maya transforms I
was coming from SI 3D, but I also had some experience on
Wavefront TAV, so it was less difficult to understand why
they did it this way. Funny thing is when I transitioned
back to XSI from Maya, about XSI 5 I think, at some point I
noted XSI had implemented Transform Groups. As a result I
started using the Transform Groups in XSI to continue using
the Maya structural “habit”  in XSI. I found that in time I
rarely ever touched the Center again.
 
Bear
in mind that Maya does provide a “global” abstraction
through Move Tools’ setting Axis Orientation. If you set it
to world you can move an object according to World XYZ axis
via the manipulator, but it will show up as local transform
values local to its parent unless you remove it from the
hierarchy. (This abstraction also seems kind of buggy in
2017 as it doesn’t update the manipulator sometimes when
switching from Object to World or back).
 
If
you need to move something to a world specific position, use
a locator or group that is not inserted in the hierarchy,
set its world position, then snap the object to that world
positioned locator(via Snap to Point).  Bear in mind that
the object is still relative its parent. It can be nonzero
to its parent without much issue if all you are doing is
positioning it relative the articulation xform of its
parent.

 
So
it becomes kind of a game to know how to set up the
hierarchy to manage articulations. What gets a lot of depth
and what doesn’t. And typically this means you rarely
articulate a piece of geometry by itself without a transform
group. Granted rigid body simulations, envelopes, and shape
animations are typically exclusions to that kind of need for
structural depth.

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

represent
the opinions of NASA or any other party.
 
 
 

  
From:
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
    On Behalf Of Jason S
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2017 3:41 PM
To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list
<softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
Subject: Re: Maya - what were they thinking 2 -
transforms
  

 
It seems to be the same issue in these
  threads.
  
  
 
    CGTalk - how to "zero to parent"
 
    CGTalk - roll / pan / tilt of camera
 
So any item you would want to animate  by it's local axis (or to refer to it's local transforms in expressions) needs an intermediate parent item? 
 
Doesn't that make sub-sub level items become  sub-sub-sub-sub level? (double the items at double depth?)
 
What happens when you reset the transforms of a child of a parent that's somewhere in space, pointing somewhere?  
 (0 zeroing it's transforms) 
the item snaps to world center?  and not to whatever posit

Re: Maya - what were they thinking 2 - transforms

[Jason S]

  
  
It seems to be the same issue in these threads.

CGTalk - how to "zero to parent"

CGTalk - roll / pan / tilt of camera

So any item you would want to animate  by it's local axis (or to refer to it's local transforms in expressions) needs an intermediate parent item? 

Doesn't that make sub-sub level items become  sub-sub-sub-sub level? (double the items at double depth?)

What happens when you reset the transforms of a child of a parent that's somewhere in space, pointing somewhere?  
 (0 zeroing it's transforms) 
the item snaps to world center?  and not to whatever position/orientation of it's parent?


  
On 09/11/17 11:01, Morten Bartholdy wrote:



  Thanks guys - there is plenty to investigate here :)

//MB



  

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Re: Friday Flashback #313

[Jason S]

  
  
Hi,
   I also wanted to point-out out that to this day, 
  SI bug squashing has never stopped being an ongoing thing with
  Redshit.
  
  I was merely complaining about some of the long standing
  inconveniences :) 
  
  Cheers!
  -J
  
  On 09/05/17 20:54, Jason S wrote:


  
  Hi,  I'm quite sure you can,  
I was referring to the ability to crop textures in "clip
effects"
which last time I checked was still not supported

More of an inconvenience than a show stopper, but...
  


  

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Re: Friday Flashback #313

[Jason S]

  
  
Hi,  I'm quite sure you can,  
  I was referring to the ability to crop textures in "clip effects"
  which last time I checked was still not supported
  
  More of an inconvenience than a show stopper, but...
  
  
  On 09/04/17 19:13, Nicole Beeckmans-Jacqmain wrote:


  (sorry for lack
  of consistancy,
but i was planning to
render softimage scenes 
with animated textures
(cycles), is that not possible with redshift yet?)
thanks.
  
  
2017-09-04 2:59 GMT+02:00 Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>:
  

  I agree
Redshift is way up there in terms of intergration (and
everything) !
while  also maybe the introduction of a few more options
might motivate Redishift to solve some SI specific
issues..

By curiosity, do clip effect cropping and perhaps time
offsetted instances work now in Redshift?

The author of "Sycles" might find efficient means to
access those.
(like 3Delight and Arnold did)

Thanks,
j

  


On 09/01/17 16:23, Stephen Davidson wrote:
  

  
  

  Why wait? Redshift 3D fully
supports Softimage, and uses GPU  rendering. At $500
for the first year,  and $250 / year thereafter, it
is a steal! It saved my business! 


  On Wed, Aug 30, 2017, 8:36 PM Jason
S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>
wrote:
  
  
Thanks :)

Also on rendering side,

there is a new Octane with deeper integration
with render region support,
deformation motion blur, rendermapping  and
a bunch of new features.

There's also an apparently equally excellent
integration of Cycles
already working for SI ,
with GPU support that is in the works!

good stuff :)


On 08/30/17 4:15, Morten Bartholdy wrote:
> Very cool! Glad to see people are still
building tools for our beloved :)
>
> MB
>
>
>> Den 29. august 2017 klokken 20:35 skrev
Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>:
>>
>>
>> Great flashback!
>>
>> ... and also, "Rock Falcon" is back!
:-)
>>
>> Showing a newly available, very simple,
very easy and very fast, hot-swappable and
"ready to wear" fa?ial anim setup.
>>
>> www.si-community.com
-- FloatingFaceRig
>>
>> Brought to you by a former
SpecialProjects team member :)
>>
>>
>>
>> On 08/26/17 10:25, Stephen Blair wrote:
>>
>>>      Fantastic Fa?es
>>>
>>>         "Just around the corner
from Venice?s famous Muscle Beach, in offices
that, ironically, were formerly occupied by
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Softimage Special
Projects Group tackles customer problems such as
creating realistic fa?ial animation."
>>>
>>>      http://wp.me/powV4-3kw
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>

Re: Friday Flashback #313

[Jason S]

Thanks :)

Also on rendering side,

there is a new Octane with deeper integration with render region support,
deformation motion blur, rendermapping  and a bunch of new features.

There's also an apparently equally excellent integration of Cycles 
already working for SI ,
with GPU support that is in the works!

good stuff :)


On 08/30/17 4:15, Morten Bartholdy wrote:
> Very cool! Glad to see people are still building tools for our beloved :)
>
> MB
>
>
>> Den 29. august 2017 klokken 20:35 skrev Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>:
>>
>>
>> Great flashback!
>>
>> ... and also, "Rock Falcon" is back! :-)
>>
>> Showing a newly available, very simple, very easy and very fast, 
>> hot-swappable and "ready to wear" fa?ial anim setup.
>>
>> www.si-community.com -- FloatingFaceRig
>>
>> Brought to you by a former SpecialProjects team member :)
>>
>>
>>
>> On 08/26/17 10:25, Stephen Blair wrote:
>>
>>>  Fantastic Fa?es
>>>
>>> "Just around the corner from Venice?s famous Muscle Beach, in 
>>> offices that, ironically, were formerly occupied by Arnold Schwarzenegger, 
>>> the Softimage Special Projects Group tackles customer problems such as 
>>> creating realistic fa?ial animation."
>>>
>>>  http://wp.me/powV4-3kw
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  --
>>>  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.
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Re: Friday Flashback #313

[Jason S]

  
  
Great flashback!
  
  ... and also, "Rock Falcon" is back! :-)
  
  Showing a newly available, very simple, very easy and very fast,
  hot-swappable and "ready to wear" faсial anim setup.
  
   www.si-community.com
-- FloatingFaceRig
  
  Brought to you by a former SpecialProjects team member :)
  
  
  
  On 08/26/17 10:25, Stephen Blair wrote:


  Fantastic Faсes


   "Just around the corner from Venice’s
  famous Muscle Beach, in offices that, ironically, were
  formerly occupied by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Softimage
  Special Projects Group tackles customer problems such as
  creating realistic faсial animation."



http://wp.me/powV4-3kw

  
  
  
  
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Re: What were they thinking....

[Jason S]

  
  
Hum. Just noticed I double posted, and
  had an incomplete first phrase... what was I thinking! :P
  
  
  On 08/28/17 12:27, Jason S wrote:


  
  Hum, didn't know that these
differences.

Also maybe another quite important way Maya probably wont come
close to XSI 
could be represented by that highlighted arrow .

From this vid at around 9min.
Pipeline
  Basics


  

In Maya, once something is rigged (for instance), even changing
UV's (or materials?) is like 'dangerous' or risky.

Having the character refrerenced seems to at least help with
*some* model changes.


While In XSI, you  can literally make tweaks to modeling while
the envelope is active, 
add (topo) details, or change whatever on the fly, freeze the
changes or not, no worries.

Because that highlighted arrow  quite often needs to be repeated
over and over a couple of times.
and it's a great level of freedom, to just go and change things,
and not have it be the end of the world in terms of time
requirements.

That of course goes for rigging, but it also goes for
practically every kind of setup, or sequence of operations to
perform.

like Subdividing ... shrinkwrapping... the list goes on ...

To change things you don't -have- to redo things, or need to
have scripts that redo things.


The stack has it's share of wonkyness,
 I personally have had to have a couple of muted Push operators
just as placeholders that help position things at the very top
or very bottom of the stack, and it took forever to realize how
"disable from here" helped reorder or insert otherwise
unreorderable things,
but once over these few things, there is no stage that has
things that become inaccessible, inedtable, or non-deletable,
and that includes ICE operators.

That of course doesn't in any way reduce Maya's definite
strengths in different areas.

Maybe in the best of worlds, Maya and Houdini would be merged
into one thing (and owned by sideFX), 
but thinking of a Maya/Houdini merger, it's hard to not think
about XSI, because that is what it essentially is 
(except with also tons of c4d straight forwardness, 
because a straight Maya/Houdini hybrid would be as much of a
pain to use as either one of them on their own :P  )

Anyhoo,
Cheers!


On 08/25/17 16:36, Matt Lind wrote:
  
  
The Maya SDK is no better.

Excruciating teeth-pulling experience to do really basic things as concepts 
are not explained, or explained well.  Every node is purpose-built and has 
it's own secret handshakes to use making it difficult to write generalized 
and reusable code to perform common tasks.  Using the SDK basically involves 
studying the graph as seen in the node editor, dissecting how it was built, 
then repeating it in your code...only to find out even if you replicate the 
exact same setup it doesn't behave the same.  There are additional hidden 
tricks you must know to get those last pieces to drop into place.  You can 
very easily fall into the trap of attempting to write your own abstraction 
layer just to make the pieces less cumbersome to use, but just when you 
think you've wrapped everything nicely, Maya throws you one of it's endless 
supply of idiosyncratic surprises.

Example:  constraints

In softimage, each constraint is a separate operator that lives in an 
object's construction history.  Every time you add a constraint, it is added 
to the construction history in the order which it was applied.  A lot more 
may be going on under the hood, but to the end user it's very straight 
forward.

In Maya, if you attempt to add more than one of the same type of constraint 
to an object (e.g. two point constraints), instead of making two distinct 
constraint operator nodes like in Softimage, Maya consolidates them into a 
single constraint node with multiple inputs blended internally - but you 
have to supply your own blendweight slider to do that (they don't mention 
that in the SDK docs).  Since each constraint type has slightly different 
inputs and outputs, you write your own abstraction layer to handle the 
differences, only to discover that if two different types of constraints 
affecting the same attribute of an object are applied (e.g. point and parent 
constraint competing for the 'position' attribute), Maya throws the curve 
ball of inserting a 'pairBlend' node, which is like mix2colors node, but for 
transforms instead of colors.  Great.  Now you must revise your logi

Re: What were they thinking....

[Jason S]

  
  
Hum, didn't know that these
  differences.
  
  Also maybe another quite important way Maya probably wont come
  close to XSI 
  could be represented by that highlighted arrow .
  
  From this vid at around 9min.
  Pipeline Basics
  
  
    
  
  In Maya, once something is rigged (for instance), even changing
  UV's (or materials?) is like 'dangerous' or risky.
  
  Having the character refrerenced seems to at least help with
  *some* model changes.
  
  
  While In XSI, you  can literally make tweaks to modeling while the
  envelope is active, 
  add (topo) details, or change whatever on the fly, freeze the
  changes or not, no worries.
  
  Because that highlighted arrow  quite often needs to be repeated
  over and over a couple of times.
  and it's a great level of freedom, to just go and change things,
  and not have it be the end of the world in terms of time
  requirements.
  
  That of course goes for rigging, but it also goes for practically
  every kind of setup, or sequence of operations to perform.
  
  like Subdividing ... shrinkwrapping... the list goes on ...
  
  To change things you don't -have- to redo things, or need to have
  scripts that redo things.
  
  
  The stack has it's share of wonkyness,
   I personally have had to have a couple of muted Push operators
  just as placeholders that help position things at the very top or
  very bottom of the stack, and it took forever to realize how
  "disable from here" helped reorder or insert otherwise
  unreorderable things,
  but once over these few things, there is no stage that has things
  that become inaccessible, inedtable, or non-deletable, and that
  includes ICE operators.
  
  That of course doesn't in any way reduce Maya's definite strengths
  in different areas.
  
  Maybe in the best of worlds, Maya and Houdini would be merged into
  one thing (and owned by sideFX), 
  but thinking of a Maya/Houdini merger, it's hard to not think
  about XSI, because that is what it essentially is 
  (except with also tons of c4d straight forwardness, 
  because a straight Maya/Houdini hybrid would be as much of a pain
  to use as either one of them on their own :P  )
  
  Anyhoo,
  Cheers!
  
  
  On 08/25/17 16:36, Matt Lind wrote:


  The Maya SDK is no better.

Excruciating teeth-pulling experience to do really basic things as concepts 
are not explained, or explained well.  Every node is purpose-built and has 
it's own secret handshakes to use making it difficult to write generalized 
and reusable code to perform common tasks.  Using the SDK basically involves 
studying the graph as seen in the node editor, dissecting how it was built, 
then repeating it in your code...only to find out even if you replicate the 
exact same setup it doesn't behave the same.  There are additional hidden 
tricks you must know to get those last pieces to drop into place.  You can 
very easily fall into the trap of attempting to write your own abstraction 
layer just to make the pieces less cumbersome to use, but just when you 
think you've wrapped everything nicely, Maya throws you one of it's endless 
supply of idiosyncratic surprises.

Example:  constraints

In softimage, each constraint is a separate operator that lives in an 
object's construction history.  Every time you add a constraint, it is added 
to the construction history in the order which it was applied.  A lot more 
may be going on under the hood, but to the end user it's very straight 
forward.

In Maya, if you attempt to add more than one of the same type of constraint 
to an object (e.g. two point constraints), instead of making two distinct 
constraint operator nodes like in Softimage, Maya consolidates them into a 
single constraint node with multiple inputs blended internally - but you 
have to supply your own blendweight slider to do that (they don't mention 
that in the SDK docs).  Since each constraint type has slightly different 
inputs and outputs, you write your own abstraction layer to handle the 
differences, only to discover that if two different types of constraints 
affecting the same attribute of an object are applied (e.g. point and parent 
constraint competing for the 'position' attribute), Maya throws the curve 
ball of inserting a 'pairBlend' node, which is like mix2colors node, but for 
transforms instead of colors.  Great.  Now you must revise your logic in 
your abstraction layer to account for that.  Then you start testing again 
applying a point constraint, then a parent constraint, then another type of 
constraint which also competes for the position attributeonly to 
discover Maya now removes the pairBlend node and rearranges the constraints 
into an entirely different arrangement 

Re: What were they thinking....

[Jason S]

  
  
Interesting, didnt knwo that about
  constraints!
  
  Also maybe another quite important way Maya probably wont come
  close to XSI 
  could be represented by that highlighted arrow .
  
  From this vid at around 9min.
  Pipeline Basics
  
  
    
  
  In Maya, once something is rigged (for instance), even changing
  UV's (or materials?) is like 'dangerous' or risky.
  
  Having the character refrerenced seems to at least help with
  *some* model changes.
  
  
  While In XSI, you  can litterally make tweaks to modeling while
  the envolope is active, 
  add (topo) details, or change whatever on the fly, freeze the
  changes or not, no worries.
  
  Because that highlighted arrow  quite often needs to be repeated
  over and over a couple of times.
  and it's a great level of freedom, to just go and change things,
  and not have it be the end of the world in terms of time
  requirements.
  
  That of course goes for rigging, but it also goes for practically
  every kind of setup, or sequence of operations to perform.
  
  To change things you don't -have- to redo things, or need to have
  scripts that redo things.
  
  
  The stack has it's share of wonkyness,
   I personally have had to have a couple of muted Push operators
  just as placeholders that help position things at the very top or
  very bottom of the stack, and it took forever to realise how
  "disable from here" helped reorder or insert otherwise
  unreorderable things,
  but once over these few things, there is no stage that has things
  that become inaccessible, inedtable, or non-deletable, and that
  includes ICE operators.
  
  That of course doesn't in any way reduce Maya's definite strenghts
  in different areas.
  
  Maybe in the best of worlds, Maya and Houdini would be merged into
  one thing (and owned by sideFX), 
  but thinking of a Maya/Houdini merger, it's hard to not think
  about XSI, because that is what it essentially is 
  (except with also tons of c4d straight forwardness, 
  because a straight Maya/Houdini hybrid would be as much of a pain
  to use as either one of them on their own :P  )
  
  Cheers!
  
  
  On 08/25/17 16:36, Matt Lind wrote:


  The Maya SDK is no better.

Excruciating teeth-pulling experience to do really basic things as concepts 
are not explained, or explained well.  Every node is purpose-built and has 
it's own secret handshakes to use making it difficult to write generalized 
and reusable code to perform common tasks.  Using the SDK basically involves 
studying the graph as seen in the node editor, dissecting how it was built, 
then repeating it in your code...only to find out even if you replicate the 
exact same setup it doesn't behave the same.  There are additional hidden 
tricks you must know to get those last pieces to drop into place.  You can 
very easily fall into the trap of attempting to write your own abstraction 
layer just to make the pieces less cumbersome to use, but just when you 
think you've wrapped everything nicely, Maya throws you one of it's endless 
supply of idiosyncratic surprises.

Example:  constraints

In softimage, each constraint is a separate operator that lives in an 
object's construction history.  Every time you add a constraint, it is added 
to the construction history in the order which it was applied.  A lot more 
may be going on under the hood, but to the end user it's very straight 
forward.

In Maya, if you attempt to add more than one of the same type of constraint 
to an object (e.g. two point constraints), instead of making two distinct 
constraint operator nodes like in Softimage, Maya consolidates them into a 
single constraint node with multiple inputs blended internally - but you 
have to supply your own blendweight slider to do that (they don't mention 
that in the SDK docs).  Since each constraint type has slightly different 
inputs and outputs, you write your own abstraction layer to handle the 
differences, only to discover that if two different types of constraints 
affecting the same attribute of an object are applied (e.g. point and parent 
constraint competing for the 'position' attribute), Maya throws the curve 
ball of inserting a 'pairBlend' node, which is like mix2colors node, but for 
transforms instead of colors.  Great.  Now you must revise your logic in 
your abstraction layer to account for that.  Then you start testing again 
applying a point constraint, then a parent constraint, then another type of 
constraint which also competes for the position attributeonly to 
discover Maya now removes the pairBlend node and rearranges the constraints 
into an entirely different arrangement you cannot predict.  This is why Maya 
will always suck.  Probably also explains 

Re: Another rip question

[Jason S]

  
  

  For the slicing part, you may have already come across it, but
  this thread is loaded with examples and methods throughout.
  
  ICE Modeling Workshop 2: Cut edges
  http://www.si-community.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=41=1469
  
  You seem to have gone a few steps further, but you may find
  insight for different aspects.
  
  Let us know how it goes, really sounds handy!
  -J
  
  On 04/26/17 5:24, Andrew Prostrelov wrote:


  Another rip question about rip software for a ...
old fag enthusiasts.

Ok. I almost finish Multi Cut Tool for XSI.

The cut through edges - DONE.
The edge ring cuts - DONE.
The plane cuts - ON THE WAY.

So the question is about plane slice mode and mainly about PICK
session, variations and algorithms.
I tried ToolContext.Pick() , Pickbuffer,
ToolContext.BeginPickDraw() (aka OGL select) in lots of
different variations, order etc.
And in most cases on my test mesh a have pick gaps.

The test mesh is a Sphere 3x3 divided 5 times. Pretty heavy.

