Re: JScript - Find out if an object has a texture

[Christian Gotzinger]

Thank you for the quick help Eric, it works great!

On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 9:44 AM, Eric Thivierge wrote:

> You need to see if there are any image clips on the material. On the
> material object you can use the .ImageClips which returns the collection of
> image clips connected to the material. Then test the collection to see if
> there are any in it using the Property "Count".
>
> # Python
> oMatLib = Application.Selection(0).Library # Material Library
> oMat =Application.Selection(0) # Material
> collImageClips = oMat.ImageClips # Collection of image clips
>
> if collImageClips.Count > 0:
> oClipName = collImageClips(0).Name # Pick first image clip found
> oMat.Name = oClipName.Name.replace("_tif", "_Sh")
> else:
> # code to create new diffuse texture and connect it
>
> You should be able to convert to jscript rather painlessly.
>
>
> ----
> Eric Thivierge
> http://www.ethivierge.com
>
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 7:28 PM, Christian Gotzinger <
> cgo...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi list,
>>
>> Beginner stuff here. I want to test whether an object's material has a
>> texture. If it has a texture, the material should be named like the texture
>> source. If the material has no texture, a diffuse texture should be applied.
>>
>> This is what I have:
>> var MyMatLibrary = Application.Selection(0).Material.Library;
>> var MyMatName = Application.Selection(0).Material.Name;
>> var MyTextureName = Application.Selection(0).
>> Material.CurrentImageClip.Source.Name;
>>
>> MyTextureName = MyTextureName.replace("_tif","_Sh");
>>
>> SetValue(MyMatLibrary+"."+MyMatName+".Name", MyTextureName, null);
>>
>> It renames the material correctly. However, if the material has no
>> texture, line 3 throws an error. How can I test for a texture without the
>> script throwing an error?
>>
>
>

Offtopic: Python in Maya

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi list,

I'm rather new to Python, and while I've got many things worked out nicely
in SI already, we are trying to implement some of this stuff in Maya as
well.
Sorry for this simple question, but could somebody tell me the Maya
equivalent for this?

for i in range(5):
MySphere = Application.CreatePrim("Sphere", "MeshSurface", "", "")
MySphere.PosY = i

I want to set attributes without having to move and rotate commands.

Thank you!

Re: Offtopic: Python in Maya

[Christian Gotzinger]

Thank you for the link Eric, I'll check it out.

We're not trying to do anything crazy, so in case someone here has been to
the dark side and knows the answer please let me know :-)

Cheers,
Christian



On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 10:32 AM, Eric Thivierge wrote:

> Maybe this list may be more helpful:
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/python_inside_maya
>
> 
> Eric Thivierge
> http://www.ethivierge.com
>
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 8:21 PM, Christian Gotzinger  > wrote:
>
>> Hi list,
>>
>> I'm rather new to Python, and while I've got many things worked out
>> nicely in SI already, we are trying to implement some of this stuff in Maya
>> as well.
>> Sorry for this simple question, but could somebody tell me the Maya
>> equivalent for this?
>>
>> for i in range(5):
>> MySphere = Application.CreatePrim("Sphere", "MeshSurface", "", "")
>> MySphere.PosY = i
>>
>> I want to set attributes without having to move and rotate commands.
>>
>> Thank you!
>>
>
>

Re: Offtopic: Python in Maya

[Christian Gotzinger]

Thank you very much! This will get us started.


On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 11:10 AM, Daniel Harjanto wrote:

> in standard python:
>
> import maya.cmds as cmds
>
> for i in range(5):
>
>   MySphere = cmds.polySphere()
>
>   cmds.setAttr("%s.translateY" % MySphere[0], i)
>
> in pyMel:
>
> import pymel.core as pm;
>
>
> for i in range(5):
>
>   MySphere = pm.PyNode(pm.polySphere()[0])
>
>   MySphere.setAttr('translateY', i)
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 4:21 PM, Christian Gotzinger  > wrote:
>
>> Hi list,
>>
>> I'm rather new to Python, and while I've got many things worked out
>> nicely in SI already, we are trying to implement some of this stuff in Maya
>> as well.
>> Sorry for this simple question, but could somebody tell me the Maya
>> equivalent for this?
>>
>> for i in range(5):
>> MySphere = Application.CreatePrim("Sphere", "MeshSurface", "", "")
>> MySphere.PosY = i
>>
>> I want to set attributes without having to move and rotate commands.
>>
>> Thank you!
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Daniel Harjanto
> Infinite Frameworks Studios
> TD
> http://misterdi.cgpot.com
>
>

Python: Getting and setting view visibility

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi list,

I don't understand why this won't work. Consider the following 1-liner:
*print Application.Selection(0).Properties("Visibility").viewvis.Value*

This works as expected. But when I try this:
*for obj in Application.Selection:
print obj.Properties("Visibility").viewvis.Value*

I get an attribute error?? I only have one or multiple polygon meshes
selected, so the attribute is there.

Christian

Re: Python: Getting and setting view visibility

[Christian Gotzinger]

Thank you for the explanations Stephen and César!

Re: FBXImport Materials

[Christian Gotzinger]

We have two main issues with the Softimage implementation of FBX:
Lack of display layer support
Lack of spline/curve support (or does the 2013 version have this? I'm not
sure)

The Maya and 3ds max implementations have this functionality, and I really
don't understand why Softimage lacks it. I currently use a custom script to
export one OBJ file per layer and another script to batchload each OBJ file
into a 3ds max layer.

When looking at Autodesk's FBX compatibility PDFs, it seems that Softimage
isn't keeping up with the FBX feature implementations of Maya and 3ds max.
One would think that all exporters and importers ought to have similar
functionality considering that FBX is supposed to be *the* interoperability
format.

Cheers
Christian


On Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 2:01 PM, Ivan  wrote:

> Thanks Stefan for the input.
>
> Please do email me if you have other suggestions to improve on fbx.
>
>
> Regards
> Ivan
> My email is ivan@nospam.autodesk.com. (Remove nospam from email)
> >
>

Re: FBXImport Materials

[Christian Gotzinger]

Thank you Ivan!
I mean curves. Would be really cool if we could get them into and out of
Softimage with FBX.

Christian



On Mon, Jan 28, 2013 at 10:07 AM, ivan t  wrote:

> Hi Christian
>
> I have filed your request for FBX layering under SOFT-8222. When you
> mention spline / curve support, do you mean surface or curve ?
>
> Regards
> Ivan
>
>

Howto: Python script referencing external file? (possibly noobish)

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi list,

I want to write a class and put it in a separate .py file. This is so we
can use it in both Softimage and Maya. I then want to write a script that
makes use of the class.
Question: what is the proper way of doing this, i.e. where do I store the
external file so that a script can import and use it?

Thank you

Christian

Re: Howto: Python script referencing external file? (possibly noobish)

[Christian Gotzinger]

Thank you for all the answers guys! I will see which of these solutions
work best for me.

Cheers

Christian

Re: Octane render

[Christian Gotzinger]

Nice job there! I find that it doesn't match the Octane version in terms of
quality (not your fault):
a) It looks "floaty". That's just the problem with FG. You'd need insane
settings to get the flawless contact shadows of an unbiased renderer.
People like to combat that by using ambient occlusion, but usually the
result looks terrible to me, with dark corners everywhere.
b) Sampling noise of a biased renderer looks unnatural (see the reflection
on the table at the very left). Unbiased renderers otoh have very organic
noise, so often it's fine for there to be some.

I've used Octane many times for still shots and even for animations. Setup
times are short, render speed is good and the quality is great. Plenty of
features are still missing (such as motion blur), but once the Softimage
integration is ready it should become a real option for those who don't
like to use an external renderer.


On Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 5:44 PM, Massimo Galluzzo <
mass...@massimogalluzzo.it> wrote:

>   Didnt have much time to play with FG [image: Occhiolino]
> Here is Mental
>
> 9 mins and 30 seconds
> 4 mins fg precalc
>
> http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/3408/classmr.jpg
>
>
<>

Re: Octane render

[Christian Gotzinger]

When using high AA samples (which is necessary for DOF or motion blur) I
believe you can pretty much keep diffuse samples down to 1 or 2. You have
to oversample a lot for the DOF, and this AA oversampling takes care of
diffuse areas as well. Also, for this scene with the large windows you may
get away with 2 or 3 bounces.


On Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 8:26 PM, Toonafish  wrote:

>  scene file : https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4271217/Arnold_Classroom.rar
>
> I'm rendering on a 6 core i7 3930 overclocked to 4 Ghz, so Arnold is using
> 12 threads. With AA set lower the DOF is very noisy. But you're right,
> maybe I could lower the diffuse samples a little.
>
> - Ronald
>
>

Custom importer workflow

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi list,

I am writing a custom format and was wondering about the proper way to
generate geometry in Softimage. As a proof of concept I've used an ICE tree
with the Create Topo node. I parse my text file and input all data into
String to Array nodes to feed the Create Topo. To my surprise, this even
worked for a very complicated and large mesh (1.3 million triangles) and
didn't take particularly long.

How would I go about doing this using a "regular" workflow? Do I have to
use commands (ConnectNewPolygonToEdge, AddPointToNewPolygon and whatnot) or
is there an object model way to do it? Python btw

Thank you,
Christian

Re: Custom importer workflow

[Christian Gotzinger]

Ah, thank you! That sounds just like what I needed. Sometimes I have a bit
of a hard time finding the methods and parameters I'm interested in. But
the list always comes to the rescue :-)

Christian



On Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 11:33 AM, Ciaran Moloney
wrote:

> The Python OM way of doing this is to use the polygonmesh.Set method, to
> which you provide lists of vertices and polygon definitions. IIRC this uses
> the same format as the ICE polygon description attribute.
>
>
> Ciaran
>
>

Re: SI 2014 sneak peek

[Christian Gotzinger]

I don't quite follow the concept of "you don't edit in 3d". Editing real
life footage is a different story since you usually have tons and tons of
footage.
But where I come from, we don't animate and render tons and tons of footage
unnecessarily, just so we can cut it all out later. We only model, animate,
render what we'll most likely use in a final edit. Therefore, many editing
decisions are being made way before the actual editing stage.

I've been in several situations where I really would have liked to have a
sequencer.

Re: SDK: Preserve selection

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi Mihail,

Using the GetAsString and SetAsString is bad whenever you add, reparent or
delete objects - it tends to break because the selection is stored
according to the object names.
Here's how I usually do it (not sure if there is a better way), Python:

preselection = [s for s in Application.Selection]
# This list now includes all objects you had selected (the objects, not
just their names!)

# When you're done with the script, this brings back the original selection:
Application.Selection.Clear()
for obj in preselection:
   Application.Selection.Add(obj)

Re: SDK: Preserve selection

[Christian Gotzinger]

P.S.: It also respects branch selections.

Re: Maya realtime viewport

[Christian Gotzinger]

Our High Quality Viewport in its current state is complete and utter trash.
I've attempted to use it a few times, but it's so incredibly slow that it's
unusable. I just wanted anti-aliasing and trees to show alpha-mapped
leaves. HQV does give me those options, but the performance is so bad it's
impossible to work with. Whereas in Maya viewport 2.0 or whatever it's
called is really fast.

I hope the new team has worked on this. I don't need my viewport to look
and perform like a game, but some basic features with reasonable
performance can't be too much to ask.


On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 9:05 AM, Szabolcs Matefy wrote:

> What I wanted to point out that once glorious Gigacore and superb viewport
> in Softimage is now mediocre. Our HQV is nothing close to what I see on
> these videos. As a game artist, it’s quite important to me to preview the
> assets  I am creating.
>
>
>

Re: Maya realtime viewport

[Christian Gotzinger]

Very cool clip there. It says that HQV was used to render certain elements,
so that doesn't negate my own experiences: good quality but horrible
realtime performance.

May I ask how and on what content you use HQV?


On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 5:11 PM, Greg Punchatz  wrote:

>   I have found the HQV useful ... and so has Jason 
> Stambollian
>
> https://vimeo.com/groups/ice/videos/60198312
>

Re: Announcing Redshift - Biased GPU Renderer

[Christian Gotzinger]

Excuse the language, but: Holy shit! Mighty impressive stuff!


On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 3:35 AM, Nicolas Burtnyk wrote:

> Hey guys,
>
> I'm going to respond to the last few messages regarding the importance of
> speed later, but in the meantime here is a video of some live rendering in
> Softimage.
>
> http://youtu.be/fjCguRdSlV0
>
> -Nicolas
>
>
>

Re: User data within an exported FBX model?

[Christian Gotzinger]

We ran some tests a while back and were able to import and export custom
attributes from Softimage to Maya and vice versa. 3ds max did not play
along with either of the two applications.

If I remember correctly, you must create a custom property set and add a
custom parameter. I seem to recall that strings didn't work in one or both
directions. All tests were done in Softimage 2012 and Maya 2012.


On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 7:42 PM, François Painchaud wrote:

> In Softimage 2011 or 2013, is there a way to include some user data (in my
> case, a single ID string) within an exported FBX model?
>
> Thanks,
> François
>

Re: Softimage development

[Christian Gotzinger]

Reading about Guillaume leaving for Maya has immediately shoved me into
stage 2.
I can't help it, I find this immensely upsetting. Our main ICE guy has
silently left us.


