Re: Bifrost graph - Really trying but it's not happening

[Gerbrand Nel]

I get the feeling ,allot of those videos will be kinda like the one 
where you tried ICE kinematics for the first time.


I still think that is one of the funniest things on the interwebs to date.

On 2020/02/19 20:10, Busty kelp wrote:

Hi Jonah,

If you would like I’m happy to be paid By Autodesk to learn Bifrost in 
a public way!


I did that with ICE (although unpaid) and posted videos as I went, 
which became very popular and I’d consider myself an ICE expert now.
People like watching other people learn as it’s more casual and less 
intimidating than watching an expert go through the motions.


Paul

Sent from my iPad


On 19 Feb 2020, at 17:57, Jonah Friedman  wrote:


Hi Chris,

I was also an avid ICE user for many years, and following that Fabric 
Engine. Being exposed to ICE was a turning point in my career in fact.


I'm going to try to illustrate the difference with a simple graph 
that contains very familiar pieces that I can use to highlight the 
difference.This graph deforms a mesh with an f-curve on the x axis, 
applied to the Y position. The green grid is before, the white is after.





The graph is doing familiar operations to ICE users with familiar 
names: get_point_position, converting the vector into scalars, 
applying an f-curve to one, and rebuilding the vector and setting the 
point positions all have essentially the same names and meanings in 
this graph. However the graph is different. (Note this is an internal 
build, if you notice discrepancies in the screenshot).


To highlight the differences:

1. We can't just get point positions, we need to bring in a mesh 
first and get positions from that. Maya does not have the operator 
stack that XSI had, and so the graph is its own entity, and not a 
part of the mesh. Instead, the mesh is just an input.


2. The part where we adjust the positions is operating on the 
per-point array of positions. However in the graph, this is just 
flowing data. Those three nodes in the center are processing the 
arrays. Ports shaped like hats instead of squares signify arrays. The 
graph is not operating in the context of per-point, but instead is 
just processing whole arrays in one shot.


3. "set point position" needs a geometry to set point positions on. 
We can't set point positions on "this", we have to set them on data 
flowing in the graph, and there is no "this". The mesh is flowing 
through the graph on the purple connection.


4. In the end we output the shape, and it appears in Maya as a "bif 
shape". This can be converted back to Maya geometry if you like, but 
is also renderable if needed. You could set up a Bifrost graph as a 
more-or-less traditional Maya deformer setup, but it'd require a bit 
more setup. (We're improving this too with improvements to the Maya 
integration).


The fact that this mesh is flowing through the graph just like any 
other kind of data, buildable and modifiable, as pure data flow is 
the key difference from ICE to understand. Whole geometries can be 
created in the graph in multi-stage processes. Create_mesh_sphere 
outputs a sphere mesh and is programmed in the mesh, and that sphere 
can be used downstream for any purpose.


---

Visualizing data: Watchpoints are not the same as the similar feature 
in ICE, the debug drawing. Instead right now to do visual 
diagnostics, you can use the "scope" nodes whose job it is to 
visualize data. For example, see the image below of "volume_scope" 
which visualizes volumes. This is working by generating strands in 
the graph to visualize the tile tree boxes (left) and flowlines in 
the volume (right). We're working on improving this as well.





To see the data in whole in numeric / text form, "dump_object" is 
your best bet which sends the data to a text file. In there you can 
see all the data that defines the geometries except volumes, which 
are still opaque for now.


I'd also like to say it's a major concern of mine that Bifrost is not 
the easiest to learn and understand. It's not something we have a 
silver bullet for - some of the great things that ICE did are tricky 
for us and visual programming is not the easiest thing even in the 
case of ICE. We do however have multiple efforts underway to improve 
the situation. One nice example that's in right now that you may or 
may not have noticed - most nodes we ship with are documented in-app, 
in an info tab.





Some other info:

Docs: https://u9432639.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=A5uD99yDGgJFqsHo0L78rmOwSniDKlMnd1Pg9yA-2BXHyaQxEyE-2B-2Bc87uWT-2B7J28U-2BIcAEyXf-2FpSXH0cc9vrQxeQ-3D-3DGHvb_x9fWPgxQbfi69QJnHJqUKZsAJHrwlN1lgOIh62WX2fT29LG2dXodm2437aPPMWe1FETaWFZwYKqfNw4moQMSV5eIT7-2FKcKgsmoIn1jmoKrdrjA4quhRbwxsClPUMW7lsXlGJI6QqZqSZhYbJDHhaxKu6M8yBzX-2FqKcedGLcKnDUoOKPyUgXrj2biCnf90z5DY7smB1m0Ho3tHhL2SroQ4KtLmal6VHGQ1MMrbBXncskEzHZapqeQ-2F5S6CTc74ILD 

Re: The Softimage mailing list

[Gerbrand Nel]

On 2019/11/13 17:17, Mirko Jankovic wrote:
> I have no idea how someone can even compare cycles and redshift :))
> sorry but... so long way from facts...

Lol. Some of us just want to watch the world burn :)

Maybe we are rendering very different things.

I've been using redshift for about 3 years now, and I love it.

I just find I get prettier pictures out of cycles, and it's free.

The pain of having to export alembics all the time is the only reason I 
don't use it as my main render.

G

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Re: The Softimage mailing list

[Gerbrand Nel]

On 2019/11/12 01:30, Stephen Davidson wrote:
> If only Redshift would work with Blender.

Why??? Cycles is so much better imho. I wish cycles worked in houdini so 
I can get rid of redshift.

So long, and thanks for all the fish

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Re: OT not so OT: Blender 2.8 (new release) will have Softimage

[Gerbrand Nel]

For those interested in learning blender,
This made all the difference to my journey
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.youtube.com_watch-3Fv-3D12fqTUyDts0&d=DwIDaQ&c=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA&r=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA&m=Kq2DgS2DfON6bNOaBWz0EmN-2TiRpc32607jWGW6mLE&s=WMFnr8hjIOzumdaCtmcQu__U3e6aQnrPzVgdIzRhlw4&e=
G
On 2018/03/09 04:42, toonafish wrote:
here’s an interesting interview with Ton Roosendaal, the creator of 
Blender:


https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.youtube.com_watch-3Fv-3DqJEWOTZnFeg-26t-3D1s&d=DwIDaQ&c=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA&r=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA&m=Kq2DgS2DfON6bNOaBWz0EmN-2TiRpc32607jWGW6mLE&s=oArYBDjXaZz_yGf4oBw-cy_zr46LLqbnCt52iu8M9Kc&e= 
 



Ronald van Vemden
---
3D Graphics & Animation
Cyberfish Laboratories | www.cyberfish.nl 

Toonafish | www.toonafish.nl 


tel. +31(0)6 46715175
email: ron...@toonafish.nl 



On 9 Mar 2018, at 02:54, Pierre Schiller 
> wrote:


It seems like yesterday when I wrote this article. Sounds so "2018". 
So you can picture those folks at the Blender Foundation are making 
serious effort
to make this year (Blender 2.8 release with real time graphics 
(EEVEE)) a reality.
If you´d like to check some TD depth notes in the article, here´s the 
url:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.linkedin.com_pulse_blender-2D3d-2Dfresh-2Dperspective-2D2016-2Dpierre-2Dschiller_-3Fpublished-3Dt&d=DwIDaQ&c=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA&r=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA&m=Kq2DgS2DfON6bNOaBWz0EmN-2TiRpc32607jWGW6mLE&s=Fy2l-WGX5U-HyaGJbIjpdkVRtr8kl0xCM5Vd2WPYxSk&e= 



On Thu, Mar 8, 2018 at 11:08 AM, Chris Marshall 
mailto:chrismarshal...@gmail.com>> wrote:


yes


On 8 March 2018 at 12:54, Mirko Jankovic
mailto:mirkoj.anima...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Or you can be more realistic and say that development ended
the day AD bought it.


On Thu, Mar 8, 2018 at 1:04 PM, Sven Constable
mailto:sixsi_l...@imagefront.de>>
wrote:

Well,  SP2 was released in 2016. With a bit of whitewash
one could say development ended only 2 years ago.

*From:*softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com

[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
] *On
Behalf Of *Chris Marshall
*Sent:* Thursday, March 08, 2018 11:10 AM
*To:* Official Softimage Users Mailing List.

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__groups.google.com_forum_-23-21forum_xsi-5Flist&d=DwIDaQ&c=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA&r=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA&m=Kq2DgS2DfON6bNOaBWz0EmN-2TiRpc32607jWGW6mLE&s=rUs1QLVuzu0JHHkF0gT5BE0QLs5GdldWRDbQ4WSg6S8&e=


*Subject:* Re: OT not so OT: Blender 2.8 (new release)
will have Softimage

Seriously 4 years!!??!

On 5 March 2018 at 20:50, Sven Constable
mailto:sixsi_l...@imagefront.de>> wrote:

oh, didn't realise this special day. I was thinking my
tummy ache was
because of the 250 grams of prunes I had, but maybe it
was the date. Or
both.

  

Re: Softimage - not going away...

[Gerbrand Nel]

IMHO Fabric targeted a ideological market that doesn't exist. The people 
who loved ICE but needed to work in maya.

People like me.
Well I think most of "us" tried but gave up because it still lived in maya.
You had to learn maya and fabric, and when something didn't work, you 
didn't know if it was maya, fabric, or you.

Fabric was like covering a turd in chocolate.
If you are careful, you only taste chocolate, but softimage was 
forgiving and turned us all into reckless 3d maniacs.

There was no avoiding the turd!
After about 3 months of this you realize that learning houdini just 
makes more sense.
I'm sad to see another great piece of software go, but like Jonathan 
said: These folks should find their place in the sun soon!

G

On 2017/10/27 11:59 PM, Jonathan Moore wrote:
MPC and PSYOP output some great work with Fabric Engine but in the end 
I always felt it was too narrowly aimed at senior TD's with plenty of 
programming experience. The success of ICE was fuelled by the 
compounds that acted as a gateway drug to the inner workings. I 
thought maybe that Kraken would develop into that gateway drug, but 
after seeing experienced riggers feeling out of their comfort zone, 
soon realised it wasn't to be.


When Eric Mootz joined the team I thought maybe that would bring about 
tools for technically minded artists who weren't necessarily TD's.


Whatever the reasons I feel for the FE team after all their hard 
efforts. But I feel as one door closes others will open for them, folk 
with that much talent don't remain jobless for long.


On 27 October 2017 at 22:03, Matt Lind > wrote:


It likely died for the reason you just stated - you 'eventually'
wanted to
learn.  Problem is most people had the same sentiments.

They made the right move initially of targeting the space between
the other
DCCs, but I think staying there long term was a mistake.


Matt


Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2017 17:34:02 +
From: Andres Stephens mailto:drais...@outlook.com>>
Subject: RE: Softimage - not going away...
To: "Official Softimage Users Mailing List.

This is devastating news!!! WTF!? I was betting on learning this and
eventually investing in it. I didn?t want to be locked into one
software the
more I got into proceduralism. Why!?

-Draise


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Re: Softimage - not going away...

[Gerbrand Nel]

> I read the stories by people who had the bad fortune to have to learn Maya 
> earlier and I have to say everything they wrote is true and then some. After 
> 3 months+ of everyday Maya punishment I actually only like some modeling 
> tools and being able to see layered textures in the viewport - the rest is a 
> horrible mess. And our Maya artists are blissfully oblivious to how much 
> easier their lives could have been if things had been different.
>
>
> Morten

If you read on, the story splits.
Kinda like a "choose your own adventure"
Some people choose Maya, and THEY DIE
Others choose NOT-Maya and live.
Honestly I would rather use bryce and poser.
Why not Houdini or Blender, Morten?
G

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Re: Multiple objects copy

[Gerbrand Nel]

Thanks for sharing!

On 2017/09/26 11:08 AM, Olivier Jeannel wrote:

and here's the hip.
Please consider it's wip, but do test and give feedback :)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1QqhXD7Y15qQXJUU1ZPanZTVzQ

2017-09-26 11:04 GMT+02:00 Olivier Jeannel >:


@Anto, I think it's what I do :)

2017-09-26 10:34 GMT+02:00 Anto Matkovic mailto:a...@matkovic.com>>:

I know you know for instances, if it's about closer equivalent
to ICE. ICE use instances, not ''real" copies. Expression to
spread multiple objects by Houdini instancer, I think it was
(in times of H 14) something like
../../instobj`$myid`
where instance candidates are named instobj1, instobj2 an so
on, while "myid" is an integer attribute on points-carriers
(created in any way you want).

Now back to "real copy"  - I've noticed that in some cases,
it's significantly faster to use a plain Copy SOP, making a
lot of ''in place" copies, then to move their points by Point
VOP or something. "In some cases" seems to be everything
except Line primitive (that's again from H 14). There seems to
be a big difference in working of 'plain' Duplicate SOP and
Copy to points SOP, anyway.
So in that way, first step is merge of all instancing
candidates, then Connectivity SOP to assign class attribute to
each piece (that Connectivity method will work only if one
candidate = one island, obviously). After that, Point
VOP/Wrangle to save the number of points, let's call it
nbinitial attribute. Then, plain Duplicate SOP without any
transform, to reach final number of instances. Finally, in
distributing Point VOP, decoding is something like : point
number converted to float, divided by nbinitialand floored.
Result is then multiplied by number of candidates, to get
proper spread and empty space for individual objects. Class
attribute is just added to result, to fill that ''empty
space". Final result is point number for importing the point
attributes from Scatter Sop or like.
While it is  a bit complicated, method is quite fast, easy to
repeat, and it allows any kind of  deformation on each
"instance'', before-after spreading. With some playing by
expressions and custom parameters, no big deal to sync the
numbers on emitter and copies.


*From:* Olivier Jeannel mailto:facialdel...@gmail.com>>
*To:* sidefx-houdini-l...@sidefx.com
;
"softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
"
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
*Sent:* Monday, September 25, 2017 5:23 PM
*Subject:* Multiple objects copy

Kind of rooky question that I already asked but...

So I have that "problem" with the copy sop (copy to point,
whatever) when I have to do a copy with multiple input objects.
It was something really easy within ice with high performances.

I watched the sidefx tutorial, and so far I undertstood they
deprecated the stamp method for a copy within a loop.It's
rather slow.

I also saw a method where it copies all the multiple objects
on each point and then delete according to the ptnum the
undesired copies. it gets very slow when you have many
different objects to copy and it eats memory.

So I made my "own" method
The scenario was
working with packed
10 different objects(platonic, torus, sphere, etc)
I have some scattered point
I have a noise (float) on the scattered points
I want to distribute my 10 objects according to the values of
that noise

so I divided my noise in 10 zones (based on grey float values)
I counted howmany of each object there was per zone(@numbperzone)
I copied each object the good amount
I placed each copy at its corresponding scattered point

et voilà

now for 10 objects distributed on 35 points it takes under
10s.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1QqhXD7Y15qVnBqMVhKeWl0dnc



That's my best method for now, but I have now idea if it's
worth something.

So how do you guys usually do ?
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Re: softimage pass trick in houdini

[Gerbrand Nel]

Thanks everyone!!
Lots of ways to skin a cat in H
G
On 2017/09/15 3:57 PM, Jordi Bares wrote:

FYI all this is documented on my transition guides
jb

On 15 Sep 2017, at 14:56, Ognjen Vukovic <mailto:ognj...@gmail.com>> wrote:


1. Create a new ROP
2. Create a bundle
3. Place bundle in Rop / objects / forced matte ( or whatever its 
called.)

4. Render new rop.

On Wed, Sep 13, 2017 at 1:00 PM, Gerbrand Nel <mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:


Thanks.
They seem a bit above my IQ grade, but will give them a go :)
G

On 2017/09/13 10:59 AM, ralph.schoeneb...@t-online.de
<mailto:ralph.schoeneb...@t-online.de> wrote:

Hi
You could a use scenewide stylesheet for that, should be quite
fast to setup
(hope the jpg comes through)
Ralph


-- Originalnachricht ------
Von: "Gerbrand Nel"  <mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>
An: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
Gesendet: 13.09.2017 10:16:16
Betreff: softimage pass trick in houdini


Hey guys and girls.

Back when life was simple and softimage was still a thing in my
life,
There was this thing called passes.

I know houdini has takes, and they are awesome, but There was
this nifty
trick in soft where a new empty pass automatically had
everything in
your scene grouped under a "background partition". This gave
you the
ability to assign one material to everything in your scene. You
could
then remove certain elements from that partition to isolate
them for
render passes.

Can this be done in houdini without having to manually select
everything
you want to overwrite?

My client has asked me to render out a matt of a single object
in my
scene. I would like to make everything black, and this one
thing white
without spending half a day

Thanks

G

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Re: softimage pass trick in houdini

[Gerbrand Nel]

Thanks.
They seem a bit above my IQ grade, but will give them a go :)
G
On 2017/09/13 10:59 AM, ralph.schoeneb...@t-online.de wrote:

Hi
You could a use scenewide stylesheet for that, should be quite fast to 
setup

(hope the jpg comes through)
Ralph


-- Originalnachricht --
Von: "Gerbrand Nel" 
An: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Gesendet: 13.09.2017 10:16:16
Betreff: softimage pass trick in houdini


Hey guys and girls.

Back when life was simple and softimage was still a thing in my life,
There was this thing called passes.

I know houdini has takes, and they are awesome, but There was this nifty
trick in soft where a new empty pass automatically had everything in
your scene grouped under a "background partition". This gave you the
ability to assign one material to everything in your scene. You could
then remove certain elements from that partition to isolate them for
render passes.

Can this be done in houdini without having to manually select everything
you want to overwrite?

My client has asked me to render out a matt of a single object in my
scene. I would like to make everything black, and this one thing white
without spending half a day

Thanks

G

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softimage pass trick in houdini

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey guys and girls.

Back when life was simple and softimage was still a thing in my life, 
There was this thing called passes.

I know houdini has takes, and they are awesome, but There was this nifty 
trick in soft where a new empty pass automatically had everything in 
your scene grouped under a "background partition". This gave you the 
ability to assign one material to everything in your scene. You could 
then remove certain elements from that partition to isolate them for 
render passes.

Can this be done in houdini without having to manually select everything 
you want to overwrite?

My client has asked me to render out a matt of a single object in my 
scene. I would like to make everything black, and this one thing white 
without spending half a day

Thanks

G

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"unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.

Re: What were they thinking....

[Gerbrand Nel]

lol
This is why I haven't unsubscribed to this list.
Part of me wonders why we still talk about maya.
The other part realizes that lots of you have no choice
G
On 2017/08/31 1:55 PM, Morten Bartholdy wrote:
> It is good to know that there is at least one sensible person in close 
> proximity of Maya development :)
>
> Morten
>
>
>
>> Den 30. august 2017 klokken 17:28 skrev Luc-Eric Rousseau 
>> :
>>
>>
>> ok, I'll have someone take a look. thanks
>>
>> On 30 August 2017 at 10:18, Ponthieux, Joseph G. (LARC-E1A)[LITES II]
>>  wrote:
>>> No, unfortunately I'm not confused about this.
>>>
>>> If you build a scene, save that scene, there is no lingering copy clipboard 
>>> file still resident in the temp directory, and you never hit CTRL-C, 
>>> hitting CTRL-V while in the Outliner rereads the same exact scene you are 
>>> currently in, and had just saved, back into itself.
>>>
>>> It then begins telling me with via the progress bar, that the scene I had 
>>> just saved, in my particular case with all 40,000+ objects, is now being 
>>> read into the working scene.
>>>
>>> Which means my scene now has two iterations of itself present in the scene 
>>> after it is finished.
>>>
>>> The repro steps for this are here:
>>>
>>> https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/maya-forum/ctrl-v-reads-a-copy-of-the-scene-into-itself/m-p/7329534#M46237
>>>
>>> The point of this "feature" was apparently to facilitate the copying of 
>>> objects across independent Maya sessions. But the cutCopyPaste.mel appears 
>>> to be caching the current scene name and decides to use that instead if 
>>> copy has never been executed prior to the paste or if no clipboard file is 
>>> available and found. It just summarily, and without warning, proceeds to 
>>> "paste" the saved scene back into itself.
>>>
>>> The upshot is that CTRL-V assumes an input that was never given it by the 
>>> user.
>>>
>>> I'm not sure why in the world I would ever want it to do that when I can 
>>> use "import" to explicitly re-read the scene, or explicitly perform a 
>>> copy&paste on the active scene hierarchy, to accomplish the same result.
>>>
>>> Instead it is an uncalled for action that has the potential to cause severe 
>>> loss of data. Which is what happened in my case, because when I went to 
>>> delete the 40,000+ extra copies that I did not need, it was still trying to 
>>> delete them a day later.
>>>
>>> Joey
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -Original Message-
>>> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
>>> [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Luc-Eric 
>>> Rousseau
>>> Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2017 9:51 AM
>>> To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List. 
>>> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list 
>>> 
>>> Subject: Re: What were they thinking
>>>
Ctrl-V executes a scene read, of the currently saved scene into the
 existing scene This happens if you are in the outliner
Its basically the equivalent of import scene
>>> I think you're confused about this one.  Ctrl+V is just the "paste"
>>> command and the clipboard is implemented by saving objects when you press 
>>> ctrl+C, and later importing objects on paste from a temp scene.
>>> Exactly the same as it is XSI.  The only thing new here is that a progress 
>>> bar was added to the outliner to show progress when there is a massive 
>>> number of nodes added, and the log window will say something "scene read in 
>>> 1s" or something, which may be confusing you.
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Re: inevitable misery...