Here is my current alg to get edges that we would cut:
01. Use Bresenham algorithm (or supercover algorithm) to
calculate 2d screen line as slice line.
02. Use all calculated in prev step screen coords to get
polygons from pick buffer ( or you can use BeginPickDraw() OGL
select session the same way).
03. Create parametric Plane (CPlane) - slice plane in direction
of camera focus and with a normal(cross product between screen
line and camera focus line).
04. For each edge of picked polygons we create parametric line
(CLine) and try to get intersection with a slice plane (CPlane).

    If we get intersection in parameter range 0-1 we tacke
intersection coord and index of this edge.
    
This algorithm have lots of variations but the problem on a 02
step doesn't solved.
On a dense mesh we miss components (polygons or edges it doesn't
matter). I tried to get edges right away from ToolContext.Pick()
session - it miss components.
Tryed get edges (not polys) from pickbuffer - miss components.
In the end i use that preaty have calculations with a parametric
primitives, but it doesn't solve the problem.

http://c2n.me/3JT9JZt
http://c2n.me/3JT9PxS

So any ideas or suggestions are welcome.
I looking for method that get all edges and intersection coords
between MouseDown --- MouseUp screen line.
  
  
  
  
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Re: shameful houdini question

[Jason S]

  
  

    On 04/27/17 12:17, Steven Caron wrote:
      ... ICE took most of it away ...  
  
  I would have to agree,  and add that in general, does ICE take
  most of it away.   (complication)
  
      
  
  
  
  On 04/27/17 12:17, Steven Caron wrote:


  Well at first I was using VOPs. So the looping
stuff was hard to get right. I eventually got it but it was hard
to debug and get the result I was looking for. I obviously was
just doing something wrong, I have little time right now to
actually read ever doc/tutorial. I am relying mostly on my
intuition with some docs/tutorials.


As we probably all know looping in a graph is a hard
  concept to visualize. ICE took most of it away with how it
  automatically looped over points and would do certain
  operations with arrays transparently, at the cost of making a
  simple loop not simple. VOPs has various loop blocks which is
  more general but I struggle with making sense of it (and most
  users I read don't use them). Fabric's Canvas (pre Blocks) had
  you write KL in your graph to do the loop/pex, and now with
  Blocks you have a better way of doing it with actual nodes but
  is still tricky to visualize.
  
On Wed, Apr 26, 2017 at 11:03 PM,
  Christopher Crouzet 
  wrote:
  

  Technically, VOP is just a wrapper around VEX, so
you could say that you're kinda using VEX...
indirectly! :P

  
  @Steven I actually didn't reply to your question at
  all. I don't know how I manage to misread emails that
  well but I'm pretty good at it! Anyways, the function
  `pcfind` returns point numbers, so then you can just
  loop over them and use the usual methods, such as for
  example `point` to retrieve other
  attributes.
  

  

  
  
  
  
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Re: Anybody finding the Houdini example files I've posted useful?

[Jason S]

subnets more easily manageable/distributable.
  enough for them to actually be used around.
  
  And also because ::
  << Why isn't it working?!  Is a comma missing?  are all
  brackets balanced?  
  wrong syntax? (specially when shuffling between vex, expressions,
  hscript and python) 
  ... or a typo? 
  or is it a wrong "connection". (textually represented
  'connections') 
  
  ARRGH! Deadline! >>
  
  Then scruitnizing docs, asking questions on forums about things
  that would otherwise simply be non-issues..
  "I have created the set up and created the ID and AGE
attributes but cant figure out the death over time part."
  https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/49220/
  here with a response pointing to snippets.
  
  and leading to things like this::
  Frustration
Threshold
  
  
  
  ICE Confetti
  
  
  In this (very) particular case, a Vop net would probably not need
  be much more elaborate, because it's mostly doing basic math on
  common attributes.
  
  But in many if not most other cases, not having easily accessible
  encapsulated functions (including tiny ones encapsulating 2 or 3
  ops)
  could indeed make doing things from scratch with nodes quickly
  become nightmares (with -lots- of nodes across a couple vop nets),
  
  Then making it indeed (borderline) questionable if using nodes is
  more straight-forward or not (then becoming a "yes & no"),
  thus probably contributing to often favoring the much less visual
  and difficult to author or decipher, but also then much more lean
  Vex, over bulky Vops.
  
  Now wouldn't the best of both worlds be awesome?
  
  
  No one is arguing removing coding aspects, some people live in
  code, and that environment is obviously what suits that type best.
  Yet for "the artist type", to a large extent do you -need- to live
  and breethe it, 
  or in other words -- dedicate yourself to it, to become relatively
  fluent to a functional degree, or even remotely swift. 
  
  Thus taking away from other possible artistic endeavors (if that's
  your thing)... 
  
  Of course ideally we should strive at both,  and we generally do
  to some extent because we -have to-, at least to -some- extent, 
  but it's not for nothing that people are often mostly EITHER very
  technical, OR very artistically inclined, 
  because we're talking about entire fields in themselves that can
  take years to become refined. 
  
  Because time flies super-fast, and life is super-short, and we
  have to make choices, because we can't -do- everything... or SOME
  can but it's very-very rare.
  
  And if software can bridge that gap, allowing the more
  artistically inclined to do things that can otherwise easily
  involve literally -years- of study and practice...   well you get
  the point... 
  
  Which was/is the point of ICE, which could totally be a similar
  direction Houdini COULD be taking, is what I'm (and a number of us
  I think) are saying.
  
  Thanks,
  -J
  
  
  
  On 04/13/17 23:24, Jonathan Moore wrote:


  
  The bit that’s most odd to me is using HScript
style $ in VEX. Is that VEX code that you’ve copy pasted from
somewhere else?
  
  
  I most admit one of the things I like about VEX is
that I find it very readable. Especially for anything involving
loops and flow control. Nodes are horrendous for that type of
workflow.
  
  
  And I’m just remembering the horror of inputing
expressions in ICE one node at a time!  ;)
  
  

  On 14 Apr 2017, at 02:18, Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com> wrote:
  
  


  I also don't mind the posts,
apart from the hope of some entirely new equally
flexible as unfriendly DCC, 
to me Houdini represents the best hope for later.   
(later-later... for when SI would not run, or or for
when Houdini would significantly revamp VOP, while
hoping and pushing for the latter )

    maya is just too
  painful for a lot of things...

Indeed, it can also be a mouthful for a variety of
things, notably for particles ...

Can anyone determine what the following describes just
by looking at it?

    vector
  $n=unit(particleShape1.normal);
      vector $p=particl

Re: Anybody finding the Houdini example files I've posted useful?

[Jason S]

  
  
    ... apart
from the hope of some entirely new equally flexible as unfriendly *USER-FRIENDLY*  DCC, 
  
  Autocorrect :)
  
  
  On 04/13/17 21:18, Jason S wrote:


  
  I also don't mind the posts, apart
from the hope of some entirely new equally flexible as
unfriendly DCC, 
to me Houdini represents the best hope for later.   
(later-later... for when SI would not run, or or for when
Houdini would significantly revamp VOP, while hoping and pushing
for the latter )

    maya is just too painful for a lot of
  things...

Indeed, it can also be a mouthful for a variety of things,
notably for particles ...

Can anyone determine what the following describes just by
looking at it?

    vector $n=unit(particleShape1.normal);
      vector $p=particleShape1.position;
      $n=rot($n,dnoise(0.5*$p),noise(0.5*$p+100));
      particleShape1.normal=$n;
      vector $v=particleShape1.velocity;
      vector $u=unit($v);
      float $m=mag($v);
      vector $vn=dot($u,$n)*$n;
      vector $vt=$u-$vn;
      float $bias=0.25;
      float $conserve=0.96;
      particleShape1.velocity=$conserve*$m*unit($vn*$bias+$vt);

If we were looking at high-level nodes made of other nodes, made
of other nodes...  for describing the same effect, 
we could, simply by looking at the node graph.

Shouldn't we be way past describing effects in text editors by
now?
Just a thought.



On 04/13/17 5:06, Juan Brockhaus wrote:
  
  

  all cool.
keep on posting..  no time to look properly at the moment...
but I bookmark the posts since planning to go houdini. maya
is just too painful for a lot of things...
  
  ;-)
  thanks so much.
  


  On Wed, Apr 12, 2017 at 6:21 PM,
Gerbrand Nel <nagv...@gmail.com>
wrote:
keep em
  coming!!
  I personally have been waiting for good character
  tutorials for more
  than 2 years now.
  The vex one will stay on ICE for now.(see what I did
  there)
  I'm much more comfortable making pictures with pictures,
  rather than
  pictures with words.
  vops will have to do :)
  G

  
On 2017/04/12 5:39 PM, Jonathan Moore
  wrote:
  > I’ve noticed on both occasions that they’ve
  received around 100 downloads but having had no
  feedback I’m unsure as to whether I’m simply spamming
  the XSI list or whether they have any value to those
  of you that have made the move over to Houdini (or are
  still considering Houdini as a future option.
  >
  > I obviously don’t want to spam the list so it
  would be good to know if anybody finds the Houdini
  ‘hint’s & tips’ useful.
  > --
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  > To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-request@listproc.autodesk.com
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  confirm.
  
  
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Re: Anybody finding the Houdini example files I've posted useful?

[Jason S]

  
  
I also don't mind the posts, apart from
  the hope of some entirely new equally flexible as unfriendly DCC,
  
  to me Houdini represents the best hope for later.   
  (later-later... for when SI would not run, or or for when Houdini
  would significantly revamp VOP, while hoping and pushing for the
  latter )
  
      maya is just too painful for a lot of
things...
  
  Indeed, it can also be a mouthful for a variety of things, notably
  for particles ...
  
  Can anyone determine what the following describes just by looking
  at it?
  
      vector $n=unit(particleShape1.normal);
    vector $p=particleShape1.position;
    $n=rot($n,dnoise(0.5*$p),noise(0.5*$p+100));
    particleShape1.normal=$n;
    vector $v=particleShape1.velocity;
    vector $u=unit($v);
    float $m=mag($v);
    vector $vn=dot($u,$n)*$n;
    vector $vt=$u-$vn;
    float $bias=0.25;
    float $conserve=0.96;
    particleShape1.velocity=$conserve*$m*unit($vn*$bias+$vt);
  
  If we were looking at high-level nodes made of other nodes, made
  of other nodes...  for describing the same effect, 
  we could, simply by looking at the node graph.
  
  Shouldn't we be way past describing effects in text editors by
  now?
  Just a thought.
  
  
  
  On 04/13/17 5:06, Juan Brockhaus wrote:


  
all cool.
  keep on posting..  no time to look properly at the moment...
  but I bookmark the posts since planning to go houdini. maya is
  just too painful for a lot of things...

;-)
thanks so much.

  
  
On Wed, Apr 12, 2017 at 6:21 PM,
  Gerbrand Nel 
  wrote:
  keep em
coming!!
I personally have been waiting for good character tutorials
for more
than 2 years now.
The vex one will stay on ICE for now.(see what I did there)
I'm much more comfortable making pictures with pictures,
rather than
pictures with words.
vops will have to do :)
G
  

  On 2017/04/12 5:39 PM, Jonathan Moore
wrote:
> I’ve noticed on both occasions that they’ve
received around 100 downloads but having had no feedback
I’m unsure as to whether I’m simply spamming the XSI
list or whether they have any value to those of you that
have made the move over to Houdini (or are still
considering Houdini as a future option.
>
> I obviously don’t want to spam the list so it would
be good to know if anybody finds the Houdini ‘hint’s
& tips’ useful.
> --
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> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-request@listproc.autodesk.com
with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.


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Re: Houdini Digital Assets for Softies

[Jason S]

 hope,
  yet have yet to see if it's possible to be very fast in Houdini in
  general,
  https://www.dropbox.com/s/7otx0p61r0kpp8w/2-BonusRound-SpeedEverything.mp4?dl=0
  
  2-BonusRound-SpeedEverything.mp4
      
  
  
  And the scene itself
  Randomly
Translate and Wobble along direction.scn
  
  Needless to say, it didn't involve a couple of days of searching
  around, or opening-up docs,
  - result was a single node with centralized settings, which was
  not only "art directable" but also "art authorable" and "art
  editable"
  with super simple to understand inner-workings made of but a few
  nodes, for achieving essentially the same thing (as for so many
  things)
  
  The point isn't to say "hey! look how much better Ice is"
  or to make Houdini like whatever,
  
  Just to point out that it's entirely possible for systems to be
  BOTH very approachable (or fast) AND very flexible at the same
  time in their own unique way.
  ICE, or XSI in general just happens to be an excellent 'living'
  example (or a dead but still living example), or as an at least
  very functional proof of that.
  
  This can also concern C4d which is completely other way around:
  -- making quite heavy compromises on flexibility for the sake of
  approachability.
  
  And I think (as well as many I'm sure) that both users and
  developers should constantly strive at pushing for both,
  as opposed to mostly (or exclusively) favoring one over the other.
  
  Thanks again for the feedback!
  -J
  
  
  On 04/07/17 14:15, Andy Goehler wrote:


  
  Hi Jason,
  
  
  maybe it’s a workflow thingy. I like to break
functionality down into separate nodes and not try to do
everything inside one gigantic Attribute VOP. And I find that
lots of these are shared as HDAs, less so for VOP subnets.
  
  
  I mostly build and organize at the SOP level.
  
  
  But you’re right there should be more VOP HDAs for
common repeating functionality.
  
  
  Happy weekend
  Andy
  
  
  
  

  On Apr 7, 2017, at 7:08 PM, Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com> wrote:
  
  So now we have 'compounds' with
  custom port names, now how/why are we not seeing dozens of
  those everywhere?

  
  
  
  
  
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Re: Houdini Digital Assets for Softies

[Jason S]

  
  
   "So now we
have 'compounds' with custom port names, now how/why are we not
seeing dozens of those everywhere?"
  
  (also with multiple nesting levels)
  
  
  On 04/07/17 13:08, Jason S wrote:


  
  Hi Andy,
just wanted to say thanks for the example showing possibilities
for port names.

And I also noticed you can also name the regular subnet port
names!


   

Titles have to be short, but are more than enough to give good
clues.

Also because I think I can recall reading that paramerters
inside subnets involves extra compilation time? (dont know
specifics)


So now we have 'compounds' with custom port names, now how/why
are we not seeing dozens of those everywhere?

In the many setups I opened from either example files or from
forum users posting methods,
I haven't come across a single Vop net that had one. (or maybe I
just didnt notice them?)

(always Vops making everything from scratch with factory low
level nodes, or wrangle code )


There are experienced users asking if nested HDAs are possible,
and responses have pointed to certain factory nodes.
    Is it common
  for Digital Assets to use Digital Assets?

While I was surprised it was even a question, and think it
should be much more common.


Perhaps is it in regards to saving or retrieving custom nodes ?
or is management difficult?

Could what is outlined in this thread be related?
   My Digital
  Assets aren't loading with the project

I guess what I'm wondering is -- despite libraries and HDA's --
how/why isn't encapsulation and distribution more common-ground,

especially after how long Houdini has been around, 
or why are we not everywhere seeing within scenes, processes
made of processes made by everyone?

And in you opinion, what could be preventing that, or what could
be streamlined to promote that.

Thanks!,
J


On 03/31/17 5:35, Andy Nicholas wrote:
  
  

Hi Jason,
You can explicitly define VOP inputs and outputs if you make a
digital asset, but you can also do it on a regular subnetwork.
You just need to use a Subnet Input VOP for the input
connections, and then use a Null VOP to name the output. You can
use a Parameter VOP to expose inputs in the UI. (You can also
use it to define inputs by changing the drop down at the top to
"Subnet Connector", but I think it's clearer to use Subnet
VOPs).

I've made an example for you implementing a push along normals
operation and attached it to this email. See the images below
too:

How the Subnet looks without connections:


Inside the Push_VOP subnet:
  
  





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Re: Houdini Digital Assets for Softies

[Jason S]

  
  
Hi Andy,
  just wanted to say thanks for the example showing possibilities
  for port names.
  
  And I also noticed you can also name the regular subnet port
  names!
  
  
     
  
  Titles have to be short, but are more than enough to give good
  clues.
  
  Also because I think I can recall reading that paramerters inside
  subnets involves extra compilation time? (dont know specifics)
  
  
  So now we have 'compounds' with custom port names, now how/why are
  we not seeing dozens of those everywhere?
  
  In the many setups I opened from either example files or from
  forum users posting methods,
  I haven't come across a single Vop net that had one. (or maybe I
  just didnt notice them?)
  
  (always Vops making everything from scratch with factory low level
  nodes, or wrangle code )
  
  
  There are experienced users asking if nested HDAs are possible,
  and responses have pointed to certain factory nodes.
      Is it
common for Digital Assets to use Digital Assets?
  
  While I was surprised it was even a question, and think it should
  be much more common.
  
  
  Perhaps is it in regards to saving or retrieving custom nodes ? or
  is management difficult?
  
  Could what is outlined in this thread be related?
     My Digital
Assets aren't loading with the project
  
  I guess what I'm wondering is -- despite libraries and HDA's --
  how/why isn't encapsulation and distribution more common-ground, 
  especially after how long Houdini has been around, 
  or why are we not everywhere seeing within scenes, processes made
  of processes made by everyone?
  
  And in you opinion, what could be preventing that, or what could
  be streamlined to promote that.
  
  Thanks!,
  J
  
  
  On 03/31/17 5:35, Andy Nicholas wrote:


  
  Hi Jason,
  You can explicitly define VOP inputs and outputs if you make a
  digital asset, but you can also do it on a regular subnetwork. You
  just need to use a Subnet Input VOP for the input connections, and
  then use a Null VOP to name the output. You can use a Parameter
  VOP to expose inputs in the UI. (You can also use it to define
  inputs by changing the drop down at the top to "Subnet Connector",
  but I think it's clearer to use Subnet VOPs).
  
  I've made an example for you implementing a push along normals
  operation and attached it to this email. See the images below too:
  
  How the Subnet looks without connections:
  
  
  Inside the Push_VOP subnet:


  
  
  
  
  
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Re: Houdini Digital Assets for Softies

[Jason S]

  
  
    On 03/30/17
16:22, Jonathan Moore wrote:

    That’s certainly the aspect of ICE that I’d like to see
mirrored in siLib.

    One of the great things with ICE was that you could start by
learning say the particles compounds and as your knowledge grew
you could start digging into the compounds to see their granular
makeup, exactly how the low level nodes worked together to
achieve the things they do.

    This type of stepping stone isn’t part of Houdini and is
something that I think we could aim to create as part of the
siLib library.
  
  
  I agree, and hopefully both new and seasoned Houdini users alike
  will then get a taste for advantages of more granular digital
  assets, and perhaps would development
  then naturally gravitate to accommodate that.  
  
  Already making nested subnets (even sub-sub nested) inside vops
  can be alot like 'compounds' 
  or like reusable encapsulated functions or whatever..   or what
  allows the bulkyness of nodes to be greately reduced  enough to
  not be any less "bulky" than code blocks, but while remaining very
  visual and approachable.
  
  Until there would eventually be something like editable port
  names, I would suggest perhaps making maximum (creative) use of
  sticky notes?
  ( illustration with bogus names for illustration purposes )
  
  
  Which would make like HUGE nodes with notes that would need to be
  selected and moved with associated nodes, 
  but would at least give a clear(-er) idea of what (the heck) is
  happening. 
  
  
  
  I also wanted to mutiply an input by a constant, and expose that
  constant to the subnet's UI, but struggled and left it at that. 
  (sigh.. baby steps I guess)
  
  What I like about H nodes is how it represents backward
  connections
   (something you cant do in ice without loosing track of what goes
  where)
  
  
  Otherwise, happy to see that efforts are made to address some of
  this, and I also like "SiLib" :)
  
  On 03/30/17 16:22, Jonathan Moore wrote:


  
  
  
  
That’s
certainly the aspect of ICE that I’d like to see mirrored in
siLib.
 
One
of the great things with ICE was that you could start by
learning say the particles compounds and as your knowledge
grew you could start digging into the compounds to see their
granular makeup, exactly how the low level nodes worked
together to achieve the things they do.
 
This
type of stepping stone isn’t part of Houdini and is
something that I think we could aim to create as part of the
siLib library.
 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On
  Behalf Of Nicole Beeckmans-Jacqmain
Sent: 30 March 2017 20:51
To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list

Subject: Re: Houdini Digital Assets for Softies
 

  
may-be there could be an enhanced user
library,
  
  
i don't know if that's what you wanted to
accomplish?
  
  
so that you don't get lost in learning the
paths to possibilities,
  
  
but could sort of 'browse' through the
possibilities,
  
  
in a library or database? does that make some
sense? it would not really modify Houdini's
architecture.
  
  
thanks for your answer.
  


