blog.ticket01.com

Today the Generizer got support for trim regions on the base model. As an example I took the company logo. [click on image to zoom in]

Since version 1.52 there’s support for an “Attractor” in the Generizer. So, what’s it actually? You could think of it as a magnet with the ability to control the flow of the field with a curve ramp. The videos below should make it a bit clearer what you can do with it.

[VIDEO 1: using a hemisphere as Attractor]

[VIDEO 2: using a NURBS cylinder as Attractor, twisting the generized templates]

In the upcoming version of SmartDuplicate the Generizer node will feature the first implementation of a 3-way blend mode. This texture driven method to create a blending between 4 different shapes brings the power of transformational design at your fingertips and is shown exemplary in the picture below. [click on image to zoom in]

All geometry types supported by the Generizer will be blendable. The reformations have constraints on their connectivity, meaning that the topology of the templates should match to get proper results.

The next version of SmartDuplicate will give you even more possibilities. Like creating a blending from one template to another. Of course all types of objects (polygonal meshes, NURBS surfaces and NURBS curves) are supported. See the picture below to get an impression of this new feature.

Just recently I had to set up my machine again and all the nice scripts, plug-ins and stuff for Maya had to be re-installed piece by piece. Tedious task to do and cross your fingers to not to forget anything. As you all know there are already installers for all commercial plug-ins in place which make it a most pleasant task to set them up. That’s why I decided to wrap the freeware stuff up and build it an installer as well. At the moment the installers and plug-ins are Windows only but Linux and MacOSX versions are around the corner.

The t01.mufpi project which is an acronym for ticket01’s most useful free plug-ins can be found here. Among the usual suspects (ToggleUndo and WireFrameRender) you will find a new tool called MultiRename coming with it. Besides the fact that you can now reliably rename tons of objects at once, Maya’s internal rename tool sucks hell at this task, additionally you get a live preview of what’s going to happen before you actually fire the tool. It’s especially meant for all the “Importers” and “Referencers” among you guys.

Here’s a quick example where it might come in handy:

This is a very common setup after having imported a referenced scene. The namespace is being prepended followed by a colon. Although this may seem very nice to prevent name clashing in your scene it will eventually blow in your face after a while. Just think of the case that you might be importing this scene into another one.

The MultiRename works in a very straightforward way:

1. Select the objects to rename in the left pane.
2. Enter the phrase to be deleted/replaced into the Find text field.
3. Enter the replacement phrase into the Replace text field. (Optional)
4. Hit the Rename button after having confirmed everything in the live preview.

Please be assured that until you hit the Rename button the right pane only acts as a live preview doing nothing to your current scene.

Enjoy and as usual contact me in case I screwed something up.

EDIT: Something must definitively be wrong here, the port to OSX went well in under 2 hours! Mh, I’m still not completely buying it Would somebody please test it?

Thanks to a very kind offer from 3D Powerstore, we’re taking part at Autodesk’s “Make An Impression” Roadshow when it stops in Duesseldorf, Germany. On October, 12th we’ll present all of our plug-ins and answer all question you might probably have. To take part you need to register here. See you there!

As promised I’m back again with the “Split Along Curve” Tool for Seamour Pro. This one can now be considered in a serious alpha stage since most of the problems have been solved and the demonstration that will be given in this video should do this fact justice. What you’ll see is a polygonal plane being split by a NURBS circle. To prove that everything can be adjusted in real-time the circle is being moved and its sweep is being altered. The last part shows the extrusion of the split faces and a look from “below” the mesh to confirm that it is still only one piece.

Today I’d like to show you the first working demo of what will be the basis for Seamour Pro for creating pinholes and slubs. This version is actually some weeks old now but anyway. What you see in the video is a curve that interactively splits a plane. The neat thing about this solution is the ability to cut through a whole mesh at once. You don’t need to click from one edge to the next and so on. While not enabled and therefore not shown in this video but already implemented is the function that allows not only mesh splits from edge to edge but also inside a polygon. I’ll be showing this to you very soon. The last part of this video demonstrates the flexibility during a mesh split, meaning that even the already extruded faces are acting like you would expect them to do.

I’ve added another tutorial video with a commentary track. This time you’re going to learn how easily Wire and Maya Dynamics can be connected. I hope you’ll enjoy this little demonstration.

Today I also created my first tutorial video with a commentary soundtrack using the OSX version of Wire. It covers some of the brand new features of Wire and should actually give a very good first impression what Wire is capable. You can find it here. I’ve got lots of ideas but at the moment I’m a litte too short in time. But I’m giving my best.

Another thing that has also been updated very recently is the Gallery and guess what, the new images cover certain aspects of Wire’s and SmartDuplicate’s features. The Generizer objectes have been sent to my by sjo and the raw models of the knots came from Michael Spreu. Thanks a lot guys! I hope I can come up with some tutorial videos for the Generizer in the next few days as well since I think that now it’s really time to promote this thing.