Re: Softimage to Maya rendering requests
As someone who uses both packages... I think Soft users underestimate Render Layers in Maya. Granted, the horror stories would turn anyone off... but like anything there are the workarounds to the minefield. #1 being, don't put materials on polygon faces. ( hey, in soft you don't put them on polygon clusters either! ) But other than that, they have been totally fine. ( other users have different experiences I'm sure. ) But as a Soft user, I'm here to say.. they're not AS BAD as you've heard. Room for improvement is needed of course. I think the biggest single improvement that'll give Maya's render-layers the Softimage workflow immediately, is Partitions, or RenderGroups. That, along with a way to visualize them in the outliner. You can already make overrides, ( some might argue even easier in Maya.. ) However, the issue is how to manage and quickly visualize the data. There is no concept of how to easily see what you've done in a layer. ( other than investigating objects and such ) Picking up a scene from another artist in Maya could potentially be a nightmare if they work or organize scenes differently than you. Where in Soft, you can easily at a glance see what's been done. Anyway...Partitions, or RenderGroups Add them. On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 2:46 AM, Tenshi S. tenshu...@gmail.com wrote: Exactly, they're here now, because they want to alienate us with new improvements thanks to softimage users, why they don't listen Maya users in their proper channels. They've been asking a lot of improvements over a decade; but asking Softimage users, it's like they're trying quietly to drag us to Maya. It's nice to see people from Autodesk magically appear here, but it's not a good time to do that and for this. :) In fact, they'll need to be here to give us news about Softimage, trying to help us in other ways, saying at least the transition period it's been extended or something. On Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 1:16 PM, Rob Wuijster r...@casema.nl wrote: Hi Laurence, With all do respect to you personally, but I still don't understand why these kind of questions are being asked -now-. AD had SI for 5 years, and most of the SI team went to AD as well as part of the aquisition. With all this recent talk about making Maya better and looking to Softimage, one would expect that most of the good things in SI were already planned to be integrated into Maya. You have the SI team there to tell you how stuff works. Pick up the good things, and improve on the stuff that could be improved. Read up on years of forum posts and mailinglist what is to be improved. So please don't insult us by finally popping in after the kill to see how you can lure us in to start using Maya. my angry and depressed EURO 0.02 as start of the weekend. Rob \/-\/\/ On 21-3-2014 19:05, Laurence Cymet wrote: Hello, My name is Laurence Cymet, I am the product manager for lighting and rendering on Maya. In the past few weeks I've been out to talk to many Softimage customers, and I can certainly understand your frustration with the move to EOL Softimage, so we're doing what we can to improve things. I am not here to try and sell anyone on Maya. My goal is to improve Maya, so if you are interested in discussing what we need to do to make it a better place to render for you, feel free to post here or email me directly at laurence.cy...@autodesk.commailto:laurence.cy...@autodesk.com laurence.cy...@autodesk.com Also - I will happily answer any questions I can about rendering in Maya, don't hesitate to ask. Thanks, Laurence Cymet - No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2014.0.4336 / Virus Database: 3722/7228 - Release Date: 03/21/14
Re: What use is ICE really?
I think it would be an amusing exercise to do a comparison of technique and workflow for these projects. What would it take to do the SAME effect in Maya!? Side by side. It would show how one framework is capable of so much more than 'just particles'. Maya will have to tap every corner of it's toolset to achieve the same effects.. If it even can in all cases. On Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 11:00 AM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote: Some tests -- ICE modeling, animation, procedural lighting (I guess it's technically texturing) https://vimeo.com/82347039 https://vimeo.com/79642973 https://vimeo.com/78064818
Re: What use is ICE really?
