duber’s blog

I’ll elaborate on this topic some more later, but I thought I’d let you know that I’ve successfully deployed, configured and tested Prime Focus’ Deadline®, the render manager of choice for duber studio.

I’m trhilled to be able to finally showcase, at least, some of our very own Python implementation into 3ds Max!

First off, our primary reason for writing our own, proprietary, Python connection to 3ds Max is Tactic by Southpaw Technology. An awesome asset management system entirely written in Python that I decided to invest in and integrate our tools and software packages into. Another reason for this connection, later came up, was the need for writing much more complex scripts with complex GUIs, since, as you probably know, a few functional lines of code are hardly enough in a modern, efficient, VFX production of today.

The heart of our Python integration is dotNET from Microsoft. I can’t express myself enough how much I appretiate this framework! The brain of our Python integration is IronPython. Also a product from Microsoft, completely open source and free, which are two very important aspects for any pipeline tool in any production facility of any size. Not the price as much as the availability of the software. And with IronPython and Microsoft, I am certain that this piece of software will be around for years!

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If you still haven’t bought the book yet, DO IT NOW!

Or at least, do it after you’ve read this thorough review of the book.

I can’t resist to quote what the reviewer is saying about my chapter, of which I’m quite proud, obviously.

The advanced unwrapping chapter I found very useful as unwrapping is not my strongest skill in Max. By the way, none of the authors are shy about suggesting outside plugins and stand alone utilities if they think they will do the job better or at least faster than Max. In this Chapter 4 Lukas Dubeda suggested a small separate program for UV layouts that I downloaded to try myself. It does seem to be quite capable at getting the job done. The following sums up this section pretty well:

…

That “…just scratching the surface” seems to be the sentiment of many of the experts in this book. Believe me that they are all making some pretty deep scratches, providing us with an in-depth look at their chapter’s topic.

Anyways, here’s the full review for those still undecided.

Evermotion.org published a nice, short, overview of the 3ds Max 2010 Advanced To Expert book I participated in writing. Here’s what they have to say about my chapter:

The fourth chapter reveals us advanced techniques of unwrapping 3d models. We are taught how to handle both organic and non-organic objects using such features as multiple UVW spaces and pelt mapping. Keeping in mind the fact that 3ds Max does not provide us with powerful enough unwrapping tools, the author introduces us other interesting solutions – UVLayout, Unwrella and other, less known programs and plug-ins. Moreover we are instructed how to generate normal maps inside 3ds Max 2010 using texture baking. Again .max files from the CD become more than useful.

Definitely go check the book out, it’s really a brilliant piece of work put together by top-class artists in the field and as such will be an invaluable asset in everyone’s tools arsenal.

I am very excited to present a very early development results for our own Python implementation in 3ds Max.

First a bit of an intro. At duber, I’ve setup everything around Python, the most versatile and powerful language I’ve ever seen. I felt in love with Python so much that it even influenced my decision to leave Fusion (my favourite compositing app) and dive into Nuke (my, now, most favourite compositing app). I even invested in a commercial data and asset management system, Tactic, that is entirely written in Python. I run tons of custom Python scripts to tie together programs such as Tactic, Nuke, FrameCycler, Photoshop etc… etc… But the last missing piece to the entire pipeline puzzle was 3ds Max.

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I bumped into this issue of referencing values inside of Structs, which is a very elegant solution to using variables across your code, while avoiding global declarations. The issue was pretty much that I wasn’t aware of the implementation design of Structs in MAXscript.

Basically, Structs are these overly simplified custom classes know from such languages as Python (to which I’ll try to compare these). However, Structs are really so simple that they don’t even implement such functionality as inheritance (a pitty by the way), or more advanced functionality known from Python. Structs, rather than classes, could be called groups. That’s what I’ve been using them for mainly. I grouped a bunch of functions and called them via a standard attribute reference paradigm.

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Yes! Once again, Blur studio showed how it’s supposed to be done.

They’ve released, or allowed their Eric Hulser to release, an updated version of their blurPython modules for 32bit and 64bit 3ds Max versions from Max 9 all the way up to 2009! And not only that. They’ve also provided libs and modules for tying up Python, 3ds Max and Qt together! This is massive news as I’ve been trying to get Python (concretely IronPython) work in 3ds Max but I’ve been constantly hitting road blocks until I finally bumped into Blur’s updated blurPython.

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The 3ds Max 2010, Advanced to Expert book is finally shipping! And I already got my bunch!

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Following the announcement, Autodesk revealed the 2010 product line.

Hands down, the updates are really not about new big features at all, this time. Well, maybe except for Maya 2010, which’ll, for the first time in years, come in one version only, just Maya 2010, no Unlimited or Complete (which was confusing anyways) and will include Toxik (altough called Maya Composite) and MatchMover.

I still haven’t seen any presentations of these new features, but I’m really looking forward to that. Even though I really dislike the idea of having Toxik inside of Maya by default. I never liked that compositor, always felt very “Flame-ish” and therefore “odd” to me, being used to Fusion or Nuke. But still, I’ll save my judgement after I see a demo.

Autodesk also announced a 3ds Max 2010 SP1 release, which is always good, if it wasn’t for “subscribtion customers only”, which is, in my opinion, bullshit!

Then Softimage 2010 with some minor additions and bugfixes. Notably f-curve editor really needed that sweet touch and Scintilla, which I really felt in love with after it was included in 3ds Max, is also a very nice additon.

They’ve also announced digital production Suites, which seem to be a great idea, possibly taken from Adobe, that you’ll be able to buy a bundle of 3ds Max/Maya, Motion Builder, or even 3ds Max/Maya, Motion Builder, Mudbox. If the prices are “reasonable”, I’m sold!

As I’ve said, I’ll wait for tomorrow’s demos to pass my judgement on these new releases, so, stay tuned…

I received a word, that the 3ds Max 2010, Advanced to Expert book, I’ve contributed to (1 chapter + a tech. review of the MAXScript Chapter), had been sent to the printer and thus is on schedule to be ready for shipment in August! This is great news and I’m really looking forward to the publication (I’ll receive a copy of the book, which is awesome ).

If you’re still hesitant to preorder, 3DATS has put up a few pages from each of the beefed-up chapters for your viewing pleasure, go see them on the book’s page.

But if you want to stay on my blog here are the direct links for you:

The full table of contents in PDF
The sample pages from all of the 20 chapters, also in a PDF

I very highly recommend this book for any advanced (not limited to 3ds Max) user, from what I’ve seen, it’s a massive publication full of the juiciest information on the subject. If I didn’t receive a complimentary copy of the book, I’d have preordered one as well as there are some chapters I’m particularly looking forward to read (Color Management, Compositing, Managing Large-scale Projects and pretty much the entire sixth part of the book).

For only $99.90 USD + Shipping, this is a bargain! Coz’ remember, education is the only thing nobody can take away from you

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