RE: SI and Houdini
Just finished my first ever shot in Houdini. Many thanks Jordi, I couldn't have done it without you ;) Sent from my Windows Phone From: Jordi Baresmailto:jordiba...@gmail.com Sent: 20/04/2014 3:35 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: SI and Houdini Data Management chapter finished… you can now find the last guide and the whole chapter as a single PDF in. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y0ti6tyf7o3435u/thsQH1Kf2o To follow the discussions visit http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forumItemid=172page=viewtopict=31012start=200 Next stop.. RIGGING! now this is going to be fun! enjoy!! Jordi Bares jordiba...@gmail.commailto:jordiba...@gmail.com On 17 Apr 2014, at 10:51, Jordi Bares jordiba...@gmail.commailto:jordiba...@gmail.com wrote: Welcome Data packaging ready!!! https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y0ti6tyf7o3435u/thsQH1Kf2o Jordi Bares jordiba...@gmail.commailto:jordiba...@gmail.com On 16 Apr 2014, at 08:08, javier mansilla jmansill...@gmail.commailto:jmansill...@gmail.com wrote: Thankss! 2014-04-15 23:55 GMT+02:00 Jordi Bares jordiba...@gmail.commailto:jordiba...@gmail.com: Hi everybody… Data management is almost finished, one more guide to go and I will move into rigging… check out the latest update just 30 minutes ago. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y0ti6tyf7o3435u/thsQH1Kf2o And yes, it is a huge task… but I have found the rhythm so it is a matter of sustaining it. ;-) Jordi Bares jordiba...@gmail.commailto:jordiba...@gmail.com On 9 Apr 2014, at 02:52, Chris Johnson chr...@topixfx.commailto:chr...@topixfx.com wrote: Wow Jordi...where was this a year ago? A huge task you've taken on...I'll have to revisit Houdini again and go through all this documentation accordingly. Figure out what I was doing wrong the first couple projects I did with Houdini. Thanks very much! On Tue, Apr 8, 2014 at 8:13 PM, Martin Contel martin3d...@gmail.commailto:martin3d...@gmail.com wrote: Data management makes sense to me. Thanks Jordi! -- Martin Contel Square Enix (Visual Works) On Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 2:20 AM, Jordi Bares jordiba...@gmail.commailto:jordiba...@gmail.com wrote: I got that feeling… will do that first then. thx BTW, for all of you following this thread AND living in London or nearby, I will ask you to please email me privately as I want to test something I have been working on… nothing weird, don't worry. ;-) I simply don't want to add noise for those that don't live in London. thx Jordi Bares jordiba...@gmail.commailto:jordiba...@gmail.com On 8 Apr 2014, at 17:59, Oscar Juarez tridi.animei...@gmail.commailto:tridi.animei...@gmail.com wrote: I would say Data management since is a bigger scope, which has repercusions on everything else. On Tue, Apr 8, 2014 at 6:43 PM, Cristobal Infante cgc...@gmail.commailto:cgc...@gmail.com wrote: what ever feels more natural for you Jordi... On Tuesday, 8 April 2014, Peter Agg peter@googlemail.commailto:peter@googlemail.com wrote: Rigging before data management? I think the phrase cart before horse comes to mind! :) On 8 April 2014 17:26, Jordi Bares jordiba...@gmail.com wrote: My aim with Data Management was to discuss the benefits of approaching the workflow given all the files are external to the scene, from models, textures, animation caches, motion, etc… Referencing is great but brings some major organisation and infrastructure problems too… for example, we have just finished a job with fluids and has taken 14 Tb of data! This was a ver small 80 shots movie done but a couple of guy only so you can imagine the implications… Because some of these are not obvious may be Rigging would be a good start given that you will see the face of caching things out so later when I talk about that it will make sense... :-P On the other hand it may be a good thing to go through that before so the concepts make sense when rigging... Difficult decision... Still up for rigging then? Jordi Bares jordiba...@gmail.com On 8 Apr 2014, at 16:08, wavo w...@fiftyeight.com wrote: RIGGING...RIGGING...RIGGING Am 4/8/2014 11:07 AM, schrieb Jordi Bares: And another one!!! Please let me know if you prefer me to jump to Data management for the next one or Rigging... http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forumItemid=172page=viewtopict=31012start=200 Cheers Jordi Bares jordiba...@gmail.com On 4 Apr 2014, at 23:26, Christian Lattuada christian.lattu...@gmail.com wrote: Cheers mate! Have a beer, we owe you. .:. Christian Lattuada tel +39 3331277475 ... On Fri, Apr 4, 2014 at 11:40 PM, Jordi Bares jordiba...@gmail.com wrote: :-))) In the meantime check the