[Gerbrand Nel]

I did  ..sorry.
I'll shut -up about redshift and houdini, just in case I have 
superpowers I'm not aware of.

G
On 2017/08/04 11:50 PM, Steven Caron wrote:

is this what we said about Arnold/SItoA... :)

On Fri, Aug 4, 2017 at 12:25 PM, Leoung O'Young > wrote:


That would be a stab in the heart. Redshift has been a savior for us.

Leoung


On 8/4/2017 3:16 PM, Stephen Davidson wrote:

My biggest fear is Autodesk acquiring Redshift.




 
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Re: super OT : unreal or unity

[Gerbrand Nel]

I tried both.
To me Unity felt like the maya of game dev.
Too much scripting for my dumb-ass.
Unreal has blueprints, and you can use allot of ICE and VOP logic in there.
For me its Unreal all the way.
G

On 2017/07/01 10:27 PM, Olivier Jeannel wrote:

Hi guys,

The work is very calm these days, I'm having a vague desire to have a 
look at game engines.
I think I have this old fantasma of working on a video game is coming 
to visit me again...



I have started a beautiful shooter space tutorial on unity, I'm 
starting to see my limit with the C-sharp language. This is a all new 
unknown area to learn, and while I'm not completly lost, I'm wondering 
if this is worth learning...
On the other hand I've heard about Unreal, and well, I'm not sure 
which one is the best.


Does any of you have an advice or an opinion ?


Thank's !

 
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Re: Anybody finding the Houdini example files I've posted useful?

[Gerbrand Nel]

I found his tutorials great for breaking that initial barrier into Houdini.
They are fun and easy to follow.
I personally have a mental block around code.
I don't have fun writing it, and I don't feel proud after.
Hopefully this will change one day, cause I know I'm missing out on 
allot of power.

I'm nearing 40 so I'm not holding my breath though :)
Until then, I'll stick to vops and blueprints.
G
On 2017/04/15 5:22 PM, Jonathan Moore wrote:
I agree Oliver. But we have the advantage of having first come from 
XSI’s ICE.


I personally find Rohan’s tutorials bad from a procedural modelling 
perspective too and his rendering tutorials (especially the Redshift 
ones) are also poor. But artist’s with no experience of procedural 
techniques find his tutorials very accessible. His approach to Houdini 
is to treat it like the 3ds Max Modifier Stack.


However, anything that makes Houdini more approachable has to be 
applauded even if it teaches bad habits along the way. You only 
appreciate bad habits after you’ve learn good ones after all. :)


On 15 Apr 2017, at 16:02, Olivier Jeannel > wrote:


I'm not a big fan of Dalvi's tutorials. They are nice, but going to 
the more "fundamental" learning is the only way imho.

First it unties you from the tool
Second the execution speed. (Wich mean vex and or vop)
If I'm able to explode and rotate 20 primitives, making them go 
from state to state and controling them exactly I'm free to test and 
create.

Not the over way around waiting for some sop to be made.


On Saturday, April 15, 2017, Jordi Bares > wrote:


I think we are going to see a massive change in perception and
the new sidefx reel is going to look so different this
SIGGRAPH and next!!

Jb

Sent from my iPhone

On 15 Apr 2017, at 12:46, Jonathan Moore
> wrote:


I agree Tim.

When people talk about Houdini being a 3d Operating system, it
is exactly that. In every nook and cranny you'll find
programming interfaces that allow you to use VEX and Python to
help package your project for a wealth of purposes. As Jordi
says Houdini is as much an integrator as anything else.

But I've been spending the weeks since H16 was launched on the
Modo forums helping a bunch of converts to Houdini through their
tentative steps. There are a group of artists there that have no
intention of learning VEX (or Python for that matter), they're
primarily using Houdini for good old fashioned modeling, scene
layout and rendering with Redshift or Octane. The reason why is
simple price. These are hobbyists attracted by Houdini Indie's
pricing and access to 3rd party GPU renderers. The modelling
improvements in H16 (especially the booleans and radial menus)
have been enough that they're willing to put up with Houdini's
more esoteric ways. And they have a champion too in Rohan Dalvi
who specifically puts tutorials together for hobbyists telling
them they can ignore all that nasty VEX stuff!  :)

From hobbyists come professional artists so it will be
interesting to see how this the influx of very non-technical
artists influences SideFX over the next year or so. They may
recoil in horror or they may find ways of accommodating them
without destroying the user experience for the vast majority of
houdini users - technical artists.

Personally I think it is possible to make modelling and
rendering workflows in Houdini that are less clumsy and over
time I hope that artists explore Houdini's technical side as it
offers so many rewards.

On 15 April 2017 at 12:07, Tim Bolland
> wrote:

I would agree with that if the final result out of Houdini
was on par with what Maya and other DCC's were delivering.
The reality is some of the assets you can make with Houdini,
with very minimal scripting, can be far more complex and
superior than what you can make with other applications. In
fact, depending on the asset I would say making it in Maya
would involve far more scripting and technical know how than
the Houdini workflow. Of course 'Horses-for-courses' as the
British like to say, if your talking about modelling
high-rez characters, then perhaps Z-Brush would be a better
choice, or Maya if your more used to it. I just don't see 3D
as a single software process anymore. I'll use the best
software to get the best results out, what ever that is.

Cheers,

Tim




*From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com


>
on behalf of Nicole Beeckmans-Jacqmain >
*Sent:* 14 April 2017 22:52
*To:* Official Softimage Users Mailing List.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list

Re: Anybody finding the Houdini example files I've posted useful?

[Gerbrand Nel]

keep em coming!!
I personally have been waiting for good character tutorials for more 
than 2 years now.
The vex one will stay on ICE for now.(see what I did there)
I'm much more comfortable making pictures with pictures, rather than 
pictures with words.
vops will have to do :)
G
On 2017/04/12 5:39 PM, Jonathan Moore wrote:
> I’ve noticed on both occasions that they’ve received around 100 downloads but 
> having had no feedback I’m unsure as to whether I’m simply spamming the XSI 
> list or whether they have any value to those of you that have made the move 
> over to Houdini (or are still considering Houdini as a future option.
>
> I obviously don’t want to spam the list so it would be good to know if 
> anybody finds the Houdini ‘hint’s & tips’ useful.
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Re: houdini question (and where to ask)

[Gerbrand Nel]

On that subject; What is the real difference between using a attrib vop, 
and a point vop?
I always just use the attrib vop, but mostly because I have no idea what 
the difference is?
G
On 2017/03/06 6:32 PM, Christopher Crouzet wrote:
> This kind of operation might be more suited in “detail” mode though.


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Re: houdini question (and where to ask)

[Gerbrand Nel]

don't forget the houdini mailing list.
https://lists.sidefx.com/mailman/listinfo/sidefx-houdini-list
sidefx-houdini-l...@sidefx.com
G
On 2017/03/06 4:57 PM, Fabricio Chamon wrote:
> nd finally, thanks for the suggestions on houdini forums and discord. 
> will try both (although I pretty much like this list =) )
>

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Re: Opinion gathering

[Gerbrand Nel]

On 2017/02/21 3:15 PM, Mirko Jankovic wrote:
> Btw when is it online? when when when, it is 21st today

I know right?

Its been the 21st here for 15 hours and 44 minutes already!!!

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Re: Opinion gathering

[Gerbrand Nel]

Dude, I'm one guy with 2 indie licenses,... from Africa...
I think opening my mail costs them more than my business is worth to them.
And yet, some time last year I asked about something that bothered me.. 
2 days later it was in a daily build.
I'm sure it was a simple thing for them to change, but the point I'm 
trying to make is:

THEY GIVE A SHIT
This is something we are not used to thanks to years of abuse from autodesk.
Send your suggestions!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3c_pJ_CLJQ
G
On 2017/02/21 1:14 PM, Felix Geremus wrote:
I will try. But honestly, given your background and mine (and the 
number of licenses involved) I don't have very high expectations of 
being heard very soon. Also I think it will be hard for them to make 
such fundamental changes like completely revamping hotkey behavior, 
without pissing off their established user base, no matter how 
reasonable the changes might be. But let's see, maybe I will be 
surprised.





2017-02-21 12:04 GMT+01:00 Jordi Bares >:


Do it please, these things are hard to explain and Softimage is so
well fine tuned in this respect I believe there is lot to learn
from it. Make sure you do that because they are in a huge drive to
usability in the viewport.

They have improved it a lot in H16 but I am sure there is more to
do.. Then of course is the factor of being used to and you, l like
me, will get used to the idiosyncrasies but it is a this moment
that you are not 100% comfortable that is the most valuable.

Cheers
jb


On 21 Feb 2017, at 10:45, Felix Geremus
mailto:felixgere...@googlemail.com>> wrote:

Hey Tim, I know the Entagma Video (and all the others, amazing
tutorials). It helps a little bit. But I think it's funny that
even during the tutorial he frequently runs into similar problems
I'm experiencing. Like the near clipping plane constantly broken,
having to reset the view because something is off, difficulties
to select stuff

Jordi, I will try to send my issues to SideFX as soon as I have
some time.

I think the main problem is a completely awkward combination of
shortcuts behaving differently when different tools are active
and even worse when my cursor is in different parts of the
layout. For example the nasty Esc key puts me into view mode. Now
in view mode the 1,2,3,4 keys change my current view, while in
select mode I switch between components. When I'm hovering the
network view 1 shows/hides the selected node.
Or I really like the Y key to Ghost or Hide other Objects. But
the shortcut only works while I'm in view mode, in select mode or
while hovering the network view nothing happens, in edit mode
though it toggles through my transform gizmos. This is madness! A
shortcut should bring me into the desired mode (select, edit,
view) not require me hit another shortcut in advance to behave
the way I want it. Ok I'll end it here :)



2017-02-21 0:30 GMT+01:00 Tim Bolland mailto:tim_boll...@hotmail.co.uk>>:

Hey Felix, I know what you mean and I still have some
reservations about it as a pure get-things-done-dirty moddler
and scene assembler. Although I'm hoping I just need to learn
more to get comfortable with it.

However this video might help a bit wth selections and the
scene model.

http://www.entagma.com/select-and-navigate/


Cheers,

Tim.

*From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com

mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com>> on behalf
of Felix Geremus mailto:felixgere...@googlemail.com>>
*Sent:* 20 February 2017 23:04:40
*To:* Official Softimage Users Mailing List.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list

*Subject:* Re: Opinion gathering
I am on the Houdini train for a couple of months now. And I
really like it for the most part, especially the more
technical aspects are incredible and way better than
Softimage ever was. But I am still confused by all the praise
for Houdini in certain areas like poly modeling or scene
assembly. I'm still learning (and I'm on my own) so there is
a high chance that I might do something wrong. But as an
example I think the selection and interaction model is a
complete mess. Quickly selecting and modifying geometry, like
in Soft or even Maya is still almost impossible, at least for
me. I can't see anybody doing some serious modeling inside
this tool. H16 seems to be a step in the right direction, but
especially for those "get it done 

Re: Maya

[Gerbrand Nel]

On 2017/02/17 2:28 AM, Artur W wrote:
> Even seasoned artists consider Houdini too complex, too much time 
> consuming, too much tool for the job.

Houdini might be slower to create something initially, but when the 
director storms in, and changes something this is where you overtake 
the poor fools using maya

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Re: Opinion gathering

[Gerbrand Nel]

I'm waiting for h16 before I try character work, but shape animation in 
Houdini is an absolute pleasure!
You can use the shape sop, but I mostly use an attribute vop to blend 
shapes.
It is similar to driving shapes through ICE, so you have all the control 
you ever need.

G
On 2017/02/16 8:47 PM, phil harbath wrote:
I am very curious on how people feel about houdini’s character 
animation tools.  I am reluctant to move on from Softimage until there 
is something out there that is at least close to being on par with 
it.  Specifically the Shape Manager, non-destructive weights, and the 
animation mixer really help me get the job done, and when it comes to 
the negative things I hear about Maya it has kept me from making the 
leap in that direction even though I theoretically own 2 copies,  I 
really am hoping that Houdini is close because I really only want to 
make a change once.

thanks


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Re: Opinion gathering

[Gerbrand Nel]

I tried Maya for a year
I got so depressed with what my life became, that I decided to go for 
Houdini full time.
If choosing Houdini meant that I no longer could find work as a 
freelancer, I was happier to start a new career, than living out my days 
using maya.
I's been 2 years, and I've been busier and happier than even in the 
softimage era.
Houdini engine means I can even work in a Maya team if we plan stuff 
properly.
I also get to go home at 5 and watch the Maya team stay late because 
clients always change shit.

G

On 2017/02/16 12:14 PM, Andi Farhall wrote:


From a personal perspective It's Houdini for me. Maya will only get 
worse the more they dick about with it and having to buy a shed load 
of plugins just to make it usable is too expensive for most 
freelancers. I've also much more faith in SideFX to keep providing me 
with evolving software.



A>


...
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*From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
 on behalf of Laurence Dodd 


*Sent:* 16 February 2017 09:29:04
*To:* Official Softimage Users Mailing List. 
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list

*Subject:* Opinion gathering
I've been looking at houdini, liking it a lot, but what houses in 
London are switching to it? Or am I, once again choosing the underdog 
software  (Combustion, anyone?)


Also, if I recommend it as the main software where I usually work, 
will they be able to get Houdini people that are generalists, are 
enough of us switching?


Just throwing these out there to gather the mood.

Cheers all

--

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Porkpie Animation

E: laure...@porkpie.tv 
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Re: houdini 16

[Gerbrand Nel]

Yeah.. there was an aura of passion and excitement  about the presenters.

Allot of the other launch events for other products has a narcissistic 
arrogance about them.


I hate those dramatic pauses you sometimes see just before they unveil 
the next generation of totally redesigned worthless bullshit, instead of 
just fixing what needed fixing in the first place


I'm not just talking software, but tech stuff in general.

I am supper upset about having to wait till the 21st though


On 2017/02/07 4:32 PM, Chris Marshall wrote:
Well I've got to say that watching the launch event is actually very 
inspiring.



On 7 February 2017 at 10:33, Morten Bartholdy > wrote:


He he

I bet you can script one for them Brad ;)

Morten



> Den 4. februar 2017 klokken 16:08 skrev Bradley Gabe
mailto:witha...@gmail.com>>:
>
>
>
>
> That new feature list might be long and impressive in scope and
function. But you have to ask yourself, did they bother to add a
ViewCube?
>
> > Holy !
> >
> > The H16 release is looking awesome!
> >
> > So much new stuff, and I really like the new nodal look and
workflow. And radial menus for modeling and such :-)
> > Also very curious about the new rigging
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Re: houdini 16

[Gerbrand Nel]

Thanks!
Not seeing indie in the line-up is freaking me out a bit.
If this was Autodesk I would be freaking out allot though :)

On 2017/02/07 6:34 AM, Eugene Flormata wrote:

http://www.cgchannel.com/2017/02/side-effects-software-unveils-houdini-16/

looks like the 21st

the launch video is watchable here
https://www.sidefx.com/community/houdini-16-launch-streaming-on-february-6/

Jordi, do you know if they'll still have indie and apprentice on 
launch day?



On Mon, Feb 6, 2017 at 8:00 PM, Gerbrand Nel <mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:


So I missed the launch event because Africa...
Checked the available download this morning, but it's still
houdini 15.5
Did they mention a release date, or does anyone know when I can
get my filthy mitts on h16?
G




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Re: houdini 16

[Gerbrand Nel]

So I missed the launch event because Africa...
Checked the available download this morning, but it's still houdini 15.5
Did they mention a release date, or does anyone know when I can get my 
filthy mitts on h16?

G
On 2017/02/06 10:47 AM, Olivier Jeannel wrote:

maybe they were true, look everybody is turning away from maya.

Le 6 févr. 2017 07:34, "Gerbrand Nel" <mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> a écrit :


Dude!!!
Seriously!!!
Last time someone commented on the brightness of the future
regarding 3d
software, shit got real.
Please choose your words more carefully in the bright future!!
G
On 2017/02/04 1:24 PM, patrick nethercoat wrote:
> This is very exciting. I've just started learning Houdini this week
> and I must say the future looks bright.

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Re: houdini 16

[Gerbrand Nel]

Dude!!!
Seriously!!!
Last time someone commented on the brightness of the future regarding 3d 
software, shit got real.
Please choose your words more carefully in the bright future!!
G
On 2017/02/04 1:24 PM, patrick nethercoat wrote:
> This is very exciting. I've just started learning Houdini this week 
> and I must say the future looks bright.

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Re: houdini stability

[Gerbrand Nel]

Funny, As I'm about to reply with nothing but praise for houdini, my 
houdini crashed.
Cool thing is: it saved a backup as it crashed, and I lost nothing.
I was being silly though. I was modelling while the redshift ipr was 
rendering.
So yes, I'd say it is stable :)
G
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Re: OT: Wireless VR 2.0

[Gerbrand Nel]

I agree, The kinect can drive you up the walls. Especially if you are 
still learning the basics in unreal like me.
I'm sticking to the kinect, because my target market is more likely to 
have access to a kinect, rather than a neuron.

My biggest problem is finding time to work on this stuff.
I only have a day or 2 between jobs, and those are always spent 
re-learning the shit I forgot, rather than getting into more advanced stuff.

Oh well, at least its fun.
Look forward to seeing your progress

G

On 2016/12/22 9:32 AM, Enter Reality wrote:
@Gerbrand: I've been working with the Vive for 2 months now and since 
we received the VR Backpack, right now there's no really need for the 
wireless setup they released...it's impressive that they are able to 
sell an addon like that for that price, but I think I'll just wait for 
the Vive 2.0.


I've worked a bit with Kinect, but its so frustrating that I gave up 
after a while...nice try, but a pain to work with.


Someone on the UE4 forum is creating an IK puppet to control with the 
Vive controllers, which is a good alternative to have a full body mocap.
In theory I could setup both Vive and Mocap suit together, so that the 
controllers will act as IK while the rest of the body moves following 
the movement from the suit itself, but right now is not priority 1 for me.


@Mirko: To be honest the "virtual walls" while using only the suit is 
something which I'll probably develop in short time, since its just a 
matter of getting the playing area, get the player location and 
position the walls accordingly, nothing super-complicated ;)


Anyway guys starting next year I'll go full VR, mostly related to 
non-gaming setups, and in short time I'll release more tech demo, 
showing the use of VR within working environments, so if you're 
interested in those solutions feel free to contact me


Cheers

Nicolas

2016-12-22 7:57 GMT+01:00 Mirko Jankovic >:


Nice, guess we are slowly getting there. Only issue is that
content will have to be planed with size of rooms in mind :)
Can't go wondering off or hitting something :)
Thanks for sharing




-- 
Mirko Jankovic

_http://www.cgfolio.com/mirko-jankovic
_
_
_
Need to find freelancers fast?
www.cgfolio.com 

Need some help with rendering an Redshift project?
http://www.gpuoven.com/
ᐧ

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Re: OT: Wireless VR 2.0

[Gerbrand Nel]

I've been experimenting with full body avateering, combining the vive 
and kinect.
Problem is the kinect interferes with the vive motion controllers, so 
It's only the hmd and your body.
When it works, its mind-blowing, but getting it to line up properly is 
proving to be a pain.
I don’t have enough free time to get into this properly, but at least my 
paying work involves pre-rendered vr, so its still in the same realm.
(not to hijack or plug on your post, but this is the last thing I've 
worked on:)

https://www.facebook.com/mercedesbenzsouthafrica/videos/vb.107442115967408/1344408398937434/?type=2&theater

Have you guys looked into the wireless vive option and the new 
lighthouse trackers?

http://uploadvr.com/htc-vive-wireless-kit/
http://www.roadtovr.com/valve-third-party-lighthouse-api-steamvr-tracking-htc-vive-dev-kit-license-royalty/

I reckon one can make your own neuron suit with the vive trackers, 
keeping everything in the vive environment.

