From my colleague Manny, a tutorial on normal mapping with Ultimapper.
via Area :: Tutorial :: Normal Mapping Process in Softimage (Ultimapper).
Area :: Tutorial :: Normal Mapping in Softimage with Ultimapper
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Bandai Namco Games uses Softimage for promotional videos of THE IDOLM@STER
This customer story was recently posted on the Japanese autodesk.com.
If, like me, you cannot read Japanese, here’s the Google page translation.
“Bandai Namco Games” used Softimage for creating promotion videos of / THE IDOLM@STER.
Softimage was used to create nifty effects in PV and it was also used for animating in-game cameras to capture idols. All the characters and most of other area works were done in Maya in this game at Bandai Namco.
Anyway, be ready for a unique Japanese culture!
via http://www.autodesk.co.jp/adsk/servlet/item?id=16307549&siteID=1169823
The case of the missing scripting engines
In this case, the customer reported that 64-bit Softimage abruptly shut down just after the splash screen appeared, with no errors and no sign of the actual UI. 32-bit Softimage, however, worked just fine.
This didn’t sound like the usual runonce/rename user folder/reinstall graphic driver case, so I asked him to try to run a script with xsibatch, to see if 1) xsibatch also crashes and 2) whether there is a problem with VBScript (because Softimage cannot run without VBScript).
echo LogMessage "Hello" > %TEMP%\test.vbs xsibatch -processing -script %TEMP%\test.vbs
It turned out that there were problems with both JScript and VBScript on his system:
======================================================= Autodesk Softimage 9.5.184.0 ======================================================= ' ERROR : 2000 - Failed creating scripting engine: VBScript. ' ERROR : 2000 - Failed creating scripting engine: JScript.
To show that this was system problem, not just a Softimage problem, we tried using wscript to run a VBscript:
echo wscript.echo "Hello" > hello.vbs wscript hello.vbs
We tried re-registering the VBScript and JScript DLLs with regsvr32, with no luck.
After some googling and experimentation on my own system, I narrowed it down to the specific registry keys:
- HKCR\CLSID\B54F3741-5B07-11cf-A4B0-00AA004A55E8 (VBscript)
- HKCR\CLSID\F414C260-6AC0-11CF-B6D1-00AA00BBBB58 (JScript)
So I exported those keys from my registry and sent them to the customer.
And after he imported them, Softimage worked!
I would have preferred to get it working without doing that (manually importing reg values), but it beats reinstalling windows. I guess.
Note that on Windows 7, you may need to change the ownership and permissions on the registry key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\ before you can edit any keys.
Exocortex | Momentum
Exocortex, in collaboration with Helge Mathee , is pleased to announce that Momentum 2.0, the ultimate high speed multi-physics simulator, is now immediately available for Autodesk Softimage 2010, 2011 and 2012.
via Exocortex | Momentum.
GDC 2011 product demos online
Using Exclude Particles in the Particle Density shader
The Particle Density shader has a Visible in render boolean that can control visibility on a per-particle basis.
So how do you apply this setting on a per-particle basis? One way to access individual particles would be to use an attribute shader to look up a per-particle attribute, and then use that to set the Visible in render value. For example, I used a Color Attribute shader to get the particle color, plugged that into a Color Math Logic, and plugged that into the Visible in render port of the Particle Density shader. In the screenshots below, I’m simply testing whether the particle color is blue.
Getting the contents of docked views
I was recently asked whether it’s possible to find docked FxTree views and figure out 1) what specific tree is loaded, and 2) what nodes are selected in the Fx tree.
You can find docked Fx Tree views, but unfortunately there’s no way to find out what’s in that view.
Here’s a Python snippet that finds docked Fx Tree views:
# Find docked Fx Tree views
oVM = Application.Desktop.ActiveLayout.Views.Filter( "View Manager" )
oFxTreeViews = oVM(0).Views.Filter( "Fx Tree" )
for view in oFxTreeViews:
Application.LogMessage(view.Name+": "+view.Type)
In the XSI SDK, you use attributes to access the contents of a view, and there are no attributes defined for Fx Tree views.
For example, here’s how it works for an ICE Tree view:
# Find docked ICE Tree views oVM = Application.Desktop.ActiveLayout.Views.Filter( "View Manager" ) oICETreeViews = oVM(0).Views.Filter( "ICE Tree" ) # Get the ICE tree that is loaded into the view Application.LogMessage( oICETreeViews(0).GetAttributeValue( "container" ) ); # Get the selected nodes in the ICE tree Application.LogMessage( oICETreeViews(0).GetAttributeValue( "selection" ) );
Friday Flashback #8
GDC 1997
Theme: STONE FREE – Create any game you think. Think what you want.
Stone free is a rebellious attitude of confidence and freedom
Create any game you think: Softimage has the capabilities help create any game you can think of
Think what you want: With Softimage you do not have to limit your imagination
GDC 2000
Themes:
Softimage Sumatra: Animation redefined
Softimage|3D 3.9: Production proven, 3D workhorse
XSI Viewer Tools: Art pathway for interactive media
GDC 2001
Theme: Innovate. Create. Collaborate.
Softimage games tools offering: Softimage provides a complete, open toolset for game creation that lets users pick and choose functionality to integrate with their existing pipelines and custom engines:
GDC 2004
Theme: Better Faster XSI
GDC 2006
Themes:
Characters at work, characters at play
Getting into characters: building performances for Next-Generation Productions.
All about being the leader in innovation
GDC 2007
Theme: Play Together
GDC 2008
Theme: ??? I don’t remember ???
Documentation moves to the Web for 2012
The shrinking Softimage box set through the years (Softimage|3D, XSI 5, XSI 7, and finally, Softimage 2012).
One of the changes in the 2012 release is that both the User’s Guide and the SDK Guide have moved to the web. There’s no more compiled help files (chm). Everything is now web-based.
The Setup program doesn’t include the help files, but you can download them if you want a local copy.
The General preferences now include some Help Location settings to tell Softimage where to find the online help:
This is part of a wider initiative across all Autodesk products. Some of the potential benefits include:
- A more dynamic and up-to-date resource (compared to a static copy of the docs shipped with the product). Content can be updated on an on-going basis between releases.
- Documentation can be integrated with other online resources, such as the KB, blogs, and forums, so users can search across all available content.
- Standardization of help systems and formats.
- Reduction of application footprint.
A Syflex on ICE snippet
During his Softimage 2012 demo at GDC, Mark Schoennagel has an amusing [to me at least] little bit where he uses Syflex to inflate and deflate a model. I recreated the effect but not the funny balloon noises that Mark makes while the doggie inflates and deflates.
The Syflex setup is pretty simple: I just pinned the tail and added a volume force.
eX-SI 