SunPosition update for 2010

Updated for Autodesk Softimage v2010 (8.0.201.0).

Download it from here.

SunPosition 2010 demonstration from Jason Wells on Vimeo.

Colorspace/Physically correct colours in Softimage

I've noticed two blogs recently post tips on how to get physically correct texture colours when rendering indirect illumination (and using physical sky/sun shaders)

http://harrybardak.co.uk/sRGB.htm
http://kobayashystips.blogspot.com/2009/09/linear-workflow-in-softimage.html

Further discussion, etc about here:
http://community.softimage.com/forum/autodesk-softimage/rendering/softimage-gamma/page-1/
http://www.aversis.be/tutorials/vray/essential_gamma_01.htm

Isolating individual scene objects per pass

This is a pass setup I came up with to address a question posted here.

Basically, the query was how to remove individual elements from a pass but still have their reflection appear on other objects. So, in the image above the blue sphere is rendered in the reflections of the grey sphere, but is invisible in the pass.

Basic Setup: All the materials in scene should have a raytype switch plugging into the material node and the rest of the material tree plugging into all ports of the raytype node.

Then in your new pass partition you add an overide property and add the material-Ray_Type-eye parameter to it.

Press 7 with the overide selected and plug a constant shader with 0 for everything including Alpha into the overide node.

You can then drag and drop any objects you like into the "hide" partition and have them not rendered in primary but still appearing in reflections without having to tweak all their rendertrees seperately.

RENDERCHANNNEL alternative

Of course, this still leaves the guy who asked the question with 70 individual passes, so a setup using renderchannels must be preferable:

For every single material you can add a Store Color in channel node between the material node and the material tree and create a new render channel with a name like "blue". Then in the render region pick the channel.

In render manager > pass > Output - add all the new channels to the Render Channels Output list. The advantage is, of course that each individual renderchannel image gets rendered during a single pass.

With a combination of both methods you can break down the scene into its seperate parts by rendering a single multi-channel pass and then create passes as needed to isolate and re-render material changes as required.

dxf importer 2010

I've recompiled the dxfimporter 23 & 3d for Softimage 2010.
Get them from the usual place, here.

Bot Walk 2

Slightly different take on the bot walk. From scratch again, this time I tried to match the rig motion with foot motion, so it travels forwards and the feet sit on the ground. Again, only 29 frames...

Bot Walk 1

My second go at creating a walk cycle using a premade, free to use character rig from www.creativecrash.com (formerly known as highend3d.com)

Architectural modeling tools

Archtools for Softimage demostration from Jason Wells on Vimeo.

V2 released

-Cameras-
Fixed Polygon Cam (new) - create a view perpendicular to an arbitary polygon

-primitives-
Draw and size Cube, Box, Cylinder, Sphere, Cone, etc standard primitives in viewport

-transform tools-
4 point rotate
2 point transform
3 point scale
mirror about 2 points (new)
align objects by 2 polygons (new)
align object - polygon to edge (new)
aligh object to polygon (new)

Limitations: these do not work correctly on enveloped meshes unfortunately.

-measuring property-
Apply to scene root and measure distances - automatically converted to scales like mm, cm.

Download from here

New Archviz Website

Just set up a new Archviz website. I've tried to keep it simple.

You can find it here.

New IES Light plugin

wombat778 is currently letting people test his new IES light plugin for Softimage at xsibase here.

I've not tried it yet but it looks promising.

New Softimage Community Forum

Since Autodesk's "The Area" took over from the SI community website, it seems that people are pretty unhappy about using the site - it is, afterall, pretty horrible to look at and a nightmare to navigate.

Anyway, while I think it was initially established as a backlash to "The Area", a new Softimage Community forum is now thriving. It's simple and easy to use (like the old one) and it can be found here: http://www.si-community.com/community/index.php

It seems to be thriving already. Sign up! It needs the support!

I've posted my dxf importer plug-in here for download in the Download > Plugins area:

http://www.si-community.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=49

 

dxf importer plugin now at The Area

Due to the sad assimilation of community.softimage into the Autodesk discussion boards, I've re- uploaded the dxf importer addons to their downloads section here.

Environment Art Portfolio site now up!

I've got my game art portfolio up online now - check it out here: link

I have extensive experience using Valve's source engine and some experience using the cryengine2 and unreal3 engines  (the image above is taken from the cryengine2 sandbox editor).

(If you can't view the portfolio site for any reason, please let me know. Thanks.)

Cloudwright plug-in Open Alpha

This great new plug-in has arrived as an open alpha from http://www.simul.co.uk/. You can download the installer from here: http://www.simul.co.uk/cloudwright/plugins.

