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Error message starting 3DS Max 2014: Autodesk Exchange Store Error Messages, 3ds Max failed to find any "RuntimeRequirements” nodes under “ApplicationPackage&quot"

MaxStation — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:50:01 UTC

You encounter below errors when starting 3DS Max 2014:

Autodesk Exchange Store Error Messages

3ds Max failed to find any “RuntimeRequirements” nodes under “ApplicationPackage” node in

“C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\Autodesk DrawingTabs.bundle\PackageContents.xml”.

Please check its format.

3ds Max failed to find any “RuntimeRequirements” nodes under “ApplicationPackage” node in

“C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\UDSG-LayerOrder.bundle\PackageContents.xml”.

Please check its format.

Otherwise, the software seems to function after the error message window is closed.

If you want to turn off these messages, put the following entry in 3dsmax.ini.

[ExchangeStore]

ShowExchangeStoreMessageDialog=0

Maya Bonus Tools Resource Page (Update - 3DsImport plugin available)

STLR — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:32:22 UTC

- Welcome to the Maya BonusTools Resource Page -

Here you will find links to installers, useful information, tutorials, demonstrations and updates related to Maya BonusTools. This page will be continually updated with new information, so bookmark it and check back later for more updates.

- BonusTools 2014 Installation -

The 2014 version of BonusTools is now available for download. Going forward we will be posting the installers on the new Autodesk Maya Apps Exchange -> BonusTools 2014 Installers. The Exchange is a portal hosted by Autodesk where you can get access to plugins that extend the functionality of various Autodesk products. There are now both Maya and Max centric pages on the Exchange.

NOTE: We have fixed the legacy issue with the BonusTools python scripts path. You no longer need to set this up manually. It is now done automatically, so all python based Bonus Tools should work imediately after installation.

- BonusTools 2014 Update -

We've had a few requests for the 3dsImport plugin which was not included in the 2014 version of BonusTools. The compiled windows plugin has now been uploaded separately -> 3dsImport Plugin. Unzip the file and put the 3dsImport.mll file in the plugins folder where BonusTools 2014 is installed. See documentation for more details on installation location.

- Legacy BonusTools Installers -

BonusTools installers for older versions of Maya can still be found on the Area -> Legacy Maya BonusTools Installers (Keep in mind that older versions will not contain all of the current toolset)

NOTE: In older versions of BonusTools python based tools will not work after the initial installation (e.g. Flatten Components.) Python scripts required an additional setup step for versions prior to 2014. See the BonusTools help docs for instructions on how to setup your Python search path. You only need to do this once and it should work from then on.

Fixes for the DrawSplit and DrawReduce tool are available for BonsuTools 2013. This update addresses an issue that was preventing the tools from being listed in the menu for MacOS as well as an issue with the default options for the tools. Put the contents of this zip file in the scripts folder of the BonusTools installation -> BonusTools 2013 Update1. These fixes are already integrated into the 2014 version.

- BonusTools Tips, Tricks and Tutorials -

What's New in -> BonusTools 2014?

Modify

Paint Geometry Tool

Create

Windows

Modeling

UV Editing

Animation

Rendering

Change Texture Paths / Organize Files (retired)
Fur Blender

We're updating the Autodesk Area to serve you better

Cory Mogk — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:01:03 UTC

We have a large community here on the Area and are excited to be making it better. You've given us a bunch of feedback and we're working on the following updates to the forums:

Ability to track threads and reply to post by email
Improved search
Improved ability to manage your posts
Easier access from mobile phones
Kudos: Kudos is a new content rating system that lets you vote for the messages you think are the most useful or important
Accepted solutions: Accepted Solutions is a way for you to choose the reply that best answers a question that you’ve posted

WIth this change, we're asking everyone to make sure they've logged in to the Area since January 5, 2013. If you don't login, you may lose some of your history.

Do you have more feedback to share on how we could improve the Area? If so, please let us know.

Interesting post by Master Zap on the mental ray thread priority in 3ds Max 2014

MaxStation — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:05:04 UTC

In previous releases when rendering with mental ray your machine tended to get maxed out by the mental ray render threads, which meant you couldn't do much whilst rendering.

In 2014 the default priorities are set lower in order to make the system more responsive, on top of that there is a configration file which lets you tweak this: the file is called mentalray_cpu.ini and you can find it in the plugcfg_ln folder of your 3ds Max 2014 configuration. So if you preferred the old behaviour set the priorities to 0 (normal), that might make sense on a render farm to make sure no other application steals time from the render threads

For all the details please see: Get the balance right: mental ray thread on zap's mental ray tips blog.

The Vanity: Uncompromising creativity on a deadline

Bill Ennis — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:54:59 UTC

We recently visited The Vanity, a Toronto-based post production company and Flame customer specializing in TV commercials. We talked with Naveen Srivastava and Sean Cochrane, Flame artists, co-owners and partners, about how they meet tight deadlines without compromising creativity.

