Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-25 Thread Mirko Jankovic
Yep, there is huge speed improvement over older version they have. Was more
than surprise when I tested in on an character. Old scene that was slow to
render just got new breath :)


On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 3:33 AM, Enrique Caballero 
enriquecaball...@gmail.com wrote:

 mirko, just asked our shader guy, he says its the new one, but its slow
 due to the fact that they are layering a few shaders together, so my bad,
 turns out the SSS is quite fast



 On Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 6:54 PM, Nuno Conceicao 
 nunoalexconcei...@gmail.com wrote:

 Yes and honestly its just amazing how much more hair it can handle
 without affecting the performance that much,  mental ray on the other hand
 it was always kind of hitting a wall after a certain hair count.
 Using the pixel width optimization helps too.
 When doing the transparent hair setup i also experimented setting the
 Auto-Transparency depth to less than 10, using 5 kind of still gives nice
 results and keeps the render times  considerably lower.

 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 11:18 AM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Did you make thinner hairs and up the fur count ? Nuno ?


 On 19 March 2013 11:21, Enrique Caballero enriquecaball...@gmail.comwrote:

 We've used fur ( ice strands) and Arnold  for a few years now and have
 had no issues, its fine.  It is deathly slow at SSS though.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 6:15 PM, Nuno Conceicao 
 nunoalexconcei...@gmail.com wrote:

 I might try to guess some people try to set up the fur using
 transparency. Although it helps making it look softer, i managed to get
 quite nice results on my test without any transparency at all.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 4:10 AM, Raffaele Fragapane 
 raffsxsil...@googlemail.com wrote:

 At some point, before it even hit SI afaik, it was struggling with
 some of the old paradigms for fur rendering. It's since earned this back
 alley talk reputation of struggling with fur, despite the fact nowadays
 it's probably the single strongest engine of its kind for it out there.

 It's not unlike the myths that you need an RnD department to do
 anything with renderman at all, or that you can't do topology work in
 ZBrush and so on.

 It should be dismissed, but a rumor will have been around the world
 before the truth had the time to put its shoes on.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 3:04 PM, Gene Crucean 
 emailgeneonthel...@gmail.com wrote:

  Say what?

 How on earth was fur/hair a problem for anyone using Arnold?
 Something else must have been very jacked up for this to make a con 
 list.
 For me personally... I could give you a list a mile long about all of 
 the
 pro's... and one single con. Interior rendering. Like the Classroom 
 scene.
 Even then, you can make it look beautiful. It's just the main downside 
 of
 it is that it takes a bit longer to render than all the other stuff.









Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-24 Thread Enrique Caballero
mirko, just asked our shader guy, he says its the new one, but its slow due
to the fact that they are layering a few shaders together, so my bad, turns
out the SSS is quite fast



On Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 6:54 PM, Nuno Conceicao nunoalexconcei...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 Yes and honestly its just amazing how much more hair it can handle without
 affecting the performance that much,  mental ray on the other hand it was
 always kind of hitting a wall after a certain hair count.
 Using the pixel width optimization helps too.
 When doing the transparent hair setup i also experimented setting the
 Auto-Transparency depth to less than 10, using 5 kind of still gives nice
 results and keeps the render times  considerably lower.

 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 11:18 AM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Did you make thinner hairs and up the fur count ? Nuno ?


 On 19 March 2013 11:21, Enrique Caballero enriquecaball...@gmail.comwrote:

 We've used fur ( ice strands) and Arnold  for a few years now and have
 had no issues, its fine.  It is deathly slow at SSS though.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 6:15 PM, Nuno Conceicao 
 nunoalexconcei...@gmail.com wrote:

 I might try to guess some people try to set up the fur using
 transparency. Although it helps making it look softer, i managed to get
 quite nice results on my test without any transparency at all.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 4:10 AM, Raffaele Fragapane 
 raffsxsil...@googlemail.com wrote:

 At some point, before it even hit SI afaik, it was struggling with
 some of the old paradigms for fur rendering. It's since earned this back
 alley talk reputation of struggling with fur, despite the fact nowadays
 it's probably the single strongest engine of its kind for it out there.

 It's not unlike the myths that you need an RnD department to do
 anything with renderman at all, or that you can't do topology work in
 ZBrush and so on.

 It should be dismissed, but a rumor will have been around the world
 before the truth had the time to put its shoes on.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 3:04 PM, Gene Crucean 
 emailgeneonthel...@gmail.com wrote:

  Say what?

 How on earth was fur/hair a problem for anyone using Arnold?
 Something else must have been very jacked up for this to make a con 
 list.
 For me personally... I could give you a list a mile long about all of the
 pro's... and one single con. Interior rendering. Like the Classroom 
 scene.
 Even then, you can make it look beautiful. It's just the main downside of
 it is that it takes a bit longer to render than all the other stuff.








Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-21 Thread Nuno Conceicao
Yes and honestly its just amazing how much more hair it can handle without
affecting the performance that much,  mental ray on the other hand it was
always kind of hitting a wall after a certain hair count.
Using the pixel width optimization helps too.
When doing the transparent hair setup i also experimented setting the
Auto-Transparency depth to less than 10, using 5 kind of still gives nice
results and keeps the render times  considerably lower.

On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 11:18 AM, Sebastien Sterling 
sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Did you make thinner hairs and up the fur count ? Nuno ?


 On 19 March 2013 11:21, Enrique Caballero enriquecaball...@gmail.comwrote:

 We've used fur ( ice strands) and Arnold  for a few years now and have
 had no issues, its fine.  It is deathly slow at SSS though.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 6:15 PM, Nuno Conceicao 
 nunoalexconcei...@gmail.com wrote:

 I might try to guess some people try to set up the fur using
 transparency. Although it helps making it look softer, i managed to get
 quite nice results on my test without any transparency at all.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 4:10 AM, Raffaele Fragapane 
 raffsxsil...@googlemail.com wrote:

 At some point, before it even hit SI afaik, it was struggling with some
 of the old paradigms for fur rendering. It's since earned this back alley
 talk reputation of struggling with fur, despite the fact nowadays it's
 probably the single strongest engine of its kind for it out there.

 It's not unlike the myths that you need an RnD department to do
 anything with renderman at all, or that you can't do topology work in
 ZBrush and so on.

 It should be dismissed, but a rumor will have been around the world
 before the truth had the time to put its shoes on.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 3:04 PM, Gene Crucean 
 emailgeneonthel...@gmail.com wrote:

  Say what?

 How on earth was fur/hair a problem for anyone using Arnold? Something
 else must have been very jacked up for this to make a con list. For me
 personally... I could give you a list a mile long about all of the 
 pro's...
 and one single con. Interior rendering. Like the Classroom scene. Even
 then, you can make it look beautiful. It's just the main downside of it is
 that it takes a bit longer to render than all the other stuff.







Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-19 Thread Nuno Conceicao
I might try to guess some people try to set up the fur using transparency.
Although it helps making it look softer, i managed to get quite nice
results on my test without any transparency at all.


On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 4:10 AM, Raffaele Fragapane 
raffsxsil...@googlemail.com wrote:

 At some point, before it even hit SI afaik, it was struggling with some of
 the old paradigms for fur rendering. It's since earned this back alley talk
 reputation of struggling with fur, despite the fact nowadays it's probably
 the single strongest engine of its kind for it out there.

