You wouldn't last long in games with that attitude.
Matt -----Original Message----- From: Eric Thivierge [mailto:ethivie...@hybride.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:46 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Cc: Matt Lind Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? With those restrictions, get a super fast animator to animate them by hand. Eric T. On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:23:31 PM, Matt Lind wrote: > An artist came to my desk yesterday asking how to do what I felt was a > simple task, but after getting 80% through it I ran into a speed bump > realizing it needed custom scripting or other advanced tools to fully > resolve to satisfaction. I had to give him a procedure that was ‘good > enough’. This problem has multiple solutions, but I am curious how > others would solve it: > > The problem: > > Artist must create an asteroid belt around a planet. The asteroids > are likely 2D sprites which must face the camera and tumble as they > orbit, but could be 3D objects as well. Asteroids must vary in size, > shape, and animation speed (linear as well as rotational). Asteroids > cannot collide with anything. Movement is generally slow – like a > screen saver for your computer desktop. Asteroid positions are > jittered within the belt. > > The question: > > Dispersing objects into a ring is fairly straightforward through a > number of techniques, but how do you apply the random jitter to the > object positions? > > The rules: > > -Cannot use ICE > > -Cannot use custom scripts, custom operators, or shaders. > > -Must only use tools out of the box that a junior or staff level > artist would know how to use. > > -Must be able to create the asteroid belt, from scratch to completion, > in less than 30 minutes – and be iteration friendly to react to art > director feedback. > > -Ideally, the belt could be made a child of the planet in encompasses > so it can be reoriented with respect to changes in the planet’s > size/shape/tilt/orbit. > > -Final output must be able to exist with full integrity on its own in > a vacuum. Cannot not have dependencies on custom code, external > assets, or special case logic. > > -Asteroid belt fits within the default grid as seen in the scene > camera. Think torus with diameter 40 SI units, and cross section of > roughly 3 SI Units diameter > > Ready…..GO! > > Matt >
