Re: Autodesk acquires Solid Angle

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Ya Vancouver is quite small so laying fiber was, I think, much easier and
cost effective than in other cities.  How you are physically connected to
the data center will drastically change how you approach cloud rendering.
We're waiting for a new center to come online closer to us, even with the
PoP we suspect latency will be too high to use NFS mounts when the center
is somewhere in the midwest.

On Fri, Apr 22, 2016 at 1:56 PM, Steven Caron  wrote:

> San Francisco still struggles with fiber... why didn't 'Google Fiber' come
> here first? :) Many thousands of dollars per month... if you are using it
> or not. If they did metering like power bills maybe that cost wouldn't be
> so scary.
>
> We have played a little bit with Zync and talked directly with some Google
> product managers about using it. Internet speed and connectivity is still a
> hurdle but it is also something we are considering if we need to scale.
>
> Good point about the AC bill, one reason why GPU rendering can actually be
> expensive. Those things can get hawwt and really suck some juice.
>
>
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Re: Autodesk acquires Solid Angle

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Fiber should be pretty cheap in most major cities by now, if not it will be
soon.  I think the most difficult part of cloud rendering is that unless
you're on a service like Zync you really need a couple of pipeline/IT guys
to work out your imaging, mounting and data transfer tech and strategies.
There's also a whole host of other issues like your distance to the nearest
data center and whether or not you have a PoP to them. This can all affect
whether you mount those cloud machines or treat as offsite and off network
entities etc etc. It's all about latency.

That said Google does provide some pretty decent instructional media to
guide you, they are really trying hard to make cloud rendering a reality
for most people.  I think it's going to be up to AD to decide how they want
to deal with burst licensing.  Right now with Arnold it's pretty much rent
and serve your own but I suspect that will change.

We're not planning on rendering everything in the cloud to start but will
instead leave it for OMG moments or to avoid compromising on quality in
order to deliver on time etc. If the cost–benefit analysis works I could
see letting our farm slowly age out and just focus on local storage and
possibly replace the rack space with workstations using pcoip.  I'm sure
we'll probably keep some local compute boxes however.

Lots of options!  Less air conditioning!

On Fri, Apr 22, 2016 at 1:09 PM, Steven Caron  wrote:

> and I agree with you on cloud, I am actually not crazy about it either,
> but a lot of people see it as the right way to scale. The cost becomes
> cheaper for some but could be more expensive for others. When someone makes
> the case to use it they *tend* to leave out what I think is the biggest
> issue... access to affordable, reliable, and fast internet connectivity! I
> don't know about other places in the world but for a business class
> connection in the states it can be thousands of dollars a month. Then some
> forget it isn't so much the upload of your assets, you can make an
> extremely efficient scene to upload but downloading those 2k (now 4k) exr
> sequences with many AOVs (don't forget about deep) can take much longer.
>
> BUT some would argue, you do all your work in the cloud... that is a whole
> other beast
>
>
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Re: nice to see soft still hitting big

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Thanks!  Sadly this was our last full project in Softimage and
Arnold/sitoa.  We've moved over to a mixed alembic pipeline of Maya for
anim and any manual scene construction and Houdini/Arnold/Mantra for
everything else.

We're actually doing our first full commercial with this pipeline right now
and I can say with confidence that Houdini is killing it.  I tried lighting
and enviro work in Maya for a couple weeks and quickly realized it wasn't
going to work at all.  Houdini is amazing and non destructive and I love
it. Building your own tools is quite liberating, fun times.


On Mon, Jun 29, 2015 at 2:39 AM, adrian wyer adrian.w...@fluid-pictures.com
 wrote:

   well done all at the embassy, great spot!



 https://vimeo.com/groups/vfx/videos/131935624



 a



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


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

 www.fluid-pictures.com



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

Re: OT: mantra problem

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

I would try and contact sesi support, they are super responsive.

On Thu, Jun 25, 2015 at 2:33 PM, Gerbrand Nel nagv...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hey guys
 I'm in deep shit right now.

Re: unable to change reference model path

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Sorry for the hit and run post.

Messed with this stuff a little more and there really does seem to be a
combo of problems with deltas and something related to the scene.

I localized the parent model and removed all the deltas and it appeared
that I was then able to repath the nested reference models, but I tried
it on a second scene and it would only work on some models and not others.
I dragged all the nested models out and voila! I could then repath
properly.  Something is obviously broken here because localized models with
no deltas should not be having any influence on nested items.

My guess is that something within the external files manager is overriding
my paths as I've had this problem with image paths on assets where the
scene and the external files info keeps overriding specific image nodes.

Regardless I've managed to cluge my way around this mess for now.


On Wed, Apr 29, 2015 at 1:21 PM, Mario Reitbauer cont...@marioreitbauer.at
wrote:

 So you got a reference in a reference ?
 Or is the parent model not a reference ?

 In case the parent is a reference you deleted the delta of that parent
 model ?
 Have you tried storing your delta which you need, deleting the models and
 setting it up again with the loaded delta ?

 Can you change them in the external file editor and reopen your scene ?

unable to change reference model path

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

We've got a weird issue with some nested models (yes they are bad I know).
I am unable to change the reference model path of a bunch of ref models
that were embedded under another ref model.  Manually changing the path in
the scene simply snaps back to the original path and also result in
instability and will crash.  Changing the toc simply results in crashing on
load.

I'm banging my head on a wall at this point, I've deleted any deltas in
those models and still no luck.

Re: Linux GUI weirdness

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

We had the same problem and found out the font that Soft was searching for,
it was something odd.  I'll find out what it was on Monday and let you know
how we fixed it.  In fact I don't think we ever got a check but instead it
was some odd looking shape.

The other massive annoyance was how Soft wants to maximise across monitors
and you can't drag a window off the screen, they just bump up against the
edges :-/, this is centos 6 however.

On Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 6:24 PM, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:

 Thanks Luc-Eric...

 I am not sure where to start investigating on the font subject, any
 pointers? but the window server tip can get me started.

 On Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 4:45 PM, Luc-Eric Rousseau luceri...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 The missing checkmark in the spreadsheet control is something about
 font substitution.  It's not a bitmap that's used, it's the checkmark
 symbol.  In.. Arial font, perhaps.  For the keyboard and the focus,
 I'm sure something can be fixed by fiddling with the window server's
 focus-follow-mouse setting.  You might need to install something to
 get access to those settings.

 On 3 April 2015 at 17:46, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:

Re: OT: houdini mickymouse mode

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Ya I've had some oddities on Windows when it comes to dual monitors i.e.
the mplay window keeps popping over to the wrong screen and I've had the
cursor one as well.  I think the worst is the crashing I've been having
with GL volumes but this is on v12.

I'm holding off on being too critical until 14 because it sounds like
they're altering the interface somewhat, QT I think?

On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 8:07 AM, Gerbrand Nel nagv...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hey guys
 I decided to get into houdini as I might be dead by the time bifrost is
 mature.
 Right of the bat I got a real show stopper.
 I lovingly call it mickymousemode
 My cursor turns into the mickymose hand, normal associated with panning a
 window, and stays like that.
 No keyboard short cuts or anything else works.
 If I try to close Houdini, I cant even click the save or exit buttons.
 Has anyone seen this, and found a fix?
 Thanks guys
 G

Re: OT Houdini 14 Sneak Peak

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

I've found that Mantra is a little slower than Arnold overall but is faster
in some cases and is infinitely more flexible due to its tight integration
with the rest of the package.  Keep in mind that Mantra is many things at
once, a traditional reyes rendeerer or full blown PBR, take your pick.

Mantra can really bend over backwards for you at times, it's impressive and
refreshing.


On Fri, Dec 5, 2014 at 8:22 AM, Cristobal Infante cgc...@gmail.com wrote:

 Mantra might be a bit slower, but is comparable to Arnold. It can do
 displacement, motion blur hair, etc. Remember you can request additional
 Mantra licenses at no cost.

 Houdini's learning curve is steep, but the more you learn, the more you
 want to know. You start thinking differently, looking for procedural ways
 of building stuff. I am personally heading that way as well.

Re: OT Houdini 14 Sneak Peak

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

I don't know about everyone else but I've been learning Houdini for a
couple months now and I am totally awestruck by it despite some weak areas
that it looks like it's improving on.The flow of data through the program
is wonderful and far better than Soft.  I got comfortable quite quickly
with it.  Helps to have a few guys around that know it ;-)

You can move compounds and vex nodes all over the place with very little
transition work i.e. I'm moving a deformer sop over to a shader with just
some coordinate conversions and I can easily build interfaces and
connections with uniformity and predictability.  I'm very happy with it and
I haven't even touched the dynamics or volume tools at all.


On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 1:19 PM, Oscar Juarez tridi.animei...@gmail.com
wrote:

 UX improvements seem like something much needed.

 https://vimeo.com/113441818

Re: Glasswoks Lycra

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Why is that?  I didn't see anything in that spot any renderer couldn't
handle without issue.  Was there some specific reason redshift excelled
beyond some extra gpu power?



On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 3:34 AM, Florian Juri florian.j...@googlemail.com
wrote:

 oh and I forgot to mention: without Redshift we'd be still rendering!

Re: Glasswoks Lycra

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

At the cost of a smaller fast memory pool?  From what I understand Redshift
slows down significantly when it starts using off board RAM?  I know this
is one of the main reasons many other renderers haven't gone to the GPU yet
since cards with decent amounts of memory are still priced far too high.

How is Redshift with overall memory usage?  i.e. what is the memory
footprint per polygon etc.  Also it's biased correct?  I
become nauseous when someone mentions that word, is their approach better
than other IC approaches?  Similar pitfalls?

I may try it this weekend on my 780gtx (only 3GB onboard) at home since
it's been getting good PR here.  With the type of memory heavy rendering we
do for film and the efficient platform agnostic pipeline friendly workflow
we have with Arnold I don't see it being useful outside some smaller
commercial jobs but I'd like to get a taste of the speed and interactivity.
I suppose if we were a 5 person shop again something like RS would be a
godsend.

On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 11:06 AM, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:

 that extra GPU power is a dramatic increase in speed though.

Re: Glasswoks Lycra

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

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

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

On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 11:43 AM, Ed Manning etmth...@gmail.com wrote:

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

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

Re: Glasswoks Lycra

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

I suppose there's also no density processing tax that Intel likes to levy
on the xeon silicone along with the shitty extra dollars for ecc ram and
server class motherboards.  They really aren't growing any positive karma
with that.

On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 12:07 PM, Tim Crowson tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com
 wrote:

  What's really awesome is that these cards are not only getting better,
 but cheaper too. The 900 series was just released and packs a punch for not
 a whole lot of money. Redshift excells with these so-called 'gaming' cards.

 -Tim

Re: Glasswoks Lycra

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Ya sorry I totally derailed this thread... the work was amazing!!!

On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 12:07 PM, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:



 back to how awesome redshift is and how much talent glassworks' has...

Re: Glasswoks Lycra

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

With Modo we almost always ended up using brute force because the IC
methods were just far to skittish no matter how much you dialed things up.
I think since then they've implemented some hybrid approach as well.

I still think the future is bidirectional with beastly hardware dealing
with any noise but for now I'm curious to try out RS.  Seems like the raw
speed is over riding any other concerns especially on smaller jobs.

On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 12:20 PM, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:

 haha, thanks. that is what i figured.. most people using vray do something
 similar with their brute force + light cache

Re: Softimage to Modo

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Would be neat to see Houdini get some loving.  How do you find it for
development?  We've been using it for fx work for years now and have a
small but capable team of guys.  Looks like we'll be moving lighting over
there as well.  Losing ICE will suck and Houdini is really the only thing
that comes close to being able to replicate what it did IMO.


On Thu, Aug 7, 2014 at 9:28 AM, Eric Mootz e...@mootzoid.com wrote:

 @Tim: Modo was always high on my radar. It took so long to really start
 porting stuff to Modo due to lack of time and also because Modo did not
 have the necessary feature set yet (e.g. the particle system).