 It's not unlike the myths that you need an RnD department to do anything
 with renderman at all, or that you can't do topology work in ZBrush and so
 on.

 It should be dismissed, but a rumor will have been around the world before
 the truth had the time to put its shoes on.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 3:04 PM, Gene Crucean 
 emailgeneonthel...@gmail.com wrote:

 Say what?

 How on earth was fur/hair a problem for anyone using Arnold? Something
 else must have been very jacked up for this to make a con list. For me
 personally... I could give you a list a mile long about all of the pro's...
 and one single con. Interior rendering. Like the Classroom scene. Even
 then, you can make it look beautiful. It's just the main downside of it is
 that it takes a bit longer to render than all the other stuff.




Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-19 Thread Mirko Jankovic
Enrique, are you using old SSS or new one Raytraced? It is FAST


On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 11:21 AM, Enrique Caballero 
enriquecaball...@gmail.com wrote:

 We've used fur ( ice strands) and Arnold  for a few years now and have had
 no issues, its fine.  It is deathly slow at SSS though.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 6:15 PM, Nuno Conceicao 
 nunoalexconcei...@gmail.com wrote:

 I might try to guess some people try to set up the fur using
 transparency. Although it helps making it look softer, i managed to get
 quite nice results on my test without any transparency at all.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 4:10 AM, Raffaele Fragapane 
 raffsxsil...@googlemail.com wrote:

 At some point, before it even hit SI afaik, it was struggling with some
 of the old paradigms for fur rendering. It's since earned this back alley
 talk reputation of struggling with fur, despite the fact nowadays it's
 probably the single strongest engine of its kind for it out there.

 It's not unlike the myths that you need an RnD department to do anything
 with renderman at all, or that you can't do topology work in ZBrush and so
 on.

 It should be dismissed, but a rumor will have been around the world
 before the truth had the time to put its shoes on.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 3:04 PM, Gene Crucean 
 emailgeneonthel...@gmail.com wrote:

 Say what?

 How on earth was fur/hair a problem for anyone using Arnold? Something
 else must have been very jacked up for this to make a con list. For me
 personally... I could give you a list a mile long about all of the pro's...
 and one single con. Interior rendering. Like the Classroom scene. Even
 then, you can make it look beautiful. It's just the main downside of it is
 that it takes a bit longer to render than all the other stuff.






Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-19 Thread Sebastien Sterling
Did you make thinner hairs and up the fur count ? Nuno ?

On 19 March 2013 11:21, Enrique Caballero enriquecaball...@gmail.comwrote:

 We've used fur ( ice strands) and Arnold  for a few years now and have had
 no issues, its fine.  It is deathly slow at SSS though.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 6:15 PM, Nuno Conceicao 
 nunoalexconcei...@gmail.com wrote:

 I might try to guess some people try to set up the fur using
 transparency. Although it helps making it look softer, i managed to get
 quite nice results on my test without any transparency at all.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 4:10 AM, Raffaele Fragapane 
 raffsxsil...@googlemail.com wrote:

 At some point, before it even hit SI afaik, it was struggling with some
 of the old paradigms for fur rendering. It's since earned this back alley
 talk reputation of struggling with fur, despite the fact nowadays it's
 probably the single strongest engine of its kind for it out there.

 It's not unlike the myths that you need an RnD department to do anything
 with renderman at all, or that you can't do topology work in ZBrush and so
 on.

 It should be dismissed, but a rumor will have been around the world
 before the truth had the time to put its shoes on.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 3:04 PM, Gene Crucean 
 emailgeneonthel...@gmail.com wrote:

 Say what?

 How on earth was fur/hair a problem for anyone using Arnold? Something
 else must have been very jacked up for this to make a con list. For me
 personally... I could give you a list a mile long about all of the pro's...
 and one single con. Interior rendering. Like the Classroom scene. Even
 then, you can make it look beautiful. It's just the main downside of it is
 that it takes a bit longer to render than all the other stuff.






Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-19 Thread Sebastien Sterling
yes the SSS is very impressive from what we have tested

On 19 March 2013 11:53, Mirko Jankovic mirkoj.anima...@gmail.com wrote:

 Enrique, are you using old SSS or new one Raytraced? It is FAST


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 11:21 AM, Enrique Caballero 
 enriquecaball...@gmail.com wrote:

 We've used fur ( ice strands) and Arnold  for a few years now and have
 had no issues, its fine.  It is deathly slow at SSS though.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 6:15 PM, Nuno Conceicao 
 nunoalexconcei...@gmail.com wrote:

 I might try to guess some people try to set up the fur using
 transparency. Although it helps making it look softer, i managed to get
 quite nice results on my test without any transparency at all.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 4:10 AM, Raffaele Fragapane 
 raffsxsil...@googlemail.com wrote:

 At some point, before it even hit SI afaik, it was struggling with some
 of the old paradigms for fur rendering. It's since earned this back alley
 talk reputation of struggling with fur, despite the fact nowadays it's
 probably the single strongest engine of its kind for it out there.

 It's not unlike the myths that you need an RnD department to do
 anything with renderman at all, or that you can't do topology work in
 ZBrush and so on.

 It should be dismissed, but a rumor will have been around the world
 before the truth had the time to put its shoes on.


 On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 3:04 PM, Gene Crucean 
 emailgeneonthel...@gmail.com wrote:

 Say what?

 How on earth was fur/hair a problem for anyone using Arnold? Something
 else must have been very jacked up for this to make a con list. For me
 personally... I could give you a list a mile long about all of the 
 pro's...
 and one single con. Interior rendering. Like the Classroom scene. Even
 then, you can make it look beautiful. It's just the main downside of it is
 that it takes a bit longer to render than all the other stuff.







Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-18 Thread Steven Caron
no, nothing becomes 'unlocked' after purchase. there are
some publicly available shaders provided without support, but you can test
this without needing to purchase arnold. having a shader writer around
wouldn't hurt :)


On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 3:11 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Looks like we are going to do this thing on Wednesday, any last pointer ?
 also could anyone tell me if once purchased some specific shaders become
 available ? this is more to do with the fur then anything else; its still a
 major concern, some people over here are wondering wether or not there
 might be specific shader or techniques available after purchases to speed
 things along.

 still i would like to thank everyone for your testimonies your stats,
 renders, your observations and encouragement. your knowledge and input has
 been quite invaluable. i feel really blessed to have such a resource at my
 disposal. Cheers !


 On 18 March 2013 02:39, Jason S jasonsta...@gmail.com wrote:

 **
 Awesome is a light word, leaves nothing to be desired from anything I've
 seen personally.
 Where/when will it be released?


 On 17/03/2013 9:43 PM, Sebastien Sterling wrote:

 Not at all it is very heartening to see features being made with this
 pipeline. may there be many more ! i hope Justin does well and helps
 legitimize Softimage as a feature efficient pipeline.

 On 18 March 2013 02:13, Jack Kao jack@grapecity.com wrote:

   Semi-unrelated to the topic… But, that trailer looks awesome! Any
 plans of releasing this film in Asia when it’s ready?



 On 16 March 2013 14:50, César Sáez cesa...@gmail.com wrote:

 … we use softimage+arnold in Justin (
 http://justinandtheknightsofvalour.com) and the lighters seemed much
 happier than in mental ray times :)













Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-18 Thread Stephen Blair

Hi Sebastien

You already have access to everything. The Arnold testing and evaluation 
program includes it all.