Re: Rendering to multichannel EXR
I just saw that 3Delight also supports multichannel EXR and offers on free license. http://softimage.tv/3delight-for-softimage-4-0/ On Sat, Apr 19, 2014 at 2:30 PM, Siew Yi Liang soni...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Stephen: Yep, I would have done that in VRay in school...but now if I have to re-do my shading and lighting _ I think for this little thing I'll just render to seperate files for now. I did find this thread: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/xsi_list/multichannel/xsi_list/ZIIQoCGQmQ0/mDemhTdPlwQJ But I can't find the ctrl_pass/buffer shader mentioned anywhere around. Anyway, thanks! :) At least I know I wasn't missing something through the standard UI... Yours sincerely, Siew Yi Liang On 4/19/2014 7:58 AM, Stephen Davidson wrote: I believe you can also create multichannel exr's in Vray, as well. You are only restricted to separate passes, in mentalray, in Softimage. On Sat, Apr 19, 2014 at 10:39 AM, Stephen Davidson magic...@bellsouth.net wrote: Sorry, I misread your original question. It is not possible to have a SINGLE mult-ipass EXR file, in standard Softimage, only individual EXR file for each pass. You can do this in Softimage, with Arnold plugin: https://support.solidangle.com/display/SItoAUG/Multi-Layer+EXR On Sat, Apr 19, 2014 at 3:37 AM, Siew Yi Liang soni...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Stephen: I believe that's how I set my scene up; however, whenever I render, I'm still getting each EXR pass as a separate file instead of one multichannel EXR...? http://i.imgur.com/NNAnloG.png I tried setting the filename output to be just [Pass] without the [Framebuffer] token, but that just resulted in the last pass being what was written to the EXR. Is there something else I'm missing here? I'm on XSI 2013 SP1 at home, but I tried 2014 at school and ran into the same problem as well, so I don't think that's the issue... Yours sincerely, Siew Yi Liang On 4/18/2014 7:06 AM, Stephen Davidson wrote: yes... still there. define the render channel (ambient, specular, etc.), then change the format to EXR look here: http://softimage.wiki.softimage.com/xsidocs/renderchannels_RenderingBuiltInandPresetChannels.htm#Rgu19596 On Fri, Apr 18, 2014 at 6:36 AM, Siew Yi Liang soni...@gmail.comwrote: Hi all: So I'm wrapping up a little short animation test in XSI, and I haven't touched the default MR renderer in it for quite awhile...was wondering if there was actually a way to now render multichannel EXRs natively with mental ray shaders? I tried searching around for the old ctrl_pass shaders thingy, but couldn't find it anywhere. (I don't have access to VRay at home, which is why I'm asking =\ ) But it seems that looking through the docs there still isn't any mention about it... -- Yours sincerely, Siew Yi Liang -- Best Regards, * Stephen P. Davidson* *(954) 552-7956 %28954%29%20552-7956 * sdavid...@3danimationmagic.com *Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic* - Arthur C. Clarke http://www.3danimationmagic.com -- Best Regards, * Stephen P. Davidson* *(954) 552-7956 %28954%29%20552-7956 * sdavid...@3danimationmagic.com *Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic* - Arthur C. Clarke http://www.3danimationmagic.com -- Best Regards, * Stephen P. Davidson* *(954) 552-7956 %28954%29%20552-7956 *sdavid...@3danimationmagic.com *Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic* - Arthur C. Clarke http://www.3danimationmagic.com -- Best Regards, * Stephen P. Davidson* *(954) 552-7956*sdavid...@3danimationmagic.com *Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic* - Arthur C. Clarke http://www.3danimationmagic.com
