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

[Jonah Friedman]

Hi Chris, I'm the Product Owner of the Bifrost graph. I'd be happy to
answer any questions about it. What specifically are you trying to do?

The graph is different from ICE in several ways, but it's very open and
very powerful.

On Tue, Feb 18, 2020 at 4:16 AM Chris Marshall 
wrote:

> OK So is Bifrost graph years away from getting close to ICE or am I
> missing something?
> I really am trying to figure it out, but either I'm doing something wrong
> or it's very very limited.
> Anyone got anywhere with it?
> Thanks
> Chris
>
> --
> Softimage Mailing List.
> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>
--
Softimage Mailing List.
To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com with 
"unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.

Re: SItoA 5.1.0-alpha!

[Jonah Friedman]

Great work Steven and Jens!

A note about Cryptomatte for Arnold 5, I made sure to keep all the
SitoA-style name parsing alive so it should work just as well as it did in
the Arnold 4 days.

There is some dormant stuff in there about how it handles ICE instancing,
and what it considers to be the "object" (point cloud, instance master
shape, instance-master shape per point ID) that may or may not still work.
(It's not exposed in the UI anyway).



On Fri, Jul 20, 2018 at 1:18 AM, Gregor Punchatz  wrote:

> Wow! Thanks!
>
> On Thu, Jul 19, 2018 at 9:14 PM Steven Caron  wrote:
>
>> Hey Gang,
>>
>> Check this alpha release out! Please test it and get back to us about it.
>>
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__github.com_caron_sitoa_releases_tag_5.1.0-2Dalpha-2D1&d=DwIFaQ&c=76Q6Tcqc-t2x0ciWn7KFdCiqt6IQ7a_IF9uzNzd_2pA&r=GmX_32eCLYPFLJ529RohsPjjNVwo9P0jVMsrMw7PFsA&m=mq3OQNS0ZV09nrr7scnZndAgJL12isCVzB-ddcjJaUM&s=3rlUKecADtBbVv0RHGf_7BdqEBPZv712NOwOl3FhDIo&e=
>> 
>>
>> Everyone should thank Jens Lindgren for getting a lot of work done in
>> this release. It made it a lot easier for me to get started adding new
>> features.
>>
>> This is an alpha release, more stuff to come.
>>
>> Steven
>> --
>> Softimage Mailing List.
>> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>
>
> --
> Softimage Mailing List.
> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>
--
Softimage Mailing List.
To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com with 
"unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.

Cryptomatte | AOV where is it?

[Jonah Friedman]

Sorry for the slow response (I'll probably not be very available for the
next week)

Brian is correct, it sounds like the problem is on the 3d side. Do you have
objects with AlSurface applied renderable in your scene? Are you sure the
name of the aov is the same as it is on the alsurface shader's string port?

Cropping does not matter, and nothing should be deep.

On Saturday, July 23, 2016, Brian Meanley > wrote:

> Any more luck with this?  I'm not sitting in front of Soft at the moment,
> but I don't believe you should have to mess with anything in the deep area
> to get it to work.  Are you rendering a deep exr?
>
> Next thing I would check is to plug your rendered image into a
> "view_metadata" node in nuke, and look for entries that are something like
> this: "exr/cryptomatte/0/". If you are rendering all three AOV's
> (crypto_asset/object/material) to the same exr file, then you will
> hopefully see metadata entries for each one of those (the first one will
> be exr/cryptomatte/0/, the next exr/cryptomatte/1/ and the
> last exr/cryptomatte/2/).  If you aren't able to see these entries, then
> something is definitely getting mixed up on the Soft side of things.
>
> -Brian
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 21, 2016 at 1:44 PM, Greg Punchatz 
> wrote:
>
>> Thanks Caron,
>> Just got the new gizmo installed , now nothing even shows yellow when
>> crypto gets connected and nothing shows up in the layer box. If I push the
>> unload manifest option I get this message  "Gizmo's cryptomatte selection
>> is not valid or no cryptomattes are available. "
>>
>> I have tried rendering with all crypto AOVS or just one
>>
>> I am assuming I am doing something wrong on the soft side of things, all
>> the info I can find on how to use it in soft is in Russian. I entered the
>> names of the AOVs manually like in the image above, I made them a rgb color
>> channel (no alpha). All channels are float.  I saw that under the deep tab
>> in soft there are options for cryptomate .. so I tried turn those on.
>> Cropping exr's is off...
>>
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>>
>
--
Softimage Mailing List.
To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com with 
"unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.

Re: Fabric Engine 2.0 out with Canvas!

[Jonah Friedman]

Thanks Sebastein! Super exciting times!

On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 5:39 PM, Sebastien Sterling <
sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com> wrote:

> The Psyop demos look really cool and actually functional.
>
>
> p1 hair system
> https://vimeo.com/138773731
> p2 Jiggle mush + Scatter
> https://vimeo.com/138610226
>
> just in case anyone hasn't seen them yet.
>
> On 30 September 2015 at 22:03, Eric Thivierge 
> wrote:
>
>> It should. Contact Fabric support directly though.
>>
>> 
>> Eric Thivierge
>> http://www.ethivierge.com
>>
>> On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 4:51 PM, Tim Crowson <
>> tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Cool, so the Fabric 50 does that get us FE 2.0 as well? The
>>> installer for that seems to be for 1.15.3
>>>
>>> -Tim
>>>
>>>
>>> On 9/30/2015 12:41 PM, Eric Thivierge wrote:
>>>
>>> http://fabricengine.com/fabric-engine-2-is-here/
>>>
>>> The new Canvas graph is now available. Those who were waiting for an ICE
>>> like UI and workflow should be pleased. :)
>>>
>>> 
>>> Eric Thivierge
>>> http://www.ethivierge.com
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>

Re: Feather System

[Jonah Friedman]

Very nice work Fabricio!

On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 3:53 PM, Oliver Weingarten 
wrote:

> Hey Fabricio!
> Great work and thanks for sharing!!
>
> cheers,
> oli
>
> Am 23.01.2015 um 20:39 schrieb Fabricio Chamon:
>
>  Hi soft people!
>>
>> after the tragic softimage EOL announcement, I'm slowly learning
>> houdini/maya. For those sticking with SI (me included), here's a tool I've
>> been using for months to groom birds and other characters. It's all ICE of
>> course, some script automations... in my opinion it offers a nice and fast
>> workflow, let me know if you find it useful. (thanks to Jonah Friedman and
>> Dan Yargici for some insights)
>>
>> addon: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17263464/ICE/FC_Feather/
>> FC_Feathers.xsiaddon
>> documentation: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.
>> com/u/17263464/ICE/FC_Feather/FC%20Feathers%20for%20Softimage%20-%
>> 20Documentation.pdf
>> sample project: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.
>> com/u/17263464/ICE/FC_Feather/FC_Feathers_Sample_Project.rar
>> basic setup video: https://vimeo.com/117607338
>> sample work made with it: https://vimeo.com/68167579
>>
>> thanks everyone for all knowledge shared in this list!
>>
>
>

Re: Fabric update - Rigging Toolbox

[Jonah Friedman]

Rigging toolbox looks super interesting and a great example of how to do
some things. It's very helpful, thanks for doing this!