Fur is one of our strong points, at least if set up properly.

Thanks

Stephen Blair
Solid Angle Support

On 18/03/2013 6:11 PM, Sebastien Sterling wrote:
Looks like we are going to do this thing on Wednesday, any last 
pointer ? also could anyone tell me if once purchased some specific 
shaders become available ? this is more to do with the fur then 
anything else; its still a major concern, some people over here are 
wondering wether or not there might be specific shader or techniques 
available after purchases to speed things along.


still i would like to thank everyone for your testimonies your stats, 
renders, your observations and encouragement. your knowledge and input 
has been quite invaluable. i feel really blessed to have such a 
resource at my disposal. Cheers !


On 18 March 2013 02:39, Jason S jasonsta...@gmail.com 
mailto:jasonsta...@gmail.com wrote:


Awesome is a light word, leaves nothing to be desired from
anything I've seen personally.
Where/when will it be released?


On 17/03/2013 9:43 PM, Sebastien Sterling wrote:

Not at all it is very heartening to see features being made with
this pipeline. may there be many more ! i hope Justin does well
and helps legitimize Softimage as a feature efficient pipeline.

On 18 March 2013 02:13, Jack Kao jack@grapecity.com
mailto:jack@grapecity.com wrote:

Semi-unrelated to the topic… But, that trailer looks awesome!
Any plans of releasing this film in Asia when it’s ready?

On 16 March 2013 14:50, César Sáez cesa...@gmail.com
mailto:cesa...@gmail.com wrote:

… we use softimage+arnold in Justin
(http://justinandtheknightsofvalour.com) and the lighters
seemed much happier than in mental ray times :)









Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-18 Thread Gene Crucean
Say what?

How on earth was fur/hair a problem for anyone using Arnold? Something else
must have been very jacked up for this to make a con list. For me
personally... I could give you a list a mile long about all of the pro's...
and one single con. Interior rendering. Like the Classroom scene. Even
then, you can make it look beautiful. It's just the main downside of it is
that it takes a bit longer to render than all the other stuff.


On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 2:52 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Thanks Steven, a fist full of people here, have been beta testing Arnold
 for the past couple of months, however they seem to have come down pretty
 split 50/50 half.

 pros -


- Amazing GI, catches so much more then 3Dlight
- can handle massive scenes
- Anything polygon renders really fast
- user friendly and intuitive (at least for basic operations)
- great feedback from previews
- sss is really nice too


 cons-



- it's seems to struggle with fur and transparency, and that's a
problem
- difficult to anticipate render times ( wild differences between
users ranging from 6min to 48min to past an hour per frame)
- and of course the GRAINZZ ! (nothing you won't have heard before)


 I am part of those who would like to see Arnold installed, however old
 habits die hard and there seems to be a fair amount of ill will on behalf
 of some of the testers, however things like fur we don't have the luxury to
 ignore; there are quite a few fur ballz in this feature, a few feathery
 ones too.


 it would be safer not to purchase it and  that is why we of the pro Arnold
 are looking for external  examples and observations. which might tip the
 balance.


 On 15 March 2013 22:16, John Clausing jclausin...@yahoo.com wrote:

 We just finished this with Arnold

 http://vimeo.com/61292772

 We love it,the integrated GI, and Final rendering are terrific.
 It takes a bit of time to figure out the optimization, but we love its
 very unique look.

 John Clausing
 Director of CG
 Poetica


 Sent from my iPhone

 On Mar 15, 2013, at 4:41 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Good evening/day everyone !


 The people i am working for are currently debating whether or not to take
 on Arnold, as their official renderer on their next feature film. One of my
 character fx friends has been Beta testing it to great effect, and now has
 to make a case for the switch from 3DLIGHT to Arnold.



 If there are any Arnoldites out their, i was wondering if you had any
 test renders demonstrating Arnolds efficiencies\ deficiencies VS other
 renderers; It doesn't matter if its softimage maya or modo.. or mental ray,
 PR man, vray, maxwell...

 The extra data would be very much appreciated especially with identical
 scenes, written observations are equally welcome.

 So if you've anything at all to share, many thanks ;)





-- 
Gene Crucean - Emmy winning - Oscar nominated CG Supervisor / iOS-OSX
Developer / Filmmaker / Photographer
** *Freelance for hire* **
www.genecrucean.com

~~ Please use my website's contact form on www.genecrucean.com for any
personal emails. Thanks. I may not get them at this address. ~~


Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-18 Thread Raffaele Fragapane
At some point, before it even hit SI afaik, it was struggling with some of
the old paradigms for fur rendering. It's since earned this back alley talk
reputation of struggling with fur, despite the fact nowadays it's probably
the single strongest engine of its kind for it out there.

It's not unlike the myths that you need an RnD department to do anything
with renderman at all, or that you can't do topology work in ZBrush and so
on.

It should be dismissed, but a rumor will have been around the world before
the truth had the time to put its shoes on.

On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 3:04 PM, Gene Crucean
emailgeneonthel...@gmail.comwrote:

 Say what?

 How on earth was fur/hair a problem for anyone using Arnold? Something
 else must have been very jacked up for this to make a con list. For me
 personally... I could give you a list a mile long about all of the pro's...
 and one single con. Interior rendering. Like the Classroom scene. Even
 then, you can make it look beautiful. It's just the main downside of it is
 that it takes a bit longer to render than all the other stuff.




Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-17 Thread César Sáez
Yes, we happily moved from 3dsmax to softimage 4~5 years ago :)


On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 4:12 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 ow ! is Justin a full softimage pipline ?


 On 16 March 2013 14:50, César Sáez cesa...@gmail.com wrote:

 I'm not a render guy but we use softimage+arnold in Justin (
 http://justinandtheknightsofvalour.com) and the lighters seemed much
 happier than in mental ray times :)





Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-17 Thread Mirko Jankovic
how HOW we can;t find more stories like this in spot light all over
internet??
instead maya and max are pushed everywhere :)

SOftimage + Arnold = winning solution :)



On Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 9:23 PM, César Sáez cesa...@gmail.com wrote:

 Yes, we happily moved from 3dsmax to softimage 4~5 years ago :)


 On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 4:12 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 ow ! is Justin a full softimage pipline ?


 On 16 March 2013 14:50, César Sáez cesa...@gmail.com wrote:

 I'm not a render guy but we use softimage+arnold in Justin (
 http://justinandtheknightsofvalour.com) and the lighters seemed much
 happier than in mental ray times :)






RE: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-17 Thread Jack Kao
Semi-unrelated to the topic… But, that trailer looks awesome! Any plans of
releasing this film in Asia when it’s ready?



On 16 March 2013 14:50, César Sáez cesa...@gmail.com wrote:

… we use softimage+arnold in Justin (http://justinandtheknightsofvalour.com)
and the lighters seemed much happier than in mental ray times :)


Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-17 Thread Sebastien Sterling
Not at all it is very heartening to see features being made with this
pipeline. may there be many more ! i hope Justin does well and helps
legitimize Softimage as a feature efficient pipeline.

On 18 March 2013 02:13, Jack Kao jack@grapecity.com wrote:

 Semi-unrelated to the topic… But, that trailer looks awesome! Any plans of
 releasing this film in Asia when it’s ready?