This should give you a performance boost, and simplify things.
Anyways its super exiting to see you guys working on this stuff!
Keep it up and keep us in the loop!
G

On 2016/12/21 10:06 PM, Adam Sale wrote:
That is very impressive. I see you have connections for full body 
MOCap, but didn`t see legs or body presence in the video. I did see 
arms and hands later in the video. Is there a reason, the full body 
avatar is absent. Still a work in progress I imagine.


Very cool though. I am trying the same thing at the moment, though 
with XSens, and Vive / Oculus. Tethering is a pain..


On Wed, Dec 21, 2016 at 7:05 AM, Gerbrand Nel <mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:


most impressive!!!


On 2016/12/21 4:23 PM, Enter Reality wrote:

Hi guys,

Sorry for a bit of OT on the list, I just wanted to share what
I've been working on during the last couple of months.

In short, the setup I created allow for a 100% wireless solution
for VR visualization and interactivity very different from what
Oculus Rift and HTC Vive offers right now.

The entire setup has been created in order to be used in working
environments ( ArchViz, Job training, Interactive movies,
simulations, workplace security and so on... )

Enjoy!


Wireless VR 2.0 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYVKaVfAkP0>

Cheers

Nicolas


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Re: OT: Wireless VR 2.0

[Gerbrand Nel]

most impressive!!!

On 2016/12/21 4:23 PM, Enter Reality wrote:

Hi guys,

Sorry for a bit of OT on the list, I just wanted to share what I've 
been working on during the last couple of months.


In short, the setup I created allow for a 100% wireless solution for 
VR visualization and interactivity very different from what Oculus 
Rift and HTC Vive offers right now.


The entire setup has been created in order to be used in working 
environments ( ArchViz, Job training, Interactive movies, simulations, 
workplace security and so on... )


Enjoy!


Wireless VR 2.0 

Cheers

Nicolas


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Re: Babies

[Gerbrand Nel]

lol
On 2016/11/09 10:24 AM, Thomas Volkmann wrote:


I hope you didn't name that version final_FINAL already.


Olivier Jeannel  hat am 8. November 2016 um 
06:19 geschrieben:


Excellent !


On Mon, Nov 7, 2016 at 9:28 PM, toonafish > wrote:


Just a funny litte Mixamo experiment that went overboard ;-)

https://youtu.be/CSjReQFFPRw


-Ronald




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Re: Exploding fractured mesh

[Gerbrand Nel]

Rohan Dalvi made a few tutorials worth buying.
The floating island one is probably the most fun and comprehensive 
course you could take.
He approaches it from an artist point of view, rather than coding and 
scripting stuff.
He also has a few free vids on vimeo.
Peter Quint is another guy who tends to stay away from too much coding, 
and he has some very useful tutorials!

One thing about sidefx, they change the software all the time.
This makes for great cutting-edge software, but really painful to learn 
if you use old tutorials.
My advice is to use the version of houdini that was used in the 
tutorial, until you get the hang of it.
Oh and the "vop sop" is now the "attribute vop" :)(this is basically 
an ice tree)
Good luck, and ask if you get stuck!
I hate seeing fellow softies forced into maya-bondage

G





On 2016/11/08 11:41 AM, Morten Bartholdy wrote:
> Thanks for the advice Gerbrand, it is much appreciated. I have no love for 
> Maya and if anything, that might help me get over the steep part of the 
> learning curve with Houdini, knowing greener grass fields lay ahead.
>
> I guess it is time to give it some attention.
>
> BTW did you learn these expressions from tutorials?
>
>
> Cheers
> Morten
>
>
>
>
>> Den 8. november 2016 klokken 08:50 skrev Gerbrand Nel :
>>
>>
>> I just want to jump in regarding the scripting and expressions in houdini.
>> I also hate scripts and expressions.. I want to make pictures with
>> pictures, not pictures with words.
>> In Houdini so far I've learned about 10 expressions and scripts.
>> The are short things like:
>> fit01() and rand($PT)
>> I call them spells, cause it takes the "maya" out of it, and you need
>> spells to make magic.
>> These 10 spells gets used every day for almost everything I do in
>> houdini, but most of the time I'm connecting nodes like its xmas.
>> You also can avoid vex wrangling completely by using vops instead. (Vops
>> are almost exactly like ice trees)
>> Whenever I do a tutorial involving wrangle nodes, I either do it in
>> vops, or cut my losses and look for another tutorial.
>>
>> I think its fair to say that I use houdini in a very non-td kind of way.
>> That being said, I'm creating things I couldn't after 10 years in soft,
>> and going home at 5pm almost every day.
>> Walking past my friends who chose Maya, knowing they'll be at their
>> desks for another 2 hours at least, is the hardest part.
>>
>> The point I'm trying to make is: There are a few scripts you'll have to
>> learn, but its not so bad, and well worth it!
>> G
>> On 2016/11/04 10:44 AM, Morten Bartholdy wrote:
>>> Thanks for all the good suggestions. I am actually using IFX+Momentum4 too 
>>> which didn't quite manage, as it quickly gets slow with many polygon 
>>> islands, and very unstable after ground impact. So I was looking for 
>>> something simpler without collisions between fractured pieces where I could 
>>> just make them start flying off the surface.
>>>
>>> Imagine a person covered with a thin shell of metal, which fractures, then 
>>> pieces start flying away locally and eventually all remaining pieces drop 
>>> and tumble to the floor.
>>>
>>> The first part could be done without collisions, then the later action need 
>>> simulation with collisions. they are separate cuts so I have some freedom 
>>> here, regarding methods.
>>>
>>> I found Gustavos Motion Tools bullet implementation faster and more stable 
>>> than Momentums (!) but need to check with the full amount of geometry. The 
>>> trouble is the shell is not very thick, so the solvers have a hard time 
>>> handling intercollisions between fractured pieces.
>>>
>>> I would say I am inclined to give Houdini a try after the descriptions here 
>>> after all, but likely not for this job.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Den 3. november 2016 klokken 17:12 skrev Simon Reeves 
>>>> :
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I did lots of fracturing and deforming (rather than simulated) on a job a
>>>> year or so ago in xsi with momentum ice etc. Though I was fairly happy with
>>>> the system I had (based on a vimeo video from eric mootz by the way! About
>>>> controlling pieces in ICE) really it was pretty buggy and slow, had to be
>>>> really delicate with xsi to avoid crashes.
>>>>
>>>> After having used Houdini for a couple of months my life would have been
>>>> s much easier in th

Re: Exploding fractured mesh

[Gerbrand Nel]

I just want to jump in regarding the scripting and expressions in houdini.
I also hate scripts and expressions.. I want to make pictures with 
pictures, not pictures with words.
In Houdini so far I've learned about 10 expressions and scripts.
The are short things like:
fit01() and rand($PT)
I call them spells, cause it takes the "maya" out of it, and you need 
spells to make magic.
These 10 spells gets used every day for almost everything I do in 
houdini, but most of the time I'm connecting nodes like its xmas.
You also can avoid vex wrangling completely by using vops instead. (Vops 
are almost exactly like ice trees)
Whenever I do a tutorial involving wrangle nodes, I either do it in 
vops, or cut my losses and look for another tutorial.

I think its fair to say that I use houdini in a very non-td kind of way.
That being said, I'm creating things I couldn't after 10 years in soft, 
and going home at 5pm almost every day.
Walking past my friends who chose Maya, knowing they'll be at their 
desks for another 2 hours at least, is the hardest part.

The point I'm trying to make is: There are a few scripts you'll have to 
learn, but its not so bad, and well worth it!
G
On 2016/11/04 10:44 AM, Morten Bartholdy wrote:
> Thanks for all the good suggestions. I am actually using IFX+Momentum4 too 
> which didn't quite manage, as it quickly gets slow with many polygon islands, 
> and very unstable after ground impact. So I was looking for something simpler 
> without collisions between fractured pieces where I could just make them 
> start flying off the surface.
>
> Imagine a person covered with a thin shell of metal, which fractures, then 
> pieces start flying away locally and eventually all remaining pieces drop and 
> tumble to the floor.
>
> The first part could be done without collisions, then the later action need 
> simulation with collisions. they are separate cuts so I have some freedom 
> here, regarding methods.
>
> I found Gustavos Motion Tools bullet implementation faster and more stable 
> than Momentums (!) but need to check with the full amount of geometry. The 
> trouble is the shell is not very thick, so the solvers have a hard time 
> handling intercollisions between fractured pieces.
>
> I would say I am inclined to give Houdini a try after the descriptions here 
> after all, but likely not for this job.
>
>
>
>
>> Den 3. november 2016 klokken 17:12 skrev Simon Reeves 
>> :
>>
>>
>> I did lots of fracturing and deforming (rather than simulated) on a job a
>> year or so ago in xsi with momentum ice etc. Though I was fairly happy with
>> the system I had (based on a vimeo video from eric mootz by the way! About
>> controlling pieces in ICE) really it was pretty buggy and slow, had to be
>> really delicate with xsi to avoid crashes.
>>
>> After having used Houdini for a couple of months my life would have been
>> s much easier in there for that job.
>> I really haven't found the learning curve as steep as I thought (read
>> about).
>> I've used it most of 2016 now, I haven't touched xsi other than modelling
>> (TODO: learn something not-dead for modelling)
>>
>> You can forget about those concerns about having to rely on expressions! If
>> you dont want to have to use expressions all the time avoid Maya not
>> Houdini :)
>>
>>
>> On Thu, 3 Nov 2016 at 15:55 Morten Bartholdy  wrote:
>>
>> It was long ago and I know Houdini has progressed immensely, but from what
>> I hear you still have to use expressions a lot, and I am much more a
>> connect nodes and click buttons guy. It is awesome what can be done with
>> Houdini, but it is just not very userfriendly that you have to remember or
>> keep a repository of expressions to get things done.
>>
>> I wish it they would make an effort to get everything working with their
>> nodes so it would just be a matter of connecting them right - how hard
>> would that be, since the functionality is there..?
>>
>> //Morten
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> Den 3. november 2016 klokken 16:39 skrev Cristobal Infante <
>> cgc...@gmail.com>:
>>>
>>> "To get anything working"
>>>
>>> That's simply not true. Yes you can use some expressions here and there,
>>> and some of it is the houdini way. Once you learn expression they make
>> your
>>> life easier. I personally use Evernote to write them down, eventually you
>>> will learn them.
>>>
>>> The setup you described can be done with no expressions at all.. Up to you
>>> though ;)
>>>
>>>
>>> On 3 November 2016 at 14:43, Morten Bartholdy >> > wrote:
>>>
 Well yes, I am sure Houdini is up to the task, and almost as sure I am
>> not
 ;-)  I tried a bit of Houdini tutorial once and quickly got stuck
>> because
 you have to type in expressions here and there to get anything working,
>> and
 I am just not the syntax type.

 I actually found that Gustavo Eggert Boehs fine Motion Tools probably
>> can
 do what I want, so I will give that a spin.

 //Morten



> Den 3. november 2016 klok

Re: electric plasma effect

[Gerbrand Nel]

In houdini, vops are like ice trees, the rest is a node based operator 
stack.
It took me a month or so to get my head around it, but after 6 months I 
actually preferred houdini to soft.
Don't get me wrong.. some things will always be missed in soft, but even 
if autodesk announced that the death of soft was some bad April fools 
joke, I would still stick to houdini at this point.
That being said, I really love how people still do things in soft that 
maya can't without a phd in C++

G
On 2016/11/04 12:54 PM, Chris Marshall wrote:
Well I started looking at Houdini and had hoped that it would be 
possible to delve into nodes of some of the preset particle effects 
and build them like with ICE. But it didn't seem to work that way or I 
was possibly missing something? I'm super busy at the moment so don't 
have much spare time to dig around.





On 4 November 2016 at 06:13, Gerbrand Nel <mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:


don't know if you've made up your mind about life after soft, but
if you like this, you'll love houdini

On 2016/11/03 12:44 PM, Chris Marshall wrote:

Not strands as that's a problem with the two ends. It's a lot of
particles distributed between the two nulls, then turbulised
twice, once for the large scale effect and once for the small
jittery effect.


On 3 November 2016 at 10:40, Morten Bartholdy
mailto:x...@colorshopvfx.dk>> wrote:

Cool, thanks. Strands with noise I guess - how do you get
them to be constrained in the other end?

//Morten



> Den 3. november 2016 klokken 11:34 skrev Chris Marshall
mailto:chrismarshal...@gmail.com>>:
>
>
> Here you go
>
> https://vimeo.com/190067829
>
>
>
> On 3 November 2016 at 08:33, Morten Bartholdy
mailto:x...@colorshopvfx.dk>> wrote:
>
> > Pictures or it didn't happen ;-)
> >
> > Morten
> >
> >
> > > Den 2. november 2016 klokken 18:24 skrev Chris Marshall <
> > chrismarshal...@gmail.com
<mailto:chrismarshal...@gmail.com>>:
> > >
> > >
> > > OK I managed to create the effect I needed. ICE is sooo
effin amazing.
> > > Cheers
> > >
> > >
> > > On 2 November 2016 at 11:47, Chris Marshall
mailto:chrismarshal...@gmail.com>>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > OK Thanks.
> > > > The LKL controllers demo is something I could
probably create. I was
> > > > hoping for something where curves aren't needed, more
random but
> > electric
> > > > arc looking. I'll try putting something together
myself anyway.
> > > > Cheers
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On 2 November 2016 at 11:38, christian
mailto:papag...@gmail.com>> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >> probably not what you need, but in case you are
looking for a 2D
> > solution
> > > >> theres the free AFX sabre plugin from videocopilot
with some decent
> > > >> presets...
> > > >>
> > > >>
http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/2016/03/new-plug-in-saber-
<http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/2016/03/new-plug-in-saber->
> > > >> now-available-100-free/
> > > >>
> > > >> usual warnings apply regarding VC plugins (it wont
render on our farm
> > for
> > > >> whatever reason for example..)
> > > >>
> > > >> c.
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >> On Wed, Nov 2, 2016 at 12:33 PM, wavo
mailto:w...@fiftyeight.com>> wrote:
> > > >>
> > > >>> Hi ,
> > > >>> maybe this kind of  Plasma-effect!?
> > > >>>
> > > >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CYtLJSE3CA
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CYtLJSE3CA>
> > > >>> http://leonardkoch.com/tutorials/
<http://leonardkoch.com/tutorials/>
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>> cheers
> 

Re: electric plasma effect

[Gerbrand Nel]

don't know if you've made up your mind about life after soft, but if you 
like this, you'll love houdini

On 2016/11/03 12:44 PM, Chris Marshall wrote:
Not strands as that's a problem with the two ends. It's a lot of 
particles distributed between the two nulls, then turbulised twice, 
once for the large scale effect and once for the small jittery effect.



On 3 November 2016 at 10:40, Morten Bartholdy > wrote:


Cool, thanks. Strands with noise I guess - how do you get them to
be constrained in the other end?

//Morten



> Den 3. november 2016 klokken 11:34 skrev Chris Marshall
mailto:chrismarshal...@gmail.com>>:
>
>
> Here you go
>
> https://vimeo.com/190067829
>
>
>
> On 3 November 2016 at 08:33, Morten Bartholdy
mailto:x...@colorshopvfx.dk>> wrote:
>
> > Pictures or it didn't happen ;-)
> >
> > Morten
> >
> >
> > > Den 2. november 2016 klokken 18:24 skrev Chris Marshall <
> > chrismarshal...@gmail.com >:
> > >
> > >
> > > OK I managed to create the effect I needed. ICE is sooo
effin amazing.
> > > Cheers
> > >
> > >
> > > On 2 November 2016 at 11:47, Chris Marshall
mailto:chrismarshal...@gmail.com>>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > OK Thanks.
> > > > The LKL controllers demo is something I could probably
create. I was
> > > > hoping for something where curves aren't needed, more
random but
> > electric
> > > > arc looking. I'll try putting something together myself
anyway.
> > > > Cheers
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On 2 November 2016 at 11:38, christian mailto:papag...@gmail.com>> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >> probably not what you need, but in case you are looking
for a 2D
> > solution
> > > >> theres the free AFX sabre plugin from videocopilot with
some decent
> > > >> presets...
> > > >>
> > > >>
http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/2016/03/new-plug-in-saber-

> > > >> now-available-100-free/
> > > >>
> > > >> usual warnings apply regarding VC plugins (it wont render
on our farm
> > for
> > > >> whatever reason for example..)
> > > >>
> > > >> c.
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >> On Wed, Nov 2, 2016 at 12:33 PM, wavo
mailto:w...@fiftyeight.com>> wrote:
> > > >>
> > > >>> Hi ,
> > > >>> maybe this kind of Plasma-effect!?
> > > >>>
> > > >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CYtLJSE3CA

> > > >>> http://leonardkoch.com/tutorials/

> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>> cheers
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>> Am 11/2/2016 um 12:22 PM schrieb Chris Marshall:
> > > >>>
> > > >>> Hi All,
> > > >>> I'm looking for an effect, probably with ICE, that
creates an
> > electrical
> > > >>> plasma type effect. I guess I'm thinking of two input
nulls with the
> > effect
> > > >>> between them.
> > > >>> Just wondering if there's anything premade out there?
> > > >>>
> > > >>> Cheers
> > > >>>
> > > >>> Chris
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>> --
> > > >>> Chris Marshall
> > > >>> Mint Motion Limited
> > > >>> 029 20 37 27 57
> > > >>> 07730 533 115
> > > >>> www.mintmotion.co.uk 
> > > >>> www.dot3d.com 
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>> --
> > > >>> Softimage Mailing List.
> > > >>> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-request@listproc.
> > autodesk.com  with "unsubscribe" in the
subject, and reply to confirm.
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>> --
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>> *Walter Volbers*
> > > >>> Senior Animator
> > > >>>
> > > >>> *FIFTYEIGHT* 3D
> > > >>> Animation & Digital Effects GmbH
> > > >>>
> > > >>> Kontorhaus Osthafen
> > > >>> Lindleystraße 12
> > > >>> 60314 Frankfurt am Main
> > > >>> Germany
> > > >>>
> > > >>> Telefon +49 (0) 69.48 000 55.50

> > > >>> Telefax +49 (0) 69.48 000 55.15

> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>> *mailto:w...@fiftyeight.com 
mailto:w...@fiftyeight.com>>
> > > >>> http://www.fiftyeight.com  *
> > > >>>
> > > >>> 
> > > >>> ESC*58*
> > > >>> Eine Kooperation der escape GmbH und der FIFTYEIGHT3D GmbH
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>> *http://www.ESC58.de  *
> > > >>>
> > > >>> --
> > > >>> Softimage Mailing List.
> > > >>> To unsubscribe, 

Re: Motion Tracking

[Gerbrand Nel]

Don't underestimate Blender.
I’ve used it on a few jobs alongside pftrack,  and the results on some 
of the shots were better in blender.
Plus it will cost you nothing but your free time to check it out.
G
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OT:PLUG houdini to blender workflow

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey guys
Anyone interested in getting scenes from Houdini into blender, Check 
this out!
The main guy behind it all is Johannes Kollmer.

We are trying to expand this to all kinds of data, like pointclouds, 
Hair, and VDB.
Anyone who wants to help, or try it out, follow the links below

http://polykraft.de/wordpress/category/scripts/

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?390636-Addon-Blembic-Mesh-Cache-that-supports-varying-vertex-count

G
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Re: veryOT: amd gpu in blender/cycles

[Gerbrand Nel]

That's sad, but helpful.. Thanks
G
On 17/03/2016 14:19, Saeed Kalhor wrote:

See this page:
https://www.blender.org/manual/render/cycles/features.html


​

*Supported Features and Limitations*


For an overview of supported features, check the comparison in the
Features.


*CUDA:*

​ ​
The maximum amount of individual textures is limited to 88
byte-image textures (PNG, JPEG, ..) and 5 float-image textures
(OpenEXR, 16 bit TIFF, ..) on GTX 4xx/5xx cards, and 145
byte-image textures and 5 float-image textures on GTX6xx cards and
above.

*OpenCL:*

​​
No support for HDR (float) textures at the moment.

​


Go for a nvidia card.

