TLHPro Documentation ready for download :-)

#6

Thanks to all of you! :bowdown:

Stooch: Yes, but not because of the weird problem you were having with the .chm :wink: , but because of the much better printing and design possibilities. InDesign CS2 really makes it fun to do a document like this, including rollover images, video, and something .chm can’t do: font embedding…

BTW: If you want to see the Docs in “Help View Mode”, you have to do a little trick:

Create a shortcut on your desktop, rightclick->Properties and add this line into the path field - be sure to replace the two paths with the ones on your system:

“PathToTheReader\AcroRd32.exe” /A “help=content=OpenActions” “PathToTheDocs\TLHPro.pdf”

I’m looking into ways to automatically open the reader in this form from buttons in the interface, without the main Reader window going up too and with the content list visible by default - but that seems a bit more involved than for .chm files. Adobe is so close to put Windows Help to a rest but the final steps are missing…

I will update the docs depending on user feedback, so if you find something missing or if my german shows through too much, please let me know :thumbsup:

Best regards :bounce:

#7 
"PathToReader\AcroRd32.exe" /A "help=content=OpenActions" "PathToDocs\TLHPro_Documentation.pdf"

I’m not getting my Reader to act in help mode just yet. Any extra tips? Or just the OpenActions?
Here’s the path I’m using (adapted to the paths) a bit quicker for copy/pasting in case anyone else is setting this up…

edit:
not testing, just reading the docs… (great so far!)
but shouldn’t the “Channels” node have an alpha as well?

#8

It works here - do you use Adobe Reader 7?

As I said, I’m under the impression that Adobe only thought about their own help needs, so this mode is only thought for the Reader Help itself. But this would be such a big opportunity since I am sure, a lot of developers would prefer PDF over compressed HTML…

You can always open the Help for the Reader itself to see that mode in action…

Edit: About your Edit :wink: Good question - I have to admit that I don’t know exactly how color is meant to be transported in messiah since the SDK is very unclear in that point (at least for me). Every node has an opacity channel that can’t be removed. So f.i. the gradient has opacity as well as alpha, but other shaders don’t have that.
Inputs and outputs are declared as FX_Color in the SDK header, but in other areas there is also a FX_Color4 (4 channels, including alpha). So I am just unsure what the right thing to do would be…
Can I use a four channel color as input/output? I don’t know how.
I think I dimly remember a discussion with Lyle about that topic…
It would be the best to have RGBA as the standard for all color, but it may make things more complicated…

So to answer your question: A color input/output has no alpha according to the SDK. The core shaders gradient and texture map have alpha. I am as confused as you :slight_smile:

Cheers :bowdown:

#9

Yeah. Just installed it. I’ll try a reboot later. No animation sworking either, definitely have Quicktime7 installed. Hmm.

Ha! Now you’ve disillusioned me! It just seemed odd that it wouldn’t be available as an option.

#10

AlexK tested it with Adobe Reader 6 and it worked for him.
Did you accept those security warnings that come up for the videos?

Did you install Quicktime 7 lately or after it was released? The first versions (up to 7.0.4, the latest) were quite buggy on windows…?

Hm - Firewall? Virus scanner? Security settings? Stooch had weird security problems with the .chm for AoN, so the pages were not visible.

Sorry, I’m new to all this pdf goodness myself so I can’t offer much help.
Did it work for everybody else? Please raise hands :slight_smile:
Anybody else has ideas about this problem?

Cheers,

#11

Excellent Thomas !!!

Can’t wait for the shaders :bowdown:

Phil

P.S : works well for me (acrobat reader 7)

#12

Thank you Thomas! Apart from the clarity of the documentation itself which is quite stellar,
I find the visual style and layout very, very clean and attractive. Links and videos working fine for me.

#13

Wow :bowdown: Thank you very much! :blush: :slight_smile:

I always try to make everything as good as I possibly can. Otherwise I have neither fun nor am I satisfied afterwards. I am going more and more in the direction of designer and art director, so it means a lot to me to get such beautiful feedback.

