Re: Friday Flashback #134
I know... But I have to say, that retro-look has something very appealing to it. With a little brushup it would look quite fresh and modern. Maybe it's because I like understatement... a super simple almost cheesy interface, but the most powerful 3D technology underneath. Am 24.08.2013 21:43, schrieb Matt Lind: it's the IRIX version of Softimage|3D. guessing 1995-ish. Matt From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Eugen Sares [sof...@mail.sprit.org] Sent: Friday, August 23, 2013 11:58 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Friday Flashback #134 Is this the new Metro UI style of Softimage? I like it! ; ] Am 23.08.2013 21:17, schrieb Stephen Blair: Friday Flashback #134 Screenshot of SOFTIMAGE|3D Matter module: mental ray -- DONE. http://wp.me/powV4-2Pj
How to read .MEL script in Softimage
Hello there, I'm currently testing a software to expand my pipeline, but the main problem is that currently it only supports Maya scripts as export ( MEL ) I succesfully exported the MEL script from Maya to Softimage and everything is working properly ( however don't know why in FBX the animations are not recognized, while with Collada .DAE files animations are ok ) but I don't own Maya, so: Is there any kind of converter for Mel scripts in order to be read from Softimage? Something like Mel to Python/FBX or something similar... Cheers
Re: How to read .MEL script in Softimage
No, there isn't. It'd be a good learning experience to try making one though. :) Do you expect a full 1:1 conversion of MEL to the Softimage SDK? Or just for animation to transfer over? On Sun, Aug 25, 2013 at 11:23 AM, Nicolas Esposito 3dv...@gmail.com wrote: Hello there, I'm currently testing a software to expand my pipeline, but the main problem is that currently it only supports Maya scripts as export ( MEL ) I succesfully exported the MEL script from Maya to Softimage and everything is working properly ( however don't know why in FBX the animations are not recognized, while with Collada .DAE files animations are ok ) but I don't own Maya, so: Is there any kind of converter for Mel scripts in order to be read from Softimage? Something like Mel to Python/FBX or something similar... Cheers
Re: Friday Flashback #133
Softimage has a bunch of patents actually. Render region: http://www.google.com/patents ?id=1k8EEBAJzoom=4dq=avid%20technology%20renderpg=PA12#v=onepageqf=false XSI's QuickStretch deformer: http://www.google.com/patents ?id=NxcgEBAJzoom=4dq=softimagepg=PA2#v=onepageqf=false There's a few more, including one for toon shading: https://www.google.com/search?tbo=ptbm=ptshl=enq=inassignee:%22Softimage%22 Oh, and Avid appears to have a patent on editing f-curves in 2D space: https://www.google.com/patents/WO263847A1?cl=endq=avid+softimagehl=ensa=Xei=a4cTUrOxC46g4AP7p4HYCAved=0CDQQ6AEwAA On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 5:28 AM, Stefan Kubicek s...@tidbit-images.comwrote: (http://patent.ipexl.com/**inventor/Michael_C_Sheasby_1.**htmlhttp://patent.ipexl.com/inventor/Michael_C_Sheasby_1.html ) What? The XSI Property Editor is actually patented? On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 12:21 PM, Christoph Muetze c...@glarestudios.de wrote: ...He didn't just do the skin but also the functional design of the user interface, right? I was always under the impression that he was the designer behind the UI. Am i wrong about this? I always have a hard time explaining people that i do interface design - and that sometimes includes (but is entirely not about) button painting ;) I couldn't care less about the (admittedly beautiful) skin of Softimage - but the UI... oh boy, that's (for the largest part) a piece of true art. No, he only did the look and skin of the UI. In an interview on xsibase, it was implied he did ui design but this is wrong, it was only graphic design. For the functional design, we had at many people in the early days who designed that. They were called Program Managers, which is how that job was called at Microsoft in the 1990s, but in this decade we'd call them interaction designers. For example, one person from Softimage|DS called Michael Sheasby (http://patent.ipexl.com/**inventor/Michael_C_Sheasby_1.**htmlhttp://patent.ipexl.com/inventor/Michael_C_Sheasby_1.html) is responsible for all the modeless inspector design, i.e. everything about how the PPGs work, without which XSI wouldn't feel like XSI. There were different people for each areas. -- --**--- Stefan Kubicek ste...@keyvis.at --**--- keyvis digital imagery Alfred Feierfeilstraße 3 A-2380 Perchtoldsdorf bei Wien Phone: +43 (0) 699 12614231 www.keyvis.at -- This email and its attachments are-- -- confidential and for the recipient only --