On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 10:54 PM, Gerbrand Nel <mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:


Hey guys
This is probably not the right place for this question, but I figured
some of you use blender, and might be able to help.
I am looking at gpu options to render through cycles, and nvidia seems
to be the safe option, but our scenes are using about 5gb of ram,
so my
980ti is getting close to the useless point.
I cannot justify buying a bloody titan card, so i'm wondering if
the AMD
r9 390 with its glorious 8gb of ram could be the answer.
Anyone here have an amd gpu and render through cycles from time to
time?
I would love to know if there are limitations.
Thanks
Gerbrand
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veryOT: amd gpu in blender/cycles

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey guys
This is probably not the right place for this question, but I figured 
some of you use blender, and might be able to help.
I am looking at gpu options to render through cycles, and nvidia seems 
to be the safe option, but our scenes are using about 5gb of ram, so my 
980ti is getting close to the useless point.
I cannot justify buying a bloody titan card, so i'm wondering if the AMD 
r9 390 with its glorious 8gb of ram could be the answer.
Anyone here have an amd gpu and render through cycles from time to time?
I would love to know if there are limitations.
Thanks
Gerbrand
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Re: OT XSI UV to Location Tutorial inside Houdini

[Gerbrand Nel]

Awesome!!
Thank you sir!!!
On 08/03/2016 21:03, Jeff McFall wrote:


One here,  awesome – thanks!

XSI to Houdini is one of my favorite topics

*From:*softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Nika Ragua

*Sent:* Tuesday, March 8, 2016 11:12 AM
*To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
*Subject:* Re: OT XSI UV to Location Tutorial inside Houdini

Surely someone IS interested ))) Thank you again!!! Great job!

2016-03-08 17:35 GMT+03:00 Olivier Jeannel >:


Hello crew,

In case someone is interested, I made a little tutorial (my first)
that rebuild the ice UV to Location within Houdini.

https://vimeo.com/158037926

Cheers


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OT:Gear vr question

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey guys
I'm doing allot of vr experiments these days, but all my work has been 
done with a dk2 and cardboard.
I've never tried the gear vr, and have a few questions for those of you 
who have.

I've read online that it works in two ways. Either from the tablet, 
using the tablet to drive everything, or you can stream from your pc gpu.
Does the pc streaming work well, turning it into a rift without head 
tracking, or is it better to just stick to running things from the 
tablet itself?

I do allot of my work in unreal, and with the dk2 its as simple as 
"click preview in vr".
Does it work the same way for the gear, or do I need to build and 
publish every time I want to test my project like you do for cardboard?

The dk2 has pretty horrible resolution. Even a cardboard with a samsung 
s4 phone looks better.
How does the gear fair here?

Thanks for entertaining this OT thread :)
G

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Re: Goodbyes (was this is the end...)

[Gerbrand Nel]

Oh shit.. I think you might be right :)
There is a certain "crest" of creativeness about this sheep ;)
If it is him, he seems a bit less abrasive than last time he was here.
G
On 09/02/2016 17:42, Cristobal Infante wrote:
I am pretty sure the creative sheep has just made it's way to the 
houdini list, and it's somehow entertaining all the expert with his 
questions.


I have to say people on the houdini list are extremely kind and but 
that can't last surely!!!


C

On 8 February 2016 at 08:40, Rob Wuijster > wrote:


ssh. don't jinx it ;-P

Rob

\/-\/\/

On 6-2-2016 3:02, Adam Sale wrote:

Whatever happened to Creative Sheep?

or Luke?



On Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 3:06 PM, David Saber mailto:davidsa...@sfr.fr>> wrote:

You'll take my XSI list from my dead cold hands! :)

On 2016-02-05 02:16, Andre De Angelis wrote:

Me too, even though I left the industry 4 years ago.  I
still love the app and the community.

I guess I'm still in denial that it's all coming to an end. 
I might well be the last person to unsubscribe to the list.





Geen virus gevonden in dit bericht.
Gecontroleerd door AVG - www.avg.com 
Versie: 2016.0.7357 / Virusdatabase: 4522/11578 - datum van
uitgifte: 02/08/16

Re: this is the end......

[Gerbrand Nel]

I agree.
Softimage is like those nice spaceship Lego sets, with specialized 
shapes and parts, to help you build something awesome quick.
Houdini is just a shit-load of the basic square Lego bricks, with a few 
of the level 35 lego technic parts thrown into the mix.

You want something awesome, you better build it all from scratch.
Don't get me wrong.. I'm loving it, but I miss the simplicity of the day 
to day things in soft

On 03/02/2016 09:15, Olivier Jeannel wrote:
I'm digging houdini, but although it has more brutal power, it is way 
more convoluted.

Re: Goodbyes (was this is the end...)

[Gerbrand Nel]

Yup
Me too !!!
That curve force tornado tutorial on vimeo is where ice made sense for 
me the first time!!

Never thought I could do vector maths until then.
And it is serving me well in my new life in houdini.
I think my life would be very different if it wasn't for people like Mr 
Gabe and Mr P Smith.

G
On 30/01/2016 11:31, Olivier Jeannel wrote:

Hey hey, calm down. Is this list really going to disapear ?
Ain't possible to move somewhere else if so ?

And I owe you M. Gabe my very first step on ice with your tutorials !

On Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 11:22 PM, Jason S > wrote:


Now now.. the list is highly unlikely to go anywhere.

I can also recall such goodbyes from before, and like before I
hope it's not really goodbye  ;-)



On 01/29/16 15:38, Bradley Gabe wrote:

In the event the list suddenly disappears with all this EOL
talk, I thought I'd offer a well deserved and long overdue
thanks to everyone in the community for everything they've
done over the years. It was the original si3d list that
provided me the opportunity I needed for my very first break
into high end all those years ago. And it's been the XSI
community and this list that helped put a roof over my head,
feed my family, and keep me functionally sane since then.

Best wishes to everyone in their future ventures.

-Bradley

Re: OT: Free Animation?

[Gerbrand Nel]

There are some free motion captures on turbosquid.
G
On 28/01/2016 13:38, gareth bell wrote:

Hey guys,

I'm doing some dynamics hair/fur tests in Houdini - does anyone know 
of a source I can get a free or cheap character model + animation data 
to test my hair setups on?


Cheers

Re: So.. Maya rigging is still a thing...

[Gerbrand Nel]

Houdini has this.. kinda, you select by weight on the mesh.
But it doesn't work with my wacom for some reason :(
G
On 25/01/2016 10:04, Sebastien Sterling wrote:
Yes weight painting is bullshit for precise work, however if you don't 
have much time and you need it to be quick and can afford it being 
dirty...


It's been a while, so i don't remember, but is Soft the only package 
with a workflow to select the bone you want to weight to directly in 
the viewport? instead of scrolling endlessly through lists ? its kinda 
clunky in soft, (takes a few seconds for the selected deformer to 
register). but it works!


Does nothing else have this functionality? it seems like such a no 
brainner...


Maya is exceptionally guilty of the joint list scrolling, as the 
window is tiny, can not be resized (to my knowledge) and in spite of 
this, requires you to lock every bone but the 2 you are weighting,  
manually ! forcing you to run up and down every time you need to 
change what you are skinning to.




On 25 January 2016 at 07:03, Martin Yara > wrote:


For v2014 and later I'd recommend Skin Wrangler, a pyQT+python
tool that is pretty good for that kind of workflow. And for 2013
and previous versions without pyQT support, Max Skin Weight Tool,
a mel script based on Max workflow.

In games, at least here and other places I've worked, we rarely
use paint weights because it is more common to have mistakes and
uneven weights.

Maya's Weight Hammer is the equivalent to Softimage's smooth
weights, but way inferior and without any option at all. I rarely
use it because it tends to mess up my weights smoothing it too
much and using influences I don't want to. SI's smooth weights
could work very nice selecting all points (ex: the whole snake
model), while Maya's Hammer do some decent job only if you select
the points where the joints intersect.

If someone at Autodesk is reading, is it possible to have
Softimage Smooth Weights to be ported to Maya?

ngSkinTools smooth was nice, but I didn't get used to it's
workflow. I may give it another try when I need to paint weights.

I found another tool called as_SmoothNearest that looked good in
the video demo, but it ended up being a combination of the Maya's
default Weight Hammer command and grow selection. And without
using the normalizing option with a potentially risk to have 1+
total weights per point. I fixed that code but, still  not quite
what I wanted.

I ended up writing a custom tool to use smooth paint for selected
weights and lock all the other joints so it would only smooth
based on the selected points deformers. Now with that,
SkinWrangler and Maya's Heat Map, my weighting workflow is a
little less painful.

Martin



On Sun, Jan 24, 2016 at 11:28 PM, Sebastien Sterling
mailto:sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com>> wrote:

I remember skinning in max, not the best but definitely not
the worst, it didn't have any pretences let's say, you HAD to
use vertex weight selection assignments or "Weight Tool"
(envelops are garbage), and they had a very practical little
menu for that, with options for assigning a few default
pre-sets, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, as well as the ability to
copy/past values.
selection assignment is the slowest method, not great for fast
turn around, but it is also the most precise method.

Softimage kind of had something similar, plus a really good
smoothing algorithm, (is it just me or was soft's smooth
weight function, the bomb ?!)


Is there anything like this for maya currently, like max's
weight tool i mean ? and the first words better not be "In
Bonus tools ... !" so help me god !


On 24 January 2016 at 13:50, Graham Bell mailto:bell...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Man I feel you guys’ pain.

I haven’t rigged in Maya for a while, but the thing is if
you’ve been in Maya land for some time, then you kinda get
to know how it works and get the best from it. Many guys
like it, because they can get quiet deep into it, but like
anything it’s not without its eccentricities. If you’re
gonna keep on comparing to Soft though, then you’re in for
constant disappointment. But holey moly don’t go near Max
for rigging, imho. J

As Adam says, there’s been a lot of talk on Beta about the
rigging and without breeching NDAs there is a desire to
start addressing stuff. It seems the work on the parallel
performance in 2016 perhaps might be the start of that.
Certainly that stuff has gone down well with people.

On the modelling front, Maya’s been going through an
overhaul in recent versions. Up to 2016 there was a l

Obj export broken in 2016

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey guys
Is it just me or did autodesk break the obj exporter in soft?
When I try to export something, it asks me to name the file, and then 
when I click export, it asks me again to select the obj.

Almost like it wants to either overwrite something, or import something.
G

Re: So.. Maya rigging is still a thing...

[Gerbrand Nel]

I know many of us are forced by employers or situations to convert to maya.
My heart goes out to you!
But the rest of you fuckers who choose to go to maya over all the other 
options out there.

You have made your beds, now burn in them.


On 22/01/2016 03:50, Chris Johnson wrote:

Haawesome.

On Thu, Jan 21, 2016 at 8:21 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
mailto:sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com>> 
wrote:


"Hung drawn and quartered" (as described by the dictionary) is an
English medieval form of

torture, visited upon heretics, the practice of which consisted of:

Being dragged through the streets, broken on a wheel and made
witness to your own burning

viscera, before being hung by the neck. It is a gory, utterly
barbaric spectacle and a perfectly

adequate fate for the designer(s) responsible for the Maya rigging
experience.

whoever this person is, "Fire" is too good for you.

This level of shit was embarrassing in 2004.




--

Chris Johnson | www.someonescousin.com 
 | 416.473.1624


 
 
 

Re: Redshift users?

[Gerbrand Nel]

Are you using blender only, or other apps with blender?
I ask because I'm always looking for ways to get my work into blender, 
to use cycles as my main render.
At the moment I use mdd cache for animation with no topology change, and 
a script called meshfoot for things like liquids or other changing 
topology geo.

Cameras are also a real pain, but I have a workaround for that from houdini.
particles and volumes I still render in mantra.
Cant wait for blender to get alembic and openVDB
G

On 19/01/2016 14:13, Doeke Wartena wrote:

I switched to blender cause I like to complicate my life...
So no redshift anymore which I really regret. I hope they will add 
Blender support some day but as the developers said, they are small on 
resources...


2016-01-19 10:25 GMT+01:00 Mirko Jankovic >:


It mostly come down to this... if frame is rather fast to render
go with 1` GPU per frame, if it takes a bit longer 2 per frame is
sweet spot. Makes not much sense to go over 2GPU per frame due to
scaling.
2 cards is almost 2x speed
3 cards ~2.4x
4 cards ~2.9x
If I recall some of the measuring we took.
But still 4 GPU per render node is good combo, less space taken,
less licences cost, less strain on network etc...

On Tue, Jan 19, 2016 at 9:52 AM, Matt Morris mailto:matt...@gmail.com>> wrote:

When I was at A Large Evil Corporation we replaced around 40
cpu nodes with 8 dual gpu nodes. With 2 cards the scaling is
pretty good (around 1.85x). With 3 or 4 cards it would
definitely be worth doing one frame per gpu.

On 19 January 2016 at 00:39, Artur Woźniak
mailto:artur.w...@gmail.com>> wrote:

SO the question.
How do you setup your farm. Which is better? Multiple
cards per frame or a card per frame?

Artur

2016-01-19 0:50 GMT+01:00 Tim Crowson
mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com>>:

We're use a 'garden' really... about a dozen dedicated
machines, most with 2xTitanX cards, and we have some
workstations that can kick in if needed. You can get
through a lot with far less than before. And if you
need to upgrade, just pop in a different card. We went
from dual 770s to dual TitanXs with zero hassle and
the performance improvement was as expected: awesome.

-Tim




On 1/17/2016 11:38 AM, Graham Bell wrote:

I'd really like us to look at Redshift but too
embedded with Vray. Keeping an eye on the possible
Max integration as that could turn heads.
How big a farm are people using for Redshift, because
we do a lot of rendering.
On Fri, 15 Jan 2016 at 16:57, balazs kiss
mailto:fospu...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Hi Morten,

we're also on redshift here, and I've made
another small studio to switch too ( by showing a
few frames and the corresponding render times )..
great stuff :)

On Fri, Jan 15, 2016 at 2:54 AM, Kris Rivel
mailto:krisri...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Loove RS! Switched over after briefly
playing with Vray and never looked back. It
has been amazing so far.

Kris

On Fri, Jan 8, 2016 at 8:11 AM, Ognjen
Vukovic mailto:ognj...@gmail.com>> wrote:

I thought they mentioned having
rendermaps in soft actually working
partially, they were just looking for a
method on how to implement it across the
board.
I could be completely wrong though.
Either way i would like  the volumes more
:), sorry baking guys.

On Fri, Jan 8, 2016 at 12:13 PM, Matt
Morris mailto:matt...@gmail.com>> wrote:

I'd say the timescale for
rendermapping/baking will be months
rather than weeks - seems like
complex volume rendering will come
before baking.

On 8 January 2016 at 09:28, Ognjen
Vukovic mailto:ognj...@gmail.com>> wrote:

It wasn't supported up till now,
I think they will be introducing
it in the coming weeks.

Re: OT Maya: (Please god tell me i'm not alone with this)

[Gerbrand Nel]

Wow.. If this is the solution, I'm glad I never found it.
This was one of the many things that drove me insane enough to try houdini.
My life is s much better now :)
Lets hope it makes your life more bearable.
G
On 19/01/2016 00:23, Sebastien Sterling wrote:

Here is hoping it is that, will check.

why set to that as default :P

Thanks so much everyone !

On 18 January 2016 at 22:11, Eric Turman > wrote:


I have
Click box size: 4
Select dead space: 4
Tweak dead space: 120

On Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 2:34 PM, Sebastien Sterling
mailto:sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Click box size: 30
Select dead space: 30
Tweak dead space: 120
Are these settings higher than average for other people?

Also there is an auto select asset tick box ...




-- 





-=T=-

OT: reverse engineer a vr shoot to 3d scene and some other questions

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey guys
I might have mailed this to 3dpro earlier by mistake :)
Was suppose to be here, although 3dpro might not be the worst place to 
ask these questions.


Anyway..
Really exited to be pitching on a vr project!!
The project would consist of a spherical stereo shoot for the mid and 
far ground, and pre-rendered cg for the foreground.

My questions:
Does anyone know of a way to generate a rough point cloud of the 
environment, from the two spherical images you get from shooting 360 
stereo?
My guess is that this will help allot to place the cg into the 
environments.


Has anyone used this rig, or know of something else in this price range ?
http://www.izugar.com/product/z6x3d.html

How big a problem is sync when shooting with multi gopros?

In the past I used whirligig, but with the new oculus runtime, I 
switched to building my own vr player in unreal. What do you guys use to 
publish vr content to clients?


Thanks
Gerbrand

Re: Redshift users?

[Gerbrand Nel]

Yes but no, but yes, but no.. :)
It does, but cameras are flipped in z or something, and allot of other 
things are shait :)
Don't get me wrong, I love that awkward thing called blender, and I 
think cycles is one of the best renders out there.

just allot of this:
http://giphy.com/gifs/confused-john-travolta-blender-26tP6eYNrkMhUsvJu/fullscreen
G
On 06/01/2016 19:04, Angus Davidson wrote:


Hi Gerbrand

Can Blender import FBX animations ?

Interested to hear that Cycles is so zippy.

Kind regards

Angus

*From:*Gerbrand Nel [mailto:nagv...@gmail.com]
*Sent:* 06 January 2016 03:38 PM
*To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
*Subject:* Re: Redshift users?

I'm also doing most of my work in Houdini indie at the moment.
With the whole 3rd party render restriction, I experimented with the 
following:

Redshift in soft
Redshift in maya
Octane stand alone
Blender cycles

Octane standalone imported .abc files the best from houdini.
Soft and maya would loose things like fur, or get particle sizes mixed up
For me cycles seemed to be as good as octane, and sometimes even faster.
Some scenes were faster in redshift, and some were faster in cycles.
Blender being free makes it the obvious choice if you can get your 
stuff in there.
obj, with mdd pointcache works well, but not everything can be 
exported like this.


Waiting to see what redshift stand alone will be like, but as soon as 
blender has alembic, there will be no contest imho.

G

On 06/01/2016 01:24, Tim Leydecker wrote:

I have one RS license but am not up to date with it atm because of
other stuff taking priority.

That said, I´m looking forward to having more time with Redshift
again.

In an ideal world, sidefx would allow to run Redshift with the
Indie Houdini license.

For me, tools Redshift3D, Substance Painter, UE4, Houdini have
brought back a lot of  fun
to things that started to just feel like work.

I like the "Indie" approach most of them share and combined, it´s
awesome what is possible.

Cheers,

tim








Am 05.01.2016 um 19:13 schrieb Derek Jenson:

RS here as well! RS team supporting SI will keep Softimage
relevant for years to come. I look forward to the new features
planned for the 2.X cycle of development.



Subject: Re: Redshift users?
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
From: digim...@digimata.com <mailto:digim...@digimata.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2016 11:03:56 -0500

We  have switched to RS and haven't look back since.

On 05/01/2016 7:32 AM, Morten Bartholdy wrote:

Out of curiosity - how many of you have started using or
completely switched to Redshift?

Regards

Morten

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the University agrees in writing to the contrary.

Re: Redshift users?

[Gerbrand Nel]

I'm also doing most of my work in Houdini indie at the moment.
With the whole 3rd party render restriction, I experimented with the 
following:

Redshift in soft
Redshift in maya
Octane stand alone
Blender cycles

Octane standalone imported .abc files the best from houdini.
Soft and maya would loose things like fur, or get particle sizes mixed up
For me cycles seemed to be as good as octane, and sometimes even faster.
Some scenes were faster in redshift, and some were faster in cycles.
Blender being free makes it the obvious choice if you can get your stuff 
in there.
obj, with mdd pointcache works well, but not everything can be exported 
like this.


Waiting to see what redshift stand alone will be like, but as soon as 
blender has alembic, there will be no contest imho.

G

On 06/01/2016 01:24, Tim Leydecker wrote:
I have one RS license but am not up to date with it atm because of 
other stuff taking priority.


That said, I´m looking forward to having more time with Redshift again.

In an ideal world, sidefx would allow to run Redshift with the Indie 
Houdini license.


For me, tools Redshift3D, Substance Painter, UE4, Houdini have brought 
back a lot of  fun

to things that started to just feel like work.

I like the "Indie" approach most of them share and combined, it´s 
awesome what is possible.


Cheers,

tim









Am 05.01.2016 um 19:13 schrieb Derek Jenson:
RS here as well! RS team supporting SI will keep Softimage relevant 
for years to come. I look forward to the new features planned for the 
2.X cycle of development.



Subject: Re: Redshift users?
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
From: digim...@digimata.com
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2016 11:03:56 -0500

We  have switched to RS and haven't look back since.

On 05/01/2016 7:32 AM, Morten Bartholdy wrote:

Out of curiosity - how many of you have started using or
completely switched to Redshift?


Regards

Morten

Re: Very OT: for the love of your career.. try houdini

[Gerbrand Nel]

Yeah Mantra has this ability to make the same looking render, take 4 min 
or 2 hours, depending on your settings.
But for transparent stuff.. stay away!!! its worse than Arnold with 
internal reflections.
Really can't stress enough how important blender has become for 
rendering in my pipeline.
I've tested cycles against redshift, and octane, and in my tests, cycles 
came out top.. plus its free!!
It's a real pain to learn yet another piece of software, especially 
blender, but I don't think we can afford to ignore it any more.
If someone put a gun against my head and asked me to choose between 
blender and maya as the only tool for the rest of my life, I would 
probably go with blender.

