Re: Retro reflective Materials?

[Patrick Neese]

Peter- Great find. Thanks!

I've tried a few things with the incidence nodes hooking up to another
incidence node to drive the gain and bias and then mixing some
constant colors to fake the look.  It worked okay.

I've also tried a few variations of mia_material with an actual
reflector layer/surface(cuved like the retina) with a reflective
property, an iris(layer to prevent seeing the cornea and shadowing the
cornea and both a lens and cornea to refocus the reflection out.

I'll try playing around some more with this.   Althoughnow I'm
curious about making a retroreflective normal map using corner-cube
reflectors as the basis for the map :)



On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 1:19 PM,   wrote:
> perhaps not very helpful, but have you tried plugging the incidence into a
> mixer_gradient?
> experiment with the different types of incidence - there's a 360 degree
> incidence based on light - in combination with the gradient you get more
> control than from a simple incidence.
>
>
> also - there is more to it than just the shader - sometimes you need to
> mimic/simulate how the real thing works to get a good result in CGI - can be
> a combination of modeling, materials, lighting - working with different
> layers of objects
>
> some interesting bits of real world info on how reflectors work here:
> http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2000-12/977675178.Es.r.html
>
> "... All eyes reflect light well because the path for light always works in
> both directions. In other words, if incoming light is focused by the cat's
> cornea lens and forms a tiny bright spot on the retina... then that tiny
> bright spot can send light out through the cornea-lens, and beam it back to
> the original source. If you shine light at a cat, ONLY YOU will see the
> glowing eyes, since the cat's eyes are beaming the reflected light back
> towards the flashlight (and you are seeing some spill-light). People
> standing nearby might not see the glow at all. All eyes will "glow" like
> this. However certain animals' eyes glow very brightly because their retina
> has a reflective layer called the tapetum. (The tapetum improves their night
> vision by doubling the amount of light that hits retinal cells, and by
> getting rid of diffuse light inside the eye by throwing it back out through
> the pupil so bright moonlight won't cause glary washed-out nightime images.)
> To REALLY make cats' eyes glow brightly, hold the flashlight near your face
> (or clamp it in your mouth) and gaze past it into the distance.
> Human eyes do the same as cats, and that's where "red-eye" in flash
> photographs comes from. The eyes send the light from the camera flash back
> towards the camera. To get rid of red-eye, move the camera flash far from
> the camera lens. Tiny cameras create "red-eye" because the photoflash is too
> close to the camera lens, and the camera "sees" the light that the eyes are
> beaming back to the flash tube.
> Very old railroad reflectors used "cats eye" reflectors in the form of glass
> lenses with a curved mirror in place of the "retina". If you ever find an
> old ball of red glass by the side of the road that has silver on one side,
> it's an ancient "cats eye" safety reflector.
> Road reflectors on a bike are based on something entirely different. If you
> place two mirrors together at a 90deg angle, then all incoming light will
> bounce twice and then retrace approximately the same path on its way out.
> (Try it, and you'll find that the reflection that you see in the mirror-pair
> is NOT REVERSED as it is in a single mirror!) And if you put THREE mirrors
> together and look into the corner of them, you'll see an upside- down,
> unreversed image of your face. And no matter how you twist the mirrors or
> move your head, the image of your face will stay in the same spot. This
> device is called a CORNER-CUBE REFLECTOR. It returns incoming light back to
> its source.
> Bicycle reflectors are composed of hundreds of tiny Corner Cube reflectors
> formed into the plastic. (Call this device a "Corner-Cube Array.") When you
> look at a bicycle reflector close up, notice that it looks black. The black
> color is actually the upside- down image of your eye's dark pupil! If the
> reflector facets were lots bigger, you'd see an image of your eye within
> each one. Gaze at the reflector while slowly moving the edge of a white
> piece of paper across your eye, and just before it blocks your vision,
> you'll see small white bits appear in the facets of the bicycle reflector.
> If you take apart a bicycle reflector, you'll find that the faceted back of
> the plastic is NOT a metal-coated mirror. In fact, if it was metallized, it
> would only reflect about 80% of the light; same as normal mirrors. Without
> the metal, it reflects 100% of the light. This strange phenomenon occurs
> because the light is INSIDE THE PLASTIC when it strikes the tilted facets,
> and the 100% reflection is known as "Total Internal Reflection." When light
> within a transparent m

Re: Retro reflective Materials?

[Patrick Neese]

Matt thank you so much.

I'll give this a try soon!

On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 2:50 PM, Matt Lind  wrote:
> You just need to pull the right vectors from mental ray and do the
> computation yourself, which isn't hard.
>
> You need 3 pieces of data to perform the computation:
>- intersection point (state->pnt)
>- light position
>- camera position (state->org)
>
> The intersection point is the point on the surface being shaded.  Mental ray
> refers to this as state->pnt (or state->point).  You can access this value
> using a state shader.  It'll have to be used in a rendertree applied as a
> material or texture on a surface as state->point doesn't exist for some
> other types of shaders.
>
> The viewing angle is the vector formed by subtracting the intersection point
> from the camera position.  Mental ray calls this state->dir (viewing
> direction), which you might be able to obtain using one of the state
> shaders, but if you do, you'll need to negate it as state->dir points from
> camera to surface.  You need the opposite direction so the vector is aligned
> from surface to camera to match the orientation of the other vector you'll
> be computing.
>
> The light to surface vector is formed by subtracting the intersection point
> from the light position.  In code this is trivial, but in the rendertree
> it's a bit cumbersome for lack of nodes to isolate information from a single
> light.  Therefore, you'll have to plug your light positions into the tree
> explicitly.  One node to represent the position of each light you want to
> consider for the effect.
>
> When you have both vectors, normalize them to be unit vectors.  Next, do a
> dot product. The result is the cosine of the angle between the two vectors.
> This is ratio you seek to drive the retro-reflective intensity.  However,
> you will likely need to clamp or rescale this value to fit a range you
> choose for artistic reasons.  For example, the cosine will cover the full
> [0...180] degree range between the two vectors meaning you'll get a linear
> increase/decrease of intensity as you step through the entire range.
> However, as Peter pointed out, you don't want that.  You want the intense
> response to be isolated to a very narrow angular range when the two vectors
> are very closely aligned to indicate the viewing angle is very similar to
> the reflection angle.  So take the cosine and pump it into a rescale node
> and redefine your output range to be narrow and you'll get the effect you're
> looking for (eg; from [0...1] to [0...0.05]).  if you don't use a rescale
> node, you can do the simple arithmetic yourself with a node or two.
>
> one speed bump you may possibly run into is getting all the positions in the
> same coordinate space before you do the computations.  Mental ray defines
> values in 'internal space' which changes depending on the context which the
> shader is evaluated.  Usually it means world space, but in the case of
> state->pnt it might mean object space.  If you run into this problem, insert
> a coordinate conversion node between the position vector and it's output
> targets.
>
> Matt
>
>
>
>
>
> Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 11:16:59 -0500
> From: Patrick Neese 
> Subject: Retro reflective Materials?
> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
>
>
> I'm looking for  something like cat eyes or road signs.  Where the
> reflection of the light source is affected by angle between the light
> to surface to camera. It should also take into account the light
> color.  If a cat turns it's eyes away the intensity/reflection changes
> and/or if the camera shifts off axis from the surface or the light
> shifts off axis the intensity/reflection also changes.
>
> So, I've experimented with some Incidence nodes with some crazy
> mixing...but it isn't exactly what I would like.
>
> Does anyone know of a way to get a proper retro-reflective material?
> Did I miss something in some of the shaders or a shader itself? One of
> the BRDF settings?
>
> Thank you for your time.
>
> Patrick
>

Re: Retro reflective Materials?

