February 2012
1 post
3 tags
Using Efficient UV Layouts to Shorten Work
UVs are, more often then not, something you cope with rather than welcome into your workflow. But they aren’t always the spawn of Satan. If you use UV overlapping, it can save you a lot of time texturing repetitive areas like the windows of a building. If these areas all have the same topology (number and layout of faces), you can save yourself a lot of work. Here is a quick video showing...
January 2012
3 posts
4 tags
Studio Photography Techniques in Rendering: Gobos...
This post has been on the back burner – my desktop – for a while, so it is with great pride I hit publish on this bad boy. The trick to overcoming procrastination: pretend someone’s telling you to slack off and suddenly work becomes that much more appealing! Anyway, on to the post. When doing 3D, in any renderer, I use very traditional studio photography techniques to create appealing...
1 tag
4 tags
Multithreaded Image Conversion and rar/unrar...
So here are the downloads for the multithreaded Python image converters and multithreaded rar/unrar scripts I made yesterday. You’ll need Python 3.2 to run them, since they rely on the concurrent.futures module from 3.2. Grab the installer here: http://www.python.org/getit/releases/3.2/. The Mac installer doesn’t overwrite your existing 2.7.1 Python install so you invoke the new python...
December 2011
8 posts
5 tags
Fun With Python 3.2 – Multithreaded Image Batching...
I’m just starting to learn Python – like it’s been a week now – and my first script was a port of my bash shell script that takes an image list from standard input and sends to to sips (fast QuickTime image conversion built into OS X) for conversion. It was easy enough and I am liking the language for sure. When I started my second Python script, I thought I was setting the bar too...
3 tags
Save a Copy Script for Maya - Better Versioning
Since publishing and Photoshop was my love before 3D, I have a lot of workflows that I miss in Maya that I have in a lot of Adobe apps, and one of those is the Save a Copy feature. While working, you’ll often have something that’s not finalized but maybe you like how it’s looking or it’s a milestone that’s important to save and Save a Copy lets you save a named...
5 tags
Hardcore Workflow Tips for Blazing Through...
I just got through a rather crazy few weeks of magazine production and I’ve got some time now, as I babysit the PDF uploads, to talk about some techniques for making your work easier in a similar case of do-or-die. I was brought in to take over art direction for a magazine that was dangerously close to the deadline and I had to use some efficient techniques and tools, some that I scripted,...
3 tags
Revert to Saved MEL Script
Maya doesn’t have a “Revert to Saved” menu item but most people know to just pick the file name in the recent docs and it will open the recent document again from the disk. The problem with that is there’s always the danger you can save over the document when it prompts you to close the current scene. So I wrote a simple script to Revert to Saved and there’s no danger...
2 tags
My two-star review of David Giraud Male Anatomy...
Last night I downloaded what looked like a great muscle reference for the iPad/iPhone but I’m pretty disappointed by what I got. Here’s the review lifted from my iTunes review (2/5 stars):
I’m a CG artist who has done plenty of life drawing and anatomy studies and I thought this would be a lot more help than it is. There are three poses that are basically the same: standing,...
5 tags
Using Point on Poly Constraints to Stick Meshes to...
One of new constraints added in Maya 2011 was the Point on Poly constraint. This was added to make it easier to do things like pin buttons to a character’s clothing while avoiding things like expressions that can really slow a scene down when you add a bunch. It’s also a very handy way of forcing landscape objects to constrain to the Y-axis position of a vertex while shaping...
2 tags
Review of Alien Skin Blow Up 3 for Macworld
Just a note that my review of Blow Up 3, custom upscaling software for OS X and Windows, is on Macworld. Good software for sure, but I still prefer Photozoom Pro 4, which I use a lot for my canvas prints.
4 tags
Using Artisan Painting to Live-Blend Materials in...
After using procedural texture workflows for a while, you get used to having access to individual components of a shader and, if you’ve ever used something like UDK where vertex weights can be used for rapidly mixing shader components, going back to a big, static, memory-hog texture for something like terrain is just not appealing. So if you’re looking for way to get the blending...
November 2011
8 posts
5 tags
V-Ray Tuner 2.5 Posted for Download
Grab it from the usual location on Creative Crash.
Changelog:
Made command line render scripts Linux compatible, with exception of those with sleep commands. Tested in CentOS 5.6
Per-light render script updated to work with spotlights and directional lights.