Agreed Ed. The fact ICE is accessible to generalists to do advanced technical FX without a TD, or scripting, is lost on Autodesk I'm afraid. On Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 11:14 AM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote: On Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 11:06 AM, Jeffrey Dates jda...@kungfukoi.comwrote: I think it would be an amusing exercise to do a comparison of technique and workflow for these projects. What would it take to do the SAME effect in Maya!? Side by side. It would show how one framework is capable of so much more than 'just particles'. Maya will have to tap every corner of it's toolset to achieve the same effects.. If it even can in all cases. And many of these were done by artists who would never think of themselves as TDs or even script writers -- certainly any Maya solutions to most of these challenges would require scripting ability at a minimum, and probably a significant amount of work by bona fide TDs, possibly hard-coding nodes.
Re: I'm sure this is one of many...
Yeah, I expect tons of these... http://cgmemes.blogspot.com/2014/03/autodesk-you-c.html and http://cgmemes.blogspot.com/2014/03/softimage-sniffle.html On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 9:28 AM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote: ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r77WyKNsIkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r77WyKNsIk
Re: Survey - how would you do this?
Hmm.. I don't know why.. I must not understand the challenge. How I'd do it is: 1) duplicate your astroid(s) ( in this case not instances for art-direction ) # of times you want. 2) select all, and path constrain to a Circle Curve. ( roughly 40 units ) 3) Multi-select their constraint, and set the length to r(0,100) 4) Then set the translation along the bias, and normal to be r(-5,5) you'll have to play with the values to get a proper dispersion. 5) now you have a ring of astroids randomly distributed along a torus. You can animate the ring to get them all moving. You can set keys using the random property... *shrug* I must not fully understand the problem. On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 2:23 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote: An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was 'good enough'. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others would solve it: The problem: Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow - like a screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt. The question: Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object positions? The rules: - Cannot use ICE - Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. - Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level artist would know how to use. - Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, in less than 30 minutes - and be iteration friendly to react to art director feedback. - Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet's size/shape/tilt/orbit. - Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external assets, or special case logic. - Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of roughly 3 SI Units diameter Ready.GO! Matt
Re: rumor, Soft dead within the next year
I'd think whomever makes the suite of scripts and plugins for Maya for the Softimage refugees soon to be converting over would certainly have a built-in base of users. I also think there is an opportunity for a Fabric Engine Developer to capture some of the refugees with the same thinking... On Thu, Jan 2, 2014 at 6:22 AM, Szabolcs Matefy szabol...@crytek.comwrote: Actually, I am fairly experienced with Maya, yet I feel that it's a wheelchair with square wheels compared to Softimage. However, I see development in Maya a lot more than in Softimage. Houdini is quite out of my scope, being a character artist :). The fact is, if I want to get hired by a game development company, I have to learn Maya and Max, and I have to promote it. So my current project of Vinnie Jones went into Maya, and yes, it's quite painful, because some things are rather clumsy in Maya...:( But I want to get hired, and the companies who I want to work for are mostly Maya based companies. Max is pain in the ass, really, clumsy, mediocre, etc. UK is on my list to get a job there, but last year I was too lazy...This year I want to change a lot, and take my family to a better place :) Cheers PS. I hope that new Softimage will have a lot more for us, and will kick some Max and Maya ass. Chris Chia, will it? -Original