On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 5:42 PM, Bradley Gabe  wrote:

> What we are seeing is the Kubler-Ross Model (stages of grief) as applied
> to the life of Software:
>
>1. *Denial * — "I feel fine.";
>"This can't be happening, not to me."
>2. *Anger * — "Why me? It's not
>fair!"; "How can this happen to me?"; '"Who is to blame?"
>3. *Bargaining * — "I'll do
>anything for a few more years."
>4. *Depression * —
>"I'm so sad, why bother with anything?"
>5. *Acceptance * — "It's
>going to be okay."; "I can't fight it, I may as well prepare for it."
>
>
>

Re: Softimage development

[Christian Gotzinger]

I'm doing everything I can to get the positive word out about SI. Whenever
I show it to people who know little about it (or never heard about it at
all) I usually get them excited about it within just a few minutes.

And it's not like I can - or want to - drop it, I mean where would I go?
There's always Houdini, but it's expensive, and I do lots of regular
modeling and animation. As an all-in-one package SI is entirely
irreplaceable to me.



On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 8:55 PM, a...@andynicholas.com <
a...@andynicholas.com> wrote:

>
>
> The way I see it, everyone has two choices:
>
>
> 1) Complain that XSI is dying and resign yourself to that fact. In doing
> so,
> you'll be sustaining the rumour, and making it a self-fulfilling prophesy.
> 2) Start fighting back against the cynicism (as understandable as it may
> or may
> not be) and get out there and actively promote XSI in every way you can.
> If it
> doesn't work, who cares, at least you tried.
>

Re: Intro to the new team (was RE: Softimage development)

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hello and welcome!

Thank you for introducing yourself and the team. It really feels good to
know that you guys are out there, and that you're a bigger team than team
Montreal.


On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 12:14 PM, Chun-Pong Yu wrote:

> Luc-Eric's comments are a good segway for me to introduce some members of
> the new team and what they're working on.  We've been lurking on the list
> so far, and have been amazed by the passion of most in the community for
> Softimage and will support it as best as we can.  Now that Luc-Eric,
> Guillaume LaForge, Guillaume Laferriere, etc. have moved to the Maya team,
> we'll be participating more actively especially when there're technical
> issues reported.
>
> We're all based in Singapore btw (so the comments on durians were apt)
> where the cost of labour isn't that much different from Montreal and
> certainly much higher (3x?) than in China.  And there're more people in the
> team than there were in Montreal two years ago.  Moreover, folks like JF,
> Francis, David, Manny, Graham, etc. are still around (the first 3 are in
> fact still developing enhancements and bug fixes for customers).  Hence
> Autodesk is still investing in the Softimage since guess what?  Soft still
> makes money for the company.
>
> It's true that the team doesn't know the code as well as Luc-Eric and team
> but that's not to say that we're newbies to software development, 3D
> graphics, simulations, rendering, etc. either.  Sure, we don't have the
> 10-15 year histories with Soft that the "old" team had, but we're happy to
> say that they're still around (even many from the acquisition who
> eventually moved to other Autodesk teams) and still helping out when
> there's a need.  But that should go down as we become more familiar with
> the code.
>
> So here goes:
>
> Hsiao Ming Chia - Core, Ref Models.  From NVIDIA, worked on games
> middleware and runtime engines for 8 yrs.
> Yury Khmel - Core, ICE, FaceRobot.  12+ years, last 5 as an architect in
> games development.
> John Tensuan - Rendering, Data Management.  Last in Ubisoft doing
> rendering and engine systems.
> Ho Chung Nguyen - ICE, Simulation.  Wrote core libraries for math, physics
> simulation, rendering while at LucasArts.
> Joany Yang - UI, SDK.  Mainly engaged in UI projects using COM, MFC, C++,
> etc while at another team at Autodesk.
>
> Me?  I just manage the team so am the "overhead" :-)
>
> If you're ever in Singapore, we'd love to meet you.
>
> Regards,
> Chun Pong
>
>

Re: Intro to the new team (was RE: Softimage development)

[Christian Gotzinger]

My god, what an awful thought. Chinny, please post!

On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 9:10 PM, Stefan Andersson  wrote:

> Is Chinny still there? :) When he leaves, that's when you can panic.
>
> regards
> stefan
>
>

Re: Intro to the new team (was RE: Softimage development)

[Christian Gotzinger]

And apparently Maya still needs lots of help. It sounds like the entire SI
team has been dissolved.

On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 10:29 PM, Jason Brynford-Jones <
jason.brynford-jo...@autodesk.com> wrote:

> Softimage is mature enough now and in very capable hands.
>

Re: Intro to the new team (was RE: Softimage development)

[Christian Gotzinger]

You've made your point a billion times over, and I'm quite sick of it to be
honest.
I think we all know by now that you go with the flow in your company and
don't have any issues with these other applications. I do, so please stop
telling me how wonderful the world outside of SI is. I go there every day
for at least 15 to 30 minutes, and I'm always glad when I'm back in SI
territory.

On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 11:13 PM, Stefan Andersson wrote:

> But good news everyone! There are actually a lot of softwares out there
> which is just longing for your expertise and knowledge. And lots of black
> frames that needs content, and the frames doesn't give a  what kind of
> software you used :)
>
>

Re: NURBS import

[Christian Gotzinger]

Are you sure the normals are ok in Maya?
This kind of data often has pretty random normals, and I don't believe Maya
shows you bad normals in black like Softimage, so there'd be no way for you
to tell unless you turn on the normal vector display.


On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 5:29 PM, Byron Nash  wrote:

> I need to get some NURBS objects from Maya to Softimage. Client gave me an
> igs file which I can get imported into Softimage and Maya. The problem is,
> that in Softimage half of the normals are flipped but it looks great in
> Maya. The object has hundreds of small parts so it's not effective to go
> find every last inverted shape manually. Is there a good way to get the
> NURBS into Softimage or keep the normals from getting screwed up on import?
>
> Thanks,
> Byron
>

Divide one big texture into smaller pieces

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi list,

We are dealing with a gigantic piece of environment. The ground has a
texture of about 18,000x18,000 pixels applied to it. We are now in the
process of dividing the entire area up into 200 quadratic segments.
Thankfully, Softimage has allowed me to select all 10,000 objects at once
and dice them up into quadratic segments, which I have then detached. All
is good on that front.

However, we would now like the 18K ground texture to be divided up into
smaller segments as well. Currently all the quadratic cutouts have the same
18K texture applied but only use a fraction of their UV space. I want them
all to use UV space 0 to 1 and have a matching texture.

This is what I tried:
I rendermapped the segments (again I'm glad to be able to rendermap
everything at once) and ticked the Coverage in Alpha checkbox. I can then
use a Photoshop action to select the files' alpha channel, crop down to
that selection and save the file. Then I can apply the new texture to a
segment, delete its old UVs and add a new 0 to 1 projection. This works,
however I end up with seams of about 1 pixel width at the segment edges.
Probably because the alpha coverage is not detailed enough, and Photoshop
then crops incorrectly. The cropped files also have slightly different
image sizes. Or maybe the rendermapping is not accurate enough?

Has anybody ever done something like this? I feel like I'm 90% there, but
those seams are a bit of a problem.

Re: Divide one big texture into smaller pieces

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi Tim,

Thank you for answering.
Unfortunately, I don't have access to ZBrush, but the idea of extending the
color sounds good. I will try doing that in Photoshop.
I'll also look into premultiplication issues, but I don't think that's it.

Regarding the texture size, we are working with 15 by 15 tiles. So each
tile receives almost 1,200x1,200 pixels. I say "almost" because the tiles
don't coincide with the edges of the huge texture. We had to adapt to a
world grid, so the top left corner of the top left segment is not the top
left corner of the huge texture.


On Fri, May 18, 2012 at 12:54 PM, Tim Leydecker  wrote:

> Hey Christian,
>
> if you have access to ZBrush, you could load one segment and the
> Photoshop-cropped texture and try the "Fix seams" command.
>
> It惻l extend the color around the UVshell borders by 4-16px.
>
> This may be enough to hide the seams.
>
> Another thing that comes to mind is the backround color of your
> rendermapped texture segment.
>
> Are you using the original 18Kx18K px file and just the alpha coverage
> file for the Photoshop action? This should prevent "pseudo-premultiplied"
> effects when cropping, as you don愒 have black pixels as opposed to using
> the rendermapped texture (which will be black outside the surface area)
> as the cropping source.
>
> Btw, if I divide 18000px by 200, I end up with 90px that愀 a very small
> tile and sounds like loads of interpolation to start with anyway?
>
> Cheers,
>
> tim
>
>
> On 18.05.2012 12:19, Christian Gotzinger wrote:
>
>> Hi list,
>>
>> We are dealing with a gigantic piece of environment. The ground has a
>> texture of about 18,000x18,000 pixels applied to it. We are now in the
>> process of dividing the entire area up
>> into 200 quadratic segments.
>> Thankfully, Softimage has allowed me to select all 10,000 objects at once
>> and dice them up into quadratic segments, which I have then detached. All
>> is good on that front.
>>
>> However, we would now like the 18K ground texture to be divided up into
>> smaller segments as well. Currently all the quadratic cutouts have the same
>> 18K texture applied but only use
>> a fraction of their UV space. I want them all to use UV space 0 to 1 and
>> have a matching texture.
>>
>> This is what I tried:
>> I rendermapped the segments (again I'm glad to be able to rendermap
>> everything at once) and ticked the Coverage in Alpha checkbox. I can then
>> use a Photoshop action to select the
>> files' alpha channel, crop down to that selection and save the file. Then
>> I can apply the new texture to a segment, delete its old UVs and add a new
>> 0 to 1 projection. This works,
>> however I end up with seams of about 1 pixel width at the segment edges.
>> Probably because the alpha coverage is not detailed enough, and Photoshop
>> then crops incorrectly. The
>> cropped files also have slightly different image sizes. Or maybe the
>> rendermapping is not accurate enough?
>>
>> Has anybody ever done something like this? I feel like I'm 90% there, but
>> those seams are a bit of a problem.
>>
>

Rescue corrupted scene

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi list,

I have a big scene that crashes when I load it. It tells me that one mesh
inside of it is corrupted and offers to hide it in order to prevent
crashes. But the scene crashes anyway.
Is there no way to stop that one mesh from getting loaded? Or to extract
certain models from the scene without actually opening it?

I already tried merging, but that crashes too.

Thank you

Re: Rescue corrupted scene

[Christian Gotzinger]

Ooops, is the list broken or something?

Anyway, I managed to open my scene using the crash recovery file from the
Preferences / Scene Debugging. Phew, I didn't even know this thing existed.
And I'm glad it does.



On Fri, May 25, 2012 at 1:08 PM, Christian Gotzinger
wrote:

> Hi list,
>
> I have a big scene that crashes when I load it. It tells me that one mesh
> inside of it is corrupted and offers to hide it in order to prevent
> crashes. But the scene crashes anyway.
> Is there no way to stop that one mesh from getting loaded? Or to extract
> certain models from the scene without actually opening it?
>
> I already tried merging, but that crashes too.
>
> Thank you
>

Re: ICE: Profile Curve for Apply Extrude Polygon Along Axis?

[Christian Gotzinger]

The compounds that have been posted have probably answered this already,
but just to point it out:
To get a random integer array, you plug an array (e.g. via the Build Index
Array node) into the ID port of the Random Value node.


On Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 10:22 PM, Byron Nash  wrote:

> I'm new to ICE modeling so forgive me if I ask some n00b questions here.
> I'd like to randomly extrude polygons and control the extrusion with a
> fcurve. I'm not sure how to create a controllable random array of integers
> for starters. I keep trying different combinations and haven't quite got it
> yet. After I get my array of integers to extrude with, how can I attach an
> fcurve to the extrude and control the shape?
>
> Thanks! See attached WIP.
>

Re: [ICE] random tip about array-per-array ops

[Christian Gotzinger]

Ww! This looks super useful, and I've been
wanting to do this kind of thing many times before. Particularly the Find
in Array has made me use Repeat loops way too often.
Thank you for discovering and sharing!



On Tue, Jun 26, 2012 at 5:35 PM, Oleg Bliznuk  wrote:

> Hi list,
> I am digging at this time into the topic of array-per-array operations
> without while\repeat nodes  and trying to avoid building a custom node for
> each op that I perform, so I have found one handy tip how to perform some
> of these op - we can only use Generate Sample set ( witout any geo on input
> ) in any place with exact count of required element to select data from
> first ( or second ) array and do something with it, thus we can get a
> set-context without generating a real geometry ( and as I understood we
> also involve multithreading this way ). I hope this can help someone.
> regards,
> Oleg
>

ICE modeling destroys UVs

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hello list,

I am slicing a terrain mesh into a square, then delete all polygons outside
the square.
If I do this with standard modeling operations, my pre-existing UV mapping
is fine. If I do it with ICE it gets all jumbled up. What's the standard
way to deal with this? Do I really have to fix the UVs in ICE myself? I'm
not too excited about overwriting the existing UV set in ICE, also because
it may not always have the same name on all objects that receive my
compound.

Re: ICE modeling destroys UVs

[Christian Gotzinger]

Thank you, I'll see if I can find that message.

@Fabricio: Thank you for the tip. My UVs are regular non-ICE UVs. I'm
pretty sure I can repair the UVs using ICE, but I'm worried that
overwriting the existing UV set with ICE might make things unstable. And I
don't want to make a new ICE UV set.