At least its not #mylife's future looks bright bullshit.
If mantra can get gpu rendering for those smaller but annoying jobs, 
that end up paying most of my bills, life would be sweet, Until then its 
a mix between houdini and blender for me :)




On 04/01/2016 12:23, Tim Leydecker wrote:

Regarding rendering in Houdini.

Currently, in H15 (15.0303) I´m finding UDIM support a bit limited, 
f.e. for all those cases where one
would want to do adjustment stuff to a texture put inside a Cop2net 
and then pointing to that in a map slot.


op:obj/cop2net/OUT

The limitiation is that the file import available inside a cop2net 
dosn´t provide UDIM extension resolving,
the workaround would be to do the adjustments to the UDIMS as if it 
was a sequence (e.g. 1001, 1002, etc)

and then write the results out to file and link those as maps instead.

That´s an extra step that could be seen desireable anyway, depending 
on where the hand-off line for assets is
drawn between people/pipeline but still, I would prefer to be able to 
keep the adjustments live and quickly
accessible directly from a map input slot, understood at a glance. A 
personal preference I guess and not yet

checked against caveats in dependencies for a packaged/exported asset.

All that´s obviously inspired by one of Rohan Dahlvi´s Houdini 
tutorials (he´s using that for editing an Hdr for lighting).


--

For general rendering, Mantra really feels like a brother from a 
different mother compared to Arnold.


Same quirks when it comes to finding out how Normalmaps are 
interpreted, colorspace/tonemapping guesswork needed when
driving stuff like the roughness and even similar types of rendering 
artifacts. Indirect bounce noise, gloss/reflect firelies, etc.


One example is driving a roughness in a material with a texture that 
hasn´t been clamped a little bit. It´s easy enough to create
fireflies with (ultra)blacks in that texture and end up trying to 
sample that away in rendering. Couple that with DOF and you
find yourself using insane levels of pixel samples and noise threshold 
to get rid of those fireflies. Won´t work, check your roughness
values, clamp to 0-1 (or 0.1-0.8) and find that you can save hours of 
render time...


Like I said, it feels just like Arnold, the same user, the same 
problems :-)


Cheers,


tim







Am 03.01.2016 um 20:07 schrieb Gerbrand Nel:

Yeah,, not to indie :(
On 03/01/2016 20:27, Jordi Bares wrote:

Ha ha ha….

It is true, we are all getting spoiled by Redshift… but hey! that is 
coming to Houdini too!!!


;-)
jb



On 3 Jan 2016, at 19:22, Gerbrand Nel  wrote:

Wow.. forgot about this rant :)
It's been about 9 months since I wrote that, and I'm still pretty 
happy with houdini.

Only thing I don't like much as a freelancer is Mantra.
Like Jordi said, its probably comparable to Arnold. (I did a fur 
job a few months ago, and it was allot faster than Arnold for what 
we wanted to do)
Also like Jordi said, you can do some amazing things with mantra, 
like distorting uvs with fractals at shader level (this has been 
blowing my mind for the last few months)


BUT... I get the feeling Mantra is designed for large productions, 
where there is a farm to take the hits.
If you were spoiled by redshift, or octane, be prepared to pull 
some hair out.
I render most of my simple jobs through blender (cycles is bloody 
awesome!!!), and heavy things with volumes I do in mantra.


This just happened while I was replying to this mail..
https://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=42678 


Might be worth looking into :)
G

On 02/01/2016 19:27, Tim Leydecker wrote:
Now, to keep that thread alive and because Autodesk is about to 
gently push people more

and more into the rental this but don´t own that corner.

I´m currently dabbling with the "Apprentice" Houdini 15 version.

Mostly at the single click level of things. Doubleclicking on a 
node still often drives sweat into my hands...


It´s nice that using Physically based rendering and shaders as 
well as pretty much anything related
to a first testrendering seems well enough balanced to give a 
pleasing result to start with. No gamma issues.


Hit render, it´ll probably look not too shabby with the

Re: Very OT: for the love of your career.. try houdini

[Gerbrand Nel]

Yeah,, not to indie :(
On 03/01/2016 20:27, Jordi Bares wrote:

Ha ha ha….

It is true, we are all getting spoiled by Redshift… but hey! that is coming to 
Houdini too!!!

;-)
jb



On 3 Jan 2016, at 19:22, Gerbrand Nel  wrote:

Wow.. forgot about this rant :)
It's been about 9 months since I wrote that, and I'm still pretty happy with 
houdini.
Only thing I don't like much as a freelancer is Mantra.
Like Jordi said, its probably comparable to Arnold. (I did a fur job a few 
months ago, and it was allot faster than Arnold for what we wanted to do)
Also like Jordi said, you can do some amazing things with mantra, like 
distorting uvs with fractals at shader level (this has been blowing my mind for 
the last few months)

BUT... I get the feeling Mantra is designed for large productions, where there 
is a farm to take the hits.
If you were spoiled by redshift, or octane, be prepared to pull some hair out.
I render most of my simple jobs through blender (cycles is bloody awesome!!!), 
and heavy things with volumes I do in mantra.

This just happened while I was replying to this mail..
https://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=42678
Might be worth looking into :)
G

On 02/01/2016 19:27, Tim Leydecker wrote:

Now, to keep that thread alive and because Autodesk is about to gently push 
people more
and more into the rental this but don´t own that corner.

I´m currently dabbling with the "Apprentice" Houdini 15 version.

Mostly at the single click level of things. Doubleclicking on a node still 
often drives sweat into my hands...

It´s nice that using Physically based rendering and shaders as well as pretty 
much anything related
to a first testrendering seems well enough balanced to give a pleasing result 
to start with. No gamma issues.

Hit render, it´ll probably look not too shabby with the defaults already. That 
helps a lot in the first steps.

But then really getting rid of indirect illumination noise is uhmm, something 
different thought.
That´s where Houdini eats CPU power more than I would have expected actually, 
indirect bounce cleaning is expensive.
Same for getting volumetric stuff noise free. That stuff sure is heavy to 
calculate and indirect bounce noise seems
not too easy to get rid off even with the added controls available in Houdini 
15.

Or maybe my threshold for noise is too low. My personal noise threshold I mean.

Coming from Arnold, playing with Houdini´s render settings feels familiar 
enough, thought.

I like Mantra, even if I find it slow to what I am spoiled with from Redshift3D.

--

In terms of modeling and doing things inside Houdini, I wouldn´t want to miss 
an external asset creation package
to go along with Houdini. Doesn´t matter what, Blender, Modo, Maya, Softimage, 
Max, etc.

Just something more focused on asset creation or *.abc cache generation to be 
then pulled into Houdini.

I can see myself using Houdini more and more for both first steps in FX and 
actual rendering shots.

I like Houdini and the free entry ticket is great, I´ll be upgrading to the 
Indie soon. Just for playing.

Cheers,

tim








Am 17.03.2015 um 11:11 schrieb Gerbrand Nel:

I'm not getting anything out of posting this, except knowing I might save the 
life of a fellow artist.

So I spent the last year learning Maya, and got to a point where I can compete 
against people straight out of collage.
This got me a bit down, as I'm one of the more experienced softimage artists 
here in South Africa.
At the end of 2014 I realized that 3D is no longer fun if it all has to happen 
in maya for me.
My brain doesn't work the way maya works.
I'm also not much of a clairvoyant, so predicting what I have to do now, just 
in case the director asks for something in 2 weeks from now, lead to allot of 
back tracking.

At first I decided to learn Maya over houdini because of the price tag of 
Houdini FX.
It also seemed like I would exclude myself from bigger projects if I was one, 
of only a few houdini artists around.
Houdini indie, and indie engine has completely nullified these concerns.

The perceived learning curve of houdini was also a bit of a concern to me.

I started learning houdini 2 months ago, and I can do more with it, than I can 
with Maya after a year.
The first few days in houdini is pretty hard, but the whole package works as 
one. Once you get your head around its fundamentals, doing something new is fun 
and pretty easy.

This might not be true for everyone here, but some of us needs a non 
destructive open work flow.
So if you guys haven't tried it yet, and if you are fed up with the whole "there is 
a script for that" mentality... there is a sop for that

G


.

Re: Very OT: for the love of your career.. try houdini

[Gerbrand Nel]

Wow.. forgot about this rant :)
It's been about 9 months since I wrote that, and I'm still pretty happy 
with houdini.

Only thing I don't like much as a freelancer is Mantra.
Like Jordi said, its probably comparable to Arnold. (I did a fur job a 
few months ago, and it was allot faster than Arnold for what we wanted 
to do)
Also like Jordi said, you can do some amazing things with mantra, like 
distorting uvs with fractals at shader level (this has been blowing my 
mind for the last few months)


BUT... I get the feeling Mantra is designed for large productions, where 
there is a farm to take the hits.
If you were spoiled by redshift, or octane, be prepared to pull some 
hair out.
I render most of my simple jobs through blender (cycles is bloody 
awesome!!!), and heavy things with volumes I do in mantra.


This just happened while I was replying to this mail..
https://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=42678
Might be worth looking into :)
G

On 02/01/2016 19:27, Tim Leydecker wrote:
Now, to keep that thread alive and because Autodesk is about to gently 
push people more

and more into the rental this but don´t own that corner.

I´m currently dabbling with the "Apprentice" Houdini 15 version.

Mostly at the single click level of things. Doubleclicking on a node 
still often drives sweat into my hands...


It´s nice that using Physically based rendering and shaders as well as 
pretty much anything related
to a first testrendering seems well enough balanced to give a pleasing 
result to start with. No gamma issues.


Hit render, it´ll probably look not too shabby with the defaults 
already. That helps a lot in the first steps.


But then really getting rid of indirect illumination noise is uhmm, 
something different thought.
That´s where Houdini eats CPU power more than I would have expected 
actually, indirect bounce cleaning is expensive.
Same for getting volumetric stuff noise free. That stuff sure is heavy 
to calculate and indirect bounce noise seems
not too easy to get rid off even with the added controls available in 
Houdini 15.


Or maybe my threshold for noise is too low. My personal noise 
threshold I mean.


Coming from Arnold, playing with Houdini´s render settings feels 
familiar enough, thought.


I like Mantra, even if I find it slow to what I am spoiled with from 
Redshift3D.


--

In terms of modeling and doing things inside Houdini, I wouldn´t want 
to miss an external asset creation package
to go along with Houdini. Doesn´t matter what, Blender, Modo, Maya, 
Softimage, Max, etc.


Just something more focused on asset creation or *.abc cache 
generation to be then pulled into Houdini.


I can see myself using Houdini more and more for both first steps in 
FX and actual rendering shots.


I like Houdini and the free entry ticket is great, I´ll be upgrading 
to the Indie soon. Just for playing.


Cheers,

tim








Am 17.03.2015 um 11:11 schrieb Gerbrand Nel:
I'm not getting anything out of posting this, except knowing I might 
save the life of a fellow artist.


So I spent the last year learning Maya, and got to a point where I 
can compete against people straight out of collage.
This got me a bit down, as I'm one of the more experienced softimage 
artists here in South Africa.
At the end of 2014 I realized that 3D is no longer fun if it all has 
to happen in maya for me.

My brain doesn't work the way maya works.
I'm also not much of a clairvoyant, so predicting what I have to do 
now, just in case the director asks for something in 2 weeks from 
now, lead to allot of back tracking.


At first I decided to learn Maya over houdini because of the price 
tag of Houdini FX.
It also seemed like I would exclude myself from bigger projects if I 
was one, of only a few houdini artists around.

Houdini indie, and indie engine has completely nullified these concerns.

The perceived learning curve of houdini was also a bit of a concern 
to me.


I started learning houdini 2 months ago, and I can do more with it, 
than I can with Maya after a year.
The first few days in houdini is pretty hard, but the whole package 
works as one. Once you get your head around its fundamentals, doing 
something new is fun and pretty easy.


This might not be true for everyone here, but some of us needs a non 
destructive open work flow.
So if you guys haven't tried it yet, and if you are fed up with the 
whole "there is a script for that" mentality... there is a sop for that


G



.

Re: Have a question an alternative tool

[Gerbrand Nel]

+1 on what Matt said
I spent a year in maya, and a year in houdini.
For me it personally comes down to the following.
Almost all things will initially happen quicker in maya,. and then 
you start praying!

You pray the client doesn't change anything!
You pray you didn't forget anything in step 4 of your 15 step pipeline.
AND ABOVE ALL YOU PRAY THE BASTARD DOESN'T BREAK.

In Houdini on the other hand, I feel relaxed. I know I can probably 
change anything at any time without destroying anything, or re-doing too 
much work.
This is the most important aspect of houdini most people overlook when 
they try it.
I've seen a few people leave houdini after a few days, because they feel 
they can get the same thing done quicker in maya..
They then see me leave... every day... at 5pm, cause my client changes 
took 2 hours while theirs will take the whole night.
I know you said you mostly do animation and gaming. Houdini is not 
famous for animation, but to be honest with you, this is probably 
because most people who use houdini overlook the awesomeness of chops.

Just look at this for a quick intro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiaNyYnzEQM

G


On 24/11/2015 02:14, Matt Lind wrote:
This really depends on how you fit into the game development side of 
the equation.


I've worked on games in most genres and formats.  In my experience, 
game assets are typically very iteration heavy because they must 
remain live at all times (compare to Film/video assets which are 
mostly locked down once images have been rendered because you can't 
continually re-render the entire film).  It takes people time to make 
those revisions, which is the most valuable resource and also the most 
mismanaged.


I steer towards iteration friendly workflows as iteration tends to be 
the #1 time/money loss in game development art pipelines.
It's almost a guarantee any game asset will be revised, and revised 
many times - especially if the engine and other underlying components 
of the game are not settled.  Iteration is often overlooked as a 
factor when evaluating software and making schedules.  Too often 
people focus on trivial details such as number of mouse clicks or 
creating asset version 1, when instead they should be focused on the 
500+ revisions that come later.  If iteration is heavy in your 
pipeline, consider Houdini.  What you give up in playback speed or 
other things you take for granted, you can earn back on the reduced 
iteration factor.


Don't worry too much about who has plugins for getting stuff into an 
engine as all the major players have that capability.  And even so, 
many studios opt to write their own exporters because they need 
support for features not included in the plugins.  Instead, focus on 
reliability over the life of the product, not just the current version 
being demo'd by the sales guy. Remember, you'll have to update your 
DCC at some point.  If it must rely on multiple service packs every 
release to get right (or merely usable), what message does that send?  
Think about how that affects production during crunch time.  Also 
think about the opposite - do you have the option of riding a 
particular version without being forced to update?  It would really 
suck to be forced to update into a regression of an important feature.



Matt






Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2015 13:31:20 +0100
From: Daniel Kim 
Subject: Have a question an alternative tool
To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com"

Hey guys.

I just like to ask if you guys found 3D software as alternative tool.
I am also looking for a software, but it is hard to decide one. What I am
doing is mostly animation and game works, not motion graphic or 
simulation

stuff.

So far MODO seems nice, but many colleagues suggest me Cinema4D. I also
like to know what you guys chose. If you guys also can put short comment
what is good about that software, that will be thankful.

Cheers
Daniel

.

Re: OT: Fabric for vr and kinect mocap

[Gerbrand Nel]

Thanks guys.. now where would I start?
Do I need to go through basic tutorials and properly learn it before I 
can play with oculus and kinect, or is there a shortcut?
I know this sounds extremely lazy, but I'm sooo tired of learning new 
software at the moment.. For once I just want to get some work done :)

I suppose the fabric google group is where I should continue this.
Thanks guys :)
G
On 17/11/2015 14:08, Juan Brockhaus wrote:

Hi Gerbarnd,


yes, Simon is right. it's yes to all of your questions actually.
been to a workshop of FE and we did a similar thing of what your 
asking for as a test/dev.

they're activly working on vr integration.

cheers,

Juan




On Tue, Nov 17, 2015 at 12:33 PM, Simon Reeves <mailto:si...@simonreeves.com>> wrote:


Have had good contact recently with fabric guys and I think the
answer is yes to all of that, saw some really good demos live
mocap and live camera systems

fabric has mailing lists too, google groups in fact

On Tue, 17 Nov 2015 at 11:21 Gerbrand Nel mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Hey guys
I've opened fabric a few times, made a torus, searched for
things that
doesn't exist, and then closed it again.
It feels like ICE but so far I've been too overwhelmed by
houdini/blender/octane/unreal to get into fabric.

I'm not sure where to ask these questions, so I'm just gonna
ask the
smartest people I know :)

I'm working on a pre rendered vr presentation at the moment,
and I'm
finding it a huge ball-ache to position the camera.
I have to guess the position, render, convert to movie, and
then play
through a vr player.
My question is:
Would fabric be able to help me position my camera(oculus
point of view)
in the scene, save a key frame, move to the next place in
time, and set
another key frame?
Then hit play to see the results through the oculus?

The other thing I was wondering about is:
Can fabric be used to make a crude mocap system from a kinect
sensor?

Thanks for reading, oh and do you guys know of a list like
this for
fabric? I hate web forums for these kinds of questions.
G

-- 
Simon Reeves

London, UK
/si...@simonreeves.com <mailto:si...@simonreeves.com>/
/www.simonreeves.com <http://www.simonreeves.com/>/
/www.analogstudio.co.uk <http://www.analogstudio.co.uk/>/

OT: Fabric for vr and kinect mocap

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey guys
I've opened fabric a few times, made a torus, searched for things that 
doesn't exist, and then closed it again.
It feels like ICE but so far I've been too overwhelmed by 
houdini/blender/octane/unreal to get into fabric.


I'm not sure where to ask these questions, so I'm just gonna ask the 
smartest people I know :)


I'm working on a pre rendered vr presentation at the moment, and I'm 
finding it a huge ball-ache to position the camera.
I have to guess the position, render, convert to movie, and then play 
through a vr player.

My question is:
Would fabric be able to help me position my camera(oculus point of view) 
in the scene, save a key frame, move to the next place in time, and set 
another key frame?

Then hit play to see the results through the oculus?

The other thing I was wondering about is:
Can fabric be used to make a crude mocap system from a kinect sensor?

Thanks for reading, oh and do you guys know of a list like this for 
fabric? I hate web forums for these kinds of questions.

G

Re: Please explain Maya pivot points to a Softimage thinker

[Gerbrand Nel]

When I'm forced to work in maya, I make a point to watch that video at 
least once every morning, and twice after every crash.. it keeps me 
insane ;) which is perfect for working in maya

G
On 06/11/2015 09:50, Christian Keller wrote:

That explains a lot ;)

--
Christian Keller
Visual effects|direction
m  +49 179 69 36 248

chris3...@me.com <mailto:chris3...@me.com>
Vimeo.com/channels/96149 <http://vimeo.com/channels/96149>

Am 04.11.2015 um 17:43 schrieb Gerbrand Nel <mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>>:



Agreed...
Rather watch this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmtzQCSh6xk
It makes more sense.
G
On 04/11/2015 18:13, Sebastien Sterling wrote:
This is actually quite sickening to watch, but cheers Francois, at 
least we know what we are dealing with.


On 4 November 2015 at 15:46, Francois Lord <mailto:flordli...@gmail.com>> wrote:


Does this help?
https://youtu.be/Z8zVjLoHWjk?list=PLP5KnnScX57byOldVy9rQlBRARrX6gy4b



On 2015-11-04 09:34, Byron Nash wrote:

I'm trying to get some objects zero-ed out in Maya but keep
running into what I assume is a paradigm difference between
how Maya and Soft handle center points and transforms. In
Soft, I can move the center/pivot and it will change the
transform values. So, I can reset the center to be in the
middle of the geometry and then zero the position to get the
object to snap back to the world center or parent center. In
Maya, moving the pivot does not seem to change the transform
of the object when you move the pivot. So I can't then zero
the values and get the objects to return to zero. Sometimes,
the object and it's center are clearly NOT at zero but
that's what the values say. There are some Local Space/World
space values in the attribute editor, but I can't figure out
how to get things reset properly.

Any help from a Softimage perspective is appreciated.

Re: Please explain Maya pivot points to a Softimage thinker

[Gerbrand Nel]

Agreed...
Rather watch this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmtzQCSh6xk
It makes more sense.
G
On 04/11/2015 18:13, Sebastien Sterling wrote:
This is actually quite sickening to watch, but cheers Francois, at 
least we know what we are dealing with.