During our visit, we got a behind-the-scenes look at how Autodesk Flame, as well as Flare and Maya, help The Vanity win highly sought after commercial projects for notable brands in automotive, sports drinks, the fashion, and fast food industries – and how they take on each new project with the goal of making it their best work.

On The Vanity website they describe themselves as a “collective of visual effects and motion design artists….who work alongside imaginative people to create extraordinary visual effects and motion graphics”. See how Flame supports their high standards in creativity while providing the performance they need.

[video]http://youtu.be/CijeTfeehG0[/video]

Matt Estela now confirmed as guest speaker for Autodesk's Media & Entertainment Events in Melbourne | Sydney 2013

Con_Nicholas — Wed, 08 May 2013 03:51:23 UTC

Matt Estela is a lighting lead at Animal Logic, Australia's premier film, animation and visual effects studio.

He has been working in 3D animation since 2001, starting in broadcast design before moving to freelance commercial work in London for several years. Currently a lighting lead on The Lego Movie due for release in 2014, Matt's recent film credits include The Great Gatsby and Happy Feet 2, on both of which he was a Lighting Lead. Having used Autodesk Maya since v2, Matt's experience with the software has seen him gain a comprehensive knowledge of almost every module, including modelling, rigging, FX, tracking, and of course, lighting and rendering.

So come hear from Matt and join us for an event that will highlight the tools that Award Winners use on a daily basis and that the rest of us use too... more details

MELBOURNE 3 JUNE REGISTER NOW

SYDNEY 4 JUNE REGISTER NOW

3ds Max and Stage Automation

Christopher Diggins — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:47:58 UTC

Stage automation is a growing industry that plays an important role in live entertainment events from music shows to Cirque du Soleil. What may come as a surprise is that thanks to a plug-in from Stage Technologies 3ds Max is playing an increasingly important role in designing, simulating, and visualizing automation for live events.

Stage Technologies is an Australian company specializing in live event automation, they sell a number products for managing and controlling numerous types of live event automations. Among their products is a 3ds Max plug-in called Sculptor Animation Toolkit. Sculptor toolkit turns 3ds Max into a tool for designing and preview automation and to receive feedback on what movements are impossible or dangerous. Once ready Sculptor Toolkit data can be sent directly from 3ds Max to the eChameleon automation software.

As an example Sculptor Toolkit can be used to define a trolley that travels along a track, add a revolving ring hanging from it, then add some winches below the revolving ring as linear axes; these winches might then act as pickups in a larger bridled system. Flight paths, either drawn or sourced from recorded joystick data can be imported and supplementary feedback is provided to the operator when refining these paths, ensuring the flown move will run safely.

The following video shows Sculptor Toolkit in action.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3XW2Pq8LxQ[/video]

3ds Max and the Sculptor Toolkit have been used together to design and visualize live event productions from RadioHead to the Pan-American games opening ceremony to animating a giant robotic Gorilla for an upcoming musical about King Kong.

[video]http://vimeo.com/57498670[/video]

For more information on Sculptor Animation Toolkit see http://www.stagetech.com/press/sculptor-animation-toolkit.

3dsMax2014: Features and Improvements you might have missed.

chrismmurray — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:31:35 UTC

So one of the myriad of things I get to work on at Autodesk is to take what marketing thinks is important and message that to the masses in ways we can all understand. Face time (at tradeshows etc...) given to anyone product is usually at a premium so not all the new features in any given release are given equal time. Some, unfortunately get no face time.

In this post I want to discuss a little more in-depth about the 2014 release of 3dsMax and specifically the lesser known features and improvements that really didn't see
the light of day.

Here's a short list of what we will cover here. You can click on each one to jump right to that section.

Ease of use
Reliability
Data Exchange
Character Animation (Not Populate)
Pflow (not the standard New feature stuff)
Materials
Rendering
Viewport Performance (specifics)
File Handling
Already released New Feature Videos
Small Annoying Things

Ease of Use

Reorganized Main Menu: The main 3ds Max menu bar has been reorganized to be easier to use, and to make frequently-used commands easier to access. Icons have also been added. This includes the addition of the new Enhanced Default UI. Found here:

Mouse and Viewport Default Settings: Some mouse and viewport default settings have been changed to make 3ds Max easier to use; and in particular, to make it easier to select sub-objects. In particular:

Visual Style & Appearance panel (or the Rendering Method panel for legacy viewports)
Selection Brackets is now off by default.
Display Selected With Edged Faces is now on by default.

Background panel (In Viewport Configuration)

Aspect Ratio Match Rendering Output is now the default choice.

Mouse panel

AutoFocus Viewport is now on by default.
Zoom About Mouse Point (Orthographic) and Zoom About Mouse Point (Perspective) are both on by default.

Cycling the Active Viewport

You can now use (the Windows logo key) + Shift to cycle the active viewport.

When all viewports are visible, pressing +Shift changes which viewport is active.
When one viewport has been maximized, pressing +Shift displays the available viewports. Repeatedly pressing +Shift changes the viewport focus: When you release the keys, the viewport you chose becomes the maximized view.

http://screencast.com/t/ceos89XU [FLASH REQUIRED TO VIEW]

Unable to display content. Adobe Flash is required.