 On 16 March 2013 14:50, César Sáez cesa...@gmail.com wrote:

 … we use softimage+arnold in Justin (
 http://justinandtheknightsofvalour.com) and the lighters seemed much
 happier than in mental ray times :)









Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-17 Thread Jason S
Awesome is a light word, leaves nothing to be desired from anything I've 
seen personally.

Where/when will it be released?

On 17/03/2013 9:43 PM, Sebastien Sterling wrote:
Not at all it is very heartening to see features being made with this 
pipeline. may there be many more ! i hope Justin does well and helps 
legitimize Softimage as a feature efficient pipeline.


On 18 March 2013 02:13, Jack Kao jack@grapecity.com 
mailto:jack@grapecity.com wrote:


Semi-unrelated to the topic… But, that trailer looks awesome! Any
plans of releasing this film in Asia when it’s ready?

On 16 March 2013 14:50, César Sáez cesa...@gmail.com
mailto:cesa...@gmail.com wrote:

… we use softimage+arnold in Justin
(http://justinandtheknightsofvalour.com) and the lighters seemed
much happier than in mental ray times :)






Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-16 Thread Gerbrand Nel

My short synopsis:
Arnold is easy to use and looks great!!
V-ray is hard to use and looks great!!
I love it when software doesn’t assume I have a PHD in being smart.
If you need to switch to a new render, Arnold might be the faster 
switch. You just give it to your lighting department and wait for the 
pictures.

With V-ray you have to teach people all about optimizing.
G


Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-16 Thread Alan Fregtman
Not a myth at all! In Arnold really the quality comes down to like four
sliders, where you basically crank up your samples. :p

I don't have experience with hair but I doubt it's terribly complicated.



On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 6:25 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 That sounds good Alan, the more testimonies we can get the better,
 especially like the bit about freeing up artists time to concentrate on the
 creative aspects

 I assume the intuitiveness and ease of use is not a myths then ?


 On 15 March 2013 23:16, Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.com wrote:

 We use it for everything here at Rodeo FX http://www.rodeofx.com/
 and have been so happy with it there's even a press release about it: :)
 http://www.awn.com/news/business/rodeo-fx-taps-arnold-boost-pipeline


 It's really insane the sheer monstrosity of geometry and textures you can
 throw at it, and still get a sweet looking render out. We did mechanical
 metallic things for a recent movie that were really heavy, with dozens of
 8k textures, with motionblur. Piece of cake for Arnie!




 On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 6:11 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Yes some testers found the out of the box shaders a little lacking.


 On 15 March 2013 23:08, Sebastien Sterling sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com
  wrote:

 The are pretty paramount on consistency, its been a problem in the past
 and that was with just 1 renderer


 On 15 March 2013 23:06, John Clausing jclausin...@yahoo.com wrote:

 One other item to consider...we do a lot of product work as well.
 Most we choose to stick with MR. Because of Arnold's transparency
 issues.

 The point being, use the best tool, why not have multiple renderers if
 one (MR) comes with Soft? They have different looks/capabilities for sure.
 Pick what's best

 J

 Sent from my iPhone

 On Mar 15, 2013, at 5:55 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Ow and thanks John, i have been shown this prior by one of the color
 keyers, most haunting, its a pleasure to see fresh things, and definitely
 that is an incentive we are gunning for.

 On 15 March 2013 22:52, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Thanks Steven, a fist full of people here, have been beta testing
 Arnold for the past couple of months, however they seem to have come down
 pretty split 50/50 half.

 pros -


- Amazing GI, catches so much more then 3Dlight
- can handle massive scenes
- Anything polygon renders really fast
- user friendly and intuitive (at least for basic operations)
- great feedback from previews
- sss is really nice too


 cons-



- it's seems to struggle with fur and transparency, and that's a
problem
- difficult to anticipate render times ( wild differences between
users ranging from 6min to 48min to past an hour per frame)
- and of course the GRAINZZ ! (nothing you won't have heard
before)


 I am part of those who would like to see Arnold installed, however
 old habits die hard and there seems to be a fair amount of ill will on
 behalf of some of the testers, however things like fur we don't have the
 luxury to ignore; there are quite a few fur ballz in this feature, a few
 feathery ones too.


 it would be safer not to purchase it and  that is why we of the pro
 Arnold are looking for external  examples and observations. which might 
 tip
 the balance.


 On 15 March 2013 22:16, John Clausing jclausin...@yahoo.com wrote:

 We just finished this with Arnold

 http://vimeo.com/61292772

 We love it,the integrated GI, and Final rendering are terrific.
 It takes a bit of time to figure out the optimization, but we love
 its very unique look.

 John Clausing
 Director of CG
 Poetica


 Sent from my iPhone

 On Mar 15, 2013, at 4:41 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Good evening/day everyone !


 The people i am working for are currently debating whether or not to
 take on Arnold, as their official renderer on their next feature film. 
 One
 of my character fx friends has been Beta testing it to great effect, and
 now has to make a case for the switch from 3DLIGHT to Arnold.



 If there are any Arnoldites out their, i was wondering if you had
 any test renders demonstrating Arnolds efficiencies\ deficiencies VS 
 other
 renderers; It doesn't matter if its softimage maya or modo.. or mental 
 ray,
 PR man, vray, maxwell...

 The extra data would be very much appreciated especially with
 identical scenes, written observations are equally welcome.

 So if you've anything at all to share, many thanks ;)










Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-15 Thread Steven Caron
the classroom thread on this list provides you with some information. you
should check that out and there are many many other threads about this on
the solid angle hosted lists. if you are considering testing arnold for a
production, contact them about joining.

we, whiskytree, inc., use arnold heavily... our work on thor, captain
america, avengers, and an upcoming sci fi film all use arnold. we push
arnold very hard, and while we do have pretty high render times, we
are consistently happy with the output.

arnold is known for having sampling noise issues, they are usually solved
by increasing or properly balancing your sampling parameters, as any brute
force raytracer would. this is where arnold gets a reputation for being
'slow' because in order to create the super clean result you need to render
with higher sampling, which costs more, which equals slower render times.
let me say though, its very impressive with the amount of content it can
handle, so it's hard to describe it as 'slow'. its weaknesses
are definitely indoor scenarios which are lit by something like the sky or
sunlight. but i can say its consistency and stability is quite refreshing
coming from mental ray. while i own a personal license of 3delight for
softimage, i dont know how to compare it to 3delight to arnold in a
production context.

s



On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 1:41 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Good evening/day everyone !


 The people i am working for are currently debating whether or not to take
 on Arnold, as their official renderer on their next feature film. One of my
 character fx friends has been Beta testing it to great effect, and now has
 to make a case for the switch from 3DLIGHT to Arnold.



 If there are any Arnoldites out their, i was wondering if you had any test
 renders demonstrating Arnolds efficiencies\ deficiencies VS other
 renderers; It doesn't matter if its softimage maya or modo.. or mental ray,
 PR man, vray, maxwell...

 The extra data would be very much appreciated especially with identical
 scenes, written observations are equally welcome.

 So if you've anything at all to share, many thanks ;)



RE: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-15 Thread Sandy Sutherland
Well we just finshed a full length feature rendered with Arnold, this is 
straight after one rendered with MR - and it was pure pleasure - unfortunately 
we have just wrapped up so there are no released images or videos I can share 
with you but I can tell you we rendered MB in the shots, and went from about 9+ 
passes to around 4 max.  The guys were so impressed to start with that we even 
rendered the previz and the Director loved it.

