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Everything posted by 3D-Pangel
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A particle update would be exciting to be sure so bravo if that is the case as it does point the way to even more exciting simulation possibilities in the future...in particular liquid fluids. So, any guesses as to what his next "cheeky" Twitter post will be? Honestly, he could have a lot of fun with this if his tweets were less obvious. For example, how about pouring himself a cup of coffee? Not CG...a real cup of coffee. No message, No tag, just a cup of coffee. That would definitely leave us all guessing. Nevertheless, like reading the stars in the sky to determine the future, he has successfully cultivated a bunch of "watchers" on his X feed of people trying to figure out what is next at Maxon. Very clever indeed. Dave
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Sorry...it was a busy morning yesterday and in a post-Super Bowl haze I convoluted "Paul" with "Babb" and got "Bob". That is what happens when you try to crack off a quick email of remembrance and appreciation without proof reading. Though I did have a good laugh about this morning. Dave
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Coupled with his energy level, then this would imply that leaving Maxon was not his idea. So, are you sure? I actually met Paul at a Maxon/Adobe integration tour in Boston. I had no idea who he was, but I got to the event earlier than expected (traffic was with me that day) and introduced myself. He just said, "Hi. I am Paul" and then we started talking. So what makes that unique? Well, I have run across a lot of VP's and most of them have their whole ego wrapped up in their title so their introductions usually go like "Hello. I am {insert name here}, Vice President of {insert fancy organization name here} for {insert company name here}." It wasn't until I got home and looked him up that I knew his position in Maxon. Nothing in his demeanor or in how his coworkers treated him gave any indication of a senior leadership position. That appreciation for him being "just Paul" never changed over the years. Every company needs someone who is both humble, enthusiastic, high energy and focused on something other than themselves and their position. Whatever the circumstances for his departure, I am sure Maxon employees will feel his absence. Dave
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Yes. I have thought of that. Just frustrated because I am trying to do some which (IMHO) is very basic: An Xpresso control to fire one particle (and only one particle) at a time that can be tied to a conditional node and exist throughout its lifespan. Just to be clear, look at the laser cannon firing from the original Star Wars movie in this clip. That is what I am trying to recreate (note that the guns recoil and then recover only to fire again, recoil and then recover): Pretty basic (and one of the first shots completed by ILM --- though it was a shot of the turbo lasers firing during the trench run). But I guess particle systems are just not built that way which may explain why it is so difficult to do. While easy for a fledgling VFX study in the 1970's (build a model and hand animate it), the power of CGI is no match for it. So, if a Maxon employee is telling me to look at TP, then I guess no easy solution with basic Xpresso exists. BTW: Memory node does not hold whatever you feed into it as it is geared around positional data of an animated object. Dave BTW: Blender can do it
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Thank you Daniel, The problem though is that once the gun recoils back, the particle animation comes to a complete stop. When the gun is fully recoiled, its relative position is 686. When it is fully extended (the position at which it fires), its relative position is 736.15. So as I only want the emitter to eject a particle when fully extended, I use a compare function to compare the gun position to the value and if it is equal to 736.15, then output a 1. If not, output a 0. This value is then pumped into the emitter birthrate so that it should emit just 1 particle. No need for anything else. This should work particularly when you consider how the gun is animated (shown below) but instead this is what happens: This is counter-intuitive because you would think that once a particle is "birthed" that it would continue to live as the particle life is set to 600 frames. Instead, it freezes in position. I thought maybe start emission and stop emission would work but I think it is looking for a frame count or time rather than a binary value of 1 or 0 (even if those values are set as real). So, you could use a time node to read the animation frames. But this would get tricky because you would have to set the start emission value to the current time based on when you have keyed that frame for the gun to be fully extended. Then hold that start time in memory, add 1/30 second to that value, and then feed the result into the stop emission. So there is a memory node and more research is required. But before I go there, am I reading the problem correctly? This should not be that difficult as all I want to do is emit one particle based on a condition. X-Particles has a 1 shot mode....so I could use that, but I don't want a reliance on plugins to do something which appears very basic. Dave