Re: Rendering to multichannel EXR
It's also possible to write a post render script in nuke that would compile them into one file. On Sunday, April 20, 2014, Stephen Davidson magic...@bellsouth.net wrote: I just saw that 3Delight also supports multichannel EXR and offers on free license. http://softimage.tv/3delight-for-softimage-4-0/ On Sat, Apr 19, 2014 at 2:30 PM, Siew Yi Liang soni...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Stephen: Yep, I would have done that in VRay in school...but now if I have to re-do my shading and lighting _ I think for this little thing I'll just render to seperate files for now. I did find this thread: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/xsi_list/multichannel/xsi_list/ZIIQoCGQmQ0/mDemhTdPlwQJ But I can't find the ctrl_pass/buffer shader mentioned anywhere around. Anyway, thanks! :) At least I know I wasn't missing something through the standard UI... Yours sincerely, Siew Yi Liang On 4/19/2014 7:58 AM, Stephen Davidson wrote: I believe you can also create multichannel exr's in Vray, as well. You are only restricted to separate passes, in mentalray, in Softimage. On Sat, Apr 19, 2014 at 10:39 AM, Stephen Davidson magic...@bellsouth.net wrote: Sorry, I misread your original question. It is not possible to have a SINGLE mult-ipass EXR file, in standard Softimage, only individual EXR file for each pass. You can do this in Softimage, with Arnold plugin: https://support.solidangle.com/display/SItoAUG/Multi-Layer+EXR On Sat, Apr 19, 2014 at 3:37 AM, Siew Yi Liang soni...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Stephen: I believe that's how I set my scene up; however, whenever I render, I'm still getting each EXR pass as a separate file instead of one multichannel EXR...? http://i.imgur.com/NNAnloG.png I tried setting the filename output to be just [Pass] without the [Framebuffer] token, but that just resulted in the last pass being what was written to the EXR. Is there something else I'm missing here? I'm on XSI 2013 SP1 at home, but I tried 2014 at school and ran into the same problem as well, so I don't think that's the issue... Yours sincerely, Siew Yi Liang On 4/18/2014 7:06 AM, Stephen Davidson wrote:
Why is Maya the standard when it lacks basic math nodes?
I'm porting over some of my core rig components. when I hit a brick wall... Maya having no exponent or power nodes?!?! Sure I could roll my own in C++ if my C++ code-fu was strong enough or use one of the plugins that have already been compiled. The problems are: 1) I can not require a client to figure out how to install a plugin in order for a rig to work 2) None of these plugins that I can find have been compiled for Maya 2015 Maya's expressions are too slow to evaluate. Does anyone have any suggestions of how I can get around this in the node editor without resorting to a plugin? I swear, the brilliant mastermind behind EOLing Softimage deserves several sharp kicks in the yarbles . -=Eric -- -=T=-
Re: Why is Maya the standard when it lacks basic math nodes?
Surely they have some kind of an equivalence. On 20 April 2014 18:13, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.com wrote: I'm porting over some of my core rig components. when I hit a brick wall... Maya having no exponent or power nodes?!?! Sure I could roll my own in C++ if my C++ code-fu was strong enough or use one of the plugins that have already been compiled. The problems are: 1) I can not require a client to figure out how to install a plugin in order for a rig to work 2) None of these plugins that I can find have been compiled for Maya 2015 Maya's expressions are too slow to evaluate. Does anyone have any suggestions of how I can get around this in the node editor without resorting to a plugin? I swear, the brilliant mastermind behind EOLing Softimage deserves several sharp kicks in the yarbles . -=Eric -- -=T=-
Re: Why is Maya the standard when it lacks basic math nodes?
