First Softimage -> Maya transition videos posted

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Jill Ramsay (Contractor)

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May 12, 2014, 11:16:09 AM5/12/14
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Hello everyone,
The first videos from our Softimage to Maya transition training curriculum are now posted, with more to come this week and at a regular rate thereafter. We hope to give you a thorough introduction to Maya that draws on your existing Softimage knowledge.

We thank you for your patience - we know you'd have liked to have these sooner. On the plus side, the later release date has allowed us to validate our curriculum with a number of customers and to use the 2015 versions of the software.

I hope you find these videos useful. You can post your feedback in the comments section on the site.

The Softimage Learning Channel can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/SoftimageHowTos

With the first two videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QokQ6r7mS1E&list=PLC4040C7FF264D722

and here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWjrYBXtvPw&list=PLC4040C7FF264D722


Best,
Jill
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Greg Punchatz

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May 12, 2014, 11:22:30 AM5/12/14
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Thank you

Greg Punchatz
Sr. Creative Director
Janimation
214.823.7760
www.janimation.com
On 5/12/2014 10:16 AM, Jill Ramsay (Contractor) wrote:

Chris Marshall

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May 12, 2014, 11:35:24 AM5/12/14
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What Greg meant to say was "Thank you, for helping us transition away from our software of choice, the software we all love so much, the software that does what we want in a clean and elegant way, the software that ticks all our boxes, the software we have invested so much in, to a piece of software, well, inferior software that none of us want to transition to. But thanks anyway".

I think that's what Greg meant.
;-)

And if Greg didn't mean that, I do apologise!
Thanks from me too.

Eric Mootz

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May 12, 2014, 11:54:20 AM5/12/14
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He, he, I bet my XSI license that this is going to be an interesting
thread ;)

Chris Marshall

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May 12, 2014, 12:00:21 PM5/12/14
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I think Jill preempted the possible fall-out by including (Contractor) after her name. ie "Don't shoot the messenger!!"

Mirko Jankovic

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May 12, 2014, 12:14:09 PM5/12/14
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I;m not going to say anything nasty, I'm not going to say anything nasty, I'm not going to say anything.....
Good luck with transition who decide to do so.. or must :(

Eric Turman

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May 12, 2014, 12:31:57 PM5/12/14
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Thanks

I do have to say that I am a bit put off by the first choice of examples, and I'm certain that I'm not alone. Any competent 3D veteran could easily figure out most of this with in minutes...and probably has. The video is quite frankly insulting. 

I'm not saying that transition videos aren't helpful, but it comes off as condescending that we would not be able to figure out something as basic as hotkeys.

More useful would be a series of videos of: here is feature A in Softimage and oops! Maya doesn't have feature A, but here is the convoluted workaround that you can do to kind of get the same result (like distance constraint) Or even, in Softimage you'd normally work like this, but even though you can work the same way in Maya, a better way would be to use this other feature or methodology since trying to work like you would in Softimage will slow Maya down (use expressions in Soft ==> use node networks in Maya) 

-=Eric
--




-=T=-

Angus Davidson

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May 12, 2014, 12:33:57 PM5/12/14
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Well busy watching the videos so I will add what I pick up 
  1. The first main thing he acknowledges is that the icons on the shelf are not easy too figure out.
  2. Making the shelf items text only (which is what most of us would like to do) just makes a mess. Really how is this not a priority UI thing to fix !
  3. Time required before Mel is required to make something work as we want 7 Minutes.
  4. Amen to 8 not being bound to Paint effects in Maya 2015
  5. I am assuming there are about another 20 or so of these before the softimage workflows are covered :)
Will cc to so-community as well.

Kind regards

Angus
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Angus Davidson

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May 12, 2014, 12:47:13 PM5/12/14
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I do have to agree with Eric that the target audience of first two videos is very much at a beginner instead of a professional looking to transistion (Which was the original requirement)

I am hoping the series will be ramped up significantly to deal with workflows instead of workarounds.

