Tango

Hi Tomas, I am glad to hear that. I understand software developers are always trying to maximize the potential to their product with the new hardware, but it takes time and you want to make sure it all works well, on all platforms. I firmly believe the MacPro is the way of the future, scalable and upgradable. We have to be patient. I haven't had the chance to test C4D on the new MacPro since my version R13 doesn't run on Yosemite. EI made no fuss about it, again, great software. Keep up the good work ! Christian

I just bought a MacPro ( 6 core, 3.5GHz, Intel Xeon E5 with 32GB of ram ) and am in the process of testing it to see how much better it can be ( should be ). This has been a torture of a process since you can get a loaded iMac 5K with a quad i7 for less money, and according to a lot of reviews, it performs better than the MacPro. Now, I know we are not comparing apples and apples (no pun intended). I like to skip one or two generations, opting to buy the best I can when I do purchase and make it last as long as possible. The MacPro is a workstation, build for the future; I am getting to the point now... I can't do side by side tests but I ran a few renders through the new computer and my MacBookPro ( 2.3GHz Intel Core i7, 16 GB ram ). I wanted to see a two to there fold acceleration ( considering the steep price difference ). The same short EI script rendered in 1:35 on the MacPro and 2:45 on the MacBookPro, faster but not so much. I can see all the cores maxing out on both machines, you can tell that Camera is multi-threaded and using all the resources. If I am right, the new mac doesn't support Open GL and is not built with Nvidia technology ( but that should not affect rendering, right? ). I also tested After Effects, but this is pathetic for the time being, quite depressing actually. We will have to wait for Adobe to re-write and take advantage of the new architecture, easier said than done. But, I digress... I always loved EI and Camera for its fast rendering, it saved my bacon a few times. I am currently rendering 9K animations and it does not even blink. But, since were are always trying to improve, I was wondering if someone at EI has looked at the MacPro specs ( the new ones ). Are there any plans to take advantage of these new computers, Macs are a small market, and it would be a lower priority, and it may be hard to implement. I am no programmer, but I do appreciate the effort and dedication involved in making all of this work well. We all want the best ( so do our clients ), Christian

Is there a way to export sequentially numbered geometry from EI? I did this in Blender for a fluid simulation , converted the resulting geometry with "Obj2Fact" and was successful at reading the sequence back in EI, thanks to Tomas. I want to export the geometry generated by the flag Plugin and hope to have the UV information saved with it. This way I can populate an animation with many flags by offsetting them in time and changing texture maps. It would be quick and easy on the processors. I know I can do the flag in some other application and bring it in, but I like the look I am getting with the flag plugin. Thanks, Christian

I finally got my new macbook pro, great slick computer. I was doing some work on a script I started on a different computer (and OS) which involved SIMCLOTH and I ran into a problem. I was not allowed to flush the simulation in order to make adjustments and start a new one, in the end I went back to my old machine and got it done. Is there a known issue with Mavericks regarding a old plugin like Simcloth? or maybe a workaround. : ) Thanks, Christian

Zut de Zut !!! I just read a posting to the same issue in the general section, got my answer, sorry. Christian

Hi, I just ordered a new MacBookPro with lots of fast Ram, new CPU and SSD storage. I am quite looking forward to improving my pipeline with this acquisition. Then, I realize it will be running Maverick... Hummm, I usually wait before migrating to a new OS, I have seen the Lion patch topic a few times on this forum. What are the plans for Maverick? I would love to get decent rendering speed away from our render farm. Even if Camera is fast, it's not always enough. Christian