Interruptible Auto Backup

While 3ds Max is saving an auto backup file, it displays a message to that effect in the prompt line. If the scene is large and you don't want to take the time to save it at this point in time, you can stop the save by pressing the Esc key. (If the scene is not large, the prompt appears for only an instant.)

Changes to the Isolate Tool

The Isolate Tool is now on the Scene menu (in the Enhanced Menus), which has an option to Isolate Unselected as well as Isolate Selected objects. Also, Isolate no longer zooms viewports by default. To zoom as well as isolate, choose Scene Isolate Zoom Extents On Isolate before you isolate an object or selection.

[As seen in the Enhanced Default Menu]

Reliability/Stability

Mesh Inspection
The new Mesh Inspector checks Editable Mesh and Editable Poly objects for errors in texture channels and topology. This reduces the number of fatal errors that 3ds Max will encounter.

You can find options for Mesh Inspector behavior on the Customize menu of the Enhanced Default UI.

mental ray Renderer

If the mental ray renderer encounters a fatal error, 3ds Max continues to run, although to create a mental ray rendering again you need to restart 3ds Max. So what's the point? The point is that it gives you the chance to save your work and bring 3dsMax down gently as opposed to a lock up that causes you to lose work and potentially corrupt a file with a hard reset. File this one under the Lessor of Two Evils.

DATA Exchange

File Link Manager

When you link to a Revit or FBX file that contains a Daylight system, the File Link Manager now prompts you to add an exposure control to the scene. See File Link Settings: Revit and FBX Files Dialog.

VRML Import
You can now import VRML files with the 64-bit version of 3ds Max as well as the 32-bit version. You no longer have to use the 32-bit version for VRML import.

Send To
The Send To feature no longer links to Autodesk Infrastructure modeler (AIM).

Animation and Characters

Hair and Fur

A new Scruffle parameter has been added to give you more control over clumped hair.

Skin & track view & multi-object selection & hidden object evaluation

Wow, thats a lot. How are these things related? They have all had significant performance improvements.

Skin & trackview curveditor have had big performance boosts
Multi Object Selection: Previously there was a huge lag when selecting mutliple objects (by clicking with a mouse). The speed of selection has been improved.
Hidden object evaluation: Previously, when playing back animation in the VP, any hidden animated objects were also evaluated in the VP slowing it down. Now this has been improved so playing back visible objects in the VP has better performance (frame per sec) than previous releases.

What about Populate?

There is a lot more to this feature that will be covered in a more in-depth blog post in the near feature. But for now, in addition to whats been shown in the New Feature Videos. What may not be obvious about the feature (which is a testament to good design) is the following.

Believable human motion that varies markedly in style and is free from typical crowd simulation artifacts, such as foot sliding, jerky collision avoidance and sudden unnatural body turning
Advanced dynamic obstacle avoidance when characters cross intersections and when faster walkers pass around slower ones.

Much more to come on this subject...

Particle Flow

Advanced Data Manipulation
Create customized Particle Flow tools with the new Advanced Data Manipulation toolset called Data Operators. Motion graphics artists and visual effects specialists can now create their own event-driven data operators and save results as presets, or as standard actions in the Particle View depot. With the new versatile, easy-to-use Particle Flow advanced visual editor, artists can combine up to 27 different sub-operators to create a huge variety of Particle Flow toolsets purpose-built to meet the specialized requirements of individual productions. (I will be covering this in depth in a future blog post)

Materials

In the Material/Map Browser, when you right-click a material or map, you can now copy it to a newly created library.

Normal Bump Map
The Normal Bump map has been updated to fix a bug that caused normal bump mapping to appear differently in 3ds Max viewports than it did in other rendering engines. In addition, the Preferences dialog General panel Normal Bump options now let you optimize the display of normal bump maps created by applications other than 3ds Max.

Rendering

NVIDIA® mental ray® Renderer
The mental ray renderer has a new Unified Sampling mode that is easy to control and renders much more quickly than the multi-pass sampling used in previous versions of 3dsMax.

IBL - Image Based Lighting

New Skylight options let you accurately generate shadows with IBL images. More than one map can be used as well!

Other Stuff

The String Options rollout lets you enter options as you would in a mental ray MI file.
If the mental ray renderer encounters a fatal error, 3ds Max continues to run, although to create a mental ray rendering again you need to restart 3ds Max. (as previously mentioned)

NVIDIA® iray® Renderer

The iray renderer now supports a variety of maps it could not render in previous releases. These include Checker, Color Correction, Dent, Gradient, Gradient Ramp, Marble, Perlin Marble, Speckle, Substance, Tiles, Waves, Wood, and the mental ray Ocean shader.
New solver method options let you turn on a sampler that improves the accuracy of indoor scenes, and a sampler that improves the quality of caustic lighting.
The Displacement settings have been moved to a rollout of their own.
When you use the Unlimited option, the Rendering Progress dialog now displays the number of iterations that have elapsed, and the progress bar shows an animated stripe rather than an absolute percentage.