So far there is also nothing that couldn’t have been done using the beta software months ago ;( 

Also wondering why there weren’t more questions asked on the list by Autodesk or even Adam as to what people would want to see.







From: Eric Turman <i.ani...@gmail.com>
Reply-To: "soft...@listproc.autodesk.com" <soft...@listproc.autodesk.com>
Date: Monday 12 May 2014 at 6:31 PM
To: "soft...@listproc.autodesk.com" <soft...@listproc.autodesk.com>
Subject: Re: First Softimage -> Maya transition videos posted

John Richard Sanchez

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May 12, 2014, 1:10:56 PM5/12/14
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Well it is a start. It is actually the same thing I did before dusting off my old Maya skills. Use the same/ similar hot keys from XSI in maya which others have said in other threads not to do. :) Dont use a XSI gui in maya, dont use shelves, no xsi hot keys its not allowed. You wont learn the Maya way. Baloney!  I did learn how to have more than one explorer / outliner open so that was good.

Jill Ramsay (Contractor)

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May 12, 2014, 1:19:36 PM5/12/14
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There are lots, lots more to come, and the complexity level will definitely be ramping up so feel free to jump to whatever stage you want to.

We validated (and adjusted based on feedback) the curriculum with a number of our internal users who have made the transition themselves, and also with several users. I hope that as we progress you will find some things useful at any rate.

Jill


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Manuel Huertas Marchena

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May 12, 2014, 1:52:29 PM5/12/14
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Thanks Jill,

that is great news! looking forward to it.
btw if you can do some videos in regards to:

-maya pivots & snapping 
-maya node editor (for shading compared to render tree) *I heard we can use maya's node editor to do shading instead of the ultra cumbersome hypergraph...

it'll be awesome.
Regards


-Manu



IMDB | Portfolio | Vimeo | Linkedin



From: jill....@autodesk.com
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: RE: First Softimage -> Maya transition videos posted
Date: Mon, 12 May 2014 17:19:36 +0000

Luc-Eric Rousseau

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May 12, 2014, 2:04:05 PM5/12/14
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I'm a softimage->Maya transition myself, and I liked that. .. You're learning different things at once when trying to implement something like a hotkey for slopes in the Animation Editor, or opening multiple Outliners.  It's good to have someone show you that stuff.


On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 12:47 PM, Angus Davidson <Angus.D...@wits.ac.za> wrote:

Leendert A. Hartog

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May 12, 2014, 2:43:43 PM5/12/14
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Looks like a good start
and I personally think not just focusing on "complex workflows" but also
on "workarounds" is a good idea
even if that means part of the series will be beneath some... I for one
welcome this series very much.
;)

Greetz
Leendert

--

Leendert A. Hartog AKA Hirazi Blue
Administrator NOT the owner of si-community.com

Eric Turman

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May 12, 2014, 3:35:17 PM5/12/14
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I for one welcome our Borg-bot overlords ;) (sorry Leendert...your last sentence brought this to image to mind so vividly that I laughed out loud and had to share...no hard feelings)

I think it is fine to show some simple stuff too, but these are "transition" videos; it was not "beneath me" so much as beneath what this video series is supposed to be. So, by all means show the graham-crackers-and-milk information, just be sure to mix in with some meatier concepts to keep the viewing worthwhile. There are plenty of "I'm new to 3D and here is how I get a cube" videos.

I gave my first impression, and you only get to make a first impression once. So, hopefully there will be more production oriented concepts such as good referencing and asset practices marbled with the fluff concepts like changing the shape of a node. A good example it how UV editing is different in Maya in how you have to cut and sew islands vs. the toggle button that it is in Softimage (I haven't checked if this is still true in Maya 2015, but I am assuming that it is)
--




-=T=-

Jill Ramsay (Contractor)

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May 12, 2014, 3:41:56 PM5/12/14
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Hi Manu,
I'll pass that on to the team, thank you!