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Try 63 this year (...and he complains about 36). Remember: The goal is NOT to live to a ripe old age. The goal is to die young as late as possible!!!!! Enough said....now get off my lawn!!!!!😀 Dave
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Big fan of Lenovo personally. Honestly, for the cost PLUS a five year all inclusive warranty can't be beat if you are going to drop that much money on a PC. Having 40 years' experience with high-end electronic manufacturing companies and the impact of how they are built has to product life -- anything over 3 years is must (IMHO). With that said, last year I built a system with an AMD threadripper and the biggest GPU at that time (RTX-A6000 with 48 Gb VRAM). Now there are better GPU architectures out there but you would have to use Nvlink to get anything with that much VRAM. I wanted a good-sized GPU as I really wanted to handle large fluid simulations. You may not need to worry about VRAM if your focus is only on rendering but even at 48Gb, I have created pyro sims that ran out of VRAM (they were epic though). So the workhouse now is the GPU. The CPU is nothing but the traffic cop managing the speed data moves across the PCIe lanes. So a fast SSD (M.2, NVME, etc), a fast multi-channel memory bus, etc is all important. The AMD I selected can handle quad memory channels (unlike some of the Intel's). Also, when working with Lenovo, you want to select models that are designed by the OLD IBM team (they are marked by red accents on the PC case). For example, on the P620, there is a separate support to hold the top of the top-heavy RTX-A6000 securely in place. Plus, each memory stick has its own fan. These are little build quality touches you won't find in other Lenovo products. Can the PC handle large scenes? Ohhh....yes. I was working on a huge pyro scene because I wanted to push the GPU as much as I could. The VDB cache topped out at over 320 Gb....but the machine was calculating and caching a frame a second --- each frame's VDB file size being around 60Mb. So that GPU was calculating and writing to the SSD over 60 Mb/sec. Now GPUs are rated in FPS rather than write speeds, but I was still impressed. Ultimately, I went with this last year during a Lenvovo sale for about the price range you were hoping to stay under Model Thinkstation P620 CPU AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3945WX (12 core, 4GHz) Memory 8 x 16 Gb DDR4 3200MHz RDIMM ECC (128 Gb total) GPU Nvidia Quadro RTX-A6000 (48 Gb) Boot Drive 2TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 TLC Opal First RAID Array RAID 1 First Storage 2 x 4TB 7200 HDD 3.5" Optical Drive Slim DVD-RW Flex Bay Slim ODD Kit (for Optical Drive) Wifi Wireless LAN Adapter Intel 9260 802.11AC (2x2) & Bluetooth 5.1
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So I am adding some more Xpresso controls to the Death Star Cannon currently available in the download section. Current Xpresso controls manage gun tilt, pivot and recoil. The recoil controls are where I want to add the capability to fire a laser bolt particle from an emitter placed at the point where the guns are fully extended. I only want the guns to fire at full extension and NOT during recoil. Here is a visual explanation of what I am looking for: Here is the Xpresso set-up that I am modifying: So how do I convert integer values of 0 or 1 into a command that says "Don't fire a particle" or "Fire a particle"....or is there some other node similar to the compare node whose output speaks in "on" and "off" commands for nodes directly? Thanks, Dave
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Ever since I tripped across the wParallax site, I have been intrigued by window box shaders and waited for Redshift to get this capability natively. At that time, only Octane could support OSL shaders but not Redshift. But about 3 years ago, OSL shader capability started to appear in Redshift. So, I ran off to GitHub and waited for something to appear. Unfortunately, it took another year or so for jiWindowBox.osl to be listed at the Redshift GitHub site. Using the free parallax maps at wParallax, I gave it a test --- no go. So I stopped looking. But then I tripped over the ShadersBox website. Their prices are higher than wParallax but they say that their OSL shader is supported by Redshift (as well as Octane). Is it the same as the one found at GitHub? I have no idea. Now, I would have stopped there, but ShadersBox sells a sample pack of their rooms plus their own OSL shader. But I decided to give it a try as I was interested in seeing if their OSL shader worked (whereas the GitHub one did not) and the cost was only $5. And hooray! It works in C4D!!! The pack also includes 6 rooms (or sets of parallax maps in exr format) in day and night configurations and in 1K, 3K and 4K resolutions. Two rooms from each of their commerce, office, and personal living collections are in the sample pack. Definitely worth checking out for those into modeling 3D buildings. Dave