Not according to many many Google searches :-/ On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 12:39 PM, Sebastien Sterling sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote: Surely they have some kind of an equivalence. On 20 April 2014 18:13, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.com wrote: I'm porting over some of my core rig components. when I hit a brick wall... Maya having no exponent or power nodes?!?! Sure I could roll my own in C++ if my C++ code-fu was strong enough or use one of the plugins that have already been compiled. The problems are: 1) I can not require a client to figure out how to install a plugin in order for a rig to work 2) None of these plugins that I can find have been compiled for Maya 2015 Maya's expressions are too slow to evaluate. Does anyone have any suggestions of how I can get around this in the node editor without resorting to a plugin? I swear, the brilliant mastermind behind EOLing Softimage deserves several sharp kicks in the yarbles . -=Eric -- -=T=- -- -=T=-
Re: Why is Maya the standard when it lacks basic math nodes?
multiplyDivide node can do power. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 1:13 PM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.com wrote: I'm porting over some of my core rig components. when I hit a brick wall... Maya having no exponent or power nodes?!?! Sure I could roll my own in C++ if my C++ code-fu was strong enough or use one of the plugins that have already been compiled. The problems are: 1) I can not require a client to figure out how to install a plugin in order for a rig to work 2) None of these plugins that I can find have been compiled for Maya 2015 Maya's expressions are too slow to evaluate. Does anyone have any suggestions of how I can get around this in the node editor without resorting to a plugin? I swear, the brilliant mastermind behind EOLing Softimage deserves several sharp kicks in the yarbles . -=Eric -- -=T=-
Re: Why is Maya the standard when it lacks basic math nodes?
Brilliant! Thank you very much, I would not have thought of looking there. Now I can stop pouring over the internet looking for a solution and get back to work ;) It is odd that this didn't come up in any Google searches. Thanks again Ben :) I'm so glad that this list is still alive. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 12:44 PM, Ben Barker ben.bar...@gmail.com wrote: multiplyDivide node can do power. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 1:13 PM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.com wrote: I'm porting over some of my core rig components. when I hit a brick wall... Maya having no exponent or power nodes?!?! Sure I could roll my own in C++ if my C++ code-fu was strong enough or use one of the plugins that have already been compiled. The problems are: 1) I can not require a client to figure out how to install a plugin in order for a rig to work 2) None of these plugins that I can find have been compiled for Maya 2015 Maya's expressions are too slow to evaluate. Does anyone have any suggestions of how I can get around this in the node editor without resorting to a plugin? I swear, the brilliant mastermind behind EOLing Softimage deserves several sharp kicks in the yarbles . -=Eric -- -=T=- -- -=T=-
Re: Why is Maya the standard when it lacks basic math nodes?
I remember chaining up multDoubleLinears once, so maybe it wasn't always in there. Searching for maya help is like searching for ringtones or song lyrics. The signal:noise ratio of google results is pretty bad. You usually end up in the tall grass of CGtalk threads from 2007. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 1:53 PM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.com wrote: Brilliant! Thank you very much, I would not have thought of looking there. Now I can stop pouring over the internet looking for a solution and get back to work ;) It is odd that this didn't come up in any Google searches. Thanks again Ben :) I'm so glad that this list is still alive. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 12:44 PM, Ben Barker ben.bar...@gmail.com wrote: multiplyDivide node can do power. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 1:13 PM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.comwrote: I'm porting over some of my core rig components. when I hit a brick wall... Maya having no exponent or power nodes?!?! Sure I could roll my own in C++ if my C++ code-fu was strong enough or use one of the plugins that have already been compiled. The problems are: 1) I can not require a client to figure out how to install a plugin in order for a rig to work 2) None of these plugins that I can find have been compiled for Maya 2015 Maya's expressions are too slow to evaluate. Does anyone have any suggestions of how I can get around this in the node editor without resorting to a plugin? I swear, the brilliant mastermind behind EOLing Softimage deserves several sharp kicks in the yarbles . -=Eric -- -=T=- -- -=T=-
Re: Why is Maya the standard when it lacks basic math nodes?
