RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-10 Thread Angus Davidson
Hi Raff

Our university course is in South Africa. Streaming from anywhere except 
Digital Tutors (which is stil not great but manageable) is a disaster. We would 
really like the option to be able to buy the course and setup someway of 
allowing our students to stream it locally (as I wouldnt want to give them 
direct access to the file - that would just be asking for trouble)

Do you know if there are any plans for something similar? I know we are not the 
only place of learnign that has issues with this.

Kind regards

Angus

From: Raffaele Fragapane [raffsxsil...@googlemail.com]
Sent: 10 April 2013 06:44 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

In principle I'm not fond of the idea of assuming everybody is a pirate and 
forcing these always online models on people, so no argument there. They did 
have a case for it it turns out, but (again in principle) I would have rather 
have opted out of it and risked losing a few sales, it wasn't possible though.

The player is ok, that I can tell you, they wrap Vimeo's very thinly, and 
Vimeo's is a fairly good, html 5 capable player. No way around not being able 
to see the video if you're offline though for now (again going by the 
assumption they are online only), and that -is- annoying, and has kept me away 
from a couple resources too.

It might be possible to rip them with some videograbbing site or streamcatch 
software, it's just an mp4 managed h264 stream at the end of the day, or if you 
know personally any of my ex-alumni they might have the original downloadables 
around, but I wouldn't know, and it'd be that gray area where you have to 
decide for yourself whether it's ethical or not.
You wouldn't be offending me for ripping my vids to file if you bought them, I 
can tell you that much :p


On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 2:02 PM, Sam 
sbowl...@cox.netmailto:sbowl...@cox.net wrote:
Thanks Raff. I understand about the problem with Piracy, but some of the 
players these guys come up with are truly terrible and make it very difficult 
to navigate the videos. That’s my only real concern with streaming, well, that 
and if my internet goes out in middle of me watching the video.

I loved the visuals in Sucker Punch, but I did think the story could have been 
better. It is still worth watching, just for the amazing visuals.



table width=100% border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 
style=width:100%;
tr
td align=left style=text-align:justify;font face=arial,sans-serif 
size=1 color=#99span style=font-size:11px;This communication is 
intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this 
communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original 
message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the 
permission of the University. Only authorised signatories are competent to 
enter into agreements on behalf of the University and recipients are thus 
advised that the content of this message may not be legally binding on the 
University and may contain the personal views and opinions of the author, which 
are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the 
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and 
outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in 
writing to the contrary. /span/font/td
/tr
/table


Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-10 Thread Raffaele Fragapane
I suggest anybody who has issues with the current system, but is genuinely
interested in their products (not just mine, there are some very solid
things out on CGS and more coming) gets in touch with them and sees what
they can do.

TODs are a fresh thing, there's still plasticity to the offer, and if
enough educational institutions ask for it, a bundle license and a
possibility to cache locally will be considered I'm sure.

Same for users.
They aren't a bunch of money grabbing enterpreneurs, I can honestly say
that, they are just trying to balance getting something out of their
initiatives with keeping the userbase happy. So just get in touch. I've
seen them entertaining threads literally dozens long with just the one
customer more than once. They do care enough :)


On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 4:35 PM, Angus Davidson
angus.david...@wits.ac.zawrote:

  Hi Raff

  Our university course is in South Africa. Streaming from anywhere except
 Digital Tutors (which is stil not great but manageable) is a disaster.
 We would really like the option to be able to buy the course and setup
 someway of allowing our students to stream it locally (as I wouldnt want to
 give them direct access to the file - that would just be asking for trouble)

  Do you know if there are any plans for something similar? I know we are
 not the only place of learnign that has issues with this.

  Kind regards

  Angus
  --
 *From:* Raffaele Fragapane [raffsxsil...@googlemail.com]
 *Sent:* 10 April 2013 06:44 AM

 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

   In principle I'm not fond of the idea of assuming everybody is a pirate
 and forcing these always online models on people, so no argument there.
 They did have a case for it it turns out, but (again in principle) I would
 have rather have opted out of it and risked losing a few sales, it wasn't
 possible though.

  The player is ok, that I can tell you, they wrap Vimeo's very thinly, and
 Vimeo's is a fairly good, html 5 capable player. No way around not being
 able to see the video if you're offline though for now (again going by the
 assumption they are online only), and that -is- annoying, and has kept me
 away from a couple resources too.

 It might be possible to rip them with some videograbbing site or
 streamcatch software, it's just an mp4 managed h264 stream at the end of
 the day, or if you know personally any of my ex-alumni they might have the
 original downloadables around, but I wouldn't know, and it'd be that gray
 area where you have to decide for yourself whether it's ethical or not.
 You wouldn't be offending me for ripping my vids to file if you bought
 them, I can tell you that much :p


 On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 2:02 PM, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

  Thanks Raff. I understand about the problem with Piracy, but some of
 the players these guys come up with are truly terrible and make it very
 difficult to navigate the videos. That’s my only real concern with
 streaming, well, that and if my internet goes out in middle of me watching
 the video.  

 ** **

 I loved the visuals in Sucker Punch, but I did think the story could have
 been better. It is still worth watching, just for the amazing visuals.***
 *




   This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is 
 confidential. If you have received this communication in error, please notify 
 us immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or 
 disseminate this communication without the permission of the University. Only 
 authorised signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of 
 the University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this 
 message may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the 
 personal views and opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the 
 views and opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All 
 agreements between the University and outsiders are subject to South African 
 Law unless the University agrees in writing to the contrary. **




-- 
Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it
and let them flee like the dogs they are!


Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-10 Thread Simon Anderson
Hey Angus,

What Wits course teach's 3D, and 3D in Softimage in SA, Have to say its
pretty cool. I Havent heard of any Uni in SA that teach's 3D and if they do
its usually Maya.



On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 4:45 PM, Raffaele Fragapane 
raffsxsil...@googlemail.com wrote:

 I suggest anybody who has issues with the current system, but is genuinely
 interested in their products (not just mine, there are some very solid
 things out on CGS and more coming) gets in touch with them and sees what
 they can do.

 TODs are a fresh thing, there's still plasticity to the offer, and if
 enough educational institutions ask for it, a bundle license and a
 possibility to cache locally will be considered I'm sure.

 Same for users.
 They aren't a bunch of money grabbing enterpreneurs, I can honestly say
 that, they are just trying to balance getting something out of their
 initiatives with keeping the userbase happy. So just get in touch. I've
 seen them entertaining threads literally dozens long with just the one
 customer more than once. They do care enough :)


 On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 4:35 PM, Angus Davidson angus.david...@wits.ac.za
  wrote:

  Hi Raff

  Our university course is in South Africa. Streaming from anywhere
 except Digital Tutors (which is stil not great but manageable) is a
 disaster. We would really like the option to be able to buy the course and
 setup someway of allowing our students to stream it locally (as I wouldnt
 want to give them direct access to the file - that would just be asking for
 trouble)

  Do you know if there are any plans for something similar? I know we are
 not the only place of learnign that has issues with this.

  Kind regards

  Angus
  --
 *From:* Raffaele Fragapane [raffsxsil...@googlemail.com]
 *Sent:* 10 April 2013 06:44 AM

 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

   In principle I'm not fond of the idea of assuming everybody is a
 pirate and forcing these always online models on people, so no argument
 there. They did have a case for it it turns out, but (again in principle) I
 would have rather have opted out of it and risked losing a few sales, it
 wasn't possible though.

  The player is ok, that I can tell you, they wrap Vimeo's very thinly,
 and Vimeo's is a fairly good, html 5 capable player. No way around not
 being able to see the video if you're offline though for now (again going
 by the assumption they are online only), and that -is- annoying, and has
 kept me away from a couple resources too.

 It might be possible to rip them with some videograbbing site or
 streamcatch software, it's just an mp4 managed h264 stream at the end of
 the day, or if you know personally any of my ex-alumni they might have the
 original downloadables around, but I wouldn't know, and it'd be that gray
 area where you have to decide for yourself whether it's ethical or not.
 You wouldn't be offending me for ripping my vids to file if you bought
 them, I can tell you that much :p


 On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 2:02 PM, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

  Thanks Raff. I understand about the problem with Piracy, but some of
 the players these guys come up with are truly terrible and make it very
 difficult to navigate the videos. That’s my only real concern with
 streaming, well, that and if my internet goes out in middle of me watching
 the video.  

 ** **

 I loved the visuals in Sucker Punch, but I did think the story could
 have been better. It is still worth watching, just for the amazing visuals.
 




