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sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

I had heard for years Catia and Solidworks were surpassing what could be done with AutoCAD. Is sounds like Dassault's products are used more than AutCAD these days for engineering - or is that too great a generalization?

For anyone out there who happens to use both Max and Maya:

Does anyone know if there is a similar feature to "autogrid" in Maya? Making an object "live" does not have the same effect as say creating primitives on a surface already created.

Just wondering if anyone knew of something similar for Maya. I searched around but didn't see any good answers.

One does wonder if Autodesk has its sites on companies like SideFX . . .

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sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

Heintje posted:

Watch this bitches:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=kR7UWImpG54

Yeah can't say I'm THAT surprised about XSI, though I don't know how they are going to manage 3 3d programs (ha) in basically 1 market. I can't see sideFX getting bought any time soon, since I get the impression they have avoided that in the past. Plus it would seem that most of their business comes from backend support as you mentioned.

We've got cinema 4d to go too!

I've also been talking to SideFX and am looking at doing an internship there for min 3 months, does anyone know anyone that went through that process or have any idea what it might be like?

These Hitler parodies seem to be a trend:
Burning Man
WoW

Since Maya is oriented towards VFX primarily and Max oriented towards games, one does wonder where XSI fits in their plan.

Also wanted to share this "Unfinished Swan" demo which takes a novel approach first person shooters.

Oh and if you guys haven't already been playing around with the mudbox 2009, it is a LOT of fun to use!

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

Odddzy posted:

Well i don't know if it's a technique per se but it's just that I have a hard time figuring out where to put seams in cylinders and what kind of projections should be avoided and so on.

Use simple UV projections for simpler "primitive" like objects. For example a globe would obviously get a spherical UV projection and a coke can would get a cylindrical projection and so on and so on.

If you are UVing complex objects like characters, this method will not work. Instead you should "unwrap" the UVs using either the UV tools in your software package OR (preferrably) a 3rd party UV unwrapper.

My choices are UVlayout or Roadkill. Roadkill is free and does an excellent job on lower poly stuff. There are also others like chuggnuts for Max and packages like Silo and Modo have their own auto-unwrapping functions. UVLayout is probably the most famous because as far as I know it is the most capable.

Personally I prefer these solutions to trying to unwrap in max or maya but inevitably you do need to tweak the UV maps so knowing how to move, sew, and stitch UVs in either package is very useful. I read recently that Maxon's Bodypaint now has UV editing functionality as well.

These UVlayout tutorial videos may help you wrap your mind around it.

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

^^^ Badass. One thing I like about displacement in Max is how easy it is to use. Where are his eyes? Rendered in mental ray I assume? Looks like a Harryhausen character to me for some reason. My only real critique is that you might want to give the fingernails/toenails more definition and work more on the skin shader.

TouchToneDialing: Was that max/vray? Amazing render.

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

Typing up notes from today's Autodesk 2009 event in Carlsbad CA. Would anyone like me to post them? . . . or is that a stupid question? :)

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

I agree with SynthOrange. Lighter values, more hue variety and try making more than one type of metal. Preferrably different metals with varying bump, reflection and spec. Think about how a real gun has multiple types of metal and plastic.

Here are the notes for Motionbuilder 2009

Autodesk 2009 Launch Event
Carlsbad CA
Nov 13th Sheraton Hotel
(Autodesk recommends DELL laptops M6400 and M4400)
Motionbuilder 2009
- Improved asset transport through the .fbx file format
- Ragdoll physics can be combined with rigid dynamics (characters falling and breaking walls for example)
New ragdoll -> approximation -> activate collision with rigid body (wall) -> physics solver (gravity)
- Characters can interact with each other through constraints (each character can push/pull the other - double solve)
- Imports cameras via FBX and allows you to setup shots in the story(board) tab. This is great for previz and supports transitions (crossfade etc) between shots.
- Quicktime 7 or greater supports FBX and allows you to jump to different cameras/shots using a hotkey. QT will also show other FBX info such as:
1. FBX file info / stats
2. show skeleton / rig
3. show lights etc etc
Being able to jump to different shots in the QT file quickly is great for previz / camera setup
- Character definition tab allows for creation of “control rig” using Fullbody IK / Human IK.
- Can create new effectors which control rig can “reach” towards (or reach towards the average of multiple effectors)
- Expert mode for relative transform
- FBX plugin exists for XSI but soon full integration will exist
- Motionbuilder interpolation now used in Maya 2009 animation layers


Shall I continue and post notes for Mudbox 2009, Maya 2009, Max 2009 and Toxic 2009?
I don't want to clutter up the thread with info you could most likely get from Autodesk's site anyways.