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Amazing as usual....I loved all the intersecting curved surfaces and the thought put into making the mechanics look plausible. But I do have one serious objection. 2014 is recent history at my age. It is not even close to a throwback year from my perspective. So, thank you for making feel very old this morning....you young insolent pup!!! 😀 Dave
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Actually, when you look at all the other New Years celebrations from other parts of the world, the Time's Square celebration looks to be a bit on the tame side. Its only draw is tradition simply because that is the place to be on New Years Eve. Not sure the Kia billboard made it worth standing outside in the cold, wearing a diaper (as some do due to the lack of public toilets for that many people) for 12 hours or more.....and that is from someone who lives in NH and is used to the cold. Were there any fireworks at least? Even my neighborhood had fireworks (they are legal in NH --- our state motto is "live free or die" after all) If not, then I guess that is about all NY can afford right now due to a number of issues which are best left to discuss in other forums. Nevertheless, Happy New Year to everyone. I hope all your celebrations were with family and friends and filled with optimism and hope for the coming year. Dave
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News from the latest developments in AI 3D modelling techniques
3D-Pangel replied to HappyPolygon's topic in News
Interesting quote: "AI is not a tool for the artist but a replacement of the artist" Well....I agree...partially. AI is a threat to the artist....but only to the artist being paid to create art for someone else's benefit. AI is absolutely NO threat the artist who creates art for themselves. I do foresee a threat to pre-visualizations artists in the future. If you watch the behind-the-scenes videos enough, what you hear is the Director telling the pre-viz artist what changes to make to their initial concepts. Just as easy to type those directions into the AI program that created the original image. So, concept artists, pre-viz artists, etc may be impacted. But they are talented individuals and there is still a market for original artwork created by an original artist. Of course, the first few AI images that were half-decent have fetched a high price but as more and more of that work floods the market over time, the prices will drop. Pretty soon AI art will be a commodity. So here is my prediction for the near future (or within the next 5 years): AI art (be it 2D or 3D in nature) begins to change how artists are employed by media firms. Artists who are being paid to create art for someone else will find themselves losing their positions. If a business can increase its profits by replacing 10 concept artists with one AI program with no discernable loss of quality, output or threat to delivery, they will do it. A good portion of those displaced artists (those who are in the bottom to middle tiers based on their skills) will find other jobs and leave the industry. They will now create art for themselves in the way that brings them the most pleasure. In short, they will become hobbyists. AI art continues to flood the market. Soon, the thrill of owning something created by AI will diminish. AI will become a commodity and it will only be used by producers and directors in all forms of media to help them hone their vision. There will be very little "human" created art or very little that people can definitely say "this was hand crafted". Hooray for NFT's! The top tier artists who embrace NFT and can therefore prove that their work was created by human hands will become the new rarity! Their work is what people are now clamoring to own: They key being that they can prove via an NFT that their art is original and created 100% by their hand. In short, top tier talent will always find a way to be in demand and make a living. Dave- 30 replies
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Actually, you are ONLY offered the C4D + Redshift option from the main BUY window - which is how I was basing my arguments. I did not realize that after clicking that option you can then decide to keep C4D + RS or either upgrade to Maxon One or downgrade to just C4D (no Redshift GPU). Interesting that just the C4D option was still available. Now, with that option to just get RS CPU with C4D, you have to ask how often do I need GPU rendering? If you feel you can get by with CPU rendering for most of your work, then go with just C4D. You can still build and test your RS renders in the CPU version and should you need GPU rendering then just purchase a monthly license of RS at one-sixth the cost of the annual license. Honestly, that would be cheaper way to go if you feel you only need GPU capabilities for less than 6 months out of the year. Dave