   
  
2017-03-30 21:34 GMT+02:00 Jonathan
  Moore :

  

  I
  hate to sound inflexible in my views but Houdini
  is such a powerful application because of its
  technical approach.
   
  Just
  because Softimage is no longer available and Maya
  is ‘problematic’ (to say the least) shouldn’t mean
  that SideFX should have to change their
  development strategy.
   
  I
  believe that SideFX have in fact done a fantastic
  job of listening to customers that have moved to
  Houdini from other packages 

Re: Excellent Recent Gems

[Jason S]

Sorry if any double posts, recompressed images as it didn't seem to go 
trough,  but it did! :)
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Re: Excellent Recent Gems

[Jason S]

  
  

  Animating a Camera Lattice
https://vimeo.com/189939719
    
  from Pedro


  Alpiarça dos Santos
  
      :o !
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzlCoMOxJSg
    
  
  
  
  Redshift - Proxy animation control script for
Softimage 
  https://vimeo.com/208992822
     
  More from Fabricio
Chamon
  
  This script overcomes the current limitation of redshift not
  having proper support for time shifted instances on Softimage.
  Download script (.js): dropbox.com/s/64akdx6tbdirsun/Redshift_Proxy_Animation_Control_Script.js?dl=1
  
  Perception Neuron to Mixamo - toolset for crowd work
https://vimeo.com/207942755
    
  '' Some tools to improve my workflow for creating crowds. 
  The toolbar handles asset prep and retargeting, motion
tweaking and export. 
  Finally a compound is imported for crowd sim.''
  
  0:00    PPG functions
  15:00  Ice Crowd Setup
  
  
  LEGO BATMAN MOVIE
  Because it's Batman!  (... and Softimage :P )
  https://youtu.be/aBJyp2LFHgk?t=61
  
  
  
  https://youtu.be/TnjjD7_iCok?t=345
  
  _
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

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Re: Random Thoughts about H.

[Jason S]

On 03/22/17 10:07, Jordi Bares wrote:
> Below
>>> Putting aside the fact we have to move out of Softimage sooner or later 
>>> (hardware, OS, drivers, freelancers, support, etc… will eventually force us 
>>> out)
>> Indeed 'sooner or later'
>> ... 10+ years? when sampling the freshly released hypothetical 2070 Nvidias 
>> running on Win 12? when we could then fully switch with our feet already wet 
>> in a number of camps, also being at a point when favored alternatives would 
>> have *very progressively* matured in a number of areas, or not just in 1 
>> area such as modeling.
>> (I think our transition should be just as proportionately proportional to 
>> that inevitably *very gradual* progression)
> It is really up to you, specially if you are a one man band or a tiny 
> creative studio with no intention of growing of course…
Or rather large shops making the most recent lego (batman), or 
terminator flix ;)
(with probably still a fraction of (specialized dev) resources)

> ultimately if it works for you to carry on until you are 90 years old ;-) 
> then you should be fine, but I wouldn’t bet either hardware, drivers, OS 
> manufacturers will be trying to stay compatible with Softimage.
Actually both os and hardware manufacturers go to great strides on 
maintaining backwards compatibility when introducing new methods. The 
earliest version of ModTool can run just fine to todays hardware.

If in 10 years things would still be easier in my extra modified SI 2015 
pro plus, and it still works,
(would rather hope alternatives would have greatly improved by then)
you can bet I would personally still be doing stuff in there!
>>> I would like to focus on those day to day scenarios you feel are not easy 
>>> in Houdini, after all we could submit this input to Side Effects.
>>>
>>> Is there any particular scenario you feel strongly Softimage is much more 
>>> comfortable/easy/convenient?
>>>
>>> :-)
>>>
>>> jb
>> Actually, the first email in this thread wasn't just for here, but also with 
>> the intent of posting on Sesi forums ( for the ICE part )
>> while also feeling very compelled to do the same for other parts (probably 
>> as progressively as I would dive deeper in other sections).
> As you get comfortable things will fall in to place and believe me, you will 
> look back and thing… wow… that was not as great as I remembered it…. :-)
I think the point should be to getting towards that (for things to 
become greater than what we remember)
in as many fronts as possible, which as far as I can tell, does indeed 
apply to some aspects,
while not at-all in soo many others.. (right now)

(as opposed to trying to convince myself of that, weather it is true or not)

>> I was very impressed and encouraged by the the reaction / openness from 
>> staff, and later by the results of McNistor's initiative around modeling.
>>
>> And I (along with many others I'm sure) would not want that to end there!
>>
>> Cheers!,
>> -J
> cheers
> jb
>
Cheers! :)

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Re: Random Thoughts about H.

[Jason S]

 wrote:
  
   
  

  I
  think Andy covered off most stuff. The
  only thing I can reiterate is the
  importance of VEX. I shared a link the
  other day to the VEX masterclass with
  Jeff Wagner and had positive feedback
  from other XSI alumni on this list. If
  you haven’t watched it yet, you
  should. It makes sense of many of
  SideFX’s design decisions.


   


  Ultimately

  Houdini is an operating system for 3d
  and becoming comfortable with VEX and
  Python within Houdini are mandatory
  things. SideFX might like to market
  Core as a replacement for XSI but VEX
  in particular and Python (if you want
  create portable assets) are essential
  ingredients in getting the most out of
  Houdini.


   


  I
  came to Houdini with a hackers
  knowledge of Python scripting and
   competent Processing (which I suppose
  is Java) skills. Never learnt C++ and
  I certainly wouldn’t classify myself
  as a programmer; and I find I’m
  comfortable with VEX. Sure I have the
  help browser opened permanently on my
  second browser the check my function
  arguments, but I muddle along without
  pain most of the time.


   


  If

  Andy’s still reading, I think it would
  be brilliant if he updated his Cheat
  Sheet for these post HScript days.
  When I was first learning Houdini it
  was a huge help. And funnily enough
  even though HScript has mostly been
  discarded, the list of ‘essential’ SOP
  operators Andy listed back in 2011 are
  just as relevant in 2017.  


   


   


  

  From: softimage-bounces@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-bounces@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf
    Of Jason

  S
  Sent: 21

  March 2017 18:36
  To: Official

  Softimage Users Mailing List. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list<softim...@listproc.autodesk.com>
  Subject: Re:

  Random Thoughts about H.

  


   


  
Hi Andy,
  
  Thanks for the feedback!


  

  
- Can
  handle lots of objects or elements
  and a few things became very much
  faster in recent versions

Re: Random Thoughts about H.

[Jason S]

  
  
Hi!  (see below)
  
  On 03/22/17 6:36, Jordi Bares wrote:


  
Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Jordi!

First I wanted to personally thank you for those docs, as they really did go straight to the crux.

  
  Thank you, really appreciate knowing it has been useful. :-)


  
Yet for the points mentioned, I would have an easier time agreeing with you if indeed I found "some things to be easier, and others not", whereas beyond what could be associated to "XSI muscle memory",  the sheer quantity or proportions of things that are not not just easier, but considerably much (much!) easier, makes it hard to just overlook and just "go with it", especially when knowing how things can be.

  
  Putting aside the fact we have to move out of Softimage sooner or later (hardware, OS, drivers, freelancers, support, etc… will eventually force us out)


Indeed 'sooner or later'
... 10+ years? when sampling the freshly released hypothetical 2070
Nvidias running on Win 12? when we could then fully switch with our
feet already wet in a number of camps, also being at a point when
favored alternatives would have *very progressively* matured in a
number of areas, or not just in 1 area such as modeling. 
(I think our transition should be just as proportionately
proportional to that inevitably *very gradual* progression)

I would agree for the freelancer bit, yet IMO that has alot to do
with the often very hard-pressed 
"Quickly! sooner or later! Must switch now to whatever else!" 
sentiment, which can be very arguable.


  Putting aside those areas Sofimage can’t compete because it does not have the functionality (heavy duty FX mostly, Terrains, Game integration, etc…)

Agreed! ( currently for FX related things ;)


  I would like to focus on those day to day scenarios you feel are not easy in Houdini, after all we could submit this input to Side Effects.

Is there any particular scenario you feel strongly Softimage is much more comfortable/easy/convenient?

:-)

jb


Actually, the first email in this thread wasn't just for here, but
also with the intent of posting on Sesi forums ( for the ICE part )
while also feeling very compelled to do the same for other parts
(probably as progressively as I would dive deeper in other sections).

I was very impressed and encouraged by the the reaction / openness
from staff, and later by the results of McNistor's initiative around
modeling.

And I (along with many others I'm sure) would not want that to end
there!

Cheers!,
-J


  

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Re: Random Thoughts about H.

[Jason S]

  
  
"specially when self employed"
  
  ...  or small ... or big shops delivering sequences of images :)
  
  
  On 03/21/17 22:05, Jason S wrote:


  
  Hi Jordi!

First I wanted to personally thank you for those docs, as they
really did go straight to the crux.

Yet for the points mentioned, I would have an easier time
agreeing with you if indeed I found "some things to be easier,
and others not", whereas beyond what could be associated to "XSI
muscle memory",  the sheer quantity or proportions of things
that are not not just easier, but considerably much (much!)
easier, makes it hard to just overlook and just "go with it",
especially when knowing how things can be.


Especially when what I'm looking for already exists.

I know it takes great effort designing things that are both user
friendly AND very flexible 
(both must be at equal priority upon design phases, otherwise
there is great tendency for becoming mostly an either/or thing,
akin to making things both fast AND high quality) 

I'm not either dismissing it altogether, just that after
witnessing how things are, I would focus on things that are more
accessible, and *perhaps* (if so very progressively) adopt other
aspects.

Because I also think that given the circumstances, it is good to
vary disciplines and tools that we use, yet also remain
convinced that "moving-on",  should be as a progressive process,
mostly if not -exclusively- relative to whatever we consider can
work best for a given task.

I wouldn't currently favor XSI for say dynamic beach waves, but
for a great number of things, until there would naturally be a
time when it would simply not be worth it, either because some
things would advance considerably or some things would make it
more difficult to run, 
(either of which can be seen quite ahead of time when testing
new equipment /software)
switching should not be something that is forced, or be from
giving into more or less heavy enticements, or peer pressure, 
(specially when self employed, delivering image sequences) but
that just a personal view.

Anyhoo, 
ciaociao!
-J

On 03/21/17 19:27, Jordi Bares wrote:
  
  

Indeed I never managed to get fully where I wanted... as you can
see VOPs was missing, VEX, DOPs and so many other things but
such were my limitations in terms of knowledge and time.


Nevertheless I will suggest you take Andy’s
  comments and review them, he certainly took the time to put
  some stuff in there that is worth keeping.


My take is, from what I saw is that you were using
  Houdini like me, as if it was Softimage and sooner or later
  you will see (like I did) that it is better to embrace it and
  just move on, 



I hope you enjoy the ride. :-)
jb



  

      
On 21 Mar 2017, at 23:08, Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>

  wrote:


  
  
Or alot of equivalence
  mapping was in there (which was great help BTW),
  yet could of course not map the parts that aren't
  mappable 
  (or not easily mappable without getting very
  technical such as for any ice related stuff)
  
  Must have overlooked the Object merge bit thanks.
  
  On 03/21/17 18:41, Nono wrote:


  don't miss the FULL pdf
from Jordy Bares that's all in there
  
    On 21 March 2017 at
  23:31, Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>
  wrote:
  

  Hi,


Indeed Object Merge can reference
outputs from other nodes
Thanks a bunch! (scraped the internet
for that :) )
-J

  


   

Re: Random Thoughts about H.

[Jason S]

  
  
Hi Jordi!
  
  First I wanted to personally thank you for those docs, as they
  really did go straight to the crux.
  
  Yet for the points mentioned, I would have an easier time agreeing
  with you if indeed I found "some things to be easier, and others
  not", whereas beyond what could be associated to "XSI muscle
  memory",  the sheer quantity or proportions of things that are not
  not just easier, but considerably much (much!) easier, makes it
  hard to just overlook and just "go with it", especially when
  knowing how things can be.
  
  
  Especially when what I'm looking for already exists.
  
  I know it takes great effort designing things that are both user
  friendly AND very flexible 
  (both must be at equal priority upon design phases, otherwise
  there is great tendency for becoming mostly an either/or thing,
  akin to making things both fast AND high quality) 
  
  I'm not either dismissing it altogether, just that after
  witnessing how things are, I would focus on things that are more
  accessible, and *perhaps* (if so very progressively) adopt other
  aspects.
  
  Because I also think that given the circumstances, it is good to
  vary disciplines and tools that we use, yet also remain convinced
  that "moving-on",  should be as a progressive process, mostly if
  not -exclusively- relative to whatever we consider can work best
  for a given task.
  
  I wouldn't currently favor XSI for say dynamic beach waves, but
  for a great number of things, until there would naturally be a
  time when it would simply not be worth it, either because some
  things would advance considerably or some things would make it
  more difficult to run, 
  (either of which can be seen quite ahead of time when testing new
  equipment /software)
  switching should not be something that is forced, or be from
  giving into more or less heavy enticements, or peer pressure, 
  (specially when self employed, delivering image sequences) but
  that just a personal view.
  
  Anyhoo, 
  ciaociao!
  -J
  
  On 03/21/17 19:27, Jordi Bares wrote:


  
  Indeed I never managed to get fully where I wanted... as you can
  see VOPs was missing, VEX, DOPs and so many other things but such
  were my limitations in terms of knowledge and time.
  
  
  Nevertheless I will suggest you take Andy’s comments
and review them, he certainly took the time to put some stuff in
there that is worth keeping.
  
  
  My take is, from what I saw is that you were using
Houdini like me, as if it was Softimage and sooner or later you
will see (like I did) that it is better to embrace it and just
move on, 
  
  
  
  I hope you enjoy the ride. :-)
  jb
  
  
  

  

      On 21 Mar 2017, at 23:08, Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>
wrote:
  
  


  Or alot of equivalence
mapping was in there (which was great help BTW),
yet could of course not map the parts that aren't
mappable 
(or not easily mappable without getting very
technical such as for any ice related stuff)

Must have overlooked the Object merge bit thanks.

On 03/21/17 18:41, Nono wrote:
  
  
don't miss the FULL pdf from
  Jordy Bares that's all in there

  On 21 March 2017 at
23:31, Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>
wrote:

  
Hi,
  
  Indeed Object Merge can reference outputs
  from other nodes
  Thanks a bunch! (scraped the internet for
  that :) )
  -J
  

  
  
  On 03/21/17 18:22, Nono wrote:

  


  

  

  On 21
       

Re: Random Thoughts about H.

[Jason S]

  
  
Or alot of equivalence mapping was in
  there (which was great help BTW),
  yet could of course not map the parts that aren't mappable 
  (or not easily mappable without getting very technical such as for
  any ice related stuff)
  
  Must have overlooked the Object merge bit thanks.
  
  On 03/21/17 18:41, Nono wrote:


  don't miss the FULL pdf from Jordy Bares that's all
in there
  
On 21 March 2017 at 23:31, Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>
  wrote:
  

  Hi, 
Indeed Object Merge can reference outputs from other
nodes
Thanks a bunch! (scraped the internet for that :) )
-J

  


On 03/21/17 18:22, Nono wrote:
  

  
  

  

  
On 21 March 2017 at
  19:36, Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>
  wrote:
  I know about merge sop,
  but is it possible to refer to outputs or
  elements located in other object level
  networks?
  (or having object level items used as
  inputs for multiple other object level
  networks?)


Hi,
  You don't read it
correctly, Andy spokes about "Object Merge" not
"Merge".
  On Houdini "Object merge"
is in most case the most important node. You can
for example mimic softimage overrides with it
;-)
  
  
  Cheers 




  

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Re: Random Thoughts about H.

[Jason S]

  
  
Hi, 
  Indeed Object Merge can reference outputs from other nodes
  Thanks a bunch! (scraped the internet for that :) )
  -J
  
  
  On 03/21/17 18:22, Nono wrote:


  

  On 21 March 2017 at 19:36, Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>
wrote:
I know about merge sop, but is it
possible to refer to outputs or elements located in
other object level networks?
(or having object level items used as inputs for
multiple other object level networks?)
  
  
  Hi,
You don't read it correctly, Andy
  spokes about "Object Merge" not "Merge".
On Houdini "Object merge" is in most
  case the most important node. You can for example mimic
  softimage overrides with it ;-)


Cheers 
  
  
  
  
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Re: Random Thoughts about H.

[Jason S]

  
  

  Hi Andy,

Thanks for the feedback!
  


  
  
- Can handle lots of objects or
  elements and a few things became very much faster in recent
  versions (multi-threaded or openCL)
     (SI  is still is king for sheer high-poly-count on fewer
  objects, which includes *tons* of island transforms)

  
  
  Have a look at packed primitives. You can chunk your geometry into
  sections and get excellent performance there along with deferred
  rendering.
  
  For island management, then there are workflows that use the
  "name" string primitive attribute to differentiate between pieces.
  Some SOPs support this (see clustering and fracturing for
  example).
  


  Indeed I'm aware of packed prims, and I already agreed with you
  there (was in the "Good!" section :P )


  
 Elements seem to be either
inside OR outside, or object level elements (where regular
parenting happens) are almost like separate scenes

  
  
  Not sure I completely understand your point. I've not had an issue
  with referencing data or geometry. You can use the Object Merge
  SOP to pull geometry from anywhere though, and you can use
  expressions and VEX to pull info from other objects too (although
  I'd generally recommend object merging them for clarity). The
  convention (as you've probably seen) is to use a Null SOP called
  something like "OUT_Geometry" for example, or to use an Output
  node, and then reference those from another object. That has the
  advantage of being able to insert more nodes before the referenced
  node, so you don't have to update all your references.
  


  I know about merge sop, but is it possible to refer to outputs or
  elements located in other object level networks?
  (or having object level items used as inputs for multiple other
  object level networks?)


  
 - ICE equivalence 
  (personally my biggest gripe)
  Wished for one thing, that Vop nets allowed for subnetworks
  with custom port names, 

  
  
  This is possible, but you need to create a digital asset to do it.
  Kinda painful as a workflow, but it is there.
  
  
If that's  at-all realistic, as it
  would probably involve very systemic changes, like how/when
  compilation happens (?)
  (to allow time dependancy  inside vops, but I don't know)
  
  
  You can have time dependancy inside VOPs, you just need to use the
  Time input from global variables, rather than use $FF inside
  expressions.
  

Thanks, also I think promoting parameters
  allows for time dependency? 
  But I was referring to time dependency as what could prevent
  entire processes to be self contained inside a  single VOP net.
  (or one of the things)


  
everything  (such as different
  settings  or where to adjust different things) is all over the
  place

  
  Yes, it can be, which is why it's crucial to try to be as
  organised as possible and work in a consistent way. If there's an
  occasion you can't be consistent, then put down a post-it note in
  your network to document it for when you or someone else comes
  back to the scene.
  
  
   --- expressions ::
   even if often very simple, driving values with more
  elaborate procedures, 
   requires equally more elaborate expressions with
  often somewhat cryptic and sensitive syntax 
   with single or two letter functions that can be easy
  to remember for the more common ones like 'F' or 'P',
       but otherwise involves having the doc open at all
  times.

  
  
  You get used to it quickly, but you'll probably find you move more
  towards Vex, which will make most expressions redundant.


Perhaps I could get used to it, like I could
  also get use to C++, but the point was that it's not what I would
  want to deal with under tight deadlines (or where I would like to
  spend most of my time)
  
  I've done my fair share of scripting, even some quite elaborate
  ones, but always commenting the heck out everything and having
  extra descriptive variable names to not have to decipher myself
  even the next day, but I couldn't say I could decipher half the
  scripts I come across, and such things remain quite difficult for
  me  (as for many artists).


  
      To simply -- say
  randomizing something with range that changes in time, is
  comparatively quite something,
      

Random Thoughts about H.

[Jason S]

  
  

  Hi,
  
  In light of recent H ramblings, just wanted to share a few pros
  and cons I personally found with H.
  
  ___
  Good!

  
  
  - Can easily 'Get' effects, like fire, pool of water etc... then
  define inputs, and tweak settings.
  
      Can be artist friendly for high level nodes  
      ( weather for factory nodes, or various digital assets around
  ) 
  
      Factory high-level 'Assets' with workflows that are very
  streamlined, with everything very refined
      (all the way up to rendering)   to make truly great FX very
  fast.
  
  - Modeling  now seems just fine!  
  (or at least for direct component manipulation which is now good
  enough, because it was much more finicky)
  
  Without being the same as SI, or the same as   [insert the app
you are most use-to here]  
  I don't think anyone expects it to be the same as what they are
  use to, but similarly as workable, so that's neat!
  
  Seemingly in no small part thanks to McNistor's  (and possibly
  others) initiative, patience  and  dedication 
  ( and dev's openness which is very commendable and rare )
  ironing out annoyances, and narrowing down issues.
  