Most of the stuff you will probably figure out if you use the package or check out the preview videos posted for the 2009 products.
However if you guys are getting anything valuable from my notes I will be more than happy to keep posting them.
I even saw the famous "toad demo" for Mudbox 2009 today. They bragged about how the Mudbox 2009 demo was more popular than Carmen Elektra's appearance at SIGGRAPH . . . (I should hope so!!! :rolleyes: )

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

ACanofPepsi posted:

This is great, hopefully I can get this working correctly today. Thanks for the help.

http://update.multiverse.net/wiki/index.php/Creating_Morph_Animations_with_3ds_Max

I found this article relating to using Morph, but do you know of anything else I might like to read about the topic?

I suggest you get in the habit of using editable poly vs editable mesh. Also consider crushing the can with an animated lattice/FFD modifier. You can select individual verts and put a FFD modifier on that and then animate the FFD. Alternatively you can use FFD to shape your morph targets if you don't want to animate the FFD.

SynthOrange: I brought up XSI 2009 and specifically asked how it fit in Autodesk's "pipeline" or what demographic it is pointing to vs Maya or Max.
The answer was less than fantastic. The guy waffled a bit and basically cited the anymosity between Max and Maya users and said after a few years that was waning. After a few years XSI users will start feeling less angry and everyone will be happy with Autodesk's "buffet style" offering of 3d options. This is what I call dodging the question.

The truth is they wanted to take down one of their main competitors and they wanted the tech. They wholly admitted to wanting facerobot, and the "real time" capabilities XSI offered. I imagined there was a lot more they acquired they're not talking about. I would LOVE to see mental ray's implementation in XSI across the board for autodesk's products. Mray was always fastest in XSI (love that render preview) because softimage was the first package Mray was available for.

EDIT:

As part of the Max2009 demo they showed how they could easily "roundtrip" the morph targets between Mudbox and Max. So you can easily sculpt anatomy for a flexing leg as an example and then send it back as a morph target even after the leg had been rigged and animated.

EDIT 2:

Minority Report GUI anyone?

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 20:16 on Nov 16, 2008

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further


^^^^^ EDIT: Looks like a stone fountain decoration to me for some reason.

Chromaplasm: Interesting you use the term "strip modeling". I assume this means edge extrusion modeling vs box modeling. I had never heard the term before.

DefMech posted:

Vray is used all over the industry, but obviously not to the capacity of something like Maya+PRMan. Mainly because in many situations, an accurate GI solution is unnecessary and too slow. Lots of motion graphics and broadcast firms use it. Sway Studio is a fairly prominent one that uses Max + Vray on almost everything. Most archvis firms use it because it's the fastest and best looking GI renderer out there.

As far as it being a point and click renderer, that's a little bit inaccurate. There are pages and pages of settings to change, most of which you don't ever need to touch. The work comes in how you set up and light your scene, how you make your shaders and your own personal art direction, just like with any other renderer.

DefMech that is a GREAT explanation and will be what I reference next time someone asks me about Vray. Sway is right next to Zoic but I hear much better things about it as a whole.

Hmmm . . . just saw there is an educational version of Vray available for 250$. Wonder what it would take to get my clueless bosses to actually go for it . . . :rolleyes:

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 08:06 on Nov 20, 2008

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

How did I not know about this site?

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

^^^ What software / renderer did you use?

SynthOrange posted:


And on other cg related topics, is anyone putting in stuff for the latest CG Challenge? I was going to put in something Heracles related, but there's like two dozen or so entries on that already, so I'm just revising my research a little.