On Fri, Dec 12, 2014 at 2:17 PM, Sebastien Sterling <
sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I think open source is at it's best when someone just puts something out
> into the world and decides to takes a back seat. The FE guys are actively
> developing the platform, it's theirs and they are best suited to develop it
> further.
>
> Don't be calus Guy, i don't think paul has anything against open source,
> he is just saying that successful examples of it in co-relation with the
> complexity of the tools we use are few and far between.
>
> The FE guys will probably keep denying the consolidation of a DCC even as
> they pave over the last panel of the Maya UI with KL :P
>
>
>
> On 12 December 2014 at 18:49, Paul Doyle  wrote:
>>
>> I explained the reasoning, I'm not going to go into this topic any
>> further.
>>
>> On 12 December 2014 at 13:47, Guy Rabiller 
>> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> But I have the feeling you think open-source automatically means 'free'.
>>>
>>> Your business is not selling software (I hope), your business is selling
>>> licenses.
>>>
>>> Using a dual-licenses approach, it would be free to use for
>>> non-commercial open-sourced projects, but studios would still have to pay
>>> licenses for proprietary development. So no change here in terms of
>>> business, this could even be transparent for your existing customers.
>>> Nothing would change for them and you would get the same amount of money
>>> from them.
>>>
>>> Yet, instead allowing them to distribute free Fabric tools if they
>>> choose to, this could perhaps allow them to sell Fabric tools too. Better
>>> business model for everyone.
>>>
>>> While being open-sourced and free for non commercial developments, trust
>>> is back and open-sourced communities developments could start.
>>>
>>> ps: a contract means nothing if a company disappear, I believe I'm not
>>> the only one who has experienced that.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Guy.
>>> --
>>>
>>> guy rabiller | radfac founder | raa.tel
>>>
>>>
>>> On 12/12/14 19:01, Paul Doyle wrote:
>>>
>>> The fact is there are no successful open-source companies in our
>>> industry because the numbers don't work. The companies that do open-source
>>> in our industry are doing something else as their main business. Our main
>>> business is selling software. Typically a software company open-sources if
>>> they see an opportunity to build a services business/premium support model
>>> around their software - the conversion percentages here are typically <5%
>>> of the user base and often much lower. Simply put - our industry is too
>>> technical ("we don't need no stinking support") and too small (how many
>>> studios are there globally above 10 employees?) for that to be viable, we
>>> would die.
>>>
>>>  As for trust - that was really my point in my last email. Fabric makes
>>> guarantees through our licensing agreements with customers - they don't
>>> have to trust what I tell them, they have a contract that gives them what
>>> they need.
>>>
>>>  I get that many people feel burned and why that makes a very
>>> compelling argument for OSS alternatives. If we felt that we could be
>>> successful doing that, then we'd be doing it. There is no moral opposition
>>> to the notion of open-sourcing, it's a matter of doing such a thing if and
>>> when it makes sense. Right now that's not our position.
>>>
>>>
>>> On 12 December 2014 at 12:33, Guy Rabiller 
>>> wrote:


 Yeah well, with all the lies Autodesk gave us, how come can you expect
 to be trusted ?

 Nothing personal though, you are not responsible.

 But the trust is lost, broken, irreversibly. They did a pretty good job
 at it. Blame them.

 The only projects and products that deserve trust are open sourced
 projects. Period.

 Yet I still don't understand why you are so afraid to open source the
 core using a dual license. Take Berkeley DB from Oracle for instance. Open
 sourced, dual licensed. I don't think Oracle stakes holders are less
 business oriented than Autodesk ones. Wiser perhaps ?

 Cheers,
 Guy.
 --

 guy rabiller | radfac founder | raa.tel


   On 12/12/14 18:10, Paul Doyle wrote:

 Our customers all have agreements that protect them, and next year
 we'll be pushing on the 3rd party licensing model which will also allow
 people to distribute free Fabric tools if they choose to. If someone wanted
 to build a full-on DCC then we'd have a license agreement that would
 protect them as well.

  There are more approaches to this than just 'open source all the
 things!'.

 On 12 December 2014 at 11:27, Guy Rabiller 
 wrote:
>
>
> Create a whole dcc on top of a proprietary closed source product that
> can disappear or be trashed at any time ? Are you kidding 

Re: XSI hair and Random Generation

[Jonah Friedman]

I believe it has to do with what frame the scene was loaded on. IE, the
hair is generated from the mesh's position when the scene loads, then the
scene advances to the right frame, and it uses the distribution from where
it loaded.

This is partially superstition, but IIRC those were the rules, and these
issue occur when you render on the farm using scenes left on different
frames.


On Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 9:45 AM, Ed Manning  wrote:

> IIR, this is indeed an old issue that I remember seeing in MR.  I think
> it's not a bug per se, but a limitation of how XSI hair primitives are
> internally dependent on previous frames' data. I don't think there was ever
> any workaround other than doing all the hair consecutively on one machine.
> Maybe some way of caching the hair?
>

Re: HQV Causing Major Slowness with File Save and Reference Model Updates

[Jonah Friedman]

Wow, thanks for confirming that. Very interesting that it happens on linux
too.


On Thu, Apr 17, 2014 at 5:37 AM, gareth bell  wrote:

> I've just done a really simple timed test on Linux and found this also
> appears to be affected. My imported model time went from 3mins down to
> 30secs when HQV is switched off.
>
> Cheers for the heads-up
>

Re: HQV Causing Major Slowness with File Save and Reference Model Updates

[Jonah Friedman]

All the script does is disable the HQV in the preferences, so only once
should be fine. We weren't able to find anything more specific to change to
fix the problem (and we did look!).