Message- From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Tim Leydecker Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2014 11:37 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: rumor, Soft dead within the next year Hey Szabolcs, even with your credentials? Fauna, a Tutor, etc. Judging on your email address, I would have thought you´d be 3DsMax centric at work, due to the Z-up preferences of the Cryengine and the tools/plugins available for a solid 3DSMaxCryengine workflow. Here´s a few Maya secrets I´d like to share: Embrace Maya accepting that you will need a high treshold for pain to do so. Invert your favourite Normalmap´s green channel for use in Maya. Will make you feel home. There´s a huge community of hungarian 2D/3D artists in London, a friend of mine just went there and is now happy bitching about the insane costs of anything involving living a modest life but also straight out glad he did it, there was not enough work in either Budapest or Berlin. Both would have been the better cities to be at but I can really understand that a man wants to work :-) Cheers, tim On 02.01.2014 10:11, Szabolcs Matefy wrote: I’ve lsot my positive thinking in the last year, so from now on, I’ll move to maya. Why? Because as a Softimage artist I couldn’t find ANY job. I am skilled in maya too, but having Softimage as my primary tool, I was always rejected saying that they want somebody who knows maya on an expert level. So, from today I’ll learn maya secrets. At work I’ll use Softimage. Seeing no development really, makes me sad. *From:*softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Aloys Baillet *Sent:* Tuesday, December 24, 2013 5:25 AM *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com *Subject:* Re: rumor, Soft dead within the next year C'mon! You have to trust that Everything is Awesome, with the LEGO movie entirely animated with Softimage! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ_JOBCLF-I Merry XMas everyone! On Tue, Dec 24, 2013 at 9:37 AM, Arman Sernaz arma...@gmail.commailto: arma...@gmail.com wrote: Such a Great Work Walter ! It was a pleasure watching this :) 2013/12/20 wavo w...@fiftyeight.com mailto:w...@fiftyeight.com Merry Xmas and a happy new Year: done with one of the last version of softimage: http://www.bang-awards.com/en/movie/362-mite -- *Walter Volbers* Senior Animator *FIFTYEIGHT*3D Animation Digital Effects GmbH Kontorhaus Osthafen Lindleystraße 12 60314 Frankfurt am Main Germany Telefon +49 (0) 69.48 000 55.50 tel:%2B49%20%280%29%2069.48%2%2055.50 Telefax +49 (0) 69.48 000 55.15 tel:%2B49%20%280%29%2069.48%2%2055.15 _mailto:w...@fiftyeight.com http://www.fiftyeight.com _ ESC*58* Eine Kooperation der escape GmbH und der FIFTYEIGHT3D GmbH _http://www.ESC58.de http://www.ESC58.de_ -- www.lhvfx.com http://www.lhvfx.com -- Aloys Baillet Lead Software Developer Research Development - Animal Logic -- /Eat Real Food! I buy my sustainable produce from local farmers through Food Connect Sydney. http://sydney.foodconnect.com.au/ --
Re: ICE Shape Node expressions linked to Custom Property Parms breaking on reload
Ok.. makes sense. I was just confused why the expressions got confused. *shrug* I'm happy to do it that way. Thanks. On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 6:30 PM, David Barosin dbaro...@gmail.com wrote: I would bring the parameters in directly into the ice tree using a get data node rather than an expression. On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 6:14 PM, Jeffrey Dates jda...@kungfukoi.comwrote: Hiya guys, I'm running into something I don't remember coming across before and was hoping you guys can point out what I'm doing wrong. I have an ICE Shape mixer controlled by a Custom Property Params.. ( just expressioned an == to the weight. ) Nothing fancy. However, when the scene is reloaded or a model is exported, the expressions set themselves to Pass.Through and nullifies the connection. What are some things to look at that cause this!? OR, if the flaw is my workflow, how are you guys typically controlling the ICE Shape mixer!? I feel like this has come up before.. but I've never experienced it myself as of late. thanks in advance. Jeff -- To unsubscribe: mail softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com with subject unsubscribe and reply to the confirmation email. -- To unsubscribe: mail softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com with subject unsubscribe and reply to the confirmation email. -- To unsubscribe: mail softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com with subject unsubscribe and reply to the confirmation email.