 @Paulo: Modo has really evolved in the past two years and porting stuff
 like emPolygonizer and emFlock is now possible, at least I believe so.
 Note that there are also plans to port plugins to other packages, namely
 Fabric Engine, Maya and Houdini, possibly Cinema 4D, too.

Re: Maya 2015 Node Editor

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

I agree Eric, 100%

As of now we're probably shifting lighting, shading and scene setup in
Houdini instead of Maya now that HtoA is in play. It's much closer to Soft
in terms of usability and UI maturity.  We primarily use Arnold but Mantra
is a fantastic sidekick and when you combine them you end up with an
amazingly powerful triumvirate.

Frankly I was shocked and disappointed at how bad Maya's shading workflow
was after taking some quick looks, everything takes an extra 2 or three or
more steps for every single one of Softs or Houdini's.  The simple task of
connecting nodes isn't even straightforward!! Compile a days worth of extra
steps and I've lost a solid hour to clicking. Anyone who has even looked
any other package should know this, it's immediately apparent that there
will be a measurable reduction in productivity.


On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 10:22 AM, Eric Mootz e...@mootzoid.com wrote:

 He, he, the owner of a restaurant that serves healthy food containing
 everything the body needs (calories, vitamines etc.) but that looks, tastes
 and smeels bad, must not be surprised if people complain :)

 Seriously, the problem is not the functionality, it is the usability, the
 look and feel.

 I am aware that making a pretty UI is - at least from a programmer's
 stand point, not a cool challenge, but having nice and meaningful colors,
 good drag and drop functionality, text instead of ugly icons and all the
 other nice little things as one finds in the ICE Tree or Modo's schematic
 view make a huge difference for the paying (!) customer, i.e. the gals and
 guys that spend hours and hours using the app.
 That's what makes Softimage so special: it just feels right and it
 actually is a real pleasure to do things, even complicated things. One
 truly has the feeling that somebody sat down and thought about how to
 implement something and - most importantly - how to make the user
 interaction as pleasant and intuitive as possible. Not saying that XSI is
 perfect, but it definitely is a software made by people who actually cared
 about it and wanted to make something good.

 Isn't the Softimage crew working on Maya now??? C'mon, guys, you did such
 an outstanding job on Softimage, do the same for Maya: make it a software
 one loves and likes!


 Am 15.07.2014 17:07, schrieb Luc-Eric Rousseau:

  Define make it better?

 On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 10:31 AM, Eric Mootze...@mootzoid.com  wrote:

 Thanks, guys.
 I had already used the node editor in Maya 2014 and yes, it is far better
 than the hypergraph, but still... it's not good at all. Had hoped that
 they
 would make that better, but no.

Re: Softimage to Modo - Modo 801 global Launch

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

I've used both in production and Arnold's ceiling is exponentially higher
than Modos.  I find a lot of people say all renderers are similar before
ever really testing them in a heavy production.

I love Modo but it is not capable of lifting anything close to what Arnold
can.  Arnold is also far more stable, is truly platform agnostic and can be
easily integrated into any pipeline.  I'd love to see SA write an exporter
for Modo, being able to do lookdev and archiving within it would be
fantastic.

Just my 2 cents.

On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 12:57 PM, Perry Harovas perryharo...@gmail.comwrote:

 Hey Greg,

 Honestly, from my (limited) experience with modo, I have not seen a major
 drawback to the renderer. The AOV's are extensive and well thought out,
 it has a pass system that is right up there with Soft, better in some
 ways, almost as good in others.

 It is VERY fast, and has great quality.

 I think (just my opinion) that the reason others want Arnold and Redshift
 in modo is because more renderers means more options, not because
 the modo renderer is lacking in any way. Don't think mental ray when you
 think of the default renderer in modo, even though that is what we are used
 to, and why many of us were always looking for another renderer in Soft.

 Anyway, that is my unscientific hypothesis!




 On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 3:47 PM, Greg Punchatz g...@janimation.comwrote:

 I hear a lot of requests for 3rd party rendering in modo, what are the
 limitations of modo's render engine that have people looking for other
 render engines?  Does it not scale well? I would love to know its drawbacks.

 I have seen nothing but impressive images and demos from modo, but the
 only thing keeping me from digging into it was the lack of nodes.

 I love me some Arnold, but I also like the the idea of filling up our
 farm with modo licenses for a fraction of the cost.


 On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 2:38 PM, David Rivera 
 activemotionpictu...@yahoo.com wrote:

 Yes you can. Basically anyone comming from the 2d animation world would
 be glad with this. I keep saying: Southpark with revamp worflow for 3D.



 *David Rivera*
 *3D Compositor/Animator*
 LinkedIN http://ec.linkedin.com/in/3dcinetv
 Behance https://www.behance.net/3dcinetv
 VFX Reel https://vimeo.com/70551635
   On Friday, April 25, 2014 2:23 PM, Greg Punchatz g...@janimation.com
 wrote:
  I am assuming you can off set keys afterward? If not, it would be too
 limiting.


 On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 1:17 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 But is it a completely parallel system to curves ? or can you tweak
 curves later ? not sure how this would work with gimble otherwise, unless
 you keyframe it into the ground.


 On 25 April 2014 18:40, Jordi Bares jordiba...@gmail.com wrote:

 The difference imho is equivalent to modelling pulling vertices to
 zbrush sculpting. It is the state of mind in which you start thinking about
 poses, blocking, refinement of animation as a sequence of clear steps
 rather than a soup of keyframes.

 In the sense that an animator does not need to open an curve and worry
 about slopes but only timing and pose, this is imho a completely revamp of
 how things should be done and I would bet money if you put a true animator
 (2d trained with years of experience) the result till blow you mind.

 My God I have been waiting for this… Finally!

 It is clear the combination for me is modo+houdini…

  Jordi Bares
 jordiba...@gmail.com

 On 25 Apr 2014, at 18:20, Norbert Kiehne softim...@norbert-kiehne.de
 wrote:

  Hmmm, maybe I am missing something here, but what is the difference to
 selecting all your controls and using the dopesheet or meta curve region/
 animation editor to change the timing and spacing of your animation?



 On 25.04.2014 18:56, Jordi Bares wrote:

 I would say this is a game changer, just give it to a _real_ character
 animator (traditionally trained) and I would bet you the output will be
 amazing.

  Jordi Bares
 jordiba...@gmail.com

  On 25 Apr 2014, at 17:43, David Rivera activemotionpictu...@yahoo.com
 wrote:

  Hi, I recorded some of the webinar launch. Around minute 7 you´ll see
 the new animation worflow in Modo 801.
 IMHO, this is what I´ve always wanted as 2D/3D animator. Anyone thinking
 south park 2D and regular 3D animation
 with this workflow?

  Modo801 - New Animation worflow http://youtu.be/n0PrpOFCQaA

  ps: video is just uploading. Should be up around 15 more mins.


  [image: image] http://youtu.be/n0PrpOFCQaA

  Modo801 - New Animation worflow http://youtu.be/n0PrpOFCQaA

  View on youtu.be http://youtu.be/n0PrpOFCQaA
  Preview by Yahoo



 *David Rivera*
 *3D Compositor/Animator*
 LinkedIN http://ec.linkedin.com/in/3dcinetv
 Behance https://www.behance.net/3dcinetv
 VFX Reel https://vimeo.com/70551635



 --
  Norbert Kiehne
 Senior 3D Artist










 --





 Perry Harovas
 Animation and Visual Effects

 http://www.TheAfterImage.com http://www.theafterimage.com/

 -25 Years 

disabling tooltips

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Is it possible to globally disable tooltips?

Re: LUTs in region render clipping

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

2013 w the sp

On Monday, March 24, 2014, Jens Lindgren jens.lindgren@gmail.com
wrote:

 What version of Softimage are you using?

 /Jens


 On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 12:11 AM, Simon van de Lagemaat 
 si...@theembassyvfx.comjavascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','si...@theembassyvfx.com');
  wrote:

 Trying to get a show lut going in the region render and we're getting
 consistent clipping in the highlights no matter what type of lut (csp and
 cube) we try and no amount of preconditioning is helping... is this just a
 case of the region render not being fp?  Is there a possible fix for this
 I'm not aware of?




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

Re: LUTs in region render clipping

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Here's what my comp guy is saying. Seems like most people who have success
aren't converting their luts but instead are creating them from scratch.

We're converting a 3dl lut with ociobakelut

We're using ociobakelut with config-free baking.

We want to convert it to a .csp file to use in XSI

current command is

ociobakelut --lut lut.3dl --format cinespace lut.csp

However when we  load the lut.csp into soft without pre-conditioning we
don't get a match? Colour kinda looks ballpark but it looks over exposed

Loading the .csp back into nuke and it matches with the .3dl ?


On Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 10:52 AM, Andy Jones andy.jo...@gmail.com wrote:

 Maybe you need to add a shaperspace?

 ociobakelut.exe --iconfig ocio_config_path --format cinespace
 --inputspace inputspace shaperspace lg10 --outputspace outputspace
 --looks looks output_path


 On Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 8:58 AM, Simon van de Lagemaat 
 si...@theembassyvfx.com wrote:

 2013 w the sp


 On Monday, March 24, 2014, Jens Lindgren jens.lindgren@gmail.com
 wrote:

 What version of Softimage are you using?

 /Jens


 On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 12:11 AM, Simon van de Lagemaat 
 si...@theembassyvfx.com wrote:

 Trying to get a show lut going in the region render and we're getting
 consistent clipping in the highlights no matter what type of lut (csp and
 cube) we try and no amount of preconditioning is helping... is this just a
 case of the region render not being fp?  Is there a possible fix for this
 I'm not aware of?




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

LUTs in region render clipping

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Trying to get a show lut going in the region render and we're getting
consistent clipping in the highlights no matter what type of lut (csp and
cube) we try and no amount of preconditioning is helping... is this just a
case of the region render not being fp?  Is there a possible fix for this
I'm not aware of?

Re: emitt grid on surface

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Maybe I need to break this problem down a little.

1.  I need to know how to build a 2d particle grid in the first place... if
there's a simple tut out there I'd love to do it.

2.  Determine how to center and then align the grid to a surface .  I'm
already doing this with a raycast method for the Y alignment but I'm having
to manually center and size the 3d grid to the surfaces bounding box using
it's own built in controls... it's a pita when you have a lot of fields.

I'm a smart guy, I should be able to do this if I can just get access to
the proper tutorials or advice :-)  It's fun regardless, I enjoy putting
all the pieces together as I build them.

FYI, basically I'm making corn rows in a field and I'm being passed geo for
each field.  I need to emit and rotate a grid on it as a base for
instancing.  Everything else I can do easily, i.e. all the usual scattering
stuff, randomization of everything really.


On Tue, Mar 18, 2014 at 3:51 PM, Matt Morris matt...@gmail.com wrote:

 Should be able to get locations on the surface via the raycast and create
 the points needed from them, rather than building all of them and deleting
 those not intersecting?




 On 18 March 2014 22:39, Jason S jasonsta...@gmail.com wrote:

  Actually refreshing to see a bit of normal content =)


 On 03/18/14 17:28, Simon van de Lagemaat wrote:

 There's nothing the matter with it.  Right now I'm just aligning the
 points to the surface and deleting the points that are not hitting the
 surface.  In fact it's working a little better than I thought it would.


 On Tue, Mar 18, 2014 at 2:09 PM, olivier jeannel olivier.jean...@noos.fr
  wrote:

 In order to better help (It's so noisy these days) Can you post a screen
 grab of what you want ? What's the matter with deleting particles ?


 Le 18/03/2014 20:06, Simon van de Lagemaat a écrit :

  Hey guys,

 I'm trying to do something simple, just emitting a flat grid on a
 uneven surface that can have it's heading changed.  Currently I'm just
 creating a grid in a point cloud and raycasting it down on to my surface
 but I'm having to kill off the particles outside the surface which is a
 pita.

 Is there a simple way to emit a rotatable grid from the surface
 directly rather than raycasting?  Even being able to kill off the particles
 that aren't raycasting on to the surface would suffice.