  Because of that, at least for modeling, 
  Houdini networks now feels (or feels much more) like a 'next'
  version of SI's construction stack, or like 'model compositing'.
  
  
  Performance 

  - Can handle lots of objects or elements and a few things
  became very much faster in recent versions (multi-threaded or
  openCL)
     (SI  is still is king for sheer high-poly-count on fewer
  objects, which includes *tons* of island transforms)
  
  
  ___
  Things that I'm not sure yet
  
  -Animation
  As far as I could tell, like setting keys and curve editing seems
  just fine.
  
  Although I'm sure artists that animate or rig characters all day
  would have (and probably have) things to say about workflows,
  I was pleased to see that at first glance, alot seemed to already
  be there.
  
  -Shading
  Haven't checked new shading workflows yet.
  
  
  
  ___
  Things I find to be 'Meh'
 

Passes
  - there's probably 3 or more ways to set-up 'passes', and all of
  them are comparatively excruciating.
  
  - Help!
      - Good for explicit searches, or clicking the '?' icon in
  operator headers.
  
      - Can be Really bad for browsing reference sections
          - Alphabetically sorted  flat list of all nodes, all
  _expression_ functions or all Vex functions ...
        For example ::   the   'Inflate', 'Instance',
  'IsoOffset'  nodes, all concern very different things.
  
     - Perhaps there is something up with my setup, but help views
  seemed very buggy 
       and (sometimes not always) very slow especially when always
  having it open.
  
  - Scene item Tree list (outliner/Explorer) seems somewhat
  basic,
  Network view is great, but tree lists can be much more optimal for
  overviewing hierarchies
  and unless I missed a preference(?) H tree view is a flat list of
  all object level items without parenting hierarchy representation.
  
  
  - Inconsistent highlighting and/or viewport element display
  
  This may very well be things I haven't yet understood, but even
  after a while, I haven't wrapped my head around it, ...
  but highlighting of selection or when viewing particular nodes
  seems quite inconsistent 
  (when inside, or at obj level when switching tabs)
  sometimes shading type changes, sometimes with textures, sometimes
  not, sometimes transparent, sometimes not,
  or displays other outputs as well? (sometimes not). 
  (when viewing back and forth between the very same nodes )
  
  
  Elements seem to be either inside OR outside, or object level
elements (where regular parenting happens) are almost like separate
scenes
  (with little or no communication between them?)
  I may very well have missed something, or I hope I'm wrong, 
  but it doesn't seem to be possible have multiple references of
  outputs or elements that are at object level or in other sops(?) 
  (for instancing, or having common sources (easy and very common in
  ICE), or for allowing for arbitrary inputs)
  
  Performance
  Quite a few things remain very slow,
  the grass flattening example is runs at 5 fps for very few, very
  short guide fur strands.
  Teckano's ICE Grass flattening tutorial scene runs at 60 fps with
  tons of long 

Re: Soft to Houdini custom shelf / scripts.

[Jason S]

  
  

   When you work in Nuke you also can't freeze your
  sequence. You either use a cache node or render out a file
  sequence to disk.
  
  Indeed, and it's not at-all uncommon to do so to speed things up
  and or re-starting from a given point as an initial state.
  
  I guess it was mostly to streamline that a bit.
  
  
  
  On 02/22/17 11:27, Florian Breg wrote:


  Working in Houdini is more similar to working in
Nuke than working in SI/Maya/etc if you ask me.


With Houdini you have data (e.g. bgeo, abc) that
  is stored externally and the "scenes" more or less only
  contain the rules to modify this external data.


Traditional 3D apps store data (e.g. polymeshes)
  and the rules (e.g. operators) in the scene if you don't use
  referenced models. That's why you can easily freeze stuff and
  why it makes sense to do so.


When you work in Nuke you also can't freeze your
  sequence. You either use a cache node or render out a file
  sequence to disk. It is the same way in houdini.


One of Jordi's PDFs explained it in a more
  elegant and complete way if I remember correctly. Maybe you
  give them a try.


Have fun learning Houdini. It is worth it.


Cheers,
Flo

  

  Am 22.02.2017 16:44 schrieb
"Paulo Cesar Duarte" :

  Yes, I perfectly understand the
procedural approach, but over the last years Houdini
is getting better and better in interface and
modeling tools, they are trying to make a complete
3d tool set in all areas, so the idea is use Houdini
for all tasks, not only import things from Maya and
make simulations, lets say that I want modeling a
complete character or vehicle inside Houdini, I
would end up with a hundred of SOP nodes. 
Houdini is an amazing software, I just don't
  understand why I can't collapse nodes, I think
  every DCC can do that, simplify things when
  necessary.



  For now I'm going to lock the node and delete
the network upstream when necessary, thanks for
the tip. 

  
  

  2017-02-22 7:00 GMT-03:00
Jordi Bares :

  
You don’t really want to, it is one of
  those things that will challenge you at
  first and the you will see how much better
  is this appraoch.


Regardless of my opinion, if you want
  to collapse in the sense of Softimage,
  lock the node and delete the network
  upstream.. that is effectively the same.



jb

  

  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  
  
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Re: Soft to Houdini custom shelf / scripts.

[Jason S]

  
  

  Okay that's reassuring, was wondering because there didn't seem to
  be a point to locking elements that didn't change over time, 
  if it wasn't for performance reason, if all operations remained
  anyways while just increasing filesize.
  
  Thanks
  
  On 02/22/17 2:46, Jordi Bares wrote:


  
  No, cooking is evaluated in a very optimised way so no dumb
cooking. 
  
  
  If a network is not needed for
display or as a result of other network it won't be evaluated.
  
  
  Jb
  
Sent from my iPhone
  
On 22 Feb 2017, at 03:08, Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>
wrote:

  
  

  
  
So things are cooked every frame unless explicitly specified
not to?  Even if nothing changes except perhaps regular
transforms? 
(with no deforms)

Also is there a command log to easily script things such as
in this case,  an export/import button?


  

  


  

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Re: Soft to Houdini custom shelf / scripts.

[Jason S]

  
  

  So things are cooked every frame unless explicitly specified not
  to?  Even if nothing changes except perhaps regular transforms? 
  (with no deforms)
  
  Also is there a command log to easily script things such as in
  this case,  an export/import button?
  
  
  
  On 02/21/17 21:30, Jonathan Moore wrote:


  The idea of freezing the modelling stack in Houdini
can feel counter intuitive but go with the flow of the system
design and it makes more sense. Locking your stacks then
collapsing them via netboxes is the simple option, setting up
file caches to export bgeo (or whatever other format you prefer)
to bring them back in at another chosen point in your network is
the most efficient route. 


It's important to break away from the XSI/Maya collapse the
  stack mindset. Locking and collapsing is a better strategy on
  smaller networks (simplicity and portability), file caches are
  better for larger networks as locking stores the frozen
  geometry in the HIP file and this can easily lead to
  cumbersome large HIP's.
  
  
On 22 February 2017 at 01:47, Matt Lind
  
  wrote:
  pressing D
only gives information, it doesn't freeze the network a la
Softimage per the request.

so the answer to his question is no, the feature is not
available, but
perhaps it could be writtenif somebody would take the
time to document
the HDK so developers could figure out how to use it. ;-)


Matt



Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2017 23:04:42 +
From: Jordi Bares 
Subject: Re: Soft to Houdini custom shelf /
  scripts.
  To: "Official Softimage Users Mailing List.
  
  
> On 20 Feb 2017, at 22:19, Matt
  Lind 
  wrote:
  >
  > You have to keep in mind Houdini is a non-linear
  system.
  >
  > Softimage's freeze and freeze modeling operations
  operate on construction
  > histories for individual objects.  All the operators
  live in the same
  > construction history, so computing the result of the
  freeze is fairly
  > straightforward as you just evaluate the operators in
  order.
  >
  > In Houdini, there's real possibility one or more
  nodes may be shared with
  > networks for other geometries.  Therefore you cannot
  assume a collapse is
  > possible without negatively affecting other parts of
  the scene.  However,
  > the ability to create a new node with the entire
  history of a network or
  > sub-network up to point 'n' should be possible, but
  you'll likely have to
  > clean up the contributing nodes yourself to ensure no
  negative side
  > effects.
  
  I am sure you know but, you can actually display if a node
  has been
  reference from outside or it is picking things from the
  outside too, just
press D in the network editor and go to the
dependencies Tab? it is super
useful when you deal with big scenes.
  
  Very true, the best approach instead of locking things is
  to actually freeze
  the geometry to disk using the filecache SOP node. It will
  keep your scenes
  small and super fast to load plus the cooking process will
  be super fast.
  
  I use this approach all the time in combination with the
  fetch ROP so I can
  regenerate all my caches in one quick go.
  
  jb
  
  
  >
  > Matt
  >
  >
  >
  >
  > Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2017 18:44:31 -0300
  > From: Paulo Cesar Duarte 
  > Subject: Re: Soft to Houdini custom shelf / scripts.
  > To: "Official Softimage Users Mailing List.
  >
  > Hi Olivier and Andy, nice tip.
  > So there is no other way to just collapse everything?
  I find it's a little
  > strange that I can't do a true modeling collapse, the
  better way I find is
  > export .obj and import again.
  >
  >
 

Re: Opinion gathering

[Jason S]

  
  

  My feeling was  as Felix  (and I think still is to an extent).
  
  But I went through the presentation  as I previously only saw the
  v16 promo clip which looked good (except demos always look good)
  
  And found not only the presented features rather impressive 
  (or at least impressive looking with workflows that didn't look
  too scary), 
  but most especially for the direction that they claimed to be
  taking, 
  so I was quite pleased with what I was seeing/hearing.
  
  Such as in the hair section the presenter mentioned  how
  previously, 
  there were some very approachable methods, 
  but as soon as wanting to customize or go deeper, it quickly got
  very technical.  
  
  So hearing that particular bit, is parts of what I found
  encouraging, 
  that such things (not just for hair) was at least recognized.
  
  An other part I liked hearing was in the Animation segment  (also
  alluding to SI situation in the beginning :-)  )
  it really looks like quite real steps are made to streamline
  different workflows.
  
  
  Although I personally still do have quite a few reservations.
  
  A while back before that, during my evaluation of different things
  (checking out C4d, modo, then H14-15)
  
  My impression was    wooow...   -->>   --complicated--
  
  but I mean WAY   -over- complicated for basically every process I
  scrutinized  for getting to different things
  including for shading (or shader authoring) , the equivalent of
  passes, selection and manipulation of things, and always using
  what seemed like the lowest level ICE nodes, even for just basic
  regular things, but also to when wanting to go deeper, getting
  very quickly quite technical, like when mentionned for hair, but
  for basically every bit I covered.
  (I now wonder how's the new shading system!)
  
    I could see how it could be great for complex/intricate
  centerpiece effects, with the ability to go as deep as can be,  
  but as a general purpose environment?
  it was just  ...  woooww!  way-way   (unneccessarily)
  --over--complicated   all over.
  
  
  Like if one of the main gripe soft users have in regards to Maya,
  
  concerns comparatively how much time it can take to get from point
  A to point B,
  
  users coming from Maya (or basically any package) typically have
  that same gripe in regards to Houdini, 
  when trying to consider it as a general purpuse DCC.
  
  So that made/makes for quite some contrast coming from SI.
   
  
  Also supporting that, from the comments section of the previously
  referenced page about  Houdini  Nav & Selection   
  (neat page by the way, the narrator reminds me of Mr Mootz :)   )
   
  

   Jakub Rupa says 
  

  24.01.2017 
  

 

  Is that modeled in Houdini? I’m curious how to do
  something like that 

 
Reply
 


  
 Manuel says 

  
24.01.2017 

  
  
No it’s modeled in C4D. But it’s perfectly possible to
model this in Houdini. 
  
I prefer destructive modeling though, for static
objects. That’s why I usually do it in C4D or Blender.
  

  
  
  
  
  And to this day, If you  search "Houdini" on vimeo, it's just page
  after page of FX, more FX, and then more FX, 
  weather or not sorting by relevance or by recently added.
  
  Albeit all mostly truely awesome FX which would be practically
  impossible in anything else other than Houdini 
  (except maybe in ICE)
  unless making (coding) dedicated specific plugins for each effect
  .
  
  
  
  Another thing I personally consider important,  is about  --
  >>  "parallel workflows"  
  ->>   http://www.si-community.com/community/viewtopic.php?p=54997#p54997
  
  (Mathaeus taught me that term :) )
  
  
  But all in all, also as Felix, my reservations comes down to how
  far they seem to have to go in their own humanization efforts.  
  
  Because as it is now  (probably still to a large extent in v16
  amongst some possibly neat improvements),
  it seems that basically every section needs to be revamped to some
  more or less considerable degree 
  for Houdini to generally become user-friendly.   (not just for
  learning it, but day tot day)
  
  And if they do pull it off, I hope it wont involve a decade,
  (because it can definitely look like it could)
   

Re: Opinion gathering

[Jason S]

  
  

  
  So we are looking for something that bridges the gap between the
  technical and artistic side of CG?
  
  
  What I personally find regretful is not so much the EOL
  annoncement in itself, but how much credit we gave it.
  
  Because what mostly discourages from SI usage, probably is and has
  been both the reduction of available talent, and the reductions of
  available positions.
  
  (making for what could qualify as a -loop-)
  
  
  "No support!  Oh n! "
  
  Since 2008,  Did most of the development/support come from AD?
  
  You know,  ... it can super easily be said that the overwhelmingly
  larger chunk of practical dev came from the continuous stream of
  stuff popping-up on RRAy 
  (tools from you/us)
  
  a stream of stuff which depends on usage continuance.
  
  
  Saying Because For the next decade, Houdini will most likely
  remain mostly like Houdini, except with a few enhancements, 
  which is totally fine, Houdini is great for it's own specific role
  (while probably never qualify as an XSI replacement)
  
  and Maya will most likely remain mostly like Maya, except with a
  few enhancements,  
  which can also be totally fine, Maya can also have it's set of
  advantages,
  if it wasn't for the ever increasing amounts of bugs/consistencies
  that comes with it, not unlike as much as it it has, 
  (arguably for lack of real love or passion)
  or for with never ending surprise! policies, like upcoming
  nullification (or merging) of traditional subs to regular rental 
  which were supposed to be upheld indefinitely.. not to mention the
  cloud which will similarly going to eat us (if we similarly let
  it).
  
  And in the event of a new player making it's way
   (filling the humogous gap between (over-)techical and
  (over-)simplistic environments)  
  I would say hurray!
  
  Yet I would not count on it, they don't make new software as they
  use to (when 3D was still new)
  
  
      "No Soft cause want to move away from AD"
  
  I'd say that Soft arguably stopped being under AD the moment it
  decided to "retire"  it, like retiring a language ..  how can you
  do that.
  (Either practically or Ethically, it doesn't make any sense.)
  
  Which can be akin to suddenly declaring that the sky is now red! 
  
   (I would say "humm ... right" , would you say "oh well, I guess
  the sky is red now!" ?)
  
  
  Nevertheless, if using soft, no need to ever deal with any
  corporate ridiculousness or be subject to any subsequent
  'creative' policies.
  
  And If we have have been letting big faceless orgs dictate our
  lives, bending ourselves in 40 and using sublime text to author 3D
  it may be because of these big faceless orgs 
  (or how the public shareholding system is,  and not because of
  people working for them like Daniel Tutilo),
  but also because we LET ourselves, ... basically get had,  if no
  line is ever drawn, there would essentially never be a line or
  limit to shareholder greed.
  
  yep..
  
  
  In any event, I hope soft stops working on windows 11, so that we
  wouldn't feel as silly that we could have otherwise went along
  with it for -at least- another decade, not only just fine, but
  like in the relative heaven we didnt know we were in, basically
  ignoring any "regretful" announcements.
  
   (a decade... or more, considering that one is in no way lacking
  anything if using an OS of a couple of versions back,  not unlike
  using win7 today, for the sake of using probably one of the most
  all-encompassing digital content creation app out there.) 
  
  
  
  On 02/19/17 18:05, Cristobal Infante wrote:


  

  In response to the OP questions, I
moved to using Houdini fulltime two years ago so have had a
good look at the market in London. By the way, thanks for
that Maya transition course Graham, it really showed me the
way forward :D
  
  
  Not many companies are switching
completely to Houdini that I know of, but many mograph
companies have spotted the potential and added it to their
arsenal to use it along side C4D. (MVSM, FutureDeluxe,
Territory, Found, Analog, etc ) . This is a market softimage
never managed get hold of, which really was a shame. 
  
  
  In fact, it's very interesting to see
how the C4D / mograph community (entagma, etc) have
recognised the limitations of their current toolset and have
started adopting Houdini. Ask them, they 

Re: Path constrained camera and endless loop

[Jason S]

One I didn't know about was 'Cycle with offset', which is like a hybrid 
between 'linear extrapolation' and 'cycle',
where it continuously cycles the animation but re-starts it from the 
point of the last keyframe, instead of restarting from 0 at every loop.

On 06/22/16 15:23, Matt Lind wrote:
> http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/softimage2014/en_us/userguide/files/fcurves_ExtrapolatingFunctionCurves.htm
>
> However, even if you don't use pre/post extrapolation, all you have to do is
> enter a value above 100% along the path.  Softimage will internally make the
> adjustment to preserve continuity.
>
> It's all in the manuals.
>
>
> Matt
>
>
>
> Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2016 14:58:01 -0500
> From: Pierre Schiller 
> Subject: Re: Path constrained camera and endless loop
> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
>
> Thank you Matt. Would be a plus, to show the method.
> I initially solved as posted, but I didn't know one can extrapolate the
> curve for ever.
> On Jun 17, 2016 8:56 PM, "pedro santos"  wrote:
>
>> @Matt
>> I'm confused: what do you mean by: "All you need to do is extrapolate the
>> FCurve linearly beyond 100%."Curve Extrapolation to Cycle? That works
>> fine if you just want to loop exactly the same thing but not if you want
>> to
>> "travel" between loops. And if that is what you mean how it wouldn't
>> destroy the Motion Blur too?
>>
>> Cheers
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Re: Path constrained camera and endless loop

[Jason S]

   All you need to do is extrapolate the FCurve linearly beyond 100%.

Indeed!


On 06/17/16 19:38, Matt Lind wrote:
> Cycling the FCurve would destroy motion dependent calculations (such as
> motion blur, quickstretch, etc...) at the start/end point of the loop.
>
> All you need to do is extrapolate the FCurve linearly beyond 100%.
> Softimage automatically computes the modulus internally to preserve
> continuity of motion along the path.  Therefore no modulus expression needed
> either.
>
> You can also manually set a key beyond 100% (or below 0%) simply by typing
> it into the path constraint PPG or setting the key in the FCurve editor.
>
> Matt
>
>
>
>
>
> Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2016 18:02:34 -0400
> From: Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Path constrained camera and endless loop
> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
>
> Can't you just cycle the Fcurve?
>
> Curve Editor -> Curves -> Pre/Post Extrapolation -> Cycle
>
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Re: Path constrained camera and endless loop

[Jason S]

  
  
Can't you just cycle the Fcurve?
  
  Curve Editor -> Curves -> Pre/Post Extrapolation -> Cycle
  
  On 06/17/16 15:50, Michael Amasio wrote:


  Sorry, I lied
if the _expression_ is in the path percentage it should
  be


(Fc % 20) * 5   so it goes the whole 100 %
  
  
On Fri, Jun 17, 2016 at 12:49 PM,
  Michael Amasio 
  wrote:
  
If the speed of your camera along the path is
  linear, you could write a modulo _expression_
  
  
  like...
  
  
  frame current - modulo by - whatever the length of
frames is when you want it to repeat...
  
  
  i.e.
  
  
  Fc % 20   would repeat every 20 frames
  
  
  it works in the _expression_ editor...
  ...or just use ICE


  

  On Fri, Jun 17, 2016 at 9:30
AM, toonafish 
wrote:

  Maybe using a
spiral path with zero height instead of a circle
would work ?



  

   
- Ronald
  
  

  
  
  

  

  On 17 Jun 2016, at 17:49, Pierre
Schiller 
wrote:
  

  
  

  

  

  

  Hello, good day.
  
  I got a scene setup for a
  camara on a circle (path
  constrained) and I started
  the path at 16%.

So it ends on 100% but I
need 30 frames more to
finish the animation.

  
  Once path is reached at 100%,
  the following frame, I set the
  path on a linear interpolation
  on 0.22% keyframe and finish
  the age percentage value on
  16% to make a seamless loop.
  

My question is: Is there a way
to continually "loop" the path
percentage? .For example, if
they want me to add X number of
additional frames, but I´ve
already reached my 100% path,
how could I make it go "round
and round" the circle path?