On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 3:13 PM, Ben Houston  wrote:

> Oleg implemented a work around in ImplosiaFX to maintain UVs when
> modelling with ICE.  I think he has detailed it before on this list...
> -ben
>
> On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 9:02 AM, Christian Gotzinger
>  wrote:
> > Hello list,
> >
> > I am slicing a terrain mesh into a square, then delete all polygons
> outside
> > the square.
> > If I do this with standard modeling operations, my pre-existing UV
> mapping
> > is fine. If I do it with ICE it gets all jumbled up. What's the standard
> way
> > to deal with this? Do I really have to fix the UVs in ICE myself? I'm not
> > too excited about overwriting the existing UV set in ICE, also because it
> > may not always have the same name on all objects that receive my
> compound.
>
>
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Ben Houston
> Voice: 613-762-4113 Skype: ben.exocortex Twitter: @exocortexcom
> http://Exocortex.com - Passionate CG Software Professionals.
>

Parenting to model branch selects it

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi list,

Is there a way to stop SI from branch-selecting a model after I parent
something to it? It annoys me every single time. I just want the parented
object to remain selected.

Re: Parenting to model branch selects it

[Christian Gotzinger]

Yes, I was hoping there might be a preference somewhere for when you use
the Parent button :-/


On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 2:30 PM, patrick nethercoat  wrote:

> the only way I think is to drag + drop the child.
>
>
>
> On 2 July 2012 11:49, Christian Gotzinger  wrote:
>
>> Hi list,
>>
>> Is there a way to stop SI from branch-selecting a model after I parent
>> something to it? It annoys me every single time. I just want the parented
>> object to remain selected.
>>
>
>

Re: Parenting to model branch selects it

[Christian Gotzinger]

Thank you very much! That sounds like it'll do the trick.



On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 4:03 PM, Martin  wrote:

> You can use the Parent Objects command and assign it to a key in your
> keyboard layout. I think it isn't asigned by default.
> You could create a button for this command if you don't want to change
> your keyboard.
>
> ParentObjects(null);
>
> It parents your objects (can be multiple objs) to the last selected one.
>
> I almost never use the Parent button (ParentObj command).
>
> M.Yara
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 10:07 PM, Christian Gotzinger <
> cgo...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
>> Yes, I was hoping there might be a preference somewhere for when you use
>> the Parent button :-/
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 2:30 PM, patrick nethercoat <
>> patr...@brandtanim.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>> the only way I think is to drag + drop the child.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 2 July 2012 11:49, Christian Gotzinger  wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi list,
>>>>
>>>> Is there a way to stop SI from branch-selecting a model after I parent
>>>> something to it? It annoys me every single time. I just want the parented
>>>> object to remain selected.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>

ICE Deform: Rotate polygons

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi list,

I want to animate a road building itself by scaling its polygons from 0 to
1. I've already got this done. But I also want to rotate the polygons 180
degrees around their local axes. Can someone explain the math behind this?
Thank you!

Re: ICE Deform: Rotate polygons

[Christian Gotzinger]

I have a road whose polygons are upside down. One by one, I want the
polygons to rotate 180 degrees so that the polygon normals point upwards.
This is part of an animation, so the rotation must be gradual. And I can't
just rotate around some global axis because the road has curves and turns.



On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 9:26 AM, Simon Anderson <
simonbenandersonl...@gmail.com> wrote:

> hey,
>
> you will have to look into Matrix's, global Matrix's to be exact and then
> do a Invert to and multiply, to get one matrix into its parents space. Its
> not as insane as it sounds.
>
>
> i would suggest creating two nulls, get there globla kinematics(Matrix)
> then do a invert on the one matrix(A) and multiply it by the other
> Matrix(B), and pipe that back into the global kinematics.
> That would give you a better understanding or matrix's and there space,
> and then you can mess around with the rotations of the local matrix.
>
> Hope that helps, also im not 100% sure what kind of rotation effect your
> trying to achieve?
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 5:09 PM, Christian Gotzinger <
> cgo...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi list,
>>
>> I want to animate a road building itself by scaling its polygons from 0
>> to 1. I've already got this done. But I also want to rotate the polygons
>> 180 degrees around their local axes. Can someone explain the math behind
>> this? Thank you!
>>
>
>
>
> --
> ---
> Simon Ben Anderson
> blog: http://vinyldevelopment.wordpress.com/
>
>

Re: ICE Deform: Rotate polygons

[Christian Gotzinger]

Thank you for the explanation Ciaran, this seems to work great! There's
only one problem now: The rotation happens around the scene origin while I
want the points to rotate around their polygon centers.


On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 9:52 AM, Ciaran Moloney wrote:

> Hi,
> the easiest way to deal with this type of thing is indeed using matrices,
> but you need a local matrix per polygon. You can get a 3x3 matrix using
> Self.polygonreferenceframe. You're going to want to zero-out this matrix
> (it just describes the local axis of the polygon), but matrix multiplying
> the pointpositions by the inverted poly reference frame. Now you can do
> your rotations (rotate vector) in the familiar local space of the object
> since the polygon is now aligned to local space. When you're done rotating
> the points, simply re-multiply them by the polygon reference frame, to put
> them back into the correct space of the polygon.
>
>

Re: ICE Deform: Rotate polygons

[Christian Gotzinger]

Right on, thank you very much!


On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 10:17 AM, Vladimir Jankijevic <
vladi...@elefantstudios.ch> wrote:

> here is a screenshot of how to do it:
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 9:52 AM, Ciaran Moloney 
> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>> the easiest way to deal with this type of thing is indeed using matrices,
>> but you need a local matrix per polygon. You can get a 3x3 matrix using
>> Self.polygonreferenceframe. You're going to want to zero-out this matrix
>> (it just describes the local axis of the polygon), but matrix multiplying
>> the pointpositions by the inverted poly reference frame. Now you can do
>> your rotations (rotate vector) in the familiar local space of the object
>> since the polygon is now aligned to local space. When you're done rotating
>> the points, simply re-multiply them by the polygon reference frame, to put
>> them back into the correct space of the polygon.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 8:37 AM, Christian Gotzinger <
>> cgo...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I have a road whose polygons are upside down. One by one, I want the
>>> polygons to rotate 180 degrees so that the polygon normals point upwards.
>>> This is part of an animation, so the rotation must be gradual. And I can't
>>> just rotate around some global axis because the road has curves and turns.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 9:26 AM, Simon Anderson <
>>> simonbenandersonl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> hey,
>>>>
>>>> you will have to look into Matrix's, global Matrix's to be exact and
>>>> then do a Invert to and multiply, to get one matrix into its parents space.
>>>> Its not as insane as it sounds.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> i would suggest creating two nulls, get there globla kinematics(Matrix)
>>>> then do a invert on the one matrix(A) and multiply it by the other
>>>> Matrix(B), and pipe that back into the global kinematics.
>>>> That would give you a better understanding or matrix's and there space,
>>>> and then you can mess around with the rotations of the local matrix.
>>>>
>>>> Hope that helps, also im not 100% sure what kind of rotation effect
>>>> your trying to achieve?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 5:09 PM, Christian Gotzinger <
>>>> cgo...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi list,
>>>>>
>>>>> I want to animate a road building itself by scaling its polygons from
>>>>> 0 to 1. I've already got this done. But I also want to rotate the polygons
>>>>> 180 degrees around their local axes. Can someone explain the math behind
>>>>> this? Thank you!
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> ---
>>>> Simon Ben Anderson
>>>> blog: http://vinyldevelopment.wordpress.com/
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> - Ciaran
>>
>
>
>
> --
> ---
> Vladimir Jankijevic
> Technical Direction
>
> Elefant Studios AG
> Lessingstrasse 15
> CH-8002 Zürich
>
> +41 44 500 48 20
>
> www.elefantstudios.ch
> ---
>

Growing the Turbulize node to 1

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi list,

My brain is fried. I want a Turbulize node to output values that grow to 1.
So at the beginning all values would be turbulized, and over time the
"holes" (values between 0 and 1) would close. I'm not simulating, so I want
to convert the Current Frame into a value that can be put into the
Turbulize.

I thought I'd spend a minute to do this effect, and after half an hour I
still don't have it working.

Thank you

Re: Growing the Turbulize node to 1

[Christian Gotzinger]

Thank you, I ended up having to plug some strange values into the start and
end of a Turbulize by range and clamp at the end. I've got it working how I
want it now even though I'm not entirely sure what's going on with the
values.


On Tue, Sep 4, 2012 at 8:19 AM, ThomasV  wrote:

> **
>  You could maybe multiply your turbulence by an increasing value (current
> frame/10 or whatever) and clamp at 1?
>
>  /Thomas
>
> Christian Gotzinger  hat am 4. September 2012 um
> 08:01 geschrieben:
>
> Hi list,
>
> My brain is fried. I want a Turbulize node to output values that grow to
> 1. So at the beginning all values would be turbulized, and over time the
> "holes" (values between 0 and 1) would close. I'm not simulating, so I want
> to convert the Current Frame into a value that can be put into the
> Turbulize.
>
> I thought I'd spend a minute to do this effect, and after half an hour I
> still don't have it working.
>
> Thank you
>
>
>
>

Re: Python and PPG

[Christian Gotzinger]

This should do:
parentObject = ppgObject.Parent


On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 10:51 AM, Szabolcs Matefy wrote:

> Meanwhile I resolved this...but another issue. How can I refer to the object
> to which the PPG is attached?
>
>
>
> Cheers
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Szabolcs Matefy
> *Sent:* Friday, February 28, 2014 10:23 AM
> *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
> *Subject:* Python and PPG
>
>
>
> Hey guys
>
>
>
> I have to create a dialog to manage some actions. I want to load the
> actions from the mixer into a listbox, but I really can't manage it in
> Python. I would like to learn Python, but it seems that it'll be a hard
> beginning...
>
>
>
> So, I've created the property using the waizard, and now I'd like to edit
> the code.
>
>
>
> I've replaced the DefineLAyout function
>
>
>
> oLayout.AddItem("Actions")
>
>
>
> to
>
>
>
> oList = oLayout.AddItem("Actions","A", C.siControlListBox)
>
> oList.UIItems = ["One","One","Two","Two"]
>
>
>
> but nothing really happens...SDK docs has not much sample for PPG in 
> Python
>
> ___
> This message contains confidential information and is intended only for
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>

Re: ICE migration thread. no tears here )))

[Christian Gotzinger]

That's precisely what I intend to do. Mix Houdini with Modo for modeling
and throw Fabric Splice on top, and I think you've got a pretty solid
replacement for Soft. Of course I say all this without every having tried
Houdini or Modo myself because I had had no need.

If Autodesk kills Soft, I just hope that many, many users and studios
switch to non-Autodesk software. Unfortunately, I believe that most will
(have to) switch to Maya, which seems to be Autodesk's plan. This whole
thing almost makes me angry. I see images of Charlton Heston in the sand,
staring in disbelief at the statue of liberty. What have you done, Autodesk?


On Sat, Mar 1, 2014 at 6:18 PM, Maurício PC  wrote:

> I asked Arman Yahin from Main Road|Post and he said it was all Houdini
> except modeling, which was done in Maya. Since we can easily switch Maya
> modeling for Softimage or Modo modeling it's all good
>

Re: ICE migration thread. no tears here )))

[Christian Gotzinger]

Of course, I will stick with SI for as long as possible. But in parallel
I'll have to look at the road ahead and figure out where I'll go. Ideally,
SideFX will realize that SI has left a gap and step up its game in the
areas that are lacking (modeling and animation from what I gather), so that
it does not need a companion app.


On Sat, Mar 1, 2014 at 7:23 PM, olivier jeannel wrote:

>  I just wouldn't like to need 2 packages to suit my needs. It complicate
> the pipe, and in small small company it's a pain. Not all of us are doing
> supa-dupa vfx movies...
> Will stick to SI as long as possible (hold my breath).
>
> Le 01/03/2014 18:59, Christian Gotzinger a écrit :
>
>  That's precisely what I intend to do. Mix Houdini with Modo for modeling
> and throw Fabric Splice on top, and I think you've got a pretty solid
> replacement for Soft. Of course I say all this without every having tried
> Houdini or Modo myself because I had had no need.
>
>  If Autodesk kills Soft, I just hope that many, many users and studios
> switch to non-Autodesk software. Unfortunately, I believe that most will
> (have to) switch to Maya, which seems to be Autodesk's plan. This whole
> thing almost makes me angry. I see images of Charlton Heston in the sand,
> staring in disbelief at the statue of liberty. What have you done, Autodesk?
>
>
> On Sat, Mar 1, 2014 at 6:18 PM, Maurício PC  wrote:
>
>> I asked Arman Yahin from Main Road|Post and he said it was all Houdini
>> except modeling, which was done in Maya. Since we can easily switch Maya
>> modeling for Softimage or Modo modeling it's all good
>>
>
>
>

Re: render flavor for architecture rendering

[Christian Gotzinger]

If I had to do an architectural walkthrough right now, I'd use Redshift for
sure. That thing is incredible, you may not even need a farm.


On Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 12:32 PM, Rob Wuijster  wrote:

>  V-Ray?
> RedShift is very interesting too, but not sure if that will work properly
> on a farm..
>
>
> Rob
>
> \/-\/\/
>
> On 2-8-2012 20:15, Sandy Sutherland wrote:
>
> Cough..ARNOLD.cough...without a doubt..
>
> Speaking from experience.
>
> S.
>
> _
> Sandy Sutherland
> Technical Supervisor
> sandy.sutherl...@triggerfish.co.za
> _
>
>
>
>
>   --
> *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [
> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] on behalf of Kris Rivel [
> krisri...@gmail.com]
> *Sent:* 02 August 2012 19:56
> *To:* Softimage List
> *Subject:* render flavor for architecture rendering
>
>  Quick question..what's the flavor of choice for rendering architectural
> walk-throughs in Soft these days?  I may be doing a few of them.  I'm
> thinking of just man-handling MR into submission but wondering if Arnold,
> 3Delight or whatever may have a few more easy options for doing some great
> bounce lighting, GI, etc.  Its not just stills so it needs to be render
> farm and sequence friendly.  Thanks for any opinions or suggestions.
>
> Kris
>
> No virus found in this message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> Version: 2012.0.2197 / Virus Database: 2437/5173 - Release Date: 08/02/12
>
>
>

Ridiculous: Some great ICE improvements

[Christian Gotzinger]

I'm only half-way through the "What's New" list, and it seems there are a
ton of useful ICE additions. All sorts of improvements regarding
attributes, the ability to drag-and-drop reorder ports etc.

These are things I've wanted for a long time. They would improve my
everyday workflow considerably... if SI had a future.

F U too Autodesk, I've already visited SideFX's homepage, am about to
download the Apprentice edition and will start learning within the next few
days.

Christian

Re: Softimage transition audience poll

[Christian Gotzinger]

Thank you for this detailed insight, Vincent. This makes me feel better,
and almost eager to try Houdini now. I know it's very powerful, just a
little worried about the day-to-day workflow.


On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 8:10 PM, Vincent Fortin  wrote:

> This is just my 0.02c regarding Houdini pricing...
>
> You can always negociate with SideFX. They are a very open company driven
> by passion.
> Studios interested in making a transition should discuss with Janet Fraser
> ja...@sidefx.com
>
> Yes the extra $$$ for the floating license is weird. IMHO they should
> revise that pricing. But otherwise, workstation license is 4,495$. Autodesk
> users are often hesitant to pay for upgrades because they don't feel like
> they're getting much in return. With Houdini you get blown away every
> release. And your studio can have its say in the development roadmap.
>
> Mantra is a very solid renderer, actively developed by SideFX. I wonder
> how much studios pay for their rendering needs? Mantra rendering is FREE
> (aka unlimited). It's both REYES and Physical.
> How much do studios pay for FumeFX (and Max and Vray when you don't wan't
> to render in scanline), render layers that don't match and need to be fixed
> in comp, cloth in Maya and issues related to supporting multiple
> softwares/plugins, licenses or upgrades that IT needs to keep track of. Yes
> ICE is an awesome little creation platform but has never reached maturity.
> It can all be done in Houdini + more.
>
> Man time is often wasted in studios, Houdini has that philosophy that
> everything can be offloaded to the farm, easily, without any or very little
> development. How much time wasted with finding the right format for storing
> your things on disk? XSI Models, pc2, collada, point oven, fbx, realflow
> .bin. I'm sure you too have tried them all! Houdini's .bgeo stores
> everything from points to volumes, nurbs, metaballs, custom attributes and
> has always supported geometry with changing topology. Can be compressed, or
> not. Can be made ascii. They have a standalone geometry viewer that is
> pretty cool. Any data stored in a .bgeo can be used as rendering proxies.
> But if you prefer Alembic, it is also fully integrated in the
> software/renderer as well as out of the box Open VDB, Open Subdivs, EXR2
> and DEEP COMPOSITING (hello modernity!).
>
> How much time wasted opening 2GB scene files in Softimage or Maya? A
> Houdini scene is always lightweight because of its referencing philosophy.
> In fact , a Houdini scene is based on the UNIX file system. You can unpack
> a full scene on your hard drive as a directory structure. It is true when
> they say Houdini is a pipeline on its own. With built-in environment
> variables, you can set up a small pipeline very easily. Often times I find
> myself doing a full project within the same scene. Never had any
> instabilities in years with Houdini. Never needed to "merge in an empty
> scene" to fix some random scene corruption.
>
> They support every Linux flavors or Windows, or Mac. They have daily
> builds and a 100% free learning edition with no time limitation. I see a
> lot of potential in Houdini Engine for games or even for film if Bifrost
> fails to deliver in a reasonable time frame.
>
> In fact I have become such a Houdini fanboy that every time I finish a
> project I'm tempted to send flowers and chocolate to Toronto.
>
> Of course your mileage may vary but overall I don't think Houdini is so
> overpriced considering all the problems you'll skip with it. I choose to
> stick with the real passionate people, not the greedy blood suckers. All
> the insecurity Autodesks generates regarding its development roadmap and
> licensing schemes has been doing too much damage in its user base (includes
> Maya for the last 10 years). Incidentally, if you visit the Houdini forums,
> you'll find a community that is very mature, positive and helpful.
>
> Vincent
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 12:59 PM, Angus Davidson  > wrote:
>
>>  Mostly a lack of respect.
>>
>>
>>  --
>> *From:* Ben Rogall [xsi_l...@shaders.moederogall.com]
>> *Sent:* 04 March 2014 07:42 PM
>>
>> *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
>> *Subject:* Re: Softimage transition audience poll
>>
>>   Yep. Or $4495 for a workstation license and then $2495 per year. For a
>> minute there it looked like Autodesk was doing something half reasonable
>> with the free transition offer to Softimage + Maya. But then I saw that
>> accepting that means that I would not be allowed to use Softimage at all
>> after February 2016. I'm not even sure what Autodesk gains from that.
>>
>> Ben
>>
>> On 3/4/2014 11:00 AM, Francois Lord wrote:
>>
>> What I find interesting in the fact that people want to jump the Autodesk
>> boat is that they seem to forget they have to buy a new software.
>> For a company that relies entirely on Softimage, that decision is not a
>> cheap one. Houdini is 7000$ for a floating license plus 4000$ per year!
>>
>> http://ww

Re: Softimage interaction n Maya?

[Christian Gotzinger]

Indeed. I hate the idea of having to click on transform gizmos. It's so
much less convenient, and slower too.


On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 9:36 PM, Andreas Bystrom
wrote:

> getting properly used to alt+qwer instead of s+xcv only takes a couple of
> weeks really, but if they are going to add anything in the way of
> navigation to maya it should be the ability to SRT using the mousebuttons
> like in xsi, left, middle and right mouse button for XYZ... having to find
> and click the maya transform gizmo in the viewport is a shit workflow.
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 9:27 AM, Alexander Akbarov wrote:
>
>> Obviously not http://clip2net.com/s/6WRRyY
>>
>>
>> 2014-03-04 22:23 GMT+02:00 Matt Lowery :
>>
>> Is there a Softimage interaction mode in Maya? (like the Maya interaction
>>> mode in Soft) If not, Autodesk needs to sort that out for those of us who
>>> are going to have to switch.
>>>
>>> m@
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Andreas Byström
> Weta Digital
>

Re: Let's Rock Soft with more love

[Christian Gotzinger]

I'm with Raffaele, I think it doesn't make much sense to cling to SI when
it comes to developing tools. I've built a ton of custom Soft and ICE tools
that help us in our workflow, but ever since the news has been dropped I
don't intend to spend much more time developing them further.

This is a dead end, and I'd rather spend time porting these tools to
another application, be that Maya or Houdini, than pour even more time into
something that's not coming back to life.

I'm not sure at what point in life I learned how to move on, but that
learning process had nothing to do with software. And nowadays, even as one
of the greatest SI fanboys out there, I have a very sober,
matter-of-fact-ish point of view on events such as this.



On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 4:18 AM, Raffaele Fragapane <
raffsxsil...@googlemail.com> wrote:

> Can I humbly suggest TDs spend their time more productively instead, for
> both themselves and the community, and start looking at other vendors?
>
> We can wish upon a star all we want, but, as hurtful as it might be, Soft
> is dead and will not be brought back to life. You can tazer the corpse
> until it spasms, but it won't be life.
>
>

Re: Scrub timeline while mouse is in viewport?

[Christian Gotzinger]

It may be the hard way, but finding out about this neat trick was worth it.
I had no idea you could do that.


On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 3:50 PM, Alan Fregtman wrote:

> You guys are doing it the hard way. There's already a tool for this! Been
> there forever:
>
> *Application.TimeSliderTool()*
>
> (You can map a key to it in the Keyboard Mapping window, in the XSI
> section, it's called "*Time Slider Tool*".)
>
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 9:41 AM, Arvid Björn  wrote:
>
>> Nice, I learned a new trick today =)
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 12:26 PM, Luc-Eric Rousseau 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> That's a cool trick Cesar.
>>>
>>> Thanks to Brent, Softimage already has that Maya tool built-in; you'll
>>> have to map it in your keymap, it's called "Time Slider Tool"
>>> In the Maya keymap, it's already mapped to the K key
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 12:16 AM, Siew Yi Liang 
>>> wrote:
>>> > Hi Cesar:
>>> >
>>> > Ha, really nice! Never thought of doing it that way, here I was
>>> looking at
>>> > trying to grab mouse position! :P
>>> >
>>> > Thanks again for coming to the rescue!
>>> >
>>> > Yours sincerely,
>>> > Siew Yi Liang
>>> >
>>> > On 3/6/2014 8:42 PM, Cesar Saez wrote:
>>> >
>>> > Hi Siew,
>>> > It's a bit of a hack but works ;)
>>> >
>>> > Application.SelectObj("Application")
>>> > Application.SetMarking("PlayControl.Current")
>>> > Application.VirtualSliderTool()
>>> >
>>> > Cheers!
>>> >
>>> >
>>>
>>
>>
>

Re: Scrub timeline while mouse is in viewport?

[Christian Gotzinger]

Maybe this works too, it's worth a try.

Application.SelectObj("Autodesk.ShotCallers")
Application.DeleteObj()


On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 5:42 AM, Cesar Saez  wrote:

> Hi Siew,
> It's a bit of a hack but works ;)
>
> Application.SelectObj("Application")
> Application.SetMarking("PlayControl.Current")
> Application.VirtualSliderTool()
>
> Cheers!
>

Re: A germ of an idea.

[Christian Gotzinger]

I think the video has got to be visually stunning. Short (i.e. doable) but
very epic, and Paul's idea fits the bill.
Also, I completely hate the thought of doing a documentary with interviews.
"How do you feel about the discontinuation of Softimage?" - "Well, it
certainly has affected us a lot, and..." *YWWWN* Seriously, who'd watch
that?

I'm willing to put aside time for Paul's idea. If nothing else, at least we
go out with a bang.
I have been using SI for around 9 years. These days I mostly do modeling,
texturing, lighting and build lots of ICE tools. But in the past I've also
been paid to rig, animate, matchmove and comp. So I qualify for the
generalist category.

Hopefully Paul can pull off the coordination of this.

Christian



On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 4:37 PM,  wrote:
>
>>   Wow so that's 41 people so far!! I never imagined this would happen.
>>
>> Its also rather intimidating. I certainly can't lead this on my own, so
>> who would like to help coordinate it?
>> I'd also like to nail the basis for the idea down soon or we'll be all
>> over the place.
>>
>> This is my idea, cleaned up a bit, with suggestions from Doeke Wartena
>> who aptly likened it to Forest Gump's running sequence.
>>
>> I thought Greg would be a good start, as he still has a lot of followers
>> on you-tube and is kind of known. I had a big response from the VFX
>> industry when I made it.
>>
>>  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o9Fod9KigU
>>
>> We start with Greg Mutt (see above) doing a video blog about Soft being
>> killed.. He suddenly jumps up and  says You know what? Screw this!! and
>> stomps off screen.
>> We cut to him walking down a street with purpose.
>> Then we cut to various other CGI characters or entities, leaving
>> buildings, walking, running. making their way somewhere.
>> The shots get bigger as more and more CGI things join the walking groups.
>> Its starts getting Epic. Godzilla Stomps through times Square as a bunch
>> of Lego-like characters run beneath him etc
>> We see Greg again, riding on a Trex, past Mount Rushmore, as helicopters
>> fly past . George Washington's stone face says 'Go for it Greg!'
>> Tokyo and a bunch of Manga characters strut down the neon streets looking
>> mean and others looking Cute join them.
>> Paris and a bunch of Monsters stick out their thumbs to hitch a ride.  a
>> massive spaceship descends.
>> etc ( increasingly epic ideas along these lines are up for grabs.)
>> Eventually an awesome throng of CGI characters, and entities gather at
>> the HQ of Autodesk.. (this could be CGI and Stylised. Black and Imposing)
>> They are carrying banners, such as 'make Softimage not war'. They stop..
>> Greg hesitates, from behind him, a character walks to the door.
>> It is a little cute Manga girl . she presses the buzzer a reply comes.
>> 'Hello, this is Autodesk. Press 1 if you want information on Maya. Press
>> 2 if you want information on Max, press...' (this bit needs more thought)
>> She leans in and whispers 'Please don't kill us'
>> SAVE SOFTIMAGE slams onto screen
>>
>> I don't want to force anyone to do this idea, but if the general
>> consensus is that its a decent start then its worth building on I think. I
>> think the good thing about it is that its a simple premise, yet allows for
>> great creative freedom.
>>
>>
>

Re: A germ of an idea.

[Christian Gotzinger]

Agreed. I'm not getting behind making a film that's specific to Softimage
vs. Autodesk.