[Matt Lind]

You just need to pull the right vectors from mental ray and do the 
computation yourself, which isn't hard.


You need 3 pieces of data to perform the computation:
   - intersection point (state->pnt)
   - light position
   - camera position (state->org)

The intersection point is the point on the surface being shaded.  Mental ray 
refers to this as state->pnt (or state->point).  You can access this value 
using a state shader.  It'll have to be used in a rendertree applied as a 
material or texture on a surface as state->point doesn't exist for some 
other types of shaders.


The viewing angle is the vector formed by subtracting the intersection point 
from the camera position.  Mental ray calls this state->dir (viewing 
direction), which you might be able to obtain using one of the state 
shaders, but if you do, you'll need to negate it as state->dir points from 
camera to surface.  You need the opposite direction so the vector is aligned 
from surface to camera to match the orientation of the other vector you'll 
be computing.


The light to surface vector is formed by subtracting the intersection point 
from the light position.  In code this is trivial, but in the rendertree 
it's a bit cumbersome for lack of nodes to isolate information from a single 
light.  Therefore, you'll have to plug your light positions into the tree 
explicitly.  One node to represent the position of each light you want to 
consider for the effect.


When you have both vectors, normalize them to be unit vectors.  Next, do a 
dot product. The result is the cosine of the angle between the two vectors. 
This is ratio you seek to drive the retro-reflective intensity.  However, 
you will likely need to clamp or rescale this value to fit a range you 
choose for artistic reasons.  For example, the cosine will cover the full 
[0...180] degree range between the two vectors meaning you'll get a linear 
increase/decrease of intensity as you step through the entire range. 
However, as Peter pointed out, you don't want that.  You want the intense 
response to be isolated to a very narrow angular range when the two vectors 
are very closely aligned to indicate the viewing angle is very similar to 
the reflection angle.  So take the cosine and pump it into a rescale node 
and redefine your output range to be narrow and you'll get the effect you're 
looking for (eg; from [0...1] to [0...0.05]).  if you don't use a rescale 
node, you can do the simple arithmetic yourself with a node or two.


one speed bump you may possibly run into is getting all the positions in the 
same coordinate space before you do the computations.  Mental ray defines 
values in 'internal space' which changes depending on the context which the 
shader is evaluated.  Usually it means world space, but in the case of 
state->pnt it might mean object space.  If you run into this problem, insert 
a coordinate conversion node between the position vector and it's output 
targets.


Matt





Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 11:16:59 -0500
From: Patrick Neese 
Subject: Retro reflective Materials?
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com

I'm looking for  something like cat eyes or road signs.  Where the
reflection of the light source is affected by angle between the light
to surface to camera. It should also take into account the light
color.  If a cat turns it's eyes away the intensity/reflection changes
and/or if the camera shifts off axis from the surface or the light
shifts off axis the intensity/reflection also changes.

So, I've experimented with some Incidence nodes with some crazy
mixing...but it isn't exactly what I would like.

Does anyone know of a way to get a proper retro-reflective material?
Did I miss something in some of the shaders or a shader itself? One of
the BRDF settings?

Thank you for your time.

Patrick

Re: Will there be an SP2 for Softimage 2015?

[Tenshi S.]

Hi Maurice.,

Can you confirm if there will be an SP2 for Softimage 2015? Most of the
times the SP2 are the best out there to work in production.

On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 9:18 AM, Maurice Patel 
wrote:

> HI Eric,
> I am not sure about the status of the bug you reported, you had best
> contact support for that while still on Subscription. Your current license
> for Softimage is perpetual so you can continue to use it even if you do not
> renew subscription. If service packs are issued they are made available to
> all license holders whether they are on Subscription or not. Only
> extensions are reserved for Subscription customers and we are not
> developing new extensions for Softimage.
> Hope that helps
> maurice
>
> Maurice Patel
> Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134
>
> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Eric Turman
> Sent: Monday, March 23, 2015 9:27 AM
> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
> Subject: Will there be an SP2 for Softimage 2015?
>
> I had posted a replicable and verified bug regarding the fact that a
> few--and likely many--commands do not iterate over multiple deltas attached
> to a reference model. While I have no idea if that bug is a low enough
> hanging fruit to fix before all of us lose support in 2016, I also have no
> idea whether or not we will even be seeing an SP2 for Softimage. As my
> subscription is coming due in a couple months, I am wondering if it will
> even be worth it. It certainly is not worth it for Maya (even with
> Bifrost.) Also I am still unclear as to the status of the permanent license
> of Softimage if I do another subscription.
>
> Thanks,
> -=Eric
> --
>
>
>
>
> -=T=-
>

Re: Retro reflective Materials?

[peter_b]

perhaps not very helpful, but have you tried plugging the incidence into a 
mixer_gradient?
experiment with the different types of incidence - there's a 360 degree 
incidence based on light - in combination with the gradient you get more 
control than from a simple incidence.



also - there is more to it than just the shader - sometimes you need to 
mimic/simulate how the real thing works to get a good result in CGI - can be 
a combination of modeling, materials, lighting - working with different 
layers of objects


some interesting bits of real world info on how reflectors work here:
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2000-12/977675178.Es.r.html

"... All eyes reflect light well because the path for light always works in 
both directions. In other words, if incoming light is focused by the cat's 
cornea lens and forms a tiny bright spot on the retina... then that tiny 
bright spot can send light out through the cornea-lens, and beam it back to 
the original source. If you shine light at a cat, ONLY YOU will see the 
glowing eyes, since the cat's eyes are beaming the reflected light back 
towards the flashlight (and you are seeing some spill-light). People 
standing nearby might not see the glow at all. All eyes will "glow" like 
this. However certain animals' eyes glow very brightly because their retina 
has a reflective layer called the tapetum. (The tapetum improves their night 
vision by doubling the amount of light that hits retinal cells, and by 
getting rid of diffuse light inside the eye by throwing it back out through 
the pupil so bright moonlight won't cause glary washed-out nightime images.)
To REALLY make cats' eyes glow brightly, hold the flashlight near your face 
(or clamp it in your mouth) and gaze past it into the distance.
Human eyes do the same as cats, and that's where "red-eye" in flash 
photographs comes from. The eyes send the light from the camera flash back 
towards the camera. To get rid of red-eye, move the camera flash far from 
the camera lens. Tiny cameras create "red-eye" because the photoflash is too 
close to the camera lens, and the camera "sees" the light that the eyes are 
beaming back to the flash tube.
Very old railroad reflectors used "cats eye" reflectors in the form of glass 
lenses with a curved mirror in place of the "retina". If you ever find an 
old ball of red glass by the side of the road that has silver on one side, 
it's an ancient "cats eye" safety reflector.
Road reflectors on a bike are based on something entirely different. If you 
place two mirrors together at a 90deg angle, then all incoming light will 
bounce twice and then retrace approximately the same path on its way out. 
(Try it, and you'll find that the reflection that you see in the mirror-pair 
is NOT REVERSED as it is in a single mirror!) And if you put THREE mirrors 
together and look into the corner of them, you'll see an upside- down, 
unreversed image of your face. And no matter how you twist the mirrors or 
move your head, the image of your face will stay in the same spot. This 
device is called a CORNER-CUBE REFLECTOR. It returns incoming light back to 
its source.
Bicycle reflectors are composed of hundreds of tiny Corner Cube reflectors 
formed into the plastic. (Call this device a "Corner-Cube Array.") When you 
look at a bicycle reflector close up, notice that it looks black. The black 
color is actually the upside- down image of your eye's dark pupil! If the 
reflector facets were lots bigger, you'd see an image of your eye within 
each one. Gaze at the reflector while slowly moving the edge of a white 
piece of paper across your eye, and just before it blocks your vision, 
you'll see small white bits appear in the facets of the bicycle reflector.
If you take apart a bicycle reflector, you'll find that the faceted back of 
the plastic is NOT a metal-coated mirror. In fact, if it was metallized, it 
would only reflect about 80% of the light; same as normal mirrors. Without 
the metal, it reflects 100% of the light. This strange phenomenon occurs 
because the light is INSIDE THE PLASTIC when it strikes the tilted facets, 
and the 100% reflection is known as "Total Internal Reflection." When light 
within a transparent material strikes the inner surface of that material at 
a glancing angle, it reflects totally. Total Internal Reflection causes the 
surface of water to look silver when viewed from underwater. It causes the 
bottom of a glass cup to look silver except where you touch it with wet 
fingers. (Try searching the www using keywords "total internal reflection".) 
(Try dipping a bicycle reflector into an aquarium or other flat, water- 
filled container. Will it still reflect? Or will it become transparent?)
Optical fibers are just reflective tubes. Shine light down the tube, and it 
keeps going because it bounces from the walls. But if you've ever looked at 
optical fibers, you'll notice that they are NOT METALLIZED like a mirror, 
they have no silvery coating. They look 