Is there actually a comprehensive list of all the editable nodes ? the ones you might use for rigging ? On 20 April 2014 19:25, Ben Barker ben.bar...@gmail.com wrote: I remember chaining up multDoubleLinears once, so maybe it wasn't always in there. Searching for maya help is like searching for ringtones or song lyrics. The signal:noise ratio of google results is pretty bad. You usually end up in the tall grass of CGtalk threads from 2007. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 1:53 PM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.com wrote: Brilliant! Thank you very much, I would not have thought of looking there. Now I can stop pouring over the internet looking for a solution and get back to work ;) It is odd that this didn't come up in any Google searches. Thanks again Ben :) I'm so glad that this list is still alive. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 12:44 PM, Ben Barker ben.bar...@gmail.comwrote: multiplyDivide node can do power. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 1:13 PM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.comwrote: I'm porting over some of my core rig components. when I hit a brick wall... Maya having no exponent or power nodes?!?! Sure I could roll my own in C++ if my C++ code-fu was strong enough or use one of the plugins that have already been compiled. The problems are: 1) I can not require a client to figure out how to install a plugin in order for a rig to work 2) None of these plugins that I can find have been compiled for Maya 2015 Maya's expressions are too slow to evaluate. Does anyone have any suggestions of how I can get around this in the node editor without resorting to a plugin? I swear, the brilliant mastermind behind EOLing Softimage deserves several sharp kicks in the yarbles . -=Eric -- -=T=- -- -=T=-
Re: Why is Maya the standard when it lacks basic math nodes?
Hi Eric: What kind of expressions are you dealing with that's causing slowdown in the scene? I've found that they actually evaluate pretty fast short of making a C++ plugin. If you're writing them as Python, it might be a bit of a bottleneck I've found. @ Sebastien: There's not really a list per se...but most of the useful ones related to rigging will be in the hypershade Maya utilities. There's some simple tricks here and there (such as using condition nodes to clamp values instead of the actual clamp node for certain inputs) that you should be aware of, but unfortunately the reality is that you'll have to get used to either making your own nodes or living with the smaller variety of utility nodes OOTB. Yours sincerely, Siew Yi Liang On 4/20/2014 2:46 PM, Sebastien Sterling wrote: Is there actually a comprehensive list of all the editable nodes ? the ones you might use for rigging ? On 20 April 2014 19:25, Ben Barker ben.bar...@gmail.com mailto:ben.bar...@gmail.com wrote: I remember chaining up multDoubleLinears once, so maybe it wasn't always in there. Searching for maya help is like searching for ringtones or song lyrics. The signal:noise ratio of google results is pretty bad. You usually end up in the tall grass of CGtalk threads from 2007. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 1:53 PM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.com mailto:i.anima...@gmail.com wrote: Brilliant! Thank you very much, I would not have thought of looking there. Now I can stop pouring over the internet looking for a solution and get back to work ;) It is odd that this didn't come up in any Google searches. Thanks again Ben :) I'm so glad that this list is still alive. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 12:44 PM, Ben Barker ben.bar...@gmail.com mailto:ben.bar...@gmail.com wrote: multiplyDivide node can do power. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 1:13 PM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.com mailto:i.anima...@gmail.com wrote: I'm porting over some of my core rig components. when I hit a brick wall... Maya having no exponent or power nodes?!?! Sure I could roll my own in C++ if my C++ code-fu was strong enough or use one of the plugins that have already been compiled. The problems are: 1) I can not require a client to figure out how to install a plugin in order for a rig to work 2) None of these plugins that I can find have been compiled for Maya 2015 Maya's expressions are too slow to evaluate. Does anyone have any suggestions of how I can get around this in the node editor without resorting to a plugin? I swear, the brilliant mastermind behind EOLing Softimage deserves several sharp kicks in the yarbles . -=Eric -- -=T=- -- -=T=-
Re: Rendering to multichannel EXR