Of course that's the general topic of Paul's idea as well, but the deciding
factor is mass appeal. Making a film that has Autodesk uniforms and copies
of Maya == zero mass appeal. Ideally the film won't even contain the words
Autodesk or Softimage. Nobody cares about the geek stuff.


On Thu, Mar 13, 2014 at 10:00 PM, Paul  wrote:

> I can guarantee that the media won't be interested in a very specific
> revenge film. They will however be interested in the sheer fact 50 people
> got together to make a blockbuster film to save the filmmaking tool they
> made it with. It's the human story they will be interested in, not the
> story in the film.
>
>

Re: Wise up

[Christian Gotzinger]

On Sun, Mar 16, 2014 at 2:30 AM, David Saber  wrote:

> If Ad asks you to leave your young beautiful wife, and choose your fat
> ugly mother in law instead, would you accept?
>

Well, to be fair, Autodesk are promising to apply many layers of makeup to
her face and make her use the treadmill twice a week. Also, many many older
men are lusting after the rich in-law. Can't you see that she's better for
you?

Render a single frame without frame number in file name

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi list,

Is there a way to set up a pass such that the rendered file does not
contain the frame number?
I want my file to be called "filename.png", not "filename.1.png".

Thank you

Christian

Re: Render a single frame without frame number in file name

[Christian Gotzinger]

I'm rendering hundreds of different files via script. I can rename the
files afterwards, but it'd be nice if I could render them out correctly
right away.


On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 11:12 AM, Pete Edmunds  wrote:

> can't you rename it once it rendered?
>
>
> On 7 May 2013 10:07, Christian Gotzinger  wrote:
>
>> Hi list,
>>
>> Is there a way to set up a pass such that the rendered file does not
>> contain the frame number?
>> I want my file to be called "filename.png", not "filename.1.png".
>>
>> Thank you
>>
>> Christian
>>
>
>

Re: Render a single frame without frame number in file name

[Christian Gotzinger]

Thank you all for clearing it up. Just wanted to make sure that there is
indeed no way to set it up using SI options.
I added file renaming to the script, and that works nicely.

Christian


On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 12:09 PM, Raffaele Fragapane <
raffsxsil...@googlemail.com> wrote:

> AFAIK it's not part of the tokenization.
> If you are generating them by script though it should be trivial to rename
> them by the same script after the fact, unless your script is just a
> submitter unaware of when the rendering is finished, in that case, if you
> use any, render management softwares usually allow for post-write
> procedures and you should be calling the job with one passed on to do it
> after the fact.
>
>
> On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 7:36 PM, Christian Gotzinger  > wrote:
>
>> I'm rendering hundreds of different files via script. I can rename the
>> files afterwards, but it'd be nice if I could render them out correctly
>> right away.
>>
>>
>> On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 11:12 AM, Pete Edmunds wrote:
>>
>>> can't you rename it once it rendered?
>>>
>>>
>>> On 7 May 2013 10:07, Christian Gotzinger  wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi list,
>>>>
>>>> Is there a way to set up a pass such that the rendered file does not
>>>> contain the frame number?
>>>> I want my file to be called "filename.png", not "filename.1.png".
>>>>
>>>> Thank you
>>>>
>>>> Christian
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it
> and let them flee like the dogs they are!
>

No anti aliasing while navigating?

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi list,

I turned on the High Quality viewport in SI 2014 in my scene to get
anti-aliasing. But the anti-aliasing only works when the camera is
stationary. As soon as start navigating, I get the old pixelated mess. I
want it to be enabled all the time, not just when I stop navigating. What
gives?

Thank you

Re: Raycast by camera instead of direction

[Christian Gotzinger]

As the direction you vector you can use the vector from your camera
position to the object. You simply subtract one position from the other:
yourobject.kine.global.pos MINUS camera.kine.global.pos (and plug the
result into the raycast)


On Tue, Jun 18, 2013 at 5:26 PM, Jimmy Marrero wrote:

> Hey guys
> I am using the footprint deformation in ICE and was wondering if there is
> a way to align the Raycast to match the direction of my camera. I am
> testing it currently on a sphere, I want to be able to rotate around the
> sphere and have the deformation appear consistent around the object instead
> of the current way of just deforming on a particular axis.
>
> Any help appreciated.
> Thanks
>
>
> Jimmy
>
>

Re: Poly islands in ICE

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi,

I'm practically in the weekend, but here's a super quick compound. Probably
not perfectly laid out, but I tried it on an example and it works.

Christian


On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 9:30 PM, Mario Domingos wrote:

>  Hi list! I hope you can help me here.
>
>   Please refer to the attached image.
>
>   Is there a way to disconnect the edges as outline instead of
> disconnecting all of them?
>
>   At the right side of the image I show an example of what I want to
> achieve.
>
>   I hope I was clear. :P
>
>   Tks
>
>   M
>
>  Click to view 'islands.PNG' on 
> Dropbox
>
>  —
> Sent from Mailbox  for iPhone
>


DisconnectOutline.xsicompound
Description: Binary data

Re: Poly islands in ICE

[Christian Gotzinger]

Oh, I forgot. This works based on a polygon cluster. So you'll need a
cluster for the compound to work. Sorry no time to fix, haha


On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 9:30 PM, Mario Domingos wrote:

>  Hi list! I hope you can help me here.
>
>   Please refer to the attached image.
>
>   Is there a way to disconnect the edges as outline instead of
> disconnecting all of them?
>
>   At the right side of the image I show an example of what I want to
> achieve.
>
>   I hope I was clear. :P
>
>   Tks
>
>   M
>
>  Click to view 'islands.PNG' on 
> Dropbox
>
>  —
> Sent from Mailbox  for iPhone
>

Re: Poly islands in ICE

[Christian Gotzinger]

Alright, triple post.
Here's an updated compound with per-polygon input. You can use it the same
way as in your picture (i.e. connect a Test Polygon Inside Null or whatever
else you like).


On Fri, Aug 30, 2013 at 2:02 PM, Christian Gotzinger
wrote:

> Oh, I forgot. This works based on a polygon cluster. So you'll need a
> cluster for the compound to work. Sorry no time to fix, haha
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 9:30 PM, Mario Domingos 
> wrote:
>
>>  Hi list! I hope you can help me here.
>>
>>   Please refer to the attached image.
>>
>>   Is there a way to disconnect the edges as outline instead of
>> disconnecting all of them?
>>
>>   At the right side of the image I show an example of what I want to
>> achieve.
>>
>>   I hope I was clear. :P
>>
>>   Tks
>>
>>   M
>>
>>  Click to view 'islands.PNG' on 
>> Dropbox<https://www.dropbox.com/s/h7qjrrfjsr1b554/islands.PNG>
>>
>>  —
>> Sent from Mailbox <https://www.dropbox.com/mailbox> for iPhone
>>
>
>


DisconnectOutline.xsicompound
Description: Binary data

Re: Poly islands in ICE

[Christian Gotzinger]

The basic idea is to check for every edge that's part of the selection
whether both its polygons are also part of the selection. For the edge to
be an outline edge, only one of its polygons may be part of the selection.

Looking at it again, I noticed that the two Filter nodes behind
EdgeToCWPolygon and EdgeToCCWPolygon are unnecessary (both pipes can plug
directly into Find in Array without a Filter), which makes the compound a
bit easier to understand.


On Mon, Sep 2, 2013 at 12:37 PM, Mario Domingos wrote:

> Ok guys, both work but the Disconnect Compound from Cristian is faster.
> I'm now trying to indestand how it works, a bit more complex then Vincent's
> idea.
>
> Tks!!
> —
> Sent from Mailbox  for iPhone
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 2, 2013 at 3:04 AM, Vincent Ullmann <
> vincent.ullm...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
>> You could try to use a Delete-Polygon-Node to split your Mesh into 2
>> Parts, and then merge them Back
>>
>> Am 29.08.2013 22:29, schrieb Mario Domingos:
>>
>> Tks Alan I'll take a look at it!
>> —
>> Sent from Mailbox  for iPhone
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 9:07 PM, Alan Fregtman 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Maybe this will get you closer to your goal: https://vimeo.com/11558894
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 3:30 PM, Mario Domingos <
>>> mdomingos.p...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
  Hi list! I hope you can help me here.

  Please refer to the attached image.

  Is there a way to disconnect the edges as outline instead of
 disconnecting all of them?

  At the right side of the image I show an example of what I want to
 achieve.

  I hope I was clear. :P

  Tks

  M

  Click to view 'islands.PNG' on 
 Dropbox

  —
 Sent from Mailbox  for iPhone

>>>
>>>
>>
>> **
>> **
>
>
>

Re: scale relative to camera

[Christian Gotzinger]

You'll have to adjust for the shift from the camera center. Instead of
using the camera-to-object distance as your multiplier, you should use (I
haven't tried it, so hopefully the math is right):

(cosine alpha) * (distance camera-to-object)
alpha is the angle between your "camera-to-object-vector" and your
"camera-to-camerainterest-vector"


On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 5:25 PM, Ponthieux, Joseph G. (LARC-E1A)[LITES] <
j.ponthi...@nasa.gov> wrote:

>  Hello,
>
> ** **
>
> I have a situation where I would like an object to remain the same size
> relative to the camera. Think in terms of “pixel width” for example. I
> managed to accomplish this through ICE by using the distance between the
> camera and the object to manage the scale for the object. 
>
> ** **
>
> The problem is this. If the object is in the center of the viewport and I
> move the camera towards or away from the object, its perfect. The scale
> remains constant relative to the viewport. But if the object is on the
> periphery of the viewport, it is slightly larger than in the center of the
> viewport. The object scale still remains relative if the camera moves, the
> problem is that the scale is different than in the center. I assume this
> has something to do with forced perspective having an affect on the scaling?
> 
>
> ** **
>
> Has anyone tried this before? I haven’t a clue how to correct this at the
> moment. Any ideas would be appreciated.
>
> ** **
>
> --
>
> Joey Ponthieux
>
> LaRC Information Technology Enhanced Services (LITES)
>
> Mymic Technical Services
>
> NASA Langley Research Center
>
> __
>
> Opinions stated here-in are strictly those of the author and do not 
>
> represent the opinions of NASA or any other party.
>
> ** **
>

Re: Poly islands in ICE

[Christian Gotzinger]

Exactly right.


On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 11:30 PM, Mario Domingos wrote:

> This is great Christian, thank you for your patience. I knew that I had to
> change the context and tried several things but with no luck.
>
> Ok, so you get all the vertices ids on the the polys of the object (arrays
> of ids per poly) then get the weightmap scalar values (per point) witch you
> "pack" into an Array per object. Then you find  witch scalar values (from
> the weight map) belong to each vertices with the Find in Array node, here
> the context is Array per polygon and what we need is scalar or integer per
> poly so you used Get Array Average for that Am i right? Just want to be
> sure that I understand this.
> —
> Sent from Mailbox <https://www.dropbox.com/mailbox> for iPhone
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 5:00 PM, Christian Gotzinger  > wrote:
>
>> It's all about getting the right context. Weight maps are scalar values
>> per point. The compound requires a boolean per polygon. I've attached an
>> example of how you can do it (and added every node's ouput context as text
>> into the image). I recommend visualizing every single pipe one after
>> another so you can see what happens.
>> 
>>
>>
>

Re: Navigating relationships in Softimage (new to the software)

[Christian Gotzinger]

Just a quick tip: you can also press Ctrl+A, which always respects your
selection filter. If the filter is set to lattice, Ctrl+A selects all
lattices in the scene.


For example, if you want to find all lattices in the scene, you can set the
> selection filter to lattice then do a rectangular selection around the
> entire scene (or in schematic view).
>
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Re: Kudos AD - Soft gets some promotion

[Christian Gotzinger]

Indeed, there is nothing wrong with Autodesk using ICE as the main selling
point. Of course SI is a generalist powerhouse, but it's pretty difficult
for marketing to point this out. As long as they're promoting it at all,
I'm happy.


On Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 4:49 PM, Paul Griswold <
pgrisw...@fusiondigitalproductions.com> wrote:

>
> For me, I'll take Softimage being touted for ICE and Face Robot at the top
> of the ECS page any day of the week when you compare it to the virtual
> silent marketing campaign we've had so far.  I'm hopeful that someone
> somewhere in AD's marketing department finally loaded Softimage for the
> first time ever and a light when off in their head - "hey, this Softimage
> thing is pretty amazing!  We could sell this!"
>
>
--
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ICETree symbol with a B?

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi list,

I have a script that generates a new pointcloud, an ICE tree and adds a few
nodes to the ICE tree. When I check in the Explorer, the little symbol to
the left of the ICETree has a bold B in front of it. What does this mean?

If I select the point cloud and update an ICE Tree view, nothing comes up.
I have to select the ICETree itself, then update the ICE Tree view to see
it. That's quite annoying.

Christian
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Re: ICETree symbol with a B?

[Christian Gotzinger]

Yes, that's actually it. Must be a little mistake in the script then
probably, as nothing should have been applied in branch.


On Tue, Oct 8, 2013 at 10:24 AM, olivier jeannel wrote:

>  Do you mean like a "branch select" ? For example when you branch select
> and apply a deformer operator ?
>
> Le 08/10/2013 10:16, Christian Gotzinger a écrit :
>
>  Hi list,
>
>  I have a script that generates a new pointcloud, an ICE tree and adds a
> few nodes to the ICE tree. When I check in the Explorer, the little symbol
> to the left of the ICETree has a bold B in front of it. What does this mean?
>
> If I select the point cloud and update an ICE Tree view, nothing comes up.
> I have to select the ICETree itself, then update the ICE Tree view to see
> it. That's quite annoying.
>
>  Christian
>
>
> --
> 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.
>
--
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Re: ICETree symbol with a B?

