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Gearman posted:Biggest drawback for Blender is that if you need support or customized features (outside the scope of its Python capabilities) you're SOL. With Max or Maya you can pick up the phone and have people at Autodesk working to solve your problem. I'm not saying that it's necessarily a good or bad thing, but there have been a couple occasions where I have needed to speak with people that were responsible for building the product. When you're paying them, they're a lot more likely to talk to you and help you out. blenderartists.org - most of the add-on developers, (at least the more successful add-ons?) are active and seem to provide help to questions about their stuff. But I could be living in a bubble and unaware of pro-level user problems.
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Jun 27, 2018 18:18
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Odddzy posted:Hi guys, what is the be-all end-all tutorial currently on phoenix FD? We've had it deployed on some workstations and I'd like to find something that can give me a good shortcut to the middle. First of all, read all of these - https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/PHX3MAX/Tips+and+Tricks They're less tips and tricks and more 'important stuff you'll never find by poking around' The new versions have presets which are pretty good starting points. There are also these - https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/PHX3MAX/Tutorials Which are all great. Chaos have come a long way with phoenix help files.
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Jun 27, 2018 18:22
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cubicle gangster posted:First of all, read all of these - https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/PHX3MAX/Tips+and+Tricks Thanks, i'll go through those links over the week. Really appreceate it.
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Jun 27, 2018 21:04
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cubicle gangster posted:What's the difference between this and anyone on an Autodesk subscription? We could go and grab max 2019... But I trust 2016. Yeah I guess the Autodesk subscription model changes things a bit. Most of the people I've worked with bought versions of Autodesk software in the past and want to get their money's worth out of it, not have to pay all over again for a subscription to use the latest. With Blender there's no downside to everyone just grabbing the most recent version cause you don't have to pay.
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Jun 27, 2018 22:49
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magnificent7 posted:I honestly don't think it's imaginary. In 2001, it was a fun "oh hai look I make boxes" 3D app. Fast forward 17 years, (yes, I've used it for that long and I still have no idea wtf I'm doing most of the time) and it's pretty drat good in the right hands, with powerful enough computing power. suck down hard on the dick known as nodes and you will not turn back
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Jun 28, 2018 08:32
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Nodes are kinda laborious for setting up basic stuff (but Blender now has the principled node which basically gets you your basic setup in one node) but they're a godsend because they allow you to set up any drat thing. Whenever I look at a node setup though I think "what on earth is going on and how could anyone even come up with this?", including when it's my own. 
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Jun 28, 2018 09:19
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Putty posted:If there is an option to pinch pennies, a company will almost certainly take it. Because software cost isn't the big line item for the company. Manpower is. Paying the Houdini pilot to drive the software @ 120k-200k+ a year [overtime] is the line item cost. The Houdini seat in comparison is cheap. Actually super cheap, the month to month license rental is really affordable compared to say Autodesks solutions  Labor is the majority of the cost on any project. Not hardware/software/office overhead. That remains constant.
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Jun 28, 2018 14:07
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Gearman posted:Biggest drawback for Blender is that if you need support or customized features (outside the scope of its Python capabilities) you're SOL. With Max or Maya you can pick up the phone and have people at Autodesk working to solve your problem. I'm not saying that it's necessarily a good or bad thing, but there have been a couple occasions where I have needed to speak with people that were responsible for building the product. When you're paying them, they're a lot more likely to talk to you and help you out. I can't tell you how many times I was on a show where they literally broke Maya in a fundamental way requiring a call to Autodesk to fix it or do a forked build. "What do you mean a point can't support more than 65k attributes?" Otherwise, opensource software falls right into the same slot as Proprietary software and that's not "free", you need to hire people to maintain/update and customize the software. I ran into "hey lets use this open source solution" last year. It was a bit of a poo poo show since everyone who was on the project abandoned it, and while we did reach one of the original authors, he was working for a competitor and couldn't really be available to help us fix things with the software. We did have a software engineer take a look at re-writing the thing but at that point legal got involved and we decided it was cheaper to go with a commercial solution*. *-hilarious because the commercial solution cost $300, but the manhours we spent running around with the open source solution easily went into a few hundred manhours in order to evaluate things and have people make decisions.