 --
 www.matinai.com

emitt grid on surface

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Hey guys,

I'm trying to do something simple, just emitting a flat grid on a uneven
surface that can have it's heading changed.  Currently I'm just creating a
grid in a point cloud and raycasting it down on to my surface but I'm
having to kill off the particles outside the surface which is a pita.

Is there a simple way to emit a rotatable grid from the surface directly
rather than raycasting?  Even being able to kill off the particles that
aren't raycasting on to the surface would suffice.

Re: emitt grid on surface

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

There's nothing the matter with it.  Right now I'm just aligning the points
to the surface and deleting the points that are not hitting the surface.
 In fact it's working a little better than I thought it would.


On Tue, Mar 18, 2014 at 2:09 PM, olivier jeannel olivier.jean...@noos.frwrote:

 In order to better help (It's so noisy these days) Can you post a screen
 grab of what you want ? What's the matter with deleting particles ?


 Le 18/03/2014 20:06, Simon van de Lagemaat a écrit :

  Hey guys,

 I'm trying to do something simple, just emitting a flat grid on a uneven
 surface that can have it's heading changed.  Currently I'm just creating a
 grid in a point cloud and raycasting it down on to my surface but I'm
 having to kill off the particles outside the surface which is a pita.

 Is there a simple way to emit a rotatable grid from the surface directly
 rather than raycasting?  Even being able to kill off the particles that
 aren't raycasting on to the surface would suffice.

Re: let me fan the flames....

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

On Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 11:10 AM, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:

 autodesk might have to consider extra security...


Well if they ever travel to Montreal they'll need to hire Blackwater ops
and drive around in armored vehicles like it's Fallujah.

Re: Mark's good bye

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

I think that combo made/makes for the greatest package for generalists that
has ever existed.   Small teams can accomplish so much with those three
tools.


On Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 4:07 PM, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:

 that subaru project is one of my all time favorites... it was at the
 pivotal point... softimage, ice, arnold... amazing talent.

 s


 On Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 4:05 PM, Sebastian Kowalski l...@sekow.com wrote:

 drunk but...
 showing off a part of the most game changing project of my career so far,
 coming from a guy like mark.. holy crap..now i am fucking emotional..
 the subaru dandelion was made by reinhard preissner and fabian schaper.
 two unsung and quiet heros of this great community..

 thank you mark for years of infectious enthusiasm.

 .sebastian

Re: new upgrade policy

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

i don't know who it was, but whoever trimmed either email... thank you!


On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 11:42 AM, Tony Naqvi i...@tonynaqvi.co.uk wrote:

 Anyone remember thins ;)



 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRd5uaM18Qg

Re: Duplicating a UV set

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Nope can't multi copy paste... bah!


On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 2:32 PM, Simon van de Lagemaat 
si...@theembassyvfx.com wrote:

 That would be nice but I've got a LOT of em.. is copy pasting UV's doable
 with multi selections??


 On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 2:28 PM, Tim Crowson 
 tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com wrote:

  You could always just create a new UV set, then copy-paste from one set
 to the other...

 -Tim



 On 2/27/2014 4:23 PM, Simon van de Lagemaat wrote:

 What's the proper method for duplicating a UV set?

  Right now it appears that when I duplicate the UV 'cluster' it's only
 referencing the original root UV set. So when you go and rename the new
 instance the original is renamed as well, not good.

  Ideas?


 --

Re: Duplicating a UV set

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

That would be nice but I've got a LOT of em.. is copy pasting UV's doable
with multi selections??


On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 2:28 PM, Tim Crowson tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com
 wrote:

  You could always just create a new UV set, then copy-paste from one set
 to the other...

 -Tim



 On 2/27/2014 4:23 PM, Simon van de Lagemaat wrote:

 What's the proper method for duplicating a UV set?

  Right now it appears that when I duplicate the UV 'cluster' it's only
 referencing the original root UV set. So when you go and rename the new
 instance the original is renamed as well, not good.

  Ideas?


 --

Duplicating a UV set

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

What's the proper method for duplicating a UV set?

Right now it appears that when I duplicate the UV 'cluster' it's only
referencing the original root UV set. So when you go and rename the new
instance the original is renamed as well, not good.

Ideas?

Re: Duplicating a UV set

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Okay success!  Need to duplicate UV's IN THE EDITOR... works with multiple
UV's and is reasonably fast.


On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 2:50 PM, Simon van de Lagemaat 
si...@theembassyvfx.com wrote:

 Nope can't multi copy paste... bah!


 On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 2:32 PM, Simon van de Lagemaat 
 si...@theembassyvfx.com wrote:

 That would be nice but I've got a LOT of em.. is copy pasting UV's doable
 with multi selections??


 On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 2:28 PM, Tim Crowson 
 tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com wrote:

  You could always just create a new UV set, then copy-paste from one set
 to the other...

 -Tim



 On 2/27/2014 4:23 PM, Simon van de Lagemaat wrote:

 What's the proper method for duplicating a UV set?

  Right now it appears that when I duplicate the UV 'cluster' it's only
 referencing the original root UV set. So when you go and rename the new
 instance the original is renamed as well, not good.

  Ideas?


 --

Re: Tim Borgmann's emTopolizer2 Experiments

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

So pretty!!


On Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 6:23 AM, Eric Mootz e...@mootzoid.com wrote:

  Hey gang,

 Tim Borgmann just released a short video on Vimeo with some of his latest
 tests and experiments with emTopolizer2. It is, in my opinion, a great
 collection of examples of how emTopolizer2's new feature (the conversion
 of particles and strands into polygon meshes) can help to create lovely
 effects. Thanks so much for this, Tim!

 Check out the video here: http://vimeo.com/80829002

 Cheers,
 Eric

Re: Whiskeytree Athens tech demo

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

This is awesome.  It's funny how Arnold has changed our pipeline, we're no
where near what you guys have but the entire Model  reference  ass
switching workflow is what we've implemented already i.e. the ability to
swap between all three at any time, make changes to the source in the
lighting scene and push those changes to a newer revisions, both models and
ass files so they roll in to other shots etc.

I love how when you drop a ref model down on the ground it's just a select
and click to drop, sweet.


On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 10:34 AM, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:

 thanks for the kind words everyone! i will pass along the praises...

 some extra info for those interested...

 -we used arnold 3.x to render this
 -because of how we partitioned the work out, and how sitoa exports ICE
 instances we had to come up with a way to make sure there was no redundant
 instance masters. we created a system to do that. we then collaborated with
 solid angle to make this a first party feature. auto instancing of
 procedurals.. you're welcome! ;P
 -memory consumption would be drastically lower in arnold 4.x
 -this was the basis for the workflow we used on elysium, of course for
 more shots and a lot more detail... remember we rendered over 5 trillion
 triangles for elysium.
 -not everything was hand placed, we had some more ICE tools for
 automatically aligning and placing buildings.

 steven


 On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 9:37 AM, Juhani Karlsson 
 juhani.karls...@talvi.com wrote:

 Tron legacy? Daft Punk? Maybe?
 On Nov 22, 2013 7:12 PM, Peter Agg peter@googlemail.com wrote:

 What's that soundtrack from? Seems familiar but I can't quite place it...


 On 22 November 2013 16:58, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hairy ballz of the Gods !!!


 On 22 November 2013 17:46, Sylvain Lebeau s...@shedmtl.com wrote:

  holy mother of god..

 you guys rock at WT!

 sly



 On 11/22/2013 09:04 AM, adrian wyer wrote:

  congrats to everyone at Whiskeytree for this epic demo!



 https://vimeo.com/71148018



 your library toolset is a thing of beauty!



 a

Re: Whiskeytree Athens tech demo

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Ya I realize that demo was sped up... I guess I let my mind run away a
little :-)

I was thinking you had done some sort of mesh drop using a constrained null
or something.  Then I started thinking you could switch between normal
constraints or just axis constraints i.e. align to ground or just Y up and
slide the mesh around.  You can show us that demo when you've implemented
those features ;-)


On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 11:24 AM, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:

 i think the speed of the demo and clever use of interactive snapping might
 be fooling you ;)

 but you give me an idea for a custom tool plugin like piotrek's mesh paint
 plugin but for our pipeline.



 On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 11:15 AM, Simon van de Lagemaat 
 si...@theembassyvfx.com wrote:


 I love how when you drop a ref model down on the ground it's just a
 select and click to drop, sweet.

Re: Autodesk´s Sales model

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

This is a chicken/egg thing imo.

I'd agree with you if for a second I thought that subscriptions fell off
before development did but I really doubt that's the case here.  Instead I
bet there's a pretty solid correlation between AD purchasing Softimage and
a erosion of the user base due to reduced and poorly directed development.
 AD is a big company with a LOT of products that cover a massive range,
they do not and cannot take the same development risks that teams take with
isolated products that are fighting for market share.

People bought licenses of Softimage, they were happy, AD bought Soft and
satisfaction has decreased fairly linearly over time. It's really simple,
people stopped investing because they felt they weren't getting a good
enough return.  Why keep shoving money into a product that hasn't offered
you anything new or useful for your pipeline over several years?  We're all
running businesses here.


On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 1:57 PM, jim bough jimbo...@hotmail.com wrote:

 I agree with you 100%. That is the case now.

 I do however feel that people using older versions, did not invest in the
 future of Softimage. Of course, there are many other considerations, SDK,
 core, etc. But with the investment, perhaps many of these wouldn't be the
 factor they are now either. And, not to rail against businesses that chose
 this path in the past, business is business. But, I do feel software has
 become too cheap for the rd requirement of users expectations.

 Yes, there is Blender, but I prefer to invest in my software.. it really
 is a minimal investment compared to what I make from it.

Re: Defining GL textures

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Thanks a ton Steve, I'd never seen that little tab before... just when you
think you've dug around everywhere there's always a usefull little
something that stays hidden.


On Thu, Sep 19, 2013 at 3:16 PM, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:

 inspect the root part of the material, opengl display tab... various
 options.


 On Thu, Sep 19, 2013 at 3:03 PM, Simon van de Lagemaat 
 si...@theembassyvfx.com wrote:

 How can I specify which clipss on a surface appear in GL viewports?
  Currently it seems like Soft is picking up whatever clip I have loaded
 last.  If I change the clip in the UV editor it changes but the moment I
 close it it resets back.

 Changing the clips to not use auto also resets after closing the window.
  There must be a way to define what clips are used for an object GL display
 right?



 --
 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.

Defining GL textures

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

How can I specify which clipss on a surface appear in GL viewports?
 Currently it seems like Soft is picking up whatever clip I have loaded
last.  If I change the clip in the UV editor it changes but the moment I
close it it resets back.

Changing the clips to not use auto also resets after closing the window.
 There must be a way to define what clips are used for an object GL display
right?
--
To unsubscribe: mail softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com with subject 
unsubscribe and reply to the confirmation email.

Re: Royal Render and Vray

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Holger provides super fast support.  I suggest hitting up their system if
you can't get any results here.

http://www.royalrender.de/support/


On Fri, Sep 13, 2013 at 12:59 PM, Eric Lampi ericla...@gmail.com wrote:

 Anyone have this set up? We're getting errors saying that certain plugins
 etc are not installed, yet it can see the workgroups. Our IT guys can't
 seem to figure this out.

 Suggestions are appreciated!

 Eric
 Freelance 3D and VFX animator

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

Re: unsubscribe

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

You rolled up his rim didn't you.


On Mon, Sep 2, 2013 at 2:53 PM, Guillaume Laforge 
guillaume.laforge...@gmail.com wrote:

 So did the Autodesk big boss...

 :)


 On Mon, Sep 2, 2013 at 5:26 PM, Eric Thivierge ethivie...@gmail.comwrote:

 Don't let Guillaume fool you. I fired him the other day when he didn't
 bring me some Tim Horton's. :P

Particles driving weight maps

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Anyone know of any examples for driving a weight map via particle
distances?  I need to use a particle field distributed on a mesh to paint
the weight map, basically a splatter map of sorts.  I can find a bunch of
examples of proximity based effects for geometry but nothing for point
clouds.

Re: Particles driving weight maps

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Ya I tried this but it wasn't working, I'll give it another go though,
maybe I missed something.