Yeah . . . I haven't decided which one I want to do yet but I have a quick mockup I made for a steampunk version of "pygmalion". The painting next to it is a front pose I was considering doing instead. I can't decide which works better. Alternatively, I may choose a steampunk take on John Henry or Jimi Hendrix.

Haven't checked to see if anyone has done any versions of these yet but I am not sure how. There are so many pages of entries!!

EDIT: The original painting's are by Jean-Leon Gerome

VVVV Pretty nice texturing but the yellow stripes on the front look off to me.

Only registered members can see post attachments!

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 01:08 on Nov 25, 2008

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

Kirby posted:

haven't checked up on this thread in a while, good to see its humming along :)

has anyone checked this out?
http://www.gnomonschool.com/master/

18 online masterclasses in one week, $250 if you get in early.
Anyone taking part? I'm seriously considering this.

Hopefully I'll be able to show you guys soon what ive been working on for the last 6 months.
its p.cool :3:

It DOES look really cool. I can't figure out if they mean streaming video or what. It does say "private forums", so there will be Q&A but it also seems like they are just playing back the videos of the presentations during the gnomon workshops (of which I have been to 3). These presentations are kind of hit or miss. Some you will glean a HUGE amount of information and others are the artist's telling personal stories or just not talking about technique at all.

Kind of hard to do this if you have a 40 hour work week too . . .

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

This is really weird.
I just ordered it and the receipt specifically says "downloads expire" Nov 30th. The event of course goes from Dec 12-19th but if we are meant to download the vids, that means they won't be available until that time . . . right?

Oh and here is another CGhub like community for VFXpros to show off their reels etc. etc.

Postfolio.org

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

^^^ Good job but it looks like your textures are stretching around the shoulder but I am sure you know that already.

Also the render of the interior the interior doesn't look quite right (too dark?). Is that light coming from the TV? If so, where is the TV? If the light is coming from the lava lamp it doesn't read that way. Overall your textures could be grungier and more detailed but I think that is going against the cartoon aesthetic.

TouchToneDialing: If that is a "whizzy wig bullshit kind of render" . . . I wish I was capable of that kind of bullshitting!! Other than the stock people in the background it looks pretty fantastic. However I thought your last render was pretty close to photoreal too, so what do I know.

Also I want to thank whoever posted the alchemy link. Cool stuff!! Now if it was only pressure sensitive.

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

I have met Aaron Holly and he seemed like a really nice guy.
(ninja edit: He created RIGGING FOR FEATURE ANIMATION) He is the brother of one of the admission reps at my school and was nice enough to give a talk about rigging once. His brother told me he is at WETA now. Really been meaning to watch that DVD too. Thanks for reminding me.

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 06:14 on Dec 4, 2008

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

How one keystroke can ruin a career.

:downsbravo:

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

^^^ Congratulations!!!

Here is a WIP render of a friend's character I am working on modeling:



Max2008 + Mray

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

Thanks guys. I was trying to decide how much I should go with the original exaggerated proportions of the drawing I was given, or make it more realistic. Obviously the pose will be fixed once the model is done. I have no idea what is going on with her feet.

Kirby: The Jeremy Vickery one was one of the best ones I saw live. It was so early though and I only caught half of it. Appreciate the tip about the cache.

bigredbutton: That is some amazing work! Reminds me of the kind of quality I recently saw in the warhammer online trailer (gnomon/blur event).

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

bigredbutton: Thanks for all the info. I had always read 3d motionblur was MUCH better than post but I always wondered how it could be faked if 3d motion blur was impossible. That list of passes is pretty impressive. I had never even heard of a "wirecolor" pass before.

BTW - it looks like "Delgo" has finally been released. I think a few goons have been working on it (?)

This article does not paint a very pretty picture.

Also, here is yet ANOTHER VFX reel / portfolio / social networking site:
The inspiration room.

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Dec 16, 2008

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

This is just an educated guess but it seems to me that non toon shaded stuff is preferrable because you have a better idea of what the light is doing thanks to better gradients. Better lighting/shading = easier to see the animation. Even a lambert or blinn shader with no color or texturing lets you see the animation better than toon shading (which is limited by the levels of gradient you give it). When I took animation classes, the teacher asked us not to spend ANY time on texturing or materials so everyone's animations would be easier to see and on an even playing field. Also - it wasn't the animator's job to do that stuff anyways.