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Jun 28, 2018 14:26
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Elukka posted:Whenever I look at a node setup though I think "what on earth is going on and how could anyone even come up with this?", including when it's my own. That right there sure enough. I've already gone nuts-to-chin on nodes, embraced them, stepped away for a moment, and then wondered who the hell's been drawing spaghetti on my blender. Oh I'll get back there again. One day.
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Jun 28, 2018 17:45
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I never liked them but then got used to them in the material editor in UE4 I guess yeah some shaders etc do get complex as gently caress. like coding, without comments its pretty horrible
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Jun 28, 2018 19:46
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Does anyone in this thread work in Montreal's VFX or animation scene? I"m moving there in August cause my girlfriend's got a feature job there and the studio I'm at is laying us all off. It'd be cool to connect with others in the industry. Seems like work there's booming. The editor of Cartoon Brew just moved there recently to cover all the industry events.
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Jun 29, 2018 01:33
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random thing but does anyone struggle with having too much reference and getting overwhelmed? like recently ive found that keeping my reference down to just a handful of really good images helps me immensely in clearing out "mental clutter" and related problems
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Jun 29, 2018 01:35
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Part of the job is definitely deciding what to leave out.
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Jun 29, 2018 01:54
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Ccs posted:Does anyone in this thread work in Montreal's VFX or animation scene? I"m moving there in August cause my girlfriend's got a feature job there and the studio I'm at is laying us all off. It'd be cool to connect with others in the industry. The upshot with Montreal is that rent is cheaper than Vancouver and you can get paid the same in both cites. A lot of VFX studios are hedging their bets that BC may pull the rug out from under them with a subsidy cut by opening up Montreal facilities. If you are planning on becoming a permanent resident/citizen eventually one big caveat with Quebec is that in some ways its setup different than the rest of Canada in regards to laws, and Quebec has different immigration laws vs the rest of Canada. It won't hurt in getting a work visa but you *might* be required to know french if you plan to become a Quebec permanent resident [unlike the rest of Canada where English is sufficent].
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Jun 29, 2018 02:27
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I'm already a Permanent Resident, been one for 2 years. Nova Scotia looked at my paperwork and approved it almost instantly. The lawyers think it's because my name sounds similar to everyone else who lives in Nova Scotia. It took Indian and Chinese co-workers twice as long to get processed :/ There's a bunch of Mexican guys who work here who are getting laid off along with me in August, and they don't have their PR yet, so might have to go back to Mexico. I'm gonna have to brush up on my creature animation for all those VFX studios.
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Jun 29, 2018 03:37
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I... would not mind being a Canadian citizen...
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Jun 29, 2018 05:05
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https://twitter.com/leighlahav/status/1012102806566723584quote:When I started at Pixar as an intern, I thought I’d landed my dream job. But my excitement was quickly tempered by a flood of warnings about Lasseter’s touchy-feely, boundary-crossing tendencies with female employees. It was devastating to learn, right from the start, that women were open targets for disrespect and harassment –– even at a world-renowned workplace in the most liberal-leaning city in the country. I was likewise told to steer clear of a particularly chauvinistic male lead in my department. Much like John, this man’s female targets had been reporting his vulgar, unprofessional behaviors for years, but his position and demeanor remained much the same. https://variety.com/2018/film/news/pixar-boys-club-john-lasseter-cassandra-smolcic-1202858982/ its cool how multiple times when ive brought stuff like this up to other men in the games/animation industry i get told to not talk about it but jesus loving christ this poo poo is so sickening Kanine fucked around with this message at 08:16 on Jun 29, 2018 |
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Jun 29, 2018 08:14
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https://byrslf.co/pixars-sexist-boys-club-9d621567fdc9?gi=5e8b19b37270 oh also here's the original medium article which is longer
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Jun 29, 2018 08:45
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The thread on CGtalk about sexism in the industry was highly upsetting to read. Most of the comments were along the lines of 'well maybe she did something and was asking for it!' or 'I cant help myself what now i cant even talk to females in the workplace? this is PC gone mad' There was minimal mod precense to stamp it out, most of the warnings were given to people who were telling the people with horrible opinions how horrible their opinions were. Quite a few people popped out of the woodwork to offer what they felt was a reasonable opinion which was actually still pretty lovely and bad too.
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Jun 29, 2018 17:03
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Is there any large website where discussions of institutional sexism aren't loving soul-searingly terrible?