Retro reflective Materials?

[Patrick Neese]

I'm looking for  something like cat eyes or road signs.  Where the
reflection of the light source is affected by angle between the light
to surface to camera. It should also take into account the light
color.  If a cat turns it's eyes away the intensity/reflection changes
and/or if the camera shifts off axis from the surface or the light
shifts off axis the intensity/reflection also changes.

So, I've experimented with some Incidence nodes with some crazy
mixing...but it isn't exactly what I would like.

Does anyone know of a way to get a proper retro-reflective material?
Did I miss something in some of the shaders or a shader itself? One of
the BRDF settings?

Thank you for your time.

Patrick

Re: Renderman

[si]

> ... the new RIS mode is useful and a nice addition, got a couple of crashes 
> from Maya  as usual.

Both Maya ports of 3Delight and Renderman are not very stable, I got frequent 
crashes from them in the past too. Other than that 3Delight is the bomb, it's 
been featuring dual path tracing for quite some time now.
As far as stability of the connection plugin is concerned (not to mention raw 
speed) I'd go for Redshift. Both it's Maya and XSI ports are very stable, and 
affordable too.




> On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 4:27 AM, Morten Bartholdy   > wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> + seeing as 3Delight is free for eight core use for one user, why bother 
>> with a free non-commercial PrMan...
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> Morten
>> 
>>  
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> 
>> Den 23. marts 2015 kl. 23:24 skrev Andreas Bystrom 
>> mailto:andreas.byst...@gmail.com> >:
>> 
>> 
>>> for playing around with it, sure, but if you use softimage I don't think 
>>> prman is a serious alternative for commercial projects these days. 3delight 
>>> will export ribs sure, but to actually get those to render in prman is a 
>>> different thing, getting shaders to work etc.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:59 AM, Francois Lord < flordli...@gmail.com 
>>>   > wrote:
 
 Well... the non-commercial version is a damn good reason to use it. I sure 
 will try it once it's available for Houdini.
 
 
 On 23-Mar-15 17:47, Andreas Bystrom wrote:
> 
> 
> I think the old XSIMan by graphicprimitves was the closest you could get 
> to a prman bridge, sadly the product was discontinued a long time ago.. I 
> tested it quite a bit when it came out, nice little plugin but the 
> implementation was rather basic in a way, no render-region support etc.
> 
> there is also the opensource affogato: 
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/affogato/ 
>  
> 
> 
> anyway, with all the renderers out there I don't see much reason to use 
> prman anymore..
> 
> -Andreas
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:35 AM, Rob Chapman < tekano@gmail.com 
>   > wrote:
>> cmd line renderman is available but not sure how you would make a rib
>> with all the new shader parameters etc straight outa softimage :(
>> 
>> 
>> On 23 March 2015 at 21:32, Daniel Brassard < dbrassar...@gmail.com 
>>   > wrote:
>> > Just received notice from Pixar that Renderman free for non-commercial 
>> > use
>> > is now available.
>> >
>> > Does anybody have used Renderman before with Softimage and is their a 
>> > bridge
>> > between Softimage and Renderman available?
>> >
>> > (yes, I have Maya too, so I can use it with Maya but I would like to 
>> > test
>> > Renderman with Softimage)
>> >
>> > Cheers!
>> >
>> > Dan
>> >
>> >
>> 
> 
>>  
>> 
>>

Re: cartoon eye rig

[Kris Rivel]

Doh! Knew it was something simple...that seems to have done the trick!!
Thanks Oscar!

Kris

On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:48 AM, Oscar Juarez 
wrote:

> Just a quick shot in the dark, constrain the lattice or parent to whatever
> is driving your head position, this will offset the lattice deformations to
> be relative to the head even if your lattice is being deformed too.
>
> On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 3:43 PM, Kris Rivel  wrote:
>
>> Rigging question...have a cartoony character and giving him the ability
>> to have his eye stretch if you pull his eyelid/brow area up or down. It
>> working great and looks nice..until I rotate the head and I get a double
>> deform thing going on. I've tried changing the order of operators but
>> nothing works. I have the eye enveloped to a null which moves around to
>> rotate the eye "inside" a lattice. This lattice deforms with the eye socket
>> so that the eye can roll around "inside" the cage and have the deformed
>> shape when rotating. I'm hoping there's a simple solution to this? Thanks!
>>
>> Kris
>>
>
>

Re: cartoon eye rig

[Oscar Juarez]

Just a quick shot in the dark, constrain the lattice or parent to whatever
is driving your head position, this will offset the lattice deformations to
be relative to the head even if your lattice is being deformed too.

On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 3:43 PM, Kris Rivel  wrote:

> Rigging question...have a cartoony character and giving him the ability to
> have his eye stretch if you pull his eyelid/brow area up or down. It
> working great and looks nice..until I rotate the head and I get a double
> deform thing going on. I've tried changing the order of operators but
> nothing works. I have the eye enveloped to a null which moves around to
> rotate the eye "inside" a lattice. This lattice deforms with the eye socket
> so that the eye can roll around "inside" the cage and have the deformed
> shape when rotating. I'm hoping there's a simple solution to this? Thanks!
>
> Kris
>

cartoon eye rig

[Kris Rivel]

Rigging question...have a cartoony character and giving him the ability to
have his eye stretch if you pull his eyelid/brow area up or down. It
working great and looks nice..until I rotate the head and I get a double
deform thing going on. I've tried changing the order of operators but
nothing works. I have the eye enveloped to a null which moves around to
rotate the eye "inside" a lattice. This lattice deforms with the eye socket
so that the eye can roll around "inside" the cage and have the deformed
shape when rotating. I'm hoping there's a simple solution to this? Thanks!