Jill
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Leendert A. Hartog

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May 12, 2014, 4:01:13 PM5/12/14
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Don't get me wrong, my post wasn't intended as a stab at you at all,
if anything it was a "general stab" (if you know what I mean)...
A while back I wouldn't have believed Autodesk to actually produce
anything like this,
so now that they've already exceeded my expectations,
I am more than willing to give this a large amount of "benefit of a doubt".
And hopefully in the end there will be more than enough useful info to
"please" most of us.

Eric Turman

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May 12, 2014, 4:44:31 PM5/12/14
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I also was not trying to stab at you either, its just that your last sentence made me laugh. =)

True, it is heartening that they are making any videos to help Soft users transition, But, it will be more heartening if they actually carry through with their 2 year commitment to supporting Softimage and put developers on to shoring up the 2015 release of Soft before they bury Softimage forever...<shudder> typing those last few words made me throw up in my mouth a little...heartbreaking. 

But yes here's to hoping for something good to come out of this tragic situation.

Cheers,
-=Eric
--




-=T=-

Manuel Huertas Marchena

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May 12, 2014, 5:03:57 PM5/12/14
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@Jill, cool thx!

IMDB | Portfolio | Vimeo | Linkedin



Date: Mon, 12 May 2014 15:44:31 -0500

Subject: Re: First Softimage -> Maya transition videos posted

Raffaele Fragapane

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May 12, 2014, 8:54:44 PM5/12/14
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I've only glanced at the first part before my eyes glazed over.
Is it actually really sixteen minutes worth of setting up hotkeys or there's something more interesting going on later?

Eric Turman

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May 12, 2014, 9:08:43 PM5/12/14
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Hi Raf,

They show you how to tear away the outliner...the only reason that I had never found that is that the capability doesn't exist with the floating window...you have to use the panel display one, *then* you can get the magic command so long as you enable "echo all commands" ... -_- 
This is the one useful thing that I got out of the video and I'm grateful that I watched it if only for this one piece of information.

and the Maya devs/fanboys wonder why we look at them with a WTF!? expression...

<drips sarcasm> Ooooh! I almost forgot! they also show you how to mel script a hotkey for toggling on a free tangent weight in the curve editor. <drips sarcasm/> Something that should be on by default. 

There are only two things that I like better about the Maya FCurve editor 1) the independent pre & post infinity cycle 2) the keyframe lattice (& even that needs improvement.) All the rest please make work like Softimage. Our lead animator was a Dyed in the wool Maya user until he used Softimage for a few months, now he complains about the Maya FCurve editor whenever he has to do a Maya project.

Cheers,
-=Eric




On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 7:54 PM, Raffaele Fragapane <raffsx...@googlemail.com> wrote:
I've only glanced at the first part before my eyes glazed over.
Is it actually really sixteen minutes worth of setting up hotkeys or there's something more interesting going on later?



--




-=T=-

Raffaele Fragapane

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May 12, 2014, 9:13:56 PM5/12/14
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Why in a frozen bleeding hell would I want to tear away the outliner when I can open a new (instance) one with a two lines script? :p

Alright, gonna give it a miss then.
--
Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the dogs they are!

Matt Lind

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May 12, 2014, 9:16:28 PM5/12/14
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Is there a tutorial that explains how to get your script back after hitting the execute script button in the script editor?

 

17 years later and it still does this…really?

 

 

Matt

 

 

 

 

 

From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Eric Turman
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2014 6:09 PM
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: First Softimage -> Maya transition videos posted

 

Hi Raf,

Eric Turman

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May 12, 2014, 9:17:49 PM5/12/14
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well at least they allow you to ctrl-z it now :P


On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 8:16 PM, Matt Lind <ml...@carbinestudios.com> wrote:

Is there a tutorial that explains how to get your script back after hitting the execute script button in the script editor?

 

17 years later and it still does this…really?