Viewports

Nitrous viewports have been updated in a number of ways to improve performance speed:

Improved particle flow playback performance
Improved performance when the scene contains a large number of instanced objects
Improved performance with AutoCAD files
Improved playback performance for skinned objects
Better texture management. You can actually set the size you want for in scene maps!
Back-face culling in wireframe display
Nitrous viewports now fully support adaptive degradation, including the Never Degrade object property. See Display Performance Panel (Nitrous Drivers).

Support for Direct3D 11

For Windows 7 systems, Nitrous viewports can now use Direct3D 11.
The Nitrous Direct3D 9 driver is still available for Windows XP users. And for Windows 7 systems that don't have graphics acceleration, a Nitrous software driver is also
available. The Display Driver Selection dialog has been updated to reflect these changes.

File Handling

Automatic Gamma Correction for Bitmaps
When gamma correction is enabled, 3ds Max uses the gamma value saved with bitmap files it loads, and saves the gamma value with bitmap files it saves. If the file format does not support a gamma value, uses a gamma value of 2.2 for 8-bit image formats, and 1.0 (no gamma correction) for floating-point and logarithmic image formats.

Updates to the Log File
The log file now includes column headings, and entries include the process and thread IDs of the 3dsmax.exe process that added them. (All 3dsmax.exe processes running at the same time write to the same max.log file.)

Previously Released New Feature Videos

Here are the new feature videos of the highlighted features. These videos were released in early April, 2013.

Particle Flow/mParticles

[video]http://youtu.be/mOnUizVvLh4[/video]

Populate

[video]http://youtu.be/yo0Z_naWsMM[/video]

Viewport Pan and Zoom

[video]http://youtu.be/gRFDEDc0Stk[/video]

Perspective Match

[video]http://youtu.be/rswNzZoVLh8[/video]

Nitrous Viewport Improvements

[video]http://youtu.be/6MqULSrZTIo[/video]

Small Annoying Things

Here's the list of what specfic SAT's were addressed in this release. Some may already be mentioned above. This is just the list...

Cycle Viewports With Hotkeys
Escape Auto-Backup
Isolate logic has been improved
Unified Shortcuts with Edit Poly
Missing Plugins Management
Unwrap Performance
Copy Material Libraries
Caddies: Sliders Direction & Option for Old Dialogs
Max Scenes Thumbnails (Windows 7)

Be sure to follow me on twitter for future updates:

Follow @chrismmurray

Special Thanks to Louis Marcoux and Nicolas Holst for their contributions to this list.

HOT TIPS: Ordering ConnectFX with Grid Snapping

Ultimate_Smoker* — Fri, 03 May 2013 11:34:06 UTC

Hi All,

I hope that you are all well!

I have posted another hot tip video showing how to keep your ConnectFX node trees tidy.

There is no actual "tidy up" button however being able to use a grid and snap nodes into place can help keep things a bit more in order as your node trees grow in complexity.

Be aware that in some small cases this will cause minor issues with auto-linking since the nodes snap to the grid and not connections.

Since this video is about general operation, there is no need for downloadable media.

Ordering ConnectFX with Grid Snapping
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn1rMG6Tou4&feature=share&list=PLFA011CBC88150592[/video]
Recorded using Smoke 2013 SP2

The videos are also available on the Smoke Learning Channel on YouTube or as podcasts on iTunes.

Comments, requests and feedback always welcome.

Have a great week and see you soon!

Regards

Grant

Autodesk Gameware User Summit 2013 Videos

p1ut0nium — Thu, 02 May 2013 23:35:19 UTC

Sorry I haven't been able to post in a while. It gets so busy sometimes I can't keep up with it all! :) But, I didn't want you all to think I didn't care anymore, so here's a short post to say I'm still around. Not much to blog about today, but I did want to let everyone know that I have uploaded some great new videos provided to me by the guys in Seoul, Korea from the Autodesk Gameware User Summit held there recently. These videos cover alot of great details on Scaleform, Navigation, HumanIK, and Beast. So, be sure to check out the playlist I have created on the Gameware Youtube channel if you're interested. My favorites are the Navigation tutorials by Mustapha Bismi, and the Scaleform Best Practicies from Ankur Mohan so far. But they are all very good. Don't worry, all but one are fully in English. The last one is in Korean, but I hope to get a translation for captions eventually. Enjoy!

The Playlist <---Click this guy! :)

P.S.: If you haven't seen it yet, I did a "Meet the Experts" webinar on using Scaleform as a mobile game tool and runtime.

You can check it out here: Autodesk Scaleform as a Platform Platform for Mobile Game Development

Scene Files from my Maya 2014 Unfold Presentation

Duncan Brinsmead — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:49:11 UTC

As promised here are the scene files along with a few source images I used in my presentation on Maya 2014 at the unfold event:

maya2014UnfoldDemo.zip

Here is a link to the presentation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0Gz54a6GTg

These scenes demonstrate some new features in Maya 2014. You can load these scenes into earlier versions of Maya but for the most part they will not work properly as they rely on new features. I've provided just brief descriptions below, but you can get more info in the video. The listing below is in the order of presentation in the video. If you have any brief questions feel free to ask them here. For more involved questions I would recommend posting them in the Maya forum of CGTalk, which I regularily check. The comments section here is not really designed to handle complex questions.