Added a Make Reflector Card script to utilities menu. Select object and run script to make a plane that is aimed at the selected...
4 tags
Download My UDK Cubemap Template for Maya
I’m in the process of learning UDK for some projects and wanted a smoother system for making cubemaps for material envmap reflections. It’s a confusing rotated cross and after trying some Photoshop filters, I gave up and just made a Maya scene based on an awesome tip I read here. After rotating the cameras according the UDK texturecube format here:
…here is the result - an...
silami asked: I've noticed in a couple of your videos that your Cmd-Tab Application Switcher is smaller and darker than the default OS X one. What kind of tweak did you do? Is it a hack, a really simple preference I missed, or a separate app?
6 tags
Maxwell Tuner 1.0 – Unbiased For Your Pleasure
So it’s ready to go – my first version of Maxwell Tuner has been posted to Creative Crash and can be yours for the low, low price of $0 (+ taxes at 479%). See it and some of the cool additions like Focuser (a locator-based camera focus script) in action here:
People familiar with V-Ray Tuner will recognize the layout - it’s an adaptation of that script’s look with a feature...
6 tags
More Headless Batch Processing Fun with Maya and...
A couple days ago, I talked about using Maya as a headless workhorse to do batches and I’m going to talk a bit about the best method that was really only mentioned in passing: using Maya in prompt mode with an open commandPort to pipe it commands from Unix standard output. By sending commands to a Ruby (or Python) script that redirects standard output to Maya, you can put a MEL or Python...
Script to Quickly Export Open Max Scene to FBX
I use Max in Parallels Desktop to export files for use with Maya and glued together a MaxScript to export everything in the open Max scene to an FBX in the same folder as the open document. Maybe it will come in handy for others as well.
select objects if maxFilePath != "" and selection.count > 0 do ( savePath = maxFilePath selObjs = getCurrentSelection() FName = savePath + maxFileName +...
6 tags
Using Maya in Headless Modes to Do Batches
Maya has three methods of interacting with it without a GUI. The first is by sending it commands via Unix standard output and a commandPrompt port (covered here), the second is in prompt mode where it basically runs in a terminal as a MEL or Python interpreter, letting you open scenes and process them with text commands. The other method is to ask it to do commands while opening a scene for...
3 tags
Revisiting the Quadro 4000 Mac Edition: Lion Makes...
I get a lot of questions about graphics cards on the Mac since I review them for Ars Technica and have a lot of experience with GPUs and different 3D/app apps in OS X. A lot of people read my review of the Quadro 4000 Mac Edition and are now wondering if this card, which performed really well but had a lot of show-stopping bugs at the time of the review, is now working like it should. Yes, it is....
October 2011
15 posts
3 tags
Dock (Almost) Any Floating Window in Maya 2011 and...
Quick tip to dock your floating windows in Maya (requires later Qt versions). Find the name of your active windows in Maya by entering this in the MEL command line:
lsUI -windows;
Within that list is all the active windows. With the Script Editor and PoseMan open, the returned result is // Result: MayaWindow window1 scriptEditorPanel1Window //
So we can assume PoseMan is window1. Plug the...
The best improvements to work always comes from asking yourself “is what I’m doing too easy?” The difficult route is always more fulfilling. It’s like forcing your art to play a game of Dark Souls and come out a hardened badass.”
4 tags
Automator Services to Convert Text Cases
My WordService utility was broken by the Lion update and it doesn’t look supported anymore, so I made these conversion services from shell scripts I found around the Net.
Put them into ~/Library/Services/ to install. [Optional] Assign hotkeys in Services system preference panel and you’re set for quick conversion of text.
4 tags
Rejoice: Region Rendering for Maxwell Render in...
This is something that has been missing forever in Maxwell’s Maya plug-in and I’m working on a project with Maxwell now so I thought I’d see if I could adapt my
V-Ray Tuner region rendering script for use with with this and lo, it works:
I’ll be making a palette of Maxwell stuff similar to V-Ray Tuner (without as many controls, obviously) but you can grab the script...
4 tags
Facer 2.2 Posted for Download
Go get it - new stuff since 2.0:
Transfer UVs now uses polytransfer so it doesn’t require deleting history to retain them after the source object is gone. There was much rejoicing.