I am also curious to hear what the experts in the thread have to say about it.

Kirby posted:


Anyway, anyone else sign up for the gnomon masterclass?
Some really good stuff on there, I've skimmed some and watched the Cinematic Lighting class with Jeremy Vickery.

Also the whole 'only available online! not saved or stored for later viewing!' thing is a bit of a non issue if you just check your browser cache :ssh: i thought they would atleast try some fancy encoding or something.

The forums haven't been updated for me past the first day. They have the same videos since the beginning (I don't see Vickery's anywhere). What browser are you using? I tried using firefox but couldn't check the cache very easily.

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Dec 18, 2008

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

double post . . . sorry.

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

VERY weird. When I clicked on your link it gave me this message:

quote:

...you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

1. Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
2. If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.

Yet when I go to the main forum page I can clearly see about a dozen videos posted. Hrm . . . I wonder if they blocked me from seeing more because I logged in at home and at school. It clearly states in the FAQ they will you out for using multiple IPs. I wonder if those dozen videos are free to ANY gnomon forum member. Very very strange.

Thanks for the firefox plugin. Looks pretty handy.

The banner at the top reads Gnomon Live Rebroadcast Event (only 10) vs The Master Classes.
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/includes/gw_live/gw_live_rebroadcast_08.php
Looks like I may have signed up for the wrong event. :bang:

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 07:27 on Dec 18, 2008

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

^^^ So these AREN'T two separate events?? This is very confusing the way they have this set up. It doesn't make much sense to run them simultaneously to me unless they are the same workshop split in two or something.

I tried to PM you but you don't accept PMs.

Could really use some help with this and I don't want to clutter up the thread. The plugin DOES work so THANK YOU!!

EDIT:

Nevermind. Thanks for the help.

VVV They can be pretty hit and miss. The Meats Meiers intro to Zbrush 3 is especially good IMHO. VVV

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Dec 18, 2008

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

tuna: I am curious about the spacesuit and how you rigged it. Was the suit connected to the gray shirt underneath it? Did you create one mesh with folds or deal with cloth sim? Can we see a wireframe? I can't imagine weighting that would have been much fun.

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

SynthOrange posted:

It's great to have you back. I've really missed me and my skills being made to feel completely inadequate whenever I visit this thread.

Hahah - I had to laugh at that one. S'funny cuz it's true. Cubicle gangster: when are you gonna make a walkthrough or some kind of write up on how you accomplish your ultra realism? I think I speak for a lot of goons when I say it would be most appreciated. I know before you said it was kind of a random work-flow with a lot of tweaking here and there but drat man, please try! :)

Mister Anarchy: Thanks man! Now I have something interesting to listen to on my flight back home from the holidays.

SpecialAgentCooper: Love the username/avatar. Just rewatched Twin Peaks recently with my GF.
It looks like what you are trying to do is similar to what a friend of mine was trying to do in 3dstudio Max a few years ago. He gave up because he said Max had really crappy Midi tools and completely switched packages to Houdini.
Recently he has taught a few classes and written a book on Houdini and audio. I am not sure he can help since you are using Maya but I can pass on questions if you would like. He is a musician who has gotten into 3d through audio and animation and how each can drive the other.
Also, I have seen videos very similar to that Autechre vid but not that one in particular. Would really to know how he turned notes into keyframes in AFX. It seems to me most of the work along these lines would be done with at least some scripting.

Hazed_blue: I specifically always start in zbrush with a basemesh (with UVs) to avoid that problem, but I wholly agree with SynthOrange here. Zbrush's retopo tools might be slightly clunky but better than most out there.


Ooooookaaaaay . . . after a long struggle with whether or not to go cintiq vs tablet PC I am very seriously considering buying a cintiq 12UX. Does anyone here have one? How do you like it? Are the cables too cumbersome? Any calibration problems? How do you travel with it (what kind of case)?