 

 

Matt

 



--




-=T=-

Raffaele Fragapane

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May 12, 2014, 9:27:56 PM5/12/14
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Select all and use ctrl+enter, or edit externally and source it.
Yes, it has a legacy of retardation 16 years long that endures ;)

Matt Lind

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May 12, 2014, 9:33:36 PM5/12/14
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CTRL-Z or not, that has to rank up there as one of the most stupid workflows in the history of 3D.  Think about it.  You have to write additional code to destroy that data.  Somebody actually took time to spec out, write, and debug the application to do that and QA didn’t catch the stupidity.

 

The only thing worse is the issue hasn’t been corrected yet.  Code written in 1996/97 still does the same thing in the year 2014.  The only question I have is: did Back to the Future predict this too?

 

 

 

Normally I’d be angling to join a beta list, but when extremely obvious stupidity exists front and center, it really makes a strong statement that efforts on a beta list would be fruitless and wasted. 

 

Houdini it is.

 

Matt

 

 

 

 

 

From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Eric Turman
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2014 6:18 PM
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: First Softimage -> Maya transition videos posted

 

well at least they allow you to ctrl-z it now :P

Raffaele Fragapane

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May 12, 2014, 9:40:29 PM5/12/14
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Well, to be honest there is a basis for it. In Maya the environment persists, so when you "run" something what you are doing is committing it, much like it'd happen in a command line python instance.
E.G. type and run A = 1, run it (cleared), then run print A.

That has some upsides (persistence has come in handy more than once, and debugging tends to be superior), but also some downsides as rot is hard to monitor, and it doesn't cater to any quick and dirty usage scenarios where you want every run to truly be run-once.

If they just flat out removed it then it'd break a past quality and lose a feature, likely to public outrage.
What they should be doing, instead of changing it in place, is offer an option for a new and better editor with execution mode choices.

All in all for anything of a certain complexity I simply don't run things inside ANY script editor anyway, and I developed the select all + ctrl enter twitch a decade ago to cut the cost of broken mice down, but it surely could use more options.

Matt Lind

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May 12, 2014, 9:55:45 PM5/12/14
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The feature was developed for a different era and is largely a holdover from Wavefront Advanced Visualizer, no?  Back then all that was available were expression languages, so it made some limited sense to have such a feature, but even by those standards still stupid as a default behavior.

 

I don’t think a new editor is necessary.  Can be solved with a user preference or button in the editor itself, with default value of not deleting the code upon clicking the execute button.  Considering there are a bazillion other user preferences already, I don’t see how this was ignored for so long.  It’s like Honda or Toyota building cars with nails embedded in the tires causing flats right out of the factory and refusing to fix the problem because some customers want to replace their tires upon taking possession of the car at the dealership.  While not putting nails in the tires could disrupt a few customers, I think it would benefit a great many more and improve the company’s reputation.

 

 

Matt

 

 

 

 

From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Raffaele Fragapane
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2014 6:40 PM
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: First Softimage -> Maya transition videos posted

 

Well, to be honest there is a basis for it. In Maya the environment persists, so when you "run" something what you are doing is committing it, much like it'd happen in a command line python instance.

Raffaele Fragapane

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May 12, 2014, 10:02:45 PM5/12/14
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That feature is still present in many modern environments and a rather important one, it's hardly a left over, and it makes sense for backward compatibility as a default behaviour, and to be honest the way I use the script editor it makes sense in general close to half the time.
Soft lacks that feature entirely, and its debugging facilities have been horrible in general since day 1.

This is not some sort of maya apology, I'd like the option (though I'd like it as a new type of tab editor instance, NOT as a general script editor preference, as I want to be able to have both behaviours in different tabs), but it's not that big of a deal IMO, it certainly isn't show stopping or something you can't comfortably work around, just sort of wonky in how sudden it is if you're not used to it.

I feel the point is getting a bit belaboured, and it's very possible we use editors and contexts so differently that I simply don't understand your angle. That said, objectively speaking I don't think you can simply put it down to some archaic remnant that should be erased, because it's not. It's not "the editor wipes out", that'd be a bug, it's session persistence, that's a behaviour, and frequently enough a desirable one, so it shouldn't be removed.