In many cases the paint effects elements are converted to meshes and displayed in viewport 2.0 with shadowing in and screenspace ambient occlusion. Note that the native paint effects draw and pfx line modifiers are not yet implemented in viewport 2.0. In a couple of examples I created stand-in geometry grouped with the line modifier nodes to manipulate them more easily inside viewport 2.0.

Note that with some of the brushes using the occupy feature a very high branch depth is used( for example occupyLeafPattern.ma) When combined with occupyBranchTermination this can work well, but if one turns off the termination or modifies the occupation radius then a very large number of branches may result.

I'll later provide the full scene for the wall smash examples complete with particles and dust in a following blog post, complete with a tutorial on how it was set up.

Paint Effects Scenes

footGrassCollide.ma -drag object to see collisions with grass (paintEffects: make collide)

chiaHead.ma -a tree that is attracted to a head using the following brush attributes:surfaceAttract, surfaceCollide, occupyAttraction

roseOnWall.ma -select strokeRosesClimbing and pCube1 then do "Paint Effects: Make Collide" to attract the rose to the wall. The brush uses using surfaceAttract, surfaceCollide, and occupyAttraction.

lightningRing4.ma -Move the objects to see sparks update. OccuyAttraction with a large attractRadiusOffset and branch termination cause the sparks to only occur when objects are close. All objects are collision objects for the lightning stroke. Surface attract and collide are also used.

flowerSpaceCompetition.ma -Delphiniums grow into unoccupied regions of space and terminate in crowded areas by using a line modifier node with occupyAttraction

occupyVeinNetwork.ma -Drag the line modifier (select and move group1) over the stroke to see the effect of occupy attract. (Note that this has proxy object to allow display of the line modifier in viewport2.0)

occupyLeafPattern.ma -A vascular branching pattern created by high occupy attraction on a volume line that is scaled flat. The brush has a splitMaxDepth of 20 which allows for a complex pattern. Branch termination on the modifier keeps the number of branches from becoming too high. One can make the branching 3D by increasing the y scale of the line modifier.

occupyDNA3.ma -uses a line modifier with occupy attract to do a rudimentary self collision avoidance on a DNA brush. Scale the modifier translateY to fill 3D space.

occupyCoral.ma -a line modifier with occupy attract creates more natural branching of a coral brush.

lungTest.ma -a line modifier with a fill object assigned(prism mesh) The occupy attract on the modifier then provides a region for a stroke to grow into.

fillObject.ma -a plant grows to fill a cone shaped object using a line modifier with a fill object.

headVeinsVolume.ma -veins grow to fill the inside of a head using a line modifier with occupy attract.

flowerVaseCollideDemo.ma -Select stokeTulipStreaked1 and nurbsToPoly1(the vase) and do "Paint Effects: Make Collide" to collide the flowers with the vase. The vase can then be scaled. The line modifier (group1) can be dragged over the flowers to keep them from clumping.

treeHouseDemo.ma -A tree collides with a wall and a tree house. A line modifier with occupy attract is additionally used to grow the tree around the tree house. The tree house can be moved and the branches will update for the new position.

Hair Scenes

hairHead2.ma -A hair simulation with self colliding clumps. One can drag the scalp or the cube in interactive playback mode to interact with the hair.

coatDemo.ma -A demo of hair on a cloth coat. One can drag the colliding cube during interactive playback to interact with the simulation.

kooshSticky.ma -A kooshball simulation using hair with stickiness on an nCloth sphere. Drag the cube during interactive playback to interact.

snakePlayground.ma -This scene has a bunch of snakes that are animated with nHair. You can drag the various objects around in interactive playback and interact with the snakes. The basic technique was to create a curve then animate it undulating by applying a Sine deformer and animating the offset on the deformer. These animated curves were made into hair using nHair:makeSelectedCurvesDynamic. Stretch/Compression/Bend/Twist resistance then has the dynamic curve attempt to follow the input curve( in previous versions nHair rest shape did not update per frame). A pfx brush was assigned to the hairSystem to control the tessellation and profile of the snakes and the result was converted to poly mesh.

FLUIDS

fluidObjectFillTest.ma -This shows the object based fluid fill as well as emission on the start frame. You can edit the shape or position of the fill object then hit rewind to update the fluid. To do this effect do fluid: emitFromObject and on the emitter enable fillObject as well as startFrameOnly emission.