On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 3:40 PM, Rob Chapman tekano@gmail.com wrote:

 have you tried plugging a pointcloud in?  works pretty much the same
 way. heres something by Paul a few years ago describing it in detail

 https://vimeo.com/20240568



 On 22 August 2013 00:15, Simon van de Lagemaat si...@theembassyvfx.com
 wrote:
  Anyone know of any examples for driving a weight map via particle
 distances?
  I need to use a particle field distributed on a mesh to paint the weight
  map, basically a splatter map of sorts.  I can find a bunch of examples
 of
  proximity based effects for geometry but nothing for point clouds.

'find' command not respecting current partition

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Does this drive anyone else up the damn wall?  You have an object selected
and when you hit F to find it in the partitions in explorer it takes you to
an inactive partition?  HAIR PULLING

Sorry for the rant.

Re: 'find' command not respecting current partition

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Dooohhh... ya pass not partition sorry.


On Thu, Jun 13, 2013 at 10:15 AM, Gareth Bell 
gareth.b...@primefocusworld.com wrote:

  Do mean current pass?



 If that's the case, I find hitting U for current pass and then hitting
 F works.

 --

  *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] on behalf of Simon van de
 Lagemaat [si...@theembassyvfx.com]
 *Sent:* 13 June 2013 18:11
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* 'find' command not respecting current partition

   Does this drive anyone else up the damn wall?  You have an object
 selected and when you hit F to find it in the partitions in explorer it
 takes you to an inactive partition?  HAIR PULLING

  Sorry for the rant.

Re: Running Softimage without installing it.

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

There is a network install option so all you have to do is run a batch file
once on a machine and it silently installs with all  your licensing options
that you set the first time.


On Thu, May 16, 2013 at 11:21 AM, Mirko Jankovic
mirkoj.anima...@gmail.comwrote:

 Now thinking about it... wouldn't it be good and even needed to have
 beside install option on installer something like install to render nodes
 or something to help out mass installation?
 Even on 10 more computers is time consuming now add a 0 there or
 something..

 How are you guys handling installation and management on small and medium
 render farms at all?
 Installation, upgrades, addons and upgrades of addons...
 Sorry for a bit of a hijack but it is kinda same topic right?


 On Thu, May 16, 2013 at 8:04 PM, Francois Lord flordli...@gmail.comwrote:

 Hi.

 In my never ending quest to find a way to install Softimage automatically
 and simply on all machines, I have yet again hit a road block.
 Last year, after several days of failed attempts, I resorted to
 installing it manually on my machine and copying the folder on the other
 machines. I had to copy the ProductInformation.pit file from C:\Program
 Data and I had to run the runonce.bat file. And then all was well and
 dandy. Easily scriptable and no human intervention required.

 This year however, things seem different. When I do the same, Softimage
 can't find a license. This is where the ProductInformation.pit file was
 required last year, but it seems it's not enough now.

 I noticed there is a new License.env file in the Application\bin folder.
 But it contains the right informations about our license server since I ran
 the installer on my machine. I don't know if it has anything to do with all
 this.

 Any one has bits of info on this?

 Thanks.


 Francois

Re: LUT Files for Workgroups ?

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Ya I think I had the same problem, hence my doubt about it working... shame
because using LUTs is Soft is hard enough as is.


On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 12:26 PM, Alok alok.gan...@modusfx.com wrote:

  Well it works for this path in the installation folder, but somehow for
 a workgroup it does not work.

 If I put the files in
 \\myWorkgroup\Data\Preferences\Default\ColorManagement, they do not show up
 in the preferences.




  ALOK

 GANDHI

 / chef directeur technique - lead technical director

 alok.gan...@modusfx.com

 T:
 *450 430-0010 x225

 F:
 450 430-0009
 www.modusfx.com


 -

 MODUS

 FX

 120 Rue Turgeon,

 Sainte-Therese (Quebec) CANADA J7E 3J1

 Follow us on
 Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ModusFX

 
 Twitter https://twitter.com/Modusfx
 *
 On 10/05/2013 3:16 PM, Simon van de Lagemaat wrote:

 \Data\Preferences\ColorManagement

  But not sure if that shows up in your preferences... it should right?


 On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 12:09 PM, Alok alok.gan...@modusfx.com wrote:

  Hi,

 Anyone knows where to put the LUT files in a user defined workgroup so it
 is available on the display tab in the prefenrence.

 --

 ALOK

 GANDHI

 / chef directeur technique - lead technical director

 alok.gan...@modusfx.com

 T:
 *450 430-0010 x225

 F:
 450 430-0009
 www.modusfx.com


 -

 MODUS

 FX

 120 Rue Turgeon,

 Sainte-Therese (Quebec) CANADA J7E 3J1

 Follow us on
 Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ModusFX

 
 Twitter https://twitter.com/Modusfx
 *


  No virus found in this message.
 Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
 Version: 2012.0.2241 / Virus Database: 3162/5813 - Release Date: 05/10/13

Re: LUT Files for Workgroups ?

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Okay I just went and tried this again and it does seem to be working now.
 Not sure why I remember it not working  before, I might have had some
conflicts at the time.


On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 12:26 PM, Alok alok.gan...@modusfx.com wrote:

  Well it works for this path in the installation folder, but somehow for
 a workgroup it does not work.

 If I put the files in
 \\myWorkgroup\Data\Preferences\Default\ColorManagement, they do not show up
 in the preferences.




  ALOK

 GANDHI

 / chef directeur technique - lead technical director

 alok.gan...@modusfx.com

 T:
 *450 430-0010 x225

 F:
 450 430-0009
 www.modusfx.com


 -

 MODUS

 FX

 120 Rue Turgeon,

 Sainte-Therese (Quebec) CANADA J7E 3J1

 Follow us on
 Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ModusFX

 
 Twitter https://twitter.com/Modusfx
 *
 On 10/05/2013 3:16 PM, Simon van de Lagemaat wrote:

 \Data\Preferences\ColorManagement

  But not sure if that shows up in your preferences... it should right?


 On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 12:09 PM, Alok alok.gan...@modusfx.com wrote:

  Hi,

 Anyone knows where to put the LUT files in a user defined workgroup so it
 is available on the display tab in the prefenrence.

 --

 ALOK

 GANDHI

 / chef directeur technique - lead technical director

 alok.gan...@modusfx.com

 T:
 *450 430-0010 x225

 F:
 450 430-0009
 www.modusfx.com


 -

 MODUS

 FX

 120 Rue Turgeon,

 Sainte-Therese (Quebec) CANADA J7E 3J1

 Follow us on
 Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ModusFX

 
 Twitter https://twitter.com/Modusfx
 *


  No virus found in this message.
 Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
 Version: 2012.0.2241 / Virus Database: 3162/5813 - Release Date: 05/10/13

Re: OTish: Neil Blomkamp ELYSIUM trailer

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Image Engine was the primary on Elysium and did the majority of the work.
 There were other shops involved of course but this was really IE's gig,
they supervised it.


On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 5:56 AM, Octavian Ureche okt...@gmail.com wrote:

 Here is the official trailer:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ-bYOyQ46Yfeature=youtu.be

 Don't know what to say. Mixed feelings about it. On one hand i am very
 much looking forward to it,
 on the other hand it feels like a mix between Deponia, Halo and District
 9.
 And the whole low class hero that saves the world is getting overused.
 Hope to be wrong.

 PS. As far as i know, it's the same vfx bunch that did District 9. Image
 engine, Embassy  Weta.
 Wonder if the embassy handled the mechanical stuff once again.

 Cheers,
 O

Re: congrats to the Embassy for Iron Man commercial

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Thanks for the nice comments guys!

We used Softimage and Arnold for the suit, Houdini for any FX work, mostly
smoke, debris thrusters.  We love this combo, I highly recommend it.  The
pipeline in the past between the two was a little jinky but we're rolling
our own alembic solution and soon hope to have Arnold going between the two
along with some open vdb for volume data.


On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 3:56 AM, Chris Chia chris.c...@autodesk.com wrote:

 Did a scrub thru but didn't catch the Softimage screen. And which other
 parts of the movie use Softimage?

 Regards,
 Chris

 On 6 Apr, 2013, at 5:39 AM, Andy Moorer andymoo...@gmail.commailto:
 andymoo...@gmail.com wrote:

 Well done guys! And it's always nice to see SI screens in making-of videos
 like this :D

Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

What are you going to be rendering?


On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 1:41 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Good evening/day everyone !


 The people i am working for are currently debating whether or not to take
 on Arnold, as their official renderer on their next feature film. One of my
 character fx friends has been Beta testing it to great effect, and now has
 to make a case for the switch from 3DLIGHT to Arnold.



 If there are any Arnoldites out their, i was wondering if you had any test
 renders demonstrating Arnolds efficiencies\ deficiencies VS other
 renderers; It doesn't matter if its softimage maya or modo.. or mental ray,
 PR man, vray, maxwell...

 The extra data would be very much appreciated especially with identical
 scenes, written observations are equally welcome.

 So if you've anything at all to share, many thanks ;)

Re: 2014 New feature list... minor corrections list... you decide

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 11:58 AM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.comwrote:

 If fewer customers pay for support, how much developer time do you think
 is going to be put into the product?  In other words, by not paying you are
 effectively killing the product.


Wait, what? This is a chicken before the egg scenario.  Poor development
precedes fewer paying customers almost all of the time.  There's no
possible way in hell the end user can be blamed for anything here.  It's my
companies money and my choice to decide where our money is spent and when
there are better options they will be taken.  The only people to blame for
dropped subscriptions are AD.

Asking me to front cash for speculative development is insane especially
given AD's track record over the last few releases.  It's on them to
properly invest money into r'n'd and proper development.  If they aren't
getting the cash flow from the customer then they need to ante up and get
them interested again with a kick ass major revision.  This isn't
kickstarter and AD isn't a small up and coming developer that needs an
influx of cash to get going.

There are several existing and speculative products on the market right now
that are grasping for my attention and AD does not have a single one of
them.  I bear zero ill will towards Softimage or AD, I just make business
decisions based on future trends and where I think a package will be in 3-5
years.

Re: 2014 New feature list... minor corrections list... you decide

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

How long do you think people should go before using the last resort?  One
year?  Two?  Ten? I think AD has had a very long grace period since they
bought Softimage and people have been patient enough.

They also aren't the only game in town, in fact they own some of the other
games.


On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 1:54 PM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.com wrote:

 BUT, as a customer you shouldn’t withhold your money as first course of
 action.  You should be communicating your issues through proper channels to
 get them resolved.  If and only you’ve gone down all available channels and
 still without resolution should you withhold payment in the form of using a
 different product.  Withholding payment should be the last resort, not the
 first.

Re: fake or not

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Dude, that's attached to a 24.5hz string.


On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 2:01 PM, Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.comwrote:

 Also same magic behind this seemingly static flying helicopter:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfihH-O_0eg



 On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 8:09 AM, Adam Seeley adam_see...@yahoo.comwrote:

 Probably not,

 If you saw the water without the camera it would be vibrating to and fro
 and sloshing around a bit.

 The synced camera and 24hz sine wave means that your'e only seeing the
 water at a certain part of it's vibration.

 Same idea as this..
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRlNOyxWWf8

 Nice though...

 Adam
 --
 Freelance Softimage Generalist
 http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=21162305
  https://vimeo.com/album/2280465



   --
 *From:* Doeke Wartena clankil...@gmail.com
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Sent:* Thursday, 14 March 2013, 11:50
 *Subject:* fake or not

 Can someone tell me if this is rendered?


 http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/03/this-is-what-happens-when-you-run-water-through-a-24hz-sine-wave/

Re: MOMA - Modo for Maya

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

In a nutshell... Modo has a great renderer and Allen Hastings is the heart
and soul of Luxology.  That said it's not a great heavy lifter , it doesn't
handle large and complex scenes well and lacks a lot of the
refining/optimization tools that it should have at this point.

I tried to use it in production but it was difficult and not enjoyable when
time was of the essence and predictability and stability mattered.  As an
asset creation and lookdev tool it is brilliant and flexible, just not in
midsize to large pipelines.  It's a shame because the tech does so many
other things well but is being hampered by the tools surrounding it.