Matt Lind

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May 12, 2014, 11:01:35 PM5/12/14
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A ‘script editor’ is for developing scripted code, often from scratch, and testing the logic and workflow in the context of its use.  It’s a very iterative workflow full of trial and error as you build up the logic and features cumulatively while writing generically and comprehensively work with the application’s API.  Having your code deleted every time you click the execute button is the exact opposite behavior you want in such a workflow.  That’s why it’s so stupid.  Can you imagine C++ development where your code is deleted each time you click the compile button?  Honestly, I cannot think of another ‘script editor’ in any application that behaves in the way Maya’s does by deleting code upon clicking the execute button.  That’s including web development and other industries.  I think there’s a reason for that – it’s counter productive.

 

A ‘script editor’ should have default behavior for script development.  If the intention is to debug with persistence, as you say, then it shouldn’t be called a script editor.  It should be called a debugger.  Debugging why a scene isn’t behaving as expected is a very different context than developing code for use as a tool.  In debugging mode you’re poking and prodding what things are doing in a specific context.  You often don’t write much code in a debug session.  You’re more or less inspecting and tracing it to expose the problem.  The scenario you present about persistence is in effect, but most modern applications have implemented some form of JIT debugging for that purpose.  I can see how you only want to execute small bits of code and perhaps iteratively, but I still don’t see how deleting code in an editor is productive under any scenario.  I would tend to think it would be better to make the user work with selections or some other mechanism to get the same behavior.

 

Semantics leads to expectations.

Martin Yara

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May 13, 2014, 12:06:28 AM5/13/14
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On Tue, May 13, 2014 at 10:55 AM, Matt Lind <ml...@carbinestudios.com> wrote:

deleting the code upon clicking the execute button.  


If you click the Execute All ( >> ) button your code won't disappear. Not having a shortcut for this, and having to put your hand out of your keyboard, grab your mouse, move it and click is a little annoying. Press Ctrl, then A, Enter and release Ctrl should do it though.

But since it seems you are already clicking, then just click the other button.

Martin


Graham D Clark

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May 13, 2014, 12:41:59 AM5/13/14
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Is there a tutorial that shows me where ICE is in Maya?
Thanks, Graham

Graham D Clark, Head of Stereography, Deluxe 3D dba Stereo D
phone: why-I-stereo
http://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamclark

> On May 12, 2014, at 8:16 AM, "Jill Ramsay (Contractor)" <jill....@autodesk.com> wrote:
>
> Hello everyone,
> The first videos from our Softimage to Maya transition training curriculum are now posted, with more to come this week and at a regular rate thereafter. We hope to give you a thorough introduction to Maya that draws on your existing Softimage knowledge.
>
> We thank you for your patience - we know you'd have liked to have these sooner. On the plus side, the later release date has allowed us to validate our curriculum with a number of customers and to use the 2015 versions of the software.
>
> I hope you find these videos useful. You can post your feedback in the comments section on the site.
>
> The Softimage Learning Channel can be found here:
> https://www.youtube.com/user/SoftimageHowTos
>
> With the first two videos here:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QokQ6r7mS1E&list=PLC4040C7FF264D722
>
> and here:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWjrYBXtvPw&list=PLC4040C7FF264D722
>
>
> Best,
> Jill
> <winmail.dat>

Andy Goehler

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May 13, 2014, 3:34:33 AM5/13/14
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Nukes script editor behaves the same way. Down to the Selection and Ctrl-Enter to execute. For the reason Raf has mentioned.

Looking into Houdini there seems to be all options: the python shell and the editor which does not delete the code :-)

Andy

Nicolas Esposito

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May 13, 2014, 3:42:25 AM5/13/14
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@Graham: They're working on the tutorial, it'll be ready to show to the public in 2017 :-D

Cristobal Infante

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May 13, 2014, 4:05:08 AM5/13/14
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I've found that Houdini is the answer to that question. If you think ICE is powerful have a look at VEX, your mind will be blown away. Though I understand not everyone can afford a multi package pipeline...