[Christian Gotzinger]

I found it, the connect type in the ApplyOp was set incorrectly. Thanks for
pointing me in the right direction Olivier.


On Tue, Oct 8, 2013 at 10:33 AM, Christian Gotzinger
wrote:

> Yes, that's actually it. Must be a little mistake in the script then
> probably, as nothing should have been applied in branch.
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 8, 2013 at 10:24 AM, olivier jeannel 
> wrote:
>
>>  Do you mean like a "branch select" ? For example when you branch select
>> and apply a deformer operator ?
>>
>> Le 08/10/2013 10:16, Christian Gotzinger a écrit :
>>
>>  Hi list,
>>
>>  I have a script that generates a new pointcloud, an ICE tree and adds a
>> few nodes to the ICE tree. When I check in the Explorer, the little symbol
>> to the left of the ICETree has a bold B in front of it. What does this mean?
>>
>> If I select the point cloud and update an ICE Tree view, nothing comes
>> up. I have to select the ICETree itself, then update the ICE Tree view to
>> see it. That's quite annoying.
>>
>>  Christian
>>
>>
>> --
>> 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.
>>
>
>
--
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Re: SI selections driving me nuts...

[Christian Gotzinger]

I don't know what the shortcuts are for the Maya layout, but I would assume
that there are two different shortcuts for the polygon selection tools.
By SI defaults, Y is polygon rectangle, U is polygon raycast, E is edge
rectangle, I is edge raycast, T is point rectangle, and I have never in my
life used point raycast so I don't know the shortcut :-)


On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 5:10 PM, Sergio Mucino wrote:

>  Okay. I'm not sure if there's a preference for this, but I REALLY want to
> turn it off.
> This is what I'm doing...
> 1. Go into Polygon selection mode. For some reason, the selection tool is
> set to Raycast, so I'll switch it back to Rectangle.
> 2. Select some polygons.
> 3. Select Adjacent -> Points
> 4. Smooth Envelope Weights on the selected points.
> 5. Go back to Polygon selection mode.
> The select tool is set back to Raycast!! I have to change it with EVERY
> CHANGE I do! And I have to repeat this operation several dozens of times.
> SI is driving me crazy with this. Is there a preference somewhere to NEVER
> change the selection tool unless I explicitly do it? Thanks for any help!
> --
>
<>

Controlling a parameter "live" via slider through scripting

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi list,

My script generates a bevel operator on an object. I then want a PPG to pop
up that allows the user to change certain parameters of the bevel operator.
These parameters should update whenever the values in the PPG are changed.
However, they only update after the PPG is closed via OK. Can someone point
me in the right direction here?

Script is roughly as follows:

# Lots of stuff after which a bevel operator (op) is generated
MyPSet = A.ActiveSceneRoot.AddProperty("CustomProperty", False,
"Bevel_Options")
MyLayout = MyPSet.PPGLayout
MyPSet.AddParameter3("PBevelRatio", c.siFloat, 10, 0.01, 100)
MySlider = MyLayout.AddItem("PBevelRatio", "Ratio", c.siControlNumber)

A.InspectObj(MyPSet, "", "Choose Bevel Options", c.siModal, False)

op.Parameters("ratio").Value = MyPSet.Parameters("PBevelRatio").Value


Thank you
Christian

Re: Controlling a parameter "live" via slider through scripting

[Christian Gotzinger]

I may be doing it wrong because I've never used this, but I don't seem to
be able to access the operator by doing this? The operator is defined
outside the injected script.


On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 12:37 PM, gareth bell  wrote:

> I think you need some PPG.Logic
>
>
> http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=14003709&linkID=12544120
>
> using an _OnChanged callback
>
>
>
>
> --
> Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2013 12:29:57 +0100
> Subject: Controlling a parameter "live" via slider through scripting
> From: cgo...@googlemail.com
> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
>
>
> Hi list,
>
> My script generates a bevel operator on an object. I then want a PPG to
> pop up that allows the user to change certain parameters of the bevel
> operator. These parameters should update whenever the values in the PPG are
> changed. However, they only update after the PPG is closed via OK. Can
> someone point me in the right direction here?
>
> Script is roughly as follows:
>
> # Lots of stuff after which a bevel operator (op) is generated
> MyPSet = A.ActiveSceneRoot.AddProperty("CustomProperty", False,
> "Bevel_Options")
> MyLayout = MyPSet.PPGLayout
> MyPSet.AddParameter3("PBevelRatio", c.siFloat, 10, 0.01, 100)
> MySlider = MyLayout.AddItem("PBevelRatio", "Ratio", c.siControlNumber)
>
> A.InspectObj(MyPSet, "", "Choose Bevel Options", c.siModal, False)
>
> op.Parameters("ratio").Value = MyPSet.Parameters("PBevelRatio").Value
>
>
> Thank you
> Christian
>

Re: Controlling a parameter "live" via slider through scripting

[Christian Gotzinger]

No, it's not Immediate Mode. After the PPG is closed, the operator values
update correctly. But they don't update when changing the slider value
while the PPG is open.
I will delete the custom property once the user closes the PPG, so I think
it's not too important where it's stored.


On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 12:37 PM, Stefan Kubicek wrote:

>  Could it be that you have immediate mode enabled?
> Also, why do you store the parameters in a global PPG in the SceneRoot
> rather than on the actual operator per object?
>
>
> Hi list,
>
> My script generates a bevel operator on an object. I then want a PPG to
> pop up that allows the user to change certain parameters of the bevel
> operator. These parameters should update whenever the values in the PPG are
> changed. However, they only update after the PPG is closed via OK. Can
> someone point me in the right direction here?
>
> Script is roughly as follows:
>
> # Lots of stuff after which a bevel operator (op) is generated
> MyPSet = A.ActiveSceneRoot.AddProperty("CustomProperty", False,
> "Bevel_Options")
> MyLayout = MyPSet.PPGLayout
> MyPSet.AddParameter3("PBevelRatio", c.siFloat, 10, 0.01, 100)
> MySlider = MyLayout.AddItem("PBevelRatio", "Ratio", c.siControlNumber)
>
> A.InspectObj(MyPSet, "", "Choose Bevel Options", c.siModal, False)
>
> op.Parameters("ratio").Value = MyPSet.Parameters("PBevelRatio").Value
>
>
> Thank you
> Christian
>
>
>
>
> --
> ---
> Stefan Kubicek
> ---
> keyvis digital imagery
> Alfred Feierfeilstraße 3
> A-2380 Perchtoldsdorf bei Wien
> Phone: +43/699/12614231
> www.keyvis.at ste...@keyvis.at
> -- This email and its attachments are --
> --confidential and for the recipient only--
>

Re: Controlling a parameter "live" via slider through scripting

[Christian Gotzinger]

Thank you for the links, I think these contain what I need.

What would be the standard way for controlling operators? I'm not trying to
do anything special, really just looking for the most straightforward way
to:
1) Add a bevel operator
2) Allow the user to change settings of the bevel operator
3) Freeze the object
4) Perform additional modeling operations

Step 2) is the only part where I need interactive user input. Once the user
is happy and clicks OK, steps 3) and 4) must be automatically performed by
the script.


On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 1:12 PM, Stefan Kubicek  wrote:

>  It is quite unusual to update operators based on another global PPG's
> parameter I think, though theoretically it should work if the operator uses
> the Property's relevant parameters as an input.
>
> Check out
> http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/softimage2014/en_us/sdkguide/si_om/CustomOperator.html
>
> and in particular:
> http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/softimage2014/en_us/sdkguide/si_om/CustomOperator.AddInputPort.html
>
>
>
> No, it's not Immediate Mode. After the PPG is closed, the operator values
> update correctly. But they don't update when changing the slider value
> while the PPG is open.
> I will delete the custom property once the user closes the PPG, so I think
> it's not too important where it's stored.
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 12:37 PM, Stefan Kubicek wrote:
>
>> Could it be that you have immediate mode enabled?
>> Also, why do you store the parameters in a global PPG in the SceneRoot
>> rather than on the actual operator per object?
>>
>>
>> Hi list,
>>
>> My script generates a bevel operator on an object. I then want a PPG to
>> pop up that allows the user to change certain parameters of the bevel
>> operator. These parameters should update whenever the values in the PPG are
>> changed. However, they only update after the PPG is closed via OK. Can
>> someone point me in the right direction here?
>>
>> Script is roughly as follows:
>>
>> # Lots of stuff after which a bevel operator (op) is generated
>> MyPSet = A.ActiveSceneRoot.AddProperty("CustomProperty", False,
>> "Bevel_Options")
>> MyLayout = MyPSet.PPGLayout
>> MyPSet.AddParameter3("PBevelRatio", c.siFloat, 10, 0.01, 100)
>> MySlider = MyLayout.AddItem("PBevelRatio", "Ratio", c.siControlNumber)
>>
>> A.InspectObj(MyPSet, "", "Choose Bevel Options", c.siModal, False)
>>
>> op.Parameters("ratio").Value = MyPSet.Parameters("PBevelRatio").Value
>>
>>
>> Thank you
>> Christian
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> ---
>> Stefan Kubicek
>> ---
>> keyvis digital imagery
>> Alfred Feierfeilstraße 3
>> A-2380 Perchtoldsdorf bei Wien
>> Phone: +43/699/12614231
>> www.keyvis.at ste...@keyvis.at
>> -- This email and its attachments are --
>> --confidential and for the recipient only--
>>
>
>
>
>
> --
> ---
> Stefan Kubicek
> ---
> keyvis digital imagery
> Alfred Feierfeilstraße 3
> A-2380 Perchtoldsdorf bei Wien
> Phone: +43/699/12614231
> www.keyvis.at ste...@keyvis.at
> -- This email and its attachments are --
> --confidential and for the recipient only--
>

Re: Controlling a parameter "live" via slider through scripting

[Christian Gotzinger]

Thank you everyone for the additional tips!


On Wed, Nov 6, 2013 at 8:20 AM, Stefan Kubicek  wrote:

>  The cleanest way I suppose would be to have the PPG reside on the
> operator directly.
>
> Write a command to apply the op and display its PPG (points 1 and 2 in
> your list), then on the PPG there could be a button (calling a second
> command for instance) that freezes the object and performs your additional
> modeling operations (points 3 and 4).
>
> That's what I'd do. You could even create menu items for your command(s)
> and anchor them in one of the existing menus so you can call the
> operation(s) from there.
>
> Thank you for the links, I think these contain what I need.
>
> What would be the standard way for controlling operators? I'm not trying
> to do anything special, really just looking for the most straightforward
> way to:
> 1) Add a bevel operator
> 2) Allow the user to change settings of the bevel operator
> 3) Freeze the object
> 4) Perform additional modeling operations
>
> Step 2) is the only part where I need interactive user input. Once the
> user is happy and clicks OK, steps 3) and 4) must be automatically
> performed by the script.
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 1:12 PM, Stefan Kubicek wrote:
>
>> It is quite unusual to update operators based on another global PPG's
>> parameter I think, though theoretically it should work if the operator uses
>> the Property's relevant parameters as an input.
>>
>> Check out
>> http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/softimage2014/en_us/sdkguide/si_om/CustomOperator.html
>>
>> and in particular:
>> http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/softimage2014/en_us/sdkguide/si_om/CustomOperator.AddInputPort.html
>>
>>
>>
>> No, it's not Immediate Mode. After the PPG is closed, the operator values
>> update correctly. But they don't update when changing the slider value
>> while the PPG is open.
>> I will delete the custom property once the user closes the PPG, so I
>> think it's not too important where it's stored.
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 12:37 PM, Stefan Kubicek 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Could it be that you have immediate mode enabled?
>>> Also, why do you store the parameters in a global PPG in the SceneRoot
>>> rather than on the actual operator per object?
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi list,
>>>
>>> My script generates a bevel operator on an object. I then want a PPG to
>>> pop up that allows the user to change certain parameters of the bevel
>>> operator. These parameters should update whenever the values in the PPG are
>>> changed. However, they only update after the PPG is closed via OK. Can
>>> someone point me in the right direction here?
>>>
>>> Script is roughly as follows:
>>>
>>> # Lots of stuff after which a bevel operator (op) is generated
>>> MyPSet = A.ActiveSceneRoot.AddProperty("CustomProperty", False,
>>> "Bevel_Options")
>>> MyLayout = MyPSet.PPGLayout
>>> MyPSet.AddParameter3("PBevelRatio", c.siFloat, 10, 0.01, 100)
>>> MySlider = MyLayout.AddItem("PBevelRatio", "Ratio", c.siControlNumber)
>>>
>>> A.InspectObj(MyPSet, "", "Choose Bevel Options", c.siModal, False)
>>>
>>> op.Parameters("ratio").Value = MyPSet.Parameters("PBevelRatio").Value
>>>
>>>
>>> Thank you
>>> Christian
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> ---
>>> Stefan Kubicek
>>> ---
>>> keyvis digital imagery
>>> Alfred Feierfeilstraße 3
>>> A-2380 Perchtoldsdorf bei Wien
>>> Phone: +43/699/12614231
>>> www.keyvis.at ste...@keyvis.at
>>> -- This email and its attachments are --
>>> --confidential and for the recipient only--
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> ---
>> Stefan Kubicek
>> ---
>> keyvis digital imagery
>> Alfred Feierfeilstraße 3
>> A-2380 Perchtoldsdorf bei Wien
>> Phone: +43/699/12614231
>> www.keyvis.at ste...@keyvis.at
>> -- This email and its attachments are --
>> --confidential and for the recipient only--
>>
>
>
>
>
> --
> ---
> Stefan Kubicek
> ---
> keyvis digital imagery
> Alfred Feierfeilstraße 3
> A-2380 Perchtoldsdorf bei Wien
> Phone: +43/699/12614231
> www.keyvis.at ste...@keyvis.at
> -- This email and its attachments are --
> --confidential and for the recipient only--
>

Re: Controlling a parameter "live" via slider through scripting

[Christian Gotzinger]

Oh wow, thank you so much for pointing this out! It all makes sense now.