  
  Thanks.
  

  

  

  

  -- 
  
Portfolio

Re: Rolling carpet rig?

[Jason S]

  
  
Hi Morten, how did the RollRug thing
  work?
  
  there is also PB_Bendset from Probiner which
  probably has more elaborate control.
  
      https://vimeo.com/138074155
  
      http://www.si-community.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=19=6054
  
      Files at: http://probiner.xyz/2015/09/02/pb_bendset/
  
  Cheers,
  J
  
  On 06/09/16 8:37, Morten Bartholdy wrote:


  I certainly think so - thanks Patrick :)

//Morten




  
Den 8. juni 2016 klokken 12:16 skrev patrick nethercoat :


could this be the one?

On 8 June 2016 at 10:51, Morten Bartholdy  wrote:



  I seem to recall having seen a tool or method for rigging and creating an
unrolling carpet somewhere along the line. I checked rray.de/xsi but
found nothing through a number of searches. Does anyone here remember this
one and where to find it?

Thanks - Morten
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Re: Anybody still using mental ray?

[Jason S]

  
  
IMO, what mainly hindered MR was
  reliable light transport (in animation) which is essential for
  realistic renders, and where FG can be difficult.
  
  Something which also hinders Redshift to an extent, but the tricks
  used to circumvent flickering  (similar to VRay such as
  pre-rendering 1 frame with super long motion blur running the
  entire length of the sequence while writing light cache points in
  one lightcache file ) 
  ... can be less of big thing to manage, but which is still is a
  thing to manage especially with deforming geometry... but which is
  also offset by the fact that Redshift is just so fast.
  
  And I think the main advantage of Arnold is that it's just as
  flexible as MR (which is otherwise also very flexible) but with
  much better chances of fully lit renders being right the first
  time, which despite render-times themselves being longer
  (especially for interiors),  would still eventually finish, being
  still somewhat faster than other pure raytracers 
  (Though vray pathtracing supposedly got faster, but don't know by
  how much)
  
  Also for Redshift , while it's not as 'flexible' as Arnold or MR,
  it's still quite flexible while continuing to improve there,
  particularly for Store in Channel nodes which is great! :)
  
  Otherwise, any of these renderers mostly made their way, and are
  arguably still best handled in the RenderTree, traditionally
  because of it's interface (now more or less everywhere), but still
  because of on the fly compounding and other things (like
  reliability) that greately ease authoring of more elaborate shader
  networks.
  
  
  On 06/01/16 5:05, Juhani Karlsson wrote:


  The quality of Softimage productions stood out with
Arnold and it was for me clear moment when Softimage actually
became great for rendering. For many years MR was the bottleneck
imo.
Other products had plenty of more capable third party renderers
at the time. Now everyone is doing more or less similar stuff so
it dosen`t matter that much.


- J
  
  
On 1 June 2016 at 11:48, Morten
  Bartholdy 
  wrote:
  I
understand what you are saying Matt about learnign how to
properly use tools beore complaining, but I am one of those
who have used MR extensively in production for animation all
the way back from when it was released for Softimage 3D and
onwards, ie. many, many years. I had to learn how to use it
in depth to get what I wanted, and the last years I used it
I really hated it for wasting so much of my time with
technical issues.

It was a blessing for Softimage 3D (having used the old
built-in raytracer since 1992) and it continued for quite a
while to be a strong player in the field until Mental Images
somehow managed to drop the ball.

I would say it is (still) a very good renderer for still
frames - great integration with XSI and lots of good shaders
and utilities. They never manged to make Final Gathering
really good for animation though, and GI was just plainly a
pain to use. FG combined with motionblur and DOF is pretty
much not possible for production in MR. I can't even begin
to count the hours I have spent trying to fix stuff that
would not render properly, crash, render with ugly
artifacts, or find some sort of workaround for issues caused
by MR, and then all the layers I have had to create to make
useful motion vector passes for scene with a lot of depth
and stuff in them.

I hated MR for years, found some relief in 3Delight along
the way and found Arnold absolutely liberating, making it
fun again to shade, light and render stuff, not looking back
once.

Nowadays with offerings like Arnold, Redshift and several
others (Vray I consider a bastard halfway between the bliss
of Arnold and the dragging mess of Mental Ray) I would never
consider using Mental Ray except perhaps for baking
textures, because those tools really work well and Solid
Angle never really gave it much attention.

All this said, I think a lot of users out there still use
Mental Ray effectively and I consider anything that can
strengthen the XSI community valuable, so by all means
release your stuff.

My two cents - peace
Morten


  

Re: Autokey while playback

[Jason S]

  
  
Hum, Perhaps it's also a GPU thing.  Or
  perhaps it works, but when the mouse is released that a keyframe
  is created during playback? Or does it create consecutive
  keyframes -while- a slider is being dragged (without ever
  releasing mouse) ?
  
  (would be awesome if so :-] ) 
  
  
  On 05/16/16 18:59, Sven Constable wrote:


  
  
  
  
Here
are screenshots of the prefs I'm using:
www.imagefront.de/tmp/playback_prefs.jpg
 
 

  
From:
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On
  Behalf Of Sven Constable
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2016 12:41 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: Autokey while playback
  

 
I
did a few tests and changed most of the prefs in the
playback option, playback preferences and global preferences
back and forth  but it remains working. So, yes, autokey
during playback works here (it creates keyframes for every
parameter changed, no matter if its sliders or interactive
transforms . I'm on SI2015 SP2. I have no idea why it should
not work. Afaik it was always like that.
 
 

  
From:
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
On Behalf Of Jason S
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2016 12:12 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: Autokey while playback
  

 

  Hum! perhaps there is another pref that
may affect it?

So it creates a key every frame while playback as you do
transforms (or slider changes) ?


On 05/16/16 17:43, Sven Constable wrote:


  Yes,
  autokey while playing works here. With transformations as
  well as other keyable parameters.
  sven

   
  

  From:
  softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
  [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
  On Behalf Of Jason S
  Sent: Monday, May 16, 2016 10:52 PM
  To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
  Subject: Re: Autokey while playback

  
   
  
Hi,
  
  @Sven are you sure you got it working?  I may be wronng,
  but I don't think playback with transforms + autokey ever
  worked 
  (or was meant to work) to capture transform actions.
  
  @toonafish   Sorry for not posting sooner, but this also
  should work for recording viewport actions;
  http://www.si-community.com/community/viewtopic.php?p=53922#p53922
  
  Cheers,
  -J
  
  On 05/16/16 13:25, toonafish wrote:
  
  
Strange, can’t get it to work. But I
  used the Device Input thingy instead, it needs a little
  more work to setup, but gets the job done. 

   


  Thanks, Sven
  

  
 
  

  
   
  

  
On 16 May 2016, at 15:36, Sven
  Constable <sixsi_l...@imagefront.de>
  wrote:
  
   
  

  Works
  here in 2015. Make sure, the Autokey function
  is using 'on any value change'
  (Preferences/Animation)


   


  sven


   


  

  From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
  [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On
Behalf Of toonafish
  Sent: Monday,
  May 16, 2016 1:51 PM
  To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
  Subject: Autokey
  while pl

Re: Autokey while playback

[Jason S]

  
  
Hum! Okay,  perhaps I was thrown of
  because there has been 2 different addons for that, and as far as
  I know (perhaps because of a setting) making transforms while
  playback with autokey, created one keyframe on drag release, and
  then couldn't be moved as well as with anything already with
  keyframes.
  
  Good to know it's possible! It's a pretty neat feature (also for
  sliders!)
  
  On 05/16/16 18:41, Sven Constable wrote:


  
  
  
  
I
did a few tests and changed most of the prefs in the
playback option, playback preferences and global preferences
back and forth  but it remains working. So, yes, autokey
during playback works here (it creates keyframes for every
parameter changed, no matter if its sliders or interactive
transforms . I'm on SI2015 SP2. I have no idea why it should
not work. Afaik it was always like that.
 
 

  
From:
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On
  Behalf Of Jason S
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2016 12:12 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: Autokey while playback
  

 

  Hum! perhaps there is another pref that
may affect it?

So it creates a key every frame while playback as you do
transforms (or slider changes) ?


On 05/16/16 17:43, Sven Constable wrote:


  Yes,
  autokey while playing works here. With transformations as
  well as other keyable parameters.
  sven

   
  

  From:
  softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
  [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
  On Behalf Of Jason S
  Sent: Monday, May 16, 2016 10:52 PM
  To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
  Subject: Re: Autokey while playback

  
   
  
Hi,
  
  @Sven are you sure you got it working?  I may be wronng,
  but I don't think playback with transforms + autokey ever
  worked 
  (or was meant to work) to capture transform actions.
  
  @toonafish   Sorry for not posting sooner, but this also
  should work for recording viewport actions;
  http://www.si-community.com/community/viewtopic.php?p=53922#p53922
  
  Cheers,
  -J
  
  On 05/16/16 13:25, toonafish wrote:
  
  
Strange, can’t get it to work. But I
  used the Device Input thingy instead, it needs a little
  more work to setup, but gets the job done. 

   


  Thanks, Sven
  

  
 
  

  
   
  

  
On 16 May 2016, at 15:36, Sven
  Constable <sixsi_l...@imagefront.de>
  wrote:
  
   
  

  Works
  here in 2015. Make sure, the Autokey function
  is using 'on any value change'
  (Preferences/Animation)


   


  sven


   


  

  From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
  [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On
Behalf Of toonafish
  Sent: Monday,
  May 16, 2016 1:51 PM
  To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
  Subject: Autokey
  while playback

  


   


  I remember it being possible
to automatically set keyframes while playing the
animation by simply enabling autokey and
translating or rotating an 

Re: Autokey while playback

[Jason S]

  
  
Hum! perhaps there is another pref that
  may affect it?
  
  So it creates a key every frame while playback as you do
  transforms (or slider changes) ?
  
  
  On 05/16/16 17:43, Sven Constable wrote:


  
  
  
  
Yes,
autokey while playing works here. With transformations as
well as other keyable parameters.
sven

 

  
From:
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On
  Behalf Of Jason S
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2016 10:52 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: Autokey while playback
  

 

  Hi,

@Sven are you sure you got it working?  I may be wronng, but
I don't think playback with transforms + autokey ever worked

(or was meant to work) to capture transform actions.

@toonafish   Sorry for not posting sooner, but this also
should work for recording viewport actions;
http://www.si-community.com/community/viewtopic.php?p=53922#p53922

Cheers,
-J

On 05/16/16 13:25, toonafish wrote:


  Strange, can’t get it to work. But I used
the Device Input thingy instead, it needs a little more work
to setup, but gets the job done. 
  
 
  
  
Thanks, Sven

  

   

  

 

  

  On 16 May 2016, at 15:36, Sven
Constable <sixsi_l...@imagefront.de>
wrote:

 

  
Works
here in 2015. Make sure, the Autokey function is
using 'on any value change'
(Preferences/Animation)
  
  
 
  
  
sven
  
  
 
  
  

  
From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On
  Behalf Of toonafish
Sent: Monday,
May 16, 2016 1:51 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Autokey
while playback
  

  
  
 
  
  
I remember it being possible to
  automatically set keyframes while playing the
  animation by simply enabling autokey and
  translating or rotating an object in the viewport.
  But no matter what I try, it no longer seems to
  work. I only get a keyframe at the beginning and
  end of playback.
  
  

   

  
  

  Is it me, or is this feature
broken in SI 2015 ?


  
 
  


  
Thanks, Ronald
  
  

  

   

  

  
  
 
  

  
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Re: Autokey while playback

[Jason S]

  
  
Hi,
  
  @Sven are you sure you got it working?  I may be wronng, but I
  don't think playback with transforms + autokey ever worked 
  (or was meant to work) to capture transform actions.
  
  @toonafish   Sorry for not posting sooner, but this also should
  work for recording viewport actions;
  http://www.si-community.com/community/viewtopic.php?p=53922#p53922
  
  Cheers,
  -J
  
  On 05/16/16 13:25, toonafish wrote:


  
  Strange, can’t get it to work. But I used the Device Input thingy
  instead, it needs a little more work to setup, but gets the job
  done.
  
  
  Thanks, Sven

  


  



  
On 16 May 2016, at 15:36, Sven Constable 
  wrote:


  
Works
here in 2015. Make sure, the Autokey function is
using 'on any value change' (Preferences/Animation)
 
sven
 

  
From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of toonafish
Sent: Monday,
May 16, 2016 1:51 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Autokey
while playback
  

 
I
  remember it being possible to automatically set
  keyframes while playing the animation by simply
  enabling autokey and translating or rotating an object
  in the viewport. But no matter what I try, it no
  longer seems to work. I only get a keyframe at the
  beginning and end of playback.

   


  Is
it me, or is this feature broken in SI 2015 ?
  
 
  
  
Thanks, Ronald

  

   

  

 
  

  
  --
  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: Change object visibility with another object?

[Jason S]

  
  

  On 05/12/16 14:38, Olivier Jeannel wrote:
  
[...] a bit like the POLY ones, but for islands.
  It is using Julian Johnson JJ_Islands.
  It's a dozen time faster than the Create Instances for
Islands.

  
  
  Just a reminder of what POLY is -> https://vimeo.com/147899293
  
  Sounds awesome & congratz!
  
  
  On 05/12/16 14:38, Olivier Jeannel wrote:


  if you want to manipulate islands, I made a set of
ice nodes, a bit like the POLY ones, but for islands.
It is using Julian Johnson JJ_Islands.
It's a dozen time faster than the Create Instances for
  Islands.
  
  
On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 5:12 PM, Jason
      S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>
  wrote:
  
 Hi sorry if
  double-posting but I didnt see it show up, (also more
  links at the end)
  
  from Em-Tools Compound Descriptions ;
  (any of these may be useful, but check especially the
  marked link.)
  

  

  
Vertex Islands

Initialize Island Data

Initializes the vertex island data.
An example on how to use this compound can
be found here:
emTopolizer 1.00 Tutorial
  03 - Vertex Islands
 
 

Create Particles from Island Centers
Creates one particle for each island
center.
An example on how to use this compound can
be found here:    
emTopolizer 1.00 Tutorial
  03 - Vertex Islands  


<--- Check this
link,  also @ 5;50  builds a simple tree
from scratch

  

Transform Islands
Transforms the vertex islands.
An example on how to use this compound can
be found here:
emTopolizer 1.00 Tutorial
  03 - Vertex Islands
  


Getters
A bunch of compounds to get diverse
island related data.
The compounds are self-explanatory.


  
  

  



  
  Also perhaps even yet easier, from MotionTools Doc
  

  

  

  Controling Polygons and Polygon Islands 
  There are some special cases, in
  Motion Tools, that deviate from the basic
  setup. We stumble upon such cases when you
  want to, for example, control polygon
  islands from a fracture object, or text
  object. Also, when we want to dice a
  object into many polygons and control
  those disconnected elements.
   
  For both this situations you can use
  the menu “ICE  >  Create  >  Motion
  Tools  >  Create Instances from Islands”
  and then choose the option that fits you
  best, either, “Use Exisiting Polygon
  Islands”, or, “Dice Polygons into Polygon
  Islands”.
  
  Both situations will yeld a similiar
  setup that we can describe this way.
  Firstly the object in which the Polygon
  Islands exist (or in which the polygons
  will be sliced into Polygon Islands)
  receives a ICETree that looks like this:
  
  
  

Re: Change object visibility with another object?

[Jason S]

No prob, and thanks to Nono for anther excellent solution!

-J

On 05/13/16 10:46, Morten Bartholdy wrote:
> This works really fine - thanks a lot Noel!
>
> Incidentally I tried a different method using Andy Moorers 
> emit_instances_matched_to_master_srts.1.2 compound which also does the trick, 
> but your method taught me some more ICE, so I am much obliged :-)
>
> //Morten
>
>
>
>
>> Den 13. maj 2016 klokken 13:51 skrev Nono <nnois...@gmail.com>:
>>
>>
>> Here's a screenshot,
>>
>> This was you just need a "delete particle by volume" and you're done
>>
>> [image: Inline images 1]
>>
>> On 12 May 2016 at 21:12, Nono <nnois...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Morten,
>>> This super simple, you juste have to group your object and use that group
>>> to feed an ice tree who generate a point cloud with the very same object
>>> but this time in instance shapes.
>>> You get the point position of the group, then you get the instance shape.
>>>  From that you just have to kill the particle by volume or similar ;-)
>>>
>>> With that technique you just have to populate the group to make them
>>> automatically animated, plus you're not limited by just killing particles
>>> you can make thinks sizing or moving.
>>>
>>> Hopes you can figure out the Ice tree by yourself because i don't have an
>>> easy access to soft anymore on OSX... maybe i can post it this week-end.
>>>
>>> Noël
>>>
>>> On 12 May 2016 at 20:38, Olivier Jeannel <facialdel...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> if you want to manipulate islands, I made a set of ice nodes, a bit like
>>>> the POLY ones, but for islands.
>>>> It is using Julian Johnson JJ_Islands.
>>>> It's a dozen time faster than the Create Instances for Islands.
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 5:12 PM, Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi sorry if double-posting but I didnt see it show up, (also more links
>>>>> at the end)
>>>>>
>>>>> from Em-Tools Compound Descriptions
>>>>> <http://www.mootzoid.com/learning/emTools/documentation/v_emTools> ;
>>>>> (any of these may be useful, but check especially the marked link.)
>>>>> Vertex Islands Initialize Island Data
>>>>>
>>>>> Initializes the vertex island data.
>>>>> An example on how to use this compound can be found here:
>>>>> emTopolizer 1.00 Tutorial 03 - Vertex Islands
>>>>> <http://vimeo.com/50751483>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Create Particles from Island Centers
>>>>>
>>>>> Creates one particle for each island center.
>>>>> An example on how to use this compound can be found here:
>>>>> emTopolizer 1.00 Tutorial 03 - Vertex Islands
>>>>> <http://vimeo.com/50751483>
>>>>>
>>>>> *<--- Check this link,  also @ 5;50  builds a simple tree from scratch *
>>>>> Transform Islands
>>>>>
>>>>> Transforms the vertex islands.
>>>>> An example on how to use this compound can be found here:
>>>>> emTopolizer 1.00 Tutorial 03 - Vertex Islands
>>>>>
>>>>> <http://vimeo.com/50751483>
>>>>> Getters
>>>>>
>>>>> A bunch of compounds to get diverse island related data.
>>>>> The compounds are self-explanatory.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Also perhaps even yet easier, from MotionTools Doc
>>>>> <http://www.gustavoeb.com.br/mtools/documentation/>
>>>>> Controling Polygons and Polygon Islands
>>>>>
>>>>> There are some special cases, in Motion Tools, that deviate from the
>>>>> basic setup. We stumble upon such cases when you want to, for example,
>>>>> control polygon islands from a fracture object, or text object. Also,
>>>>> when we want to dice a object into many polygons and control
>>>>> those disconnected elements.
>>>>>
>>>>> For both this situations you can use the menu “ICE  >  Create  >
>>>>>   Motion Tools  >  Create Instances from Islands” and then choose the
>>>>> option that fits you best, either, “Use Exisiting Polygon Islands”, or,
>>>>> “Dice Polygons into Polygon Islands”.

Re: Change object visibility with another object?

[Jason S]

  
  
    On 05/12/16 15:24, Jason S wrote:
      > Indeed, and it was also the first :-]
  
  Sorry, rather JJ_Islands was the first, (while wondering about
  your own implementation of it if you'd care to elaborate? :) )
  
  On 05/12/16 15:24, Jason S wrote:


  
  Indeed, and it was also the first :-]


On 05/12/16 14:38, Olivier Jeannel wrote:
  
  
if you want to manipulate islands, I made a set
  of ice nodes, a bit like the POLY ones, but for islands.
  It is using Julian Johnson JJ_Islands.
  It's a dozen time faster than the Create Instances for
Islands.


  On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 5:12 PM,
    Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>
wrote:

   Hi sorry if
double-posting but I didnt see it show up, (also more
links at the end)

from Em-Tools Compound Descriptions ;
(any of these may be useful, but check especially the
marked link.)

  

  

  Vertex Islands
  
  Initialize Island Data
  
  Initializes the vertex island data.
  An example on how to use this compound can
  be found here:
  emTopolizer 1.00
Tutorial 03 - Vertex Islands
   
   
  
  Create Particles from Island Centers
  Creates one particle for each island
  center.
  An example on how to use this compound can
  be found here:    
  emTopolizer 1.00
Tutorial 03 - Vertex Islands  



  <--- Check
  this link,  also @ 5;50  builds a
  simple tree from scratch
  

  
  Transform Islands
  Transforms the vertex islands.
  An example on how to use this compound can
  be found here:
  emTopolizer 1.00
Tutorial 03 - Vertex Islands

  
  
  Getters
  A bunch of compounds to get diverse
  island related data.
  The compounds are self-explanatory.
  