Maybe the Foundry will have a positive influence in this area, I hope so
because there a lot of great things about Modo and its renderer but it
hasn't yet realized its full potential.  Let's see how 7 turns out.


On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 11:04 AM, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:

 once modo has a proper api for it... probably. the amount of work jacobo
 is doing to make this work is staggering as is any renderer
 integration/plugin. i know, i tried to do it for thea render but realized
 how much time i put in was no where near what i was going to get back for
 it.

 i couldn't find the moma to sitoa comparison, i saw a moma and mtoa (maya
 to arnold) comparison. i am surprised though, someone who has worked with
 arnold before (at zinkia on pocoyo) he should know mtoa integration might
 not represent arnold standalone in the best light. since he does have
 experience with arnold, i am also interested in his opinion of it versus
 arnold.

 s

Re: SI 2014 sneak peek

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

But AD opens themselves up to these attacks frequently.  If they'd just
release all the information at once people wouldn't engage in rampant
speculation, instead someone thinks it's a great 'marketing' idea to string
people along.I get why AD thinks it's a neat idea, it lets them show
things NOW so we aren't kept waiting and satisfies the marketing dept.
 Just show us wtf you've come up with and be done with it, nobody wants
teasers, tidbits or quick glances, these aren't movies it's software that
we rely on for our livelihoods.  That's just my opinion.

Frankly I think anyone paying licensing fees has every right to complain
about whether a feature is good or bad, useful or useless, after all we're
the ones floating development of the software and have every right to make
demands.  I have to say that we're on the verge of letting our subscription
lapse (keeping one license) with 2014 as we've not even left 2012 yet and
will probably migrate to 2013 soon and use that for a while.  Compared to
virtually every other product on the market Soft's development is anemic,
there is just nothing driving me to upgrade.  Letting the subscription
lapse and waiting two or three years makes more financial sense, and who
knows, by then maybe there will be other alternatives or Soft dev
will have kicked it up a notch and the crew will be kicking some serious
ass.


On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 11:23 AM, Mirko Jankovic
mirkoj.anima...@gmail.comwrote:

 it is not point that it is not great, like GATOR is (in your face maya max
 and everyone rest that needs programmers to do 1 click things hehe), just
 no expected and really it is still early for these kind of attacks :)


 On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 8:15 PM, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:

 i don't remember anyone asking for GATOR, but i get your point.


 On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 11:13 AM, Mirko Jankovic 
 mirkoj.anima...@gmail.com wrote:

 my guess is that it isn't much a question if this sequencer is useful..
 but more if it is the best that 2014 will offer :)
 seeing a lot fo 2014 wishes, as with any other versions.. I
 don't recall a single sequencer wish, beside other things that people are
 crying for for years now
 My bet sis that again it is attack on sequencer as it kinda represents
 everything that people at this moment think they won't get in 2014

Re: Octane render

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

My experience was that it took a lng time to reduce fine noise.  It got
to the level you have fairly speedily but after that the curve really began
to flatten out.  Maybe it was just my vanilla 500 series nvidia card was
too slow, not sure.


On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 10:41 AM, Toonafish ron...@toonafish.nl wrote:

  just to show off the speed ;-)

 stopped after 10 minutes rendering:
 https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4271217/octane_classroom_10min.png




 On 2/13/2013 17:37, Emilio Hernandez wrote:

  Thanks Ronald.  Too bad developers are only aiming at Maya and Max from
 AD suite.   I admire the job that independent developers are putting into
 this.  I think I'll pass until the viewport is integrated in Softimage.
 Hope it will not take as long as V-ray...

  Even that Maxwell for rendering uses it's own.  The workflow beween
 Softimage and Maxwell is great with Fire. No fooling around or tweaking
 things outside the software.  I hope that Next Limit will add the GPU
 processing and perhaps it will be as fast as Octane.


 2013/2/13 Toonafish ron...@toonafish.nl

  Nope, this is the best there is for SI at the moment as far as I know.

 - Ronald


 On 2/13/2013 17:14, Emilio Hernandez wrote:

 Is the interactive window in softimage plugin available yet?  Personally
 I don't like switching between apps to see how the render is coming.


  2013/2/13 Toonafish ron...@toonafish.nl

  Just watch the video in this thread and install the addon:
 http://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29t=24365

 Make sure you also download and replace the dll that is mentioned later
 on in the thread, and if your SI camera does not export correctly, try
 changing the default units in the Octane prefs to meters.

 - Ronald



 On 2/13/2013 16:27, Jimmy Marrero wrote:

 If you have the time, can you explain the workflow with using both
 octane and softimage without an interactive viewport in soft??


 Thanks


 On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 10:24 AM, Toonafish ron...@toonafish.nl wrote:

  an I7 3930 with a Geforce GTX 960 with 2048 MB, but I'd go for more
 memory on the card if possible.



 On 2/13/2013 16:08, Ed Manning wrote:

 mind sharing your system config?  I'm debating what card to put in a
 box for Octane

 On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 9:57 AM, Toonafish ron...@toonafish.nl wrote:

  yep, been playing with it the last few days and I'm really impressed
 by the speed and quality of Octane.

 But comparing both Arnold and Octane, all I can say is for most stuff
 Arnold is still better suited and production proven, but Octane is a nice
 addition. Some scenes I tested that took forever to render in Arnold 
 render
 in just a few minutes in Octane.

 Can't wait for the interactive viewport plugin for Softimage though.

 - Ronald


 On 2/13/2013 15:00, Emilio Hernandez wrote:

   Anyone here has used octane render within Softimage?

  If so I will appreciate your comments and your point of view of
 Octane vs other renders you have used.

  And if you have used Arnold and Octane, which one you prefer.


  I have the Octane experience only from the videos and the demo.  It
 seems to me that it is like Maxwell but a lot faster.

  Cheers!


 --









 --





 --

Re: Octane render

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

He'll just subdivide everything ;-)


On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 4:31 PM, Toonafish ron...@toonafish.nl wrote:

  yes, better start preparing for somehumiliation !  ;-)

 - Ronald


 On 2/14/2013 1:22, Gene Crucean wrote:

 One down one to go. NEXT!!! aaarrghahrahgh!!!

  ...hehe. Ok I'll stop now.









  GET TO THE CHOPPPA!


 On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 4:16 PM, Toonafish ron...@toonafish.nl wrote:

  yep, Octane does not support subdivisions or displacements, also only
 camera motion blur.

 - Ronald


 On 2/14/2013 1:01, James De Colling wrote:

 What are the limitations with the gpu renderers?  Last time I looked at
 it,  subdivision / displacement was unsupported,  I assume that's changed
 now?
 On Feb 14, 2013 8:08 AM, Emilio Hernandez emi...@e-roja.com wrote:

 If you can provide the scene I can test in Maxwell in six Core i7
 Extreme to compare.  Of course my guess is that Octane will beat it in
 time.  But at least is a good parameter.  The other will be if someone with
 Arnold can do the same.






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

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



 --
 Ronald van Vemden
 ---
 3D Graphics  Animation
 Cyberfish Laboratories | www.cyberfish.nl
 Toonafish | www.toonafish.nl
 tel. +31(0)20 5289291
 fax  +31(0)20 5289292
 email: ron...@toonafish.nl

Re: PyQt Softimage Linux?

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Our pipeline guy Ran Sariel wants to get in to this thread but he just
joined the list and needs an email from this thread to get started.  So
ignore this... apparently the google group is just an archive and can't be
used for replies.


On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 1:55 PM, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:

 i would take a look myself but i dont have access to a linux machine and a
 development environment setup on it. so i can only make suggestions, but i
 would like to help as much as i can. let me know what you find out.


 On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 12:55 PM, Michal Doniec doni...@gmail.com wrote:

 That's really interesting Steven, I'll definitely have a look at these as
 soon as I can. Thank you!

Re: Do you have a fluid cache file for me?

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Do you need bgeo content to test or are you all good?


On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 6:49 PM, Schoenberger x...@digidragon.de wrote:

 **
  Houdini bgeo?  Not sure if it can spit out any other formats,
  apparently openVDB is on the way but not sure.
 OpenVDB will be fully integrated into the next major release of Houdini.
 Right, I forgot bgeo then.

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

Re: Do you have a fluid cache file for me?

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Houdini bgeo?  Not sure if it can spit out any other formats, apparently
openVDB is on the way but not sure.


On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 4:29 AM, Schoenberger x...@digidragon.de wrote:

 **
 Hi Everyone

 I am currently updating my fluid shader for mentalRay and Arnold (probably
 VRay if the others are working).

 To optimize the shading speed and caching, I am collecting a wide range of
 different kinds of fluid simulations. (To be more specific: I am collecting
 the cache files of the sim)
 I just need ONE file of a simulation to test compressions/filter/speed.
 Multiple files of the same simulation do not help as the fluid has a
 similat shape/size/values/color.

 It should be something in production quality (not a tiny 20x20x20 fluid
 grid...)


 Types of cache files:
 - emFluid/.bafl
 - Maya .mc
 - blender .bphys
 - openVBD
 - field3D
 - Phoenix .aur
 - FumeFX ( Not yet supported as I am not able to get any contact via
 supp...@afterworks.com. Tried 4 times in 2 years. Does someone know any
 other contact address?)
 - Any fluid cache format I am missing?


 If you happen to have a cache file:
 - Create a text file with your (company) name.
 - Zip the text file with the cache file(s).
 - Upload it via a file hoster and send me the link
 I found a list of file hoster here:

 http://translate.google.com/translate?tl=enhl=deu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pcwelt.de%2Fratgeber%2FFilehoster-Alternativen-zu-Megaupload-4651729.html

 Files  60MB:
 If your file is less than 60MB, then you can use
 www.BinaryAlchemy.de/upload_caches.php
 (I am getting a new one for larger files, but right now I cannot change
 the limit.)


 When I am finished, I will perhaps add all fluid tests to one large video
 sequence with one fluid/frame and stats like load/render time.

 Many thanks

Re: 16 bit tif from photoshop not working in softimage?

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Lol!  You just made our pipeline guy a happy camper now that he knows
what was randomly crashing soft out when processing assets.

On Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 6:53 AM, Jonathan Laborde
labordeor...@gmail.com wrote:
 We run Softimage In linux (centos 6) here, and we have discovered that Tiff
 files with a certain compression make it crash instantly. I don't remember
 which one it is as we use exr most of the time but once in a while we
 receive an image from a client in tiff and it crashes everything so we have
 to convert it to another compression/format.


 On Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 8:40 AM, Marc-Andre Carbonneau
 marc-andre.carbonn...@ubisoft.com wrote:

 We use tiffs across the board here and never get these ugly problems
 you’re describing.

 A good pipeline, a clean workflow and some Photoshop actions avoid human
 interactions when it comes time to spit out files for rendering. J





 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Gene Crucean
 Sent: 15 novembre 2012 23:15


 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Re: 16 bit tif from photoshop not working in softimage?



 The problem, is that they constantly break things or just don't work. If
 you can get them to work consistently on your end... more power to ya.



 bmp? xpm? Naa... photos. Analog. Keepin it real over here.



 On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 7:00 PM, Raffaele Fragapane
 raffsxsil...@googlemail.com wrote:

 Totally, why on earth would anyone ever want some functionality or
 versatility?! Down with it! Bring MS' bmp back, I say.



 On Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 1:29 PM, Gene Crucean
 emailgeneonthel...@gmail.com wrote:

 That's exactly why I hate them. Wa too many flavors and options for
 people to f**k up. Yes they support a lot of features... but I almost never
 want any of them, and I don't want texture guys saving them with layers
 using lzw compression in cmyk ;)



 Seriously. They suck :P



 On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 6:11 PM, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:

 tifs are perfectly fine... they support many bit depths, mip mapping, and
 tiling. i did a comparison to exr as a texture format years ago and
 OIIO/Arnold liked the tif files better.

 s





 --
 Gene Crucean - Emmy winning - Oscar nominated VFX Supervisor / iOS-OSX
 Developer / Filmmaker / Photographer

 ** Freelance for hire **
 www.genecrucean.com


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

Re: 16 bit tif from photoshop not working in softimage?