Toggle Bounding Box now works with objects on display layers. In those cases, it will toggle the display layer.
Added a Bevel Hard Edges script that prompts you to bevel all edges over a certain angle for...
5 tags
Next Addition to Facer Script: Bevel Only Hard...
After seeing Ryan Gosling’s stomach in Crazy Stupid Love, I’ve got my mind set on chiseling. Every Maya user knows how annoying bevels can be since it bevels all edges by default, forcing you to pick which ones you want to bevel, which is often just edges over an N degree. Using selection constraints and temp smoothing, you can have this done automatically for only hard edges and...
“My mom said it was “interesting,” so you know it’s good”
2 tags
An Automator Service to Convert eBooks With...
While I wait for all my iOS devices to update, here’s a thing I made this morning: an Automator converter to use Calibre to convert selected PDF/ePub/etc files to .mobi eBooks for the Kindle. Why use this when you could use Calibre’s interface to do the same? Because you’d have to use Calibre’s interface – a program so awful to use that it’s truly shocking.
Install...
2 tags
Using ZBrush's Timeline as a Bookmark Manager
Sometimes you need to see your sculpt from a specific angle and focal length to match a shot or projection and, while Mudbox has the ability to import FBX cameras, ZBrush is more limited in this regard. Fortunately, there is a workaround for ZBrush 4 and above: use the Movie timeline to create a pseudo bookmark that you can drop back to that whenever you need to:
1 tag
5 tags
Tip for Quickly Creating Swatches With Linear...
My workflow for creating linearized swatches is pretty simple. I usually use the LWFMe button in V-Ray Tuner and use the automatic LWF in V-Ray. But it’s a bad idea to use the automatic LWF when using SSS materials, so this is what I do for swatches in those cases (after hitting LWFMe to set up the linear workflow but then disable the LWF toggle so everything else like gamma is correct but...
4 tags
Toggle Bounding Box for Selected Objects Script
I just put this updated simple code in Facer to toggle bounding box drawing mode for meshes. Now also works with objects on display layers. Great for working with lots of meshes that don’t need to be shown. Put the code inside the first and last {} brackets in a custom hotkey for keyboard-based toggling.
2 tags
Fix for ZBrush 4R2's Losing Interface...
I’m loving ZBrush 4R2 but I noticed that it was losing certain contextually-activated custom interface elements on relaunch. I have my UI tricked out and customized to avoid jumping around palettes so this was annoying. I just got an email from Pixologic that there’s a fix for this problem at the bottom of this thread. Put the plug-in in ZStartup/ZPlugs and relaunch ZBrush. After that....
dancoates asked: Hi, Thanks for your post on command line rendering. Do you know if it is possible to load a plugin from the command line before starting the render. I have a plugin reading in geometry exported from Houdini that is essential for my scene and I cannot install it in any of the permanent maya plug-in folders because I am batch rendering at my University and do not have administrator privileges. Thank...
1 tag
My VMware vs. Parallels Review is Up on Ars...
If you’re a Mac user looking for virtualization of 3D apps, check out my review that pits the two heavyweights of virtualization against each other in games and 3D apps. The speed these apps are getting for Windows in a VM is amazing and I run Max frequently for scene conversions in Parallels without problems.
September 2011
21 posts
2 tags
Maya 2012 Node Editor Quick Look and Tips
So the Maya 2012 Subscription Advantage Pack is out and it’s pretty sweet. Apart from the OpenCL-accelerated Bullet Physics and Alembic, the big feature is of course the new Node Editor panel. Many people would agree that this was long overdue for a procedural node-based program like Maya, and the Hypershade just wasn’t cutting it anymore. You’ll be happy to know that it’s...
1 tag
Mudbox 2012 SAP - The Most Broken Software I've...
Excitedly launched Mudbox 2012 to find it’s a broken mess. Watch how it just discards the sculpting changes as I go up the subdivision levels but then keeps it as I go back down:
Any time I’m not doing anything in that video, the app is actually lagging. I really don’t know what’s going on with this app but, considering just how amazing ZBrush 4R2 is and how busted this...