On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 2:15 PM, Stephen Davidson wrote:

> Is this the same as disabling the HQDisplay options in the Preferences, or
> should I run this script
> every time I start SI? It seems to help a lot. Thanks.
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 1:04 PM, Steven Caron  wrote:
>
>> this certainly constitutes as something the dev team should try and
>> address before the next two years.
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 7:36 PM, Andy Jones  wrote:
>>
>>> *FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*
>>> *April 15, 2014*
>>>
>>> *SOFTIMAGE QUALITYBLEED VULNERABILITY*
>>> Discovered by Security Researchers Gibli, Barosin, Pancres, Friedman,
>>> Akita, Jones, Panisset, Barbieri and Piparo
>>>
>>> Psyop experienced a "Eureka" moment today, when an artist discovered
>>> that updating referenced models was nearly two orders of magnitude faster
>>> when done through RDP (remote desktop protocol) rather than on a local
>>> workstation.
>>>
>>> Simultaneously, a different artist in LA encountered issues with
>>> slowness saving files in Softimage, and a quick test confirmed that saving
>>> the scene via RDP was also two orders of magnitude faster.  This led to a
>>> flurry of troubleshooting, and we have since narrowed the problem down to
>>> Softimage's "High Quality Viewport" "feature."
>>>
>>> The speed-ups after disabling HQV are nothing short of mind-blowing.
>>> For example, unloading a referenced model took 250 seconds before the fix,
>>> and only 3 seconds after the fix.  Meanwhile, a scene that took 15 minutes
>>> to save saved in only 30 seconds after the fix was deployed.
>>>
>>> One artist's wife was quoted as saying, "Thanks to the Qualitybleed bug
>>> being fixed, my husband finally comes home from work on time!  Now if I can
>>> just get him to stop spending all his free time watching Houdini
>>> tutorials..."
>>>
>>> Note that the "high quality viewport" preference that causes the problem
>>> is *enabled by default*, Psyop doesn't generally use HQV in our scenes, *so
>>> people are likely to be affected by this problem whether they are HQV users
>>> or not*.
>>>
>>> To fix the problem, affected softimage users can run the following
>>> Python command:
>>> Application.SetValue("preferences.Display.high_quality_viewport", False,
>>> "")
>>>
>>> There is still much research to be done to find out what kinds of
>>> scenes/models are more susceptible to the problem, but we thought we'd
>>> bring it up now in case it's costing others time.  Given that the problem
>>> was tied in with RDP, it's likely that video drivers could be playing a
>>> role, but so far we weren't able to find any settings that would magically
>>> eliminate the problem without just disabling HQV entirely.
>>>
>>> Psyop is on a mix of NVidia Quadros and we ran tests with a few
>>> different drivers, including the recommended ones.  We also saw the same
>>> problem across two different workstation images, in both Softimage 2013 and
>>> Softimage 2014, and on a remote worker's home workstation.  So we have
>>> reason to suspect it's not a highly specific aspect of our configuration
>>> that was causing the problem.  No testing has been done yet on Linux.
>>>
>>> We will be sure to keep this list updated as more information becomes
>>> available.  Share your stories in the comments below if you have been
>>> affected by this ~100X slowdown in performance, or if you encounter a
>>> workstation that is somehow unaffected.
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
>
> Best Regards,
> *  Stephen P. Davidson*
>
> *(954) 552-7956 <%28954%29%20552-7956>*sdavid...@3danimationmagic.com
>
> *Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic*
>
>
>- Arthur C. Clarke
>
> 
>

Sort Controller - Open Source Release!

[Jonah Friedman]

Hello Softimage List,

I'm pleased to announce the release of one of my favorite tools we have at
Psyop- the Sort Controller!

The premise is simple: using a simple 'partition = group' markup language,
you write rules for procedurally sorting your passes. Groups are used as
something like metadata tagging, and the sort controller sorts your
partitions with it. By adding a layer of proceduralism to passes and
partitions, the Sort Controller puts Softimage passes another five years
ahead of... well.. never mind!

A simple example to show how this works:
Sort Code:

Background_Objects_Partitions = *

characters = sg_characters
set = sg_set


Result:

The first line puts everything into background objects to start clean.

All objects in group(s) named "sg_characters" are sorted into the
"characters" partition.
All objects in group(s) named "sg_set" are sorted into the "set" partition.

So if geometry is added to your characters, or more characters were added,
or you're using the same passes in a different shot with different
characters, your passes can be kept up to date by keeping the sort groups
in the assets up to date. Overall though, it's very simple to use and none
of our lighters has had any problems picking it up. The Sort
Controller allows a lot of different workflows and these can be as simple
or complicated as they need to be, and it's not an all or nothing
proposition. It works on jobs of all sizes and has served us well for many
years.

Full Documentation: https://github.com/Psyop/sort-controller/wiki

Repo: https://github.com/Psyop/sort-controller

Happy sorting!

Re: What use is ICE really?

[Jonah Friedman]

Wow, where do I start? Every time there's a challenge or a problem, I reach
for ICE. Virtually every project I've worked on over the last three years
at Psyop NY has made use of ICE in at least some minor way, and most
projects in a really major way.

By no means a complete list, and I'm absolutely not giving credit to enough
people

Also I want to stress that while this is mostly a list of things I worked
on, a lot of the ICE tasks listed on here were NOT done by me.


LG:

http://www.psyop.tv/lg-somethings-lurking/

This one takes me back. One of my first big ICE projects. ICE dust sharks,
ice strands for carpet fibers, ice disintegration of dust sharks.


JBL:

http://www.psyop.tv/jbl-ear-of-the-tornado/
Infinite high detail ground plane was made using a hex tile system created
in ICE. Tornado was simulated in houdini by Miguel but the particles were
modified for rendering in ICE and rendered in Soft.


Wolfenstein:

http://www.psyop.tv/bethesda-wolfenstein-the-new-order/

Blackbody emission sparks that instance lights to approximate the
illumnation coming from the sparks. All the rain of course. ICE based
tangents everywhere to control a ward shader. Also water surface that came
from naiad was used to advect a bunch the oil slicks.


Coke Zero:

http://www.psyop.tv/coke-zero-2012-coke-zero/
Our whole own crowd system which works in ICE, called BigAssCrowd. It works
by playing back looking animations in any particular order using time
instancing, and it knows where attachment points are for heads, hands, etc
and so can instance big foam finger or foam cowboy hats on everything.

Whole custom crowd system, built in 2 weeks together with Dave Barosin.


Morrisons:

http://www.psyop.tv/morrisons-guest/

Cracking of the ginger bread man works via a tangent based tension map that
creates data for stretching only along the tangent. In areas where
stretching happens along the tangent, a displacement map of cracks against
the tangent are turned on. We also had an artist control for biasing the
tension, with interactive artist feedback.
Development time: half day for proof of concept, 1.5 days for production
version

On top of that there's all the various snow in the air, snow on the ground,
glitter, and tons of crumbs and sugar crystals on the ginger bread guy.


Also the bird used Ruffle, our entirely ICE based feather system which uses
ICE to instance feathers that are made.. out of strands generated by ICE.