On 4 November 2015 at 15:46, Francois Lord > wrote:


Does this help?
https://youtu.be/Z8zVjLoHWjk?list=PLP5KnnScX57byOldVy9rQlBRARrX6gy4b


On 2015-11-04 09:34, Byron Nash wrote:

I'm trying to get some objects zero-ed out in Maya but keep
running into what I assume is a paradigm difference between
how Maya and Soft handle center points and transforms. In
Soft, I can move the center/pivot and it will change the
transform values. So, I can reset the center to be in the
middle of the geometry and then zero the position to get the
object to snap back to the world center or parent center. In
Maya, moving the pivot does not seem to change the transform
of the object when you move the pivot. So I can't then zero
the values and get the objects to return to zero. Sometimes,
the object and it's center are clearly NOT at zero but that's
what the values say. There are some Local Space/World space
values in the attribute editor, but I can't figure out how to
get things reset properly.

Any help from a Softimage perspective is appreciated.

Re: OT:Houdini indie render solution

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey guys
I'm still on about this shit :)
So Cycles is impressive!! And free, so setting up a farm is about 
finding computers and that's it :)

Only thing is, until they have alembic in blender, its going to be painful.
I'm trying to get fur into blender at the moment. I've created an obj of 
my "render time fur" and used .MDD to transfer the animation.
This works really well, but I have no idea how to convince blender that 
it is fur, or anything render-able.

Anyone here know how thit might be accomplished?
Particles will be the next problem, so if you know, please tell me :)
Thanks
Gerbrand

Re: OT:Houdini indie render solution

[Gerbrand Nel]

Thanks Angus.
I played a bit with octane today.. #mindBlown
Man this thing is pretty!!
I think I might have found my solution.
I will be sitting next to a blender guru the next few days, so lets see 
what that yields.

So far, getting cameras and animations into blender is a real pain.
Octane seems to get all the info it needs from a single alembic.. exept 
lights.
Anyone know if I can place my lights in houdini, and link them to octane 
lights or something like that??
Cause sometimes you will want to animate your cars headlights in the 
DCC, not the render engine :)

Thanks
G
On 26/10/2015 18:42, Angus Davidson wrote:


Houdini indie has alembic export, which you can then import into 
Octane  standalone.


*From:*Gerbrand Nel [mailto:nagv...@gmail.com]
*Sent:* 26 October 2015 12:15 PM
*To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
*Subject:* Re: OT:Houdini indie render solution

Thanks guys.. this is great info!!
I've been thinking about buying houdini base to do most of my work 
with 3rd party renders, and then use indie with mantra if I need fx stuff.

This is still a very expensive solution, but I need a solution soon.
This week will be spent learning blender, and trying to get as much 
out of houdini into blender.
Some of the guys at one of my clients were testing cycles vs 
redshift.. Weird thing is, Cycles kicked redshifts butt on some of the 
tests, and was never much slower on the rest.


Mantra is a strange beast. It seems like with enough tweaking, you can 
turn a 1 min render into a 4 hour render without seeing much 
difference in quality. Also you can make a 4 hour render happen in 2 
min with much better results.

Arnold spoiled me rotten :)
I'll also look into octane, so my limited verdict will be shared.
Thanks
G


On 26/10/2015 12:01, Ognjen Vukovic wrote:

+1

On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 10:59 AM, Rob Wuijster mailto:r...@casema.nl>> wrote:

yes, but on a Indie version it's still out of reach.

It would be great if there was a slightly more expensive Indie
version of Houdini that would actually allow 3rd party renderers.
The FX version including maintenance is just a tad too rich for a
lot of people. ;-)

Rob

\/-\/\/

On 26-10-2015 10:52, Sandy Sutherland wrote:

Gerbrand - Redshift may well be appearing in a Houdini near
you soon'ish, just a FYI.

S.

On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 9:37 AM, Ognjen Vukovic
mailto:ognj...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Generally fur with redshift isnt a problem at all. I have
rendered Paul's fuzz plug-in a couple of times, and its a
breeze to work with. Hair cached as alembic should work
without a problem. Theres one gotcha and its if the points are
created in ice as any shape other then segment, it wont render.

On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 9:02 AM, Tim Leydecker
mailto:bauero...@gmx.de>> wrote:

Hi Gerbrand,

for curves, e.g. fur, the latest versions of redshift are
supposed to support Maya´s Xgen
for fur descriptions, I think there´s one or two guys here on
the list who render fur with redshift.

Also version 2.10 of yeti was announced to support redshift,
which would mean rendering
yeti data using redshift.

Both I haven´t gotten around to try yet (i have no yeti
license at home and no redshift at work...)
but would love to get some info. The difficult bit would be
how to get such data from Houdini Indie into Maya?

For volumes, I have no news from redshift but it´s on their
list afaik.

Cheers,

tim



    Am 26.10.2015 um 08:11 schrieb Gerbrand Nel:

Hi guys.
I have been doing most of my jobs in houdini since the start
of 2015, and I'm loving the work flow.
Most things just work, and although I have to re-learn allot
of skills, I feel like this is an upgrade to my skill set.
There is one huge problem though.
Everything needs to get rendered at the end of the day.
Mantra is beautiful, and amazingly powerful, and can get the
job done, but its kinda slow.
Well slow in my incapable hands.
I've done a few tutorials on rendering, but no matter how much
I tweak, a render still takes around 15 to 20 min per frame.
As far as cpu renders go, this is not so bad, but I'm a
freelancer, and most of the other freelancers around me have
switched to redshift.
I've done a few comparisons, and most of the times redshift
will give you the same results in 1/5 of the time.
Rendering normal geometry via alembic in soft or maya is not
the end of the world, but how would I render fur or volumes?
I'm using houdini indie, so 3rd party renders in houdini are
out of the question for me.

Re: OT:Houdini indie render solution

[Gerbrand Nel]

Alembic for blender is being developed.
but... not here yet.
I found this:
http://forums.odforce.net/topic/18445-houdini-to-blender-connector/
But It doesn't seem to work with h14 or h15.
There has been no word on this for a few years.
Pity.. it seems like it would have solved allot of my problems
G
On 26/10/2015 16:01, Ognjen Vukovic wrote:

That sounds like a very niche tutorial but it might be out there.
Im amazed at the fact that blenderites haven't dug their open source 
teeth into alembic yet.


On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 2:54 PM, Gerbrand Nel <mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:


So after just a few hours, I'm impressed with cycles.. needs more
investigation IMO.
So do you guys know of a good way to work around the whole "lack
of alembic" thing in blender.
In the past I've moved pc2 data from soft to blender, but I'm not
sure how to do this via houdini. Anyone know of a good way to move
"things you would usually move with alembic" from houdini to blender?
Thanks
G

On 26/10/2015 15:22, Tim Leydecker wrote:

I am pretty sure I got that info from the redshift forums but
searching the whole forum for "yeti"
doesn´t return a hit. Can´t find it.

The reason I have that omnious "yeti 2.10&redshift3d" in my head
is that a day after I had asked
a pipeline to be upgraded to the latest yeti plug-in version
(2.09 then) I had found that info on
2.10 supposedly introducing redshift support.

I´m digging. Can´t really actually just quickly test things
thought, atm.

Without yeti at home, I mean.

Cheers,

tim


Am 26.10.2015 um 11:44 schrieb Matt Morris:

Hi Tim,
that's good news about yeti 2.10 and redshift - is there a link
somewhere to read up on this?
Cheers,
Matt


On 26 October 2015 at 08:02, Tim Leydecker mailto:bauero...@gmx.de>> wrote:

Hi Gerbrand,

for curves, e.g. fur, the latest versions of redshift are
supposed to support Maya´s Xgen
for fur descriptions, I think there´s one or two guys here
on the list who render fur with redshift.

Also version 2.10 of yeti was announced to support redshift,
which would mean rendering
yeti data using redshift.

Both I haven´t gotten around to try yet (i have no yeti
license at home and no redshift at work...)
but would love to get some info. The difficult bit would be
how to get such data from Houdini Indie into Maya?

For volumes, I have no news from redshift but it´s on their
list afaik.

Cheers,

tim

Re: OT:Houdini indie render solution

[Gerbrand Nel]

So after just a few hours, I'm impressed with cycles.. needs more 
investigation IMO.
So do you guys know of a good way to work around the whole "lack of 
alembic" thing in blender.
In the past I've moved pc2 data from soft to blender, but I'm not sure 
how to do this via houdini. Anyone know of a good way to move "things 
you would usually move with alembic" from houdini to blender?

Thanks
G
On 26/10/2015 15:22, Tim Leydecker wrote:
I am pretty sure I got that info from the redshift forums but 
searching the whole forum for "yeti"

doesn´t return a hit. Can´t find it.

The reason I have that omnious "yeti 2.10&redshift3d" in my head is 
that a day after I had asked
a pipeline to be upgraded to the latest yeti plug-in version (2.09 
then) I had found that info on

2.10 supposedly introducing redshift support.

I´m digging. Can´t really actually just quickly test things thought, atm.

Without yeti at home, I mean.

Cheers,

tim


Am 26.10.2015 um 11:44 schrieb Matt Morris:

Hi Tim,
that's good news about yeti 2.10 and redshift - is there a link 
somewhere to read up on this?

Cheers,
Matt


On 26 October 2015 at 08:02, Tim Leydecker > wrote:


Hi Gerbrand,

for curves, e.g. fur, the latest versions of redshift are
supposed to support Maya´s Xgen
for fur descriptions, I think there´s one or two guys here on the
list who render fur with redshift.

Also version 2.10 of yeti was announced to support redshift,
which would mean rendering
yeti data using redshift.

Both I haven´t gotten around to try yet (i have no yeti license
at home and no redshift at work...)
but would love to get some info. The difficult bit would be how
to get such data from Houdini Indie into Maya?

For volumes, I have no news from redshift but it´s on their list
afaik.

Cheers,

tim

Re: OT:Houdini indie render solution

[Gerbrand Nel]

Thanks guys.. this is great info!!
I've been thinking about buying houdini base to do most of my work with 
3rd party renders, and then use indie with mantra if I need fx stuff.

This is still a very expensive solution, but I need a solution soon.
This week will be spent learning blender, and trying to get as much out 
of houdini into blender.
Some of the guys at one of my clients were testing cycles vs redshift.. 
Weird thing is, Cycles kicked redshifts butt on some of the tests, and 
was never much slower on the rest.


Mantra is a strange beast. It seems like with enough tweaking, you can 
turn a 1 min render into a 4 hour render without seeing much difference 
in quality. Also you can make a 4 hour render happen in 2 min with much 
better results.

Arnold spoiled me rotten :)
I'll also look into octane, so my limited verdict will be shared.
Thanks
G


On 26/10/2015 12:01, Ognjen Vukovic wrote:

+1

On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 10:59 AM, Rob Wuijster <mailto:r...@casema.nl>> wrote:


yes, but on a Indie version it's still out of reach.

It would be great if there was a slightly more expensive Indie
version of Houdini that would actually allow 3rd party renderers.
The FX version including maintenance is just a tad too rich for a
lot of people. ;-)

Rob

\/-\/\/

On 26-10-2015 10:52, Sandy Sutherland wrote:

Gerbrand - Redshift may well be appearing in a Houdini near you
soon'ish, just a FYI.

S.

On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 9:37 AM, Ognjen Vukovic
mailto:ognj...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Generally fur with redshift isnt a problem at all. I have
rendered Paul's fuzz plug-in a couple of times, and its a
breeze to work with. Hair cached as alembic should work
without a problem. Theres one gotcha and its if the points
are created in ice as any shape other then segment, it wont
render.

On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 9:02 AM, Tim Leydecker
mailto:bauero...@gmx.de>> wrote:

Hi Gerbrand,

for curves, e.g. fur, the latest versions of redshift are
supposed to support Maya´s Xgen
for fur descriptions, I think there´s one or two guys
here on the list who render fur with redshift.

Also version 2.10 of yeti was announced to support
redshift, which would mean rendering
yeti data using redshift.

Both I haven´t gotten around to try yet (i have no yeti
license at home and no redshift at work...)
but would love to get some info. The difficult bit would
be how to get such data from Houdini Indie into Maya?

For volumes, I have no news from redshift but it´s on
their list afaik.

Cheers,

tim


        Am 26.10.2015 um 08:11 schrieb Gerbrand Nel:

Hi guys.
I have been doing most of my jobs in houdini since
the start of 2015, and I'm loving the work flow.
Most things just work, and although I have to
re-learn allot of skills, I feel like this is an
upgrade to my skill set.
There is one huge problem though.
Everything needs to get rendered at the end of the day.
Mantra is beautiful, and amazingly powerful, and can
get the job done, but its kinda slow.
Well slow in my incapable hands.
I've done a few tutorials on rendering, but no matter
how much I tweak, a render still takes around 15 to
20 min per frame.
As far as cpu renders go, this is not so bad, but I'm
a freelancer, and most of the other freelancers
around me have switched to redshift.
I've done a few comparisons, and most of the times
redshift will give you the same results in 1/5 of the
time.
Rendering normal geometry via alembic in soft or maya
is not the end of the world, but how would I render
fur or volumes?
I'm using houdini indie, so 3rd party renders in
houdini are out of the question for me.
Do you guys know of a way to get fur or volumes from
houdini into maya/softimage?
I would like to give Blender/Cycles a go, but I have
never used blender for anything other than camera
tracking.
Cycles seems like it is up for the task, but without
alembic, how would this work?
Any input on this matter would rock!!
Thanks guys
Gerbrand




No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com <http://www.avg.com>
Version: 2015.0.6173 / Virus Database: 4450/10888 - Release Date:
10/25/15

OT:Houdini indie render solution

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hi guys.
I have been doing most of my jobs in houdini since the start of 2015, 
and I'm loving the work flow.
Most things just work, and although I have to re-learn allot of skills, 
I feel like this is an upgrade to my skill set.

There is one huge problem though.
Everything needs to get rendered at the end of the day.
Mantra is beautiful, and amazingly powerful, and can get the job done, 
but its kinda slow.

Well slow in my incapable hands.
I've done a few tutorials on rendering, but no matter how much I tweak, 
a render still takes around 15 to 20 min per frame.
As far as cpu renders go, this is not so bad, but I'm a freelancer, and 
most of the other freelancers around me have switched to redshift.
I've done a few comparisons, and most of the times redshift will give 
you the same results in 1/5 of the time.
Rendering normal geometry via alembic in soft or maya is not the end of 
the world, but how would I render fur or volumes?
I'm using houdini indie, so 3rd party renders in houdini are out of the 
question for me.
Do you guys know of a way to get fur or volumes from houdini into 
maya/softimage?
I would like to give Blender/Cycles a go, but I have never used blender 
for anything other than camera tracking.
Cycles seems like it is up for the task, but without alembic, how would 
this work?

Any input on this matter would rock!!
Thanks guys
Gerbrand

Re: OT "add edge" tool in houdini?

[Gerbrand Nel]

Didn't go too well. I have no idea how its suppose to work.
I found this link, but it's not the same as adding edges
https://vimeo.com/103820306
I used the new topo tools, but they were less than ideal.
I just want to draw some edges to get my topology the way I want it.
Exporting to softimage was the fastest solution at the end.
Thanks for the input
G
On 19/10/2015 17:17, Cristobal Infante wrote:

have a look at polyknit.

It was a bit buggy when I used it first, but hopefully it has been 
improved for H14/15


Let us know how it goes!

C

On 19 October 2015 at 15:04, Gerbrand Nel <mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:


Hey guys.
Just a quick question.
Is there tool in houdini similar to the "add edge " tool in softimage?
Thanks
G

OT "add edge" tool in houdini?

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey guys.
Just a quick question.
Is there tool in houdini similar to the "add edge " tool in softimage?
Thanks
G

Re: Houdini 15 teaser

[Gerbrand Nel]

Not really.. they do daily builds :P
Unlike "other" software vendors who secretes a substandard service pack 
whenever they can be bothered.


On 10/08/2015 16:44, Ben Rogall wrote:

Looks great. So Houdini is on a 9 month release schedule?

On 8/10/2015 6:31 AM, David Saber wrote:
https://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3118&Itemid=226 

So what do you think? As for me I like what I see. Many things we 
liked in Soft!

Cheers
David

Re: EXR channels in photoshop

[Gerbrand Nel]

Thanks!!!
G
On 17/07/2015 16:59, Ben Rogall wrote:

Aand it does work in PS too. Sorry for the noise.

On 7/17/2015 9:57 AM, Ben Rogall wrote:

Sorry, saw Adobe and assumed After Effects.

On 7/17/2015 9:55 AM, Ben Rogall wrote:

http://www.fnordware.com/ProEXR/

On 7/17/2015 9:51 AM, Rob Wuijster wrote:
Not by default as far as I know, unless something radically changed 
after CS 5.5


There are some exr plugins out there, but I'm not sure if they can 
extract the AOV's though...

We're still talking Adobe here ;-P
Rob

\/-\/\/
On 17-7-2015 16:39, Gerbrand Nel wrote:

Hey guys and girls.
Does anyone know of a way to extract AOVs from a EXR in photoshop?
Or any other way to get them into photoshop?
I'm comping stills for a storyboard, and I would like to use some 
AOVs made in mantra

G..

ps: I'm hanging on to my flip phone, and staying the fuck away 
from whatever autodesk deems to be current |:P


No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com <http://www.avg.com>
Version: 2015.0.6081 / Virus Database: 4392/10240 - Release Date: 
07/16/15

EXR channels in photoshop

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey guys and girls.
Does anyone know of a way to extract AOVs from a EXR in photoshop?
Or any other way to get them into photoshop?
I'm comping stills for a storyboard, and I would like to use some AOVs 
made in mantra

G..

ps: I'm hanging on to my flip phone, and staying the fuck away from 
whatever autodesk deems to be current |:P

Re: Get rid of your flip phone and get current on maya!

[Gerbrand Nel]

wow.. I'm going to call sideFX now and ask them to cancel my houdini 
indie, cause after that video, I'm convinced there is no other future 
than the brightness that is maya!!
Dear Autodesk, please create a paypal account so I can just randomly 
give you my money for being awesome.





on a side note: Waking up on the couch at work is common for maya users.

Re: nice to see soft still hitting big

[Gerbrand Nel]

I still miss allot of things in softimage, but I'm at that point where, 
even if they told us all that the EOL of soft was a bad joke that went 
on too long, I would still stick to houdini.
Right now, the only thing that I really don't like about houdini, is the 
price of fx.

G

On 29/06/2015 19:58, Simon van de Lagemaat wrote:
Houdini is amazing and non destructive and I love it. Building your 
own tools is quite liberating, fun times.

OT: mantra problem

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey guys
I'm in deep shit right now.
Tomorrow is deadline and my scene refuses to render.
I'm rendering fur on characters animated in maya.
All animations gets exported as alembic files for me to fur and render 
in houdini.
I've rendered 9 shots with almost no problems, but the last shot just 
keeps crashing.

Where do I start trouble shooting?
Here is what I've done so far
I've changed the sampling up and down.
Changed the tile size up and down by factors of 8
I've changed the tile order
I've even rebuilt the scene from scratch based on a scene that renders fine.
I've created new cameras and deleted the alembic cameras.
This is my first "real" job in houdini, and allot is riding on this. I 
had to convince allot of people that they can trust me to deliver this 
job in houdini.


Help my dumb-ass  please!!

G

Here is a error log from one of the crashed frames:

.
PROGRESS: 0.54/1
PROGRESS: 0.55/1
PROGRESS: 0.56/1
PROGRESS: 0.57/1
PROGRESS: 0.58/1
PROGRESS: 0.59/1
PROGRESS: 0.60/1
PROGRESS: 0.61/1
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 
14.0.361\houdini\scripts\hqueue\hq_render_from_hip.py", line 4, in 

hqlib.callFunctionWithHQParms(hqlib.renderFromHip)
  File "C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 
14.0.361\houdini\scripts\hqueue\hqlib.py", line 1848, in 
callFunctionWithHQParms

return function(**kwargs)
  File "C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 
14.0.361\houdini\scripts\hqueue\hqlib.py", line 1011, in renderFromHip

_invokeRopAndCatchErrors(rop, project_name, frame, True)
  File "C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 
14.0.361\houdini\scripts\hqueue\hqlib.py", line 441, in 
_invokeRopAndCatchErrors

raise e
hou.OperationFailed: The attempted operation failed.
Error:   Command Exit Code: -1073741819

Re: OT: Houdini: a few image plane questions

[Gerbrand Nel]

Got it thanks!
I set my verbose too high and got caught up in all the messages.
Mantra rocks!!
Thanks for the help!
G
On 17/06/2015 12:07, Cristobal Infante wrote:
You need to import the parameter inside the shader, have you done 
that? (Not bind)


Also set the parameter to export always. Minute 7:00 of that video..