   This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is 
 confidential. If you have received this communication in error, please 
 notify us immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or 
 disseminate this communication without the permission of the University. 
 Only authorised signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf 
 of the University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this 
 message may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the 
 personal views and opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the 
 views and opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All 
 agreements between the University and outsiders are subject to South African 
 Law unless the University agrees in writing to the contrary.
 **




 --
 Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it
 and let them flee like the dogs they are!




-- 
---
Simon Ben Anderson
blog: http://vinyldevelopment.wordpress.com/


Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-10 Thread Angus Davidson
Hi Simon

We currently have a MA 3D Animation course. 10 years ago when we started we 
also used Maya, but because of a lot of technical issues I eventually convinced 
them to switch to SI. It was a great decision as the students found it so much 
more intuitive and the quality of the student work went up.

We also now have a 3rd year course which is more focused on traditional 2D 
animation that uses TV paint, and a 4th year course in compositing in AE. As 
far as I know we are the only place in SA where you can get a Postgraduate 
Degree in the field of Animation.

We have also with the collaboration of Engineering started a games design 
degree, Its currently in its second year now and producing some really awesome 
stuff. Its also going to be a great feeder to the 3D MA as you will get folks 
who have a very good grounding in 3D at the beginning of the course.

Kind regards

Angus




From: Simon Anderson 
simonbenandersonl...@gmail.commailto:simonbenandersonl...@gmail.com
Reply-To: 
softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com 
softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Date: Wednesday 10 April 2013 9:25 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com 
softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

Hey Angus,

What Wits course teach's 3D, and 3D in Softimage in SA, Have to say its pretty 
cool. I Havent heard of any Uni in SA that teach's 3D and if they do its 
usually Maya.



On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 4:45 PM, Raffaele Fragapane 
raffsxsil...@googlemail.commailto:raffsxsil...@googlemail.com wrote:
I suggest anybody who has issues with the current system, but is genuinely 
interested in their products (not just mine, there are some very solid things 
out on CGS and more coming) gets in touch with them and sees what they can do.

TODs are a fresh thing, there's still plasticity to the offer, and if enough 
educational institutions ask for it, a bundle license and a possibility to 
cache locally will be considered I'm sure.

Same for users.
They aren't a bunch of money grabbing enterpreneurs, I can honestly say that, 
they are just trying to balance getting something out of their initiatives with 
keeping the userbase happy. So just get in touch. I've seen them entertaining 
threads literally dozens long with just the one customer more than once. They 
do care enough :)


On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 4:35 PM, Angus Davidson 
angus.david...@wits.ac.zamailto:angus.david...@wits.ac.za wrote:
Hi Raff

Our university course is in South Africa. Streaming from anywhere except 
Digital Tutors (which is stil not great but manageable) is a disaster. We would 
really like the option to be able to buy the course and setup someway of 
allowing our students to stream it locally (as I wouldnt want to give them 
direct access to the file - that would just be asking for trouble)

Do you know if there are any plans for something similar? I know we are not the 
only place of learnign that has issues with this.

Kind regards

Angus

From: Raffaele Fragapane 
[raffsxsil...@googlemail.commailto:raffsxsil...@googlemail.com]
Sent: 10 April 2013 06:44 AM

To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.commailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

In principle I'm not fond of the idea of assuming everybody is a pirate and 
forcing these always online models on people, so no argument there. They did 
have a case for it it turns out, but (again in principle) I would have rather 
have opted out of it and risked losing a few sales, it wasn't possible though.

The player is ok, that I can tell you, they wrap Vimeo's very thinly, and 
Vimeo's is a fairly good, html 5 capable player. No way around not being able 
to see the video if you're offline though for now (again going by the 
assumption they are online only), and that -is- annoying, and has kept me away 
from a couple resources too.

It might be possible to rip them with some videograbbing site or streamcatch 
software, it's just an mp4 managed h264 stream at the end of the day, or if you 
know personally any of my ex-alumni they might have the original downloadables 
around, but I wouldn't know, and it'd be that gray area where you have to 
decide for yourself whether it's ethical or not.
You wouldn't be offending me for ripping my vids to file if you bought them, I 
can tell you that much :p


On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 2:02 PM, Sam 
sbowl...@cox.netmailto:sbowl...@cox.net wrote:
Thanks Raff. I understand about the problem with Piracy, but some of the 
players these guys come up with are truly terrible and make it very difficult 
to navigate the videos. That’s my only real concern with streaming, well, that 
and if my internet goes out in middle of me watching the video.

I loved the visuals in Sucker Punch, but I did think the story could have been 
better. It is still

Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-09 Thread Raffaele Fragapane
You can get in touch with CGS to get confirmation, but I suspect they are
streaming only.

They had several workshops truly crippled by piracy, and since they moved
to a new framework they actually did see a surge in sales and some
workshops haven't appeared on the piratesphere at all, so I doubt they will
revert that decision.
I asked for mine to be downloadable actually, but as it's the same
framework for everything it wasn't possible to make exception.

The player is good though, it's a thin wrapper of Vimeo's, so is the
hosting.
Again, can't speak for them, but I'd be surprised if they were still
downloadable (the originals were as I had control over the html pages
wrapping them and I intentionally made the links solvable :) ).

The dragon is from Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch. I was character supervisor
on AL's work for it.
The movie was meh, but you don't get to do dragons setting crowds in armor
on fire on a collapsing bridge while chasing a refitted WW2 bomber
everyday, so I can't complain for having worked on it :p


On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 3:08 PM, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

 Thanks for the pointers. Raff’s course looks very good (what’s the dragon
 from?). Is the CGsociety an online only course or can the videos be
 downloaded? CMIVFX really turned me off to online training. I find their
 video payer to be terrible and just can’t get myself to watch the two video
 I bought from them (which would be handy because they are both about ICE).
 

 ** **

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Andy Moorer
 *Sent:* Sunday, April 07, 2013 7:30 PM

 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 ** **

 ** **

 I guess my biggest problem is that I don’t know what I need to know, which
 makes it hard to find answers. I search the internet when I get stuck, but
 there seems to be little out there when it comes to my specific problems.
 Anyway, that Kahn Academy is very cool. I had never heard of it before, but
 it looks like it will be very useful.

 ** **

 A little trig and linear algebra will take you quite a long way. By the
 way, he's too polite to point it out but Raff's CGsociety online technical
 direction with Python training has a very nice section on math.



 

 BTW, this is the result of my ICE experiments (if anyone is interested in
 it). It’s similar to what was done in one of the Modo 7 videos.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNXQn9KbIBQ 

 Sorry about the crappy quality, I have to experiment with my YouTube
 upload settings.

 ** **

 Very nice!

 ** **

 I urge you to post on Vimeo, and follow Alan's Softimage ice user's group
 there - it seems to have become the defacto place for Softimage folks to
 see and share and there is a rather impressive volume of ICE work there.**
 **




-- 
Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it
and let them flee like the dogs they are!


RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-09 Thread Sam
Thanks Raff. I understand about the problem with Piracy, but some of the
players these guys come up with are truly terrible and make it very
difficult to navigate the videos. That's my only real concern with
streaming, well, that and if my internet goes out in middle of me watching
the video.  

 

I loved the visuals in Sucker Punch, but I did think the story could have
been better. It is still worth watching, just for the amazing visuals.

 

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Raffaele
Fragapane
Sent: Monday, April 08, 2013 11:22 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

You can get in touch with CGS to get confirmation, but I suspect they are
streaming only.

They had several workshops truly crippled by piracy, and since they moved to
a new framework they actually did see a surge in sales and some workshops
haven't appeared on the piratesphere at all, so I doubt they will revert
that decision.
I asked for mine to be downloadable actually, but as it's the same framework
for everything it wasn't possible to make exception.

The player is good though, it's a thin wrapper of Vimeo's, so is the
hosting.

Again, can't speak for them, but I'd be surprised if they were still
downloadable (the originals were as I had control over the html pages
wrapping them and I intentionally made the links solvable :) ).

The dragon is from Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch. I was character supervisor on
AL's work for it.
The movie was meh, but you don't get to do dragons setting crowds in armor
on fire on a collapsing bridge while chasing a refitted WW2 bomber everyday,
so I can't complain for having worked on it :p

 

On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 3:08 PM, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

Thanks for the pointers. Raff's course looks very good (what's the dragon
from?). Is the CGsociety an online only course or can the videos be
downloaded? CMIVFX really turned me off to online training. I find their
video payer to be terrible and just can't get myself to watch the two video
I bought from them (which would be handy because they are both about ICE). 

