I totally agree with Raff. Versionned reference is the way to go. We don't have it here either and it's already an issue on some projects.
I am not happy with animators creating local copy of the rigs, but I'm not with them all day long to check how they work. I discovered they were doing that, I told them it's wrong... Cleaning controllers and keyable parameters is my solution too for now... On 22 May 2013 04:09, Enrique Caballero <enriquecaball...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hey Michal, > Your definitely right. Its something we should look into > > -E > > > On Wed, May 22, 2013 at 7:05 PM, Michal Doniec <doni...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> "Eventually we might do versioned referencing but it would require some >> asset tracking tools that we just don't have." >> >> I'd start with some off the shelf version control software to do half of >> the work for you (perforce, maybe svn etc.), a rather simple database on >> top of this and some UI usually does the job for most cases where assets >> are not too complex and relatively lightweight, ie. mesh/rig character type >> assets. What I am saying is it doesn't really take much to get a system >> like this going and benefits can be potentially really big. >> Sorry for being bit off topic. >> >> >> On 22 May 2013 10:00, Enrique Caballero <enriquecaball...@gmail.com>wrote: >> >>> We do live referencing here as we don't have much for versioning control >>> at this small studio. Its worked fine for us so far as our rigs are pretty >>> simple and eventually development stops for them on a project. >>> >>> >>> Eventually we might do versioned referencing but it would require some >>> asset tracking tools that we just don't have. We also don't have enough >>> coordinators to keep track of what shot gets what rig, or the development >>> man power to update our pipeline. >>> >>> Tiny shop in Singapore, very difficult to find talented developers. >>> >>> Until then I've written a bunch of delta cleaning scripts that can solve >>> 90% of our issues, and what was most important for us, was that we are very >>> careful about how we import referenced models so that >>> no unnecessary information gets written to the delta. So if a rig change >>> does happen, the delta wont freak out and break the rig. >>> >>> Basically via scripting, I create an empty referenced model, populate >>> the paths for the rig resolutions, add an empty delta, set the proper >>> settings, disabling the evil ones, and then finally setting the active >>> resolution. I have found this technique to be absolutely essential to >>> making sure our deltas don't store any extra nonsense in them that would >>> eventually clash with a rig change. >>> >>> Otherwise if the animator simply did a vanilla "import referenced model" >>> this referenced model would have a delta on it thats fully enabled, and it >>> would immediately store a bunch of useless crap under stored >>> expressions/stored positions that would eventually cause the rig to explode >>> when we did the next rig update. >>> >>> Aside from that, when something bad happens, I run one of 3 delta >>> cleaners if necessary, but to be honest it hasnt happened much in a very >>> long time. >>> >>> >>> I am very open minded, but i also know the animators at this company >>> very well. If I gave them a local model pipeline they would bring this >>> studio to its knees and I would be out of a job very quickly >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> On Wed, May 22, 2013 at 4:51 PM, Raffaele Fragapane < >>> raffsxsil...@googlemail.com> wrote: >>> >>>> That's only an issue with live referencing, which is a pretty bad way >>>> to go about it. >>>> Versioned referencing will not hold any surprises as you control when a >>>> rig reaches what shots. It's a matter of asset management, not of >>>> referencing VS localized. >>>> If anything localizing takes a liberty away from you, it doesn't ADD >>>> security :) >>>> >>>> >>>> On Wed, May 22, 2013 at 6:36 PM, Sandy Sutherland < >>>> sandy.mailli...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> >>>>> I did - and we locked everything that was not supposed to move/key. >>>>> Worked fine and it is not so difficult to write the tools to do a model >>>>> update. Also one BIG plus to this method against referencing is that you >>>>> avoid surprises when something changes in the rig that affects animation >>>>> and it gets auto updated in a reference, THAT has happened to me before, >>>>> largely due to the nature of the overlapping schedules we work with in SA. >>>>> >>>>> S. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> On 22/05/2013 04:48, Enrique Caballero wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> Jeremie, I considered letting them animate in local mode but i >>>>>> decided that the risks outweighed the benefits. >>>>>> >>>>>> I am just 100% uncomfortable with trusting the animators with Local >>>>>> models. They will start deleting objects and changing heirarchy. >>>>>> >>>>>> So instead I stripped down the rig of unecessary stuff. I took all >>>>>> the cloth controls away and seperated it into a different rig, and then >>>>>> aggressively cut down the amount of keyable params. >>>>>> >>>>>> Its at least manageable now. >>>>>> >>>>>> Are you really comfortable letting the animators animate local >>>>>> models? I don't think I could ever let it happen >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship >>>> it and let them flee like the dogs they are! >>>> >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> ---------- >> Michal >> http://uk.linkedin.com/in/mdoniec >> > >
