The Area

ICE instances to 3DSMAX

2013-05-21T10:47:52+02:00

Hi, we have here an unsimulated icetree using instanced object... How I would transfert that to 3DS for rendering AND be able to switch thoose instances in MAX to other mesh already present in the max scene ? The send to or fbx export doesn't seems to do anything Thanks

Question Regarding ICE and shaders

2013-04-26T20:24:36+02:00

Hello! I'm kinda beginner on Softimage, but i have a simple question that i couldn't find how to solve. already looked everywhere for an answer. Let's say that i have an object, like a cube with a phong shader. I want to control it's diffuse color with ICE, but not just setting a color mate to the whole object, but adjust the surface color according to it's position in space. for example, the cube is exactly at the center of the scene and i want to color it blue if it's above the XZ plane and red if it's below it. i could use a texture for this example, of course, but im looking to use more complex math to create some colouring effects in objects, so, a texture migh not be enough for my needs. I don't need an incredible complex answer for this, just need to know how i can set such property and then i can figure the rest by mysef. =] Sorry for my bad english =] thank you for your attention. *** running Softimage 2014 Student.

Lagoa - rendering/meshing particle connections.

2013-04-19T03:11:46+02:00

Hey guys. I'm a total noob, so feel free to point me to the right direction if what i'm asking is retarded. Here goes: I've simulated a nice puddle of sticky goo using Lagoa, and i'd like to know if there's any way i can render/mesh/? the displayed elastic connections between particles. I know they're supposed to be just a graphical aid, but since they exist in 3d space and there's all the data to draw them in the viewport, i'm assuming there has to be a way to extract the said data and use it to generate something renderable. Thanks!

Deleting Cluster

2013-04-17T13:33:47+02:00

Very simple task, I'm trying to delete polys from a specific cluster using ICE. For some reason the tree I'm using is not working (shown in the attached pic). any clue why? Thank,

Disconnect a cluster of edges at a specific frame

2013-04-15T09:37:13+02:00

Hi ! I'm learning ICE and I'm struggling to achieve something... I'm inflating a balloon and want it to blow up at a specific frame. I first tried to select some edges and simply apply a "disconnect components". But on playback, the balloon explodes without growing. I thought it would be easy to shift the explosion back using key-frames in the animation editor. But it seems you can't add key-frames to an operator (it would have been too easy)... So now I decided to challenge myself doing this entirely with ICE. The inflating part is handled by a Syflex volume node. I have an "if" condition that will execute the "explosion" branch of the ICE tree once the frame 40 is reached (detected with "Test current frame" node). Now I've created a cluster of edges, and want to use the "apply disconnect component" compound on this cluster. I tried to connect the cluster node to the "Is Edge Element" port, but the node remains red... How would you target this edge cluster and disconnect it when needed? I'm reading a lot but there is still a few concept I need to understand with ICE...

Merging point clouds IDs

2013-03-10T13:42:11+02:00

I have two cached point clouds that I would like to merge into a new one. I tried different methods to do so, however all of them are generating unstable IDs through time (e.g. a particle has ID of 7 at one frame, the next frame it changes to 6!). The attached screenshot shows this issue. Any idea how to get around this issue? Thanks, Homam

Questions regarding ICE kinematics

2013-02-10T06:28:53+02:00

Hi, after working here and there with ICE for particles and deformations I'm trying to do something with kinematics now. Unfortunatly I don't seem to get the whole point. I'm having trouble with this particular tree which is included for a while now and I just don't seem to get the whole point. So I thought maybe some of you could have a look over it and could maybe help me? The Scene includes 4 Objects: - A Null "Rig" which has the ICE Tree - A Polymesh "Character" (shown purple in the Screenshot) - A Polymesh "blobShadow" (shown green in the Screenshot) - A Polymesh "Floor" All the objects are frozen and have zerod-out My aim was to simulate a simple blob-shadow-technique as it could be used in video games. The point normals of "character" are projected onto "floor". An Average of the resulting points (in this case 4 as "character" has 4 vertices) is calculated and "blobShadow" is placed where this average is. So far so good, if I am moving character (or moving the points) the shadow-object moves along the floor under it. With the nodes in the middle of the ICE Tree I'm trying to get the ponit normal on the location of "floor" which is nearest to "average" and rotate the shadow-plane correspondently. I have the following problems/questions: 1.) As soon as i plug in the PointNormal in the tree (marked "B" in the screenshot of the tree included) instead of the vector constant the shadow-object moves to 0,0,0. The yellow debug Null ("A" in the tree) is on a complete different location on the floor. 2.)If I plug the vector constant back in (replacing the PointNormal) I still see the yellow debug null ("A") and it moves if I move the points of the "chacter"-mesh, but it seems to have some kind of offset.. 3.)Completly no sense for me makes the following: If i plug in the vector constant again ("B") and rotate the shadow-object with this setup (by giving different values then <0,0,0> for the vector constant, the yellow debug null rotates with it. Can anyone explain me why this is happening? This is an "dead end" of the tree and in my opinion shouldn't even be calculated, but even if, there should be no connection betwen this debug value and the rotate vector. (?) I would be very happy if anyone coud give me a glue what could be the problem, as I'm struggeling with this simple task for a while now... Thanks, Raschko

How to define animated object's speed in ICE

2013-02-04T16:14:03+02:00

I have an animated emitter, and would like to adjust particles's emission speed to emitter's moving speed. I just need some input for my node's "Emit from Null" Speed attribute. I've learned, that it's possible to calculate object's velocity and acceleration in Global Transform properties, but that help page doesn't go further, stating that: "Note that you do not need to activate these values in order to read objects' velocity and acceleration in an ICE tree. ICE automatically calculates velocity and acceleration as needed." So how to read them? :) (I'm a newbie, but trying hardly)

Other ICE ressources other then this forum

2013-01-31T02:03:18+02:00

Hi! I found a few very good video tutorials (from Paul Smith at Vimeo for example), but I would love to read a good book about ICE. Can you recommend one? And it seems this forum is not that high-frequented too. Does anyone know any other good forums other then this one? Im’trying to get into ICE and am stucked with a particular problem (http://area.autodesk.com/forum/autodesk-softimage/ice---interactive-creative-environment/questions-regarding-ice-kinematics/). Maybe this post was somehow to special for a forum, but it had only 11 views in 4 weeks. Of course I could just go on with something different, but I think I’m a little bullheaded regarding things like this. ;-) It seems as if not that many people are working with ICE out there, or ist his just my personal impression? Thanks, Raschko

self copying cells

2013-01-20T13:30:00+02:00

hi everyone I'm fairly new to ICE, started making self copying cells but after 2 days of fiddling around nodes I have yet to make a point copy itself :( what I want to achieve is to start with 1 single cells, it copies itself and then the resulting 2 cells do the same, then the process would continue for about 20 seconds until I get a screen full of cells, reaching around 1 million cells. this is for the opening scene of my graduate film, which I was originally planning to achieve with a hand-drawn approach, but after seeing this video (https://vimeo.com/52468405) I decided to take a week or two to see if I can figure something out with ICE. here is the pre-vis for the opening scene (https://vimeo.com/56715745). any tips would be greatly appreciated, and of course will be credited at the end of my film :D P.S. here is the link to my blog where I will be putting up latest info on my film (http://imding.myblog.arts.ac.uk/category/the-invasion/)