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Andy Moorer
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 7:30 PM


To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

 

I guess my biggest problem is that I don't know what I need to know, which
makes it hard to find answers. I search the internet when I get stuck, but
there seems to be little out there when it comes to my specific problems.
Anyway, that Kahn Academy is very cool. I had never heard of it before, but
it looks like it will be very useful.

 

A little trig and linear algebra will take you quite a long way. By the way,
he's too polite to point it out but Raff's CGsociety online technical
direction with Python training has a very nice section on math.

 

BTW, this is the result of my ICE experiments (if anyone is interested in
it). It's similar to what was done in one of the Modo 7 videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNXQn9KbIBQ 

Sorry about the crappy quality, I have to experiment with my YouTube upload
settings.

 

Very nice!

 

I urge you to post on Vimeo, and follow Alan's Softimage ice user's group
there - it seems to have become the defacto place for Softimage folks to see
and share and there is a rather impressive volume of ICE work there.




-- 
Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and
let them flee like the dogs they are!



Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-09 Thread Xavier Lapointe
If Raff had been involved in the writing process, it would have been quite
interesting q:


On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 2:02 PM, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

 Thanks Raff. I understand about the problem with Piracy, but some of the
 players these guys come up with are truly terrible and make it very
 difficult to navigate the videos. That’s my only real concern with
 streaming, well, that and if my internet goes out in middle of me watching
 the video.  

 ** **

 I loved the visuals in Sucker Punch, but I did think the story could have
 been better. It is still worth watching, just for the amazing visuals.

 ** **

 ** **

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Raffaele Fragapane
 *Sent:* Monday, April 08, 2013 11:22 PM

 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 ** **

 You can get in touch with CGS to get confirmation, but I suspect they are
 streaming only.

 They had several workshops truly crippled by piracy, and since they moved
 to a new framework they actually did see a surge in sales and some
 workshops haven't appeared on the piratesphere at all, so I doubt they will
 revert that decision.
 I asked for mine to be downloadable actually, but as it's the same
 framework for everything it wasn't possible to make exception.

 The player is good though, it's a thin wrapper of Vimeo's, so is the
 hosting.

 Again, can't speak for them, but I'd be surprised if they were still
 downloadable (the originals were as I had control over the html pages
 wrapping them and I intentionally made the links solvable :) ).

 The dragon is from Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch. I was character supervisor
 on AL's work for it.
 The movie was meh, but you don't get to do dragons setting crowds in armor
 on fire on a collapsing bridge while chasing a refitted WW2 bomber
 everyday, so I can't complain for having worked on it :p

 ** **

 On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 3:08 PM, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

 Thanks for the pointers. Raff’s course looks very good (what’s the dragon
 from?). Is the CGsociety an online only course or can the videos be
 downloaded? CMIVFX really turned me off to online training. I find their
 video payer to be terrible and just can’t get myself to watch the two video
 I bought from them (which would be handy because they are both about ICE).
 

  

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Andy Moorer
 *Sent:* Sunday, April 07, 2013 7:30 PM


 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

  

  

 I guess my biggest problem is that I don’t know what I need to know, which
 makes it hard to find answers. I search the internet when I get stuck, but
 there seems to be little out there when it comes to my specific problems.
 Anyway, that Kahn Academy is very cool. I had never heard of it before, but
 it looks like it will be very useful.

  

 A little trig and linear algebra will take you quite a long way. By the
 way, he's too polite to point it out but Raff's CGsociety online technical
 direction with Python training has a very nice section on math.

 ** **

 BTW, this is the result of my ICE experiments (if anyone is interested in
 it). It’s similar to what was done in one of the Modo 7 videos.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNXQn9KbIBQ 

 Sorry about the crappy quality, I have to experiment with my YouTube
 upload settings.

  

 Very nice!

  

 I urge you to post on Vimeo, and follow Alan's Softimage ice user's group
 there - it seems to have become the defacto place for Softimage folks to
 see and share and there is a rather impressive volume of ICE work there.**
 **




 --
 Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it
 and let them flee like the dogs they are!




-- 
Xavier


Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-09 Thread Raffaele Fragapane
In principle I'm not fond of the idea of assuming everybody is a pirate and
forcing these always online models on people, so no argument there. They
did have a case for it it turns out, but (again in principle) I would have
rather have opted out of it and risked losing a few sales, it wasn't
possible though.

The player is ok, that I can tell you, they wrap Vimeo's very thinly, and
Vimeo's is a fairly good, html 5 capable player. No way around not being
able to see the video if you're offline though for now (again going by the
assumption they are online only), and that -is- annoying, and has kept me
away from a couple resources too.

It might be possible to rip them with some videograbbing site or
streamcatch software, it's just an mp4 managed h264 stream at the end of
the day, or if you know personally any of my ex-alumni they might have the
original downloadables around, but I wouldn't know, and it'd be that gray
area where you have to decide for yourself whether it's ethical or not.
You wouldn't be offending me for ripping my vids to file if you bought
them, I can tell you that much :p


On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 2:02 PM, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

 Thanks Raff. I understand about the problem with Piracy, but some of the
 players these guys come up with are truly terrible and make it very
 difficult to navigate the videos. That’s my only real concern with
 streaming, well, that and if my internet goes out in middle of me watching
 the video.  

 ** **

 I loved the visuals in Sucker Punch, but I did think the story could have
 been better. It is still worth watching, just for the amazing visuals.





RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-08 Thread Sam
Thanks for the pointers. Raff’s course looks very good (what’s the dragon 
from?). Is the CGsociety an online only course or can the videos be downloaded? 
CMIVFX really turned me off to online training. I find their video payer to be 
terrible and just can’t get myself to watch the two video I bought from them 
(which would be handy because they are both about ICE). 

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Andy Moorer
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 7:30 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

 

I guess my biggest problem is that I don’t know what I need to know, which 
makes it hard to find answers. I search the internet when I get stuck, but 
there seems to be little out there when it comes to my specific problems. 
Anyway, that Kahn Academy is very cool. I had never heard of it before, but it 
looks like it will be very useful.

 

A little trig and linear algebra will take you quite a long way. By the way, 
he's too polite to point it out but Raff's CGsociety online technical direction 
with Python training has a very nice section on math.





BTW, this is the result of my ICE experiments (if anyone is interested in it). 
It’s similar to what was done in one of the Modo 7 videos. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNXQn9KbIBQ 

Sorry about the crappy quality, I have to experiment with my YouTube upload 
settings.

 

Very nice!

 

I urge you to post on Vimeo, and follow Alan's Softimage ice user's group there 
- it seems to have become the defacto place for Softimage folks to see and 
share and there is a rather impressive volume of ICE work there.



RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-08 Thread Sam
This is what I was trying to copy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRgxCMOZ_aI

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Christopher
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 7:40 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

I don't know what features are in Modo, you basically re-created a feature 
built into Modo, correct ! That ends on a good note :)

Christopher






 mailto:andymoo...@gmail.com Andy Moorer

Sunday, April 07, 2013 10:29 PM

 

I guess my biggest problem is that I don’t know what I need to know, which 
makes it hard to find answers. I search the internet when I get stuck, but 
there seems to be little out there when it comes to my specific problems. 
Anyway, that Kahn Academy is very cool. I had never heard of it before, but it 
looks like it will be very useful.

 

A little trig and linear algebra will take you quite a long way. By the way, 
he's too polite to point it out but Raff's CGsociety online technical direction 
with Python training has a very nice section on math.





BTW, this is the result of my ICE experiments (if anyone is interested in it). 
It’s similar to what was done in one of the Modo 7 videos. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNXQn9KbIBQ 

Sorry about the crappy quality, I have to experiment with my YouTube upload 
settings.

 

Very nice!

 

I urge you to post on Vimeo, and follow Alan's Softimage ice user's group there 
- it seems to have become the defacto place for Softimage folks to see and 
share and there is a rather impressive volume of ICE work there.



 mailto:sbowl...@cox.net Sam

Sunday, April 07, 2013 8:59 PM

I guess my biggest problem is that I don’t know what I need to know, which 
makes it hard to find answers. I search the internet when I get stuck, but 
there seems to be little out there when it comes to my specific problems. 
Anyway, that Kahn Academy is very cool. I had never heard of it before, but it 
looks like it will be very useful.

 

BTW, this is the result of my ICE experiments (if anyone is interested in it). 
It’s similar to what was done in one of the Modo 7 videos. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNXQn9KbIBQ 

Sorry about the crappy quality, I have to experiment with my YouTube upload 
settings. 