:bounce:

Best regards,

#14

Ever thought of writing your own 3d app ? :stuck_out_tongue:

#15

Yes, but then I woke up :wink:

#16

Hi Thomas,

great documentation! :thumbsup: Very entertaining to read.

Just a small remark: In the description of TLHPro:Color you mention that, in order to create a plain color for a node input, you would usually use a gradient node (which, as you mention, is an overkill). But can’t you just use a standard matte shader and use the surface color output instead !?
Anyway, looking forward to buying your shaders! :love:

#17

Well, that would be overkill to the power of 10.
A complete surface calculation just for a color?
Or did I get you wrong?

Confused…
:shrug:

#18

Err, I was thinking more in terms of setting up the node rather than in terms of render calculations. :blush:
You are absolutely right that from a calculation point of view a matte node is indeed complete overkill if you just want to get the surface color. Thanks for clarification!

#19

Just to clarify: I often need a color for instance to make the background white together with a RayType that has textures for Reflection and Refraction.
If you never need it, just ignore it.

To make a surface blue, you sure can just set the color in the interface to blue :wink:

It definitely isn’t even a shader :slight_smile:

Cheers,

#20

After another day (and half the night) of work, the files are on their way to ShareIt.
They are doing a major transformation of their service over the next days, so I hope that everything will work out fine anyway.

As the perfectionist that I am, I’m not fully satisfied with this release :rolleyes:
I haven’t tested the tools as thoroughly as AoN:Studio and there are no shader presets coming with the package, since everything is rather scene dependent.
Also, there are no tutorials yet. :frowning:
But at least 29 example scenes are included :slight_smile:
So I want to emphasise once more, that I want to hear from you, what things may be needed, what topics you want to see in tutorials and what you think should be improved in the shaders. I hope we will be able to work together on making this a really cool package, but I really need your help this time since I am out of the messiah loop.

The things I am not satisfied with is the EasyGlass shader (should support real fresnel algorithms)and Thickness (needs diffuse Thickness calculations).

If you have a good idea that would fit in, please let me know - but don’t bug me with “Hair” or “Paint Effects” or the like :wink:
I can only do simple stuff, I’m a designer, not a coder in the end.

Thank you all for being such a cool tribe :wavey: :beer: :wavey:

Cheers,

#21

Are you kidding me? The EasyGlass looks fantastic!! Who cares if there are so called real Fresnel computations going on? :twisted:
It definitely is NOT a necessity, but a nice feature.

#22

Thanks Alex :slight_smile:

I’m never really satisfied with my own work… :rolleyes:

OK, the files have landed at ShareIt. Give me some hours to get the shop up and running…

Cheers,

#23

Thomas may I say; What a fantastic job you have done with these docs. You have excelled yourself. They are every bit as good as your AON docs. You certainly have a talent for writing clear explanations on things. Your AON docs taught me more about using messiah render than anything else. I confess I still use LW for most of my rendering, but I hope one day that I will use messiah more.
What a good job you could do if you ever wrote a whole manual for all of messiah. It would be awesome. I know that this will likely never happen.
Anyway we all thrive on some encouragement and you deserve some for this. I hope you keep your nose in the forum from time to time after this as well.

cheers
Bill.

#24

Thank you so much! :bounce:

The Plugin should be up every minute now. It will be a “CGtalk-Release” since I don’t have time to put them on my website currently. It is wonderfull to have so much work but some things stay suboptimal.

But since it is all for the community, this is quite fitting in a way :slight_smile:

Thank you all! :bowdown:

#25

Taddaaaa! :bounce:

Well, here you go!
And please let me know if anything is acting weird or unclear in the order process.
I will stand by to solve any issues you may have!

The new guy in town:

TLHPro - Tommys little Helpers Professional

And sure the good old AoN:Studio shaders are still there too:

AoN:Studio - The Art of Noise

If you want to buy both at the same time:

AoN:Studio & TLHPro Bundle

BTW: ShareIt changes it’s way of dealing with products tomorrow, but they said the customers shouldn’t be affected by this…

Now let the fun begin :slight_smile: :beer:

Cheers,