Jordi Bares

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May 13, 2014, 9:17:19 AM5/13/14
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Indeed, really weird choice to come up with a video that showcases the really convoluted Maya workflows you are going to encounter… it is more off putting than anything else.

And what has to do Adam's CV with the transition videos?  (nothing against him of course… just wondering)

Francois Lord

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May 13, 2014, 10:21:34 AM5/13/14
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I remember when The Foundry asked me what I wanted in a script editor. I said: make it work like the XSI one. They said: everybody already said that but about the Maya one. I didn't know how the Maya one worked so I assumed it would be similar.
When Nuke finally came with a script editor, I was shocked! I never understood why would someone want that. If you want to run commands and forget about them, make it a shell, not a script editor!
Fortunately, they added an option not to clear the script. Problem solved.

F

Peter Agg

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May 13, 2014, 10:39:26 AM5/13/14
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...and then you had the Soft script editor that clears itself out when it closes. Apparently no one gets this stuff right!

Eric Thivierge

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May 13, 2014, 10:42:28 AM5/13/14
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What do you mean? Close and reopen it and your scripts are still there.
If you're talking about when you close Softimage, that is expected.
That kind of functionality is weird to me in Maya. It's like reloading
your last scene you had open before you closed the last time.

On Tuesday, May 13, 2014 10:39:26 AM, Peter Agg wrote:
> ...and then you had the Soft script editor that clears itself out when
> it closes. Apparently no one gets this stuff right!
>
>
> On 13 May 2014 15:21, Francois Lord <flord...@gmail.com
> <mailto:flord...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> I remember when The Foundry asked me what I wanted in a script
> editor. I said: make it work like the XSI one. They said:
> everybody already said that but about the Maya one. I didn't know
> how the Maya one worked so I assumed it would be similar.
> When Nuke finally came with a script editor, I was shocked! I
> never understood why would someone want that. If you want to run
> commands and forget about them, make it a shell, not a script editor!
> Fortunately, they added an option not to clear the script. Problem
> solved.
>
> F
>
>
> On 13-May-14 03:34, Andy Goehler wrote:
>>
>> Nukes script editor behaves the same way. Down to the Selection
>> and Ctrl-Enter to execute. For the reason Raf has mentioned.
>>
>> Looking into Houdini there seems to be all options: the python
>> shell and the editor which does not delete the code :-)
>>
>> Andy
>>
>> On 13.05.2014, at 05:01, Matt Lind <ml...@carbinestudios.com

Peter Agg

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May 13, 2014, 12:13:52 PM5/13/14
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Basically I want my scripts to stay there - whether I run them or close the program. I'll delete them when I'm good and ready, damnit!


On 13 May 2014 15:42, Eric Thivierge <ethiv...@hybride.com> wrote:
What do you mean? Close and reopen it and your scripts are still there. If you're talking about when you close Softimage, that is expected. That kind of functionality is weird to me in Maya. It's like reloading your last scene you had open before you closed the last time.


On Tuesday, May 13, 2014 10:39:26 AM, Peter Agg wrote:
...and then you had the Soft script editor that clears itself out when
it closes. Apparently no one gets this stuff right!


On 13 May 2014 15:21, Francois Lord <flord...@gmail.com
<mailto:flord...@gmail.com>> wrote:

    I remember when The Foundry asked me what I wanted in a script
    editor. I said: make it work like the XSI one. They said:
    everybody already said that but about the Maya one. I didn't know
    how the Maya one worked so I assumed it would be similar.
    When Nuke finally came with a script editor, I was shocked! I
    never understood why would someone want that. If you want to run
    commands and forget about them, make it a shell, not a script editor!
    Fortunately, they added an option not to clear the script. Problem
    solved.