Re: How to read .MEL script in Softimage
Did you try Crosswalk? http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112id=13525184linkID=12544121 On Sun, Aug 25, 2013 at 12:17 PM, Nicolas Esposito 3dv...@gmail.com wrote: As far as I saw there is the possiblity to modify the python script in order to be read from Softimage...but programming is not my thing... I was just looking for animation to transfer over SI ( basically the scene is some animated nulls ) 2013/8/25 Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.com No, there isn't. It'd be a good learning experience to try making one though. :) Do you expect a full 1:1 conversion of MEL to the Softimage SDK? Or just for animation to transfer over? On Sun, Aug 25, 2013 at 11:23 AM, Nicolas Esposito 3dv...@gmail.comwrote: Hello there, I'm currently testing a software to expand my pipeline, but the main problem is that currently it only supports Maya scripts as export ( MEL ) I succesfully exported the MEL script from Maya to Softimage and everything is working properly ( however don't know why in FBX the animations are not recognized, while with Collada .DAE files animations are ok ) but I don't own Maya, so: Is there any kind of converter for Mel scripts in order to be read from Softimage? Something like Mel to Python/FBX or something similar... Cheers
RE: Windows 7 or 8
What programs were causing the most problems? Did you try running them in compatibility mode? I'm thinking of buying a new workstation and going down the windows 8 route but might not if its a world of pain. On 23 Aug 2013 00:40, Ben Houston b...@exocortex.com wrote: Tried to install software on windows 8 today and got nothing but error msgs and crashes. Finally reinstalled with windows 7 and it all works great. Sent from my phone. On Aug 21, 2013 3:06 PM, Sven Constable sixsi_l...@imagefront.de wrote: Then it's not a farm but a barn. A renderbarn. :) ** ** *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Andres Stephens *Sent:* Wednesday, August 21, 2013 8:17 PM *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com *Subject:* Re: Windows 7 or 8 ** ** I use both W7 and W8 on a render my farm, my farm is like a motely crew of pirates, all random computers. =P -Draise *From:* Angus Davidson *Sent:* Wednesday, August 21, 2013 08:34 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Hi All ** ** I am looking at imaging our render farm (mac mini's running bootcamp). I have a very nice workflow via win clone pro . I can using Apple Remote Desktop pump out the images as mac packages to any of the mac on the network and it automatically installs bootcamp and the windows therein. (I just need to change the machine name, and activate windows and I am good to go) ** ** The only problem I have is that even for the base windows 7 install the uncompressed image is about 20Gigs in size. Add the packages I need on it to render and it grows again. ** ** Windows 8 has a much smaller footprint upfront. (8Gigs) ** ** Which leads to my question. Has anyone had experience with using a windows 8 based render farm vs a windows 7 one. I must admit I am more comfortable in windows 7, But having a much more optimised image is also a great thing when your doing a lot of deployments. ** ** Kind regards ** ** Angus 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: How to read .MEL script in Softimage
Converting a Maya ASCII file (I suppose this is what you refer to as MEL?) to a softimage scene is very hard to do, there are some concepts in Maya that don't translate well over to Softimage. For simple animation and Polygon Meshes it should be a bit easier, I thought about writing a Maya ASCII reader for Soft, but demand wasn't really high so I never dug deeper. Try baking your animations first before exporting the fbx file, and make sure you have checked the animation export flag in the exporter settings in the first place. As far as I saw there is the possiblity to modify the python script in order to be read from Softimage...but programming is not my thing... I was just looking for animation to transfer over SI ( basically the scene is some animated nulls ) 2013/8/25 Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.com No, there isn't. It'd be a good learning experience to try making one though. :) Do you expect a full 1:1 conversion of MEL to the Softimage SDK? Or just for animation to transfer over? On Sun, Aug 25, 2013 at 11:23 AM, Nicolas Esposito 3dv...