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Peter Agg
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 4:13 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

Though, saying that, ICE is one of the bast ways to learn the fundamental maths 
anyway. You just have to be a nosy bastard and visualise anything you're not 
fully understanding (with the core nodes, that is, ignore the compounds as much 
as you can unless you're in a rush) until you can see the patterns. Sprinkle 
with a bit of Khan Academy/Wikipedia for core concepts like, say, what a dot or 
cross product does and you'll slowly start to build up the knowledge.

 

On 7 April 2013 23:20, Christopher christop...@thecreativesheep.ca wrote:

Sam - Raffaele is right. Hopefully someone can give you guidance, ICE is not 
easy if you don't know the math. I'm still learning and studying and have made 
a step up :) 

Christopher







 mailto:raffsxsil...@googlemail.com Raffaele Fragapane

Sunday, April 07, 2013 5:39 PM

I would argue your biggest stumbling block is more not knowing the math 
fundamentals involved, and then thinking it's because you don't know what nodes 
do what, when if you knew those fundamentals you wouldn't be left wondering in 
first place.

I mean absolutely no offense with this, Sam, just pointing you in the general 
direction of what you'd be best off studying next IMO.







 

-- 
Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and 
let them flee like the dogs they are!



 mailto:sbowl...@cox.net Sam

Sunday, April 07, 2013 3:21 PM

Thanks Peter, that works great! The problem I was having was that I was trying 
to plug in the Ori data into the Matrix to Vector node. This seems to be my 
biggest stumbling block with ICE. I know what needs to be done, but sometimes I 
just can’t figure out what nodes need to be plugged in to what to make it work.

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Peter Agg
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 3:36 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

Just to expand on what Matt said:

 

If you want a direction with any object in ICE, the easiest way is to get it's 
global kinematics and pipe that into a 'Matrix 4x4 to Vector 3D' node. The node 
will spit out 4 vectors - ignore the one labeled 'translation' and pick one of 
the 3 depending on what axis you want to get the direction of. The order is XYZ 
as you'd expect.

 

You can then pipe out your chosen axis into the direction of the raycast node

RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-07 Thread Sam
I couldn't figure this one out. Andy's compound used a Select Case and a
rotate vector to convert the orientation of the null to a vector (Thanks
Andy!). I was wondering if you could elaborate on your method if you have
time. Learning the different ways to do things in ICE could come in handy in
the future.

 

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Matt Lind
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2013 7:10 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

All you need to do is pluck an axis out of the transform and use that as
your direction vector.  You can do that with the matrix to 3D vector
converters.  

 

Matt

 

 

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Sam
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2013 6:55 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

I have a null I'm using to raycast onto a mesh and it working pretty good,
but I want to be able to adjust the direction by rotating the null and I
can't seem to get this to work. There is a direction to rotation node, but
there doesn't seem to be a rotation to direction node. Any help is
appreciated.



Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-07 Thread Peter Agg
Just to expand on what Matt said:

If you want a direction with any object in ICE, the easiest way is to get
it's global kinematics and pipe that into a 'Matrix 4x4 to Vector 3D' node.
The node will spit out 4 vectors - ignore the one labeled 'translation' and
pick one of the 3 depending on what axis you want to get the direction of.
The order is XYZ as you'd expect.

You can then pipe out your chosen axis into the direction of the raycast
node and the translation into the position. You can then use that null as a
complete raycast controller.


On 7 April 2013 07:54, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

 I couldn’t figure this one out. Andy’s compound used a Select Case and a
 rotate vector to convert the orientation of the null to a vector (Thanks
 Andy!). I was wondering if you could elaborate on your method if you have
 time. Learning the different ways to do things in ICE could come in handy
 in the future.

 ** **

 ** **

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Matt Lind
 *Sent:* Friday, March 29, 2013 7:10 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

 ** **

 All you need to do is pluck an axis out of the transform and use that as
 your direction vector.  You can do that with the matrix to 3D vector
 converters.  

 ** **

 Matt

 ** **

 ** **

 ** **

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [
 mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.comsoftimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
 *On Behalf Of *Sam
 *Sent:* Friday, March 29, 2013 6:55 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* set raycast direction with a Null?

 ** **

 I have a null I’m using to raycast onto a mesh and it working pretty good,
 but I want to be able to adjust the direction by rotating the null and I
 can’t seem to get this to work. There is a direction to rotation node, but
 there doesn’t seem to be a rotation to direction node. Any help is
 appreciated.



RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-07 Thread Sam
Thanks Peter, that works great! The problem I was having was that I was
trying to plug in the Ori data into the Matrix to Vector node. This seems to
be my biggest stumbling block with ICE. I know what needs to be done, but
sometimes I just can't figure out what nodes need to be plugged in to what
to make it work.

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Peter Agg
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 3:36 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

Just to expand on what Matt said:

 

If you want a direction with any object in ICE, the easiest way is to get
it's global kinematics and pipe that into a 'Matrix 4x4 to Vector 3D' node.
The node will spit out 4 vectors - ignore the one labeled 'translation' and
pick one of the 3 depending on what axis you want to get the direction of.
The order is XYZ as you'd expect.

 

You can then pipe out your chosen axis into the direction of the raycast
node and the translation into the position. You can then use that null as a
complete raycast controller.

 

On 7 April 2013 07:54, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

I couldn't figure this one out. Andy's compound used a Select Case and a
rotate vector to convert the orientation of the null to a vector (Thanks
Andy!). I was wondering if you could elaborate on your method if you have
time. Learning the different ways to do things in ICE could come in handy in
the future.

 

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Matt Lind
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2013 7:10 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

All you need to do is pluck an axis out of the transform and use that as
your direction vector.  You can do that with the matrix to 3D vector
converters.  

 

Matt

 

 

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Sam
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2013 6:55 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

I have a null I'm using to raycast onto a mesh and it working pretty good,
but I want to be able to adjust the direction by rotating the null and I
can't seem to get this to work. There is a direction to rotation node, but
there doesn't seem to be a rotation to direction node. Any help is
appreciated.

 



Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-07 Thread Andy Moorer
It takes some getting used to. Peter's approach is far simpler and direct
than mine.

What I do is take a global axis (x,y or z based on the user's choice) and
then rotate it to match the orientation of the null as given by the 3x3
orientation matrix (kine.global.ori). Where Peter accesses the 4x4
transformation matrix and pulls the desired axis, already rotated,
directly. :D


On Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 12:21 PM, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

 Thanks Peter, that works great! The problem I was having was that I was
 trying to plug in the Ori data into the Matrix to Vector node. This seems
 to be my biggest stumbling block with ICE. I know what needs to be done,
 but sometimes I just can’t figure out what nodes need to be plugged in to
 what to make it work.

 ** **

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Peter Agg
 *Sent:* Sunday, April 07, 2013 3:36 AM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 ** **

 Just to expand on what Matt said:

 ** **

 If you want a direction with any object in ICE, the easiest way is to get
 it's global kinematics and pipe that into a 'Matrix 4x4 to Vector 3D' node.
 The node will spit out 4 vectors - ignore the one labeled 'translation' and
 pick one of the 3 depending on what axis you want to get the direction of.
 The order is XYZ as you'd expect.

 ** **

 You can then pipe out your chosen axis into the direction of the raycast
 node and the translation into the position. You can then use that null as a
 complete raycast controller.

 ** **

 On 7 April 2013 07:54, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

 I couldn’t figure this one out. Andy’s compound used a Select Case and a
 rotate vector to convert the orientation of the null to a vector (Thanks
 Andy!). I was wondering if you could elaborate on your method if you have
 time. Learning the different ways to do things in ICE could come in handy
 in the future.

  

  

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Matt Lind
 *Sent:* Friday, March 29, 2013 7:10 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

  

 All you need to do is pluck an axis out of the transform and use that as
 your direction vector.  You can do that with the matrix to 3D vector
 converters.  

  

 Matt

  

  

  

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [
 mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.comsoftimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
 *On Behalf Of *Sam
 *Sent:* Friday, March 29, 2013 6:55 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* set raycast direction with a Null?

  

 I have a null I’m using to raycast onto a mesh and it working pretty good,
 but I want to be able to adjust the direction by rotating the null and I
 can’t seem to get this to work. There is a direction to rotation node, but
 there doesn’t seem to be a rotation to direction node. Any help is
 appreciated.