  


  

  
  
  

Also perhaps even yet easier, from MotionTools Doc

  

  

  
Controling Polygons and Polygon Islands

There are some special cases, in
Motion Tools, that deviate from the
basic setup. We stumble upon such cases
when you want to, for example, control
polygon islands from a fracture object,
or text object. Also, when we want to
dice a object into many polygons and
control those disconnected elements.
 
For both this situations you can
use the menu “ICE  >  Create  >
 Motion Tools  >  Create Instances
from Islands” and then choose the option
that fits you best, either, “Use
Exisiting Polygon Islands”, or, “Dice
Polygons into Polygon Islands”.

Both situations will yeld a
similiar setup that we can describe this
way. Firstly the object in which the
Polygon Islands exist (or in which the
   

Re: Change object visibility with another object?

[Jason S]

  
  
Indeed, and it was also the first :-]
  
  
  On 05/12/16 14:38, Olivier Jeannel wrote:


  if you want to manipulate islands, I made a set of
ice nodes, a bit like the POLY ones, but for islands.
It is using Julian Johnson JJ_Islands.
It's a dozen time faster than the Create Instances for
  Islands.
  
  
On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 5:12 PM, Jason
  S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>
  wrote:
  
 Hi sorry if
  double-posting but I didnt see it show up, (also more
  links at the end)
  
  from Em-Tools Compound Descriptions ;
  (any of these may be useful, but check especially the
  marked link.)
  

  

  
Vertex Islands

Initialize Island Data

Initializes the vertex island data.
An example on how to use this compound can
be found here:
emTopolizer 1.00 Tutorial
  03 - Vertex Islands
 
 

Create Particles from Island Centers
Creates one particle for each island
center.
An example on how to use this compound can
be found here:    
emTopolizer 1.00 Tutorial
  03 - Vertex Islands  


<--- Check this
link,  also @ 5;50  builds a simple tree
from scratch

  

Transform Islands
Transforms the vertex islands.
An example on how to use this compound can
be found here:
emTopolizer 1.00 Tutorial
  03 - Vertex Islands
  


Getters
A bunch of compounds to get diverse
island related data.
The compounds are self-explanatory.


  
  

  



  
  Also perhaps even yet easier, from MotionTools Doc
  

  

  

  Controling Polygons and Polygon Islands 
  There are some special cases, in
  Motion Tools, that deviate from the basic
  setup. We stumble upon such cases when you
  want to, for example, control polygon
  islands from a fracture object, or text
  object. Also, when we want to dice a
  object into many polygons and control
  those disconnected elements.
   
  For both this situations you can use
  the menu “ICE  >  Create  >  Motion
  Tools  >  Create Instances from Islands”
  and then choose the option that fits you
  best, either, “Use Exisiting Polygon
  Islands”, or, “Dice Polygons into Polygon
  Islands”.
  
  Both situations will yeld a similiar
  setup that we can describe this way.
  Firstly the object in which the Polygon
  Islands exist (or in which the polygons
  will be sliced into Polygon Islands)
  receives a ICETree that looks like this:
  
  
The ICETree is created at the
uppermost position of the Modeling Stack
In it you will find only one node
that geathers info about the geometry
This node works in two ways, it
either s

Re: Change object visibility with another object?

[Jason S]

; keep us posted!


  On 05/12/16 8:34, Morten Bartholdy wrote:


  That's a thought. Not too familiar with ICE and poly island stuff though.

//MB




  
Den 12. maj 2016 klokken 14:22 skrev Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>:


I think you could merge everything and have a particle per island, or a 
similar method to braking apart/fracturing objects.

Will fetch a few links later-on, but you can check out some of the 
em-tools for that purpose.


On 05/12/16 7:54, Morten Bartholdy wrote:


  Quick question: The idea is to build a house from the individual parts, inside and out, much like a timelapse shot, but you don't see stuff moving in to place, it just appears where it is supposed to be.

This will probably be many hundred if not thousands of parts, many of which can not be positioned with particles (which would be easy to reveal) so is there perhaps a way to take the content of a group and use as input for an ICE tree like this, so I don't have to set up an ICE tree for each part?

//Morten




  
Den 10. maj 2016 klokken 17:41 skrev Oscar Juarez <tridi.animei...@gmail.com>:


You could try something like this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/273cpq5dmdyj0kd/ice_vis.zip?dl=0

if any point is inside a volume the visibility get turns off. You could
play with averages and thresholds so it fits better to your needs.

On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 4:29 PM, Morten Bartholdy <x...@colorshopvfx.dk>
wrote:



  I would like to unhide a number of objects by animating a volume and as
the objects get to be inside that volume their visibility is set to 1.0.

I can do this for instance by setting an _expression_ on position on a
particular axis for the controlling object, but I don't know how to test if
the geometry is inside another one and if so set the visibility to 1.0

I know that in ICE I can test if polygons are inside a volume and get a
boolean value from that, but it is per polygon so I can't find a way to set
object visibility with these values.

Is there a simple way to do this either via expressions or in ICE?


Thanks - Morten
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Re: Change object visibility with another object?

[Jason S]

I think you could merge everything and have a particle per island, or a 
similar method to braking apart/fracturing objects.

Will fetch a few links later-on, but you can check out some of the 
em-tools for that purpose.


On 05/12/16 7:54, Morten Bartholdy wrote:
> Quick question: The idea is to build a house from the individual parts, 
> inside and out, much like a timelapse shot, but you don't see stuff moving in 
> to place, it just appears where it is supposed to be.
>
> This will probably be many hundred if not thousands of parts, many of which 
> can not be positioned with particles (which would be easy to reveal) so is 
> there perhaps a way to take the content of a group and use as input for an 
> ICE tree like this, so I don't have to set up an ICE tree for each part?
>
> //Morten
>
>
>
>> Den 10. maj 2016 klokken 17:41 skrev Oscar Juarez 
>> :
>>
>>
>> You could try something like this:
>>
>> https://www.dropbox.com/s/273cpq5dmdyj0kd/ice_vis.zip?dl=0
>>
>> if any point is inside a volume the visibility get turns off. You could
>> play with averages and thresholds so it fits better to your needs.
>>
>> On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 4:29 PM, Morten Bartholdy 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I would like to unhide a number of objects by animating a volume and as
>>> the objects get to be inside that volume their visibility is set to 1.0.
>>>
>>> I can do this for instance by setting an expression on position on a
>>> particular axis for the controlling object, but I don't know how to test if
>>> the geometry is inside another one and if so set the visibility to 1.0
>>>
>>> I know that in ICE I can test if polygons are inside a volume and get a
>>> boolean value from that, but it is per polygon so I can't find a way to set
>>> object visibility with these values.
>>>
>>> Is there a simple way to do this either via expressions or in ICE?
>>>
>>>
>>> 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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Re: Is there a well know workflow to have deformers drive/blendnicely with Syflex?

[Jason S]

  
  
Like the story of life  :P
  
  On 05/12/16 7:36, pedro santos wrote:


  First time using Syflex, so after that fact clicked
much simpler to get to what I wanted, yes! Some wasted time on
the way, though.

Cheers
  
On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 12:21 PM,
  Olivier Jeannel 
  wrote:
  
this was ...simple in the end ?
  
  


  

  On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 12:46
PM, pedro santos 
wrote:

  Just to conclude for any late
readers. Constrains need some value in distance
so the weight map does. Until this clicked it
was a bit annoying. Going through the old
operator documentation helped :)



Cheers
  

  
On Mon, May 9, 2016
  at 3:17 PM, pedro santos 
  wrote:
  
@Olivier The
  interpolation I was looking for was
  more in terms of "influence" as a
  force and not of the point positions
  as I do that with the Delta Mush, but
  I'll give it another try on that
  front. Thanks.
  
  @Paul Will give that a stab as ICE one
  is stabbing me.
  
  Cheers
  

  
On Mon,
  May 9, 2016 at 9:53 AM, 
  wrote:
  

  

  One thing I’d say
about Syflex is that
the original non ICE
version, produces
far better results
in general than the
ICE one, especially
when using things
like Pinning. Its a
totally different
and more complex /
interesting result.
  
  Worth trying to
see the difference
anyway.
  

   
  
From:
  Olivier
  Jeannel 
Sent:
  Monday, May
  09, 2016 8:51
  AM
To:
  softimage@listproc.autodesk.com 
Subject:
  Re: Is there a
  well know
  workflow to
  have deformers
  drive/blendnicely
  with Syflex?
   

Re: Change object visibility with another object?

[Jason S]

  
  
    On 05/11/16 16:55, Jason S wrote:
      > I guess this can be used to just as easily toggle or set
  anything by volume?
      > (which is cool :) )
  
  Or toggle/set anything by any testable condition :)
  
  
  On 05/11/16 16:55, Jason S wrote:


  
          On Tue,
  May 10, 2016 at 5:41 PM, Oscar Juarez <tridi.animei...@gmail.com>
  wrote:
          if any point is inside a volume the visibility get
  turns off. 
          You could play with averages and thresholds so it fits
  better to your needs.

I guess this can be used to just as easily toggle or set
anything by volume?
(which is cool :) )



On 05/10/16 11:42, Oscar Juarez wrote:
  
  
In my example scene, move the cube by the way.

  On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 5:41 PM,
Oscar Juarez <tridi.animei...@gmail.com>
wrote:

  You could try something like this:


https://www.dropbox.com/s/273cpq5dmdyj0kd/ice_vis.zip?dl=0



if any point is inside a volume the visibility get
  turns off. You could play with averages and thresholds
  so it fits better to your needs.
  
  

  
On Tue, May 10, 2016 at
  4:29 PM, Morten Bartholdy <x...@colorshopvfx.dk>
  wrote:
  I would like to unhide a
number of objects by animating a volume and as
the objects get to be inside that volume their
visibility is set to 1.0.

I can do this for instance by setting an
_expression_ on position on a particular axis for
the controlling object, but I don't know how to
test if the geometry is inside another one and
if so set the visibility to 1.0

I know that in ICE I can test if polygons are
inside a volume and get a boolean value from
that, but it is per polygon so I can't find a
way to set object visibility with these values.

Is there a simple way to do this either via
expressions or in ICE?


Thanks - Morten
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Re: Change object visibility with another object?

[Jason S]

  
  
        On Tue,
May 10, 2016 at 5:41 PM, Oscar Juarez 
wrote:
        if any point is inside a volume the visibility get turns
off. 
        You could play with averages and thresholds so it fits
better to your needs.
  
  I guess this can be used to just as easily toggle or set anything
  by volume?
  (which is cool :) )
  
  On 05/10/16 11:42, Oscar Juarez wrote:


  In my example scene, move the cube by the way.
  
On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 5:41 PM, Oscar
  Juarez 
  wrote:
  
You could try something like this:
  
  
  https://www.dropbox.com/s/273cpq5dmdyj0kd/ice_vis.zip?dl=0
  
  
  
  if any point is inside a volume the visibility get
turns off. You could play with averages and thresholds
so it fits better to your needs.


  

  On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 4:29
PM, Morten Bartholdy 
wrote:
I
  would like to unhide a number of objects by
  animating a volume and as the objects get to be
  inside that volume their visibility is set to 1.0.
  
  I can do this for instance by setting an
  _expression_ on position on a particular axis for
  the controlling object, but I don't know how to
  test if the geometry is inside another one and if
  so set the visibility to 1.0
  
  I know that in ICE I can test if polygons are
  inside a volume and get a boolean value from that,
  but it is per polygon so I can't find a way to set
  object visibility with these values.
  
  Is there a simple way to do this either via
  expressions or in ICE?
  
  
  Thanks - Morten
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Re: OT: Don´t you just Aghh-moment now, when they see something we *had* been using on SI?

[Jason S]

On Thursday, May 5, 2016 16:18:08, Olivier Jeannel wrote:
> What's the point of beeing right if you're alone ? Better be an idiot.

Well if you were right, you would not be alone. But indeed ignorance can 
be bliss.


On Thursday, May 5, 2016 16:18:08, Olivier Jeannel wrote:
>
> Well sorry, I was a little harsh in my previous message.
> I do struggle with arrays, but I like it.
> Ice just opened my eyes in terms of what 3d , geometry, math behave
> together.
> It just kills me that people who choose to use "this" or "that"
> software have an opinion without knowing nothing.
> And the hardest is that in the end, I'm the one beeing wrong because
> xsi just doesn't exit anymore.
> What's the point of beeing right if you're alone ? Better be an idiot.
>
> Le 5 mai 2016 21:09, "Martin"  > a écrit :
>
> Modelers that don't have an idea of what a variable or an array
> is, animators who can't rig or script, that's what I call an
> average user.
>
> Generalists with technical knowledge (including ICE) isn't your
> average user in any package. Most of the designers I know are
> specialists who don't use or even need ICE.
>
> I consider that you can't use Maya comfortably and to its
> potential if you don't have a minimum knowledge of Mel or Python,
> but the reality is that most Maya users can't script.
>
> I'd say that besides technical people, riggers or VFX specialists,
> only generalists that are usually involved in vfx or rigging have
> a decent knowledge of ICE.
>
> I don't have numbers but I'm pretty sure most SI users don't use
> ICE directly. Personally I rarely use it at all.
>
> Most of the projects (games) I've been involved in, have been done
> with SI 2011 and previous versions so ICE wasn't very useful for
> modeling until recently when I finally get to use SI 2013 and 2014
> and that's because I also view some technical parts of our
> projects and use ICE in some of our tools.
>
> And that's how it is in the game industry here in Japan. Sadly, it
> is very probably that SI 2015 won't be used at all. And most SI
> users won't learn ICE before learning basic Maya, or Max, or Modo,
> or any other tool that isn't EOL.
>
> Martin
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>
> On 2016/05/05, at 13:59, Pierre Schiller
>  > wrote:
>
>>
>> By average you mean "with more than 5+ years" on softimage, or
>> UNDER -5 years? Because ICE was long due before that time.
>> :)
>>
>> On Wed, May 4, 2016 at 11:45 PM, Martin > > wrote:
>>
>> But honestly, the Modo feature looks cool. I'd like to have
>> that in Maya.
>>
>> And to be fair, your average SI user doesn't know what an
>> array is, just like the average Maya, Modo, Max, etc. user.
>>
>> Martin
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On 2016/05/05, at 1:18, Pierre Schiller
>> > > wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Good day. I came across this:
>>> https://vimeo.com/162972719
>>>
>>> That´s a
>>> "Wait-a-minute-we-had-that-feature-for-years-before-in-softimage"
>>> moment.
>>>
>>> Had Softimage been exposed in such way in the past, will
>>> those features still be jaw opening to this generation
>>> users? Don´t think so.
>>>
>>> This is how much AD kept SI word silent, so now other
>>> packages will show "future".
>>>
>>> All SI users know procedural modeling has been going on for
>>> years on ICE.
>>>
>>> Dang. Another stab on the heartIMHO.
>>>
>>> Cheers?
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Portfolio 2013 
>>> Cinema & TV production
>>> Video Reel 
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Re: OT: Don´t you just Aghh-moment now, when they see something we *had* been using on SI?

[Jason S]

  
  
Maybe I missed something, but Gustavo's
  MotionTools (done using ICE building blocks) essentially does all
  that Mash does  up to the most "advanced" functions like anim clip
  instancing with time offsets  (and actually quite a bit more )..
  except "nodes" in Mash are series of tabs and without the rest of
  ICE.
  (ICE: Building blocks that can visually make things like "Mash"
  (or other things) and expand on it .. with ICE.)
  
  And without new Modo-like construction stack.. which is
  essentially XSI like.
  
  Or without the host of bigger and smaller (but less superficial)
  things that made/->makes SI so workable (other than individual
  features, or *all the way up to it's ObjectModel core*)
  
  Otherwise you can bet that with Bifrost and now Mash, is as far as
  ICE is going to make-it into Maya among other (more or less
  superficial) reproductions... (like new! blendshape workflow, new!
  snap transforms, new! Passes, new!.. New I tell you ! )
  
  Look Soft is in Maya!  hum.. to a large extent, that would involve
  an entirely new (different) software, but no doubt these things
  make Maya better than it was, as now the only software in VFX
  shops, except the question remains, where is XSI? 
  
  Or is there like a very straight forward (to the core) while
  equally advanced,  or like a very high fidelity C4d, Maya, Houdini
  Hybrid? Because something like that is still mostly missing, and
  that was (is) Softimage.
  
  
  On 05/04/16 14:26, Olivier Jeannel wrote:


  I don't want to click on that link, sorry.
I can't stand morrons anymore that work on maya or max with that
"i know all" face, looking at you with round eyes when when you
say "I do all in xsi ice".
They just skip away when you work on a big fat ice tree. 
They are thousands thinking that maya and max are 3d software,
while softimage and houdini are something else (they sure have
an opinion on it).
Frankly now I laugh when I see some vimeo of someone demoing a
script in max... 
-"Nope dude, nope you can't be fast dealing with one thousand of
islands if you do a repeat. Gotta work with arrays, too bad they
are not exposed in your super software."
-"Sorry, you don't know what arrays are for ? Well you use them
everyday, you just don't know what you're doing.
But hey, every body is using "your" software, so there must be a
reason, and my experience is wrong..."
-"what's a normal ?"
-"yup, a blue arrow..."
  Le 4 mai 2016 19:33, "Tim Crowson" 
a écrit :

  I was on the early alpha
team for Modo's procedural stuff. I can't think of anyone
then, or now, who thought of this as something new from "the
future." There was a constant echo back to ICE, Houdini,
Max, C4D even.

I'd rather have the functionality than not have it, but it
still is far from what ICE can do.

That's a separate issue from AD's killing off brilliant
tech, though. There is a lot more than ICE in Soft that runs
circles around others.

Tim
  
On Wed, May 4, 2016 at 9:57 AM,
  Tenshi . 
  wrote:
  

  I have to agree. That's just only one example. AD
lie all the time and hide SI to the point people
THINK it was very basic app. I hate when people tell
me "you can do that in Softimage?? I can do that in
Maya very easy" and i'm like "wtf dude.. are you
nuts? Just shut the f... up! Your blind. SI can do
this since Methuselah".   

pissed me off all the time...
  


  

  On Wed, May 4, 2016 at 11:18 AM, Pierre
Schiller 
wrote:
  


  

  

  

  

  Good day. I came across this:
https://vimeo.com/162972719

  
  That´s a
  

Re: Autodesk acquires Solid Angle

[Jason S]

favor, only
  because.. whatever Autodesk says...
  
  Best,
  -J
  
  On 04/21/16 5:26, Matt Lind wrote:


  Don't put words in my mouth, Jason.

I never said XSI was on death row, I said it was viable with a small 
cushion, but long term it's fate was already determined from the miscues 
which occurred during the Sumatra release, and further exacerbated from 
later misreads and missteps in the market such as raising prices when 
everybody was dropping prices.

As for your assessment, your analysis is flawed.

I don’t' know where you got the XSIBase numbers considering the site has 
been offline for years.  In any event, I don't consider those numbers very 
valid, but for the sake of argument I'll go with it.

According to your numbers, 2007 was the peak with 275 jobs available.  It 
was followed in 2008 with a ~40% drop to 168 jobs - the biggest 
year-over-year change in the entire data set.  You point out ICE was 
released in 2008, which is true, but that didn't happen until August at 
Siggraph.  You pointed out Autodesk bought Softimage in 2008, which is also 
true, but that wasn't announced until October.  So, by your assessment, 40% 
of the annual jobs were lost in the months October, November, and December 
of 2008 because people dropped usage of Softimage overnight upon the 
announcement of the acquisition?  I don't buy that - here's why:

Let's assume 2008 was on the same pace as 2007 even though the trend in 
prior years was ascending.  With simple arithmetic 275 / 12 = 22.91 --> ~23 
jobs per month available.  3 x 23 = 69 jobs lost during last 3 months of 
2008.  275 - 69 = 206 jobs for 2008 if Autodesk were the driving factor for 
the reduction.  OK, but that still leaves 38 jobs unaccounted for (206 - 168 
= 38).