@gmail.comwrote: Hello there, I'm currently testing a software to expand my pipeline, but the main problem is that currently it only supports Maya scripts as export ( MEL ) I succesfully exported the MEL script from Maya to Softimage and everything is working properly ( however don't know why in FBX the animations are not recognized, while with Collada .DAE files animations are ok ) but I don't own Maya, so: Is there any kind of converter for Mel scripts in order to be read from Softimage? Something like Mel to Python/FBX or something similar... Cheers -- - Stefan Kubicek ste...@keyvis.at - keyvis digital imagery Alfred Feierfeilstraße 3 A-2380 Perchtoldsdorf bei Wien Phone: +43 (0) 699 12614231 www.keyvis.at -- This email and its attachments are-- -- confidential and for the recipient only --
Re: Windows 7 or 8
There are more than a few apps that barf at win8 in metro mode, and even with several tweaks some are just plain too painful. The Crytek SDK one and half release ago in example outright refuses to run for many people. It's a minority, and my experience is Soft, Maya, PS, ZBrush etc. all run perfectly fine, but it's not an irrelevant minority. You might want to make a census of your apps and look up on the interwebs which work and which don't. Before contemplating win 8 though I'd give it a couple months. 8.1 with a lot of fixes and a less aggressive metro mode (not to mention windowing in metro mode) should be out in October, and might very well fix A LOT of these issues. On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 5:13 AM, Alex Dorman aleym...@googlemail.comwrote: What programs were causing the most problems? Did you try running them in compatibility mode? I'm thinking of buying a new workstation and going down the windows 8 route but might not if its a world of pain.
Re: How to read .MEL script in Softimage
Maya doesn't make it easy either thanks to a staggeringly retarded descriptor of the FCurves. We did write such a thing (something to move curves seamlessly and below the float precision threshold between Soft and Maya), and in the end the only way to propely re-interpret from or to Maya was a large hash table for some elements like the handles. The Maya SDK doco and Devkit examples don't help either since they largely revolve around exporting animation (a plot), not FCurves, sidestepping entirely the problem of sparse animation with higher order data. In Short: It's not quite trivial, and it's a gigantic pain in the ass that takes a handful of days, not hours, to write. On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 7:28 AM, Stefan Kubicek s...@tidbit-images.comwrote: Converting a Maya ASCII file (I suppose this is what you refer to as MEL?) to a softimage scene is very hard to do, there are some concepts in Maya that don't translate well over to Softimage. For simple animation and Polygon Meshes it should be a bit easier, I thought about writing a Maya ASCII reader for Soft, but demand wasn't really high so I never dug deeper. Try baking your animations first before exporting the fbx file, and make sure you have checked the animation export flag in the exporter settings in the first place. As far as I saw there is the possiblity to modify the python script in order to be read from Softimage...but programming is not my thing... I was just looking for animation to transfer over SI ( basically the scene is some animated nulls ) 2013/8/25 Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.com No, there isn't. It'd be a good learning experience to try making one though. :) Do you expect a full 1:1 conversion of MEL to the Softimage SDK? Or just for animation to transfer over? On Sun, Aug 25, 2013 at 11:23 AM, Nicolas Esposito 3dv...@gmail.com wrote: Hello there, I'm currently testing a software to expand my pipeline, but the main problem is that currently it only supports Maya scripts as export ( MEL ) I succesfully exported the MEL script from Maya to Softimage and everything is working properly ( however don't know why in FBX the animations are not recognized, while with Collada .DAE files animations are ok ) but I don't own Maya, so: Is there any kind of converter for Mel scripts in order to be read from Softimage? Something like Mel to Python/FBX or something similar... Cheers -- --**--- Stefan Kubicek ste...@keyvis.at --**--- keyvis digital imagery Alfred Feierfeilstraße 3 A-2380 Perchtoldsdorf bei Wien Phone: +43 (0) 699 12614231 www.keyvis.at -- This email and its attachments are-- -- confidential and for the recipient only -- -- Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the dogs they are!