 ** **



Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-07 Thread Raffaele Fragapane
I would argue your biggest stumbling block is more not knowing the math
fundamentals involved, and then thinking it's because you don't know what
nodes do what, when if you knew those fundamentals you wouldn't be left
wondering in first place.
I mean absolutely no offense with this, Sam, just pointing you in the
general direction of what you'd be best off studying next IMO.


On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 5:21 AM, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

 Thanks Peter, that works great! The problem I was having was that I was
 trying to plug in the Ori data into the Matrix to Vector node. This seems
 to be my biggest stumbling block with ICE. I know what needs to be done,
 but sometimes I just can’t figure out what nodes need to be plugged in to
 what to make it work.

 ** **

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Peter Agg
 *Sent:* Sunday, April 07, 2013 3:36 AM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 ** **

 Just to expand on what Matt said:

 ** **

 If you want a direction with any object in ICE, the easiest way is to get
 it's global kinematics and pipe that into a 'Matrix 4x4 to Vector 3D' node.
 The node will spit out 4 vectors - ignore the one labeled 'translation' and
 pick one of the 3 depending on what axis you want to get the direction of.
 The order is XYZ as you'd expect.

 ** **

 You can then pipe out your chosen axis into the direction of the raycast
 node and the translation into the position. You can then use that null as a
 complete raycast controller.

 ** **

 On 7 April 2013 07:54, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

 I couldn’t figure this one out. Andy’s compound used a Select Case and a
 rotate vector to convert the orientation of the null to a vector (Thanks
 Andy!). I was wondering if you could elaborate on your method if you have
 time. Learning the different ways to do things in ICE could come in handy
 in the future.

  

  

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Matt Lind
 *Sent:* Friday, March 29, 2013 7:10 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

  

 All you need to do is pluck an axis out of the transform and use that as
 your direction vector.  You can do that with the matrix to 3D vector
 converters.  

  

 Matt

  

  

  

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [
 mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.comsoftimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
 *On Behalf Of *Sam
 *Sent:* Friday, March 29, 2013 6:55 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* set raycast direction with a Null?

  

 I have a null I’m using to raycast onto a mesh and it working pretty good,
 but I want to be able to adjust the direction by rotating the null and I
 can’t seem to get this to work. There is a direction to rotation node, but
 there doesn’t seem to be a rotation to direction node. Any help is
 appreciated.

 ** **




-- 
Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it
and let them flee like the dogs they are!


Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-07 Thread Christopher
Sam - Raffaele is right. Hopefully someone 
can give you guidance, ICE is not easy if you don't know the math. I'm 
still learning and studying and have made a step up :) 

Christopher


   	   
   	Raffaele Fragapane  
  Sunday, April 07,
 2013 5:39 PM
  I would argue 
your biggest stumbling block is more not knowing the math fundamentals 
involved, and then thinking it's because you don't know what nodes do 
what, when if you knew those fundamentals you wouldn't be left wondering
 in first place.
I mean absolutely no offense with this, Sam, just pointing you in the 
general direction of what you'd be best off studying next IMO.-- Our
 users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it 
and let them flee like the dogs they are!



  
   	   
   	Sam  
  Sunday, April 07,
 2013 3:21 PM
  Thanks
 Peter, that works great! The problem I was having was that I was trying
 to plug in the Ori data into the Matrix to Vector node. This seems to 
be my biggest stumbling block with ICE. I know what needs to be done, 
but sometimes I just cant figure out what nodes need to be plugged in 
to what to make it work.From:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Peter
 AggSent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 3:36 AMTo: 
softimage@listproc.autodesk.comSubject: Re: set raycast 
direction with a Null?Just to expand on what Matt said:If you 
want a direction with any object in ICE, theeasiestway is to get it's 
global kinematics and pipe that into a 'Matrix 4x4 to Vector 3D' node. 
The node will spit out 4 vectors - ignore the one labeled 'translation' 
and pick one of the 3 depending on what axis you want to get the 
direction of. The order is XYZ as you'd expect.You 
can then pipe out your chosen axis into the direction of the raycast 
node and thetranslationinto theposition. You can then use that null 
as a complete raycast controller.On 7 April 2013 07:54, Sam sbowl...@cox.net
 wrote:I couldnt figure this one out. Andys compound used a
 Select Case and a rotate vector to convert the orientation of the null 
to a vector (Thanks Andy!). I was wondering if you could elaborate on 
your method if you have time. Learning the different ways to do things 
in ICE could come in handy in the future.From:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
 On Behalf Of Matt LindSent: Friday, March 29, 2013 
7:10 PMTo: softimage@listproc.autodesk.comSubject:
 RE: set raycast direction with a Null?All you need to do is 
pluck an axis out of the transform and use that as your direction 
vector. You can do that with the matrix to 3D vector converters. MattFrom:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
 On Behalf Of SamSent: Friday, March 29, 2013 6:55 PMTo:
 softimage@listproc.autodesk.comSubject:
 set raycast direction with a Null?I have a null Im using to raycast onto a mesh and it 
working pretty good, but I want to be able to adjust the direction by 
rotating the null and I cant seem to get this to work. There is a 
direction to rotation node, but there doesnt seem to be a rotation to 
direction node. Any help is appreciated.
   	   
   	Peter Agg  
  Sunday, April 07,
 2013 6:35 AM
  Just
 to expand on what Matt said:If you want a 
direction with any object in ICE, theeasiestway is to get it's global 
kinematics and pipe that into a 'Matrix 4x4 to Vector 3D' node. The node
 will spit out 4 vectors - ignore the one labeled 'translation' and pick
 one of the 3 depending on what axis you want to get the direction of. 
The order is XYZ as you'd expect.

You can then pipe out your chosen axis into the 
direction of the raycast node and thetranslationinto theposition. You
 can then use that null as a complete raycast controller.



  
   	   
   	Sam  
  Sunday, April 07,
 2013 2:54 AM
  I couldnt figure this one 
out. Andys compound used a Select Case and a rotate vector to convert 
the orientation of the null to a vector (Thanks Andy!). I was wondering 
if you could elaborate on your method if you have time. Learning the 
different ways to do things in ICE could come in handy in the future.From:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Matt
 LindSent: Friday, March 29, 2013 7:10 PMTo: 
softimage@listproc.autodesk.comSubject: RE: set raycast 
direction with a Null?All you need to do is pluck an axis out of the 
transform and use that as your direction vector. You can do that with 
the matrix to 3D vector converters. MattFrom:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
 On Behalf Of SamSent: Friday, March 29, 2013 6:55 PMTo:
 softimage@listproc.autodesk.comSubject:
 set raycast direction with a Null?I have a null Im using to raycast onto a mesh and 
it working pretty good, but I want to be able to adjust the direction by
 rotating the null and I cant

Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-07 Thread Peter Agg
Though, saying that, ICE is one of the bast ways to learn the fundamental
maths anyway. You just have to be a nosy bastard and visualise anything
you're not fully understanding (with the core nodes, that is, ignore the
compounds as much as you can unless you're in a rush) until you can see the
patterns. Sprinkle with a bit of Khan Academy/Wikipedia for core concepts
like, say, what a dot or cross product does and you'll slowly start to
build up the knowledge.


On 7 April 2013 23:20, Christopher christop...@thecreativesheep.ca wrote:

 Sam - Raffaele is right. Hopefully someone can give you guidance, ICE is
 not easy if you don't know the math. I'm still learning and studying and
 have made a step up :)

 Christopher

   Raffaele Fragapane raffsxsil...@googlemail.com
  Sunday, April 07, 2013 5:39 PM
 I would argue your biggest stumbling block is more not knowing the math
 fundamentals involved, and then thinking it's because you don't know what
 nodes do what, when if you knew those fundamentals you wouldn't be left
 wondering in first place.
 I mean absolutely no offense with this, Sam, just pointing you in the
 general direction of what you'd be best off studying next IMO.





 --
 Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it
 and let them flee like the dogs they are!
Sam sbowl...@cox.net
  Sunday, April 07, 2013 3:21 PM

 Thanks Peter, that works great! The problem I was having was that I was
 trying to plug in the Ori data into the Matrix to Vector node. This seems
 to be my biggest stumbling block with ICE. I know what needs to be done,
 but sometimes I just can’t figure out what nodes need to be plugged in to
 what to make it work.

 ** **

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [
 mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.comsoftimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
 *On Behalf Of *Peter Agg
 *Sent:* Sunday, April 07, 2013 3:36 AM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 ** **

 Just to expand on what Matt said:

 ** **

 If you want a direction with any object in ICE, the easiest way is to get
 it's global kinematics and pipe that into a 'Matrix 4x4 to Vector 3D' node.
 The node will spit out 4 vectors - ignore the one labeled 'translation' and
 pick one of the 3 depending on what axis you want to get the direction of.
 The order is XYZ as you'd expect.