Kris

RE: Will there be an SP2 for Softimage 2015?

[Maurice Patel]

HI Eric,
I am not sure about the status of the bug you reported, you had best contact 
support for that while still on Subscription. Your current license for 
Softimage is perpetual so you can continue to use it even if you do not renew 
subscription. If service packs are issued they are made available to all 
license holders whether they are on Subscription or not. Only extensions are 
reserved for Subscription customers and we are not developing new extensions 
for Softimage.
Hope that helps
maurice

Maurice Patel
Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Eric Turman
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2015 9:27 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Will there be an SP2 for Softimage 2015?

I had posted a replicable and verified bug regarding the fact that a few--and 
likely many--commands do not iterate over multiple deltas attached to a 
reference model. While I have no idea if that bug is a low enough hanging fruit 
to fix before all of us lose support in 2016, I also have no idea whether or 
not we will even be seeing an SP2 for Softimage. As my subscription is coming 
due in a couple months, I am wondering if it will even be worth it. It 
certainly is not worth it for Maya (even with Bifrost.) Also I am still unclear 
as to the status of the permanent license of Softimage if I do another 
subscription.

Thanks,
-=Eric
--




-=T=-
<>

RE: testing

[gareth bell]

nope ;)

Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 09:50:50 +0100
From: x...@colorshopvfx.dk
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: testing


 

 
 
  
   
yep

   
  
  
  
   

   Den 24. marts 2015 kl. 08:26 skrev Alok Gandhi :
   

   

   

 
  Anyone got this?
  
   
  --
  

  
   
  
 



 
   
  

Re: Renderman

[Angus Davidson]

Redshift is very nice.

I am however heavily investing in Octane currently. While there are plugins to 
work with most applications at the moment. I really prefer separating my 
workflow. i.e. bringing in the Alembics, quickly assigning the materials from 
my local Library, and Vrooosh ;) If you don’t want to assign materials you can 
bring them in via FBX in version 3 when it comes out. I enjoy the fact it 
extracts Rendering in the same way Compositing has been extracted for years.

Angus


On 24 Mar 2015, at 2:46 PM, Mirko Jankovic 
mailto:mirkoj.anima...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Or you get Redshift.. one renderer to rule them all  ;)

On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 1:01 PM, Daniel Brassard 
mailto:dbrassar...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Thanks Andreas, I forgot about affogato.

Probably much more trouble that I can spare at the moment anyway, and I can use 
Maya to render ... the new RIS mode is useful and a nice addition, got a couple 
of crashes from Maya  as usual.

Having Mental Ray, Renderman and 3Delight for rendering is quite a selection at 
the moment.



On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 4:27 AM, Morten Bartholdy 
mailto:x...@colorshopvfx.dk>> wrote:
+ seeing as 3Delight is free for eight core use for one user, why bother with a 
free non-commercial PrMan...



Morten





Den 23. marts 2015 kl. 23:24 skrev Andreas Bystrom 
mailto:andreas.byst...@gmail.com>>:

for playing around with it, sure, but if you use softimage I don't think prman 
is a serious alternative for commercial projects these days. 3delight will 
export ribs sure, but to actually get those to render in prman is a different 
thing, getting shaders to work etc.

On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:59 AM, Francois Lord < 
flordli...@gmail.com > wrote:
Well... the non-commercial version is a damn good reason to use it. I sure will 
try it once it's available for Houdini.

On 23-Mar-15 17:47, Andreas Bystrom wrote:
I think the old XSIMan by graphicprimitves was the closest you could get to a 
prman bridge, sadly the product was discontinued a long time ago.. I tested it 
quite a bit when it came out, nice little plugin but the implementation was 
rather basic in a way, no render-region support etc.
there is also the opensource affogato: http://sourceforge.net/projects/affogato/

anyway, with all the renderers out there I don't see much reason to use prman 
anymore..
-Andreas


On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:35 AM, Rob Chapman < 
tekano@gmail.com > wrote:
cmd line renderman is available but not sure how you would make a rib
with all the new shader parameters etc straight outa softimage :(

On 23 March 2015 at 21:32, Daniel Brassard < 
dbrassar...@gmail.com > wrote:
> Just received notice from Pixar that Renderman free for non-commercial use
> is now available.
>
> Does anybody have used Renderman before with Softimage and is their a bridge
> between Softimage and Renderman available?
>
> (yes, I have Maya too, so I can use it with Maya but I would like to test
> Renderman with Softimage)
>
> Cheers!
>
> Dan
>
>








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Re: Renderman

[Pierre Schiller]

Redshift is a bullet. Just sayin '
That video with a gazillion hairs on that deer. Just blew my mind.
El mar 24, 2015 7:46 a.m., "Mirko Jankovic" 
escribió:

> Or you get Redshift.. one renderer to rule them all  ;)
>
> On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 1:01 PM, Daniel Brassard 
> wrote:
>
>> Thanks Andreas, I forgot about affogato.
>>
>> Probably much more trouble that I can spare at the moment anyway, and I
>> can use Maya to render ... the new RIS mode is useful and a nice addition,
>> got a couple of crashes from Maya  as usual.
>>
>> Having Mental Ray, Renderman and 3Delight for rendering is quite a
>> selection at the moment.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 4:27 AM, Morten Bartholdy 
>> wrote:
>>
>>>   + seeing as 3Delight is free for eight core use for one user, why
>>> bother with a free non-commercial PrMan...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Morten
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Den 23. marts 2015 kl. 23:24 skrev Andreas Bystrom <
>>> andreas.byst...@gmail.com>:
>>>
>>>   for playing around with it, sure, but if you use softimage I don't
>>> think prman is a serious alternative for commercial projects these days.
>>> 3delight will export ribs sure, but to actually get those to render in
>>> prman is a different thing, getting shaders to work etc.
>>>
>>>  On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:59 AM, Francois Lord < flordli...@gmail.com
>>> > wrote:
>>>
>>>  Well... the non-commercial version is a damn good reason to use it. I
>>> sure will try it once it's available for Houdini.
>>>
>>> On 23-Mar-15 17:47, Andreas Bystrom wrote:
>>>
>>>   I think the old XSIMan by graphicprimitves was the closest you could
>>> get to a prman bridge, sadly the product was discontinued a long time ago..
>>> I tested it quite a bit when it came out, nice little plugin but the
>>> implementation was rather basic in a way, no render-region support etc.
>>>  there is also the opensource affogato:
>>> http://sourceforge.net/projects/affogato/
>>>
>>>  anyway, with all the renderers out there I don't see much reason to use
>>> prman anymore..
>>>  -Andreas
>>>
>>>
>>>  On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:35 AM, Rob Chapman < tekano@gmail.com > 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> cmd line renderman is available but not sure how you would make a rib
>>> with all the new shader parameters etc straight outa softimage :(
>>>
>>> On 23 March 2015 at 21:32, Daniel Brassard < dbrassar...@gmail.com >
>>> wrote:
>>> > Just received notice from Pixar that Renderman free for non-commercial
>>> use
>>> > is now available.
>>> >
>>> > Does anybody have used Renderman before with Softimage and is their a
>>> bridge
>>> > between Softimage and Renderman available?
>>> >
>>> > (yes, I have Maya too, so I can use it with Maya but I would like to
>>> test
>>> > Renderman with Softimage)
>>> >
>>> > Cheers!
>>> >
>>> > Dan
>>> >
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>

Re: Renderman

[Mirko Jankovic]