    F


    On 13-May-14 03:34, Andy Goehler wrote:

    Nukes script editor behaves the same way. Down to the Selection
    and Ctrl-Enter to execute. For the reason Raf has mentioned.

    Looking into Houdini there seems to be all options: the python
    shell and the editor which does not delete the code :-)

    Andy

    On 13.05.2014, at 05:01, Matt Lind <ml...@carbinestudios.com

Jordi Bares

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May 13, 2014, 12:27:41 PM5/13/14
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Exactly right.

Christopher Crouzet

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May 13, 2014, 12:52:53 PM5/13/14
to Softimage Mailing List
The code flushing out after execution is indeed a bit annoying but you get used to it. The combo Ctrl+A then Ctrl+Enter quickly becomes an automatism.

The two biggest annoyances for me were to code within the Script Editor (I guess I'm too used to Sublime Text), and more importantly the persistence of the variables. In my case this seemed to cause more bugs than the other way around. Example: when refactoring a code and deleting some variables, you expect the execution of the script to raise some errors if you forgot to remove some occurences of those variables that you've deleted. With this persistence thing, this will won't warn you of anything. If you're unlucky, this will even preserve the expected behavior of the script. Then, when you copy/paste the code in a library or when you reload Maya, bam.

I guess the Script Editor is not made to code your super complex functions anyways, but to workaround those issues, I came to use a quick/hacky solution.
The idea is to create a .py script file somewhere in which you define a main function that contains your script and that you call at the end of the file.

def main():
    maya = 'workaround land'
    print maya

main()


Then, just create a button in the shell that calls `execfile` with the path of the .py file. The variables defined within the main function won't pollute the environment—they won't persist.

There's probably ways to wrap this up more nicely but I couldn't be arsed.

--
Christopher Crouzet
http://christophercrouzet.com

Jordi Bares

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May 13, 2014, 2:30:13 PM5/13/14
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
I don't know if I want to cry or laugh…

Probably both… on a loop.

jb

Christopher Crouzet

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May 13, 2014, 2:40:06 PM5/13/14
to Softimage Mailing List
I've been wondering the same for some time... you can't imagine all the complaints that my work colleagues had to endure when I started to use Maya :)

Eric Mootz

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May 13, 2014, 2:41:15 PM5/13/14
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Aaaahahahah! What a workflow"!
When I ported my plugin emPolygonizer to Maya a few months ago I
obviously had to use Maya for the very first time in my life.
I was frankly shocked by what they call "the industry standard". Don't
get me wrong, the Maya SDK is really quite good, but the rest feels like
having a Linux kernel with a buggy Windows for Workgroups user interface.
Sorry.

Leendert A. Hartog

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May 13, 2014, 4:06:39 PM5/13/14
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
It might be helpful (for easy access and a direct link) to point to the
youtube playlist that contains all these videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP5KnnScX57byOldVy9rQlBRARrX6gy4b
which obviously could easily be shortened with any URL shortening service.

Greetz
Leendert

--

Leendert A. Hartog AKA Hirazi Blue
Administrator NOT the owner of si-community.com

Siew Yi Liang

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May 13, 2014, 11:32:53 PM5/13/14
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
TBH I was never really annoyed by either script editor's behaviour...but
I guess these days I send everything to Maya from either sublime text or
pycharm, so I'm not bothered so much by it anymore...the only thing is
that I can't pull up the quick help as easily as before but that's about
it.

Yours sincerely,
Siew Yi Liang

Jordi Bares

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May 13, 2014, 11:52:43 PM5/13/14
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Very much my feeling.. every time I have to use it is like going back in time to the early 90s…

Jordi Bares
jordi...@gmail.com

Raffaele Fragapane

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May 14, 2014, 12:04:34 AM5/14/14
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
You're being too harsh. I reckon it feels at the very least mid 90s, if not as modern as a '96 or even '97 at times.