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Jun 29, 2018 17:11
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floofyscorp posted:Is there any large website where discussions of institutional sexism aren't loving soul-searingly terrible? Here. That's it.
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Jun 29, 2018 18:34
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 recently ive been working on a lot of photobashed star wars blasters to make later in 3d. im still learning more about elements of design and these have been good exercises
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Jun 29, 2018 19:27
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So, would people use nurbs then convert to poly for the stocks and handgrips? I’ve never tried modelling something like that yet and I’m curious what the process would be.
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Jun 29, 2018 21:38
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You would never use nurbs. For repeating patterns you'd usually model the pattern flat and surface deform it into place - the surface would be made using techniches similar to those used in this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaUzfqZFWBA
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Jun 29, 2018 23:35
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Does anyone use nurbs for anything anymore?
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Jun 29, 2018 23:53
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Manufacturing mostly
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Jun 29, 2018 23:56
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Some of the crazy high level hard surface concept designers like Vitaly Bugarov use nurbs in moi3d and fusion 360 to rapidly turn around super complex surfaces. They're obviously not deformable (or really unwrappable) meshes but you can get amazing forms that would take forever in polys.
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Jun 30, 2018 00:50
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floofyscorp posted:Is there any large website where discussions of institutional sexism aren't loving soul-searingly terrible? The worse place I've seen it is on some highly professional forums like Linkedin. In regards to Lasseter, I've seen too many shitheads go "This is PC run rampant", or "I don't understand what Lasseter is accused off" and " He's a great inspiration for us along with Catmull". Catmull? That loving rear end in a top hat? Really? One of the key parts of fixing wages in the VFX/Animation business? gently caress him too. Almost all of those comments are from the peanut gallery... ie. people who don't even work anywhere close to the entertainment industry. From my experience, harassment always gets swept under the rug. At best until the current production is over then they can let the person go once their job is complete. Masturbating system admin who watches porn on his workstation when he thinks no one at the studio? Brushed under the rug. Sexual harassment against female co-workers from idiots? Buried until the show ends. If someone isn't placed high enough they get laid off and that's it. Etc. It's depressing. And these were the mild cases. Not stuff like John Kricfalusi hiring underage interns, knocking them up and getting co-workers to drive them to the abortion clinic [that gem just came out a few weeks ago] or Lasseters groping/leering. "No it wasn't just Hugs". We had one big name director who was pretty out of control in regards to alcohol and drugs and would make insane comments and harass folks, it got to the point the only people allowed near him or in dailies with him had were the studio reps and 2-3 approved people in production on our side as a vendor and that was it. [We even had to blank out artist names on the dailies reels because he would laser focus poo poo on certain individuals.] The thing that makes this worst is all the crazy people who have no experience with this stuff happening is defending the perpetrators... I sorta understand that now, because I've seen what happens when sexual harassment does to people who are sheltered to have never encountered it. They literally shut it out of their minds immediately and throw accusations at the accuser. I saw this happen at something as inane as a club outdoor gathering where a hired tour guide fondled one of the member's breasts as part of a "joke". The tour guide was well regarded in the community, and immediately people were threatening the victim despite there being several witnesses. Really messed up, it destroyed the club and it became split over the reaction. The people in charge apologized later because they never planned or imagine it happening to them. No plans and no one knew what to do, so they shut it out of their minds. Crazy. So I can see why it takes years/decades for victims to come out. You get to be a victim all over again as people call you a liar. And on Disney, anyone who worked for the mouse, you have to watch several videos and do a quiz on harassment in the workplace. It was mandatory you did it or you would be fired [This happened during a big show at ILM, we were told specifically we had to get this quiz done ASAP or you would be automatically fired, no joke.]. At the end you got a little Disney certificate print out stating you completed Disney worldwide harassment training. I guess Lasseter never took that quiz.. Big K of Justice fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Jul 1, 2018 |
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Jul 1, 2018 17:27
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Compliance Training it was called. Most of us could click through it and pass the quizzes from memory. Had to do it every year. Our local HR people one year tongue in cheek bought big gold stars and stuck them on the desks of people who completed compliance training. As an intern I went around the office stealing them and covered a part of my wall with them. We sure knew how to have fun at Disney Interactive hoo boy! mutata fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Jul 1, 2018 |