Telstra:

http://www.psyop.tv/telstra-big-night-in/

Made the Entwiner, which creates 3D knits entirely out of strands. The only
downside was we had to re-model the characters using NURBs, and then deform
those nurbs using the animation geometry. Those deformers were made in ICE,
of course.

Mio:

http://www.psyop.tv/mio-nose-job/

Lots of mios. ICE feathers by Todd Akita in this one, and ICE haircuts.
Lots of little ICE things too, like deforming render geometry with
animation geometry, deforming softimage hair growing geometry with
animation geometry.


3M Post Its:

http://digitalcanvas.co/2014/03/05/digital-canvas-interviews-psyop/

Everything is an instance. Not sure how to even approach this job without a
porgrammable procedural instancer.


Fanta Waterfall:

http://www.psyop.tv/fanta-waterfall/

I didn't personally work on this, and these avatar jungles show what a
couple people who were using ICE for almost the first time can pull of.


Friskies:

http://www.psyop.tv/friskies-alice/

ICE instancing and Ruffle feathers everywhere.



Anyway I can't complete this list because I have to get some work done
today. It's hard to think of an area of work ICE hasn't touched. It's been
amazing for us and the idea of losing it is very painful.






On Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 10:20 AM, Toonafish  wrote:

>  Ha ! I was just thinking Paul should post his ICE renderer video :-)
>
> - Ronald
>
>
> On 3/21/2014 15:02, p...@bustykelp.com wrote:
>
>  Some of my stuff
>
> Making a renderer
> https://vimeo.com/20648346
>
> remapping topology
> https://vimeo.com/43532240
>
> transferring deformation to different topology
> https://vimeo.com/26116783
>
> image manipulation
> https://vimeo.com/33588786
>
> texture instance flow
> https://vimeo.com/37304814
>
> facial mocap solver
> https://vimeo.com/40589904
>
> muscles
> https://vimeo.com/43913057
>
> applying corrective shapes
> https://vimeo.com/67402407
>
> space invaders
> https://vimeo.com/75699841
>
> tree maker
> https://vimeo.com/76144838
> forest maker
> https://vimeo.com/76411577
>
> fur system
> https://vimeo.com/80382153
>
> anatomical deformation
> https://vimeo.com/88245138
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

Re: "Top List of ICE Nodes That Cover 80% of What You Do With The Toolset"

[Jonah Friedman]

Nope.


On Sat, Mar 15, 2014 at 1:15 PM, Will Robertson wrote:

> nope.
>
>
> On Sat, Mar 15, 2014 at 1:00 PM, Andy Jones  wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Mar 15, 2014 at 6:41 AM, Chris Vienneau <
>> chris.vienn...@autodesk.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Do you guys think there is a top list of nodes in ICE and compounds you
>>> all use that cover 80% of what you do with the toolset?
>>>
>>
>> Nope
>>
>
>
>
> --
> 
> * Will Robertson*
>   917.822.3746
>  tinyelevator.com
>
>
>
>

Re: ICE in Maya is it really possible?

[Jonah Friedman]

>
> but to kill Softimage I would think that Maya would have to prove to be an
> ice replacement within 2 years. How else do you justify it.


While what you're saying makes perfect sense, the
Bifrost-based-ice-replacement does not exist and given Autodesk's track
record, I think it's very likely to never exist. As for having it in two
years, I think that might actually be literally impossible. And BTW, I'm
leaving out the ecosystem that exists around ICE in soft (weight maps,
groups, clusters, render tree integration, etc) that can make it so
amazingly useful. Like Perry said, having this stuff involves changing the
internals of Maya, and having that in two years seems even more impossible.
Ultimately I don't see how people who transition to Maya can reasonably
expect to have something like ICE ever again.




On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 4:00 PM, phil harbath
wrote:

>   perhaps I am terrible ignorant to think this and I have no knowledge of
> what the upcoming 2015 version of Maya will contain,  but to kill Softimage
> I would think that Maya would have to prove to be an ice replacement within
> 2 years.  How else do you justify it.  In my opinion Autodesk considers
> Maya superior in everyway except ICE, so that would be the last step needed
> to make Softimage totally redundant (again in the eyes of Autodesk).
>
>  *From:* Jonah Friedman 
> *Sent:* Friday, March 14, 2014 3:57 PM
> *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
> *Subject:* Re: ICE in Maya is it really possible?
>
>   To make matters worse for the Bifrost-replacing-ice idea-
>
> Bifrost, at the moment, is fluid simulation. Hell, Bifrost hasn't even
> been proven to be good at fluid simulation yet, although I have no doubt it
> eventually can be. But as for Bifrost-the-ICE-replacement, it's not even at
> the level of vaporware. It hasn't been officially promised, just vaguely
> hinted at. Once Bifrost actually succeeds at its current purpose- fluid
> simulation- then we can talk about what it might take to rebuild ICE based
> on it.
>
> I'm imagining one possible future a couple years down the line everyone is
> happy that Maya finally solved their fluid simulation problem which is
> apparently holding Maya back, and team Bifrost turns their attention to
> replacing ICE. At this point, they're several years away from making
> something as good as ICE and we can start having this conversation in
> earnest. This is a best case scenario.
>
> There's another possible future where where it turns out people are using
> Houdini and/or Realflow for their fluid simulation needs, and nobody cares
> very much about having one directly in Maya, even if it's awesome, and
> Bifrost is deemed yet another misguided direction Maya was taken in by AD.
> And in this future, no matter how good the technical underpinnings of
> bifrost are, and ICE is a distant memory and Bifrost is just more
> abandonware in Maya.
>
> So yeah, I wouldn't hold my breath for an ice replacement from Autodesk.
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 3:25 PM, Daniel Sweeney 
> wrote:
>
>> I will be surprised if bit frost is anything compared to ice. But who
>> knows. I will be honest I have never used Maya, and never have ventured
>> into that territory from things I have heard. With all the thing I'm
>> reading after the EOL was announce I just think out the box it far too
>> technical/hardwork for my personal work flow.
>>
>> Let's be rational, ice is 5 some years old and was 2-3 years in the
>> making before that. So that's 7-8 years. I would be interested to find out
>> how long this bit frost has been in the making.now considering they
>> only bought niad not too long ago and I read its based somehow on that, I
>> would be sceptical how well it could work or how mature it is. I just think
>> all of this is based on pure market share and pleasing the share holders.
>>
>> But like I said I don't know. But I know I will be looking for another
>> route away from autocash for sure.
>>
>> I hope most people follow another path to show these bully tactics are
>> bull shit and the customer is always right.
>>
>> Daniel
>>  On 14 Mar 2014 18:43, "Nuno Conceicao" 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Gee, I guess how many features wont be supported in Bifrost, or how long
>>> it will take them to have it at the level ICE currently is...
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 6:37 PM, Ahmidou Lyazidi 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> # mean mode on
>>>> They should introduce first the concept of weight map object in Maya as
>>>> currently it's all blackboxed i

Re: ICE in Maya is it really possible?