We did try putting a couple of the scenes we did render with Arnold through MR 
and the scope of complexity we got to and rendered quite happily with Arnold MR 
was unable to even start rendering.

We rendered in schedule too!  And were rendering a stereo feature - second one 
- and we were able to use Marc-Antoine's stereo shader which helped immensly on 
the farm as we were only loading the scene once to render both cameras - BTW we 
only had 100 machines in our small farm - mix of 8 core to 12 core 17s.

Cheers

S.


Sandy Sutherlandmailto:sandy.sutherl...@triggerfish.co.za | Technical 
Supervisor
[http://triggerfish.co.za/en/wp-content/uploads/udf_foundry/images/logo.png] 
http://triggerfish.co.za/en
[http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/ym/x/lFV-lsMcC_0.png] 
http://www.facebook.com/triggerfishanimation

[https://si0.twimg.com/a/1349296073/images/resources/twitter-bird-white-on-blue.png]
 http://www.twitter.com/triggerfishza

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] on behalf of Sebastien Sterling 
[sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com]
Sent: 15 March 2013 22:41
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

Good evening/day everyone !


The people i am working for are currently debating whether or not to take on 
Arnold, as their official renderer on their next feature film. One of my 
character fx friends has been Beta testing it to great effect, and now has to 
make a case for the switch from 3DLIGHT to Arnold.



If there are any Arnoldites out their, i was wondering if you had any test 
renders demonstrating Arnolds efficiencies\ deficiencies VS other renderers; It 
doesn't matter if its softimage maya or modo.. or mental ray, PR man, vray, 
maxwell...

The extra data would be very much appreciated especially with identical scenes, 
written observations are equally welcome.

So if you've anything at all to share, many thanks ;)


Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-15 Thread John Clausing
We just finished this with Arnold

http://vimeo.com/61292772

We love it,the integrated GI, and Final rendering are terrific.
It takes a bit of time to figure out the optimization, but we love its very 
unique look.

John Clausing
Director of CG
Poetica


Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 15, 2013, at 4:41 PM, Sebastien Sterling sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com 
wrote:

 Good evening/day everyone !
 
 
 The people i am working for are currently debating whether or not to take on 
 Arnold, as their official renderer on their next feature film. One of my 
 character fx friends has been Beta testing it to great effect, and now has to 
 make a case for the switch from 3DLIGHT to Arnold.
 
 
 
 If there are any Arnoldites out their, i was wondering if you had any test 
 renders demonstrating Arnolds efficiencies\ deficiencies VS other renderers; 
 It doesn't matter if its softimage maya or modo.. or mental ray, PR man, 
 vray, maxwell...
 
 The extra data would be very much appreciated especially with identical 
 scenes, written observations are equally welcome.
 
 So if you've anything at all to share, many thanks ;)


Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-15 Thread Sebastien Sterling
Thanks Steven, a fist full of people here, have been beta testing Arnold
for the past couple of months, however they seem to have come down pretty
split 50/50 half.

pros -


   - Amazing GI, catches so much more then 3Dlight
   - can handle massive scenes
   - Anything polygon renders really fast
   - user friendly and intuitive (at least for basic operations)
   - great feedback from previews
   - sss is really nice too


cons-



   - it's seems to struggle with fur and transparency, and that's a problem
   - difficult to anticipate render times ( wild differences between users
   ranging from 6min to 48min to past an hour per frame)
   - and of course the GRAINZZ ! (nothing you won't have heard before)


I am part of those who would like to see Arnold installed, however old
habits die hard and there seems to be a fair amount of ill will on behalf
of some of the testers, however things like fur we don't have the luxury to
ignore; there are quite a few fur ballz in this feature, a few feathery
ones too.


it would be safer not to purchase it and  that is why we of the pro Arnold
are looking for external  examples and observations. which might tip the
balance.


On 15 March 2013 22:16, John Clausing jclausin...@yahoo.com wrote:

 We just finished this with Arnold

 http://vimeo.com/61292772

 We love it,the integrated GI, and Final rendering are terrific.
 It takes a bit of time to figure out the optimization, but we love its
 very unique look.

 John Clausing
 Director of CG
 Poetica


 Sent from my iPhone

 On Mar 15, 2013, at 4:41 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Good evening/day everyone !


 The people i am working for are currently debating whether or not to take
 on Arnold, as their official renderer on their next feature film. One of my
 character fx friends has been Beta testing it to great effect, and now has
 to make a case for the switch from 3DLIGHT to Arnold.



 If there are any Arnoldites out their, i was wondering if you had any test
 renders demonstrating Arnolds efficiencies\ deficiencies VS other
 renderers; It doesn't matter if its softimage maya or modo.. or mental ray,
 PR man, vray, maxwell...

 The extra data would be very much appreciated especially with identical
 scenes, written observations are equally welcome.

 So if you've anything at all to share, many thanks ;)




Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-15 Thread Sebastien Sterling
Ow and thanks John, i have been shown this prior by one of the color
keyers, most haunting, its a pleasure to see fresh things, and definitely
that is an incentive we are gunning for.

On 15 March 2013 22:52, Sebastien Sterling sebastien.sterl...@gmail.comwrote:

 Thanks Steven, a fist full of people here, have been beta testing Arnold
 for the past couple of months, however they seem to have come down pretty
 split 50/50 half.

 pros -


- Amazing GI, catches so much more then 3Dlight
- can handle massive scenes
- Anything polygon renders really fast
- user friendly and intuitive (at least for basic operations)
- great feedback from previews
- sss is really nice too


 cons-



- it's seems to struggle with fur and transparency, and that's a
problem
- difficult to anticipate render times ( wild differences between
users ranging from 6min to 48min to past an hour per frame)
- and of course the GRAINZZ ! (nothing you won't have heard before)


 I am part of those who would like to see Arnold installed, however old
 habits die hard and there seems to be a fair amount of ill will on behalf
 of some of the testers, however things like fur we don't have the luxury to
 ignore; there are quite a few fur ballz in this feature, a few feathery
 ones too.


 it would be safer not to purchase it and  that is why we of the pro Arnold
 are looking for external  examples and observations. which might tip the
 balance.


 On 15 March 2013 22:16, John Clausing jclausin...@yahoo.com wrote:

 We just finished this with Arnold

 http://vimeo.com/61292772

 We love it,the integrated GI, and Final rendering are terrific.
 It takes a bit of time to figure out the optimization, but we love its
 very unique look.

 John Clausing
 Director of CG
 Poetica


 Sent from my iPhone

 On Mar 15, 2013, at 4:41 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Good evening/day everyone !


 The people i am working for are currently debating whether or not to take
 on Arnold, as their official renderer on their next feature film. One of my
 character fx friends has been Beta testing it to great effect, and now has
 to make a case for the switch from 3DLIGHT to Arnold.



 If there are any Arnoldites out their, i was wondering if you had any
 test renders demonstrating Arnolds efficiencies\ deficiencies VS other
 renderers; It doesn't matter if its softimage maya or modo.. or mental ray,
 PR man, vray, maxwell...

 The extra data would be very much appreciated especially with identical
 scenes, written observations are equally welcome.

 So if you've anything at all to share, many thanks ;)





Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-15 Thread Steven Caron
transparency is tricky for sure, but not impossible to improve. arnold is
almost unmatched when it comes to fur/hair/strands, at least in the
raytracing market.

i would suggest, getting the solid angle crew to look at some of your
issues. i am sure they would like to see you use it and would help address
the fur and transparency issues you might have.


