Blur's BlurBeta Tools are back online! Now with XSI And Max Tools!

#1

[b]

BlurBeta[/b] is back online after a long Hiatus, I think it’s been 4 years!

Since Blur now uses both Max and XSI, Both Max and XSI tools are available for download. We’re happy to be able to share our tools to the community, Enjoy!

To download go to www.blur.com and click on “blurBeta” in the bottom right.

There is a “Light” version for both XSI and Max which includes a limited selection of the main tools, as well as a “Full” version which includes all the tools (But there’s lots so don’t get lost!).

I know it’s boring, but please read the ReadMe after installing, you may have to move a few files around! Also Python is required if you are using XSI tools.

Some Highlights of Blur’s tools:
Max
Caching Tools
Transform Caching Plugin
Render Elements - Render Pass tools
Onion - Easy Layer management
Modeling Tools
Animation Tools
Camera Tools
Utilities (Naming etc)

   [b]XSI[/b]
       blurXUI - EASIER creation of complex UIs, You can use OpenSource QT to design UIs
       Animation Tools (Plotting Tools etc)
       Camera Tools
       Caching Tools
       PointCache Operator
       RigBuilder
       Quick Widget Maker ( constrained nulls of all kinds! )
       BlurStandard Layout, Macros and Keymap

These tools are provided without warranty or support, but if you like you can email us at beta@blur.com with steps for reproducing bugs, or edited versions with improved functionality, and the bug fixes or improvements may make it into a future update.

Thanks,
The Blur Tools Team

#2

Excellent news! I sure would like to know more about the tools before I downloaded them. What are the cacheing tools are about? Are they an extension to the point cache or something different (MDD?!) XSI Plotting tools? What’s in the big pack?

Thanks!

#3

the point cache tools are the traditional .pc2 format, but for xsi. they provide the means to cache your meshes from xsi to max or vice versa. the transform cache tools provide a way to cache the animation of a transform between the two applications, this is a less expensive way to cache animation between applications. it just writes the transformations to disk and not a file with global positions per point to disk. so the density of the mesh/object you are caching is irrelevant.

the big pack is pretty much every single tool we use in the entire studio! there is little to no difference between the tools we are using in the studio today versus what is in the full version, but since we are constantly developing tools there might be small differences.

s

#4

fantastic! thanks for sharing these - we’re using Max and Maya at the moment, but since ICE - XSI is looking very interesting!

#5

err…
seems to be a bug in the “Treegrunt.ms” Maxscript on non-english system locales ?
this prevents the script tree to be filled with available scripts

there is a maxscript-line where you filter the filedate for " :/" , this does not work if your date settings are something like “18.7.2008” like on my rig

I simply changed it to include the “.” and it works now…

[B]

change line #897 in 
"C:/blur/dev/offline/code/mainProduction_Tools/TreeGrunt.ms"

from->      local currentDate = filterString (localtime) " /:" 
to--->      local currentDate = filterString (localtime) " /:."

it's line #899 in "TreeGrunt64.ms" by the way....

[/B]

should be considered in the next update i guess :wink:
but anyway: Huge Thanks! to the people at Blur for this !

#6

fantastic news!

#7

Should be noted that the max stuff is not yet tested / compiled for max 2009… max9 / 2008 is what we’re currently using in the studio, so please don’t complain if you’re using 2009 and you get all sorts of errors… we’re working on it. :smiley:

#8

Awesome! I’ve been using Blur’s stuff for years and can’t even imagine going without them.

Can I ask, why does Blur release these tools publicly for free? We don’t see many other studios doing this, why not keep your competitive advantage?

#9

Yehaw! very nice and Thanks for that!

#10

thanks for sharing i’m waiting for a long long time for this new realease:cool:

#11

That’s crazy generous of you - thanks blur!

#12

Blur rocks so much. Cannot wait to try out the XSI tools. They will work with xsi7 right?

#13

Hey, nice to see blurbeta restarted. I know it may be a lot of work, but any chance for a list of all the tools and a quick word or two on what they do?

  • Neil
#14

edit: ok my mistake thought there was documentation for the tools

#15

Blur maddness! Sweet! Thanks! : )

#16

I second this.

#17

I’m neither using Max nor XSI at the time, but huge kudos to Blur for releasing that, anyway. That’s the “We’re about skill, not greed!” attitude that you just gotta admire.

#18

YAY its like Christmas in July. I love these tools cause every time I think I need something I look through here and it is all ready made. This means I dont have to struggle with my weak scripting skills.

#19

Thanks everyone for your feedback, and thanks Spacefrog for your fix for the non english systems, we’ll defininately fix that.

Soulburn3D/Neil, Thanks for your feedback, we’ll put up a list of highlights of specific tools and what they do on the blurBeta page soon. For everybody that doesn’t already know, Neil was one of the original BlurBeta scripters, and really helped get a lot of the tools out to the public, the last time blurbeta was really active was when Neil was taking care of it. Thanks Neil!

There shouldn’t be any problems with using the xsi tools with XSI 7, but since all of our production is currently on 6.5 there may be some changes that pop up and need to be fixed.

Unfortunately there is not a lot of documentation on all the scripts, Blur is a really busy production studio, and often documentation falls lower on our list of things to do :(. We hope to get better about this in the future, but there you go :wink:

Thanks everyone for your feedback!

Cheers,
Remi McGill
Blur Studio

#20

Amazing!! Thanks BLUR for sharing this, great!

I try really soon the XSI tools.