[Jonah Friedman]

To make matters worse for the Bifrost-replacing-ice idea-

Bifrost, at the moment, is fluid simulation. Hell, Bifrost hasn't even been
proven to be good at fluid simulation yet, although I have no doubt it
eventually can be. But as for Bifrost-the-ICE-replacement, it's not even at
the level of vaporware. It hasn't been officially promised, just vaguely
hinted at. Once Bifrost actually succeeds at its current purpose- fluid
simulation- then we can talk about what it might take to rebuild ICE based
on it.

I'm imagining one possible future a couple years down the line everyone is
happy that Maya finally solved their fluid simulation problem which is
apparently holding Maya back, and team Bifrost turns their attention to
replacing ICE. At this point, they're several years away from making
something as good as ICE and we can start having this conversation in
earnest. This is a best case scenario.

There's another possible future where where it turns out people are using
Houdini and/or Realflow for their fluid simulation needs, and nobody cares
very much about having one directly in Maya, even if it's awesome, and
Bifrost is deemed yet another misguided direction Maya was taken in by AD.
And in this future, no matter how good the technical underpinnings of
bifrost are, and ICE is a distant memory and Bifrost is just more
abandonware in Maya.

So yeah, I wouldn't hold my breath for an ice replacement from Autodesk.




On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 3:25 PM, Daniel Sweeney wrote:

> I will be surprised if bit frost is anything compared to ice. But who
> knows. I will be honest I have never used Maya, and never have ventured
> into that territory from things I have heard. With all the thing I'm
> reading after the EOL was announce I just think out the box it far too
> technical/hardwork for my personal work flow.
>
> Let's be rational, ice is 5 some years old and was 2-3 years in the making
> before that. So that's 7-8 years. I would be interested to find out how
> long this bit frost has been in the making.now considering they only
> bought niad not too long ago and I read its based somehow on that, I would
> be sceptical how well it could work or how mature it is. I just think all
> of this is based on pure market share and pleasing the share holders.
>
> But like I said I don't know. But I know I will be looking for another
> route away from autocash for sure.
>
> I hope most people follow another path to show these bully tactics are
> bull shit and the customer is always right.
>
> Daniel
> On 14 Mar 2014 18:43, "Nuno Conceicao" 
> wrote:
>
>> Gee, I guess how many features wont be supported in Bifrost, or how long
>> it will take them to have it at the level ICE currently is...
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 6:37 PM, Ahmidou Lyazidi 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> # mean mode on
>>> They should introduce first the concept of weight map object in Maya as
>>> currently it's all blackboxed in the different nodes,
>>> and all with different SDK access...
>>> # mean mode off
>>>
>>> ---
>>> Ahmidou Lyazidi
>>> Director | TD | CG artist
>>> http://vimeo.com/ahmidou/videos
>>> http://www.cappuccino-films.com
>>>
>>>
>>> 2014-03-14 19:29 GMT+01:00 Nuno Conceicao :
>>>
>>> Something just came up on my head while doing blendshapes and using ICE
 to help along.

 Can you guys imagine how would ICE (or Biftrost) would work in Maya
 without a proper modelling stack like XSI''s?

 Even something as simple as using ICE to invert weight maps that are
 hooked with shapes with an already enveloped character or fixing some poses
 maybe...

>>>
>>>
>>

Re: Maya feature request from Softimage users

[Jonah Friedman]

You manually update them by hitting sort or sort all. Also have a check
function that checks to see if anything is unsorted and report what.

This workflow only works because passes and partitions are so solid and
useful, not to mention groups. Maya has no foundation to build this sort of
thing on, only sets which are near useless.
 On Mar 8, 2014 5:39 PM, "Andy Goehler" 
wrote:

> Sounds great. How does the "Sort Controller" update the pass? By callback
> upon switching to that pass or manually?
>
> Andy
>
> On Mar 08, 2014, at 23:35, Jonah Friedman  wrote:
>
> We have a rule based way of sorting partitions called the "Sort
> Controller", originally conceived by Andy Jones. It's been extremely
> powerful.
>
> You write your passes in a simple markup language in a PPG on the pass,
> like this. Copy pasting from a real production scene I have open right now-
>
> Background_Objects_Partition = *
> characters = sg_character
> set = sg_set
> lighting_geo = sg_lighting_geo
>
> l: Background_Lights_Partition = *
> l: env = sg_lEnv
> l: key = sg_lKey
> l: rim = sg_lRim
>
>
> What that does is puts objects in a group called "sg_character" into a
> partition called "characters". So each pass has a sort controller on it,
> and the scene can stay sorted by managing the sort groups, called SG by
> convention.
>
> It's been extremely good to us. Other than that, passes and partitions do
> their work exactly the way soft is supposed to, except that the partitions
> are sorted by the Sort Controller.
>
> Even our least technical lighters got used to it no problem, and it's
> universally loved.
>
>
>

Re: Maya feature request from Softimage users

[Jonah Friedman]

Oh no, I would never accuse you being stark raving mad, sorry it came off
that way.

I was more concerned the Maya people reading this thread would read your
post like that. :)


On Sat, Mar 8, 2014 at 6:03 PM, Eric Thivierge  wrote:

>
> On Sat, Mar 8, 2014 at 5:29 PM, Jonah Friedman  wrote:
>
>> Agreed, but that better thing is not what we find in Maya render layers.
>> Render layers are clearly worse. I have no faith in AD's judgement about
>> what is better though.
>
>
> I hope you didn't take it as me being pro-maya render layers. They suck,
> no way around it.
>
>
> 
> Eric Thivierge
> http://www.ethivierge.com
>

Re: Maya feature request from Softimage users

[Jonah Friedman]

Agreed, but that better thing is not what we find in Maya render layers.
Render layers are clearly worse. I have no faith in AD's judgement about
what is better though.


On Sat, Mar 8, 2014 at 5:21 PM, Eric Thivierge  wrote:

>
> On Sat, Mar 8, 2014 at 5:12 PM, Andy Goehler  > wrote:
>
>> I can't count the many many times overrides have cost me overtime and
>> rerendering because of not working properly.
>
>
> I think we all need to be honest, there were concepts that were great
> about passes / partitions but there were some things that needed fixing
> (still do). We need something that isn't exactly like the pass / partition
> system. We need something better.
>
>
> 
> Eric Thivierge
> http://www.ethivierge.com
>

Re: Maya feature request from Softimage users

[Jonah Friedman]

We have a rule based way of sorting partitions called the "Sort
Controller", originally conceived by Andy Jones. It's been extremely
powerful.