On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 2:52 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 cons-



- it's seems to struggle with fur and transparency, and that's a
problem
- difficult to anticipate render times ( wild differences between
users ranging from 6min to 48min to past an hour per frame)
- and of course the GRAINZZ ! (nothing you won't have heard before)




Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-15 Thread Sebastien Sterling
I understand from what I have heard that they are pretty hands on, good
support is rare, this would be another bonus. would be good to get a
dialogue going.

On 15 March 2013 22:56, Steven Caron car...@gmail.com wrote:

 transparency is tricky for sure, but not impossible to improve. arnold is
 almost unmatched when it comes to fur/hair/strands, at least in the
 ray-tracing market.

 i would suggest, getting the solid angle crew to look at some of your
 issues. i am sure they would like to see you use it and would help address
 the fur and transparency issues you might have.


 On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 2:52 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 cons-



- it's seems to struggle with fur and transparency, and that's a
problem
- difficult to anticipate render times ( wild differences between
users ranging from 6min to 48min to past an hour per frame)
- and of course the GRAINZZ ! (nothing you won't have heard before)




Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-15 Thread John Clausing
One other item to consider...we do a lot of product work as well.
Most we choose to stick with MR. Because of Arnold's transparency issues.

The point being, use the best tool, why not have multiple renderers if one (MR) 
comes with Soft? They have different looks/capabilities for sure.
Pick what's best

J

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 15, 2013, at 5:55 PM, Sebastien Sterling sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com 
wrote:

 Ow and thanks John, i have been shown this prior by one of the color keyers, 
 most haunting, its a pleasure to see fresh things, and definitely that is an 
 incentive we are gunning for.
 
 On 15 March 2013 22:52, Sebastien Sterling sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com 
 wrote:
 Thanks Steven, a fist full of people here, have been beta testing Arnold for 
 the past couple of months, however they seem to have come down pretty split 
 50/50 half.
 
 pros -
 
 Amazing GI, catches so much more then 3Dlight
 can handle massive scenes
 Anything polygon renders really fast
 user friendly and intuitive (at least for basic operations)
 great feedback from previews
 sss is really nice too
 
 
 cons-
 
 
 
 it's seems to struggle with fur and transparency, and that's a problem
 difficult to anticipate render times ( wild differences between users 
 ranging from 6min to 48min to past an hour per frame)
 and of course the GRAINZZ ! (nothing you won't have heard before)
 
 
 I am part of those who would like to see Arnold installed, however old 
 habits die hard and there seems to be a fair amount of ill will on behalf of 
 some of the testers, however things like fur we don't have the luxury to 
 ignore; there are quite a few fur ballz in this feature, a few feathery ones 
 too.
 
 
 
 it would be safer not to purchase it and  that is why we of the pro Arnold 
 are looking for external  examples and observations. which might tip the 
 balance.
 
 
 
 On 15 March 2013 22:16, John Clausing jclausin...@yahoo.com wrote:
 We just finished this with Arnold
 
 http://vimeo.com/61292772
 
 We love it,the integrated GI, and Final rendering are terrific.
 It takes a bit of time to figure out the optimization, but we love its very 
 unique look.
 
 John Clausing
 Director of CG
 Poetica
 
 
 Sent from my iPhone
 
 On Mar 15, 2013, at 4:41 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:
 
 Good evening/day everyone !
 
 
 The people i am working for are currently debating whether or not to take 
 on Arnold, as their official renderer on their next feature film. One of 
 my character fx friends has been Beta testing it to great effect, and now 
 has to make a case for the switch from 3DLIGHT to Arnold.
 
 
 
 If there are any Arnoldites out their, i was wondering if you had any test 
 renders demonstrating Arnolds efficiencies\ deficiencies VS other 
 renderers; It doesn't matter if its softimage maya or modo.. or mental 
 ray, PR man, vray, maxwell...
 
 The extra data would be very much appreciated especially with identical 
 scenes, written observations are equally welcome.
 
 So if you've anything at all to share, many thanks ;)
 


Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-15 Thread Sebastien Sterling
The are pretty paramount on consistency, its been a problem in the past and
that was with just 1 renderer

On 15 March 2013 23:06, John Clausing jclausin...@yahoo.com wrote:

 One other item to consider...we do a lot of product work as well.
 Most we choose to stick with MR. Because of Arnold's transparency issues.

 The point being, use the best tool, why not have multiple renderers if one
 (MR) comes with Soft? They have different looks/capabilities for sure.
 Pick what's best

 J

 Sent from my iPhone

 On Mar 15, 2013, at 5:55 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Ow and thanks John, i have been shown this prior by one of the color
 keyers, most haunting, its a pleasure to see fresh things, and definitely
 that is an incentive we are gunning for.

 On 15 March 2013 22:52, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.comwrote:

 Thanks Steven, a fist full of people here, have been beta testing Arnold
 for the past couple of months, however they seem to have come down pretty
 split 50/50 half.

 pros -


- Amazing GI, catches so much more then 3Dlight
- can handle massive scenes
- Anything polygon renders really fast
- user friendly and intuitive (at least for basic operations)
- great feedback from previews
- sss is really nice too


 cons-



- it's seems to struggle with fur and transparency, and that's a
problem
- difficult to anticipate render times ( wild differences between
users ranging from 6min to 48min to past an hour per frame)
- and of course the GRAINZZ ! (nothing you won't have heard before)


 I am part of those who would like to see Arnold installed, however old
 habits die hard and there seems to be a fair amount of ill will on behalf
 of some of the testers, however things like fur we don't have the luxury to
 ignore; there are quite a few fur ballz in this feature, a few feathery
 ones too.


 it would be safer not to purchase it and  that is why we of the pro
 Arnold are looking for external  examples and observations. which might tip
 the balance.


 On 15 March 2013 22:16, John Clausing jclausin...@yahoo.com wrote:

 We just finished this with Arnold

 http://vimeo.com/61292772

 We love it,the integrated GI, and Final rendering are terrific.
 It takes a bit of time to figure out the optimization, but we love its
 very unique look.

 John Clausing
 Director of CG
 Poetica


 Sent from my iPhone

 On Mar 15, 2013, at 4:41 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Good evening/day everyone !


 The people i am working for are currently debating whether or not to
 take on Arnold, as their official renderer on their next feature film. One
 of my character fx friends has been Beta testing it to great effect, and
 now has to make a case for the switch from 3DLIGHT to Arnold.



 If there are any Arnoldites out their, i was wondering if you had any
 test renders demonstrating Arnolds efficiencies\ deficiencies VS other
 renderers; It doesn't matter if its softimage maya or modo.. or mental ray,
 PR man, vray, maxwell...

 The extra data would be very much appreciated especially with identical
 scenes, written observations are equally welcome.

 So if you've anything at all to share, many thanks ;)






Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-15 Thread Sebastien Sterling
Yes some testers found the out of the box shaders a little lacking.

On 15 March 2013 23:08, Sebastien Sterling sebastien.sterl...@gmail.comwrote:

 The are pretty paramount on consistency, its been a problem in the past
 and that was with just 1 renderer


 On 15 March 2013 23:06, John Clausing jclausin...@yahoo.com wrote:

 One other item to consider...we do a lot of product work as well.
 Most we choose to stick with MR. Because of Arnold's transparency issues.