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It is not correct that RS in the latest release of C4D is NOT GPU enabled. It was at one time when you could purchase C4D without RS but no longer. You only have to look at the pricing to convince yourself that RS is now GPU enabled in C4D. Here is why. Maxon raised the prices of an annual C4D subscription from roughly $720 USD to $983 per year with the latest 2024 release (maybe it was the 2023 release, not sure). That is exactly $263 more which is about equal to the annual subscription price for the full stand-alone version of RS at $264/year. Oddly enough that increase is also equal to the annual subscription cost for Octane which is $264.4 USD (at this time as Octane is only priced in Euro's). So, if Maxon is increasing the prices for C4D + Redshift (the only option they offer for C4D now), then you are getting the full RS which means with the GPU renderer. These facts also fly in the face of the arguments of people switching to Octane if they are forced to pay additional for RS as part of the C4D bundle. Cost is removed from that argument if you are a render engine agnostic (e.g. no render religion). This may be why RS was bundled with C4D to begin with because if you are only looking for a GPU enabled renderer, then C4D now has one and therefore removes the financial need to look elsewhere. Getting Octane for C4D is now an additional cost on top of the C4D + RS subscription in achieving that goal. You can still have that choice between Octane or RS at cost parity, but only if you want to stay with C4D R25 (the last perpetual license) or earlier. And honestly when you look at all the advancements made with C4D since then (pyro, new improved physics' system, some great modeling tools, capsules, etc.), then you have to rethink your entire DCC kit of tools because staying with C4D R25 is NOT the best choice for keeping current (already 2 years behind). Therefore, the choice between Octane and RS is NOT a financial one. It is whether or not each renderer is meeting your personal and artistic needs. The personal needs come from ease of use, stability and speed. Which is more valuable to you? Honestly, this is something you can't argue simply because it is personal. I don't think RS is that difficult to optimize and I like the control it gives me. If I am rendering with motion blur, then do I really need to worry as much about noise? Probably not so let's cut back on the ray count to decrease render time. I also love the fact that I can import an old C4D scene, and the materials automatically convert to RS. This keeps all my old assets relevant. Now is the conversion 100% perfect? Well, it is getting there, but at least the integration with C4D gives me a very good starting point and removes a ton of work for large scenes. Does Octane convert old C4D AR scenes to Octane materials? Not sure but that would be good to know. So, if you leave ease of use and speed off the table, then the argument comes down to stability and artistic fulfillment. Simply, which renderer produces the better image with the least amount of effort. Note the emphasis on effort. Why? Well in the hands of a true master, you can get great results out of any render engine. Now that is a discussion worth having! Dave
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Not sure what the overall blocking is for the camera flyby. Is the camera starting from far away and zooming close to ground level or will it always be flying just above the treetops or always be close to the ground? I ask because Gaea is a great piece of software, but it only truly shines when you need to see a vast landscape from thousands of feet in the air. That is where you can see the realistic effects of wind and water erosion on the landscape. If the camera is going to be no further away than the treetops, then you could get by using the landscape modifier in C4D and play with the scale a bit. In that type of scene, the focus should be on the vegetation, trees and rocks rather than the contours of the terrain as they may not be noticed that much (or at least only noticed as far as slight rises and dips in the surface). If you need both in the shot (wide shot to a close up), then you have to worry about over-all polygon count and probably in need of a program that has been optimized for instancing. While no longer the popular program it once was, Vue has been improving and working on its integration with Redshift. From a spec perspective, Vue and PlantFactory will give you all that you need to get the job done and they offer a monthly subscription. So, apart from the learning curve, it may be the cheapest path (e.g., pass through the learning curve with the demo and buy a one-month subscription when you are ready to create something). Other considerations are Forestor if the focus will be plants and trees. While they started development of RockGen for landscapes, not much came of it. There is also Laubwerks which makes SurfaceSpread for distributing their plant catalogs across terrains. Personally, I find them rather pricey and the original developer of SurfaceSpread left Laurwerks and went to Insydium. But it is an option. Now, all these options are about as expensive or more expensive than going back to World Creator which is now have a Black Friday sale for their professional license. It appears you are familiar with WorldCreator, so why not go back it? I hope this helps. Dave
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What music do you listen when working or for inspiration ?