You write your passes in a simple markup language in a PPG on the pass,
like this. Copy pasting from a real production scene I have open right now-

Background_Objects_Partition = *
characters = sg_character
set = sg_set
lighting_geo = sg_lighting_geo

l: Background_Lights_Partition = *
l: env = sg_lEnv
l: key = sg_lKey
l: rim = sg_lRim


What that does is puts objects in a group called "sg_character" into a
partition called "characters". So each pass has a sort controller on it,
and the scene can stay sorted by managing the sort groups, called SG by
convention.

It's been extremely good to us. Other than that, passes and partitions do
their work exactly the way soft is supposed to, except that the partitions
are sorted by the Sort Controller.

Even our least technical lighters got used to it no problem, and it's
universally loved.




On Sat, Mar 8, 2014 at 5:30 PM, Andy Goehler
wrote:

> Thank you for saying that Eric. While Softs Passes/Partitions are still
> great and better than others out there, I feel the same way. Having to add
> yet another object to a partition in x amount of passes is something I've
> become to hate. Referencing of partitions/groups in passes would help,
> expression/rule based assignment, or yet a node based approach to passes.
> Wait what? :-)
>
> Andy
>
>
>
> On Mar 08, 2014, at 23:21, Eric Thivierge  wrote:
>
> I think we all need to be honest, there were concepts that were great
> about passes / partitions but there were some things that needed fixing
> (still do). We need something that isn't exactly like the pass / partition
> system. We need something better.
>
>
>

Re: Update to the Softtimage Transition Plan

[Jonah Friedman]

This is a clear improvement and much more fair. Thank you.


On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 1:53 PM, Eric Turman  wrote:

> Thanks Maurice...this is a significant change.
> A couple of things that are still not clear.
>
> 1) When do we have to make the decision by.
> 2) if we find that it is just not working out, will we be able to
> perpetually use the version of Soft and Maya frozen at the end of that
> subscription?
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 12:49 PM, Ognjen Vukovic  wrote:
>
>> Any chance of you guys selling Softimage to someone else?
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 7:44 PM, Maurice Patel > > wrote:
>>
>>> Hi everyone,
>>>
>>> I have an update to the Softimage Transition Plan to share with you:
>>>
>>> When we created the initial Softimage transition plan our desire was to
>>> provide our customers with an easy, no-cost path to transition  to either
>>> 3ds Max or Maya.  We have been monitoring all of your feedback on the
>>> forums, including many direct conversations with our customers, and have
>>> made adjustments to the transition offering to address your concerns.  As
>>> we had previously announced, a program is available to all Softimage
>>> customers on Subscription providing you with the option of migrating to 3ds
>>> Max or Maya via a bundle that will include a Softimage license until April
>>> 2016.  Based on your feedback we will be adding the ability to continue to
>>> access Softimage indefinitely with your Subscription entitlement even after
>>> we stop support on Softimage in April 2016.   We have heard you and we want
>>> to make sure you can continue to be able to access your Softimage projects
>>> even after the retirement of Softimage.  Our intention was not to create
>>> more burden on you with this difficult change.
>>>
>>> As many of you have also asked about this, we would also like to clarify
>>> what will happen if you do not want to transition: your licenses will not
>>> stop working. Any licenses you have purchased are yours. They are perpetual
>>> licenses and will continue working whether you are on Subscription or not.
>>> You will continue to be able to contact support if you need to move a
>>> license to a new machine.
>>>
>>> maurice
>>> Maurice Patel
>>> Autodesk : Tél:  514 954-7134
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
> --
>
>
>
>
> -=T=-
>

Re: Maya feature request from Softimage users

[Jonah Friedman]

Guys, guys, let's be reasonable, I only want four things.


1. Rethink the "everything is a node floating at the root level" thing and
redo it to have nested nodes. It was a noble idea 20 years ago, but
experience has taught us it's a bad idea. Make the node graphs the menu
commands generate actually be readable and editable by humans in all cases,
such as creating a skinning operator.

2. Redo referencing- namespaces are a stupid solution to this problem and
terribly implemented. Make sure it supports nested references.

3. Everything rendering related is based either on the long defunct maya
software renderer, or the world's dodgiest implementation of mental ray. Or
in the case of render layers, make them not be a haphazard and
bizzarely-planned pile of mel that once again creates incomprehensible
spider web graphs. That's not ideal, I'd like these things to not be that.

4. Something to replace ICE. This one is a long shot because I'm not
actually sure they know what ICE is.





On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 1:22 PM, Emilio Hernandez  wrote:

> Ability to drag and drop objects in the outliner under other objects like
> the explorer.
> Ability to have non transformation groups
>
> Pfff I am working in Maya right now, as I am required to do so, the list
> is so long as I continue to do stuff.
>
> ---
> Emilio Hernández   VFX & 3D animation.
>
>
> 2014-03-07 12:18 GMT-06:00 Jason S :
>
>  Problem-solving  without  problem-solving-code-departments
>>
>> On 03/07/14 13:15, Emilio Hernandez wrote:
>>
>> +1
>>
>>  ---
>> Emilio Hernández   VFX & 3D animation.
>>
>>
>> 2014-03-07 12:14 GMT-06:00 Rob Chapman :
>>
>>> No icons..?  :D
>>>  On 7 Mar 2014 18:10, "Emilio Hernandez"  wrote:
>>>
 Independency of child parameters from parent objects.  LIke for example
 if you want to hide the parent and leave the child visible, and not spread
 all of this throught the hierarchy.

  ---
 Emilio Hernández   VFX & 3D animation.


 2014-03-07 12:05 GMT-06:00 Emilio Hernandez :

> Ability to change the same parameters in a multi selection objects
>
>  ---
> Emilio Hernández   VFX & 3D animation.
>
>
>  2014-03-07 12:03 GMT-06:00 Adam Sale :
>
>  Gator
>> Decent set of shatter and sim tools ala implosia and momentum
>> Face robot type functionality
>>   On Mar 7, 2014 10:00 AM, "Emilio Hernandez" 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Oh I thought it was mentioned "officialy" by Autodesk.  If that was
>>> the case probably will be the opposite.  But if it is a rumor then it 
>>> might
>>> be there  We just need like 6 years so it will become true.
>>>
>>>  ---
>>> Emilio Hernández   VFX & 3D animation.
>>>
>>>
>>> 2014-03-07 11:54 GMT-06:00 Nic Sievers :
>>>
  nope, I haven't used it.   I should have specifically said its a
 rumor, instead of I believe.


