Switching from LW to SI - A Couple Questions

[Jettatore]

1. I don't know what your referring to here and couldn't find a good description/image/video of the Lightwave Dissolve Ray in action.

2. Study the Animation Mixer. Not only can you store entire animations, you can mix and match the clips to create complex animations from simpler, smaller animations and even separate the upper body from the lower body with character keying sets that you define.

3. Your animation is best stored on a rig of some sort. This can be as simple as parenting your objects to nulls or curves or as complex as a full skeleton. If you store your animation to these controlling objects, you can modify your child geometry and update the model file as you like. You shouldn't lose any animation in this way, do some simple tests to get the process down. Also, you should never animation or position an object by it's root model null, always leave your models in the scene at 0,0,0 for Trans, Rot, Scal and instead put your positioning/animation on a separate controller.

[ActionArt]

Thank you very much for the great advice.

As for the dissolve, in LW you could set or animate the opacity of an object. This was different than transparency because transparency still leaves the specular highlights. We do a lot of industrial animation so it was handy to just dissolve objects in and out. It saved editing later. Not sure if there is anything similar in SI.

Is there any way to replace an object with another (not necessarily a model)?

Thanks!

[tarkovsky]

Maybe there are other ways, I'm no expert, but regarding your first question, you can use a sprite node. Put color in input and a color_to_boolean in use matte. Then animate tha alpha of the matte in sprite node.

About second question: you want to transfer animation?

[ActionArt]

About second question: you want to transfer animation?

I just want to replace 1 object with another leaving the animation the same. As a very simple example could I replace a sphere with a cube (already modeled) leaving the sphere animation unchanged.

In LW it was just "replace object" just like loading an object. Don't know if there's something similar.

Thanks!

[grahamef]

I just want to replace 1 object with another leaving the animation the same. As a very simple example could I replace a sphere with a cube (already modeled) leaving the sphere animation unchanged.

In LW it was just "replace object" just like loading an object. Don't know if there's something similar.

Thanks!

Not exactly, but you can copy animation from one object and paste it onto others. Check out the options on the Animation menu at the bottom right of the interface.

[Jettatore]

An option for replacing..

Do all of your animation via a null control object, with your actual character parented to it.

This way, if you want to replace the character, simply select your new character, then go Transform>Match all Transforms and choose your old character. This will put the new object in place, and you can simply assign it the same parent, and hide or delete the old character.

As long as your object center's are in good order, this would be fairly easy to script together as a function for easy access.

[ActionArt]

Thank you very much! I sure do like SI, it's a joy to use.

[jgj]

1) Is there anything similar to LW where you could dissolve an object when rendering? This was handy in that it affected specular as well.


I transitioned from LW, and also had a fondness for good 'ol Dissolve. SI doesn't have anything like it; you have to separately envelope the transparency and spec. However, one very nice thing is that you can 'dissolve' objects this way and avoid showing the internal or normally hidden geometry (which can be a problem in LW, usually solved by doing in post), by setting the object's Visibility Properties' Rendering > Transparency > Visible to off. (Which works as long as you don't have any transparent object(s) in front.)

[ActionArt]

That's a nice trick! I'll be using that quite a bit. Thanks!

Thanks to everyone for their quick replies. Very helpful.

[toonafish]

I SI doesn't have anything like it; you have to separately envelope the transparency and spec.

Actually, you don't have to. Use the sprite node, it does basically what a clip map does in Lightwave. But you can also use it for an "object dissolve", and its easier to setup then separately enveloping transparancy, specular and reflection if you enabled that one too.

[neso]

You might want to check GATOR,when "swapping" objects.
You can transfer anything from animation to UV maps.

Also you can store your "sphere" action,import "cube" and just apply or
drag the action from explorer to your "cube" object.

Or use reference models in combination with the above.

Welcome to Softimage part of space and time!

[jgj]

Actually, you don't have to. Use the sprite node, it does basically what a clip map does in Lightwave. But you can also use it for an "object dissolve", and its easier to setup then separately enveloping transparancy, specular and reflection if you enabled that one too.

I had forgotton about the ever-useful sprite node. :)

-Jim

[adrencg]

Sprite node will work, but can be a pain if you have multiple materials on one object.

I would use reference models for the object replacement.

[toonafish]

Sprite node will work, but can be a pain if you have multiple materials on one object.

yeah, that's the thing with clusters in Softimage, they can become a hassle to deal with when using overrides or in cases like these. But using weightmaps instead of clusters would make it easier to deal with multiple materials and the spite node I suppose.

[adrencg]

yeah, that's the thing with clusters in Softimage, they can become a hassle to deal with when using overrides or in cases like these. But using weightmaps instead of clusters would make it easier to deal with multiple materials and the spite node I suppose.

Object level dissolve would be great, but since using XSI, I've learned to just plan ahead in compositing.

[mocaw]

Clusters based shading/texturing can be a nice quick way to do things...but it's also less flexible regardless of what package you're using, and if you rely on it, it gets harder to transition back and forth from one software package to the next. Using weight maps, or using texture maps to isolate areas is a bit more work...but more flexible too and can open more possibilities (such as animated borders and uses outside of just texturing such as for deformations and other effects).

I'm also a big fan of the pass system in SI, and it's one of the main reasons that it would be painful for me at this point to transition back to or to a new package in some ways. While it's heavier on the front end for setup, it really is a life saver once you have to change something IMHO. Plus there are a lot of tricks that are so easy in post...but kind of a PITA to work out in 3D...

That said...mr can feel a bit...old school...at times compared to other render engines esp. when you get into bouncing around lights etc. in an animation. The render tree isn't as flexible as some either. So I wouldn't kick LW completely to the curb yet!

[adrencg]

Clusters based shading/texturing can be a nice quick way to do things...but it's also less flexible regardless of what package you're using, and if you rely on it, it gets harder to transition back and forth from one software package to the next. Using weight maps, or using texture maps to isolate areas is a bit more work...but more flexible too and can open more possibilities (such as animated borders and uses outside of just texturing such as for deformations and other effects).

I'm also a big fan of the pass system in SI, and it's one of the main reasons that it would be painful for me at this point to transition back to or to a new package in some ways. While it's heavier on the front end for setup, it really is a life saver once you have to change something IMHO. Plus there are a lot of tricks that are so easy in post...but kind of a PITA to work out in 3D...

That said...mr can feel a bit...old school...at times compared to other render engines esp. when you get into bouncing around lights etc. in an animation. The render tree isn't as flexible as some either. So I wouldn't kick LW completely to the curb yet!

I can never work in a "passless" software again. Passes will save yo asses.

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