Hi Steve: Yep, that was an idea I had...it's a bit overkill for my little short animation test, though. :P Quite amazed that having never gone through MR in XSI for a while, this is still a missing feature from the mental ray integration considering the FX Tree... Thanks guys! Yours sincerely, Siew Yi Liang On 4/20/2014 9:32 AM, Steve Parish wrote: It's also possible to write a post render script in nuke that would compile them into one file. On Sunday, April 20, 2014, Stephen Davidson magic...@bellsouth.net mailto:magic...@bellsouth.net wrote: I just saw that 3Delight also supports multichannel EXR and offers on free license. http://softimage.tv/3delight-for-softimage-4-0/ On Sat, Apr 19, 2014 at 2:30 PM, Siew Yi Liang soni...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Stephen: Yep, I would have done that in VRay in school...but now if I have to re-do my shading and lighting _ I think for this little thing I'll just render to seperate files for now. I did find this thread: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/xsi_list/multichannel/xsi_list/ZIIQoCGQmQ0/mDemhTdPlwQJ https://groups.google.com/forum/#%21searchin/xsi_list/multichannel/xsi_list/ZIIQoCGQmQ0/mDemhTdPlwQJ But I can't find the ctrl_pass/buffer shader mentioned anywhere around. Anyway, thanks! :) At least I know I wasn't missing something through the standard UI... Yours sincerely, Siew Yi Liang On 4/19/2014 7:58 AM, Stephen Davidson wrote: I believe you can also create multichannel exr's in Vray, as well. You are only restricted to separate passes, in mentalray, in Softimage. On Sat, Apr 19, 2014 at 10:39 AM, Stephen Davidson magic...@bellsouth.net wrote: Sorry, I misread your original question. It is not possible to have a SINGLE mult-ipass EXR file, in standard Softimage, only individual EXR file for each pass. You can do this in Softimage, with Arnold plugin: https://support.solidangle.com/display/SItoAUG/Multi-Layer+EXR On Sat, Apr 19, 2014 at 3:37 AM, Siew Yi Liang soni...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Stephen: I believe that's how I set my scene up; however, whenever I render, I'm still getting each EXR pass as a separate file instead of one multichannel EXR...? http://i.imgur.com/NNAnloG.png I tried setting the filename output to be just [Pass] without the [Framebuffer] token, but that just resulted in the last pass being what was written to the EXR. Is there something else I'm missing here? I'm on XSI 2013 SP1 at home, but I tried 2014 at school and ran into the same problem as well, so I don't think that's the issue... Yours sincerely, Siew Yi Liang On 4/18/2014 7:06 AM, Stephen Davidson wrote:
Re: Why is Maya the standard when it lacks basic math nodes?
Just as a rule of thumb, I avoid expressions in Maya when I can for similar reasons why I avoid scripted operators when I can in Softimage. They both *seem* fast enough in a one-off situation, but when you use a bunch of them on a rig, then the slowdown becomes apparent. Even if it costs me more work initially, I strive for as high a frame-rate for the animator as I can in any 3DCC package. -=Eric On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 6:57 PM, Siew Yi Liang soni...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Eric: What kind of expressions are you dealing with that's causing slowdown in the scene? I've found that they actually evaluate pretty fast short of making a C++ plugin. If you're writing them as Python, it might be a bit of a bottleneck I've found. @ Sebastien: There's not really a list per se...but most of the useful ones related to rigging will be in the hypershade Maya utilities. There's some simple tricks here and there (such as using condition nodes to clamp values instead of the actual clamp node for certain inputs) that you should be aware of, but unfortunately the reality is that you'll have to get used to either making your own nodes or living with the smaller variety of utility nodes OOTB. Yours sincerely, Siew Yi Liang On 4/20/2014 2:46 PM, Sebastien Sterling wrote: Is there actually a comprehensive list of all the editable nodes ? the ones you might use for rigging ? On 20 April 2014 19:25, Ben Barker ben.bar...@gmail.com wrote: I remember chaining up multDoubleLinears once, so maybe it wasn't always in there. Searching for maya help is like searching for ringtones or song lyrics. The signal:noise ratio of google results is pretty bad. You usually end up in the tall grass of CGtalk threads from 2007. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 1:53 PM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.comwrote: Brilliant! Thank you very much, I would not have thought of looking there. Now I can stop pouring over the internet looking for a solution and get back to work ;) It is odd that this didn't come up in any Google searches. Thanks again Ben :) I'm so glad that this list is still alive. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 12:44 PM, Ben Barker ben.bar...@gmail.comwrote: multiplyDivide node can do power. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 1:13 PM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.comwrote: I'm porting over some of my core rig components. when I hit a brick wall... Maya having no exponent or power nodes?!?! Sure I could roll my own in C++ if my C++ code-fu was strong enough or use one of the plugins that have already been compiled. The problems are: 1) I can not require a client to figure out how to install a plugin in order for a rig to work 2) None of these plugins that I can find have been compiled for Maya 2015 Maya's expressions are too slow to evaluate. Does anyone have any suggestions of how I can get around this in the node editor without resorting to a plugin? I swear, the brilliant mastermind behind EOLing Softimage deserves several sharp kicks in the yarbles . -=Eric -- -=T=- -- -=T=- -- -=T=-
Re: Why is Maya the standard when it lacks basic math nodes?