 On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 9:50 AM, Christopher Crouzet <
 christopher.crou...@gmail.com> wrote:

> And I believe you're breaking the NDA here?
>
>
>
> On 7 March 2014 12:47, Nic Sievers  wrote:
>
>>  I believe Maya 2015 adds a new unfold3D tool...
>>
>>
>>  On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 9:37 AM, Manuel Huertas Marchena <
>> lito...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>  uv unfold please!!
>>>
>>>  ...really dont like maya uv's tools!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> IMDB  | Portfolio
>>>  | 
>>> Vimeo|
>>> Linkedin 
>>>
>>>
>>>  --
>>> Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2014 17:30:22 +
>>> Subject: Re: Maya feature request from Softimage users
>>> From: sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com
>>> To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
>>>
>>>
>>>  the ability to show/hide components, like in every other DCC
>>> ever made.
>>>
>>>  the ability to relax selections of polygons edges and vertexes.
>>>
>>>  neither of these should prove to be too difficult... baby steps
>>>
>>>
>>> On 7 March 2014 17:23, Oscar Juarez 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> You nailed right there Jeremie, basically being flexible when
>>> rigging, every day I go splitting geometry, regatoring meshes, and 
>>> merging
>>> again, transfering everything seamlessly.
>>>
>>>  Multi attribu

Re: Just a thought - I hear the framestore use an ancient version of maya......

[Jonah Friedman]

Long term, that's roughly my thinking with using Fabric Engine for in house
development. It puts that very idea within reach of smaller places.


On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 10:06 AM, Andi Farhall  wrote:

> just as a shell basically with their own customization and updating, so
> could one of the larger houses using soft not do the same thing?
>
> ...
> http://www.hackneyeffects.com/
> https://vimeo.com/user4174293
> http://www.linkedin.com/pub/andi-farhall/b/496/b21
>
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/lord_hackney/
> http://spylon.tumblr.com/
>
> This email and any attachments to it may be confidential and are intended
> solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any views or
> opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily
> represent those of Hackney Effects Ltd.
>
> If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you must neither take
> any action based upon its contents, nor copy or show it to anyone.
>
> Please contact the sender if you believe you have received this email in
> error.
> 
>

Re: A way forward - We are kingmakers.

[Jonah Friedman]

For myself, I just want to be heading in a direction of somewhere I
actually want to be. When I think of spending the next 5 years maintaining
a pile of python to make render layers barely work, I just want to cry. And
all of that just to take a massive step backwards. I really just can't.

The alternative of open collaboration between studios to build something
*good* is not only an alternative to despair, it's actually amazingly
exciting. I absolutely can't wait to start using and contributing to a
project like this. So many studios suddenly find themselves in this
situation now, with real urgency. This is a massive opportunity. Like
Stephan just said, if this isn't the right moment, I don't know what is.




On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 5:22 PM, Stefan Kubicek  wrote:

>  @Felix: I totally agree on the bundling forces part.
> I've been on the Fabric Beta since over a year and am pondering over
> making a standalone application ever since.
> I have both plans for a hair/fur editing app as well as a general-purpose
> 3D application (at least the foundation of that)  that can be extended and
> built upon by me and others. Blender comes very close to that ideal but it
> looks almost like a dead end compared to what FE already has to offer
> (accessibility of the API, Multithreading, Qt, etc), plus it would take a
> lot of changes to shape it into what I'd like it to look like, and that
> will be hard to gety ba the ecisting developers and communits.
> So far I've been held back by having to earn money in actual production,
> the (very)  little time left gets mostly eaten up by my family.
> I've been thinking of kickstarting it, but there's a whole slew of steps
> involved to make that happen successfully. Is anyone familiar with the
> Blender business model? They do have permanent paid staff, right? Where do
> they get their funding from?
>
> @Andy J.:Thanks for summing it up so nicely and comprehensively. I need to
> disagree on the modeling part though. Even in XSI I miss a lot, especially
> in terms of symmetrical modeling and sculpting. There is huge potential for
> improvement in any existing application out there.
>
> If anyone (individuals and companies alike) is out there who is interested
> in collaborating on such projects or just wants to share advice and or/
> ideas, whether technical or financial - I'm all ears.
> If this isn't the right moment in time I don't know which one is. Will,
> need and technology is there. Right now.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Great post Andy! I'm probably biased, because I'm mainly working as a
> lighter. But after thinking about the future for the last couple of days, I
> came to the very same conclusion. Lighting and scene assembly is the
> biggest hole to fill. Houdini will be a great replacement for FX and with
> stuff like open VDB, alembic, partiio, etc it should become easier to move
> stuff in and out. Modeling can happen anywhere since a while.
> Rigging and animation isn't that easy. But animation isn't that technical
> and animators usually don't take long to switch. Rigging is more difficult.
> But Maya isn't that bad in rigging. And now there is Fabric. And I think
> for rigging it is already 90% of where it should be. People like Eric are
> already building stuff with it. And the advantage here is that rigging is a
> very modular and job specific process. With a few solvers and deformers
> you're already up and running, and everything else, you build on top as you
> need it. And that's the problem with a Fabric scene assembly application.
> You'd basically need to build a complete and highly complex application
> from scratch which covers all your needs. Otherwise you won't be able to
> work with it. And from what I know that's what keeps many people in smaller
> studios from using fabric in this area. It's just financially impossible to
> build such an application from scratch. I was really disappointed when I
> heard that the Fabric guys won't continue Stage for now (although I
> understand their reasons). And all the other efforts I know of (except for
> Steven's Arnold connection) are happening inside studios and most likely
> won't be shared.
> So now that Softimage will be gone, isn't there room or even need for
> collaboration here? Before everybody tries to build something themselves,
> shouldn't people try to bundle forces? And I'm not only talking about
> individuals here. I'm talking about small to medium size companies who
> couldn't afford to build something like this alone.
>
>
>
>
> 2014-03-04 20:39 GMT+01:00 Juhani Karlsson :
>
>> Now I`m interested about this mailing list too - its full

Re: A way forward - We are kingmakers.

[Jonah Friedman]

>
> you can create arnold scenes with the kl language! this is a step toward
> my own scene assembly tool. i am imagining something between softimage and
> katana.


That sounds exactly like a place I want to be. <3

A way forward - We are kingmakers.

[Jonah Friedman]

I think a united Softimage community could be kingmaker. I nominate Fabric
Engine as King.

Here's some facts as I see them: Some of us will continue to use Softimage
for the next few years, others of us will unhappily be forced to use Maya.
The realities of production, studios, and freelancers will dictate this.