Edit:

Almost done with the modeling but I couldn't resist throwing some default materials on:



sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 09:55 on Dec 27, 2008

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

cubicle gangster posted:

...the colour correct plugin for max. Mid grey becomes white in my sunlight, and I never use actual whites in my materials. The colour I work to is based on how things look in the shade. Lots of vray dirt within the materials to add depth to corners/etc. You can add bitmaps to what would normally be the white/black parts of the dirt, so I copy the texture into the dark part and ramp up the contrast/gamma and take the brightness down.
...

Could you elaborate a little on this?? Unfortunately I am a complete newb to vray and have only played around with it a few times. Can similar results be achieved in mental ray with your technique? It makes sense the color you work to would be what the color looks like in the shade, but doesn't the shadow value change according to the time of day? You use the daylight system, correct? Textures should have no shadows on them as all shadows should be created in the scene through the 3d lights.
Which colour correct plugin are you referring to?
I remember back in the day "occlusion" was created with a "dirtmap" but I am not understanding that last part about adding bitmaps to the dirt and tweaking the contrast/gamma/brightness. Is there any way you could demonstrate using pics/examples?
Thanks for taking the time out to explain all this.

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

cubicle gangster and Heintje: Thanks so much for the info!! I have never heard of "gamma 2.2 / linear workflow" before and it is a lot of food for thought. The links you guys provided are golden and it makes me want to try out Vray even more now. The dirtmap stuff is especially cool.

Here are those links again in case anyone is too lazy to skip back.
http://www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150SP1/vraydirt_params.htm#notes
(examples)
http://www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150SP1/examples_vraydirt.htm
http://www.aversis.be/tutorials/vray/essential_gamma_01.htm
http://asgvis.com/index.php?Itemid=57&id=24&option=com_content&task=view
http://www.jamesshaw.co.nz/blog/?p=152

Sorry I didn't thank you guys sooner. Really great stuff!

EoinCannon: Your work continues to amaze me. Ever since I saw your work in the 3d emoticon thread I have been impressed. I also want to echo what you said about zbrush and anatomy. Once you master zbrush's crappy UI it is an incredibly powerful tool.
Today I found out this sculpture studio is down the road from me. Anyone ever hear of it?
Very seriously thinking about taking an ecorche class to improve my anatomy skills.

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

Hinchu posted:


Remember me?

Welcome back!!
:)

Sigma-X: Great advice as usual. I especially like the CGtalk texture painting link you posted.

Unexpected EOF posted:

gently caress 3DSMax. Has Maya's usability improved in the last 6 or 7 years?

Indeed. I think the modeling tools have gotten a lot better. Edge loop and edge ring stuff especially.

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

The Orphanage in SF is going under apparently. Had of lot classmates who went through there. I heard there were 6 studios in LA which recently went under too.

Scary stuff.

EoinCannon: Your work is getting better all the time. However, I think Iggy's pecs need more volume, or less wrinkles, or both. How do you plan doing the hair exactly? I always find hair to be a bitch, no matter what your approach. The minotaur looks pretty good for broad detail. Do you use any image ref plugin for zbrush, or do you just have a second monitor with your ref which you eyeball?

International Log: Are those low intensity area lights in your screengrab, or portal lights?

Jeremy Birn just posted some clips from his DVD on Vimeo.

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 03:25 on Feb 6, 2009

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

Unexpected EOF posted:

Okay, so I downloaded the Maya trial and after watching those little basic tutorial videos... Why the gently caress hasn't 3dsmax adopted some of this poo poo?


I had to laugh at this one. It has taken me several years to bring Maya to my school and I am very happy I finally got the powers that be to get the autodesk "maya superpack".
:downsbravo:

It is really nice to be able to switch back between maya and max at will. I have just kind of accepted that a lot of things maya does better and some things max does better. Try to find a connect tool or autogrid in maya . . .
:argh:
Since they are never going to combine them we just have to make do. I am sure the XSI users are just as pissed now as the Maya users were back then . . .

Maya's IPR should do interactive raytracing as far as I know.

GFBeach: That project looks really cool. Good luck matching the 2d and 3d. Seems a bit daring for a student project.

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Feb 14, 2009

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

Unexpected EOF posted:

The main reason I want the separate renderer is because it'll allow me to use it between 3ds and Maya since it was cross compatible.