Or you get Redshift.. one renderer to rule them all  ;)

On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 1:01 PM, Daniel Brassard 
wrote:

> Thanks Andreas, I forgot about affogato.
>
> Probably much more trouble that I can spare at the moment anyway, and I
> can use Maya to render ... the new RIS mode is useful and a nice addition,
> got a couple of crashes from Maya  as usual.
>
> Having Mental Ray, Renderman and 3Delight for rendering is quite a
> selection at the moment.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 4:27 AM, Morten Bartholdy 
> wrote:
>
>>   + seeing as 3Delight is free for eight core use for one user, why
>> bother with a free non-commercial PrMan...
>>
>>
>>
>> Morten
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Den 23. marts 2015 kl. 23:24 skrev Andreas Bystrom <
>> andreas.byst...@gmail.com>:
>>
>>   for playing around with it, sure, but if you use softimage I don't
>> think prman is a serious alternative for commercial projects these days.
>> 3delight will export ribs sure, but to actually get those to render in
>> prman is a different thing, getting shaders to work etc.
>>
>>  On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:59 AM, Francois Lord < flordli...@gmail.com
>> > wrote:
>>
>>  Well... the non-commercial version is a damn good reason to use it. I
>> sure will try it once it's available for Houdini.
>>
>> On 23-Mar-15 17:47, Andreas Bystrom wrote:
>>
>>   I think the old XSIMan by graphicprimitves was the closest you could
>> get to a prman bridge, sadly the product was discontinued a long time ago..
>> I tested it quite a bit when it came out, nice little plugin but the
>> implementation was rather basic in a way, no render-region support etc.
>>  there is also the opensource affogato:
>> http://sourceforge.net/projects/affogato/
>>
>>  anyway, with all the renderers out there I don't see much reason to use
>> prman anymore..
>>  -Andreas
>>
>>
>>  On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:35 AM, Rob Chapman < tekano@gmail.com > 
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>> cmd line renderman is available but not sure how you would make a rib
>> with all the new shader parameters etc straight outa softimage :(
>>
>> On 23 March 2015 at 21:32, Daniel Brassard < dbrassar...@gmail.com >
>> wrote:
>> > Just received notice from Pixar that Renderman free for non-commercial
>> use
>> > is now available.
>> >
>> > Does anybody have used Renderman before with Softimage and is their a
>> bridge
>> > between Softimage and Renderman available?
>> >
>> > (yes, I have Maya too, so I can use it with Maya but I would like to
>> test
>> > Renderman with Softimage)
>> >
>> > Cheers!
>> >
>> > Dan
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>

Re: How to fix degenerate polygons?

[Morten Bartholdy]

Thanks for the input. Filter points with a small value fixed it for me -
happy camper now.

MB




Den 24. marts 2015 kl. 12:34 skrev julien carmagnac
:

> Morten,
> I already got Vray render error due to geometry import problem.
> In my case, I have floating points without any polygon.
> To quick check it manually you can :
>  - select all objects to check
>  - select all polygon
>  - select all adjacent points
>  - and finally, Invert selection
> If it select points, you can delete them because there are no polygon
> attached to it.
> 
> 2015-03-24 11:40 GMT+01:00 Oscar Juarez < tridi.animei...@gmail.com
>  > :
> > The script only selects the bad polygons, also the one on the blog, they
> > don't do anything else, this will let you identify the polygons that are
> > the problem, but then you have to decide what to do. If the issue comes
> > from overlapping points maybe even a very small smooth might move them
> > apart and avoid the zero area without changing topology.
> > 
> > On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 11:10 AM, Morten Bartholdy < x...@colorshopvfx.dk
> >  > wrote:
> > > Thanks a lot Oscar - I will give both methods a shot and see what happens.
> > > 
> > > Morten
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Den 24. marts 2015 kl. 10:45 skrev Oscar Juarez <
> > > tridi.animei...@gmail.com  >:
> > > 
> > > > this should fix the script, it will select all the polygons that are
> > > > wrong
> > > > 
> > > > si = Application
> > > > epsilon = 0.1
> > > > 
> > > > # Get PolygonArea DataArray (which is a tuple)
> > > > sel = si.Selection(0)
> > > > attr = sel.ActivePrimitive.GetICEAttributeFromName( "PolygonArea" )
> > > > areaData = attr.DataArray
> > > > 
> > > > #
> > > > # Find the indices of the bad polys
> > > > #
> > > > bad = [ x for x,y in enumerate( areaData ) if y < epsilon]
> > > > 
> > > > # Select the degenerates with a string like 'cube.poly[112,114,155]'
> > > > str_indices = '%s.poly[%s]' % (sel.FullName, ','.join(str(i) for i in
> > > > bad))
> > > > si.SelectGeometryComponents(str_indices)
> > > > 
> > > > On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:38 AM, Oscar Juarez <
> > > > tridi.animei...@gmail.com
> > > >  > wrote:
> > > > > As the blog post says, degenerate polygons most of the time are zero
> > > > > area
> > > > > polys, a filter points with a very small distance have solved this
> > > > > kind of
> > > > > issues for me on the past, but since your geometry is deformed you
> > > > > have to
> > > > > check if it doesn't break your plotted shape or if it doesn't break
> > > > > other
> > > > > things.
> > > > > 
> > > > > On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 9:44 AM, Morten Bartholdy <
> > > > > x...@colorshopvfx.dk
> > > > >  > wrote:
> > > > > > I have a scene which crashes more or less randomly and Arnold prints
> > > > > > an
> > > > > > error that there are degenerate polygons in the scene. The geometry
> > > > > > consist
> > > > > > of 3600 simple cubes which are imported from an alembic file
> > > > > > generated in
> > > > > > Cinema4D, so manually examining every object is not really an
> > > > > > option. So my
> > > > > > question is how to fix the degenerate polygons? I found this script:
> > > > > > http://xsisupport.com/2013/03/13/finding-degenerate-polygons-by-area/
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > ,
> > > > > > but it fails with an error:
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > This is what I ran:
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > si = Application
> > > > > > epsilon = 0.1
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > # Get PolygonArea DataArray (which is a tuple)
> > > > > > attr = si.Selection(0).ActivePrimitive.GetICEAttributeFromName(
> > > > > > "PolygonArea" )
> > > > > > areaData = attr.DataArray
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > #
> > > > > > # Find the indices of the bad polys
> > > > > > #
> > > > > > bad = [ x for x,y in enumerate( areaData ) if y < epsilon]
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > # Select the degenerates with a string like 'cube.poly[112,114,155]'
> > > > > > si.SelectGeometryComponents( 'Null2.Cube_[%s]' % ','.join(str(i) for
> > > > > > i in
> > > > > > bad) )
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > - and the error:
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Application.SelectMembers("abc_Tiles", "", "")
> > > > > > # ERROR : 2000 - Argument 0 (SelectionList) is invalid
> > > > > > # ERROR : 2001-SELE-SelectGeometryComponents - Argument 0 is invalid
> > > > > > Application.SelectGeometryComponents("Null2.Cube_[]")
> > > > > > # ERROR : Traceback (most recent call last):
> > > > > > # File "

Re: Renderman

[Daniel Brassard]

Thanks Andreas, I forgot about affogato.

Probably much more trouble that I can spare at the moment anyway, and I can
use Maya to render ... the new RIS mode is useful and a nice addition, got
a couple of crashes from Maya  as usual.

Having Mental Ray, Renderman and 3Delight for rendering is quite a
selection at the moment.