Softimage gave us ICE. ICE has made us smart, because ICE is a ladder. ICE
is a magical place where the slightest bit of linear algebra is immediately
useful. If you can add two vectors together you can make useful things in
ICE. And if you learn a little more, it's a little more useful. And in so
doing, ICE has elevated many us from people who use 3D applications to
people who create our own tools in 3D applications. Our community is not
totally unique in this matter, but I think our community is remarkable in
its knowledge of the core math of CG. That combined with our formidable
production experience, self-sufficiency, and early-adopter fearlessness is
unique. It makes us mighty.

I think Fabric engine is the way out. That's because Fabric Engine is also
a ladder. For the moment, nothing changes. We may continue to use
Softimage, or we may be forced to use Maya, depending on each of our
circumstance, but the important thing is getting behind Fabric and trying
to get as many of our tools as possible into it. There's no giant painful
leap that's needed, we can start small without breaking existing workflows.
As a bonus, if we open up our tools as much as possible, this will go
exponentially faster. Softimage will remain frozen in time and Maya will
continue to crumble under the weight of its terrible design, and all the
while Fabric Engine will be eating.

Here's how I see this playing out.

   1. First Fabric Engine replaces what we used to do in ICE. There's a lot
   of work to do to make this a reality, but this one seems like a no-brainer
   to me.
   2. The next lowest hanging fruit is rigging. Fabric Engine creations eat
   the deformers used in rigging, and then become the rigs themselves.
   3. Once the native rigging in these programs is eaten, Fabric Engine
   also eats animation as a natural progression. The animators must go where
   the rigs are, and will be happiest where the rigs play back the fastest.
   4. Lighting and rendering is a tough one, but it won't take very much to
   be better than Maya here. Being competent at scene assembly and having a
   pass system that isn't obviously terrible is enough.
   5. We unceremoniously kick the desiccated husk of Maya into a storm
   drain.

Honestly if we do nothing, I think this might happen anyway. But I think
together can make it go much faster.

   1. Embrace open source and put as many of our tools as we can out there.
   2. Keep making stuff- this is natural for us, as we have, after all, all
   become toolmakers.

No giant painful leap is needed. We liberate ourselves, and empower
developers who have passion and care about the right things.

This is the only road I see that leads somewhere that I actually want to
be.

-Jonah

Re: [SItoA] Whiskytree, Elysium breakdown

[Jonah Friedman]

Staggering work, really inspiring. Thanks for putting this stuff out there!


On Tue, Feb 4, 2014 at 1:46 PM, Steven Caron  wrote:

> Here is a breakdown of Whiskytree's Elysium work...
>
> https://vimeo.com/85581391
>
> Steven
>
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to sitoa+unsubscr...@solidangle.com.
>

Re: Whiskeytree Athens tech demo

[Jonah Friedman]

Wow- this is what having one's shit truely together looks like. Congrats to
Whiskytree.


On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 11:11 AM, Emilio Hernandez wrote:

> Absolutley impressive!  And the tools!  Wow!
>
> What a powerful plugin is Softimage for Maya that Maya didn't need to be
> used at all!
>
> Good work Whiskey Tree!
>
>
>
>
> 2013/11/22 Rares Halmagean 
>
>>  Excellent! Sharp breakdown.
>>
>> On 11/22/2013 8:04 AM, adrian wyer wrote:
>>
>>  congrats to everyone at Whiskeytree for this epic demo!
>>
>>
>>
>> https://vimeo.com/71148018
>>
>>
>>
>> your library toolset is a thing of beauty!
>>
>>
>>
>> a
>>
>>
>>
>> Adrian Wyer
>> Fluid Pictures
>> 75-77 Margaret St.
>> London
>> W1W 8SY
>> ++44(0) 207 580 0829
>>
>>
>> adrian.w...@fluid-pictures.com
>>
>> www.fluid-pictures.com
>>
>>
>>
>> Fluid Pictures Limited is registered in England and Wales.
>> Company number:5657815
>> VAT number: 872 6893 71
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>> *Rares Halmagean ___ *visual development
>> and 3d character & content creation.
>> *rarebrush.com* 
>>
>
>

Re: Softimage 2014

[Jonah Friedman]

I just finished reading through this list of bug fixes.. this isn't a small
amount of work. I even found my bug on there - SOFT-6417 Inconsistent
results when rendering Pass with ICE attributes. At least if that's what I
think it is, that one has bothered me for years.

Also I'm thinking if it's a new team that did this, fixing this many bugs
would require them to touch a huge amount of the the application.. which
with a new team, seems like a great way to start.


On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 8:29 AM, Jason S  wrote:

> **
>  =  =
> -
>  \__/
>
>
>
> On 26/03/2013 10:30 AM, Jens Lindgren wrote:
>
>  This is interesting... i think.
> http://area.autodesk.com/2014unfold/products/softimage.html#future
>
> /Jens
>
>
>

Re: "Simulate Bullet Rigid Bodies" evaluates even when condition is False?!

[Jonah Friedman]

Also, you can't iterate on it and after it runs, it doesn't seem to set
attributes like "pointPosition" or "orientation" in any normal way. I'm not
a fan of the node either.

On Tue, Jul 10, 2012 at 2:42 PM, Alan Fregtman wrote:

> Tried that already and it's still doing something to my particles. Evil
> node!! :/
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 10, 2012 at 2:38 PM, Stephen Blair  > wrote:
>
>> How about muting the Simulate Bullet Rigid Bodies based on the condition
>> you were feeding into the If?
>>
>> And yes, I got the same thing with an If node.
>> I event tried plugging in a second, muted Simulate Bullet Rigid Bodies
>> node into the False port
>>
>> From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
>> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Alan Fregtman
>> Sent: July-10-12 1:55 PM
>> To: XSI Mailing List
>> Subject: "Simulate Bullet Rigid Bodies" evaluates even when condition is
>> False?!
>>
>> Hey guys,
>>
>> It would appear that even when I have an If node presumably preventing
>> executation of "Simulate Bullet Rigid Bodies", it STILL EVALUATES. :o
>>
>> Ever seen this happen? I'm trying to disable it when I don't need it. I
>> even tried setting particles as passive RBDs but they still react and
>> stuff. I need them to stay still until a given frame.
>>
>> Everything else in my If node respects the condition, except the sim rbds
>> node. :(
>>
>> Any help appreciated.
>> Cheers,
>>
>>-- Alan
>>
>>
>

LA Softimage users for Psyop LA

[Jonah Friedman]

Hey Everyone,

I was asked to pass along this message:

Psyop LA is currently in search for Mid - Sr. Level Softimage artists. We
are looking for artists across all mediums such as Modeling/Texture,
Lighting, Animation and most importantly, effects artists working in ICE.
Also important to be able to integrate Softimage work into existing
non-Softimage pipelines, especially interoperation with Maya.

If interested, email Nellie Tehrani nel...@psyop.tv

-Jonah