What about Fryrender?

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

LKL posted:

. . .so i'm gonna try out pixie.

FYI, I used Pixie a while back with Silo and it works like a charm for what little I played with it. No GUI though, so everything is flags etc.

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 23:42 on Feb 14, 2009

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

^^^ Nice to see the update!! Would be interested in following the progress via a blog etc.

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

Rekka: I recommend looking at the Joan of Arc tutorial for a quick map of facial topology. There are probably much newer and much better tuts for this and I would welcome any other suggestions.
Ben Mathis also has great tuts.

cubicle gangster: That's a very good tip. Excuse me if this is a dumb question, but how do you make sure your biped is the right height when you create it? Or do you just adjust your units setup before creating them?

spottedfeces: Nice progress on that room.

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 03:17 on Mar 1, 2009

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

Changed the units US standard feet w/fractional units 1/1 and then I noticed there is a box to type in the height for the biped. Thanks for the rapid reply.

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

Rekka posted:

Do you have a wireframe? I'd like to see how that's all put together, what parts are seperate parts?

What software was it done in? Nice work.

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

Heintje posted:

Yeah when I do anything in max with some amount of detail I seperate things out into layers. Makes it easy to hide stuff that you don't need. I still hate it though :)

QFT. Max does not handle high polycounts well. Sorry, but there is no excuse for this in 2009. Granted the later iterations of Max (08 and 09) are FAR better at handling high density scenes but really, there just isn't an excuse when you think about easily other packages push polys. Specifically I am thinking about the ungodly amounts of polys both Zbrush and Mudbox now handle with ease. Since Max was always meant more for low poly applications (games), this only makes sense.

EDIT: Oh and my rig is a dual 2.8 gig Xeon with 2 gigs of ram running XP pro. Throw a few hundred thousand polys in a Max scene and watch it choke. Adaptive degradation, layers, and bounding box mode all help, but really Max fails when it comes to high poly scenes.

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 00:30 on Mar 6, 2009

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

Heintje posted:

All of max just needs to be re-written, I could bitch for hours about how the software hasn't really gotten any better over the last 10 years in so so many ways, but I'll save that for when I'm next drunk with cg people.

Yeah - this is so true it hurts.

Worldbuilder.

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

^^^ It's amazing to me that you can sculpt that well and yet you claim you can't draw.

I can't believe I have been multiplying my occlusion wrong all these years!!
Zap straightens it all out.

Handy chart here.
Anybody know of a way to get a "ambient color" pass out of max / maya without having to tweak every shader?
I can tweak a ink and paint shader to be solid color and some materials have a diffuse slider but I am not sure how to get an ambient color pass out of every material.

Anybody else been doing this wrong? This means I will need to somehow always create ambient color passes to multiply the AO over and incorporate this into my workflow. The plus side is that the diffuse color passes serve as lighting passes I can turn on and off.

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 09:59 on Mar 10, 2009

sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

SynthOrange posted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qypqwcrO3YE

I havent seen anyone play with just shapes and form in 3D for quite awhile this was quite entrancing.

That's great. I think people forget 3d can be amazing in abstract art as well.

I also plan on entering dominance war. Should be fun.

Useless: Nice progress on that render.

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Mar 16, 2009

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sigma 6
Nov 27, 2004

the mirror would do well to reflect further

Travakian posted:

Slightly OT, but still on Houdini -- they're currently holding a contest; essentially best comp (most realistic as well as most entertaining) created entirely using Houdini Apprentice (free) wins a free copy of Houdini Master and PFTrack ($13.5k US value). Might want to consider it if you're learning; so far there are no entries, so may be a good push to keep going.

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1442&Itemid=226

Wow. I knew about the contest but I didn't realize there were NO entries so far! SideFX also offers free workshops at their Santa Monica location.

I try to go as often as possible, so PM me if anyone wants to meet up for it.

Heintje: The scripting and expressions is the hardest part IMHO. Procedural workflows are becoming more and more common. Lots of compositors use nodebased workflow these days.

NodeJoe for example.

sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 05:08 on Mar 19, 2009

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