3D-Pangel replied to HappyPolygon's topic in Discussions
And that was only a partial listing of the sites I have bookmarked over time: With the exception of the folder on Amazon Music and "Pay Sites" (which I keep for reference as sometimes these sites offer free months), all the sites listed stream for free. The only music streaming service I pay for is Amazon Music Unlimited which is rather amazing (IMHO) for $8 USD a month. Amazed at how I can find and stream almost anything via Amazon Music Unlimited which is pretty cool if you want to explore other works by some of your favorite artists. One of the upsides of being able to work from home since 2012....you get to play your own music whenever you want and in whatever genre you're in the mood to hear. Dave -
What music do you listen when working or for inspiration ?
3D-Pangel replied to HappyPolygon's topic in Discussions
You and I share a common love of the same music. So these sites should make you happy: Extreme Music | Production Music Designed to Inspire Note that of their stable of artists is Thomas Bergersen of Two Steps from Hell fame: Search for “THOMAS BERGERSEN” | Extreme Music Other artists at the site: Hans Zimmer, Michael Giacchino, Junkie XL (aka Tom Holkenberg), Mark Motherbaugh (from Devo), Brian Tyler, Harry Gregson-Williams, John Powell, Nick Phoenix (the other half of Two Steps from Hell). And for prestige there is Sir George Martin and Quincy Jones. Just an amazing collection of free music to stream and searchable based on mood, genre, and even tempo (e.g. beats per minute). This site has EVERYTHING: classical, pop, rock, grunge, along with accomplished film composers posting original works...all free for streaming without ads. My favorite categories are SpaceTone and EarthTones along with Director's Cuts. Other free music streaming sites (again .... no adds like on YouTube) are: Audiomachine Luminary Scores Albums - Gothic Storm | Label | Harmony Music (sourceaudio.com) Brand X Music Twelve Titans Music Albums List | EMVN (sourceaudio.com) Now, be aware that as this music is intended for multi-media production, some of the compositions are nothing more than a collection of "braaaahhhhmsss" and sound design more so than actual music. But there are amazing compositions to be found in what is essentially a bottomless pit of choices.....too many in fact for some people to want to bother with. As for me, I just pick a theme that suites my mood and hit play. If the music is not to my liking, I pick again. Enjoy, Dave To add to this list is AMAZING music from one of our very own: Jay Wood. But I cannot find his music anywhere anymore!!! Big sad. -
CORE 4D Interviews - Per Anders Edwards (The father of MoGraph)
3D-Pangel replied to Corebot's topic in Interviews
Thank you for that further insight into the process of the Oscar selection committee (Honestly, how many people can speak to that in this world! Just being interviewed would be an award in and of itself). I would imagine that it was a bit of relief that the selection committee made the decision on who would be the award recipient as theirs was an unbiased decision that no one could argue with. What a relief. Also, as a Senior Manager for Cisco, I fully understand the challenges of leading in a technical company -- particularly a diverse team including people from many parts of the world (I have people in 4 different countries) and many ages (one employee - a data scientist going for his masters in AI - fresh from college). Sometimes it is hard to navigate the political waters of any company unless you have crashed your boat on the rocks a few times. Failure is a great educator. And sometimes you can't prevent those for whom you feel some responsibility for from driving their boat directly at those rocks at full speed. I have cringed at what some people have said to others and wished I could take away that moment but there are times when that may not be the best option. Jumping in can sometimes make things worse for everyone. It is sometimes better to just be quiet, let the moment pass, and wait for the "teachable moment" in the future. Also, it is always better to praise in public, but correct in private. Pretty confident that whatever the outcome or the events leading up to it, both you and Paul grew from those early days at Maxon. Thanks again for sharing! Dave As an aside, I need to try that mango juice! Really....that is your goal in 5 years! Must be good juice!!! 😁 -