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

I've had success with 16bpp greyscale tiffs (heightmaps mostly) but
generally I use exr if I'm going above 8bpp, just a much more
predictable format when extra depth is required.

On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 3:06 PM, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:
 no compression... i am converting them to an optimal rendering format for
 arnold during publish. in the mean time when developing an asset this is
 what my typical settings are when saving from PS.

 compression = none
 pixel order = interleaved
 byte order = ibm pc
 save image pyramid = off
 layer compression = discard layers and save a copy

 s



 On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 3:02 PM, Raffaele Fragapane
 raffsxsil...@googlemail.com wrote:

 Any sort of compression per chance?
 Not too sure about 16bit, but most compression schemes have been a flat
 no-go for me before when it comes to tifs and PS.


 On Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 9:57 AM, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:

 hey gang

 am i right on this? i am trying to see a 16bit tif file inside softimage
 without luck.

 steven




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

Re: 16 bit tif from photoshop not working in softimage?

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

What do people here use as a standard format?  I always thought tiff
was the least offensive format but after running into some issues with
the byte order bs we're wondering if png's might be better?

On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 5:58 PM, Gene Crucean
emailgeneonthel...@gmail.com wrote:
 .tif's =  the devil



 ... that is all



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

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

Re: polygon island attributes

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Thanks Matt,

I've managed to do the first task of isolating and creating and indexing
the islands in ICE.  Here's the tree, I got the setup from a a forum
somewhere, I think they based their setup on Helgees method.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2741653/icetree.jpg

It's the second pass that I'm having trouble with, how to point sample a
noise function for each island, or average it between the vertices of each
island.

This is all getting passed to the RT as attributes.

On Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 11:17 AM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.comwrote:

  What you need to do is break the problem down into 2 or more passes.  The
 first pass identifies and tags polygon islands.  The second pass applies
 the turbulence effect.

 Identifying polygon islands is a one-time process which you should be able
 to accomplish using a scripted command which identifies the islands and
 tags them by creating array nodes in an ICE Tree and stores the results as
 custom ICE attribute data.

 The second pass can be completed in ICE by reading the custom attribute
 data and applying the turbulence as needed.

 Matt



  --
 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Simon van de
 Lagemaat [si...@theembassyvfx.com]
 *Sent:* Saturday, November 10, 2012 8:57 PM

 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: polygon island attributes

  Ya I'm looking for a poly island solution which I had kind of thought
 wouldn't be straight forward.  I'm pretty slow when it comes to putting
 around ICE but I've been thinking of some hacky conceptual methods of doing
 it.

  1.  creating a particle at the center of every island, getting that
 particle to sample a turbulence noise and then passing that value to the
 island.

  2. mapping only one point on the island then passing that value to the
 other island points.

  I'm sure there are better ways to do it but those are what my artist
 brain came up with so far.  I'm not sure about what would require scripting
 and what wouldn't

 On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 8:39 PM, Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.comwrote:

 Hi Ciaran,

 That would work for polygons individually, but Simon seems to be
 asking about polygon islands (so multiple polys per island.) That's
 quite tricky to get via ICE alone without scripted help.

 On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 11:15 PM, Ciaran Moloney
 moloney.cia...@gmail.com wrote:
  Dive inside the turbulence compound and replace any instances of
  pointposition with polygonposition. Also, swap polygonindex for point
 ID.
 
 
  On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 12:21 AM, Simon van de Lagemaat
  si...@theembassyvfx.com wrote:
 
  Hey all,
 
  A while ago I asked how to assign random attributes to polygon islands
 and
  I've recently revisited that task and used a couple of methods using
 the get
  array minimum technique.
 
  Currently I'm just assigning purely random values using a random value
  node which has my custom poly island indices plugged into it.  What
 I'd like
  to do is find a way to drive each islands value via a worley noise or
  turbulise node so I can get a more patterned, less random change to the
  values from island to island.  The issue is finding a way to sample the
  noise at one point for each island and I'm not sure how to go about
 that.
 
  If you have any ideas or could point me to something I'd love to hear
 from
  you.
 
  Cheers.
 
 

Re: polygon island attributes

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Alan that works brilliantly!  I plugged it into my gradient et voila!
 Sometimes I keep forgetting how I can hack into the compounds to expose
parameters.

Thank you very much everyone for the help.  Hopefully others will be able
to use these techniques as well.

On Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 3:11 PM, Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.comwrote:

 On second thought, if you don't mind inaccurate island positions -- that
 is, not the actual island centers -- and you just want to get some
 turbulent values, you could use the IDs as vectors (thus plotting them in
 space) and because they're in space, you can now sample them and use their
 value for noise.

 Here's how I went about it:

Re: polygon island attributes

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

I will admit it would be nice to be able to properly map the islands
positions in space.  Seems like that should be possible.

On Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 3:11 PM, Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.comwrote:

 On second thought, if you don't mind inaccurate island positions -- that
 is, not the actual island centers -- and you just want to get some
 turbulent values, you could use the IDs as vectors (thus plotting them in
 space) and because they're in space, you can now sample them and use their
 value for noise.

 Here's how I went about it:





 On Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 5:45 PM, Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.comwrote:

 Nice tree, Simon! :)

 Here's a way to use the *Random Value* node:



 If you want to use the Turbulence node then it gets trickier as you must
 correlate your IDs to a specific position in space to properly sample its
 noise. Might try that later.

 Hope this helps a bit.


 On Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 3:15 PM, Simon van de Lagemaat 
 si...@theembassyvfx.com wrote:

 Thanks Matt,

 I've managed to do the first task of isolating and creating and indexing
 the islands in ICE.  Here's the tree, I got the setup from a a forum
 somewhere, I think they based their setup on Helgees method.

 https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2741653/icetree.jpg

 It's the second pass that I'm having trouble with, how to point sample a
 noise function for each island, or average it between the vertices of each
 island.

 This is all getting passed to the RT as attributes.


 On Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 11:17 AM, Matt Lind ml...@carbinestudios.comwrote:

  What you need to do is break the problem down into 2 or more passes.  The
 first pass identifies and tags polygon islands.  The second pass applies
 the turbulence effect.

 Identifying polygon islands is a one-time process which you should be
 able to accomplish using a scripted command which identifies the islands
 and tags them by creating array nodes in an ICE Tree and stores the results
 as custom ICE attribute data.

 The second pass can be completed in ICE by reading the custom attribute
 data and applying the turbulence as needed.

 Matt



  --
 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Simon van de
 Lagemaat [si...@theembassyvfx.com]
 *Sent:* Saturday, November 10, 2012 8:57 PM

 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: polygon island attributes

  Ya I'm looking for a poly island solution which I had kind of thought
 wouldn't be straight forward.  I'm pretty slow when it comes to putting
 around ICE but I've been thinking of some hacky conceptual methods of doing
 it.

  1.  creating a particle at the center of every island, getting that
 particle to sample a turbulence noise and then passing that value to the
 island.

  2. mapping only one point on the island then passing that value to
 the other island points.

  I'm sure there are better ways to do it but those are what my artist
 brain came up with so far.  I'm not sure about what would require scripting
 and what wouldn't

 On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 8:39 PM, Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.com
  wrote:

 Hi Ciaran,

 That would work for polygons individually, but Simon seems to be
 asking about polygon islands (so multiple polys per island.) That's
 quite tricky to get via ICE alone without scripted help.

 On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 11:15 PM, Ciaran Moloney
 moloney.cia...@gmail.com wrote:
  Dive inside the turbulence compound and replace any instances of
  pointposition with polygonposition. Also, swap polygonindex for
 point ID.
 
 
  On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 12:21 AM, Simon van de Lagemaat
  si...@theembassyvfx.com wrote:
 
  Hey all,
 
  A while ago I asked how to assign random attributes to polygon
 islands and
  I've recently revisited that task and used a couple of methods
 using the get
  array minimum technique.
 
  Currently I'm just assigning purely random values using a random
 value
  node which has my custom poly island indices plugged into it.  What
 I'd like
  to do is find a way to drive each islands value via a worley noise
 or
  turbulise node so I can get a more patterned, less random change to
 the
  values from island to island.  The issue is finding a way to sample
 the
  noise at one point for each island and I'm not sure how to go about
 that.
 
  If you have any ideas or could point me to something I'd love to
 hear from
  you.
 
  Cheers.
 
 

Re: polygon island attributes

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Ya I'm looking for a poly island solution which I had kind of thought
wouldn't be straight forward.  I'm pretty slow when it comes to putting
around ICE but I've been thinking of some hacky conceptual methods of doing
it.

1.  creating a particle at the center of every island, getting that
particle to sample a turbulence noise and then passing that value to the
island.

2. mapping only one point on the island then passing that value to the
other island points.

I'm sure there are better ways to do it but those are what my artist brain
came up with so far.  I'm not sure about what would require scripting and
what wouldn't

On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 8:39 PM, Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.comwrote:

 Hi Ciaran,

 That would work for polygons individually, but Simon seems to be
 asking about polygon islands (so multiple polys per island.) That's
 quite tricky to get via ICE alone without scripted help.

 On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 11:15 PM, Ciaran Moloney
 moloney.cia...@gmail.com wrote:
  Dive inside the turbulence compound and replace any instances of
  pointposition with polygonposition. Also, swap polygonindex for point ID.
 
 
  On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 12:21 AM, Simon van de Lagemaat
  si...@theembassyvfx.com wrote:
 
  Hey all,
 
  A while ago I asked how to assign random attributes to polygon islands
 and
  I've recently revisited that task and used a couple of methods using
 the get
  array minimum technique.
 
  Currently I'm just assigning purely random values using a random value
  node which has my custom poly island indices plugged into it.  What I'd
 like
  to do is find a way to drive each islands value via a worley noise or
  turbulise node so I can get a more patterned, less random change to the
  values from island to island.  The issue is finding a way to sample the
  noise at one point for each island and I'm not sure how to go about
 that.
 
  If you have any ideas or could point me to something I'd love to hear
 from
  you.
 
  Cheers.
 
 

Re: polygon island attributes

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

I love anything with a bow on it... plus supporting Eric is always a good
thing and topolizer has a TON of other cool stuff in it, even those cleanup
tools are awesome.  I did notice that emtools also has some poly island
tools.

On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 9:01 PM, phil harbath
phil.harb...@jamination.comwrote:

   topolizer has this functionality and much more for those of us who like
 things gift wrapped.

  *From:* Simon van de Lagemaat si...@theembassyvfx.com
 *Sent:* Saturday, November 10, 2012 11:57 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: polygon island attributes

 Ya I'm looking for a poly island solution which I had kind of thought
 wouldn't be straight forward.  I'm pretty slow when it comes to putting
 around ICE but I've been thinking of some hacky conceptual methods of doing
 it.

 1.  creating a particle at the center of every island, getting that
 particle to sample a turbulence noise and then passing that value to the
 island.

 2. mapping only one point on the island then passing that value to the
 other island points.

 I'm sure there are better ways to do it but those are what my artist brain
 came up with so far.  I'm not sure about what would require scripting and
 what wouldn't

 On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 8:39 PM, Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.comwrote:

 Hi Ciaran,

 That would work for polygons individually, but Simon seems to be
 asking about polygon islands (so multiple polys per island.) That's
 quite tricky to get via ICE alone without scripted help.

 On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 11:15 PM, Ciaran Moloney
 moloney.cia...@gmail.com wrote:
  Dive inside the turbulence compound and replace any instances of
  pointposition with polygonposition. Also, swap polygonindex for point
 ID.
 
 
  On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 12:21 AM, Simon van de Lagemaat
  si...@theembassyvfx.com wrote:
 
  Hey all,
 
  A while ago I asked how to assign random attributes to polygon islands
 and
  I've recently revisited that task and used a couple of methods using
 the get
  array minimum technique.
 
  Currently I'm just assigning purely random values using a random value
  node which has my custom poly island indices plugged into it.  What
 I'd like
  to do is find a way to drive each islands value via a worley noise or
  turbulise node so I can get a more patterned, less random change to the
  values from island to island.  The issue is finding a way to sample the
  noise at one point for each island and I'm not sure how to go about
 that.
 