So what happened to cause the numbers to drop significantly in 2008? 
Hmmmlet me think...Oh, that's right, XSI v6.0 was released on the last 
day in 2006 (call it 2007) - the biggest lemon and disaster in XSI's 
history.  Granted, cause of the problem was a screw-up at Avid HQ 
erroneously divulging a release when one wasn't planned forcing the team to 
put humpty dumpty together again in an insanely short time, but the damage 
was done.  It required several service packs on short order to bail all the 
water out, and for many customers, like my company, we literally could not 
function on XSI 6.x with all it's bugs and corruptions, and the service 
packs often made things worse.  Our production almost shut down because of 
it.  We didn't get any relief until XSI 7.5 was released 18 months later in 
March 2008.  I think that's a better cause/effect explanation for the drop 
in jobs -  customers were turned off by the instability and irresponsibility 
of a company claiming to be a market leader making such a release.  Autodesk 
and co. added their 2 cents later and certainly didn't help matters, but 
they weren't the driving force.  If it weren't for ICE, Softimage would've 
been dead a lot sooner.


Matt




Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2016 21:01:30 -0400
From: Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Autodesk acquires Solid Angle
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com


On 04/20/16 7:27, Matt Lind wrote:

  
The couple of versions of extra dev was just the benefit of having the 
larger
staff for a short period of time.

You can look at Softimage's market share any way you like, but it all 
comes
back to they dropped the ball with 'Sumatra'.

  
  So it was already on death row?

Soft may not have had the largest userbase, but despite it's previous 
growing pains, it was not only doing just fine, (because it was pretty good) 
it was climbing up t'il 2007-08 regardless of how avid was doing  ... All 
until ICE came.

2003  90
2004  145

2005 160

2006  198
  2007 275


2008  168  <--  ICE
  2009  119
2010  109
2011  62
  2012   26

I-I-I-C-C-C-E!

(wait. what came practically at the same time as ICE?)

Today it's less of everything that's awkward about both Maya and 3ds, (now 
with passes? Match transforms? UV Unwrap tools?)
and it seems that it's to an extent because of the missing third,  but I 
wouldn't say that it exactly makes-up for it, and would qualify it as 
largely still missing for what it had going for it most.

But whatever now. 

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Re: Autodesk acquires Solid Angle

[Jason S]

  
  

** The 2003-2012 list was XSIBase job post count.


  On 04/20/16 20:45, Jason S wrote:


  
  

  

  On 04/20/16 7:27, Matt Lind wrote:
The couple of versions of extra dev was just the benefit of having the larger 
staff for a short period of time.

You can look at Softimage's market share any way you like, but it all comes 
back to they dropped the ball with 'Sumatra'.

  

  


So it was already on death row?

Soft may not have had the largest userbase, but despite it's
previous growing pains, it was not only doing just fine,
(because it was pretty good) it was climbing up t'il 2007-08
regardless of how avid was doing  ... All until ICE came.

 2003  90
   2004  145
 2005 160

   2006  198
   2007



  275
  
  
 2008  168  <--  ICE
   2009  119  
 2010  109  
 2011  62   
    

 2012   26    

I-I-I-C-C-C-E!

(wait. what came practically at the same time as ICE?)

Today it's less of everything that's awkward about both Maya and
3ds, (now with passes? Match transforms? UV Unwrap tools?)
and it seems that it's to an extent because of the missing
third,  but I wouldn't say that it exactly makes-up for it, and
would qualify it as largely still missing for what it had going
for it most.

But whatever now.



On 04/20/16 7:27, Matt Lind wrote:
  
  
Just speculation on my part, but I think the hiring of the Singapore team 
was made after the decision to send Softimage into maintenance mode.  The 
Montreal and Singapore teams co-existed as a means to get the Singapore team 
up to speed with the nuances of the application as Softimage was built with 
a lot of legacy and technology which wasn't terribly common anymore.  The 
couple of versions of extra dev was just the benefit of having the larger 
staff for a short period of time.

You can look at Softimage's market share any way you like, but it all comes 
back to they dropped the ball with 'Sumatra'.  While there were many valiant 
attempts to get back in the game, once studios backed Maya with a two year 
head start, it was really difficult to get any penetration as pipelines and 
working relationships with outsourcing had already been firmly established. 
Typically companies on the block spend a lot of money to promote themselves 
very actively to be attractive to a buyer.  Development of ICE and all the 
hype with it was largely a necessity and, quite frankly, a last ditch effort 
to get back into the game as they were otherwise on a slow ride into the 
sunset.  ICE helped change that for a while, until Autodesk bought them.

Softimage under Autodesk was, if you read the acquisition press release 
between the lines, to obtain the Softimage developers, not to obtain the 
product.  Marc Petit was the former head of R+D at Softimage for project 
Sumatra, so there was some old connections there to make it happen, and 
Softimage stayed an active product as long as he was head of Autodesk Media 
and Entertainment, but when he stepped down a few years ago, new management 
came in and that's when the decision to terminate Softimage got traction. 
So here we are.

Softimage had enough market share to remain viable, but not a whole lot of 
cushion above that.  When I used to run Mantom in the early 2000's, my phone 
used to ring quite regularly for training requests and momentum was 
building.  But after XSI v3.0 was shipped and the decision to raise it's 
price tag with it while Maya dropped their prices to halfliterally 
overnight my phone stopped ringing.  Regardless of what sales numbers 
employees would cite, the truth is finding work using Softimage was on a 
long slow decline for a very long time.  I saw it first in the educational 
channel as my part time gigs would slowly dry up from declining enrollment, 
followed by declining opportunities for freelance work.  Some would argue 
Autodesk killed Softimage with mis-handling of marketing.  While it's true 
they did a poor job with the resources they had, reality is even if they had 
done it right, the product had limited life.

Shotgun is a different beast entirely.  that acquisition is post Marc Petit 
and therefore really shouldn't be compared to Softimage, Mudbox, or other 
earlier acquisitions in terms of management of the product.  Marc Stevens is 
running that sector now, and from a distant vantage point where I sit, it 
appears things are going to be run in similar manner to when he was GM at 
Softimage/Avid.  Lots of independent projects with each target

Re: Autodesk acquires Solid Angle

[Jason S]

ons are costs of buying products and lack of interoperability 
between them in seamless fashion, as well as the duplication of staff 
performing similar functions at the different companies.  Reduction of staff 
and merging operations is only one recession away - it's like a pendulum.

That said, I think Solid Angle will likely be run autonomously like 
Softimage|CAT or Face Robot.  Products which hit specific needs and don't 
necessarily fold into the larger company portfolio seamlessly.

Matt



Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2016 11:04:44 +0200
From: Olivier Jeannel <facialdel...@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Autodesk acquires Solid Angle
To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com"

Well, if you remember it was the same profile for Ice.
They had that supa-crew of ice developpers that gave us 2 or 3 generations
of true big ice improvements (crowd, ice modeling, Build array from set,
etc..)
Then there was that moment when they fired a big part of the crew, saying
that "everything will be the same", "you don't have to worry" shit, and
then turned off the light 2 years later.

But that's just me beeing negative...

On Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 10:49 AM, Graham Bell <bell...@gmail.com> wrote:


  
We use Shotgun here and the general perception is that the development
pace has appeared to slow since the acquisition. There has been updates 
and
some nice stuff, but at the same time larger chunks that seem to be still
pending.

>From a brand view AD might keep SA/Arnold separate in the same way Shotgun
is, but behind the scenes it might be different.

Personally, I'm surprised it took them this long to get it announced. ;-)

On Tue, Apr 19, 2016 at 11:15 PM Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com> wrote:



  

Indeed shotgun is one (of quite few out of -many-) packages that wasn't
seriously compromised post acquisition, which is probably why shotgun is
pasted all over Arnold press release, and I too wouldnt be surprised if 
it
was one of those few, yet many would argue that shotgun barely
(significantly) changed since it was purchased, and moslty relies on the
fact that it's quite complete as it is (perhaps not unlike SI).

But there remains a good chance (if not a probability) that efforts on
Arnold would be mostly be around what the parent company is after, or 
what
the buzzword of the day may be at a given time, in this case "cloud", and
for the rest to be slowly moved to the back simply by not touching it, 
and
thus becoming like the next MentalRay.

In either case it could then be considered as "just" another casualty.


On 04/18/16 18:55, Steven Caron wrote:

I tried to touch on this with the last sentence in my reply. Their
decision axe Softimage seemed irrational to us because we are emotional 
but
if you reduce it to numbers, it made sense. It is a truth I don't like to
admit but it is a fact that Maya and Max user numbers are just higher, so
of course you axe Softimage and consolidate the dev teams.

Others have touched on it, here and on the Arnold mailing lists... This
case is different because they don't have 3 competing renderers now, they
have at most two (ART in Max). Softimage wasn't a plugin for 7 different
softwares, it wasn't 'agnostic' in the same way Arnold is. Since the
Softimage purchase and axing, AD has bought Shotgun. This is an example 
of
AD staying out of way and more value being brought to the product
(additional access to RV). These are reasons why I think this case is 
going
to be different.

I am cautiously optimistic though, in 2 years or so we will see for
certain.

On Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 3:29 PM, Artur W <artur.w...@gmail.com> wrote:


  
Many AD corporate decisions seem irrational and strange to us.
Why should this case be any different?

I truly wish everything would go as we wanted. Constant progress and
development of Arnold. 

  

  
  
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Re: Autodesk acquires Solid Angle

[Jason S]

  
  

  

  

  On 04/18/16 18:55,
  Steven Caron wrote:
  Their decision axe Softimage seemed irrational to us
  because we are emotional but if you reduce it to
  numbers, it made sense.
  

  

(right...)


  

  It is a truth I
  don't like to admit but it is a fact that Maya and Max
  user numbers are just higher, 
  so of course you axe Softimage and consolidate the dev
  teams. 

  

Of course!

  Soft userbase wasn't humongous (entirely relatively speaking
  which is I think is my point) 
  in it's rather niche segment perhaps like Houdini proportions
  relative to Maya, or even Maya is relative to 3DS. 
  
  But you can't purge something like Houdini (or Softimage) from
  existance, on the premise that it's market was smaller, and
  not leave a huuge gaping hole, in what a main package (in it's
  niche segment) may have provided in terms of advantages, which
  despite "softimagization" of other products including tweak
  tools, shader trees, ... to this day remains not just  a bit
  unique in it's main qualities. (not just concerning ICE)
  
  

  

  Others have touched on it,
  here and on the Arnold mailing lists... This case
  is different because they don't have 3 competing
  renderers now, they have at most two (ART in Max).
  Softimage wasn't a plugin for 7 different
  softwares, it wasn't 'agnostic' in the same way
  Arnold is. Since the Softimage purchase and axing,
  AD has bought Shotgun. 
  
  This is an example of AD staying out of way and
  more value being brought to the product
  (additional access to RV). These are reasons why I
  think this case is going to be different.
  
  
  

  
  
  I am cautiously optimistic
  though, in 2 years or so we will see for certain.

  

  
  

Indeed shotgun is one (of quite few out of -many-) packages that
wasn't seriously compromised post acquisition, which is probably
why shotgun is pasted all over Arnold press release, and I too
wouldnt be surprised if it was one of those few, yet many would
argue that shotgun barely (significantly) changed since it was
purchased, and moslty relies on the fact that it's quite
complete as it is (perhaps not unlike SI). 

But there remains a good chance (if not a probability) that
efforts on Arnold would be mostly be around what the parent
company is after, or what the buzzword of the day may be at a
given time, in this case "cloud", and for the rest to be slowly
moved to the back simply by not touching it, and thus becoming
like the next MentalRay.

In either case it could then be considered as "just" another
casualty.


  
  On 04/18/16 18:55, Steven Caron wrote:


  I tried to touch on this with the last sentence in
my reply. Their decision axe Softimage seemed irrational to us
because we are emotional but if you reduce it to numbers, it
made sense. It is a truth I don't like to admit but it is a fact
that Maya and Max user numbers are just higher, so of course you
axe Softimage and consolidate the dev teams.


Others have touched on it, here and on the Arnold mailing
  lists... This case is different because they don't have 3
  competing renderers now, they have at most two (ART in Max).
  Softimage wasn't a plugin for 7 different softwares, it wasn't
  'agnostic' in the same way Arnold is. Since the Softimage
  purchase and axing, AD has bought Shotgun. This is an example
  of AD staying out of way and more value being brought to the
  product (additional access to RV). These are reasons why I
  think this case is going to be different.


I am cautiously optimistic though, in 2 years or so we will
  see for certain.

  
On Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 3:29 PM,
  Artur W 
  wrote:
  

Re: polygonizer and small particles

[Jason S]

  
  
Huh!
  
  On 04/13/16 6:22, 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.

  
  
On 13 April 2016 at 11:01, Chris
  Marshall <chrismarshal...@gmail.com>
  wrote:
  
I've done quite a bit of this and the only
  way I could get a tighter 'fit' was to scale everything
  up.


  

  On 12 April 2016 at 21:28,
    Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>
wrote:

  
In case you might have missed it or if it
  would make a difference, but there are
  polygonizer settings under both the generated
  polygonizer mesh, as well as the existing
  polygonized elements.
  (only the generated polygonizer mesh setting
  popup when aplying it)
  

  
  On 04/12/16 15:00, Kris Rivel wrote:

  


  

  Thanks guys...just seems
like the built in polygonizer has a
limit to how "tight" it can create a
mesh around very small particles. I just
need to maybe scale the character up,
simulate, than maybe shrink it down.
  
  
On Fri, Apr 8,
  2016 at 5:26 PM, Steven Caron <car...@gmail.com>
  wrote:
  
For particles below
  some threshold just render them as
  spheres?
*written with my thumbs
On
Apr 8, 2016 1:00 PM, "Kris
Rivel" <krisri...@gmail.com>

wrote:
  
  
  
So I have some small
  particles I want to
  polygonize. Using the
  built in version. I can't
  seem to get the mesh
  really tight/close to the
  particles. I can get there
  a bit with some insane
  settings but its too slow
  and not close enough. Is
  it sensitive to particle
  size in relation to SI
  units? Do they need to be
  larger?
  

Kris
  
  
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Re: Sticking particles over a cached cloth

[Jason S]

  
  
I recall coming across a thread about
  something like that, I'll post it if I find it again.
  
  -J
  
  On 04/12/16 16:08, Pierre Schiller wrote:


  

  

  

  Hello team. Good day. I am caching a syflex
simulation (collitions and wind) for a simple grid.
  
  On the second phase, that grid should emit simple
  spheres and those particles should stick to the grid
  while it´s deforming.
  

I used the stick to surface compound, making it evaluate
 from the ICE execute node.
Simulation starts well, but just as soon as the cloth
(grid) changes shape, all spheres, remain were they were
originated. They only move  (and stay frozen) if the
cloth touches them.

  
  Maybe this is a simple question, but I´m going in circles,
  I don´t know where else to tweak to get the cached sim
  work with those spheres.
  

Please help.
  
  thanks.
  

David R.

  

  

  

  -- 
  
Portfolio
  2013
  
  Cinema & TV
production
  Video Reel
  

  

  

  

  
  
  
  
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Re: polygonizer and small particles

[Jason S]

  
  
In case you might have missed it or if
  it would make a difference, but there are polygonizer settings
  under both the generated polygonizer mesh, as well as the existing
  polygonized elements.
  (only the generated polygonizer mesh setting popup when aplying
  it)
  
  On 04/12/16 15:00, Kris Rivel wrote:


  Thanks guys...just seems like the built in
polygonizer has a limit to how "tight" it can create a mesh
around very small particles. I just need to maybe scale the
character up, simulate, than maybe shrink it down.
  
  
On Fri, Apr 8, 2016 at 5:26 PM, Steven
  Caron 
  wrote:
  
For particles below some threshold just render
  them as spheres?
*written with my thumbs
On Apr 8, 2016 1:00
PM, "Kris Rivel" 
wrote:
  
  
  
So I have some small particles I want to
  polygonize. Using the built in version. I can't
  seem to get the mesh really tight/close to the
  particles. I can get there a bit with some insane
  settings but its too slow and not close enough. Is
  it sensitive to particle size in relation to SI
  units? Do they need to be larger?
  

Kris
  
  
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Re: Weight Tools

[Jason S]

  
  

  

  

  On 04/09/16 1:08, Martin wrote:

[...]  Since its been a little tricky to get PySide working with Softimage, I'd like to release a "ready to use" workgroup version including those PySide module folders and PyQTfS.


  

  
  
  That should have been done ages ago!   Would've further
  standardized PyQt usage with Soft.
  
  And thanks for the initiative for that, as well as for this nifty
  tool!
  
  -J
  
  On 04/09/16 1:08, Martin wrote:


  Hi, I have my Weight tool almost finished and I'm thinking in releasing it once it's been tested on our current project.

I'm using PySide for 2.6 (SI 2013) and 2.7 (2014 and 2015), and PyQTforSoftimage. Since its been a little tricky to get PySide working with Softimage, I'd like to release a "ready to use" workgroup version including those PySide module folders and PyQTfS.

I have no idea about intellectual property licenses (I'm reading, but those legal terms and license types are kinda confusing), is there any legal issue I should be aware of? Can I include PySide ?

Thanks

Martin
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Re: Semi OT Softimage pic pluggin for mac ?

[Jason S]

  
  
How about EXR's ? I Haven't come across
  a pic sequence since Si3D lol
  
  8 bit can be fine for certain elements (like mattes), or as a last
  step not as "sources", but as "finals" for broadcast or for making
  compressed clips once all comp or any grading is done including
  introducing grain (while still in higher bit depth) to avoid
  banding once in 8 bit, which any digital display output (except
  for 10 bit displays) are still limited to. (whenever not destined
  to be printed directly to film) 
  
  And for that, Png's are quite commonly used because they're tiny
  (originally made for web), and despite being compressed remain
  "lossless", and fast to load.
  
  
  
  On 04/09/16 5:18, Olivier Jeannel wrote:


  Thank's guys ! I'll do some conversion of what I
already have, and will choose a mainstream format for the next
renders.
  Le 9 avr. 2016 04:41, "Ed Manning" 
a écrit :

  .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: Is rray still alive ?

[Jason S]

  
  
There shouldn't be any worry, RRay.de
  update intervals has always been around 3-4 months (and sometimes
  5-6 months), and last update was Nov.
  And Reinhard is frequently around Si Community, so you could
  perhaps send him a PM to inquire about next update?
  Cheers,
  -J
  
  On 04/09/16 5:23, Olivier Jeannel wrote:


  Just to be sure.
A few month ago I submitted my POLY set of ice nodes to rray.de but
it is still not appearing on the site.
Just wondering.
  
  
  
  
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Re: OTOY announces availability of OctaneRender 3 and OctaneRender Cloud, previews Brigade/OctaneRender

[Jason S]

  
  
   On 04/08/16
14:45, Artur W wrote:
     If it's up to me I go redshift, although
I am still waiting for custom AOVs
  
  I agree depending on the type of project, though I'm glad they are
  still making strides as it's definitely still an excellent
  renderer, but why wait for custom AOVs to get Redshift ? ;)
  
  On 04/08/16 14:45, Artur W wrote:


  I use Octane through C4D, which... oh my god. 
It's just a legacy project so this is why Octane.


If it's up to me I go redshift, although I am still waiting
  for custom AOVs
  
  
2016-04-08 20:02 GMT+02:00 Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>:
  

  Don't know if you got the latest build (or if it's
even out yet)

But they (or Stephan) are ongoingly fixing/improving a
bunch of things,

Now supports sub () compounds &
shaderballs,  with -tons- of shaders/nodes that have
been added,
https://vimeo.com/158947144

And also seemingly just very-recently got way snappier
for translating geo and preprocessing.
https://vimeo.com/161311690

  



On 04/08/16 12:39, Artur W wrote:
  

  
  

  
.. like I am trying to render previs
  and it has material overrides, but still generates
  materials with displacement that are overridden.
  So, render part is like 5 sec but frame takes
30 sec.
  and then suddenly stops rendering
altogether...
  
  
  just doing it now


  2016-04-08 17:02
GMT+02:00 Artur W <artur.w...@gmail.com>:

  They better fix all the shit
that is still there since version 1.
Redshift in alpha is more production
  ready than Octane v2.



Artur
  
  

  
2016-04-08
  16:57 GMT+02:00 Cristobal Infante <cgc...@gmail.com>:
  
Wouldn't brigade be a
  better solution? Not sure exactly
  how it works, but it seems the
  octane shaders would transfer. 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  


  

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Re: OTOY announces availability of OctaneRender 3 and OctaneRender Cloud, previews Brigade/OctaneRender

[Jason S]

  
  
Don't know if you got the latest build
  (or if it's even out yet)
  
  But they (or Stephan) are ongoingly fixing/improving a bunch of
  things,
  
  Now supports sub () compounds & shaderballs,  with
  -tons- of shaders/nodes that have been added,
  https://vimeo.com/158947144
  
  And also seemingly just very-recently got way snappier for
  translating geo and preprocessing.
  https://vimeo.com/161311690
  
  
  
  On 04/08/16 12:39, Artur W wrote:


  .. like I am trying to render previs and it has
material overrides, but still generates materials with
displacement that are overridden.
So, render part is like 5 sec but frame takes 30 sec.
and then suddenly stops rendering altogether...


just doing it now
  
  
2016-04-08 17:02 GMT+02:00 Artur W :
  
They better fix all the shit that is still
  there since version 1.
  Redshift in alpha is more production ready than
Octane v2.
  