Jordi Bares

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May 14, 2014, 12:15:12 AM5/14/14
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You are a generous man…

nick name

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May 14, 2014, 2:59:37 AM5/14/14
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Seems like they're very well received these videos, just look at the amount of likes/dislikes. It might not be the best indicator, but not to be ignored either.

olivier jeannel

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May 14, 2014, 9:47:46 AM5/14/14
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
I'm still having crashes on one particular machine using SI 2013.
on one particular scene, a big 500Mo object from cad, as soon as I hit
7, XSI crashes.
I have a Quadro 4000 I already updated the drivers last month.

Now I wonder if there are some settings I should tweak.

This doesn't happen on other machines. It opens fine on a quadro 1800
machine.

Anything to check ? any settings files to delete ?

Would greatly apreciate advices.


Tim Borgmann

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May 14, 2014, 10:03:34 AM5/14/14
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
I once had a similar problem while working on location at a company. The
only work around solution was to open the rendertree first (in a clean
scene) and than load the scene. I thought it maybe was caused by issues
with the workgroups as it seems the crash was related to the rendertree
loading some shader/rt_compounds when opened first. But I didn't had the
time to investigate the problem in detail. So the workflow was open SI,
hit 7 and than load the scene.

Cheers
Tim

Nicholas Breslow

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May 14, 2014, 10:16:36 AM5/14/14
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com

If you plan on scripting in Maya I highly recommend Charcoal Editor – worth the investment.  See here:

 

http://zurbrigg.com/charcoal-editor

 

-Nick

 

 

From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of nick name
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2014 3:00 AM
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: First Softimage -> Maya transition videos posted

 

Seems like they're very well received these videos, just look at the amount of likes/dislikes. It might not be the best indicator, but not to be ignored either.

Ognjen Vukovic

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May 14, 2014, 10:23:36 AM5/14/14
to softimage
I recall having a similar problem. What i did is, every time i opened up that scene i would call the explorer, go into the application mode, browse all the way up to the material library. If it loaded them into the scene that way i could then invoke the render tree without a crash...

Morten Bartholdy

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May 14, 2014, 10:36:43 AM5/14/14
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com

Thank you for these Jill. I can't help thinking since there are thousands of things different users would like to see covered it might be difficult for your team to identify and cover them all since there are almost as many ways of working as there are users :)

 

How about making a sort of list to which users can contribute and say which particular functionalities or workflows they would like to see in a transition video?

 

Best

Morten Bartholdy

Ognjen Vukovic

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May 14, 2014, 10:44:28 AM5/14/14
to Morten Bartholdy, softimage
Wasn't something like that already covered in the top 5 feature list by Alastair?

gareth bell

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May 14, 2014, 10:55:55 AM5/14/14
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Yeah do what Tim said - that used to fix that for me.

Empty scene - hit 7 - open your scene



From: ogn...@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 14 May 2014 16:23:36 +0200
Subject: Re: Render tree crash with SI 2013
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com

olivier jeannel

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May 14, 2014, 12:38:42 PM5/14/14
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Ok, thank you all for your solution. Opening the rendertree first, seems
to solve the problem !

Now, what we be a good way to investigate on this ?

I had the feeling that something is off on that particular workstation,
since on other projects it has also some unstability.

Thank's a lot.

Olivier

Songqiong Yang

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May 14, 2014, 8:41:47 PM5/14/14
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
It was known issue logged as
SOFT-5858:[CER]: Random crash when opening ICETree or RenderTree on certain scenes.

and fixed in Softimage 2014.


Thanks,
Joany



-------- Original message --------
From: olivier jeannel
Date:15/05/2014 00:38 (GMT+08:00)
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: Render tree crash with SI 2013

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Jill Ramsay (Contractor)

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May 15, 2014, 10:25:38 AM5/15/14
to Morten Bartholdy, soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Hello Morton,
Let me see if I can find a way to do that will build on the work that’s already gone into developing the curriculum and not get too out of hand. Stay tuned.

Thanks,
Jill

From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Morten Bartholdy
Sent: May-14-14 10:37 AM
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: First Softimage -> Maya transition videos posted


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