5 tags
Send Standard Output to Maya
This is just a shell script version of the code from my OS X Automator service to send UNIX standard output to Maya as commands (this only works in OS X and Linux). Put this Ruby script in any binary $PATH and then make it executable:
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'socket'
begin
mel = STDIN.read
s = TCPSocket.open("localhost", 2222)
s.puts(mel)
end
Open port 2222 in Maya, so that it...
2 tags
Restore Your Favourite Startup Brushes in ZBrush...
Want your Smooth Stronger and Slash brushes back in the pared-down startup set of ZBrush brushes? They aren’t gone, they’re just moved to the Lightbox sets, which is a bit buried so I’m going to copy my critical brushes back into the startup one as shown below:
So that’s copy from rootappfolder/ZBrushes to rootappfolder/ZData/BrushPresets.
nbreslow asked: On the blog twice! Awesome, thanks again. As long as we are on the subject of light card setups I wanted to share a tip I learned from Steven McClure at Gnomon. The Maya 'Bulge' 2D Texture always struck me as a bit of an odd inclusion. However, if you use it on a light card and set it's 2D Texture Placement Attributes\Repeat UV to 1,1 it works really well. Really softens up the...
4 tags
V-Ray Tuner 2.2 Posted for Download
While I wait for my ZBrush 4R2 update email and a render to finish, I figured I’d post this V-Ray Tuner 2.2 update with the recent additions. From the changelog:
Added a “Strip pasted__ from names” script to Utilities.
Updated GI dropdown menu so it accurately reflects current primary and secondary GI config.
Added a batch render file utility for all OSes. Writes a command...
nbreslow asked: Just wanted to drop you a quick note to say thank you very much for taking the time to answer my question on your blog! I look forward to the next version of the Tuner where Maya Spots/etc. are implemented and will give it a run through and pass along the results if I get anything that might be useful. No worries about the scene, can recreate it now that I know the lights you used. I saw some...
nbreslow asked: Long time reader of your blog/writing on Ars. Great stuff! I am a relatively new VRay user and have been following the development of VRay Tuner, specifically the per-light rendering feature you have highlighted recently. I must admit I am struggling a bit setting up scenes using purely VRay lights - I am pretty used to using Maya Spotlights and Mental Ray. I was wondering 1) Do Maya...
3 tags
Use Difference Mode in Photoshop to...
I found a bug in Mudbox 2012 where 16-bit channel PNGs load as 8-bit but wanted to preserve the edits I’d done on this texture. So I copied the edited map to the 16-bit original and used difference mode to show where the changes were done and loaded that as a mask:
This is a good way of checking if two images that look similar are actually different.
4 tags
To Add to Next version of Facer
Getting a bit out of just topology features for Facer but I think it still fits in the MEL scripts section (it won’t need any additional download). It’s an interactive slider set for scaling distances between objects without scaling the objects themselves:
Stupid me started writing an expression-driven thing to scale a temporary group and then scale the inverse on the children...
4 tags
Using Temporary UV Shells to Make Selections in...
I often select areas of meshes by using the select UV shell command – “polySelectBorderShell 0;” mapped to a hotkey and use temporary UV shells as a faster alternative to selection sets. It’s much easier to select an edge loop, split a UV shell in two and then use the command key to select the rest of an arm, as opposed to using a haphazard drag selection:
If you already have...
3 tags
Figuring Out How to Load Your MEL scripts
When I was first learning Maya, one of the more frustrating things was learning how to load those juicy scripts that looked so amazing but half the time I couldn’t get loaded, despite the scripts being in the proper folder (one of the many). Some needed to be sourced and some needed just to type the name of the script to load. Figuring it out for myself was simple once I knew what to look...
1 tag
7 tags
Coming in V-Ray Tuner 2.2: Exposure Round-Tripping...
Some of you have probably seen me using the per-light rendering features of V-Ray Tuner, since it gives me a lot of control over a complex light setup without having to re-render, similar to Maxwell Render’s multilight feature. But, seeing it in action, you probably also thought to yourself “that seems slow and impractical for animation.” Well, I’ve finally implemented...
3 tags
Tips For Working on Angled Surfaces in Maya
The first tip about working on an angle in Maya is to avoid it if you can. Tilt your camera whenever possible but, if you have to work on angled surfaces, there are a couple other things you can do to make your work easier. The second tip is to get HKLocalTools, which lets you perform relative transforms, much like modo. It’s an essential script so if you don’t have it now, run...