On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 4:27 AM, Morten Bartholdy 
wrote:

>   + seeing as 3Delight is free for eight core use for one user, why
> bother with a free non-commercial PrMan...
>
>
>
> Morten
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Den 23. marts 2015 kl. 23:24 skrev Andreas Bystrom <
> andreas.byst...@gmail.com>:
>
>   for playing around with it, sure, but if you use softimage I don't
> think prman is a serious alternative for commercial projects these days.
> 3delight will export ribs sure, but to actually get those to render in
> prman is a different thing, getting shaders to work etc.
>
>  On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:59 AM, Francois Lord < flordli...@gmail.com > 
> wrote:
>
>
>  Well... the non-commercial version is a damn good reason to use it. I
> sure will try it once it's available for Houdini.
>
> On 23-Mar-15 17:47, Andreas Bystrom wrote:
>
>   I think the old XSIMan by graphicprimitves was the closest you could
> get to a prman bridge, sadly the product was discontinued a long time ago..
> I tested it quite a bit when it came out, nice little plugin but the
> implementation was rather basic in a way, no render-region support etc.
>  there is also the opensource affogato:
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/affogato/
>
>  anyway, with all the renderers out there I don't see much reason to use
> prman anymore..
>  -Andreas
>
>
>  On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:35 AM, Rob Chapman < tekano@gmail.com > wrote:
>
>
> cmd line renderman is available but not sure how you would make a rib
> with all the new shader parameters etc straight outa softimage :(
>
> On 23 March 2015 at 21:32, Daniel Brassard < dbrassar...@gmail.com >
> wrote:
> > Just received notice from Pixar that Renderman free for non-commercial
> use
> > is now available.
> >
> > Does anybody have used Renderman before with Softimage and is their a
> bridge
> > between Softimage and Renderman available?
> >
> > (yes, I have Maya too, so I can use it with Maya but I would like to
> test
> > Renderman with Softimage)
> >
> > Cheers!
> >
> > Dan
> >
> >
>
>
>
>

Re: How to fix degenerate polygons?

[julien carmagnac]

Morten,

I already got Vray render error due to geometry import problem.
In my case, I have floating points without any polygon.

To quick check it manually you can :
 - select all objects to check
 - select all polygon
 - select all adjacent points
 - and finally, Invert selection

If it select points, you can delete them because there are no polygon
attached to it.



2015-03-24 11:40 GMT+01:00 Oscar Juarez :

> The script only selects the bad polygons, also the one on the blog, they
> don't do anything else, this will let you identify the polygons that are
> the problem, but then you have to decide what to do. If the issue comes
> from overlapping points maybe even a very small smooth might move them
> apart and avoid the zero area without changing topology.
>
> On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 11:10 AM, Morten Bartholdy 
> wrote:
>
>>   Thanks a lot Oscar - I will give both methods a shot and see what
>> happens.
>>
>>
>>Morten
>>
>>
>>
>> Den 24. marts 2015 kl. 10:45 skrev Oscar Juarez <
>> tridi.animei...@gmail.com>:
>>
>>   this should fix the script, it will select all the polygons that are
>> wrong
>>
>>  si = Application
>> epsilon = 0.1
>>
>> # Get PolygonArea DataArray (which is a tuple)
>> sel = si.Selection(0)
>> attr = sel.ActivePrimitive.GetICEAttributeFromName( "PolygonArea" )
>> areaData = attr.DataArray
>>
>> #
>> # Find the indices of the bad polys
>> #
>> bad = [ x for x,y in enumerate( areaData ) if y < epsilon]
>>
>> # Select the degenerates with a string like 'cube.poly[112,114,155]'
>> str_indices = '%s.poly[%s]' % (sel.FullName, ','.join(str(i) for i in
>> bad))
>> si.SelectGeometryComponents(str_indices)
>>
>>  On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:38 AM, Oscar Juarez <
>> tridi.animei...@gmail.com > wrote:
>>
>> As the blog post says, degenerate polygons most of the time are zero area
>> polys, a filter points with a very small distance have solved this kind of
>> issues for me on the past, but since your geometry is deformed you have to
>> check if it doesn't break your plotted shape or if it doesn't break other
>> things.
>>
>>  On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 9:44 AM, Morten Bartholdy < x...@colorshopvfx.dk
>> > wrote:
>>
>>I have a scene which crashes more or less randomly and Arnold prints
>> an error that there are degenerate polygons in the scene. The geometry
>> consist of 3600 simple cubes which are imported from an alembic file
>> generated in Cinema4D, so manually examining every object is not really an
>> option. So my question is how to fix the degenerate polygons? I found this
>> script:
>> http://xsisupport.com/2013/03/13/finding-degenerate-polygons-by-area/ ,
>> but it fails with an error:
>>
>>
>>This is what I ran:
>>
>>
>>   si = Application
>> epsilon = 0.1
>>
>> # Get PolygonArea DataArray (which is a tuple)
>> attr = si.Selection(0).ActivePrimitive.GetICEAttributeFromName(
>> "PolygonArea" )
>> areaData = attr.DataArray
>>
>> #
>> # Find the indices of the bad polys
>> #
>> bad = [ x for x,y in enumerate( areaData ) if y < epsilon]
>>
>> # Select the degenerates with a string like 'cube.poly[112,114,155]'
>> si.SelectGeometryComponents( 'Null2.Cube_[%s]' % ','.join(str(i) for i in
>> bad) )
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>- and the error:
>>
>>
>>   Application.SelectMembers("abc_Tiles", "", "")
>> # ERROR : 2000 - Argument 0 (SelectionList) is invalid
>> # ERROR : 2001-SELE-SelectGeometryComponents - Argument 0 is invalid
>> Application.SelectGeometryComponents("Null2.Cube_[]")
>> # ERROR : Traceback (most recent call last):
>> # File "

Re: How to fix degenerate polygons?

[Oscar Juarez]

The script only selects the bad polygons, also the one on the blog, they
don't do anything else, this will let you identify the polygons that are
the problem, but then you have to decide what to do. If the issue comes
from overlapping points maybe even a very small smooth might move them
apart and avoid the zero area without changing topology.

On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 11:10 AM, Morten Bartholdy 
wrote:

>   Thanks a lot Oscar - I will give both methods a shot and see what
> happens.
>
>
>Morten
>
>
>
> Den 24. marts 2015 kl. 10:45 skrev Oscar Juarez :
>
>
>   this should fix the script, it will select all the polygons that are
> wrong
>
>  si = Application
> epsilon = 0.1
>
> # Get PolygonArea DataArray (which is a tuple)
> sel = si.Selection(0)
> attr = sel.ActivePrimitive.GetICEAttributeFromName( "PolygonArea" )
> areaData = attr.DataArray
>
> #
> # Find the indices of the bad polys
> #
> bad = [ x for x,y in enumerate( areaData ) if y < epsilon]
>
> # Select the degenerates with a string like 'cube.poly[112,114,155]'
> str_indices = '%s.poly[%s]' % (sel.FullName, ','.join(str(i) for i in bad))
> si.SelectGeometryComponents(str_indices)
>
>  On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:38 AM, Oscar Juarez <
> tridi.animei...@gmail.com > wrote:
>
> As the blog post says, degenerate polygons most of the time are zero area
> polys, a filter points with a very small distance have solved this kind of
> issues for me on the past, but since your geometry is deformed you have to
> check if it doesn't break your plotted shape or if it doesn't break other
> things.
>
>  On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 9:44 AM, Morten Bartholdy < x...@colorshopvfx.dk
> > wrote:
>
>I have a scene which crashes more or less randomly and Arnold prints
> an error that there are degenerate polygons in the scene. The geometry
> consist of 3600 simple cubes which are imported from an alembic file
> generated in Cinema4D, so manually examining every object is not really an
> option. So my question is how to fix the degenerate polygons? I found this
> script:
> http://xsisupport.com/2013/03/13/finding-degenerate-polygons-by-area/ ,
> but it fails with an error:
>
>
>This is what I ran:
>
>
>   si = Application
> epsilon = 0.1
>
> # Get PolygonArea DataArray (which is a tuple)
> attr = si.Selection(0).ActivePrimitive.GetICEAttributeFromName(
> "PolygonArea" )
> areaData = attr.DataArray
>
> #
> # Find the indices of the bad polys
> #
> bad = [ x for x,y in enumerate( areaData ) if y < epsilon]
>
> # Select the degenerates with a string like 'cube.poly[112,114,155]'
> si.SelectGeometryComponents( 'Null2.Cube_[%s]' % ','.join(str(i) for i in
> bad) )
>
>
>
>
>
>- and the error:
>
>
>   Application.SelectMembers("abc_Tiles", "", "")
> # ERROR : 2000 - Argument 0 (SelectionList) is invalid
> # ERROR : 2001-SELE-SelectGeometryComponents - Argument 0 is invalid
> Application.SelectGeometryComponents("Null2.Cube_[]")
> # ERROR : Traceback (most recent call last):
> # File "

Re: How to fix degenerate polygons?

[Morten Bartholdy]

Thanks a lot Oscar - I will give both methods a shot and see what happens.

Morten



Den 24. marts 2015 kl. 10:45 skrev Oscar Juarez
:

> this should fix the script, it will select all the polygons that are wrong
> 
> si = Application
> epsilon = 0.1
> 
> # Get PolygonArea DataArray (which is a tuple)
> sel = si.Selection(0)
> attr = sel.ActivePrimitive.GetICEAttributeFromName( "PolygonArea" )
> areaData = attr.DataArray
> 
> #
> # Find the indices of the bad polys
> #
> bad = [ x for x,y in enumerate( areaData ) if y < epsilon]
> 
> # Select the degenerates with a string like 'cube.poly[112,114,155]'
> str_indices = '%s.poly[%s]' % (sel.FullName, ','.join(str(i) for i in bad))
> si.SelectGeometryComponents(str_indices)
> 
> On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:38 AM, Oscar Juarez < tridi.animei...@gmail.com
>  > wrote:
> > As the blog post says, degenerate polygons most of the time are zero area
> > polys, a filter points with a very small distance have solved this kind of
> > issues for me on the past, but since your geometry is deformed you have to
> > check if it doesn't break your plotted shape or if it doesn't break other
> > things.
> > 
> > On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 9:44 AM, Morten Bartholdy < x...@colorshopvfx.dk
> >  > wrote:
> > > I have a scene which crashes more or less randomly and Arnold prints an
> > > error that there are degenerate polygons in the scene. The geometry
> > > consist
> > > of 3600 simple cubes which are imported from an alembic file generated in
> > > Cinema4D, so manually examining every object is not really an option. So
> > > my
> > > question is how to fix the degenerate polygons? I found this script:
> > > http://xsisupport.com/2013/03/13/finding-degenerate-polygons-by-area/
> > >  ,
> > > but it fails with an error:
> > > 
> > > This is what I ran:
> > > 
> > > 
> > > si = Application
> > > epsilon = 0.1
> > > 
> > > # Get PolygonArea DataArray (which is a tuple)
> > > attr = si.Selection(0).ActivePrimitive.GetICEAttributeFromName(
> > > "PolygonArea" )
> > > areaData = attr.DataArray
> > > 
> > > #
> > > # Find the indices of the bad polys
> > > #
> > > bad = [ x for x,y in enumerate( areaData ) if y < epsilon]
> > > 
> > > # Select the degenerates with a string like 'cube.poly[112,114,155]'
> > > si.SelectGeometryComponents( 'Null2.Cube_[%s]' % ','.join(str(i) for i in
> > > bad) )
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > - and the error:
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Application.SelectMembers("abc_Tiles", "", "")
> > > # ERROR : 2000 - Argument 0 (SelectionList) is invalid
> > > # ERROR : 2001-SELE-SelectGeometryComponents - Argument 0 is invalid
> > > Application.SelectGeometryComponents("Null2.Cube_[]")
> > > # ERROR : Traceback (most recent call last):
> > > # File "

Re: How to fix degenerate polygons?

[Oscar Juarez]

this should fix the script, it will select all the polygons that are wrong

si = Application
epsilon = 0.1

# Get PolygonArea DataArray (which is a tuple)
sel = si.Selection(0)
attr = sel.ActivePrimitive.GetICEAttributeFromName( "PolygonArea" )
areaData = attr.DataArray

#
# Find the indices of the bad polys
#
bad = [ x for x,y in enumerate( areaData ) if y < epsilon]

# Select the degenerates with a string like 'cube.poly[112,114,155]'
str_indices = '%s.poly[%s]' % (sel.FullName, ','.join(str(i) for i in bad))
si.SelectGeometryComponents(str_indices)

On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:38 AM, Oscar Juarez 
wrote:

> As the blog post says, degenerate polygons most of the time are zero area
> polys, a filter points with a very small distance have solved this kind of
> issues for me on the past, but since your geometry is deformed you have to
> check if it doesn't break your plotted shape or if it doesn't break other
> things.
>
> On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 9:44 AM, Morten Bartholdy 
> wrote:
>
>>   I have a scene which crashes more or less randomly and Arnold prints
>> an error that there are degenerate polygons in the scene. The geometry
>> consist of 3600 simple cubes which are imported from an alembic file
>> generated in Cinema4D, so manually examining every object is not really an
>> option. So my question is how to fix the degenerate polygons? I found this
>> script:
>> http://xsisupport.com/2013/03/13/finding-degenerate-polygons-by-area/ ,
>> but it fails with an error:
>>
>>
>>This is what I ran:
>>
>>
>>   si = Application
>> epsilon = 0.1
>>
>> # Get PolygonArea DataArray (which is a tuple)
>> attr = si.Selection(0).ActivePrimitive.GetICEAttributeFromName(
>> "PolygonArea" )
>> areaData = attr.DataArray
>>
>> #
>> # Find the indices of the bad polys
>> #
>> bad = [ x for x,y in enumerate( areaData ) if y < epsilon]
>>
>> # Select the degenerates with a string like 'cube.poly[112,114,155]'
>> si.SelectGeometryComponents( 'Null2.Cube_[%s]' % ','.join(str(i) for i in
>> bad) )
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>- and the error:
>>
>>
>>   Application.SelectMembers("abc_Tiles", "", "")
>> # ERROR : 2000 - Argument 0 (SelectionList) is invalid
>> # ERROR : 2001-SELE-SelectGeometryComponents - Argument 0 is invalid
>> Application.SelectGeometryComponents("Null2.Cube_[]")
>> # ERROR : Traceback (most recent call last):
>> # File "

Re: How to fix degenerate polygons?