What's really cool is the realtime preview from the standalone app is available in the XSI viewport by choosing the Cloudwright_directx 9 option from viewport "realtime shaders" menu. This makes previewing the overal look of the final effect amazingly fast, allowing instant feedback on most of the cloud generation parameters.

dxf importer and sun position plugins updated for Softimage v7.5

Yep, to celebrate the release of Autodesk Softimage 7.5 (I still can't believe I'm writing those words :( ) I've recompiled the famous dxf import and sunpath plugins for AD's newly acquired 3d package. (Eggh!) I will continue to update this plugin until AD add these features to the program or make Softimage to expensive to upgrade - I'll release the source code in that case.

You can get the dxf importer (plus most other versions) here.

You can currently get the new sunpath plugin here. At time of writing, nothing has changed except compatability with v7.5.

Black Mesa Official Trailer

Yep. It finally came out today and the reception has been pretty good so far. 

Many thanks to monkey junkie for recording inside the source engine and editing the trailer so brilliantly.

Downloadable versions:

rapidshare

http://games.rapidshare.com/gamesnew/detai...&rubrik=trailer

http://www.blackmesasource.com

2009 is gonna be a busy one.

Enjoy!

Articles/News:

http://digg.com/

http://kotaku.com/

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/

http://www.joystiq.com/

http://www.ausgamers.com/

http://www.hlportal.de/

http://darkdiamond.net/

http://www.n4g.com/

http://csnation.totalgamingnetwork.com/

http://www.fz.se/

http://www.pcgames.de/

http://www.gamestar.de/

Happy 10th! Black Mesa Media Release Nov'08

First things first - happy 10th birthday Half Life!

Been a pretty heated 3 weeks working towards this media release, although there wasn't much need for new prop art for these shots, just some UV mapping and skinning. Some of my own work goes public for the first time in these shots.

It's been a pretty successful release and we've received a lot of attention on forums and on a couple of websites, Kotaku being the most notable -  Google "black mesa media release 12".

http://kotaku.com/5093811/unofficial-half%20life-remake-looking-prettier-by-the-year

And PC Games, Germany : http://www.pcgames.de/aid,667633/Bildergal...ue_Screenshots/

Prop Art by me appeared in these Nov'08 media release shots:-

http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/c2a5_release12_001.jpg

Cactus furthest away (modelling/texturing)

http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/c2a1_release12_001.jpg

Green Electric Equipment behind fencing to left (remake of CS:S prop) (modelling/texturing)

http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/c0a0_release12_002.jpg

Electric Transformers beneath tram platform (texturing - two diffuse maps - one visible)

http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/bounce_release12_001.jpg

http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/bounce_release12_003.jpg

Impeller pumps in area beneath rocks directly left of the tower (torus shaped items) (texturing - 3 diffuse maps/one normal map, minor modelling tweaks to fit in with other props)

http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/bounce_release12_002.jpg

Rusty Pipes (top centre - some modelling and texturing)

Dxf importer for XSI v6 & v7

Here is the permanent link at SI NET for my dxf import plugin for XSI 6 & 7:

http://community.softimage.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=208

As far as I'm aware they should work with x32 and x64 systems. I'd like to thank all the people that helped with general testing of the dlls at the SI NET thread:

http://community.softimage.com/showthread.php?t=2473

Please use this thread or the comments box on the download page to post any issues you have regarding the plugin and I will do my best to answer them.

New ICE compounds

There seems to be a nice momentum building with v7 now.

A couple of interesting free ICE compounds have been announced recently:

Eric Moootz's emNewton

http://www.mootzoid.de/html/XsiCorner/emNewton.html

He also assures me that he is currently working on an ICE node for his emFluids

plugin. I think he will get a much better take up with this.

Guillaume Laforge's Procedural fluid flow

http://community.softimage.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=207

http://frenchdog.wordpress.com/ <-link to video

Thiago's Function graph node

http://thiagocosta.net/?p=157

http://community.softimage.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=200

And the first commercial one I've seen: Gerstner Waves

http://www.xsi-blog.com/0001-purchase

Pigeon Impossible

...is a short animated film directed by Lucas Martell. You can see the website here , his excellent blog here or subscribe to the podcast (all full of good advanced animation/character rigging/animation tips for XSI) here.

I wish him all the luck in the world in making the project a success.

XSI 7 shipping! Redmotion plugins do not work in v7 yet

XSI 7 shipped last week. (There is currently a 'do not disturb' sign on my door)

I've evaluated all the current redmotion compiled plugins. None of which actually load into v7. I will upgrade to v7 very soon and update all the plugins at some point. The best workaround currently is to continue to import dxf files into XSI 6 and then open the saved scene file in v7.