That's been my experience too. I tend to do everything I can with nodes. Sergio M. Sent from my iPhone On Apr 20, 2014, at 8:43 PM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.com wrote: Just as a rule of thumb, I avoid expressions in Maya when I can for similar reasons why I avoid scripted operators when I can in Softimage. They both *seem* fast enough in a one-off situation, but when you use a bunch of them on a rig, then the slowdown becomes apparent. Even if it costs me more work initially, I strive for as high a frame-rate for the animator as I can in any 3DCC package. -=Eric On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 6:57 PM, Siew Yi Liang soni...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Eric: What kind of expressions are you dealing with that's causing slowdown in the scene? I've found that they actually evaluate pretty fast short of making a C++ plugin. If you're writing them as Python, it might be a bit of a bottleneck I've found. @ Sebastien: There's not really a list per se...but most of the useful ones related to rigging will be in the hypershade Maya utilities. There's some simple tricks here and there (such as using condition nodes to clamp values instead of the actual clamp node for certain inputs) that you should be aware of, but unfortunately the reality is that you'll have to get used to either making your own nodes or living with the smaller variety of utility nodes OOTB. Yours sincerely, Siew Yi Liang On 4/20/2014 2:46 PM, Sebastien Sterling wrote: Is there actually a comprehensive list of all the editable nodes ? the ones you might use for rigging ? On 20 April 2014 19:25, Ben Barker ben.bar...@gmail.com wrote: I remember chaining up multDoubleLinears once, so maybe it wasn't always in there. Searching for maya help is like searching for ringtones or song lyrics. The signal:noise ratio of google results is pretty bad. You usually end up in the tall grass of CGtalk threads from 2007. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 1:53 PM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.com wrote: Brilliant! Thank you very much, I would not have thought of looking there. Now I can stop pouring over the internet looking for a solution and get back to work ;) It is odd that this didn't come up in any Google searches. Thanks again Ben :) I'm so glad that this list is still alive. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 12:44 PM, Ben Barker ben.bar...@gmail.com wrote: multiplyDivide node can do power. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 1:13 PM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.com wrote: I'm porting over some of my core rig components. when I hit a brick wall... Maya having no exponent or power nodes?!?! Sure I could roll my own in C++ if my C++ code-fu was strong enough or use one of the plugins that have already been compiled. The problems are: 1) I can not require a client to figure out how to install a plugin in order for a rig to work 2) None of these plugins that I can find have been compiled for Maya 2015 Maya's expressions are too slow to evaluate. Does anyone have any suggestions of how I can get around this in the node editor without resorting to a plugin? I swear, the brilliant mastermind behind EOLing Softimage deserves several sharp kicks in the yarbles . -=Eric -- -=T=- -- -=T=- -- -=T=-
Re: Why is Maya the standard when it lacks basic math nodes?