Re: Softimage Future (again (Siggraph 2014 reincarnation)
http://mommys-timeout.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/wookie-monster.jpg On Thu, Aug 1, 2013 at 11:19 AM, Angus Davidson angus.david...@wits.ac.zawrote: taste of Wookie. My brain is going to hurt for weeks just getting over the mental image of that ;) Let alone New Wookie! -- *From:* Eric Lampi [ericla...@gmail.com] *Sent:* 01 August 2013 05:12 PM *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com *Subject:* Re: Softimage Future (again (Siggraph 2014 reincarnation) I, for one, am thankful for Classic Wookie. New Wookie tasted too much like Pepsi. On Aug 1, 2013 9:15 AM, Bradley Gabe witha...@gmail.com wrote: Classic wookiee mistake! On Thu, Aug 1, 2013 at 8:13 AM, Eric Thivierge ethivie...@hybride.comwrote: Let the wookie win... Eric Thivierge === Character TD / RnD Hybride Technologies On 01/08/2013 8:24 AM, Raffaele Fragapane wrote: I'm willing to concede that point solely because he was charitable with the resulting sum. Next time you won't get away so easily and I might even employ a Chewbacca defence (which Eric will act out as Chewbacca, the differences are unnoticeable of you don't frame the feet) This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the permission of the University. Only authorised signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the personal views and opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in writing to the contrary.
Re: Mill 98% Human
Actually, That's false. Hairs are strands in ICE. Source: Jimmy Gass sits across from me. On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 5:30 PM, Christopher christop...@thecreativesheep.ca wrote: Nice work. The Hairs are old school XSI Hair system. ::Christopher Kris Rivel wrote: Just wanted to say congrats to anyone at the Mill for the 98% human spot. An amazing piece of CG and probably one of the most impressive examples of Softimage that I've ever seen. Here's links to the spot and a brief making of for anyone who hasn't seen it: Spot: http://youtu.be/McD0dKuj5mA Making of: http://youtu.be/wLmVm0nc5Gg Kris
Re: congrats to the Embassy for Iron Man commercial
It looks like a Pre-viz though ;) Probably not, looks like he's animating a rigged animation-model on the backplate. It's probably a proxy-geo for faster feedback for the animator. ;-) Fun stuff.
Re: Softimage Jedi Training
I was hoping you'd come to my apartment, and lecture me from the couch.
Re: Softimage rental?
Isn't Soft free with Maya now!? Isn't a rental of Maya, in effect, a Rental of Soft!? On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 9:38 AM, Byron Nash byronn...@gmail.com wrote: I discovered the other day that Maya has a 90 day rental for $199. Do they offer the same thing for Softimage if you install the trial?
Re: ObjectID channel in After Effects
Yeah, I'd say generally, most AE ops don't know what to do with them, What I usually do is 'hue-key' the color, and multiply the Pixel Coverage back over to get your aliased edges. I think there is a 3rd party plug-in that does it too.. On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 10:51 AM, Eric Lampi ericla...@gmail.com wrote: I've provided these in the past on request for Flame and Nuke, but beyond passing them off, I haven't dug into how to use them, least of all in After Effects. I've done some poking around online but wasn't able to find much in terms of workflow specifically for that AE and most were several years old. Can someone give me a quick rundown on how to properly use them in After Effects using Soft 2013? I showed the compositor the ObjectID and Pixel Coverage passes last night but he was really skeptical. Thanks! Eric -- Freelance 3D and VFX animator http://vimeopro.com/user7979713/3d-work
Enabling CIP in Softimage
I just saw this article posted on the Soft Facebook page, but I'm posting it here because I know most of you are hard at work, and don't have time to check pages like Facebook. ;-) http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/cory/enabling-cip-in-softimage It doesn't seem to be an option in my Linux build, but with all the recent discussions surrounding how we can contribute to Soft's future.. this might be a consideration. cheers...
Re: In case you missed it..
and, to bring the thread full-circle and kick a dead horse... saw this today. http://cgmemes.blogspot.com/2012/09/best-particles-system-ever.html
Re: In case you missed it..