CORE 4D Interviews - Per Anders Edwards (The father of MoGraph)
3D-Pangel replied to Corebot's topic in Interviews
Ericns, Did you also forget to include NOTA - Not a Text Animator in that lineage? Dave -
CORE 4D Interviews - Per Anders Edwards (The father of MoGraph)
3D-Pangel replied to Corebot's topic in Interviews
Amazing interview! Overall, Per-Anders is a fascinating person, and his insights are amazing. There is a lot of wisdom there and not just about technology but about pride, ego, the pressure of success and how that pressure can be the antithesis of creativity. There is a lot to unpack in that interview so thank you! I also loved hearing about the birth of what everyone considers to be the jewel in the C4D crown: MoGraph. Funny that its humble beginnings were to make a parametric modeling tool. Good thing Per-Anders had other ideas! What I also did not realize was the level of Paul Everett's involvement in MoGraphs' development. The interview implied that Paul was an equal collaborator and developer and the two played off of each other's strengths to create something powerful but with an intuitive UI. At least that was my take-away from reading the interview. If so, then when the Oscar award was being announced, was there some discussion as to who would be receiving the award? I sense that in that semi-private technical awards ceremony (a far cry from the pageantry of the regular Oscar awards ceremony), they wanted to limit the number of people who could appear on stage. If so, that must have been an interesting discussion to determine who would appear on stage. How do you make that decision to everyone's satisfaction? But, to Per-Anders credit, he did a great job of recognizing everyone and while most people got mentioned by their first name (including Hrvoje), Per-Anders made sure to mention Paul using his first and last name. So Bravo! Dave -
Interesting tool from Autodesk but it still left a lot unsaid. For example, ngon creation, corrupt UV's, etc. You may get interesting shapes quickly, but what you are left with could be unusable during the texturing, sub-division or rigging process. IMHO, I think you would get more mileage with C4D's new bridge tool even though it would be a few more clicks but you would stand a better chance of preserving edge flow and quads. Dave
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You are not that old unless this was your first graphical interface. Dave
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Better to reference reality rather than other animations. Fortunately, YouTube is a good resource for this as found here: So as you can see, this has more to do with volume builders and solid shapes than with pyro blobs. You could start with two cylinders or two spheres, add a little randomness to their basic shapes so that they are not too perfect and then place them under a volume building. Now align both shapes exactly over each other and slowly animate them moving away from each other while at the same time keying down the connection radius in the volume builder to simulate the cells reconstituting as they pull apart (keyframes are set on the overall "Objects" menu under the volume builder). Just a thought. I hope this helps. Dave
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So...........in three years all Maxon will do is update the shaders? Honestly, that is a very limited vision and understates the hiring that Maxon has been doing. The best way to figure out what Maxon is going to do is to follow Dave McGavran on Instagram. I think he leaked both pyro and the performance improvements to dynamics and general VP performance well in advance of their release. I keep watching Instagram for a vidoe of Mr. McGavran jumping into a pool with his arms in floaters, bathing cap on his head and a horse head inner tube around his gut. That will mean we are getting liquid fluid simulation. 😁 Do it Dave! Do it!! But.....I do like the incorporation of music ripped off from the Matrix movies. Don Davis did it much better with "Pale 3 - In My Head" though from Matrix Revolutions.