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Jul 1, 2018 20:42
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mutata posted:I... would not mind being a Canadian citizen... Yeah the tax credits are crazy high. I lucked into it. I knew a bit about the tax credits before going to Sheridan but I mostly went because it's vastly cheaper than going to school in the US. Then while I was in school a Line Producer came in to give a speech, and explained how 60-70% of labor costs are covered by the Canadian government. Then, as if on cue, Sony went and moved to Canada, studios started growing like mad, and everyone with a work permit got hired. Now it seems to be tapering off a bit. While I was working in NS 3 of our directors got recruited by studios in Ireland to move there, and some friends who took the US route and went to Cal-Arts moved to Ireland. Huge subsidies there. However as much as I've personally benefited from the tax credits I think it's a pretty terrible policy. We were one political decision away from losing our tax credits in NS, and instead they cut the live-action film tax credits so everyone in that industry moved to Ontario. But now Ontario has a new government which might try to pay for some of their programs by cutting film & animation credits. You never know. It's not about how successful the studio is or how good the quality is, all of that is an illusion. It's just what decision the government will make, so every few years the issue comes up again and everyone wonders if their career will now end or not. You put that kind of instability on top of an already volatile industry and it's hard to make any plans for more than a year in advance. I gawk at colleagues who bought houses who, after 3 years of consistent work though it was always going to be this way. Oh, now you have to move to a different province to find work and pay closing costs to sell in a down market? What a great financial decision. Ccs fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Jul 1, 2018 |
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Jul 1, 2018 21:44
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I avoided my compliance training for almost 2 years at ILM...the increasing level of senior HR/management people getting added to my 'reminders' was fun to watch. I do know they had to do another one after the Lasseter/#metoo thing and that was mandatory.
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Jul 1, 2018 22:07
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man after working as a "real" freelancer in games/vfx for just like two years (as in making the majority of my wage doing it) it's seriously strengthened my resolve in hating capitalism lmao.
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Jul 2, 2018 02:42
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How so? Also what kind of contract did you use for clients? I may be looking into freelance now but I've only ever done it for friends with informal written agreements so I'm not used to how to structure contracts, etc.
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Jul 2, 2018 03:38
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Kanine posted:man after working as a "real" freelancer in games/vfx for just like two years (as in making the majority of my wage doing it) it's seriously strengthened my resolve in hating capitalism lmao. Is it because they're paying you so much more as a freelancer?
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Jul 2, 2018 03:52
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Keep in mind, "paying you so much more" equates to "you spend 70% of your income on self-employment taxes and expensive a la carte benefits".
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Jul 2, 2018 04:12
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i should clarify: being an adult within the working class in the first place for two years has strengthened my resolve in hating capitalism lmao being an artist is salt in the wound since people expect you to work for free and think they can exploit you. edit: *because it's your passion Kanine fucked around with this message at 06:16 on Jul 2, 2018 |
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Jul 2, 2018 05:44
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Kanine posted:
People do this for everyone else, don’t take it personally Welcome to late stage capitalism
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Jul 2, 2018 05:54
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Kanine posted:i should clarify: Get dressed, get blessed Try to be a success Please her, please him, buy gifts Don't steal, don't lift Twenty years of schoolin' And they put you on the day shift Look out, kid They keep it all hid
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Jul 2, 2018 06:09
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Comfy Fleece Sweater posted:People do this for everyone else, don’t take it personally whoops forgot to add *because it's your passion
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Jul 2, 2018 06:16
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Quite timely with all the late stage capitalism chat, I bought a house 6 months ago. It got repainted in white and has been left pretty bare while we unpack and get a handle on life. Naturally I made a mm-perfect 3d model of the whole place pretty quickly. We are now moving onto decorating, and after about 3 months of slowly arsing about choosing furniture and tweaking colors, we are finished with the dining room and ready to buy things. I feel like if we hadnt been doing it in CG we probably would have been more catious with the color, but on seeing it in the space found ourselves pushing for a much darker and deeper paint. Really helped us make bolder choices that we otherwise would have. I was testing GPU rendering which is why the rug is hosed up and it's still a bit noisy. I have found with GPU it gets a pretty clean image quickly, but never, ever clears up. I am not on vray next yet however.  
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Jul 2, 2018 16:20
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