 ** **

 You can then pipe out your chosen axis into the direction of the raycast
 node and the translation into the position. You can then use that null as a
 complete raycast controller.

 ** **

 On 7 April 2013 07:54, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

 I couldn’t figure this one out. Andy’s compound used a Select Case and a
 rotate vector to convert the orientation of the null to a vector (Thanks
 Andy!). I was wondering if you could elaborate on your method if you have
 time. Learning the different ways to do things in ICE could come in handy
 in the future.

  

  

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Matt Lind
 *Sent:* Friday, March 29, 2013 7:10 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

  

 All you need to do is pluck an axis out of the transform and use that as
 your direction vector.  You can do that with the matrix to 3D vector
 converters.  

  

 Matt

  

  

  

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [
 mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.comsoftimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
 *On Behalf Of *Sam
 *Sent:* Friday, March 29, 2013 6:55 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* set raycast direction with a Null?

  

 I have a null I’m using to raycast onto a mesh and it working pretty good,
 but I want to be able to adjust the direction by rotating the null and I
 can’t seem to get this to work. There is a direction to rotation node, but
 there doesn’t seem to be a rotation to direction node. Any help is
 appreciated.

 ** **
   Peter Agg peter@googlemail.com
  Sunday, April 07, 2013 6:35 AM
 Just to expand on what Matt said:

 If you want a direction with any object in ICE, the easiest way is to get
 it's global kinematics and pipe that into a 'Matrix 4x4 to Vector 3D' node.
 The node will spit out 4 vectors - ignore the one labeled 'translation' and
 pick one of the 3 depending on what axis you want to get the direction of.
 The order is XYZ as you'd expect.

 You can then pipe out your chosen axis into the direction of the raycast
 node and the translation into the position. You can then use that null as a
 complete raycast controller.



   Sam sbowl...@cox.net
  Sunday, April 07, 2013 2:54 AM

 I couldn’t figure this one out. Andy’s compound used a Select Case and a
 rotate vector to convert the orientation of the null to a vector (Thanks
 Andy!). I was wondering if you could elaborate on your

Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-07 Thread Christopher
Wikipedia may confuse more
 then help. Visualizing data in ICE helps I wouldn't disregard it. 
Like giving you a math problem with blind folds on, if you can't see the
 question how can you answer it. 





Everyone has there own way of learning, then again to completely flip 
someone the finger and not give someone any help is being ignorant.





Christopher





 	   
   	Peter Agg  
  Sunday, April 07,
 2013 7:13 PM
  Though, saying 
that, ICE is one of the bast ways to learn the fundamental maths anyway.
 You just have to be a nosy bastard and visualise anything you're not 
fully understanding (with the core nodes, that is, ignore the compounds 
as much as you can unless you're in a rush) until you can see the 
patterns. Sprinkle with a bit of Khan Academy/Wikipedia for core 
concepts like, say, what a dot or cross product does and you'll slowly 
start to build up the knowledge.



  
   	   
   	Christopher  
  Sunday, April 07,
 2013 6:20 PM
  

Sam - Raffaele is right. 
Hopefully someone 
can give you guidance, ICE is not easy if you don't know the math. I'm 
still learning and studying and have made a step up :) 

Christopher


  
   	   
   	Raffaele Fragapane  
  Sunday, April 07,
 2013 5:39 PM
  I would argue 
your biggest stumbling block is more not knowing the math fundamentals 
involved, and then thinking it's because you don't know what nodes do 
what, when if you knew those fundamentals you wouldn't be left wondering
 in first place.
I mean absolutely no offense with this, Sam, just pointing you in the 
general direction of what you'd be best off studying next IMO.-- Our


 users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it 
and let them flee like the dogs they are!



  
   	   
   	Sam  
  Sunday, April 07,
 2013 3:21 PM
  Thanks


 Peter, that works great! The problem I was having was that I was trying
 to plug in the Ori data into the Matrix to Vector node. This seems to 
be my biggest stumbling block with ICE. I know what needs to be done, 
but sometimes I just cant figure out what nodes need to be plugged in 
to what to make it work.From:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
 On Behalf Of Peter
 AggSent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 3:36 AMTo: 
softimage@listproc.autodesk.comSubject:
 Re: set raycast 
direction with a Null?Just to expand on what Matt said:If you 
want a direction with any object in ICE, theeasiestway is to get it's 
global kinematics and pipe that into a 'Matrix 4x4 to Vector 3D' node. 
The node will spit out 4 vectors - ignore the one labeled 'translation' 
and pick one of the 3 depending on what axis you want to get the 
direction of. The order is XYZ as you'd expect.You 
can then pipe out your chosen axis into the direction of the raycast 
node and thetranslationinto theposition. You can then use that null 
as a complete raycast controller.On 7 April 2013 07:54, Sam sbowl...@cox.net


 wrote:I couldnt figure this one out. Andys compound used a
 Select Case and a rotate vector to convert the orientation of the null 
to a vector (Thanks Andy!). I was wondering if you could elaborate on 
your method if you have time. Learning the different ways to do things 
in ICE could come in handy in the future.From:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
 On Behalf Of Matt LindSent: Friday, March 29, 2013 
7:10 PMTo: softimage@listproc.autodesk.comSubject:
 RE: set raycast direction with a Null?All you need to do is 
pluck an axis out of the transform and use that as your direction 
vector. You can do that with the matrix to 3D vector converters. MattFrom:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
 [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
 On Behalf Of SamSent: Friday, March 29, 2013 6:55 PMTo:
 softimage@listproc.autodesk.comSubject:
 set raycast direction with a Null?I have a null Im using to raycast onto a mesh and it 
working pretty good, but I want to be able to adjust the direction by 
rotating the null and I cant seem to get this to work. There is a 
direction to rotation node, but there doesnt seem to be a rotation to 
direction node. Any help is appreciated.
   	   
   	Peter Agg  
  Sunday, April 07,
 2013 6:35 AM
  Just


 to expand on what Matt said:If you want a 
direction with any object in ICE, theeasiestway is to get it's global 
kinematics and pipe that into a 'Matrix 4x4 to Vector 3D' node. The node
 will spit out 4 vectors - ignore the one labeled 'translation' and pick
 one of the 3 depending on what axis you want to get the direction of. 
The order is XYZ as you'd expect.

You can then pipe out your chosen axis into the 
direction of the raycast node and thetranslationinto theposition. You
 can then use that null as a complete raycast controller.



  









RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-07 Thread Sam
You are most likely correct on that. I never did very well in math. I've
probably learned a lot more about math since I've been using Softimage, than
I ever did in school (My high school math teacher spent most of his time
reading Isaac Asimov instead of teaching, so that may have something to do
with it). Do you have any recommendations on a good book to help me get up
to speed on this subject? 

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Raffaele
Fragapane
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 2:39 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

I would argue your biggest stumbling block is more not knowing the math
fundamentals involved, and then thinking it's because you don't know what
nodes do what, when if you knew those fundamentals you wouldn't be left
wondering in first place.

I mean absolutely no offense with this, Sam, just pointing you in the
general direction of what you'd be best off studying next IMO.

 

On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 5:21 AM, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

Thanks Peter, that works great! The problem I was having was that I was
trying to plug in the Ori data into the Matrix to Vector node. This seems to
be my biggest stumbling block with ICE. I know what needs to be done, but
sometimes I just can't figure out what nodes need to be plugged in to what
to make it work.

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Peter Agg
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 3:36 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

Just to expand on what Matt said:

 

If you want a direction with any object in ICE, the easiest way is to get
it's global kinematics and pipe that into a 'Matrix 4x4 to Vector 3D' node.
The node will spit out 4 vectors - ignore the one labeled 'translation' and
pick one of the 3 depending on what axis you want to get the direction of.
The order is XYZ as you'd expect.

 

You can then pipe out your chosen axis into the direction of the raycast
node and the translation into the position. You can then use that null as a
complete raycast controller.

 

On 7 April 2013 07:54, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

I couldn't figure this one out. Andy's compound used a Select Case and a
rotate vector to convert the orientation of the null to a vector (Thanks
Andy!). I was wondering if you could elaborate on your method if you have
time. Learning the different ways to do things in ICE could come in handy in
the future.

 

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Matt Lind
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2013 7:10 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

All you need to do is pluck an axis out of the transform and use that as
your direction vector.  You can do that with the matrix to 3D vector
converters.  