[Oscar Juarez]

As the blog post says, degenerate polygons most of the time are zero area
polys, a filter points with a very small distance have solved this kind of
issues for me on the past, but since your geometry is deformed you have to
check if it doesn't break your plotted shape or if it doesn't break other
things.

On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 9:44 AM, Morten Bartholdy 
wrote:

>   I have a scene which crashes more or less randomly and Arnold prints an
> error that there are degenerate polygons in the scene. The geometry consist
> of 3600 simple cubes which are imported from an alembic file generated in
> Cinema4D, so manually examining every object is not really an option. So my
> question is how to fix the degenerate polygons? I found this script:
> http://xsisupport.com/2013/03/13/finding-degenerate-polygons-by-area/ ,
> but it fails with an error:
>
>
>This is what I ran:
>
>
>   si = Application
> epsilon = 0.1
>
> # Get PolygonArea DataArray (which is a tuple)
> attr = si.Selection(0).ActivePrimitive.GetICEAttributeFromName(
> "PolygonArea" )
> areaData = attr.DataArray
>
> #
> # Find the indices of the bad polys
> #
> bad = [ x for x,y in enumerate( areaData ) if y < epsilon]
>
> # Select the degenerates with a string like 'cube.poly[112,114,155]'
> si.SelectGeometryComponents( 'Null2.Cube_[%s]' % ','.join(str(i) for i in
> bad) )
>
>
>
>
>
>- and the error:
>
>
>   Application.SelectMembers("abc_Tiles", "", "")
> # ERROR : 2000 - Argument 0 (SelectionList) is invalid
> # ERROR : 2001-SELE-SelectGeometryComponents - Argument 0 is invalid
> Application.SelectGeometryComponents("Null2.Cube_[]")
> # ERROR : Traceback (most recent call last):
> # File "

Re: testing

[Morten Bartholdy]

yep


Den 24. marts 2015 kl. 08:26 skrev Alok Gandhi :

> Anyone got this?
> 
> --

How to fix degenerate polygons?

[Morten Bartholdy]

I have a scene which crashes more or less randomly and Arnold prints an
error that there are degenerate polygons in the scene. The geometry consist
of 3600 simple cubes which are imported from an alembic file generated in
Cinema4D, so manually examining every object is not really an option. So my
question is how to fix the degenerate polygons? I found this script:
http://xsisupport.com/2013/03/13/finding-degenerate-polygons-by-area/ , but
it fails with an error:

This is what I ran:


si = Application
epsilon = 0.1

# Get PolygonArea DataArray (which is a tuple)
attr = si.Selection(0).ActivePrimitive.GetICEAttributeFromName(
"PolygonArea" )
areaData = attr.DataArray

#
# Find the indices of the bad polys
#
bad = [ x for x,y in enumerate( areaData ) if y < epsilon]

# Select the degenerates with a string like 'cube.poly[112,114,155]'
si.SelectGeometryComponents( 'Null2.Cube_[%s]' % ','.join(str(i) for i in
bad) )




- and the error:


Application.SelectMembers("abc_Tiles", "", "")
# ERROR : 2000 - Argument 0 (SelectionList) is invalid
# ERROR : 2001-SELE-SelectGeometryComponents - Argument 0 is invalid
Application.SelectGeometryComponents("Null2.Cube_[]")
# ERROR : Traceback (most recent call last):
# File "

Re: Renderman

[Morten Bartholdy]

+ seeing as 3Delight is free for eight core use for one user, why bother
with a free non-commercial PrMan...

Morten




Den 23. marts 2015 kl. 23:24 skrev Andreas Bystrom
:

> for playing around with it, sure, but if you use softimage I don't think
> prman is a serious alternative for commercial projects these days. 3delight
> will export ribs sure, but to actually get those to render in prman is a
> different thing, getting shaders to work etc.
> 
> On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:59 AM, Francois Lord < flordli...@gmail.com
>  > wrote:
> > Well... the non-commercial version is a damn good reason to use it. I sure
> > will try it once it's available for Houdini.
> > 
> > On 23-Mar-15 17:47, Andreas Bystrom wrote:
> > > I think the old XSIMan by graphicprimitves was the closest you could get
> > > to
> > > a prman bridge, sadly the product was discontinued a long time ago.. I
> > > tested it quite a bit when it came out, nice little plugin but the
> > > implementation was rather basic in a way, no render-region support etc.
> > > there is also the opensource affogato:
> > > http://sourceforge.net/projects/affogato/
> > > 
> > > 
> > > anyway, with all the renderers out there I don't see much reason to use
> > > prman anymore..
> > > -Andreas
> > > 
> > > 
> > > On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:35 AM, Rob Chapman < tekano@gmail.com
> > >  > wrote:
> > > > not sure how you would make a rib
> > > > with all the new shader parameters etc straight outa softimage :(
> > > > 
> > > > On 23 March 2015 at 21:32, Daniel Brassard < dbrassar...@gmail.com
> > > >  > wrote:
> > > > > Just received notice from Pixar that Renderman free for non-commercial
> > > > use
> > > > > is now available.
> > > > >
> > > > > Does anybody have used Renderman before with Softimage and is their a
> > > > bridge
> > > > > between Softimage and Renderman available?
> > > > >
> > > > > (yes, I have Maya too, so I can use it with Maya but I would like to
> > > > > test
> > > > > Renderman with Softimage)
> > > > >
> > > > > Cheers!
> > > > >
> > > > > Dan
> > > > >
> > > > >

Re: Renderman

[Cristobal Infante]

Also, you will need a commercial Houdini license (not indie) if you want to
play with it :(

On Monday, 23 March 2015, Andreas Bystrom  wrote:

> for playing around with it, sure, but if you use softimage I don't think
> prman is a serious alternative for commercial projects these days. 3delight
> will export ribs sure, but to actually get those to render in prman is a
> different thing, getting shaders to work etc.
>
> On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:59 AM, Francois Lord  > wrote:
>
>>  Well... the non-commercial version is a damn good reason to use it. I
>> sure will try it once it's available for Houdini.
>>
>> On 23-Mar-15 17:47, Andreas Bystrom wrote:
>>
>>   I think the old XSIMan by graphicprimitves was the closest you could
>> get to a prman bridge, sadly the product was discontinued a long time ago..
>> I tested it quite a bit when it came out, nice little plugin but the
>> implementation was rather basic in a way, no render-region support etc.
>>
>>  there is also the opensource affogato:
>> http://sourceforge.net/projects/affogato/
>>
>>
>>  anyway, with all the renderers out there I don't see much reason to use
>> prman anymore..
>>
>>  -Andreas
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:35 AM, Rob Chapman > > wrote:
>>
>>> cmd line renderman is available but not sure how you would make a rib
>>> with all the new shader parameters etc straight outa softimage :(
>>>
>>> On 23 March 2015 at 21:32, Daniel Brassard >> > wrote:
>>> > Just received notice from Pixar that Renderman free for non-commercial
>>> use
>>> > is now available.
>>> >
>>> > Does anybody have used Renderman before with Softimage and is their a
>>> bridge
>>> > between Softimage and Renderman available?
>>> >
>>> > (yes, I have Maya too, so I can use it with Maya but I would like to
>>> test
>>> > Renderman with Softimage)
>>> >
>>> > Cheers!
>>> >
>>> > Dan
>>> >
>>> >
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>

Re: testing

[peter_b]

yep

From: Alok Gandhi 
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2015 8:26 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com 
Subject: testing

Anyone got this?


-- 

testing

[Alok Gandhi]

Anyone got this?

--