  If you have any ideas or could point me to something I'd love to hear
 from
  you.
 
  Cheers.
 
 

polygon island attributes

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

Hey all,

A while ago I asked how to assign random attributes to polygon islands and
I've recently revisited that task and used a couple of methods using the
get array minimum technique.

Currently I'm just assigning purely random values using a random value node
which has my custom poly island indices plugged into it.  What I'd like to
do is find a way to drive each islands value via a worley noise or
turbulise node so I can get a more patterned, less random change to the
values from island to island.  The issue is finding a way to sample the
noise at one point for each island and I'm not sure how to go about that.

If you have any ideas or could point me to something I'd love to hear from
you.

Cheers.

xsibatch workgroups question

[Simon van de Lagemaat]

My pipeline guy has a question for the list regarding workgroups and
xsibatch.  Thinking maybe someone here has some info that could help us.



we have a set of workgroups for si,

when launching an interactive si session
we use xsi -w worgroups -run
and all works as expected.

now when I try to do the same for  rendering
xsibatch -render 'filename', flags, -w 'workgroups'

soft ignores the workgroups, and loads without the plugins, (unless the
same user has launched an interactive session)

seems that the -render flag sort of cancels the -w flag

this is done on linux (centos 6.2, soft 2012.sap)

is there a way to launch the render with the workgroups?

Cheers

Re: The Foundry and Luxology join forces

[Simon Van de Lagemaat]

Ya Arnold has it's flaws as do all render engines.  Modo's strong IC and
portal lights make it much more suitable for interiors but since we don't
do any Archvis work interiors are few and far between.  Arnold also suffers
from not being a bidirectionaI path tracer, so things like caustics are a
pita.

I prefer Arnold for heavy production rendering for the following reasons..

1.  It can handle more data.  Arnold can handle bigger and more geo, it's a
beast.  I tested instancing a tree asset in Modo and Arnold using sitoa.  I
got up to maybe 10million trees with billions of polygons in Modo, Arnold
was doing substantially more with trillions of polygons and doing it faster
and smoother.  It wasn't just better, it was exponentially better.  I think
it rivals or better Renderman in this regard.

2.  Arnold is stable, really really stable.  It rarely crashes or spits out
bad or unpredictable data and when it does it's almost always your fault.
 Modo's renderer tends to be unstable especially at heavier loads and it
can sometimes do things that are unexpected i.e. render artifacts, bad
frames etc.

3.  I like using nodes in Soft using sitoa.  Modo's layer system is really
cool for single assets or simple scenes but becomes a nightmare with a
complex system.

4.  Arnold's proxy/reference system is awesome sauce.  Modo has no proxy
system.

5.  Optimization is much easier with Arnold.  Better tools for managing ray
visibility on both an item and surface level... the raytype node in Arnold
is the single best thing ever.

6.  Linux support.

I love Modo still.  We use it for lookdev especially with asset creation.
 These are all just hard truths that I've encountered while using both
packages.  If was doing smaller jobs i.e. print, archvis, pure asset
creation etc... I would probably still be using Modo, it's the reason why
ILM's art dpt uses it. It's fast and nimble under lighter loads, that's
where it shines.  Some people have managed to wrangle it into a full
production pipeline and that's awesome, I just couldn't do it.



On Tue, Sep 25, 2012 at 9:33 AM, Tim Crowson tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com
 wrote:

  @ Simon,

 *Modo is a fantastic app and it has a fantastic render engine for the
 type of end user they are focusing on.  But as good as it is it's no Arnold
 and has a ways to go before it is. *
 I dunno, I don't really think it's that far behind. In fact in some areas,
 it seems better. Handles interiors a lot better, certainly. From what
 testing I've done, I can't find anything to really place modo that far
 behind Arnold. That's my opinion based on limited experience with Arnold.

 I know that you're in a unique position of having experience with both, so
 can you elaborate on the differences you see between the Arnold and modo
 renderers?

 -Tim


 On 9/25/2012 11:13 AM, Simon Van de Lagemaat wrote:

 Modo is a fantastic app and it has a fantastic render engine for the type
 of end user they are focusing on.  But as good as it is it's no Arnold and
 has a ways to go before it is.

  That said, it's a great match for the Foundry who now have the ability
 to create content across the entire pipeline which is probably what they
 were really looking for.

 On Tue, Sep 25, 2012 at 6:13 AM, Raffaele Fragapane 
 raffsxsil...@googlemail.com wrote:

 Well, they got katana,  modo, nuke Mari. All they need now is an
 animation solution and they stand a chance to go toe to toe with maya and
 soft if they offered bundles, at least in any shop sane enough to use
 Houdini instead of maya for fx.

 Interesting times ahead. Hopefully this won't mean they will forsake
 their work with rman and Arnold in favor of trying to pimp modo's engine.

 At least the foundry is a company focused on vfx and not a cad one barely
 tolerating their ME division.

 Sent from not an iPhone
  On Sep 25, 2012 9:08 PM, Ben Houston b...@exocortex.com wrote:






 --

error msg 'dsbrws - the parameter is incorrect'

[Simon Van de Lagemaat]

We've got the oddest error msg that occurs when using Softs file browser but 
ONLY when Soft is set to use one specific project, if that project is not set 
then the browser works fine.

dsbrws - the parameter is incorrect

Anyone seen this before?

ICE nodes resetting values to zero

[Simon Van de Lagemaat]

We've had an issue with 2012 sap where some of our scenes are resetting all of 
our ICE node values to zero.  Has anyone ever had this problem?

RE: ICE nodes resetting values to zero

[Simon Van de Lagemaat]

It seems like we may have corrupt nodes.  i.e. an emit from null node is now 
missing parameters that were there previously... le sigh.

The odd thing is that the scenes sometimes load up and work and sometimes 
don't.  This isn't a permission thing either, everything else seems fine.

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Alok
Sent: August-30-12 10:54 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: ICE nodes resetting values to zero

Not sure if this is the case with you, but ICE resets values to defaults if not 
specified explicitly. For example if you have a node or a compound that takes a 
int or scalar value as input and you set it directly to some value then on a 
refresh the tree will be set to defaults. To persist the value you have use a 
constant scalar or int node and connect  it to the input.

[cid:image001.gif@01CD869E.C1CD89C0]
On 30/08/2012 1:45 PM, Simon Van de Lagemaat wrote:
We've had an issue with 2012 sap where some of our scenes are resetting all of 
our ICE node values to zero.  Has anyone ever had this problem?
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.comhttp://www.avg.com
Version: 2012.0.2197 / Virus Database: 2437/5233 - Release Date: 08/29/12

inline: image001.gif

clumping hair guides on non uniformly distributed geo

[Simon Van de Lagemaat]

Anyone know a workaround for the problem of XSI hair guides clumping up in 
areas with higher density geo on the base mesh?

RE: clumping hair guides on non uniformly distributed geo

[Simon Van de Lagemaat]

heh good idea... that actually shouldn't be too difficult to pull off.

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Adam Seeley
Sent: July-20-12 1:36 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: clumping hair guides on non uniformly distributed geo

Hi,

Depends on the complexity of the mesh, but maybe using Polygonizer  shrink 
wrapping to closest surface might help get you a step closer.

Adam.


From: Simon Van de Lagemaat 
si...@theembassyvfx.commailto:si...@theembassyvfx.com
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com 
softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Sent: Friday, 20 July 2012, 20:11
Subject: clumping hair guides on non uniformly distributed geo

Anyone know a workaround for the problem of XSI hair guides clumping up in 
areas with higher density geo on the base mesh?

RE: clumping hair guides on non uniformly distributed geo

[Simon Van de Lagemaat]

FYI Is there a good primer anywhere for an ICE based strand workflow for hair?

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Simon Van de 
Lagemaat
Sent: July-20-12 2:11 PM
To: Adam Seeley; softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: clumping hair guides on non uniformly distributed geo

heh good idea... that actually shouldn't be too difficult to pull off.

From: 
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Adam Seeley
Sent: July-20-12 1:36 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: clumping hair guides on non uniformly distributed geo

Hi,

Depends on the complexity of the mesh, but maybe using Polygonizer  shrink 
wrapping to closest surface might help get you a step closer.

Adam.


From: Simon Van de Lagemaat 
si...@theembassyvfx.commailto:si...@theembassyvfx.com
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com 
softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Sent: Friday, 20 July 2012, 20:11
Subject: clumping hair guides on non uniformly distributed geo

Anyone know a workaround for the problem of XSI hair guides clumping up in 
areas with higher density geo on the base mesh?

RE: clumping hair guides on non uniformly distributed geo

[Simon Van de Lagemaat]

FYI don't know why that made it in there.

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Simon Van de 
Lagemaat
Sent: July-20-12 2:25 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com; Adam Seeley
Subject: RE: clumping hair guides on non uniformly distributed geo

FYI Is there a good primer anywhere for an ICE based strand workflow for hair?

From: 
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Simon Van de 
Lagemaat
Sent: July-20-12 2:11 PM
To: Adam Seeley; 
softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: clumping hair guides on non uniformly distributed geo

heh good idea... that actually shouldn't be too difficult to pull off.

From: 
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Adam Seeley
Sent: July-20-12 1:36 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: clumping hair guides on non uniformly distributed geo

Hi,

Depends on the complexity of the mesh, but maybe using Polygonizer  shrink 
wrapping to closest surface might help get you a step closer.

Adam.


From: Simon Van de Lagemaat 
si...@theembassyvfx.commailto:si...@theembassyvfx.com
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com 
softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Sent: Friday, 20 July 2012, 20:11
Subject: clumping hair guides on non uniformly distributed geo

Anyone know a workaround for the problem of XSI hair guides clumping up in 
areas with higher density geo on the base mesh?

RE: Creating a dual polyhedron

[Simon Van de Lagemaat]

Well I'm already hitting some errors.  On a simple icosahedron I'm using two 
nodes, apply disconnect component (poly, iselement) and apply extrude polygon 
along axis (also iselement) and all my polygons are just being scaled to 0... 
2012 sap.
 
According to the videos I've watched this should work fine.

Also, is there a way to bevel vertices in ICE?

-Original Message-
From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Simon Van de 
Lagemaat
Sent: July-12-12 10:00 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: Creating a dual polyhedron

Ya I plan on putting this into ICE, learn a little about the modelling tools in 
there.  AFAIK it shouldn't be too difficult as all the tools are there, not 
sure about a smooth or relax tool though.

I'll post any hassles I find here ;-)

-Original Message-
From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Chris Chia
Sent: July-12-12 9:14 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: Creating a dual polyhedron

There's already an ice extrude node in the topology category.
All u need is to get a get poly index node and pass this as an array for the 
extrude node ;)

Chris 

On 12 Jul, 2012, at 10:00 PM, Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.com wrote:

 Sure would be nice to have a factory Bevel compound/node for ICE 
 modeling *whistles nonchalantly* :)
 
 
 On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 5:29 AM, Chris Chia chris.c...@autodesk.com wrote:
 Try driving the extrusion by ICE :D
 
 
 From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Alan 
 Fregtman
 Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2012 10:18 AM
 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 Subject: Re: Creating a dual polyhedron
 
 Playing around with combinations of selecting adjacent components then 
 extruding or beveling...
 
 [Inline image 1]
 
 I started annotating the steps but it got too annoying after the third one 
 so I gave up, but here's an emdl download for anyone interested:
 http://s3.darkvertex.com/hlinked/4forums/icosahedron_experiments.zip
 (It's all just variations of extruding either points or all edges, 
 then selecting adjacent components, inverting selection sometimes, 
 extruding again with Merge off, etc.)
 
 On Wed, Jul 11, 2012 at 8:29 PM, Alan Fregtman 
 alan.fregt...@gmail.commailto:alan.fregt...@gmail.com wrote:
 You guys should try extruding while selecting all edges. Cool 
 flowery/snowflakey patterns appear. :)
 
 On Wed, Jul 11, 2012 at 6:54 PM, Simon Van de Lagemaat 
 si...@theembassyvfx.commailto:si...@theembassyvfx.com wrote:
 Bonus tip!!!
 