 

Matt

 

 

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Sam
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2013 6:55 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

I have a null I'm using to raycast onto a mesh and it working pretty good,
but I want to be able to adjust the direction by rotating the null and I
can't seem to get this to work. There is a direction to rotation node, but
there doesn't seem to be a rotation to direction node. Any help is
appreciated.

 





 

-- 
Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and
let them flee like the dogs they are!



Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-07 Thread Peter Agg
I've never been at home learning maths from a book, but I found Khan
Academy videos to be really handy. The site's all changed since I used it
but it looks like all the vector/matrix stuff is in the Linear Algebra
section and the physics video can be pretty handy for applying the maths as
well.


On 8 April 2013 01:11, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

 You are most likely correct on that. I never did very well in math. I’ve
 probably learned a lot more about math since I’ve been using Softimage,
 than I ever did in school (My high school math teacher spent most of his
 time reading Isaac Asimov instead of teaching, so that may have something
 to do with it). Do you have any recommendations on a good book to help me
 get up to speed on this subject? 

 ** **

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Raffaele Fragapane
 *Sent:* Sunday, April 07, 2013 2:39 PM

 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 ** **

 I would argue your biggest stumbling block is more not knowing the math
 fundamentals involved, and then thinking it's because you don't know what
 nodes do what, when if you knew those fundamentals you wouldn't be left
 wondering in first place.

 I mean absolutely no offense with this, Sam, just pointing you in the
 general direction of what you'd be best off studying next IMO.

 ** **

 On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 5:21 AM, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

 Thanks Peter, that works great! The problem I was having was that I was
 trying to plug in the Ori data into the Matrix to Vector node. This seems
 to be my biggest stumbling block with ICE. I know what needs to be done,
 but sometimes I just can’t figure out what nodes need to be plugged in to
 what to make it work.

  

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Peter Agg
 *Sent:* Sunday, April 07, 2013 3:36 AM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

  

 Just to expand on what Matt said:

  

 If you want a direction with any object in ICE, the easiest way is to get
 it's global kinematics and pipe that into a 'Matrix 4x4 to Vector 3D' node.
 The node will spit out 4 vectors - ignore the one labeled 'translation' and
 pick one of the 3 depending on what axis you want to get the direction of.
 The order is XYZ as you'd expect.

  

 You can then pipe out your chosen axis into the direction of the raycast
 node and the translation into the position. You can then use that null as a
 complete raycast controller.

  

 On 7 April 2013 07:54, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

 I couldn’t figure this one out. Andy’s compound used a Select Case and a
 rotate vector to convert the orientation of the null to a vector (Thanks
 Andy!). I was wondering if you could elaborate on your method if you have
 time. Learning the different ways to do things in ICE could come in handy
 in the future.

  

  

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Matt Lind
 *Sent:* Friday, March 29, 2013 7:10 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

  

 All you need to do is pluck an axis out of the transform and use that as
 your direction vector.  You can do that with the matrix to 3D vector
 converters.  

  

 Matt

  

  

  

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [
 mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.comsoftimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
 *On Behalf Of *Sam
 *Sent:* Friday, March 29, 2013 6:55 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* set raycast direction with a Null?

  

 I have a null I’m using to raycast onto a mesh and it working pretty good,
 but I want to be able to adjust the direction by rotating the null and I
 can’t seem to get this to work. There is a direction to rotation node, but
 there doesn’t seem to be a rotation to direction node. Any help is
 appreciated.

  



 

 ** **

 --
 Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it
 and let them flee like the dogs they are!



Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-07 Thread Raffaele Fragapane
Mathematics for Computer Graphics, 2nd edition, by John Vince. End of Story.
Best intro book on the subject you can get if you're starting from near
zero.

Pre-Calc for dummies is also pretty decent for a less CG-ish, more general
easing into maths. It's meant for high-school going to college refreshing
students memory or covering some gaps, but it's well laid out to get a
quick once over of many things people were taught but never learnt, or
simply don't remember.

I've had unanimously good feedback from everybody I trained who bothered to
write about those.


On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 10:11 AM, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

 You are most likely correct on that. I never did very well in math. I’ve
 probably learned a lot more about math since I’ve been using Softimage,
 than I ever did in school (My high school math teacher spent most of his
 time reading Isaac Asimov instead of teaching, so that may have something
 to do with it). Do you have any recommendations on a good book to help me
 get up to speed on this subject? 

 ** **

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Raffaele Fragapane
 *Sent:* Sunday, April 07, 2013 2:39 PM

 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 ** **

 I would argue your biggest stumbling block is more not knowing the math
 fundamentals involved, and then thinking it's because you don't know what
 nodes do what, when if you knew those fundamentals you wouldn't be left
 wondering in first place.

 I mean absolutely no offense with this, Sam, just pointing you in the
 general direction of what you'd be best off studying next IMO.

 ** **

 On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 5:21 AM, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

 Thanks Peter, that works great! The problem I was having was that I was
 trying to plug in the Ori data into the Matrix to Vector node. This seems
 to be my biggest stumbling block with ICE. I know what needs to be done,
 but sometimes I just can’t figure out what nodes need to be plugged in to
 what to make it work.

  

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Peter Agg
 *Sent:* Sunday, April 07, 2013 3:36 AM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

  

 Just to expand on what Matt said:

  

 If you want a direction with any object in ICE, the easiest way is to get
 it's global kinematics and pipe that into a 'Matrix 4x4 to Vector 3D' node.
 The node will spit out 4 vectors - ignore the one labeled 'translation' and
 pick one of the 3 depending on what axis you want to get the direction of.
 The order is XYZ as you'd expect.

  

 You can then pipe out your chosen axis into the direction of the raycast
 node and the translation into the position. You can then use that null as a
 complete raycast controller.

  

 On 7 April 2013 07:54, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

 I couldn’t figure this one out. Andy’s compound used a Select Case and a
 rotate vector to convert the orientation of the null to a vector (Thanks
 Andy!). I was wondering if you could elaborate on your method if you have
 time. Learning the different ways to do things in ICE could come in handy
 in the future.

  

  

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:
 softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Matt Lind
 *Sent:* Friday, March 29, 2013 7:10 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

  

 All you need to do is pluck an axis out of the transform and use that as
 your direction vector.  You can do that with the matrix to 3D vector
 converters.  

  

 Matt

  

  

  

 *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [
 mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.comsoftimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com]
 *On Behalf Of *Sam
 *Sent:* Friday, March 29, 2013 6:55 PM
 *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
 *Subject:* set raycast direction with a Null?

  

 I have a null I’m using to raycast onto a mesh and it working pretty good,
 but I want to be able to adjust the direction by rotating the null and I
 can’t seem to get this to work. There is a direction to rotation node, but
 there doesn’t seem to be a rotation to direction node. Any help is
 appreciated.

  



 

 ** **

 --
 Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it
 and let them flee like the dogs they are!




-- 
Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it
and let them flee like the dogs they are!


Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-07 Thread Eric Thivierge
On Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 8:20 PM, Raffaele Fragapane 
raffsxsil...@googlemail.com wrote:

 Mathematics for Computer Graphics, 2nd edition, by John Vince. End of
 Story.
 Best intro book on the subject you can get if you're starting from near
 zero.


I agree on this suggestion and was also led to this book by Kai Wolter
which has turned out to be a great book as well:
http://amzn.com/1568817231


Eric Thivierge
http://www.ethivierge.com


RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-07 Thread Sam
I guess my biggest problem is that I don't know what I need to know, which
makes it hard to find answers. I search the internet when I get stuck, but
there seems to be little out there when it comes to my specific problems.
Anyway, that Kahn Academy is very cool. I had never heard of it before, but
it looks like it will be very useful.

 

BTW, this is the result of my ICE experiments (if anyone is interested in
it). It's similar to what was done in one of the Modo 7 videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNXQn9KbIBQ 

Sorry about the crappy quality, I have to experiment with my YouTube upload
settings. 

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Peter Agg
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 4:13 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

Though, saying that, ICE is one of the bast ways to learn the fundamental
maths anyway. You just have to be a nosy bastard and visualise anything
you're not fully understanding (with the core nodes, that is, ignore the
compounds as much as you can unless you're in a rush) until you can see the
patterns. Sprinkle with a bit of Khan Academy/Wikipedia for core concepts
like, say, what a dot or cross product does and you'll slowly start to build
up the knowledge.