  
  
  Artur


  

  2016-04-08 16:57 GMT+02:00
Cristobal Infante :

  Wouldn't brigade be a better
solution? Not sure exactly how it works, but it
seems the octane shaders would transfer. 
  

  
On 8 April 2016 at
  15:46, Rob Wuijster 
  wrote:
  
 It
would also be interesting to see
when their Unreal Engine plugin is
finally finished.
That would give an interesting boost
in that area.
  
  Rob
\/-\/\/
  

  On 8-4-2016 15:57, Cristobal
Infante wrote:
  

  
  

  
"CPU support"
  this could help convert a few
  studios to the dark art of GPU
  rendering...

  On 8
April 2016 at 14:53,
Marc-Andre Carbonneau 
wrote:

  

  Perhaps
  but it’s always
  good to keep an
  eye on the
  competition, no?
  ;)
  They
  have a few things
  very interesting
  going on. Haven’t
  followed Redshift
  closely lately.
   
  Happy
  Friday all
  MAC
   
  From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
  [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
  On Behalf Of Ognjen
  Vukovic
  Sent:
  April-08-16 9:22

Re: Exporting cached ICE particle instances as alembic?

[Jason S]

  
  
Would perhaps a clone (with ICE or
  Operator) of the resulting mesh be more easily baked?
  
  On 04/06/16 10:15, Olivier Jeannel wrote:


  Topolizer, but it's not free and I'm not sure it
handles parenting (if you have parenting in your instances)
I would suggest to export the particles point SRT  and snap
  back the (instances) objects back in houdini with a copy SOP
  and a switch. But this might be time consuming to figure it
  out.



  On Wed, Apr 6, 2016 at 10:47 AM,
Morten Bartholdy 
wrote:
I have a
  cached particles simulation with instanced geometry on it
  which I would
  like to export as geometry as an alembic file for import
  in Houdini so we can do
  some simulation there.
  
  It looks like there is no factory method for creating
  geometry form instances,
  so I checked Guillaume Laforges Create Polymesh from
  Instance Shapes compound.
  Unfortunately it requires some source geometry data set
  via ICE and I am kind of
  in a hurry so I have no time to figure out what is
  required, so I was wondering
  if anybody know of a way to do this quick and dirty and
  create geometry from
  instances without any attributes.
  
  Thanks - Morten
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Re: Wrapped

[Jason S]

  
  
Man, I can't even tell what may have
  been non-CG except for the plants because they were growing lol
  Congratz!
  
  On 04/06/16 5:47, Roman Kaelin wrote:


  
  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
   

  
  
  
  
  This body part will be downloaded on demand.


  

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Re: Growth in ICE

[Jason S]

  
  
This may also be of help, 
  
  Detailing the creation of wheightmap growth driven by turbulence,
  in this case to drive particle emissions, 
  
  Vimeo - Particle grow effect
using Softimage ICE
   
  this is at 9;15 showing the weightmap growing
  
      
  
  Cheers, 
  -J
  
  On 04/01/16 10:37, Morten Bartholdy wrote:


  BTW Francois - a fractal weightmap, how do I do that?

Also, how do I trigger the first point?


Morten






  
Den 1. april 2016 klokken 14:06 skrev Francois Lord :


Here is something I did a few years back to reveal a map.
https://vimeo.com/26487726

It's a simulated weightmap. You take an irregular geo (polygon reduction
is perfect to create these) and apply a fractal weightmap to it. Then
you create a new weightmap and add a simulated ICE tree to it. For each
point, check the value of the simulated weightmap on the neighbors. If
it's 1, add the value of the first weightmap to yourself.

This way, each point gets contaminated by its neighbors at different
speeds.

You only need to trigger the first point manually.

F

On 2016-04-01 06:27 AM, Thomas Volkmann wrote:


  Hi Morten,
 
maybe you could tweak this a bit to your liking: https://vimeo.com/21223643
 
cheers,
Thomas


  
Morten Bartholdy  hat am 1. April 2016 um 12:11

  
  geschrieben:

  


I am doing some RnD on creating a frosty growth effect in ICE. I have

  
  looked at

  
Andy Moorers DLA which looks promising and tinkered with using

  
  animated mattes

  
for emitting particles with frostlike instances, but would like to

  
  perhaps use

  
fractal patterns og procedurals to control the growth, so I would like

  
  to ask

  
here if someone could point me to some useful tools or tutorials

  
  regarding this?

  

Thanks - Morten
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Re: Goodbyes (was this is the end...)

[Jason S]

  
  
Indeed quite elaborate, very swift to
  browse and also very complete! 
  
  Great job Mirko!
  
  
  On 03/29/16 14:54, Mirko Jankovic wrote:


  All credits for page itself are to my friend Peter
Vukovic :) 
I was starting ideaa, he was molding it to the shape :)
  
  
On Tue, Mar 29, 2016 at 8:39 PM, Pierre
  Schiller 
  wrote:
  
All bells and whistles. Looks superb!! Great
  work there on the design Mirko!


  

  On Tue, Mar 29, 2016 at 1:14
PM, Mirko Jankovic 
wrote:

  Hey guys, 

  Couple weeks ago I shared trello board
for people to create their short cards with
contact info and portfolio.
  As mentioned it was getting harder to
find Softimage people this was fast simple
way to go and see fast who is available.
  
  
  As trello was temporary solution and
after some work new page is ready. 
  It is a bit extended edition of course
but still offers same fast search into
freelance data base. 
  Go in find who do you need and contact.
The rest is all up to you.
  But without freelancers that has no
meaning at all ofc so I will use this post
as invite for guys to come check and join.
  And also anyone that is looking  for help
on project, and don;t have time nor will to
post on job boards, wait a week or two for
posts, then spend another week or two going
over all applications... 
  Here is fast and simple way to filter out
freelancers find exactly who you need and
get in contact as fast as possible. 
  
  
  So anyone is interested check out new http://www.cgfolio.com/
  
  
  Always happy to receive critics and ideas
for updates and improvements on the page as
after all it is ther eto help all of us in
those deadline over the head days... and
nights :)

Hope it will help people to get contact for
  jobs and help others looking for help to find
  right guys for the task at hand.



Cheers!
Mirko
  
  
On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at
  10:52 PM, pedro santos 
  wrote:
  
By the way Sven, found a
  problem with the compoud, but fixed it. http://www.si-community.com/community/viewtopic.php?p=54127#p54127
  Cheers

  

  On Wed, Mar
9, 2016 at 8:23 PM, Byron Nash 
wrote:

  I echo many of the
thank you's expressed here.
Without the expertise of this
list I would have never
completed many of the jobs I
have encountered in my career. I
especially cherish the times
getting to meet many of you at
Matt's dinners at SIGGRAPH.
Those are some of the best times
in my career. I know you all
will go onto success in whatever
direction you head. 

Re: Render Region and Autosave

[Jason S]

Hi,

Just to share a simple script (gave it another go) that toggles Off and 
On the Autosave pref (if originally On),
fired by an "onBeginFrame" event, which essentially restarts the set 
Autosave counter when a region is drawn.


Initially, perhaps due to something I was missing (or a bug?) running 
-any- command other than LogMessage commands on the 'onBeginFrame' event 
would simply freeze everything.


But! starting jscript timers which in turn (indirectly) ran XSI commands 
seemed to work,
so the Autosave counter is reset (to however amount of minutes) 1/10th 
of a second after drawing a region, or launching a preview.


So you can leave your regular Autosave pref to some 20-30 minutes, and 
never be bothered by your region getting interrupted due to a save 
happening midway, unless you are use to making rather big regions at 
high quality, in which case you may set higher autosave gaps accordingly.


For big frames in HiQ (at the end of lookdev) I personally only launch 
frame renders (which are unnaffected by autosaves anyways).


So let me know if any issue,
Cheers!


On 02/08/16 7:28, Fabian Schnuer Gohde wrote:

Hi,
I thought I'd ask in case anyone has run into this and has a workaround.

With heavy scenes I regularly get lock-ups with the render region is 
open and autosave kicks in. This is with redshift so I'm not sure if 
the problem is solely there.


Are there any hooks for a script or anything that surpress autosave or 
is there some way to do an entirely custom autosave that checks for 
regions before triggering?


Best regards,
Fabian





   2.0
   
   Auxiliary
   
   
   JS
   
   
   
   
   
   Reinitializes autosave countdown on render for an uninterrupted preview or RenderRegion.
   
   
   js_LittlePieceOfPreviewingPeace
   5
   
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xw==

   
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Y8Ov3ncijg+zV+3sH9/FP4dsvds=


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Re: Beta of new Binary Alchemy shaders available for free

[Jason S]

  
  
Thanks Holdger! Your shaders have been
  used much more than you think!
  
  And since these are postcardware, have you consider putting on the
  main page you referenced a promenent link 
  (perhaps a dedicated email link that doesnt involve registering?)
  to send things?
  
  Thanks again, for me your shaders (including various breadcrums)
  continue to come in handy, and have more times than I can
  remember!
  Cheers,
  -J
  
  On 03/07/16 11:08, Laurence Dodd wrote:


  Cheers Holger,
Much appreciated


  
  
On 7 March 2016 at 11:02, Dan Yargici 
  wrote:
  
That's great, cheers Holger

  

  On Mon, Mar 7, 2016 at 10:40
AM, Adam Seeley 
wrote:

  Absolutely great Holger.. many
thanks.

Adam.

  


  On 7 March 2016
at 09:05, Morten Bartholdy 
wrote:
Great stuff -
  thanks Holger!
  
  Morten
  

  
  
  > Den 6. marts 2016 klokken
  17:29 skrev Schoenberger :
  >
  >
  > Hey
  >
  > The company has finished a
  milestone and I had now time to
  work a bit on my
  > private project, the Binary
  Alchemy shaders.
  >
  > I have decided to cancel the
  new volume shader collection and
  have included
  > all shaders that have been
  developed so far into the BA
  > Essential Collection.
  > I had to change a bit and
  used a different compiler for
  Linux, so I am not
  > sure if it works on all
  platforms. And I stated the new
  > version as "beta" in this
  email.
  >
  > There are 9 new shaders, you
  can view the new shaders and the
  download the
  > package via the menu on the
  left:
  > http://www.binaryalchemy.de/index_dev.htm
  >
  >
  > Let me know if there are some
  issues and remember it is
  postcardware, so let
  > me know where or for what
  kind of CGI it is used, at
  > best some production links or
  images.
  >
  >
  > Happy rendering,
  > Holger Schönberger
  > technical director
  > The day has 24 hours, if that
  does not suffice, I will take the
  night
  >
  >

  
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Re: ice strand grass

[Jason S]

  
  
Thanks for the update & good to
  know!
  
  On 03/01/16 14:42, Kris Rivel wrote:


  
Just an update...so instances on strands are not really
  supported in Redshift...yet...but its on the to-do list for
  this year. Going to probably check out the Forrester plugin
  for this in the meantime.
  

Kris
  
  
On Mon, Feb 29, 2016 at 9:30 AM, Morten
  Bartholdy 
  wrote:
  I haven't
tried this with RS, but Tim Crowson has made some nifty
tools for
working with Redshift proxies. I don't know if they can help
you with your
current scenario, but in case you did not know them  here
goes:

http://www.timcrowson.com/redshift-proxy-manager/

http://www.timcrowson.com/loop-redshift-proxy-sequence/



/MB
  

  


> Den 29. februar 2016 klokken 15:19 skrev Kris Rivel
:
>
>
> Awesome Morten thanks...I'll check it out! I'm
actually using RS...don't
> have Arnold but maybe it will still work...will let
you know.
>
> On Mon, Feb 29, 2016 at 7:20 AM, Morten Bartholdy

> wrote:
>
> > Kris I didn't see if you render with Redshift
or Arnold - Arnold does
> > support
> > deformed instances on strands - I have used it
to create a grassfield with
> > turbulent wind.
> >
> > I have sent you a simple scene demonstrating
the setup.
> >
> > /Morten
> >
> >
> > > Den 27. februar 2016 klokken 23:06 skrev
Kris Rivel  > >:
> > >
> > >
> > > Ohwell that would suck. I may just
have to animate the objects and
> > > instance them...bummer!
> > >
> > > On Sat, Feb 27, 2016 at 4:53 PM, Olivier
Jeannel  > >
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Just to be sure, as far as I know,
Strand deforming objects, like Rob
> > > > showed, only render in MR.
> > > > I don't think RS does it, and I'm
not sure for Arnold.
> > > >
> > > > On Sat, Feb 27, 2016 at 10:02 PM,
Kris Rivel 
> > wrote:
> > > >
> > > >> Thanks Olivier...that
helps...going to look at that.
> > > >>
> > > >> Rob...ha ha...I think my ICE
skills are below your assumptions. I did
> > > >> this same setup (from what I can
see in your image) and I'm getting
> > > >> instances on the hairs but
they're not deforming even in the render.
> > Is
> > > >> this tree on the simulation
stack? What other nodes do you have in
> > there?
> > > >> What settings for the emit
strands are you using?
> > > >>
> > > >> On Sat, Feb 27, 2016 at 12:44
PM, Rob Chapman 
> > > >> wrote:
> > > >>
> > > >>> Kris, sorry I just loaded
demo scene strand dynamics hair, applied
> > > >>> lizard instance shape to few
guide hairs, applied the strand deform
> > flag
> > > >>> and all lizards perform as
requested
> > > >>>
> > > >>> [image: Inline images 1]
> > > >>>
> > > >>> really not sure what you are
doing wrong !
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>> On 27 February 2016 at
14:36, Kris Rivel 
> > wrote:
> > > >>>
> > >  Rob...thanks...that does
help with keeping one instance but they
> > still
> > >  don't bend/move with the
strand dynamics. Olivier...this looks
> > >  

Re: City generator?

[Jason S]

  
  
I'm sure it must have been a peice of
  cake (comparatively) doing something similar in Maya (in which
  anything is possible but..)
  or that any given shop can do something similar without hiring a
  team of highly qualified developpers.
  
  On 03/01/16 13:59, Steven Caron wrote:


  they can do it now in xgen... but the tech is
really about the asset management, which we have already working
in maya.

  
On Tue, Mar 1, 2016 at 10:33 AM,
  adrian wyer 
  wrote:
  

  
that
  Athens
  tech demo is still the shit!!
 
genius
  piece of pipelining try doing
  that in maya!
 
a
 

  
  


  

  

  


  

  

  

  

  

  

  
  
  
  
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Re: 1 texture per polygon

[Jason S]

  
  

This script can be useful for having one image file per UV which can
also have it's benefits,
as you can have an arbitrary and easy to setup image sequence of
images which each UV can pick from, which can also be easier to
manage and replace sources than having generate one big source image
file, but I guess it can depend on the end goal.

  

On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 2:54 PM,
  Olivier Jeannel 
  wrote:
  
I solved the UV with a python script
  (attached) from  Piotrek Marczak. Wish I could do it in
  ICE...
  Now I'm fighting to have one picture per polygon index :/
  If someone has something

  

  On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 3:47
PM, pedro santos 
wrote:

  https://app.box.com/s/ty7c6u0ykz06a2dozovvhsewotpufjkv
  
  

  
On Wed, Feb 24,
  2016 at 2:47 PM, pedro santos 
  wrote:
  
Hmmm I've done that the
  other day, but in LightWave... ahaha
  
  I basically transformed the UV
  coordinates per polygon based on it's
  index to fit a grid of images.
  insteading of having separate image
  files.. Can you do it in ICE... dunno,
  never tried it x)
  
  Good luck
  
  


  

  On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 12:04
PM, Olivier Jeannel 
wrote:
  


  

  Hi there,


Imagine I have a
  collection of 100
  pictures, numbered from 0
  to 99.
I'd like to have one
  picture applied per
  polygon of a polymesh.
  (picture0 goes to
  polygon0, picture1 goes to
  polygon1, picture2 goes to
  polygon2, )
- How do I set the UVs
  ? 
- How do I tell the
  Shader to pick one image
  according to the Polygon
  ID ?


I can do it with
  particles, but I would
  like to do it with
  polygons.


I'm sure someone
  already did this ...


Thank you !
  
  

  
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Re: Softimage and CMYK

[Jason S]

  
  
It weird because if you take screenshot
  while in CMYK colorspace and paste in an RGB image, 
  there you go, same blacklevels and everything as in CMYK but in
  RGB space.
  
  So would there be a way to "bake" color info from one colorspace
  to another?
  (assuming it's for hirez images, otherwise you could just take
  screenshots :P )
  
  I find it surprising that something like photoshop cant manage to
  make a 1:1 conversion.
  
  
  On 02/11/16 18:19, Sebastien Sterling wrote:


  Have been doing variants of this, to no great
success, it doesn't seem to want to change anything, haven't
tried absolute colometric though, maybe i will try that. The Web
converter actually does have an effect, but not perfect, it does
bring the ultramarines back towards black.
  
  
On 11 February 2016 at 23:02, Sven
  Constable 
  wrote:
  

  
Photoshop
Edit->Convert To Profile
You
will see the source color space embedded in the
original (if there is any) and the target color
space.
Choose
 one of the RGB spaces (eg. sRGB).
Check
blackpoint compensation and Relative Colometric.
Tick
Preview to see the result.
Ideally
you should see no to minimal color shifting, but
this depends on the original color profile within
the CMYK file.
 
I'm
pretty sure this what you'll get with that web based
converter.
However,
your problem is not to get a close color match but
to change colors (ultramarine blue to black). Not
sure if this is possible without manual grading but
you can try unchecking black point compensation
and switch to Absolute Colometric. Then
switch through the different color profiles and see
if any of it will change the ultramarine blue back
to black.
If
this worked somehow, do a second conversion to sRGB
with blackpoint compensation ON and relative
  colometric.
 
If
this won't work, I think there is only manual color
grading or have the client send you "correct" files.
 
sven
 

  
 

  

  

  


  

Re: Softimage and CMYK

[Jason S]

  
  
You can have CMYK images in 16 or 32
  too, but if your sources are 8 bit, it can be fine if there aren't
  too wide gradients or making wild corrects.
  
  But here's what seems to work,
  
  converting from CMYK -> Lab Color  seems to keep all levels as
  they were, 
  and then from Lab Color -> to RGB  ... also seems to keep all
  levels as they were!
  
  (It might be best to convert to 16bit (if they were in 8) before
  doing so.)
  
  Cheers,
  J
  
  On 02/12/16 10:08, Sebastien Sterling wrote:


  

  
I think it has to do with RGB being additive; adding
  all colors leads to white
  

and CMYK being subtractive. adding all colors leads to black

  
  RGB has so many more colors, it must be like clamping the bit
  depth but not quite.
  

at any rate you loose something going one way, so it is a
destructive workflow.
  
  
On 12 February 2016 at 14:55, Jason S <jasonsta...@gmail.com>
  wrote:
  

  It weird because if you take screenshot while in CMYK
colorspace and paste in an RGB image, 
there you go, same blacklevels and everything as in CMYK
but in RGB space.

So would there be a way to "bake" color info from one
colorspace to another?
(assuming it's for hirez images, otherwise you could
just take screenshots :P )

I find it surprising that something like photoshop cant
manage to make a 1:1 conversion.
  
  
  On 02/11/16 18:19, Sebastien Sterling wrote:

  

  Have been doing variants of this, to no
great success, it doesn't seem to want to change
anything, haven't tried absolute colometric though,
maybe i will try that. The Web converter actually
does have an effect, but not perfect, it does bring
the ultramarines back towards black.
  
  
On 11 February 2016 at
  23:02, Sven Constable <sixsi_l...@imagefront.de>
  wrote:
  

  
Photoshop

Edit->Convert To Profile
You

will see the source color space embedded
in the original (if there is any) and
the target color space.
Choose

 one of the RGB spaces (eg. sRGB).
Check

blackpoint compensation and Relative
Colometric.
Tick

Preview to see the result.
Ideally

you should see no to minimal color
shifting, but this depends on the
original color profile within the CMYK
file.
 
I'm

pretty sure this what you'll get with
that web based converter.
However,

your problem is not to get a close color
match but to change colors (ultramarine
blue to black). Not sure if this is
possible without manual grading but you
can try unchecking black point
  compensation and switch to Absolute
  Colometric. Then switch through
the different color profiles and see if
any of it will change the ultramarine
blue back to black.
If

this worked somehow, do a second
conversion to sRGB with blackpoint
  compensation ON and relative
  colometric.
 
If

this won't work, I think there is only
manual color grading or have the client