Re: How to read .MEL script in Softimage
I agree with Alan, in my experience Crosswalk is probably the most reliable format to transfer animation from Maya to Softimage. But If I haven't misunderstood you, you don't want to convert Mel scripts to VBS/JS/Python + SI SDK, you want to convert Maya Ascii files to Softimage without using Maya and I don't think that is possible without coding your own tool. Raffaele said it could take days of hard work, but I think that is only if you have vast experience with both packages and programming skills like him, otherwise it could easily take months. And for that you would still needing Maya to test and research. I think it would be easier and cheaper to get or borrow a Maya license and use Crosswalk. You could try a Maya trial version to test your workflow. For these cases, it would be great if you could rent Autodesk's packages like you can with Adobe's. Sometimes I need 3DS Max for a couple of months but buying a Max license just isn't worth it. Martin On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 8:18 AM, Raffaele Fragapane raffsxsil...@googlemail.com wrote: Maya doesn't make it easy either thanks to a staggeringly retarded descriptor of the FCurves. We did write such a thing (something to move curves seamlessly and below the float precision threshold between Soft and Maya), and in the end the only way to propely re-interpret from or to Maya was a large hash table for some elements like the handles. The Maya SDK doco and Devkit examples don't help either since they largely revolve around exporting animation (a plot), not FCurves, sidestepping entirely the problem of sparse animation with higher order data. In Short: It's not quite trivial, and it's a gigantic pain in the ass that takes a handful of days, not hours, to write. On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 7:28 AM, Stefan Kubicek s...@tidbit-images.comwrote: Converting a Maya ASCII file (I suppose this is what you refer to as MEL?) to a softimage scene is very hard to do, there are some concepts in Maya that don't translate well over to Softimage. For simple animation and Polygon Meshes it should be a bit easier, I thought about writing a Maya ASCII reader for Soft, but demand wasn't really high so I never dug deeper. Try baking your animations first before exporting the fbx file, and make sure you have checked the animation export flag in the exporter settings in the first place. As far as I saw there is the possiblity to modify the python script in order to be read from Softimage...but programming is not my thing... I was just looking for animation to transfer over SI ( basically the scene is some animated nulls ) 2013/8/25 Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.com No, there isn't. It'd be a good learning experience to try making one though. :) Do you expect a full 1:1 conversion of MEL to the Softimage SDK? Or just for animation to transfer over? On Sun, Aug 25, 2013 at 11:23 AM, Nicolas Esposito 3dv...@gmail.com wrote: Hello there, I'm currently testing a software to expand my pipeline, but the main problem is that currently it only supports Maya scripts as export ( MEL ) I succesfully exported the MEL script from Maya to Softimage and everything is working properly ( however don't know why in FBX the animations are not recognized, while with Collada .DAE files animations are ok ) but I don't own Maya, so: Is there any kind of converter for Mel scripts in order to be read from Softimage? Something like Mel to Python/FBX or something similar... Cheers -- --**--- Stefan Kubicek ste...@keyvis.at --**--- keyvis digital imagery Alfred Feierfeilstraße 3 A-2380 Perchtoldsdorf bei Wien Phone: +43 (0) 699 12614231 www.keyvis.at -- This email and its attachments are-- -- confidential and for the recipient only -- -- Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the dogs they are!