 

On 7 April 2013 23:20, Christopher christop...@thecreativesheep.ca wrote:

Sam - Raffaele is right. Hopefully someone can give you guidance, ICE is not
easy if you don't know the math. I'm still learning and studying and have
made a step up :) 

Christopher






 mailto:raffsxsil...@googlemail.com Raffaele Fragapane

Sunday, April 07, 2013 5:39 PM

I would argue your biggest stumbling block is more not knowing the math
fundamentals involved, and then thinking it's because you don't know what
nodes do what, when if you knew those fundamentals you wouldn't be left
wondering in first place.

I mean absolutely no offense with this, Sam, just pointing you in the
general direction of what you'd be best off studying next IMO.







 

-- 
Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and
let them flee like the dogs they are!



 mailto:sbowl...@cox.net Sam

Sunday, April 07, 2013 3:21 PM

Thanks Peter, that works great! The problem I was having was that I was
trying to plug in the Ori data into the Matrix to Vector node. This seems to
be my biggest stumbling block with ICE. I know what needs to be done, but
sometimes I just can't figure out what nodes need to be plugged in to what
to make it work.

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Peter Agg
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 3:36 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

Just to expand on what Matt said:

 

If you want a direction with any object in ICE, the easiest way is to get
it's global kinematics and pipe that into a 'Matrix 4x4 to Vector 3D' node.
The node will spit out 4 vectors - ignore the one labeled 'translation' and
pick one of the 3 depending on what axis you want to get the direction of.
The order is XYZ as you'd expect.

 

You can then pipe out your chosen axis into the direction of the raycast
node and the translation into the position. You can then use that null as a
complete raycast controller.

 

On 7 April 2013 07:54, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

I couldn't figure this one out. Andy's compound used a Select Case and a
rotate vector to convert the orientation of the null to a vector (Thanks
Andy!). I was wondering if you could elaborate on your method if you have
time. Learning the different ways to do things in ICE could come in handy in
the future.

 

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Matt Lind
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2013 7:10 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

All you need to do is pluck an axis out of the transform and use that as
your direction vector.  You can do that with the matrix to 3D vector
converters.  

 

Matt

 

 

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Sam
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2013 6:55 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

I have a null I'm using to raycast onto a mesh and it working pretty good,
but I want to be able to adjust the direction by rotating the null and I
can't seem to get this to work. There is a direction to rotation node, but
there doesn't seem to be a rotation to direction node. Any help is
appreciated.

 



 mailto:peter@googlemail.com Peter Agg

Sunday, April 07, 2013 6:35 AM

Just to expand on what Matt said:

 

If you want a direction with any object in ICE, the easiest way is to get
it's global kinematics and pipe that into a 'Matrix 4x4 to Vector 3D' node.
The node will spit out 4 vectors

RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-07 Thread Sam
Thanks Raffaele and everyone else! Lots of good stuff to keep me busy for a
while.

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Raffaele
Fragapane
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 5:21 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

Mathematics for Computer Graphics, 2nd edition, by John Vince. End of Story.
Best intro book on the subject you can get if you're starting from near
zero.

Pre-Calc for dummies is also pretty decent for a less CG-ish, more general
easing into maths. It's meant for high-school going to college refreshing
students memory or covering some gaps, but it's well laid out to get a quick
once over of many things people were taught but never learnt, or simply
don't remember.

I've had unanimously good feedback from everybody I trained who bothered to
write about those.

 

On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 10:11 AM, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

You are most likely correct on that. I never did very well in math. I've
probably learned a lot more about math since I've been using Softimage, than
I ever did in school (My high school math teacher spent most of his time
reading Isaac Asimov instead of teaching, so that may have something to do
with it). Do you have any recommendations on a good book to help me get up
to speed on this subject? 

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Raffaele
Fragapane
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 2:39 PM


To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

I would argue your biggest stumbling block is more not knowing the math
fundamentals involved, and then thinking it's because you don't know what
nodes do what, when if you knew those fundamentals you wouldn't be left
wondering in first place.

I mean absolutely no offense with this, Sam, just pointing you in the
general direction of what you'd be best off studying next IMO.

 

On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 5:21 AM, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

Thanks Peter, that works great! The problem I was having was that I was
trying to plug in the Ori data into the Matrix to Vector node. This seems to
be my biggest stumbling block with ICE. I know what needs to be done, but
sometimes I just can't figure out what nodes need to be plugged in to what
to make it work.

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Peter Agg
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 3:36 AM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

Just to expand on what Matt said:

 

If you want a direction with any object in ICE, the easiest way is to get
it's global kinematics and pipe that into a 'Matrix 4x4 to Vector 3D' node.
The node will spit out 4 vectors - ignore the one labeled 'translation' and
pick one of the 3 depending on what axis you want to get the direction of.
The order is XYZ as you'd expect.

 

You can then pipe out your chosen axis into the direction of the raycast
node and the translation into the position. You can then use that null as a
complete raycast controller.

 

On 7 April 2013 07:54, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

I couldn't figure this one out. Andy's compound used a Select Case and a
rotate vector to convert the orientation of the null to a vector (Thanks
Andy!). I was wondering if you could elaborate on your method if you have
time. Learning the different ways to do things in ICE could come in handy in
the future.

 

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Matt Lind
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2013 7:10 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

All you need to do is pluck an axis out of the transform and use that as
your direction vector.  You can do that with the matrix to 3D vector
converters.  

 

Matt

 

 

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Sam
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2013 6:55 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: set raycast direction with a Null?

 

I have a null I'm using to raycast onto a mesh and it working pretty good,
but I want to be able to adjust the direction by rotating the null and I
can't seem to get this to work. There is a direction to rotation node, but
there doesn't seem to be a rotation to direction node. Any help is
appreciated.

 





 

-- 
Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and
let them flee like the dogs they are!




-- 
Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and
let them flee like the dogs they are!



Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-07 Thread Andy Moorer
I think ICE has tremendous potential as a tool for learning math in a fun and 
immediately rewarding way, so much so that if I were a parent I'd be pushing 
hard for my (hypothetical) kids school to adopt it as a teaching tool.

After seeing a lifetime of expensive and largely ineffective initiatives to try 
to get kids interested in math it's a little tragic that this tool with so much 
potential in that area is likely to go unrecognized.

 Though, saying that, ICE is one of the bast ways to learn the fundamental 
 maths anyway. You just have to be a nosy bastard and visualise anything 
 you're not fully understanding (with the core nodes, that is, ignore the 
 compounds as much as you can unless you're in a rush) until you can see the 
 patterns. Sprinkle with a bit of Khan Academy/Wikipedia for core concepts 
 like, say, what a dot or cross product does and you'll slowly start to build 
 up the knowledge



Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-04-07 Thread Andy Moorer


 I guess my biggest problem is that I don’t know what I need to know, which 
 makes it hard to find answers. I search the internet when I get stuck, but 
 there seems to be little out there when it comes to my specific problems. 
 Anyway, that Kahn Academy is very cool. I had never heard of it before, but 
 it looks like it will be very useful.

A little trig and linear algebra will take you quite a long way. By the way, 
he's too polite to point it out but Raff's CGsociety online technical direction 
with Python training has a very nice section on math.

 BTW, this is the result of my ICE experiments (if anyone is interested in 
 it). It’s similar to what was done in one of the Modo 7 videos. 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNXQn9KbIBQ
 Sorry about the crappy quality, I have to experiment with my YouTube upload 
 settings.

Very nice!

I urge you to post on Vimeo, and follow Alan's Softimage ice user's group there 
- it seems to have become the defacto place for Softimage folks to see and 
share and there is a rather impressive volume of ICE work there.

RE: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-03-29 Thread Matt Lind
All you need to do is pluck an axis out of the transform and use that as your 
direction vector.  You can do that with the matrix to 3D vector converters.

Matt



From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Sam
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2013 6:55 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: set raycast direction with a Null?

I have a null I'm using to raycast onto a mesh and it working pretty good, but 
I want to be able to adjust the direction by rotating the null and I can't seem 
to get this to work. There is a direction to rotation node, but there doesn't 
seem to be a rotation to direction node. Any help is appreciated.


Re: set raycast direction with a Null?

2013-03-29 Thread Andy Moorer
(opens personal toolbox) here you go m8...




On Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 6:54 PM, Sam sbowl...@cox.net wrote:

 I have a null I’m using to raycast onto a mesh and it working pretty good,
 but I want to be able to adjust the direction by rotating the null and I
 can’t seem to get this to work. There is a direction to rotation node, but
 there doesn’t seem to be a rotation to direction node. Any help is
 appreciated.



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