Nucleus Scenes

componentConstraintStretchDemo.ma This is a simple nCloth sleeve with no stretch resistance. In the demo I add two component constraints one with singleEdge = 1 and one with it set to 2. Then one can play with things like restlength scale on the constraints.

pearlsMBlur.ma -This is a pearl necklass done using the technique I describe in this CGTalk thread: string of pearls.

rigidEmitDemo.ma -An emission of a particle instanced torus with a cluster of particles standing in for collisions and determining rotations

shellCasings.ma -Bullet casing emitted using 2 particles for collision and rotations. The technique I describe in posts on this thread: Shell Casings

lotsOCasings.ma -Same as the above but with more casings.

fourParticleRigid.ma -Same as the casings techinque but with 4 particles and the full instancer rotation determined by 3 of the particles.

wallSmashDemo.ma -Run nSolver:interactivePlayback and drag the object (behind wall) through the wall to smash it. There is also a volumeAxis field you can drag onto the wall to "release" the bricks. This uses a single nCloth mesh with faces that are locked with an inputAttract map. The map values are dynamically set to release the bricks. I will have a more complete tutorial of the technique to follow, along with secondary debris.

Backburner 2014 download

MaxStation — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:52:23 UTC

During some installs the Backburner 2014 option may be missing, please use this link to download it: Backburner 2014 Windows version for 3ds Max / 3ds Max Design 2014 (build 1635).

Tools for Award Winners (And the Rest of Us Too) | Autodesk Media & Entertainment Events | Melbourne 3 June | Sydney 4 June |

Con_Nicholas — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 06:16:14 UTC

COMING SOON: Tools for Award Winners (And the rest of us too)

Autodesk Media & Entertainment Events in Melbourne | Sydney 2013

During this session, you will hear from two award winning Australian visual effects customers, Animal Logic and Fin Design, who will share their experiences in creating award winning high end effects for film and advertising using Autodesk creative software.

Special Guest, Stig Gruman, Autodesk's VP for Worldwide Media & Entertainment Sales will share his thoughts on the direction of industry and give an overview on where Autodesk is driving innovation for Media & Entertainment.

You'll get the latest updates on the Entertainment Creation Suite (Maya/3Ds Max) and Smoke for Mac from our experts David Zwierzchaczewski and Rob O'Neill.

So join us for an event that will highlight the tools that Award Winners use on a daily basis and that the rest of us use too.

Q & A opportunities with our experts and networking drinks will be provided.

MELBOURNE 3 JUNE REGISTER NOW

SYDNEY 4 JUNE REGISTER NOW

________________________________________________________________________________________

GUEST SPEAKERS

Matt Estela is a lighting lead at Animal Logic

Matt has been working in 3D animation since 2001, starting in broadcast design before moving to freelance commercial work in London for several years. Currently a lighting lead on The Lego Movie due for release in 2014, Matt's recent film credits include The Great Gatsby and Happy Feet 2, on both of which he was a Lighting Lead. Having used Autodesk Maya since v2, Matt's experience with the software has seen him gain a comprehensive knowledge of almost every module, including modelling, rigging, FX, tracking, and of course, lighting and rendering.

Animal Logic

Animal Logic one of world’s leading design, visual effects and animation houses will talk about their work using Autodesk’s Entertainment Creation Suite. Animal Logic produces award winning design, animation and visual effects for film, television and advertising industries. Since 1991, Animal Logic has worked with leading advertising agencies, TV commercial directors and feature film heavy-weights. Their films include Babe, The Matrix, Moulin Rouge!, Hero, 300, Happy Feet and more recently the hotly anticipated Baz Luhrmann epic, The Great Gatsby and the BBC’s, Walking with Dinosaurs 3D, both due for release in 2014. Visit www.animallogic.com

Fin Design + Effects

Fin Design is one of Australia's leading post production houses with expertise in 3D Animation, Compositing and Design. Fin Design will talk about their experience with Autodesk's Entertainment Creation Suite and Smoke for Mac. The creative team is an award winning close-knit team of VFX artists and designers and supported by experienced VFX Producers who manage a high quality of service for each and every project. Visit www.findesign.com.au

AUTODESK SPEAKERS

Stig Gruman, Vice President, Worldwide Media & Entertainment Sales

Stig leads the worldwide M&E Sales team seeking to meet and exceed the needs of customers in Film & Television, Games, Advertising and Publishing & Graphic Design with Autodesk’s industry solution portfolio. Stig joined Autodesk in 1999 and previously held the position of Vice President of the Digital Entertainment Group. In this role, Stig lead the Digital Entertainment management team which significantly streamlined product offerings in the Media & Entertainment Division. Prior to Autodesk, Stig spent six years in senior management roles in general management and finance at medical device leader Smith & Nephew plc. Stig started his career at Ernst & Young in their advisory & assurance practice.

David Zwierzchaczewski, 3D Specialist Application Engineer, Media and Entertainment ANZ

David Zwierzchaczewski has been working in the Film/ TV and games industry for almost 15 years. Trained as a traditional 2D animator David quickly transitioned over to 3D where he moved up through the production ranks to direct several projects. Some of the recent project he has been involved in are Civilisation V, Dark Siders II, Saints Row the Third, L.A. Noire He is now the resident 3D specialist at Autodesk, where he is on the BETA development teams for Maya, 3DS Max, MudBox and Motion Builder.