On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 2:59 AM, Benjamin Paschke wrote:

> I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet, but I think it's because
> you are inspecting the PPG in siModal mode.
> siModal will give you a box to say OK or Cancel, but yes, changes are
> not reflected live in the scene. This is what modal means.
>
> On 05/11/13 21:59, Christian Gotzinger wrote:
> > Hi list,
> >
> > My script generates a bevel operator on an object. I then want a PPG
> > to pop up that allows the user to change certain parameters of the
> > bevel operator. These parameters should update whenever the values in
> > the PPG are changed. However, they only update after the PPG is closed
> > via OK. Can someone point me in the right direction here?
> >
> > Script is roughly as follows:
> >
> > # Lots of stuff after which a bevel operator (op) is generated
> > MyPSet = A.ActiveSceneRoot.AddProperty("CustomProperty", False,
> > "Bevel_Options")
> > MyLayout = MyPSet.PPGLayout
> > MyPSet.AddParameter3("PBevelRatio", c.siFloat, 10, 0.01, 100)
> > MySlider = MyLayout.AddItem("PBevelRatio", "Ratio", c.siControlNumber)
> >
> > A.InspectObj(MyPSet, "", "Choose Bevel Options", c.siModal, False)
> >
> > op.Parameters("ratio").Value = MyPSet.Parameters("PBevelRatio").Value
> >
> >
> > Thank you
> > Christian
>
>

Re: positivity

[Christian Gotzinger]

Thank you, finally some positivity! I never participate in all the rants
because they annoy me to no end.


On Fri, Dec 20, 2013 at 12:50 PM, adrian wyer <
adrian.w...@fluid-pictures.com> wrote:

>   Hey guys, just wanted to raise some points regarding the general
> mood of users and the future of our little group
>
>
>
> Lately the list has been falling into the habit of turning many threads
> into a doom saying, end-of-the-world kind of vibe (not discounting my self
> here)
>
>
>
> When i first joined this list (and the much missed Discussion list) it was
> an invaluable resource for shared knowledge, instruction, encouragement and
> feedback (both positive and negative) also it was great place to find out
> about cheese and monkeys! (i'm looking at you Ed)
>
>
>
> While i still find the list to be a hugely valuable resource for
> techniques and news, we are occasionally running into the doom laden tech
> equivalent of Godwin's law!
>
> This list is a gift, as many of you know, when compared with other online
> forums/mailing lists, in that it's mostly self moderated and, on the whole,
> a nice place to hang out.
>
> There's obviously been some doubt and uncertainty regarding the future of
> our software (no different from many other package's forums, the industry
> IS constantly shifting), and believe me i have a VERY vested interest in
> the continued use of Soft, i have NO intention of abandoning ship at the
> first sign of choppy waters. (frankly i'd rather step away from the
> computer, than be forced to learn an older/inferior application) But
> there IS a future, the app isn't dead, the community might be smaller, but
> there is still a wealth of skill and experience here, and i hope, by force
> of will, we'll be able to keep the fires burning!
>
>
>
> If anything is going to bring about the end of Softimage as we know it, it
> won't be some bean counter in an office at Autodyne (cyberdesk?) it will be
> the lack of users
>
>
>
> While we can't 'make' autodesk push soft, our work speaks volumes for it's
> quality, and that work is getting better and more high profile than it's
> been in ages.
>
> What we CAN do is tell people in the industry how enabling the software
> is, how it helps us hit deadlines, create amazing imagery and break
> technical boundaries that other DCC apps really do struggle with. By
> spreading the word other software users and students get to hear what a
> great app it is, they might try it, they might get hooked, and then we
> benefit by having a new talent pool. If there's demand, then more courses
> will be taught using the app and as long as freelancers keep coming up
> through the ranks, there'll be a demand for new versions of the software
> (and new innovations and features)
>
> I have friends who've come across from other apps to use Soft, primarily
> for ICE, but then have realised what a great all round app it is come
> for the ICE, stay for the object model/rendertree/passes etc, etc, etc!
>
>
>
> I'm not preaching/ranting (much) i just want to put it on a public space
> that i love my software, i believe we are empowered to help keep it alive,
> and they'll get it off me when they pry it from my cold dead fingers!!
>
>
>
> oh and merry christmas, you cheesy monkey boys (and girls)
>
>
>
> a
>
>
>
> Adrian Wyer
> Fluid Pictures
> 75-77 Margaret St.
> London
> W1W 8SY
> ++44(0) 207 580 0829
>
>
> adrian.w...@fluid-pictures.com
>
> www.fluid-pictures.com
>
>
>
> Fluid Pictures Limited is registered in England and Wales.
> Company number:5657815
> VAT number: 872 6893 71
>
>
>

OT: Organizing files that belong together

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi list,

We have a digital city model that's divided up into several hundred
squares. Our projects require us to make different versions of these
squares for planning purposes. So for any given square, we may have 4 or 5
different versions.

The more projects we do, the more complicated it gets for us to keep track
of what belongs (and what fits) together. When we need to quickly prepare a
file that contains "City model with Project X + Project Y", we have two
main problems:

a) For squares with multiple versions we need to figure out which of these
versions are part of Project X and which are Project Y.

b) We need to figure out how squares may be combined. Let's say that the
square F003_C belongs to Project X, but square G003 is not part of Project
X. We now can't be sure which version(s) of G003 properly match(es) F003_C
at the seam.

I'm unsure how common a problem this is and whether I explained it
properly. Does anybody have any pointers as to what may be a good way to
tackle this? Maybe some kind of specialized software?

Thank you

Christian

Re: OT: Organizing files that belong together

[Christian Gotzinger]

Thank you for the response, Angus. I need to expand a bit on what I wrote
already. The files are all MAX files (we use Soft, Maya and Max and store
final files in MAX format), but we're looking for an external tool to help
us with the organizing. What I'd really like is this: I pick a file, and
the tool tells me which projects this file belongs to (some square versions
fit multiple projects) and which neighboring squares match at the edges.

So I pick file F003_C, and the tool tells me that this is a square of
Project X and Project Z, and that fitting neighbor squares are G003_C,
G003_D, F004_A, E003_A, F002_A and F002_D

We do work off of base squares and edit those, but projects overlap, some
square versions are used in multiple projects, so it's rather complicated.
For instance, I can't be sure that G003_C fits G004_C.




On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 12:24 PM, Angus Davidson
wrote:

>  My way of thinking of this would be to do it with versioning.
>
>  Ie for each city square you have a base mesh possibly as emdl to be
> referenced in. e.g. square_001_base
>
>  In your first project  you will pull those in and place via reference so
> their edges are correct.
>
>  Once you have that you can then create different versions of the base
> squares wether its by naming convention i.e. square_001_x, square_001_y
> or something like Git / mercurial
>
>  Then in order to change which squares you pull into the project you can
> just edit the scntoc file for file bases versioning , or the files will be
> replaced by the correct ones if you use some form of source control.
>
>  You could also possibly do it via Level of detail proxies (they will be
> about the same amount of detail but that’s not really an issue for this)
>
>  I am sure there is also likely a scripting way to do this easily as well.
>
>  Kind regards
>
>  Angus
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>   From: Christian Gotzinger 
> Reply-To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" <
> softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
> Date: Tuesday 07 January 2014 at 12:56 PM
> To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" 
> Subject: OT: Organizing files that belong together
>
>Hi list,
>
>  We have a digital city model that's divided up into several hundred
> squares. Our projects require us to make different versions of these
> squares for planning purposes. So for any given square, we may have 4 or 5
> different versions.
>
> The more projects we do, the more complicated it gets for us to keep track
> of what belongs (and what fits) together. When we need to quickly prepare a
> file that contains "City model with Project X + Project Y", we have two
> main problems:
>
> a) For squares with multiple versions we need to figure out which of these
> versions are part of Project X and which are Project Y.
>
>  b) We need to figure out how squares may be combined. Let's say that the
> square F003_C belongs to Project X, but square G003 is not part of Project
> X. We now can't be sure which version(s) of G003 properly match(es) F003_C
> at the seam.
>
>  I'm unsure how common a problem this is and whether I explained it
> properly. Does anybody have any pointers as to what may be a good way to
> tackle this? Maybe some kind of specialized software?
>
>  Thank you
>
> Christian
>
>  This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. 
> If you have received this communication in error, please notify us 
> immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or disseminate 
> this communication without the permission of the University. Only authorised 
> signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the 
> University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message 
> may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the personal 
> views and opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the views and 
> opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements 
> between the University and outsiders are subject to South African Law unless 
> the University agrees in writing to the contrary.
>
>

Re: OT: Organizing files that belong together

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi Angus,

All versions of a square have the same grid coordinates, yes. We can't
generate an entire grid for each project because the amount of data would
be through the roof. We have over 200 squares and to date more than 30
projects. Therefore, we only edit those squares that are relevant to a
given project. The rest of the squares are then loaded either from our
"base squares" or from another project if multiple projects must be
displayed. But we never know whether the squares of one project can be
mixed and matched with neighboring squares from another project.

I know that we will have to make sure that the file information or database
is constantly updated, but we would simply make this part of our checklist
when wrapping up a project. Let's say we've output five new squares for a
new project. We would then ensure that the information for those squares
and all neighbors is updated before moving on. You do have a point though,
in that if we ever forget about this it'll be bad :-/

The problem is that the scope is ever increasing. So far we've been able to
keep track of things manually, but lately it's been getting harder and
harder, and we absolutely need a solution soon.


On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 2:39 PM, Angus Davidson wrote:

>  Hi Christian
>
>  a few questions then ;)
>
>  Will the square and its versions always be at the same coordinates on
> the grid?
>
>  In the scenario that a square fits multiple projects is it not possible
> to just have multiple copies of the same file (or can max do standins ?
>
>  That way you have a grid for each project where you will be sure that
> the edges match.
>
>  the problem is once you go past 5  or so iterations the number of
> variables is going to make it nearly impossible to keep all of the edges
> matching up.
>
>  Think of a chess board. If you click and set a project , say X to a
> square it should be able to tell you which adjoining squares should be
> loaded. If you right click on the square you can  get a list of the various
> versions which still have matching edges
>
>  Then you generate a file list  and import those into max.
>
>  I think trying to keep that information on each file just needs one
> person to forget to update and your screwed. You need to abstract the
> physical file and the overall grid data.
>
>
>  --
> *From:* Christian Gotzinger [cgo...@googlemail.com]
> *Sent:* 07 January 2014 02:36 PM
> *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
> *Subject:* Re: OT: Organizing files that belong together
>
>   Thank you for the response, Angus. I need to expand a bit on what I
> wrote already. The files are all MAX files (we use Soft, Maya and Max and
> store final files in MAX format), but we're looking for an external tool to
> help us with the organizing. What I'd really like is this: I pick a file,
> and the tool tells me which projects this file belongs to (some square
> versions fit multiple projects) and which neighboring squares match at the
> edges.
>
>  So I pick file F003_C, and the tool tells me that this is a square of
> Project X and Project Z, and that fitting neighbor squares are G003_C,
> G003_D, F004_A, E003_A, F002_A and F002_D
>
>  We do work off of base squares and edit those, but projects overlap,
> some square versions are used in multiple projects, so it's rather
> complicated. For instance, I can't be sure that G003_C fits G004_C.
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 12:24 PM, Angus Davidson  > wrote:
>
>>  My way of thinking of this would be to do it with versioning.
>>
>>  Ie for each city square you have a base mesh possibly as emdl to be
>> referenced in. e.g. square_001_base
>>
>>  In your first project  you will pull those in and place via reference
>> so their edges are correct.
>>
>>  Once you have that you can then create different versions of the base
>> squares wether its by naming convention i.e. square_001_x, square_001_y
>> or something like Git / mercurial
>>
>>  Then in order to change which squares you pull into the project you can
>> just edit the scntoc file for file bases versioning , or the files will be
>> replaced by the correct ones if you use some form of source control.
>>
>>  You could also possibly do it via Level of detail proxies (they will be
>> about the same amount of detail but that’s not really an issue for this)
>>
>>  I am sure there is also likely a scripting way to do this easily as
>> well.
>>
>>  Kind regards
>>
>>  Angus
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   From: Christian Gotzinger 
>> Reply-To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com"

Re: OT: Organizing files that belong together

[Christian Gotzinger]

Thank you for the input, Angus. I like your idea of tracking edges, that
makes a lot of sense and is something that I'll definitely look into.