 The point being, use the best tool, why not have multiple renderers if
 one (MR) comes with Soft? They have different looks/capabilities for sure.
 Pick what's best

 J

 Sent from my iPhone

 On Mar 15, 2013, at 5:55 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Ow and thanks John, i have been shown this prior by one of the color
 keyers, most haunting, its a pleasure to see fresh things, and definitely
 that is an incentive we are gunning for.

 On 15 March 2013 22:52, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.comwrote:

 Thanks Steven, a fist full of people here, have been beta testing Arnold
 for the past couple of months, however they seem to have come down pretty
 split 50/50 half.

 pros -


- Amazing GI, catches so much more then 3Dlight
- can handle massive scenes
- Anything polygon renders really fast
- user friendly and intuitive (at least for basic operations)
- great feedback from previews
- sss is really nice too


 cons-



- it's seems to struggle with fur and transparency, and that's a
problem
- difficult to anticipate render times ( wild differences between
users ranging from 6min to 48min to past an hour per frame)
- and of course the GRAINZZ ! (nothing you won't have heard before)


 I am part of those who would like to see Arnold installed, however old
 habits die hard and there seems to be a fair amount of ill will on behalf
 of some of the testers, however things like fur we don't have the luxury to
 ignore; there are quite a few fur ballz in this feature, a few feathery
 ones too.


 it would be safer not to purchase it and  that is why we of the pro
 Arnold are looking for external  examples and observations. which might tip
 the balance.


 On 15 March 2013 22:16, John Clausing jclausin...@yahoo.com wrote:

 We just finished this with Arnold

 http://vimeo.com/61292772

 We love it,the integrated GI, and Final rendering are terrific.
 It takes a bit of time to figure out the optimization, but we love its
 very unique look.

 John Clausing
 Director of CG
 Poetica


 Sent from my iPhone

 On Mar 15, 2013, at 4:41 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Good evening/day everyone !


 The people i am working for are currently debating whether or not to
 take on Arnold, as their official renderer on their next feature film. One
 of my character fx friends has been Beta testing it to great effect, and
 now has to make a case for the switch from 3DLIGHT to Arnold.



 If there are any Arnoldites out their, i was wondering if you had any
 test renders demonstrating Arnolds efficiencies\ deficiencies VS other
 renderers; It doesn't matter if its softimage maya or modo.. or mental ray,
 PR man, vray, maxwell...

 The extra data would be very much appreciated especially with identical
 scenes, written observations are equally welcome.

 So if you've anything at all to share, many thanks ;)







Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-15 Thread Alan Fregtman
We use it for everything here at Rodeo FX http://www.rodeofx.com/
and have been so happy with it there's even a press release about it: :)
http://www.awn.com/news/business/rodeo-fx-taps-arnold-boost-pipeline


It's really insane the sheer monstrosity of geometry and textures you can
throw at it, and still get a sweet looking render out. We did mechanical
metallic things for a recent movie that were really heavy, with dozens of
8k textures, with motionblur. Piece of cake for Arnie!




On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 6:11 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Yes some testers found the out of the box shaders a little lacking.


 On 15 March 2013 23:08, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.comwrote:

 The are pretty paramount on consistency, its been a problem in the past
 and that was with just 1 renderer


 On 15 March 2013 23:06, John Clausing jclausin...@yahoo.com wrote:

 One other item to consider...we do a lot of product work as well.
 Most we choose to stick with MR. Because of Arnold's transparency issues.

 The point being, use the best tool, why not have multiple renderers if
 one (MR) comes with Soft? They have different looks/capabilities for sure.
 Pick what's best

 J

 Sent from my iPhone

 On Mar 15, 2013, at 5:55 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Ow and thanks John, i have been shown this prior by one of the color
 keyers, most haunting, its a pleasure to see fresh things, and definitely
 that is an incentive we are gunning for.

 On 15 March 2013 22:52, Sebastien Sterling sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com
  wrote:

 Thanks Steven, a fist full of people here, have been beta testing
 Arnold for the past couple of months, however they seem to have come down
 pretty split 50/50 half.

 pros -


- Amazing GI, catches so much more then 3Dlight
- can handle massive scenes
- Anything polygon renders really fast
- user friendly and intuitive (at least for basic operations)
- great feedback from previews
- sss is really nice too


 cons-



- it's seems to struggle with fur and transparency, and that's a
problem
- difficult to anticipate render times ( wild differences between
users ranging from 6min to 48min to past an hour per frame)
- and of course the GRAINZZ ! (nothing you won't have heard before)


 I am part of those who would like to see Arnold installed, however old
 habits die hard and there seems to be a fair amount of ill will on behalf
 of some of the testers, however things like fur we don't have the luxury to
 ignore; there are quite a few fur ballz in this feature, a few feathery
 ones too.


 it would be safer not to purchase it and  that is why we of the pro
 Arnold are looking for external  examples and observations. which might tip
 the balance.


 On 15 March 2013 22:16, John Clausing jclausin...@yahoo.com wrote:

 We just finished this with Arnold

 http://vimeo.com/61292772

 We love it,the integrated GI, and Final rendering are terrific.
 It takes a bit of time to figure out the optimization, but we love its
 very unique look.

 John Clausing
 Director of CG
 Poetica


 Sent from my iPhone

 On Mar 15, 2013, at 4:41 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Good evening/day everyone !


 The people i am working for are currently debating whether or not to
 take on Arnold, as their official renderer on their next feature film. One
 of my character fx friends has been Beta testing it to great effect, and
 now has to make a case for the switch from 3DLIGHT to Arnold.



 If there are any Arnoldites out their, i was wondering if you had any
 test renders demonstrating Arnolds efficiencies\ deficiencies VS other
 renderers; It doesn't matter if its softimage maya or modo.. or mental 
 ray,
 PR man, vray, maxwell...

 The extra data would be very much appreciated especially with
 identical scenes, written observations are equally welcome.

 So if you've anything at all to share, many thanks ;)








Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-15 Thread Sebastien Sterling
That sounds good Alan, the more testimonies we can get the better,
especially like the bit about freeing up artists time to concentrate on the
creative aspects

I assume the intuitiveness and ease of use is not a myths then ?

On 15 March 2013 23:16, Alan Fregtman alan.fregt...@gmail.com wrote:

 We use it for everything here at Rodeo FX http://www.rodeofx.com/
 and have been so happy with it there's even a press release about it: :)
 http://www.awn.com/news/business/rodeo-fx-taps-arnold-boost-pipeline


 It's really insane the sheer monstrosity of geometry and textures you can
 throw at it, and still get a sweet looking render out. We did mechanical
 metallic things for a recent movie that were really heavy, with dozens of
 8k textures, with motionblur. Piece of cake for Arnie!




 On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 6:11 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Yes some testers found the out of the box shaders a little lacking.


 On 15 March 2013 23:08, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.comwrote:

 The are pretty paramount on consistency, its been a problem in the past
 and that was with just 1 renderer


 On 15 March 2013 23:06, John Clausing jclausin...@yahoo.com wrote:

 One other item to consider...we do a lot of product work as well.
 Most we choose to stick with MR. Because of Arnold's transparency
 issues.