And that might be the funniest reason to keep this list alive as it becomes the best place to get Maya answers due to the community of the Softimage list. And another top place to get Houdini answers, the Sidefx list has always been very similar. Graham D Clark, Head of Stereography, Deluxe 3D dba Stereo D phone: why-I-stereo http://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamclark On Apr 20, 2014, at 10:53 AM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.com wrote: Brilliant! Thank you very much, I would not have thought of looking there. Now I can stop pouring over the internet looking for a solution and get back to work ;) It is odd that this didn't come up in any Google searches. Thanks again Ben :) I'm so glad that this list is still alive. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 12:44 PM, Ben Barker ben.bar...@gmail.com wrote: multiplyDivide node can do power. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 1:13 PM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.com wrote: I'm porting over some of my core rig components. when I hit a brick wall... Maya having no exponent or power nodes?!?! Sure I could roll my own in C++ if my C++ code-fu was strong enough or use one of the plugins that have already been compiled. The problems are: 1) I can not require a client to figure out how to install a plugin in order for a rig to work 2) None of these plugins that I can find have been compiled for Maya 2015 Maya's expressions are too slow to evaluate. Does anyone have any suggestions of how I can get around this in the node editor without resorting to a plugin? I swear, the brilliant mastermind behind EOLing Softimage deserves several sharp kicks in the yarbles . -=Eric -- -=T=- -- -=T=-
RE: Why is Maya the standard when it lacks basic math nodes?
Graham, That might be true, but there was a time when the maya list server was every bit as active and helpful. It never recovered from the closing, for whatever reason it wasn't properly switched over to the highend list server, and lost many participants. I would like to see it regain it former usefulness. From: mailgrahamdcl...@gmail.com Subject: Re: Why is Maya the standard when it lacks basic math nodes? Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2014 21:14:51 -0700 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com And that might be the funniest reason to keep this list alive as it becomes the best place to get Maya answers due to the community of the Softimage list.And another top place to get Houdini answers, the Sidefx list has always been very similar. Graham D Clark, Head of Stereography, Deluxe 3D dba Stereo Dphone: why-I-stereohttp://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamclark On Apr 20, 2014, at 10:53 AM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.com wrote: Brilliant! Thank you very much, I would not have thought of looking there. Now I can stop pouring over the internet looking for a solution and get back to work ;) It is odd that this didn't come up in any Google searches. Thanks again Ben :) I'm so glad that this list is still alive. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 12:44 PM, Ben Barker ben.bar...@gmail.com wrote: multiplyDivide node can do power. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 1:13 PM, Eric Turman i.anima...@gmail.com wrote: I'm porting over some of my core rig components. when I hit a brick wall... Maya having no exponent or power nodes?!?! Sure I could roll my own in C++ if my C++ code-fu was strong enough or use one of the plugins that have already been compiled. The problems are: 1) I can not require a client to figure out how to install a plugin in order for a rig to work 2) None of these plugins that I can find have been compiled for Maya 2015 Maya's expressions are too slow to evaluate. Does anyone have any suggestions of how I can get around this in the node editor without resorting to a plugin? I swear, the brilliant mastermind behind EOLing Softimage deserves several sharp kicks in the yarbles . -=Eric -- -=T=- -- -=T=-
Re: Why is Maya the standard when it lacks basic math nodes?
There's that and the fact that outside of this list hardly anybody even knew about Softimage. I get a lot of explain why you'd even want that or try this convoluted workaround or just use this plugin (that isn't compiled for 2015) I find trying to explain a better way/workflow to the dogmatic Maya users is...its like casting pearls before swine. On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 11:29 PM, jim bough jimbo...@hotmail.com wrote: Graham, That might be true, but there was a time when the maya list server was every bit as active and helpful. It never recovered from the closing, for whatever reason it wasn't properly switched over to the highend list server, and lost many participants. I would like to see it regain it former usefulness. -- From: mailgrahamdcl...@gmail.com Subject: Re: Why is Maya the standard when it lacks basic math nodes? Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2014 21:14:51 -0700 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com And that might be the funniest reason to keep this list alive as it becomes the best place to get Maya answers due to the community of the Softimage list. And another top place to get Houdini answers, the Sidefx list has always been very similar. Graham D Clark, Head of Stereography, Deluxe 3D dba Stereo D phone: why-I-stereo http://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamclark -- -=T=-