Regarding a tool that might help with organizing this, I take it there may
not be anything out there that applies to our needs. We use Perforce, and
that seems to have a new utility called Git Fusion, but the whole thing
scares me somewhat because it looks extremely complex (and none of us even
have any clue about Git itself). Maybe I can write a little Python thingy
that does what we need. Of course we could also just create some sort of
spreadsheet, but the usability of a spreadsheet is crap.


On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 11:40 AM, Angus Davidson
wrote:

>  Ugg Ascii art didn’t come out right
>
>  A1 A2 A3
> B1 B2 B3
> C1 C2 C3
>
>  Hopefully this come out
>
>  This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. 
> If you have received this communication in error, please notify us 
> immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or disseminate 
> this communication without the permission of the University. Only authorised 
> signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the 
> University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message 
> may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the personal 
> views and opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the views and 
> opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements 
> between the University and outsiders are subject to South African Law unless 
> the University agrees in writing to the contrary.
>
>

Re: Survey - how would you do this?

[Christian Gotzinger]

Here's my take on it (will take an hour or so before the link shows up)
https://vimeo.com/86461624
7 minutes to set up, but no collision avoidance.

Not sure how best to automate collision avoidance without ICE or scripting.
Maybe rigid body dynamics with a big convex hull? But that's not allowed I
suppose ;-)

Christian


On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 8:23 PM, Matt Lind  wrote:

> An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a
> simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump
> realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully
> resolve to satisfaction.  I had to give him a procedure that was 'good
> enough'.  This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others
> would solve it:
>
>
>
> The problem:
>
>
>
> Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet.  The asteroids are
> likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but
> could be 3D objects as well.  Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and
> animation speed (linear as well as rotational).  Asteroids cannot collide
> with anything.  Movement is generally slow - like a screen saver for your
> computer desktop.  Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt.
>
>
>
> The question:
>
>
>
> Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number
> of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object
> positions?
>
>
>
> The rules:
>
>
>
> -  Cannot use ICE
>
> -  Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders.
>
> -  Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff
> level artist would know how to use.
>
> -  Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to
> completion, in less than 30 minutes - and be iteration friendly to react to
> art director feedback.
>
> -  Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in
> encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet's
> size/shape/tilt/orbit.
>
> -  Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its
> own in a vacuum.  Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external
> assets, or special case logic.
>
> -  Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the
> scene camera.  Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of
> roughly 3 SI Units diameter
>
>
>
>
>
> Ready.GO!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Matt
>

Re: Survey - how would you do this?

[Christian Gotzinger]

Vimeo tells me that the video starts converting in 35 minutes. Link should
work then, sorry about the inconvenience.


On Wed, Feb 12, 2014 at 12:03 AM, olivier jeannel
wrote:

>  Link not working here..
>
>
> Le 11/02/2014 23:58, Christian Gotzinger a écrit :
>
>  Here's my take on it (will take an hour or so before the link shows up)
> https://vimeo.com/86461624
> 7 minutes to set up, but no collision avoidance.
>
> Not sure how best to automate collision avoidance without ICE or
> scripting. Maybe rigid body dynamics with a big convex hull? But that's not
> allowed I suppose ;-)
>
>  Christian
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 8:23 PM, Matt Lind wrote:
>
>>  An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a
>> simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump
>> realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully
>> resolve to satisfaction.  I had to give him a procedure that was 'good
>> enough'.  This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how others
>> would solve it:
>>
>>
>>
>> The problem:
>>
>>
>>
>> Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet.  The asteroids are
>> likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they orbit, but
>> could be 3D objects as well.  Asteroids must vary in size, shape, and
>> animation speed (linear as well as rotational).  Asteroids cannot collide
>> with anything.  Movement is generally slow - like a screen saver for your
>> computer desktop.  Asteroid positions are jittered within the belt.
>>
>>
>>
>> The question:
>>
>>
>>
>> Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a number
>> of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the object
>> positions?
>>
>>
>>
>> The rules:
>>
>>
>>
>> -  Cannot use ICE
>>
>> -  Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders.
>>
>> -  Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff
>> level artist would know how to use.
>>
>> -  Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to
>> completion, in less than 30 minutes - and be iteration friendly to react to
>> art director feedback.
>>
>> -  Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in
>> encompasses so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet's
>> size/shape/tilt/orbit.
>>
>> -  Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its
>> own in a vacuum.  Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external
>> assets, or special case logic.
>>
>> -  Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the
>> scene camera.  Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of
>> roughly 3 SI Units diameter
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Ready.GO!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Matt
>>
>
>
>

Re: Survey - how would you do this?

[Christian Gotzinger]

Whoops, while cleaning up my account I managed to delete the video.
The correct (and now working) link is:
https://vimeo.com/86464710


On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 11:58 PM, Christian Gotzinger  wrote:

> Here's my take on it (will take an hour or so before the link shows up)
>

Re: Survey - how would you do this?

[Christian Gotzinger]

I don't think you can compare ICE to those other examples you described. At
this point, I think the only way for ICE to go down is for the entire
package to be discontinued. We are tiny compared to your place, but we also
need to build assets that last us for a long time. I use ICE for a lot of
these things without hesitation because I really don't see it being ripped
out or becoming unsupported at any point.

Also, I find it very stable; I've done many crazy things with it, and while
it can sometimes be slow, it does not crash pretty much ever. Granted,
kinematics is an area where I've seen some flaky behavior, but this may be
from back when they weren't officially supported as I don't need kinematics
much these days.


On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 12:01 AM, Matt Lind wrote:

> Part of it is circumstance, as in we only have so many resources.  For
> example, our art department is 100+, but I'm the only one in the department
> who writes code and I'm currently tasked with significantly higher priority
> issues helping out an under staffed engineering department than writing
> one-offs for every artist who needs a button.
>
> The other part is pipeline management of a large scale software
> development effort.  We have a feature film sized team working to build a
> high profile AAA title.  With an engine and tools under constant evolution,
> and life expectancy of 15+ years, you must choose methods of content
> creation which can withstand changes to the software, such as Softimage, as
> well as changes to the game itself.  An asset created today must expect to
> live for 10+ years without any further maintenance.  If given the choice
> between creating an asteroid belt using constraints vs. ICE, we'll probably
> opt for constraints because we know it's a fairly stable and mature system,
> which cannot be said for ICE.  We've been bitten many times already such as
> when we created a number of simulations back in XSI 5 using the Softimage
> particle system only for the particle system to be ripped out and replaced
> with ICE.  We can no longer open those assets in Softimage.  Same happened
> again with updates to the realtime shader APIs.  So now we must either live
> with their current state of dysfunction, or rebuild from scratch.  On
> projects of this magnitude, risk assessment has a very high priority and
> taken extremely seriously because one bad move can literally sink the
> project if the ripple effect is large enough.  While we do take measures to
> abstract data from commercial tools, we only have so much programming power
> in house to do so.
>
> The point is we cannot subscribe to workflows which are prone to human
> error.  Creating temporary data and expecting the artist to clean up after
> himself has proven to not be reliable as assets are referenced by other
> assets all the time.  If crap is left around, then anybody referencing that
> asset also inherits the crap which results in bugs in game.  In film/video
> you can sweep things under the carpet if they aren't perfect as long as the
> problem doesn't  show up on camera.  We don't have that luxury.  What you
> make has to be functional and optimal for a live game environment,
> conservative on resources, and not make any assumptions how it will be
> used.  Function has higher priority than looking pretty.
>
> There's a lot more to it, but I think you get the gist of it.
>
> Matt
>
>
>
>
> -Original Message-
> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Ponthieux, Joseph
> G. (LARC-E1A)[LITES]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 10:59 AM
> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
> Subject: RE: Survey - how would you do this?
>
> So cheese and monkeys aside. After 25 years as a 3D animator I've never
> worked in games. So from a serious perspective I simply  don't understand.
> It's not clear to me why you aren't able to use ICE or scripts and freeze
> those construction connections sending only the raw assets over without
>  ICE or scripting. What is it about this pipeline which makes that
> difficult?
>
> --
> Joey Ponthieux
> LaRC Information Technology Enhanced Services (LITES) Mymic Technical
> Services NASA Langley Research Center
> __
> Opinions stated here-in are strictly those of the author and do not
> represent the opinions of NASA or any other party.
>
>
> -Original Message-
> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Matt Lind
> Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 1:35 PM
> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
> Subject: RE: Survey - how would you do this?
>
> We'd have to add support for ICE in our exporter and pipeline management
> tools.  We don't have resources to do that at present.
>
> If the artist doesn't clean up after himself responsibly, it creates a lot
> of problems.
>
>
> Matt
>
>
>
>
>
> -Original Message-
> From: so

Re: Houdini Weaknesses

[Christian Gotzinger]

>From everything I've seen so far, Houdini is built in a very logical
fashion, and I'm not under the impression that it's so much harder to learn
than other applications.

My experience with it has been very positive so far. I haven't had much
time to put aside for learning Houdini yet, I'd say I've spent about 8
hours watching tutorials and about 25 hours getting to know Houdini. When
working with the application myself, I exclusively looked at procedural
modeling because that's what I'll need it to do first and foremost.

The first steps were difficult, but once I grasped some general concepts I
got up to speed rather quickly. My main issue right now is not knowing all
the nodes and attributes there are. I discover new things every day, and I
enjoy the experience a lot. Things I've been wanting out of ICE for a long
time (support for generating curves, basic modeling operators like bevel,
support for strings and text, a symbiosis between ICE tree, render tree and
FX tree) are all built into Houdini. It feels like a paradise, the
possibilites seem endless.

Today I put together my first reasonably complex digital asset, and even
though I don't know Houdini well at all yet and ICE extremely well, I'd say
that it would have taken me longer to build the asset in ICE! On top of
that, in ICE I would have had to jump through several hoops due to lack of
curve support, the resulting tree would be a mess due to all the low level
nodes it would have required, and the resulting compound would not be as
easy to put together and turn into an artist-friendly UI.

I know that Houdini is not the greatest viewport modeler and probably has
some other shortcomings, but with regards to procedural modeling the
transition from ICE has been easy and pleasurable so far.

Christian


On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 8:58 PM, Artur Woźniak  wrote:

> Learning Curve
>
> Wysłane z iPhone'a
>
> Dnia 21 maj 2014 o godz. 20:42 Francois Lord 
> napisał(a):
>
> > So...
> > What are houdini weaknesses? What is missing in Houdini compared to
> Softimage? Would you run a company only using Houdini as 3D app? Why not?
>
>

Help with FBX SDK (FbxProperty)

[Christian Gotzinger]

Hi list,

Does anybody have some experience with the FBX SDK? I'm writing an external
Python application to analyze FBX files.
Everything has worked well so far, but here's where I'm stuck: I need to
read shader information, such as diffuse color or specular color.

The core code inside my loop looks like this:
prop_new = node.GetNextProperty(prop)
if prop_new.GetName() == "DiffuseColor":
  castProperty = fbx.FbxPropertyDouble3(prop_new)

But now I can't figure out how to extract the three float values from
castProperty.
print castProperty.Get() tells me ""
print castProperty.Get().mData[0] tells me "FbxDouble3 object has no
attribute mdata"

Maybe I'm unable to read the documentation correctly.
FbxProperty:
http://docs.autodesk.com/FBX/2014/ENU/FBX-SDK-Documentation/index.html?url=cpp_ref/class_fbx_property.html,topicNumber=cpp_ref_class_fbx_property_htmlb0f98359-b7ce-427b-b82e-dff4d47ce167

FbxVectorTemplate3:
http://docs.autodesk.com/FBX/2014/ENU/FBX-SDK-Documentation/index.html?url=cpp_ref/class_fbx_vector_template3.html,topicNumber=cpp_ref_class_fbx_vector_template3_htmle8f366ab-3383-4598-9d16-4a44516cf62d

Re: Help with FBX SDK (FbxProperty)

[Christian Gotzinger]

Well, of course I figure it out 3 minutes after I sent the question.
castProperty.Get()[0] gives me the first of the three values. Problem
solved.


On Mon, Aug 25, 2014 at 4:26 PM, Christian Gotzinger 
wrote:

> Hi list,
>
> Does anybody have some experience with the FBX SDK? I'm writing an
> external Python application to analyze FBX files.
> Everything has worked well so far, but here's where I'm stuck: I need to
> read shader information, such as diffuse color or specular color.
>
> The core code inside my loop looks like this:
> prop_new = node.GetNextProperty(prop)
> if prop_new.GetName() == "DiffuseColor":
>   castProperty = fbx.FbxPropertyDouble3(prop_new)
>
> But now I can't figure out how to extract the three float values from
> castProperty.
> print castProperty.Get() tells me ""
> print castProperty.Get().mData[0] tells me "FbxDouble3 object has no
> attribute mdata"
>
> Maybe I'm unable to read the documentation correctly.
> FbxProperty:
>
> http://docs.autodesk.com/FBX/2014/ENU/FBX-SDK-Documentation/index.html?url=cpp_ref/class_fbx_property.html,topicNumber=cpp_ref_class_fbx_property_htmlb0f98359-b7ce-427b-b82e-dff4d47ce167
>
> FbxVectorTemplate3:
>
> http://docs.autodesk.com/FBX/2014/ENU/FBX-SDK-Documentation/index.html?url=cpp_ref/class_fbx_vector_template3.html,topicNumber=cpp_ref_class_fbx_vector_template3_htmle8f366ab-3383-4598-9d16-4a44516cf62d
>