On 17 June 2015 at 09:27, Gerbrand Nel <mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:


Thanks! I tried it in a new scene and got it working just fine.
Then I tried it in my production scene, and I get this error for
each object in the scene:

mantra: Variable wallMatte (vector) not found for export in shader
'op:/obj/eyesRender/shopnet1/eyeOutside'

What does that mean?
I didn't get this shit in my test scene?
The matte renders, but I don't want to just ignore this error!

Thanks for all the input guys!
G

On 16/06/2015 16:45, Cristobal Infante wrote:

In regards to your after effects question, I think there is a
plugin that allows you to extract buffers.

To get additional buffers, you need to create an attribute and
then call it from inside the shader with a Bind.
If it's not inside the shader it will not show on the final render.

If this is not clear, have a look at this video:

https://vimeo.com/98484834








On 16 June 2015 at 15:36, Gerbrand Nel mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Hey guys.
I'm getting to the rendering part of this job, and have found
image planes in mantra.
They seem really cool, but I've hit a few snags.

First of all, They seem to render into either one big EXR
file, or into multiple exr files, but each image plane goes
into its own exr channel.
This makes them pretty useless in afterfx.
Is there a way to get them to render like frame buffers in
softimage, where each channel goes into its own exr, but not
into some obscure channel within that exr.
Alternatively, do you guys know of a fast way to export these
channels into the rgba channels of a new exr?

Second question.
In softimage I used frame buffers to render mattes for
objects in my scene.
Can this be done with image planes?
I tried creating a color parameter in my shader, and then
calling that as a new image plane, but I just got a black
frame and errors.
Thanks for reading guys
G

Re: OT: Houdini: a few image plane questions

[Gerbrand Nel]

Thanks! I tried it in a new scene and got it working just fine.
Then I tried it in my production scene, and I get this error for each 
object in the scene:


mantra: Variable wallMatte (vector) not found for export in shader 
'op:/obj/eyesRender/shopnet1/eyeOutside'


What does that mean?
I didn't get this shit in my test scene?
The matte renders, but I don't want to just ignore this error!

Thanks for all the input guys!
G
On 16/06/2015 16:45, Cristobal Infante wrote:
In regards to your after effects question, I think there is a plugin 
that allows you to extract buffers.


To get additional buffers, you need to create an attribute and then 
call it from inside the shader with a Bind.

If it's not inside the shader it will not show on the final render.

If this is not clear, have a look at this video:

https://vimeo.com/98484834








On 16 June 2015 at 15:36, Gerbrand Nel <mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:


Hey guys.
I'm getting to the rendering part of this job, and have found
image planes in mantra.
They seem really cool, but I've hit a few snags.

First of all, They seem to render into either one big EXR file, or
into multiple exr files, but each image plane goes into its own
exr channel.
This makes them pretty useless in afterfx.
Is there a way to get them to render like frame buffers in
softimage, where each channel goes into its own exr, but not into
some obscure channel within that exr.
Alternatively, do you guys know of a fast way to export these
channels into the rgba channels of a new exr?

Second question.
In softimage I used frame buffers to render mattes for objects in
my scene.
Can this be done with image planes?
I tried creating a color parameter in my shader, and then calling
that as a new image plane, but I just got a black frame and errors.
Thanks for reading guys
G

OT: Houdini: a few image plane questions

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey guys.
I'm getting to the rendering part of this job, and have found image 
planes in mantra.

They seem really cool, but I've hit a few snags.

First of all, They seem to render into either one big EXR file, or into 
multiple exr files, but each image plane goes into its own exr channel.

This makes them pretty useless in afterfx.
Is there a way to get them to render like frame buffers in softimage, 
where each channel goes into its own exr, but not into some obscure 
channel within that exr.
Alternatively, do you guys know of a fast way to export these channels 
into the rgba channels of a new exr?


Second question.
In softimage I used frame buffers to render mattes for objects in my scene.
Can this be done with image planes?
I tried creating a color parameter in my shader, and then calling that 
as a new image plane, but I just got a black frame and errors.

Thanks for reading guys
G

Re: Paul Smiths Fuzz for animation

[Gerbrand Nel]

Shot in the dark here, but I always use the "store strand groom" from 
melena in my groom ice tree, and then have a simulated ice tree with 
"restore strand groom".
I'm doing my fur in houdini at the moment, so I'm a bit rusty on the 
workflow, but that's how I remember doing it last year.

G


On 12/06/2015 10:51, Morten Bartholdy wrote:


Well this is very average scale and centered, as I am in the proces of 
rigging and applying fur to the elements. No legacy Hair either - only 
ICE, and no simulation for turbulence or the like.


MB



Den 12. juni 2015 kl. 10:43 skrev pete...@skynet.be:

have seen this on some production shots.
because of massive scene size (as in: things happening a long way
from the origin) we ran into limits of floating point precision.
The solution was to offset the whole shot (parent whole scene
under a null) so it was centered around the origin, and rebake all
pointcaches.
incidentally it was hair for feathers on birds – with the erratic
random jitter they were kind of like flapping around in the breeze
– and with the fixed and stable caches the hair/feathers ended up
too stable to my taste.
this was all long before ice and strands – but floating point
precision limits still exist.
if your scene is very big or very small (size not complexity), or
action is happening very far from the origin – that could be the
cause.
*From:* Mirko Jankovic 
*Sent:* Friday, June 12, 2015 10:00 AM
*To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com

*Subject:* Re: Paul Smiths Fuzz for animation
Maybe it is not only with fuz.. I'm actually having same issue but
with softmiage hair.
with animated character hairs jitter like changing places in every
frame...
so it maybe is not something from the fuzz...
On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 9:55 AM, Alok Gandhi <
alok.gandhi2...@gmail.com  > wrote:

I have no idea of the tool and I can be absolutely wrong but
just out of the blue do zero out any epsilon values in the
greater than / smaller than nodes (if any).
On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 1:20 PM, Morten Bartholdy <
x...@colorshopvfx.dk  > wrote:

I have had the pleasure of testing Paul Smiths excellent
Fuzz for applying fur - great tool with comprehensible
controls for grooming short fur. Unfortunately it looks
like the strands orientation jitter when the generator
surface is animated - deformation as well as SRT. It is
set up for animation, so the strands stay on the deformed
surface, but I have this jitter. Did anyone here
succesfully find a fix for that?

I did write to Paul BTW, but I guess he is busy, so no
reply yet. After all this is a free (donationware)tool so
I am certainly not expecting him to provide support :)

It would be awesome if I could get it working, as it will
be hard to redo the grooming with other tools , plus I
have no time for looking into Kristinka or Melena.


Cheers

Morten




-- 

Re: OT:houdini stamp UV

[Gerbrand Nel]

Thanks, Yeah it works.. kinda.
It gave me a very white pic, but the alpha was usable
G


*still loving houdini*


On 10/06/2015 10:40, Cristobal Infante wrote:

Right click on the node and select, "Save texture UV to image".

Never used it myself, let us know how it goes!

Cris

On 10 June 2015 at 09:21, Gerbrand Nel <mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:


Hey guys.
My dumb ass is asking dumb questions again.
I cant find something similar to " stamp uv" in houdini
Is it there, and how and where?
Thanks
G

OT:houdini stamp UV

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey guys.
My dumb ass is asking dumb questions again.
I cant find something similar to " stamp uv" in houdini
Is it there, and how and where?
Thanks
G

Re: GATOR - A feature in Softimage since 2008

[Gerbrand Nel]

Houdini attribute transfer does some bloody fantastic things if you use 
it right.
The more I work in houdini, the more I can come to terms with the death 
of softimage.

G
On 28/05/2015 12:40, Nicolas Esposito wrote:
Tom that's exactly what I was thinking...Gator has been around for A 
LOT, but not Autodesk nor anyone else ( as far as I know ) come up 
with something like that, and it's shocking...
Maya is well known for being "You can't do that out-of-the-box, code 
it yourself", and no one attempted even?


For the game rigs I'm developing Gator is essential, especially for 
facial rigs is a time saver...


I seriously hope that with Fabric Engine a Gator-like tool could be 
developedhowever its shocking that something so usefull still 
isn't within the major DCCs around ( except Blender from what I've read )


2015-05-28 12:28 GMT+02:00 Tom Kleinenberg >:


Is there a reason that it's not included in Maya? I mean, beyond
what Raff's saying about Softimage's handling of properties on
meshes. Is there a weird 3rd party licensing thing?

Would it be possible to replicate GATOR style behaviour using
Fabric or Houdini engine to prevent having to move out of Maya
with all the weirdness that could occur?

On 28 May 2015 at 12:01, Graham Bell mailto:bell...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Many moons ago, I was demoing XSI to a certain very large Maya
based games company (who shall remain nameless), there were a
couple of guys in the room who were convinced that despite
looking 'ok', GATOR wasn't anything that special. And that
Maya could already do pretty much the same thing with an
existing feature or a custom/modified tool.

They promptly spent the rest of the day (and evening) trying
and failing to match the demo workflow.

GATOR was always one of those features that would always grab
an audiences attention. At an event last year, after the main
agenga for sh*ts & giggles, I booted up Soft and did some
demos. GATOR had people in shock. lol

The only thing I found that had a similar 'wow' factor, was
the transfer maps feature in Mudbox, that's actually very good.




On Thu, May 28, 2015 at 7:48 AM Raffaele Fragapane
mailto:raffsxsil...@googlemail.com>> wrote:

GATOR might use that for the sampling, but I don't think
those rely on GATOR itself, or even if they did it'd be
more of a logistical thing than anything to do with what
makes GATOR as good as it is (maybe there's an
acceleration structure or some sampling methods that under
the hood were implemented as part of GATOR and then used
to service other parts of the SDK).

Soft has a vastly superior, to ANYTHING out there, notion
and handling of properties on meshes in general, even if,
algorithmically speaking, Maya was to get all the maths
across tomorrow, it still wouldn't be a fraction as
powerful as the app in general, right now, is utterly
lacking in abstractions and representations of mesh data
and using them for deformation.

On Thu, May 28, 2015 at 4:09 PM, Steven Caron
mailto:car...@gmail.com>> wrote:

All the GetClosest* functions on the geometry class? I
would consider that part of the GATOR sdk

*written with my thumbs

On May 27, 2015 6:11 PM, "Luc-Eric Rousseau"
mailto:luceri...@gmail.com>> wrote:

GATOR was developed for/with one of our main game
customers, Square I think.
I'm not aware of a Gator "sdk", what is that?
There are attribute transfers in other apps, but
it's generally
separate tools for textures
vs rigging things, reflecting on their
architecture vs XSI

On 27 May 2015 at 19:27, Matt Lind
mailto:speye...@hotmail.com>> wrote:
> For the record, GATOR was introduced in late
2005 with XSI v5.0, not in
> 2008.
>
> GATOR was largely tailored for those switching
applications and doing
> rigging in a film/video pipeline. For games
development, GATOR has less use
> out-of-the-box as the very things that made it
nice for exchanging data
> between XSI and Maya, for example, were the very
same features that tripped
> up game artists trying to do simpler things
quickly in heavy repetition.
>
>

Re: average a texture map to vertex map

[Gerbrand Nel]

Sorry for the late reply Oscar, and thanks for the file!!
G
On 22/05/2015 14:30, Oscar Juarez wrote:

Hey Gerbrand,

Here is a scene file with a simple example.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mtxishmig50w7x6/averageColorPerPoly.scn?dl=0

On Fri, May 22, 2015 at 9:19 AM, Gerbrand Nel <mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:


Hey Oscar
Sorry for the stoopid question, but how would I use the info in
that link if I want to apply it to color?
Thanks
G


On 22/05/2015 04:56, Gerbrand Nel wrote:

Thanks guys. I figured it out in houdini by some miracle, but I
might come back to soft, so this helps allot.

On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 11:55 AM, Oscar Juarez
mailto:tridi.animei...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Here is how you can move vertex to poly data as an array and
then you can average that array to get a solid color per face
http://xsisupport.com/2013/11/28/copying-vertex-attributes-to-polygons/

On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 11:43 AM, Simon Reeves
mailto:si...@simonreeves.com>> wrote:

Have to use 'node' stuff when it comes to vertex colours
it seems, I don't know much about that, though I managed
to get texture map > vertex colours

Inline images 2

Then I read again and thought that might only be 50% of
the way there, vertex colours may not be that helpful if
you want color per poly? How would you do that... Bevel
;) kinda works..

Inline images 1




Simon Reeves
London, UK
/si...@simonreeves.com <mailto:si...@simonreeves.com>/
/www.simonreeves.com <http://www.simonreeves.com>/
/www.analogstudio.co.uk <http://www.analogstudio.co.uk>//
        /

On 21 May 2015 at 04:59, Gerbrand Nel mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Hey guys.
I have to camera project footage onto a low poly
object, and then average all the colors per polygon
to set the color of each polygon.
I thought of using particles colored by the emitters
texturemap, but I cant figure out how to average the
colors per polygon, and then set it to the vertex color.
As always I need to solve this problem yesterday, so
any help would be awesome.
Thanks smart people!
G

Re: OT: Geometry approximation in houdini

[Gerbrand Nel]

Thanks Andy
While I have your attention :)
Are reflections and refractions stoopid slow in mantra, or is there a trick?
The default glass shader renders forever in my scene.
Thanks
G
On 22/05/2015 05:48, Andy Nicholas wrote:

You can use the Normal SOP with it set to Vertex. You can set the angle there.

The Facet SOP does something similar, but it will actually disconnect the 
points instead, rather than setting vertex normal attributes.

A



On 21 May 2015, at 20:04, Gerbrand Nel  wrote:

Hey guys
In soft we have a discontinuity angle slider under geometry approximation.
Where do I find this in houdini?
I have a low poly object that I need to render like a crystal, so i need the 
facets to be super hard, no smoothing over edges
Thanks
G

Re: average a texture map to vertex map

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey Oscar
Sorry for the stoopid question, but how would I use the info in that 
link if I want to apply it to color?

Thanks
G

On 22/05/2015 04:56, Gerbrand Nel wrote:
Thanks guys. I figured it out in houdini by some miracle, but I might 
come back to soft, so this helps allot.


On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 11:55 AM, Oscar Juarez 
mailto:tridi.animei...@gmail.com>> wrote:


Here is how you can move vertex to poly data as an array and then
you can average that array to get a solid color per face
http://xsisupport.com/2013/11/28/copying-vertex-attributes-to-polygons/

On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 11:43 AM, Simon Reeves
mailto:si...@simonreeves.com>> wrote:

Have to use 'node' stuff when it comes to vertex colours it
seems, I don't know much about that, though I managed to get
texture map > vertex colours

Inline images 2

Then I read again and thought that might only be 50% of the
way there, vertex colours may not be that helpful if you want
color per poly? How would you do that... Bevel ;) kinda works..

Inline images 1




Simon Reeves
London, UK
/si...@simonreeves.com <mailto:si...@simonreeves.com>/
/www.simonreeves.com <http://www.simonreeves.com>/
/www.analogstudio.co.uk <http://www.analogstudio.co.uk>//
    /

On 21 May 2015 at 04:59, Gerbrand Nel mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Hey guys.
I have to camera project footage onto a low poly object,
and then average all the colors per polygon to set the
color of each polygon.
I thought of using particles colored by the emitters
texturemap, but I cant figure out how to average the
colors per polygon, and then set it to the vertex color.
As always I need to solve this problem yesterday, so any
help would be awesome.
Thanks smart people!
G

OT: Geometry approximation in houdini

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey guys
In soft we have a discontinuity angle slider under geometry approximation.
Where do I find this in houdini?
I have a low poly object that I need to render like a crystal, so i need
the facets to be super hard, no smoothing over edges
Thanks
G

Re: average a texture map to vertex map

[Gerbrand Nel]

Thanks guys. I figured it out in houdini by some miracle, but I might come
back to soft, so this helps allot.

On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 11:55 AM, Oscar Juarez 
wrote:

> Here is how you can move vertex to poly data as an array and then you can
> average that array to get a solid color per face
> http://xsisupport.com/2013/11/28/copying-vertex-attributes-to-polygons/
>
> On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 11:43 AM, Simon Reeves 
> wrote:
>
>> Have to use 'node' stuff when it comes to vertex colours it seems, I
>> don't know much about that, though I managed to get texture map > vertex
>> colours
>>
>> [image: Inline images 2]
>>
>> Then I read again and thought that might only be 50% of the way there,
>> vertex colours may not be that helpful if you want color per poly? How
>> would you do that... Bevel ;) kinda works..
>>
>> [image: Inline images 1]
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Simon Reeves
>> London, UK
>> *si...@simonreeves.com *
>> *www.simonreeves.com <http://www.simonreeves.com>*
>> *www.analogstudio.co.uk <http://www.analogstudio.co.uk>*
>>
>> On 21 May 2015 at 04:59, Gerbrand Nel  wrote:
>>
>>> Hey guys.
>>> I have to camera project footage onto a low poly object, and then
>>> average all the colors per polygon to set the color of each polygon.
>>> I thought of using particles colored by the emitters texturemap, but I
>>> cant figure out how to average the colors per polygon, and then set it to
>>> the vertex color.
>>> As always I need to solve this problem yesterday, so any help would be
>>> awesome.
>>> Thanks smart people!
>>> G
>>>
>>
>>
>

average a texture map to vertex map

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey guys.
I have to camera project footage onto a low poly object, and then average
all the colors per polygon to set the color of each polygon.
I thought of using particles colored by the emitters texturemap, but I cant
figure out how to average the colors per polygon, and then set it to the
vertex color.
As always I need to solve this problem yesterday, so any help would be
awesome.
Thanks smart people!
G

Re: OT: Unreal 4 and google cardboard

[Gerbrand Nel]

I'm checking this out now Max
I tried the 360 render for arnold in maya, but there was allot of 
compiling and code and scripts and shit.. so I got distracted, and gave up.

Thanks for posting this
G
On 09/04/2015 15:30, Max Crow wrote:
Surely the interactivity provided by Unity or Unreal is kind of 
limited with Google card board as you have to press play and then 
stick the phone into your head set.  Another method is to use a player 
like Kolor or Koloreyes to play back pre rendered 360 stereo video.  
This allows us to use the power of a render farm to create high end 
content.  There is a compromise, the size of the files, some parallax 
issues and you cant freely move around the environment , its more like 
the cut scenes between the game play.  A good alternative if you don't 
have the time to learn a realtime engine, you can concentrate on the 
story rather than the tech.


I render stereo equirectangular images in Mental ray using  Andrew 
Hazelden's Dome master lens. 
http://www.andrewhazelden.com/blog/free-downloads/
a VRay lens will also be available soon. Its also available for Maya 
and 3ds Max.


Is there any one else doing prerendered VR?
Max


On Thu, Apr 9, 2015 at 2:03 PM, Francisco Criado 
mailto:malcriad...@gmail.com>> wrote:


Gerbrand,
Stupid question, have you tried forcing stereo on at begin play on
the level blueprint?

F.


2015-04-09 9:46 GMT-03:00 Gerbrand Nel mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>>:

Hi Francisco
Thanks for the input.
I agree that gear and oculus is way better than cardboard, but
I've seen a few nice smooth things on cardboard too.
I'm not so much interested in creating high poly sets with all
the lighting effects in the world. Mostly just static
environments to explore as part of a story.
I know I can get all of this done in unity, but I _want_ to do
it in unreal.
I've written enough bloody scripts last year in maya to last
me a lifetime.
Also the houdini to unreal plugin means I get to learn two new
software pieces I enjoy.
I've been trying most of the things in the link you sent over
the last few days, but I run into all the problems described
in there without any of the solutions working for me.
The vr template also didn't give me a split screen, or the
lens distortion, or the tracking I was hoping for.
Ah the pain and joy of new software :)
G


On 09/04/2015 14:08, Francisco Criado wrote:

By the way,

there is a VR Template for Unreal we use in our projects,
have you checked if it works for cardboard?
Also there is this on the ue forum that may help:

https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?19665-Google-VR&highlight=cardboard
its seems to be a workaround from Noculus solution.
Hope it helps.
F.


2015-04-09 8:44 GMT-03:00 Francisco Criado
mailto:malcriad...@gmail.com>>:

Hi Gerbrand,

in my experience, if wou want to make vr content for
mobile i would recommend you samsung gear vr rather than
cardboard.
We been testing on mobile users and must say cardboard
isn´t a pretty chance to VR due to lag, comfort, and
latency depending on mobile model.Samusng gear vr is is
definitely more expensive but has a growing market, and a
nice store for apps.
In terms of software, you said it, Unity reminds me of
Maya or Max, where you can do 3d, and Unreal reminds me
softimage where you enjoy doing 3d...


Hope it helps!

        F.



