Visions of Autodesk - Maya

Okay, you can say it is a commercial again. I'm not paid by autodesk :) Truly. This is my commitment to the profession (I hope google translator worked on this right).

Maya Lighting & Rendering

Maya Animation

Maya Visual FX

Naming Convention 2. - Pipeline (CG / VFX)

When we are thinking about naming convention more or less thinking about pipeline. So couple of words about pipeline.

We can separate workflow and pipeline. I could write a novel about this. Just look these words up in wikipedia. Of course we are talking about VFX or CG here so the simple conclusion is the following:

Workflow
A process like modeling, riggin, texturing, etc.

Pipeline
There is now exact wikipedia article about VFX pipeline. In general it means "chain of data processing stages". In VFX it could be workflows and their connections. We can imagine some kind of flowchart like this:

The arrows can be simple data input/out put connections or data processing as well. The boxes are the workflows as you can see above. Pipeline can refer to the arrows. Personally I prefer the concept that pipeline is the whole stuff (workflows and the arrows) as you can see above.


With computers we create, modify and store data. As simple as that. So the question is how we do that?

Workflow means (most of the time) we use softwares like Maya, Nuke, Houdini, Blender, Photoshop, etc.. They have input and output data: usually files. We have to store them in a consistent manner. Naming convention refers to that consistency.

We have to separate files from each other based on the content and store information within the filename. To organize files we use folders.
So the goal to establish an organized folder and file structure ruled by the naming convention.


Files and folders are ruled by the operating system (OS) therefore we have to accommodate these rules to the naming convention.

As I wrote before there are couple of problems with of folder and file structures in general. For example:
1. Limitation of the length of the file path.
2. One file can be only in one folder.
But this would be another topic. I'm going to write about it.

Maya Functions - Removing Plug-in Nodes

To disable or unload a plug-in in maya could be tricky. I had situations when a plug-in could not be unload even if I pushed the 'Force' button on the poping window in Plug-In Manager because nodes of a certain plug-in was in use.

It seems maya can't always (or never) delete nodes that are in use. I had situations when maya crashed when I was loading a scene file which contained unknown nodes (unknown plug-in nodes). Actually I had to find out that the reason of the crashing is that a certain plug-in was not installed on my computer. Scene with Arnold nodes can produce crash when you want to load into a maya without installed Arnold plug-in.
So there is a need to delete plug-in nodes manually...or with a python script.

The main command is:

 cmds.pluginInfo("Mayatomr", q = 1, dependNode = 1)  

With argument "Mayatomr" it will list all the Mental Ray plug-in nodes. Or "mtoa" would list all Arnold specific nodes. Of course even if the plug-in is loaded this command returns something only if there is at least one node of that plug-in in the current maya scene.

Here is a function for removing plug-in specific nodes:

 def RemovePluginNodes(PlugIn = "mtoa", Verbose = 1):  
     '''  
     DESCRIPTION  
     Remove nodes of the given plug-in.  
     INPUT ARGUMENTS  
     - string - PlugIn - Name of the plug-in. You can check the exact (maya) name of the plug-in in the Maya Plug-in Manager. 
                         For eg.: Mental Ray plugin file: Mayatomr.mll -> "Mayatomr"  
     - int - Verbose - provide extra information about the process  
     RETURN  
     None  
     '''  
     plugInNodeTypeList = cmds.pluginInfo(PlugIn, q = 1, dependNode = 1)  
     for plugInNodeType in plugInNodeTypeList :  
         existingPlugInNodeList = cmds.ls(type = plugInNodeType)  
         if existingPlugInNodeList:  
             cmds.delete(existingPlugInNodeList)  
             if Verbose:  
                 print "Deleted nodes:\t%s" % existingPlugInNodeList  

I haven't tested extensively so give it a try and let me know your experience.

Customizing Maya - Help Line

It turned out Help Line is quite useful. You should not spend a decade using maya to realize that as I did. I really don't know how people learn maya, but I guess few of the users know everything about the software.

Day after day I have the situation when I say: "Whaoo!" And I realize something very very useful feature. I'm going to write about the small discoveries soon.

The Help Line really can help to learn small features in maya. But the standard placement (at the bottom) of that UI part is not best. I realize that when I saw one of my colleague had a different UI setup. Actually he does quite strange things like placing the ChannelBox to the left...but placing the Help Line at the top part before the Shelf is a brilliant idea.

It is really help your eyes to catch the info about the tool, menu item, icon, etc. you are about to use.

Gamma Correction - Nuke - Open Color IO

Hot topic. I cloud write a lot about this but the information available on the net already. I started to examine this topic because I wanted to have a solid understanding Nuke's color management.

So I found two very useful articles about it.
The first one is especially about gamma correction:
Gamma Correction

For me the most important thing to understand is the following:

Human eyes see as linear - perceptually linear

Computers / cameras see as linear - value linear

The second one is a brief overview about Nuke's color management and there is an explonation how Nuke uses gamma correction:
Color Management In Nuke (By Steve Wright)

Okay, you went through and now you understand gamma correction. So here it is the next lesson:
Since VFX industry utilize different softwares with different color management there is a need to make a standard for VFX studios. Read more about this here:
Cinematic Color

Okay, you went through the first couple of pages and you really understood the topic is quite complex. Don't panic I felt the same.
But the solution is here as the PDF says: Open Color IO

Blender For Feature Animation Film

Recently I have been thinking about Blender. Because I never used it I considering things as a professional who might want to learn and / or switch to Blender.
I think to get a job as a professional Blender user is not an option currently especially in my home country Hungary.
I have a lot of personal projects which involves CGI and VFX as well and I definitely don't want to spend money to buying softwares for those. So this motivation is pushing me toward open source softwares like Blender.
To compare 3D softwares and discuss about differences between them is a never ending story. I think it is a very complex thing to claim which software is better then the others (if it is possible).
I started to collect information about Blender and watched films like Big Buck Bunny and Tears Of Steel. For me these shorts prove that Blender can produce decent quality full CGI and VFX. I can't say those are cutting edge like VFX that ILM or other major facilities can do. But it is not just about the softwares they use.
Because I'm involved preproduction of a feature animation I raised the question (for myself): Can Blender be a choice for full CGI feature animation? I know there are current project around the world. At the Blender Conference 2013 "father of Blender" Ton Roosendaal mentioned few of them.
Worth to mention Blender community is now working on an open (online) feature animation project: Project Gooseberry

Maya 2015

Finally Autodesk released Maya 2015. Oh why, oh why? I don't get the idea why they release every year a new version. Maya 2015 has a lot of very cool new stuff and I can't wait to use it in the studio (as a matter of fact it will take a while). And as I'm writing these lines I realize there are really exciting features what seem very useful in everyday work. Actually I changed my mind. First I wanted to criticize but I have to say Maya 2015 is a big release. Mainly I'm disappointed about Bifröst. As we can read here current implementation is rather an eye candy (or a toy).

Another thing that bothers me is SOuP. There is no sign that Autodesk would like to start some kind of co-operation with the SOuP guys despite at the Ideas of Maya Forum this topic is the hotest. And Bifröst seems not going to be a full procedural framework (quotation from the Jedi of SOuP). Furthermore having a texture deformer in Maya 2015 proves that they really don't think that proceduralism or SOuP should be the direction.

Maya 2015 User Guide - What's news

So what do you think?