Rob O'Neill, VFX and Editing Specialist Autodesk Australia

With over 30 years experience in the industry using flatbeds, linear suites, Avid and the last 17 using Autodesk Flame and Smoke systems, Rob has seen the evolution of Editing and Finishing develop into a fine art. Rob began in television as a film editor later qualifying in graphic design. "Smoke is the ultimate creative tool for me. My skills as an editor and designer are seamlessly combined in Smoke giving me control over a spot like nothing else does."

________________________________________________________________________________________

FREE ATTENDANCE

There's no cost to attend, but places will be limited per venue, so REGISTER NOW.

LOCATIONS

MELBOURNE 3 JUNE (REGISTER HERE)

SYDNEY 4 JUNE (REGISTER HERE)

4:30PM - 7:30PM

All sessions include drinks and refreshments

________________________________________________________________________________________

@ Autodesk_ME_ANZ

More Paint Training - Painting on Alpha Channels with Smoke

Ultimate_Smoker* — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:51:56 UTC

Hi All,

I hope that you are all well!!!

I have returned from my two week stint visiting Las Vegas (NAB of course!) and visiting my team in Montreal. Great bunch of guys! And yes, there are alot of things brewing in the background in our Canadian office... An exciting year ahead... Thats all I can say.

As part of my return I have kicked back into gear to producing high-quality training for everyone and I did promise I will keep adding to paint and I will keep that going. So without any more delays, here are some new paint videos!

Painting on Alpha Channels!

Two new videos showing the different workflows using Desktop Paint and ConnectFX Paint.

Painting on an alpha channel is actually pretty straight forward. There are a few little buttons and keyboard shortcuts that are worth knowing but I guess the key takeaway I got when making these videos was being aware of exactly what I was painting on when using the brush.

Standard comment, I do know there are a ton of other methods to solve issues like this but the focus was on paint. Smoke has so much to offer and my endless list of upcoming videos suggests that too.

Enjoy these videos and I hope you find them useful.

Desktop Paint: Paint on Alpha
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzgM6OUwQ70&list=PLFA011CBC88150592&index=2[/video]
Recorded using Smoke 2013 SP2

ConnectFX Paint: Paint on Alpha

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkWeiSxPpLg&list=PLFA011CBC88150592&index=1[/video]
Recorded using Smoke 2013 SP2

The videos are also available on the Smoke Learning Channel on YouTube or as podcasts on iTunes.

Comments, requests and feedback always welcome.

Have a great week and see you soon!

Regards

Grant

The Flame Award - Nominate your Favorite Flame Artists!

Bill Ennis — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:15:06 UTC

At NAB this year, we announced the Flame Award. It is our way of celebrating the achievements of all the amazing Flame artists who have been advancing VFX creation for over 20 years. The award will go to a Flame artist who has gone above and beyond in demonstrating a dedication to advancing visual effects creation through the skilled use of Flame – and we need your help in selecting the winner!

Nominations are open to the public until May 17, 2013.

Once you’ve nominated the candidates, you will have the opportunity to vote on your favorite Flame artists. Then, a special Flame advisory board comprised of independent visual effects and industry experts, along with representatives from Autodesk, will help name the winner.

So if you know a Flame artist renowned for creativity, originality & community involvement; a Flame artist who has advanced VFX creation and produced awe-inspiring work; a Flame artist who has a deep knowledge of Flame, nominate them now for the Flame Award!

http://area.autodesk.com/flameaward

More Master Classes by Lyne Lepage on AREA

Bill Ennis — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:37:03 UTC

As promised, more Flame Premium Master Classes are now available on AREA. Lyne Lepage, Visual Effects Artist and Colorist, joins us again to take you through a project from A-Z in Flame Premium.

With her latest installment titled Taking a Project from A to Z, Lyne dives into the Flame Premium toolset to help bring you up to speed on the 20th Anniversary Edition toolset and workflow. In three master classes, she covers the three main tasks the you can accomplish with the software – editing, visual effects, and grading.

Find Lyne's latest master classes here and log in to watch: http://area.autodesk.com/masterclasses

Cage Match! Is engineering an art or science?

Cory Mogk — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:04:45 UTC

We're running a Cage Match on the Autodesk Student Community and last week the artists won with 56%. Our questions:

Which is more important for engineering excellence? Intuition or book smarts? Inspiration or innovation? What fuels you?

It was a close one but art won with some interesting comments:

The innovation need the arts creativity
No Art - No World
I definitely choose Art. Worlds where science prevails, fortunately are described only in Asimov's books

This week's Cage Match is:

Could a machine make a better moral choice because it's devoid of emotion? Or does emotion govern human morality? Which is it going to be: the machine or its maker? Get out there and make a decision!

Autodesk, Pixar and The OpenSubdiv Project

Bellsey — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:31:02 UTC

Hi all

You might of seen Lee's posts here about a webinar we hosted (for EMEA, by yours truly) yesterday with Pixar, discussing their OpenSubdiv technology.