 The point being, use the best tool, why not have multiple renderers if
 one (MR) comes with Soft? They have different looks/capabilities for sure.
 Pick what's best

 J

 Sent from my iPhone

 On Mar 15, 2013, at 5:55 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Ow and thanks John, i have been shown this prior by one of the color
 keyers, most haunting, its a pleasure to see fresh things, and definitely
 that is an incentive we are gunning for.

 On 15 March 2013 22:52, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Thanks Steven, a fist full of people here, have been beta testing
 Arnold for the past couple of months, however they seem to have come down
 pretty split 50/50 half.

 pros -


- Amazing GI, catches so much more then 3Dlight
- can handle massive scenes
- Anything polygon renders really fast
- user friendly and intuitive (at least for basic operations)
- great feedback from previews
- sss is really nice too


 cons-



- it's seems to struggle with fur and transparency, and that's a
problem
- difficult to anticipate render times ( wild differences between
users ranging from 6min to 48min to past an hour per frame)
- and of course the GRAINZZ ! (nothing you won't have heard before)


 I am part of those who would like to see Arnold installed, however old
 habits die hard and there seems to be a fair amount of ill will on behalf
 of some of the testers, however things like fur we don't have the luxury 
 to
 ignore; there are quite a few fur ballz in this feature, a few feathery
 ones too.


 it would be safer not to purchase it and  that is why we of the pro
 Arnold are looking for external  examples and observations. which might 
 tip
 the balance.


 On 15 March 2013 22:16, John Clausing jclausin...@yahoo.com wrote:

 We just finished this with Arnold

 http://vimeo.com/61292772

 We love it,the integrated GI, and Final rendering are terrific.
 It takes a bit of time to figure out the optimization, but we love
 its very unique look.

 John Clausing
 Director of CG
 Poetica


 Sent from my iPhone

 On Mar 15, 2013, at 4:41 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Good evening/day everyone !


 The people i am working for are currently debating whether or not to
 take on Arnold, as their official renderer on their next feature film. 
 One
 of my character fx friends has been Beta testing it to great effect, and
 now has to make a case for the switch from 3DLIGHT to Arnold.



 If there are any Arnoldites out their, i was wondering if you had any
 test renders demonstrating Arnolds efficiencies\ deficiencies VS other
 renderers; It doesn't matter if its softimage maya or modo.. or mental 
 ray,
 PR man, vray, maxwell...

 The extra data would be very much appreciated especially with
 identical scenes, written observations are equally welcome.

 So if you've anything at all to share, many thanks ;)









Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-15 Thread Simon van de Lagemaat
What are you going to be rendering?


On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 1:41 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Good evening/day everyone !


 The people i am working for are currently debating whether or not to take
 on Arnold, as their official renderer on their next feature film. One of my
 character fx friends has been Beta testing it to great effect, and now has
 to make a case for the switch from 3DLIGHT to Arnold.



 If there are any Arnoldites out their, i was wondering if you had any test
 renders demonstrating Arnolds efficiencies\ deficiencies VS other
 renderers; It doesn't matter if its softimage maya or modo.. or mental ray,
 PR man, vray, maxwell...

 The extra data would be very much appreciated especially with identical
 scenes, written observations are equally welcome.

 So if you've anything at all to share, many thanks ;)



Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-15 Thread Sebastien Sterling
tropical island setting: foliage rocks, primitive inhabitation, water lots
of water, seascapes (all this is fine

actual characters we have quite a few furry quadrupeds characters and 2
feathery ones as well

On 15 March 2013 23:40, Simon van de Lagemaat si...@theembassyvfx.comwrote:

 What are you going to be rendering?


 On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 1:41 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Good evening/day everyone !


 The people i am working for are currently debating whether or not to take
 on Arnold, as their official renderer on their next feature film. One of my
 character fx friends has been Beta testing it to great effect, and now has
 to make a case for the switch from 3DLIGHT to Arnold.



 If there are any Arnoldites out their, i was wondering if you had any
 test renders demonstrating Arnolds efficiencies\ deficiencies VS other
 renderers; It doesn't matter if its softimage maya or modo.. or mental ray,
 PR man, vray, maxwell...

 The extra data would be very much appreciated especially with identical
 scenes, written observations are equally welcome.

 So if you've anything at all to share, many thanks ;)





Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-15 Thread Sebastien Sterling
its the characters who will be the furry problem

On 15 March 2013 23:56, Sebastien Sterling sebastien.sterl...@gmail.comwrote:

 tropical island setting: foliage rocks, primitive inhabitation, water lots
 of water, seascapes (all this is fine

 actual characters we have quite a few furry quadrupeds characters and 2
 feathery ones as well


 On 15 March 2013 23:40, Simon van de Lagemaat si...@theembassyvfx.comwrote:

 What are you going to be rendering?


 On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 1:41 PM, Sebastien Sterling 
 sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Good evening/day everyone !


 The people i am working for are currently debating whether or not to
 take on Arnold, as their official renderer on their next feature film. One
 of my character fx friends has been Beta testing it to great effect, and
 now has to make a case for the switch from 3DLIGHT to Arnold.



 If there are any Arnoldites out their, i was wondering if you had any
 test renders demonstrating Arnolds efficiencies\ deficiencies VS other
 renderers; It doesn't matter if its softimage maya or modo.. or mental ray,
 PR man, vray, maxwell...

 The extra data would be very much appreciated especially with identical
 scenes, written observations are equally welcome.

 So if you've anything at all to share, many thanks ;)






Re: Who Uses Arnold Anyway ? an appeal to fans

2013-03-15 Thread Tim Leydecker

With Arnold, you have to embrace the concept of simplicity
in settings for tweaking wholeheartedly and accept it´s
meant to be unbiased, leanmean brute force physical correct.

There are ways to optimize on a per shader level to
influence what an individual rays sees or hits
as well as optimizations here and there that help
get cleaner results with less than an infinite number
of rays.

What´s impressing is the memory footprint Arnold can household
with and the impression it gives in terms of chewing through
geomery in general. That´s the quick part...

You may end up not caring at all about the size of the scene
but just the amount of rays you can justify for rendering
and how best to distribte those rays.

E.g. once you have your rendertime ballpark figures for a total
amount of rays/pixel it may seem as if it´ll always render similar
amounts of time with similar rays/pixel settings.

I can´t comment on fur/feathers.

For mapped transparencies, VRay may sometimes be as tricky as Arnold.

I like VRay, the render quality, the chaos group and the licensing model
and would recommend to look at it as a qualified alternative to Arnold
depending on the kind of shots you have to do and artists available.

In terms of 3D lighting in general, it´s worth giving both renderers
a hard test in what their lighting tools can actually provide you with
and if baking to textures makes for a big part of your final image.

This also applies to how you plan to UV texture map things.

Make sure you check for limitations or workflows you may need come up with


Cheers,

tim









On 15.03.2013 21:41, Sebastien Sterling wrote:

Good evening/day everyone !


The people i am working for are currently debating whether or not to take on 
Arnold, as their official renderer on their next feature film. One of my 
character fx friends has been
Beta testing it to great effect, and now has to make a case for the switch from 
3DLIGHT to Arnold.



If there are any Arnoldites out their, i was wondering if you had any test 
renders demonstrating Arnolds efficiencies\ deficiencies VS other renderers; It 
doesn't matter if its
softimage maya or modo.. or mental ray, PR man, vray, maxwell...

The extra data would be very much appreciated especially with identical scenes, 
written observations are equally welcome.

So if you've anything at all to share, many thanks ;)