2015-04-09 8:07 GMT-03:00 Gerbrand Nel mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>>:

Yeah Oculus in unreal is easy.. The problem with the
google cardboard is getting the head motion to drive
the camera, and creating a proper split screen.
I really hope they release a template for cardboard
in unreal soon.
Us dumb-folk loves them templates :)


On 09/04/2015 12:31, Alok Gandhi wrote:

Done tons of ocuclus for unity. Have good experience
so far. Not sure about unreal though.

On Thu, Apr 9, 2015 at 3:59 PM, Gerbrand Nel
mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Hey guys.. this is way of topic, but I ask here
because the smart kids hang out on this side of
the internet ;P
I'm very keen to create vr stories, but for Joe
Everybody.
The oculus is great, but it has a very small
audience at the moment.
Google cardboard on t

Re: OT: Unreal 4 and google cardboard

[Gerbrand Nel]

Not sure what you would call a stupid question to a stupid operator... :)
Maybe two stupids make a smart.. yeah.. I'll go with that.
So to answer you smart question... "you want me to press what now???"

I haven’t tried that, because I don’t no much about ue4 to begin with.
My first obstacle was to just get the camera to be controlled by my phone.
I got this to work to a degree, but rotating the phone only rotated the 
camera a few pixels, before it started spinning, or snapping around.
As far as stereo goes, I got it to split the screen and only show the 
right camera.
I suppose I was spoilt by the fact that there is a pre-set to do all 
this in unity.


The reason I like the cardboard is because of the type of reaction I've 
seen to it.. We show people the DK2 and their minds are blown in the 
same way a super car blows your mind.. nice, but out of reach.
The cardboard however gets people genuinely interested because of how 
accessible it is.
Sure its not perfect, but that didn't stop people developing games in 
the 80s either.

G

On 09/04/2015 15:03, Francisco Criado wrote:

Gerbrand,
Stupid question, have you tried forcing stereo on at begin play on the 
level blueprint?


F.


2015-04-09 9:46 GMT-03:00 Gerbrand Nel <mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>>:


Hi Francisco
Thanks for the input.
I agree that gear and oculus is way better than cardboard, but
I've seen a few nice smooth things on cardboard too.
I'm not so much interested in creating high poly sets with all the
lighting effects in the world. Mostly just static environments to
explore as part of a story.
I know I can get all of this done in unity, but I _want_ to do it
in unreal.
I've written enough bloody scripts last year in maya to last me a
lifetime.
Also the houdini to unreal plugin means I get to learn two new
software pieces I enjoy.
I've been trying most of the things in the link you sent over the
last few days, but I run into all the problems described in there
without any of the solutions working for me.
The vr template also didn't give me a split screen, or the lens
distortion, or the tracking I was hoping for.
Ah the pain and joy of new software :)
G


On 09/04/2015 14:08, Francisco Criado wrote:

By the way,

there is a VR Template for Unreal we use in our projects, have
you checked if it works for cardboard?
Also there is this on the ue forum that may help:

https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?19665-Google-VR&highlight=cardboard
its seems to be a workaround from Noculus solution.
Hope it helps.
F.


2015-04-09 8:44 GMT-03:00 Francisco Criado mailto:malcriad...@gmail.com>>:

Hi Gerbrand,

in my experience, if wou want to make vr content for mobile i
would recommend you samsung gear vr rather than cardboard.
We been testing on mobile users and must say cardboard isn´t
a pretty chance to VR due to lag, comfort, and latency
depending on mobile model.Samusng gear vr is is definitely
more expensive but has a growing market, and a nice store for
apps.
In terms of software, you said it, Unity reminds me of Maya
or Max, where you can do 3d, and Unreal reminds me softimage
where you enjoy doing 3d...


    Hope it helps!

F.



2015-04-09 8:07 GMT-03:00 Gerbrand Nel mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>>:

Yeah Oculus in unreal is easy.. The problem with the
google cardboard is getting the head motion to drive the
camera, and creating a proper split screen.
I really hope they release a template for cardboard in
unreal soon.
Us dumb-folk loves them templates :)


On 09/04/2015 12:31, Alok Gandhi wrote:

Done tons of ocuclus for unity. Have good experience so
far. Not sure about unreal though.

On Thu, Apr 9, 2015 at 3:59 PM, Gerbrand Nel
mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Hey guys.. this is way of topic, but I ask here
because the smart kids hang out on this side of the
internet ;P
I'm very keen to create vr stories, but for Joe
Everybody.
The oculus is great, but it has a very small
audience at the moment.
Google cardboard on the other hand is accessible to
anyone with a smartish phone.
Now I got a simple thing going with unity, and it
works great.
Problem is; unity reminds me of maya, and maya leads
to anger and anger leads to... oh you get the picture.
Unreal on the other hand feel friendly, like a ICE
tree, made of friendly things.
Until you try and do a 

Re: OT: Unreal 4 and google cardboard

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hi Francisco
Thanks for the input.
I agree that gear and oculus is way better than cardboard, but I've seen 
a few nice smooth things on cardboard too.
I'm not so much interested in creating high poly sets with all the 
lighting effects in the world. Mostly just static environments to 
explore as part of a story.

I know I can get all of this done in unity, but I _want_ to do it in unreal.
I've written enough bloody scripts last year in maya to last me a lifetime.
Also the houdini to unreal plugin means I get to learn two new software 
pieces I enjoy.
I've been trying most of the things in the link you sent over the last 
few days, but I run into all the problems described in there without any 
of the solutions working for me.
The vr template also didn't give me a split screen, or the lens 
distortion, or the tracking I was hoping for.

Ah the pain and joy of new software :)
G

On 09/04/2015 14:08, Francisco Criado wrote:

By the way,

there is a VR Template for Unreal we use in our projects, have you 
checked if it works for cardboard?

Also there is this on the ue forum that may help:
https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?19665-Google-VR&highlight=cardboard
its seems to be a workaround from Noculus solution.
Hope it helps.
F.


2015-04-09 8:44 GMT-03:00 Francisco Criado <mailto:malcriad...@gmail.com>>:


Hi Gerbrand,

in my experience, if wou want to make vr content for mobile i
would recommend you samsung gear vr rather than cardboard.
We been testing on mobile users and must say cardboard isn´t a
pretty chance to VR due to lag, comfort, and latency depending on
mobile model.Samusng gear vr is is definitely more expensive but
has a growing market, and a nice store for apps.
In terms of software, you said it, Unity reminds me of Maya or
Max, where you can do 3d, and Unreal reminds me softimage where
you enjoy doing 3d...


Hope it helps!

    F.



    2015-04-09 8:07 GMT-03:00 Gerbrand Nel mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>>:

Yeah Oculus in unreal is easy.. The problem with the google
cardboard is getting the head motion to drive the camera, and
creating a proper split screen.
I really hope they release a template for cardboard in unreal
soon.
Us dumb-folk loves them templates :)


On 09/04/2015 12:31, Alok Gandhi wrote:

Done tons of ocuclus for unity. Have good experience so far.
Not sure about unreal though.

    On Thu, Apr 9, 2015 at 3:59 PM, Gerbrand Nel
mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Hey guys.. this is way of topic, but I ask here because
the smart kids hang out on this side of the internet ;P
I'm very keen to create vr stories, but for Joe Everybody.
The oculus is great, but it has a very small audience at
the moment.
Google cardboard on the other hand is accessible to
anyone with a smartish phone.
Now I got a simple thing going with unity, and it works
great.
Problem is; unity reminds me of maya, and maya leads to
anger and anger leads to... oh you get the picture.
Unreal on the other hand feel friendly, like a ICE tree,
made of friendly things.
Until you try and do a google cardboard project that is.
Has anyone here done unreal work for google cardboard?
Care to share some knowledge?
Thanks guys
G




-- 





-- 






--

Re: OT: Unreal 4 and google cardboard

[Gerbrand Nel]

Yeah Oculus in unreal is easy.. The problem with the google cardboard is 
getting the head motion to drive the camera, and creating a proper split 
screen.

I really hope they release a template for cardboard in unreal soon.
Us dumb-folk loves them templates :)

On 09/04/2015 12:31, Alok Gandhi wrote:
Done tons of ocuclus for unity. Have good experience so far. Not sure 
about unreal though.


On Thu, Apr 9, 2015 at 3:59 PM, Gerbrand Nel <mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:


Hey guys.. this is way of topic, but I ask here because the smart
kids hang out on this side of the internet ;P
I'm very keen to create vr stories, but for Joe Everybody.
The oculus is great, but it has a very small audience at the moment.
Google cardboard on the other hand is accessible to anyone with a
smartish phone.
Now I got a simple thing going with unity, and it works great.
Problem is; unity reminds me of maya, and maya leads to anger and
anger leads to... oh you get the picture.
Unreal on the other hand feel friendly, like a ICE tree, made of
friendly things.
Until you try and do a google cardboard project that is.
Has anyone here done unreal work for google cardboard?
Care to share some knowledge?
Thanks guys
G




--

OT: Unreal 4 and google cardboard

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey guys.. this is way of topic, but I ask here because the smart kids 
hang out on this side of the internet ;P

I'm very keen to create vr stories, but for Joe Everybody.
The oculus is great, but it has a very small audience at the moment.
Google cardboard on the other hand is accessible to anyone with a 
smartish phone.

Now I got a simple thing going with unity, and it works great.
Problem is; unity reminds me of maya, and maya leads to anger and anger 
leads to... oh you get the picture.
Unreal on the other hand feel friendly, like a ICE tree, made of 
friendly things.

Until you try and do a google cardboard project that is.
Has anyone here done unreal work for google cardboard?
Care to share some knowledge?
Thanks guys
G

OT: I just had a brief with 4 of these in there :)

[Gerbrand Nel]

Re: Very OT: for the love of your career.. try houdini

[Gerbrand Nel]

Personally I'm not changing stuff (partly because you can't change the 
things I would want tot change in Houdini)
For me this is a pretty big commitment. I plan to go full-Houdini, so I 
will probably change my Maya and Soft, to work like Houdini, if I change 
anything.
It is hard enough to learn Houdini with tutorials from older versions.. 
I don't need keyboard discrepancies to make this harder than it needs to 
be :)

G
On 22/03/2015 05:33, Manuel Huertas Marchena wrote:
I am wondering if any of you guys using houdini would advice against 
changing some houdini hotkeys to speed up workflow ?
 when I use either xsi or maya, I have a set of keyboard shortcuts 
that help me go faster when modeling (without clicking every time on a 
menu, hotbox, icon... etc)
 I like using hotkeys because for me its faster and I have optimized 
my workflow in that manner, so I rarely rely on any button on the 
modeling side of things. I know this is counter productive for other 
stuff... (like when a td comes to help you and does not understand 
your setup... yes admit that is somehow annoying sometimes!). But for 
me the pros overcome by far the cons,
at least in my experience. So as I am new to houdini and learning its 
polymodeling tools, I can t help but notice that going to click 
buttons on the polygon tab is slowing me down.
I do like the "tab" menu, but even that is slower than simply using 
hotkeys (ex: insert edge loop, bridge, extrude, bevel...etc etc) . I 
dont mind clicking for anything else, but I do for modeling.
 so if any of you has an opinion on this, I ll like to know what you 
think ... (as I ll eventually like to learn other parts of 
houdini...for..  fx, sims..  I ll like to know if this will have some
considerable impact on productivity, or is it something I can probably 
live with, like I do with maya & xsi...


 thanks!


-Manu




IMDB <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4755969/>| Portfolio 
<http://envmanu.com><http://envmanu.carbonmade.com/>| Vimeo 
<http://vimeo.com/manuelhuertasmarchena>| Linkedin 
<http://www.linkedin.com/in/manuelhuertas>




From: moloney.cia...@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2015 13:44:49 +
Subject: Re: Very OT: for the love of your career.. try houdini
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com

Network and hardware are fastest I've used. It's just the nature of 
the work.
Volume data in my case is not very large, only a few Mb per frame. 
But, e.g. to make useful collision fields from complex geometry often 
requires a good bit of SOPs pre-processing. I get the impression that 
much of SOPs is still not especially multithreaded.
DOPs is also very slow vs solvers of comparable classes (FumeFX, 
Exocortex's Bullet, nCloth). But, that's generally OK since you can do 
so much, much more with DOPs with a very low chance of things failing 
apart as you scale up.


On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 1:09 PM, Jordi Bares Dominguez 
mailto:jordiba...@gmail.com>> wrote:


Is this processing time or hardware time? (disks, network, etc..)

Of course saving gigabytes per frame is slow but may be a clever
local SSD sync to the main server could do the job to make the
process faster?

jb


On 19 Mar 2015, at 12:56, Ciaran Moloney
mailto:moloney.cia...@gmail.com>>
wrote:

I'm loving working with Houdini, but sometimes it's just
frustratingly slow. Even with the new VDB tools, converting
and caching everything out as volume fields is a real drag.
But then again the caching workflow is super-slick. I shudder
at the thought of all the time lost to the mysteries of ICE
caching.

On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 10:11 AM, Gerbrand Nel
mailto:nagv...@gmail.com>> wrote:

I'm not getting anything out of posting this, except
knowing I might save the life of a fellow artist.

So I spent the last year learning Maya, and got to a point
where I can compete against people straight out of collage.
This got me a bit down, as I'm one of the more experienced
softimage artists here in South Africa.
At the end of 2014 I realized that 3D is no longer fun if
it all has to happen in maya for me.
My brain doesn't work the way maya works.
I'm also not much of a clairvoyant, so predicting what I
have to do now, just in case the director asks for
something in 2 weeks from now, lead to allot of back tracking.

At first I decided to learn Maya over houdini because of
the price tag of Houdini FX.
It also seemed like I would exclude myself from bigger
projects if I was one, of only a few houdini artists around.
Houdini indie, and indie eng

Re: scalar state still working?

[Gerbrand Nel]

Thanks for all the input guys!
Got it working in the end with just a simple incidence.
On 18/03/2015 20:28, Matt Lind wrote:

Scalar state should be working just fine.

I assume you're trying to compute incidence using a dot product? Make 
sure your input vectors are unit vectors and described in the same 
coordinate space.  Also make sure your vector orientations are 
described correctly as well. Remember, the viewing vector is opposite 
what you need it to be as it points towards the subject. If you don't 
meet those criteria, all bets are off.


If all is correct, the output will be the cosine of the angle between 
the two vectors which you may or may not want to linearize for use in 
the gradient.


Matt





Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2015 18:31:45 +0200
From: Gerbrand Nel 
Subject: scalar state still working?
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com

Hey guys
I remember using the scalar state node, with a gradient, to create a
gradient based on incidence... this doesn't work any more??
Am I being dumb, or is it broken?
G

scalar state still working?

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey guys
I remember using the scalar state node, with a gradient, to create a 
gradient based on incidence... this doesn't work any more??

Am I being dumb, or is it broken?
G

Re: Very OT: for the love of your career.. try houdini

[Gerbrand Nel]

I don't think I ever "mastered" softimage, so I have no goal to master 
houdini.
I do feel like I can keep doing fun work, while impressing my clients 
with it.

I can't say the same for maya personally.
I admit I have a huge chip on my shoulder around autodesk, but given the 
past, we all do.

G

On 18/03/2015 12:14, Leendert A. Hartog wrote:

Gerbrand Nel schreef op 17-3-2015 om 11:11:
I'm not getting anything out of posting this, except knowing I might 
save the life of a fellow artist.


So I spent the last year learning Maya, and got to a point where I 
can compete against people straight out of collage.
This got me a bit down, as I'm one of the more experienced softimage 
artists here in South Africa.


Not wanting to sound cynical here, as this is a serious question, but 
does the setback after years of expertise in Softimage to a more 
beginner level in other software get even more profound when dealing 
with Houdini? Learning Houdini seems, especially from a Softimage POV, 
way more palatable, but mastering it would seem to be a different 
story altogether.


Greetz
Leendert

Re: Very OT: for the love of your career.. try houdini

[Gerbrand Nel]

Hey Simon
I've done a few Maya jobs as part of a team the past few months.
The people on the team were very experienced, helpful and patient with me.
Doing this on your own is madness!!

I did some rigging, and I actually think Maya is pretty good at creating 
rigs. Its the deformation of the rigged objects that drove me up the wall.


I did allot of lighting and rendering, and at first glance, liked the 
node editor. Then you get to the details and realize that many things 
that should work, don't.


Animating is ok, but the graph editor hurt my brain. I couldn't figure 
out how to set the key handles length and angle by typing values for 
example.


I did a huge bifrost job, and I'm sure bifrost will be great one day.. 
but I might not live that long.


Nparticles . how the hell is this the industry leader

Everything in maya feels like you need to learn new software to do 
something... It feels like after you've learned to rotate a cube, it 
doesn't necessarily mean you can now rotate a torus!


Too much scripting that makes you feel like you're finishing the 
developers job.
Sure houdini is full of scripting, but at least you feel like you're 
scripting to make cool things, not to just , I don't know, select a 
hierarchy, or kill a particle.


I've done a few houdini tutorials, and my first real job finished today.
The job I just did in houdini is sooo far out of my reach in maya, and 
would even be a bit of a mission with ICE.

Fair enough it is a frost effect on a pack shot, but still.. fun was had!

The best part is: I don't feel like I need a strong drink at the end of 
the day.

G
On 17/03/2015 12:54, Simon Reeves wrote:
Can I ask, what areas having you been using Maya/Houdini that spurred 
you to make the post?


I've been using Maya for a couple of months for scene 
assembly/rendering, (bringing in models/caches/assigning 
shaders/passes) so that's my only experience.







Simon Reeves
London, UK
/si...@simonreeves.com <mailto:si...@simonreeves.com>/
/www.simonreeves.com <http://www.simonreeves.com>/
/www.analogstudio.co.uk <http://www.analogstudio.co.uk>//
/

On 17 March 2015 at 10:08, adrian wyer <mailto:adrian.w...@fluid-pictures.com>> wrote:


excellent closing quote, Side Effects should use that in their
commercials!

"...there's a SOP for that!"

a

-Original Message-
From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
<mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com>
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
<mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com>] On Behalf Of
Gerbrand Nel
Sent: 17 March 2015 10:12
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
Subject: Very OT: for the love of your career.. try houdini

I'm not getting anything out of posting this, except knowing I might
save the life of a fellow artist.

So I spent the last year learning Maya, and got to a point where I can
compete against people straight out of collage.
This got me a bit down, as I'm one of the more experienced softimage
artists here in South Africa.
At the end of 2014 I realized that 3D is no longer fun if it all
has to
happen in maya for me.
My brain doesn't work the way maya works.
I'm also not much of a clairvoyant, so predicting what I have to
do now,
just in case the director asks for something in 2 weeks from now, lead
to allot of back tracking.

At first I decided to learn Maya over houdini because of the price tag
of Houdini FX.
It also seemed like I would exclude myself from bigger projects if
I was
one, of only a few houdini artists around.
Houdini indie, and indie engine has completely nullified these
concerns.

The perceived learning curve of houdini was also a bit of a
concern to me.

I started learning houdini 2 months ago, and I can do more with
it, than
I can with Maya after a year.
The first few days in houdini is pretty hard, but the whole package
works as one. Once you get your head around its fundamentals, doing
something new is fun and pretty easy.

This might not be true for everyone here, but some of us needs a non
destructive open work flow.
So if you guys haven't tried it yet, and if you are fed up with the
whole "there is a script for that" mentality... there is a sop for
that

G

Very OT: for the love of your career.. try houdini

[Gerbrand Nel]

I'm not getting anything out of posting this, except knowing I might 
save the life of a fellow artist.


So I spent the last year learning Maya, and got to a point where I can 
compete against people straight out of collage.
This got me a bit down, as I'm one of the more experienced softimage 
artists here in South Africa.
At the end of 2014 I realized that 3D is no longer fun if it all has to 
happen in maya for me.

My brain doesn't work the way maya works.
I'm also not much of a clairvoyant, so predicting what I have to do now, 
just in case the director asks for something in 2 weeks from now, lead 
to allot of back tracking.


At first I decided to learn Maya over houdini because of the price tag 
of Houdini FX.
It also seemed like I would exclude myself from bigger projects if I was 
one, of only a few houdini artists around.

Houdini indie, and indie engine has completely nullified these concerns.

The perceived learning curve of houdini was also a bit of a concern to me.

I started learning houdini 2 months ago, and I can do more with it, than 
I can with Maya after a year.
The first few days in houdini is pretty hard, but the whole package 
works as one. Once you get your head around its fundamentals, doing 
something new is fun and pretty easy.


This might not be true for everyone here, but some of us needs a non 
destructive open work flow.
So if you guys haven't tried it yet, and if you are fed up with the 
whole "there is a script for that" mentality... there is a sop for that


G