 Run a smooth or relax op after the bevel and watch your gimpy edge lengths 
 even out!  The pentagons will shrink slightly but the tradeoff produces a 
 much more even mesh.
 
 From: 
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-bounces@list
 proc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun
 c...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Amaan Akram
 Sent: July-11-12 3:04 PM
 
 To: 
 softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softim...@listproc.autodesk.co
 m
 Subject: Re: Creating a dual polyhedron
 
 Alan, very cool indeed!
 On 11 July 2012 22:56, David Barosin 
 dbaro...@gmail.commailto:dbaro...@gmail.com wrote:
 Alan that is very cool.  I just tried an extreme bevel value of 3 and then 
 did a filter points.  It gets that nice pentagon with even hexes around it.
 
 On Wed, Jul 11, 2012 at 5:51 PM, Simon Van de Lagemaat 
 si...@theembassyvfx.commailto:si...@theembassyvfx.com wrote:
 Agh! Perfect... the irony is that I had tried a similar approach in Modo but 
 the results weren't as even as yours.  I also didn't see that frequency 
 option before when I was puttering through the primitives.
 
 Thanks Allen!
 
 From: 
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-bounces@list
 proc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun
 c...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Alan Fregtman
 Sent: July-11-12 2:34 PM
 To: 
 softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softim...@listproc.autodesk.co
 m
 Subject: Re: Creating a dual polyhedron
 
 Oh hey, that gave me an idea...
 
 1. Get, Primitive-Polygon Mesh-Icosahedron 2. Play with the 
 Geodesic Frequency slider to get the desired subdivision level. (6 
 for example.) 3. Tag all points, rightclick - Bevel Components.
 4. Play with Bevel Distance. Looks decent at 0.85 here.
 
 [Inline image 1]
 
 Fun! :D
 
 
 On Wed, Jul 11, 2012 at 5:12 PM, Octavian Ureche 
 okt...@gmail.commailto:okt...@gmail.com wrote:
 you might also want to take a look at this:  
 http://lesterbanks.com/2010/12/creating-a-golf-ball-in-maya-using-geo
 sphere/
 
 cheers
 
 
 
 
 
 --
 3D Artist/TD @ The Mill, London
 http://www.amaanakram.com
 
 
 

Creating a dual polyhedron

[Simon Van de Lagemaat]

I'm looking to create a specif type of geodesic sphere like the one in this pic.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/G%C3%A9ode_V_3_1_duale.gif

Basicall as many hexagons as I can muster :-)  Anyone got some idea on ways to 
do this in Soft or even in a 3rd party program?

Cheers

RE: price increases?

[Simon Van de Lagemaat]

I love Modo but it is in NO way ready for even moderate production loads.  I 
know because I've tried to implement it here for commercial production and 
there are quite a few roadblocks that hold it back.  That's not to say it isn't 
capable on smaller jobs, it most certainly is.

As it stands now the core of the program is not able to deal with the heavy 
lifting that comes up in film and some commercials, both in capability and 
stability.  I also don't believe that the Lux guys want Modo to become a heavy 
lifting package that could replace Soft or Maya.  Right now Arnold and Soft are 
light years ahead of Modo in terms of stability and capabilty with a moderate 
to heavy production load.

That said I feel your pain, we've let our subscription lapse because we don't 
feel that 2013 warrants a paid upgrade.  I really feel like AD is holding us 
hostage with subscription fees, they force you into paying for upgrades that 
you don't feel are worth the cost simply because not paying for them is more 
expensive in the short term... of course all that does is make us not upgrade 
for a longer period of time to offset the penalty.

I wish AD would shit or get off the pot and either move to standalone paid 
upgrades or go to a full rental model like Adobe has which is closer to a pay 
for play model.  At least that way we could properly budget licensing costs per 
project.

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Szabolcs Matefy
Sent: June-18-12 7:11 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: price increases?

Modo is one of the possible candidates. I was working with LW for four years, 
and I was working with modo for a while. It's quite different, but it might be 
a good direction. Of course it's just my opinion, my bosses will make the 
decision, but looking at the facts, if the price increase is that large, we 
probably wouldn't renew our subscription. It's not a fair way to pay for 
bugfixes. It's like you buy a car, but wheel is working in the opposite 
direction.. You have to pay an additional fee for fixing the wheel? C'mon. 
Luxology seems to be delivering service packs addressing the issues


From: 
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of olivier jeannel
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2012 3:53 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: price increases?

...we are considering to migrate to cheaper, more reliable product...
Which one ? ...just curious.


Le 18/06/2012 15:38, Szabolcs Matefy a écrit :
To be honest, due to the increased unreliability of Autodesk products, and the 
increasing price, we are considering to migrate to cheaper, more reliable 
product out of the Autodesk household. Why I should pay for bugfixes? Why 
should I pay money for delivering useless, untested stuff? It's not against the 
excellent guys at support (hats off for you guys, you really rock), but 
Autodesk policy. Shame on them. And that'll lead to increased software piracy, 
it's sure.




From: 
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Williams, Wayne
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2012 3:26 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: price increases?

I can't believe AD's policy concerning pricing. I've dropped both my subs due 
to the 70% price increase for uk subscribers - so are the prices going up even 
more?!

You are doing the right thing. Money talks, and when enough of it does, it 
roars. Just stop upgrading, stop subscription. When enough people do so 
Autodesk will be forced to re-evaluate their policies or hemorrhage money. Will 
probably get flamed to the depths of Hades for the contrarian opinion but 
monopolistic price gouging isn't a sustainable business model due to various 
factors, most notably the demand curve. Only so many people can afford the new, 
higher premiums so they wind up losing customers there. They also  extremely 
piss off much of the rest of their customer base with the higher prices  which 
makes that base more prone to look elsewhere for solutions. This is when 
competitors step in and offer more value to lure that customer base away. It 
may be that the competition has the same sort of product for a cheaper price, 
or it may be they offer something that does more than what Autodesk software 
can do but at the same price.  Eventually, this results in an equilibrium of 
prices for goods and services being made possible. Know it sounds a bit odd, 
but this price exploration is something that is desirable in the long term. 
It's one of the things which drives innovation, competition and helps producers 
to determine what is the right price for their product. Non-market based 
external factors aside (government's 

Assigning attributes to polygon islands using ICE

[Simon Van de Lagemaat]

Is this feasible?  I'm trying to assign random color values to points based on 
their connectivity i.e. fractured mesh where each chunk has a random value or 
color.  The mesh isn't light so I'm wondering if this is going to be a slow 
process or if it's even possible.

Cheers

RE: Assigning attributes to polygon islands using ICE

[Simon Van de Lagemaat]

Hand modelled chunks unfortunately... it's actually stained glass pieces.  I'm 
probably just going to create my own color texture for now due to time 
constraints but I would like to have a more procedural approach in the future.

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Ciaran Moloney
Sent: June-06-12 2:03 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: Assigning attributes to polygon islands using ICE

How are you fracturing the mesh? IIRC Momentum and ImplosiaFX both provide 
polygon island IDs.

On Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 7:12 PM, Simon Van de Lagemaat 
si...@theembassyvfx.commailto:si...@theembassyvfx.com wrote:
Is this feasible?  I'm trying to assign random color values to points based on 
their connectivity i.e. fractured mesh where each chunk has a random value or 
color.  The mesh isn't light so I'm wondering if this is going to be a slow 
process or if it's even possible.

Cheers

RE: Evaluating ice weight map gen per frame

[Simon Van de Lagemaat]

Thanks Graham, it's all changed now anyway.  I'm trying to scatter a bunch of 
objects in an area that is centralized around the highlight of a light (null 
attached) and am using a weight map to adjust the particle density in that 
area.  I forgot to take into account the fact that the highlight position needs 
to take into account both the camera and the null instead of just the null.  
Any ideas on how I would need to modify my tree to achieve this?

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Grahame Fuller
Sent: April-27-12 8:34 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: Evaluating ice weight map gen per frame

I just realized you can get away with a lot fewer calculations if you just 
convert the null's position to the sphere's reference frame. You just need to 
multiply null.kine.global.pos by the inverse of sphere.kine.global, then you 
can get rid of all the other coversions.

gray

From: 
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Simon Van de 
Lagemaat
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2012 07:47 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: Evaluating ice weight map gen per frame

I'm sure I'll be calling you again :-)  I'm having some issues with the 
instances on my sphere changing orientation when the sphere rotates.  If I 
can't get it working by tomorrow I'll post an example.

From: 
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Grahame Fuller
Sent: April-26-12 4:36 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: Evaluating ice weight map gen per frame

Glad to help :)

From: 
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Simon Van de 
Lagemaat
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2012 07:33 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: Evaluating ice weight map gen per frame

That did the trick good sir!

From: 
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Grahame Fuller
Sent: April-26-12 4:06 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: Evaluating ice weight map gen per frame

I suspected there might be normals involved. When converting reference frames 
of true vectors as opposed to positions, you need to treat them differently 
(i.e. ignore any translation). There are a few ways to do this e.g.:

- Plug sphere.global.kine.ori and .scl into SRT to Matrix, plug that into a 3x3 
matrix (to force the data type), and use that to multiply the normals before 
the dot product.

- Convert the normals to 4D vectors with W=0, multiply them by 
sphere.global.kine as before, and convert back to 3D vectors before taking the 
dot product.

Note that the above works for true vectors in general but normals are even 
more special. If there's any possiblity that there might be non-uniform scaling 
involved, then instead of just using sphere.global.kine you need to plug it 
into a Transpose node and then an Inverse node first. That's not necessary for 
uniform scaling because in that case the inverse of the transpose is the same 
as the original matrix.

And all the above applies only to vectors and normals, not positions.

Good luck!

gray

From: 
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Simon Van de 
Lagemaat
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2012 06:39 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: Evaluating ice weight map gen per frame

I kludged this together from wathcing a tutorial on something unrelated to 
weight map gen but it seems to work :-)   I'm in no way experienced with ICE so 
I'm sure I'm messing something up.

From: 
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Grahame Fuller
Sent: April-26-12 3:29 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: Evaluating ice weight map gen per frame

No, they should work. Can you post a screengrab or scene?

gray

From: 
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Simon Van de 
Lagemaat
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2012 06:21 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: Evaluating ice weight map gen per frame

Thanks Graham!  I can now get transform changes on the sphere working

Evaluating ice weight map gen per frame

[Simon Van de Lagemaat]

I'm generating a weight map on a mesh using a simple dot product of a null and 
the surface points on the sphere.  When I animate the sphere the weight map 
generation is ignoring the transforms and acting as if the mesh is in a rest 
state.

How can I get the weight map tree to eval the mesh and its transforms on every 
frame?  I created a simulated ice tree but no luck.

Cheers

RE: Evaluating ice weight map gen per frame

[Simon Van de Lagemaat]

Thanks Graham!  I can now get transform changes on the sphere working but 
orientation changes to the sphere still seem to be borked.  I'm guessing that 
the orientation values aren't included in all of this?

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Grahame Fuller
Sent: April-26-12 2:42 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: Evaluating ice weight map gen per frame

Use Multiply Vector by Matrix to multiply sphere.PointPosition by 
sphere.kine.global first. Then calculate the dot product.

When you get attributes like Sphere.PointPosition by explicit reference (i.e. 
not reading at locations), you get the raw values, which are expressed relative 
to the object centre. Multiplying by the global transform converts to them to 
the global reference frame.

gray

From: 
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Simon Van de 
Lagemaat
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2012 05:27 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Evaluating ice weight map gen per frame

I'm generating a weight map on a mesh using a simple dot product of a null and 
the surface points on the sphere.  When I animate the sphere the weight map 
generation is ignoring the transforms and acting as if the mesh is in a rest 
state.

How can I get the weight map tree to eval the mesh and its transforms on every 
frame?  I created a simulated ice tree but no luck.

Cheers

Startup script

[Simon Van de Lagemaat]

We're trying to run a couple of python procedures when Softimage starts up.  
Where should we be placing these functions?  Is there a place where Softimage 
would evaluate python on application load?

Cheers