If any of you are thinking 'what is this OpenSubdiv stuff?', well it's a set of open source libraries that implement high-performance subdivision surface (subdiv) evaluation on massively parallel CPU and GPU architectures. The code embodies decades of research and experience by Pixar. Autodesk has been working extensively with Pixar and yesterday we were very fortunate to be joined by Dirk Van Gelder, Manuel Kraemer, Takahito Tejima, David G. Yu of Pixars GPU team, to show some of the tech and have a live Q&A with the guys.

Well if you missed yesterdays webinar's (which was awesome), then don't despair, because you can now see some of the examples and demos the guys showed. Check it out....

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFZazwvYc5o&feature=share&list=FL5unOvOZVk3nUGPmp8gg8KA[/video]

Big shout out to Shawn Hendriks for putting the video together, not to mention a big thanks to guys at Pixar for doing the video and the webinar yesterday.

If anyone wants to take a closer look at the OpenSubdiv project, then you can go the to the main site here, and there's a GitHub as well here

SDK and MAXScript documentation

MaxStation — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:15:28 UTC

Autodesk 3ds Max 2014 SDK Documentation:

Online: http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-sdkdoc-2014-enu
Download HTML: http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/max-2014-sdk-1-doc.zip
Download CHM: http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/max-2014-sdk-doc-chm.zip

Autodesk 3ds Max 2014 MAXScript Documentation:

Online: http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-maxscript-2014-enu
Download HTML: http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/maxscript-2014-1-help.zip
Download CHM: http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/maxscript-2014-help-chm.zip

You can find all the SDK documentation on http://www.autodesk.com/me-sdk-docs

Maya BonusTools 2014 is/are ready! Is/are you?

STLR — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:10:31 UTC

Are you looking for some BonusTools???

How's this for a BonusTool?

The amazing Banana Slicer!!

How could we have lived so long without it? If you haven't yet seen the classic reviews of this fabulous invention they are worth a look :)

> Banana Slicer Reviews

Unfortunately we were not able to include the Banana Slicer in this year's Maya BonusTools Pack :( but there are a number of nifty new tools in the BonusTools 2014 release.

That's right folks... BonusTools 2014 is/are finally done and ready to download. I never know whether to use "is" or "are" in this context?

But regardless, you can start by checking out the BonusTools page for a complete list of what’s new as well as links to the new download location -> BonusTools 2014

Below you can also watch a short overview movie that covers all of the new stuff.

Maya BonusTools 2014 - What's New?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n3l5H6vVuI&feature=youtu.be[/video]

AREA Blogs Feed

Error message starting 3DS Max 2014: Autodesk Exchange Store Error Messages, 3ds Max failed to find any "RuntimeRequirements” nodes under “ApplicationPackage&quot"

Maya Bonus Tools Resource Page (Update - 3DsImport plugin available)

We're updating the Autodesk Area to serve you better

Interesting post by Master Zap on the mental ray thread priority in 3ds Max 2014

The Vanity: Uncompromising creativity on a deadline

Matt Estela now confirmed as guest speaker for Autodesk's Media & Entertainment Events in Melbourne | Sydney 2013

3ds Max and Stage Automation

3dsMax2014: Features and Improvements you might have missed.

Ease of Use

Reliability/Stability

DATA Exchange

Animation and Characters

Particle Flow

Materials

Rendering

Viewports

File Handling

Previously Released New Feature Videos

Small Annoying Things

HOT TIPS: Ordering ConnectFX with Grid Snapping

Ordering ConnectFX with Grid Snapping[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn1rMG6Tou4&feature=share&list=PLFA011CBC88150592[/video]Recorded using Smoke 2013 SP2

Autodesk Gameware User Summit 2013 Videos

Scene Files from my Maya 2014 Unfold Presentation

Paint Effects Scenes

Hair Scenes

FLUIDS

Nucleus Scenes

Backburner 2014 download

Tools for Award Winners (And the Rest of Us Too) | Autodesk Media & Entertainment Events | Melbourne 3 June | Sydney 4 June |

More Paint Training - Painting on Alpha Channels with Smoke

Painting on Alpha Channels!

Desktop Paint: Paint on Alpha[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzgM6OUwQ70&list=PLFA011CBC88150592&index=2[/video]Recorded using Smoke 2013 SP2

ConnectFX Paint: Paint on Alpha

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkWeiSxPpLg&list=PLFA011CBC88150592&index=1[/video]Recorded using Smoke 2013 SP2

The Flame Award - Nominate your Favorite Flame Artists!

More Master Classes by Lyne Lepage on AREA

Cage Match! Is engineering an art or science?

Autodesk, Pixar and The OpenSubdiv Project

SDK and MAXScript documentation

Maya BonusTools 2014 is/are ready! Is/are you?

Ordering ConnectFX with Grid Snapping
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn1rMG6Tou4&feature=share&list=PLFA011CBC88150592[/video]
Recorded using Smoke 2013 SP2

Desktop Paint: Paint on Alpha
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzgM6OUwQ70&list=PLFA011CBC88150592&index=2[/video]
Recorded using Smoke 2013 SP2

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkWeiSxPpLg&list=PLFA011CBC88150592&index=1[/video]
Recorded using Smoke 2013 SP2