The one thing I take from reading this thread is the Soft community at large is generally upset and concerned. Whether the individual concerns are real or perceived, I would think Autodesk would hear the frustration and appreciate where it's coming from. Even speak to how to resolve it perhaps. I for one, think Maurice is a brave soul coming into the lions den as it were, and speaking candidly. Attempting to show that Softimage is going forward, perhaps not in the primary marketing role it has enjoyed in the past. But to their credit, I'm a fan of the latest updates, the OGL viewport improvements for instance... So from my vantage point I see progress. Our industry is fairly new. A significant paradigm shift from one software to another has only REALLY happened once before. We've seen it from Soft/3d Alias P/A to the desktop XSI Maya respectively. Understanding where XSI came from, and how it was built helps us also understand WHY it's in the place it is. When Sumantra was created under AVID the developers at the time, as I understand it, were forced to use the Microsoft API. Building what was to be the 'new' foundation on something like Microsoft has been our biggest shortcoming concerning the open-nature of Soft. We've been overcoming that since day 1, and will continue to. Softimage has never recovered from those days as a userbase is concerned. This has been outlined in great detail in earlier posts in this thread. On the business side, Autodesk has it's own model for capturing new users. When you have more new Maya users each year, than the entire XSI userbase. It would be hard to justify holding XSI up in the Area of Excellence as it were. ;-) No amount of new marketing is going to change the momentum that Maya enjoys in schools, film, and elsewhere suddenly to Soft. Autodesk is going to continue to do what is best for Autodesk, why wouldn't they? The fact Maurice is standing by Softimage and trying to reassure the users it's here and should continue to be here is a positive thing in my mind. So I would hope we give him the benefit of the doubt? Maurice, if I might make a suggestion for whatever it's worth. When marketing suites and bundles. You might consider looking at Softimage as more of a 'generalist' out-of-the-box solution for smaller studios and commercial houses who might only have 10-20 artists and no development team. Maya out-of-the-box isn't *really* a generalists solution, Don't get me wrong.. it can be, and often IS done by some amazing artists. But anyone who's proficient in both, will be hard-pressed to explain how Maya out-of-the-box is more production ready than Softimage out-of-the-box. To promote Softimage as a generalist out-of-the-box solution from day 1 for smaller studios, I think would sit much better with the user community at large. I still think the Area of Excellence is only excellent if you have an RnD team, in-house developers, or a host of 3rd party plug-ins or scripts to get you a truly user-friendly experience. Bundles of Film, Games, and Commercial solutions isn't a terrible idea if you ask me. But then again, I'm just an end user, not a marketing whosit-whatsit. I also think this is the best time for Side FX. They are seeing a Renaissance, for the sake of innovation and competition I hope they are able to capitalize on the opportunities to woo new users. For the record.. I know and use Maya. But as a Commercial VFX Generalist. I chose XSI, and you'll have to pry it from my cold-dead hands before I switch. ;-) ( but I have started learning Houdini, you know.. 'cus that paradigm shift * will* happen ) cheers!
Re: mail...
Testing. test test. On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 2:22 AM, Matt Morris matt...@gmail.com wrote: Yeah!! All good. Receiving loud and clear again! On Sunday, 27 May 2012, Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.com wrote: Finally some mail. Tumbleweeds be gone! :D On Sat, May 26, 2012 at 9:39 PM, J. Jones jgjones...@gmail.com wrote: Ditto. Whatever was haywire appears to be fixed. On Sat, May 26, 2012 at 6:34 PM, Eric Thivierge ethivie...@gmail.com wrote: Whoo hooo!! I got it! Eric Thivierge http://www.ethivierge.com On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 11:32 AM, jim bough jimbo...@hotmail.com wrote: I second that. First two emails in last 10 days. Date: Sat, 26 May 2012 21:29:01 -0400 Subject: Re: mail... From: guillaume.laforge...@gmail.com To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Hey Matt, You are the first email a received from this list (from my gmail) since 10 days ! Is the problem fixed for others too? On Sat, May 26, 2012 at 8:44 PM, Matt Morris matt...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Gray, I unsubscribed and resubscribed to the list by sending mails to softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Got the verification mails etc so it feels like it should have worked but still not receiving mail from the xsi list - am getting everything from other lists I'm on such as sitoa. -- www.matinai.com -- www.matinai.com