Sorry, I have been too busy to get back to this post. Thanks for the replies, unfortunately, I am on Mac and although, these plug-ins work on still frames, they crash the system when running an animation. I have the same problem using some noise shader (can't remember which one). It seems to be a memory management problem, as if a buffer or cache is getting overloaded and it does not get flushed, not sure. I tried on v8, v9 and even the new v9.1, no luck. In any case, when something is not working you go for a plan B. I was trying to re-create an X-ray or electronic microscope look (which is easy to do with a-Sem), I tried "Microscope" but could not get it to work or look the way I wanted. I remembered an old post where someone explained how to mimic that look with a ramp shader in the transparency channel. It works well and doesn't crash. I may get back to testing the "aEdge" shaders later and hopefully get them working again. Thanks, Christian

This set of shaders was great to use. I am planing on using "aSem" on a project and I am running into an old problem I could not fix in the past. The shader works well in v8 and v9, but it will nor render a full animation, always crash around or on frame 60. I tried running on a single processor and through Renderama, I tried numbered frames or .img file and always get the same crash. The weird thing is that it seems that camera 8 is pointing at my v9 folder. I don't know why, or if it maybe an issue. I know I had the same problem rendering sequences before v9, so that should not be the problem. Is anyone successfully rendering sequences with "aSem"? Below is the message I am getting from Camera: Camera error: A system API function has returned an unexpected error number. Library: /Volumes/Tango_2/Applications/EIAS 9.0/EI Shaders/aSEM.shd Christian

Hi Tom, It still is a problem getting notifications from the forums we want to follow. Unless I am missing something when I request notifications. Christian

Hi Diego, I can't get the splines to be recognized as a single object, Can't merge them in Illustrator, tried modelling in Silo. Swage won't read the geometry, it seems to want a motion path converted with "path to line". I have wasted too much time on this and will used smoke and mirrors. I will probably animate single spline extrusions with swage and have other "Y" shape arms in the same environment but not animated. Combining both "single" and "Y shaped splines" with a bit of distortion will give the illusion they are all animating. Another issue with swage is the fact that it will not allow me to use the built-in-profiles, which would make things simpler. I tried it with EI v9 and v8, same results. Thanks, Christian

Anybody knows if there is an issue with SWAGE. I am using v1.3 and can't get the built-in-profile to work, wether I use EI8 or 9. The option is always greyed-out. I know I had it working on another project some time ago, but can't remember what version I was using. Christian

My first option doing it with EI was to test "SWAGE". I used it before to animate extrusions and it works well. The challenge is to connect the splines to the core object (sphere or blob) and make sure no seam are visible. I have yet to test it with a spline branching out (Y shape), for that, I would have to build it in a modeller and import it. Not sure if Swage will accept that geometry. I have done the the .obj sequence method for some other project and it worked well, I may check the C4D route. Another option is to build a full neuron with arms (tentacles, etc..) and modify it maintaining the same polygon count, import both models and do a morph. I am afraid that polygons may get re-numbered in the conversion to "fact" format. I'll let you know how I do. Christian

I have to animate neurones shrinking and dying (Alzheimers). The problem here is the branching structure. It's like growing a tree in reverse, although, no leaves. I have animated a simple plant growing with Vue d'Esprit before, I would have to figure out a way to export numbered geometry or the animation data, not quite sure. EI being my natural go-to tool for 3D, I am wondering if there is a way to do this with animator, or a combination of tools. I have C4d, Maya, Blender, Vue, Onyx Broadleaf and a few more. Any pointers would be appreciated. Thanks, Christian

Hi Brian, I can see both links no problem, on my macbookpro. Thanks for the sample animation, this is what I was trying to do. I modified the design and made it work, you know when you are in a pinch... I know I will need that tool eventually. I keep EI8 around for some plug-ins that are not working with 9 yet. Thanks for your help! Christian

It's not a matter of having an object (stadium) on or off. I have to be able to slice it with a vertical plane, so the front is not visible to the camera. I have seen the Perspective Clip option but it didn't seem to do much. I will have to see if I can find more info on it. I'll check the Tailor tool plug-in, I have looked at it before and it may be a solution. Thank you all for your suggestions. Christian

Like most EI animators, I use a lot of different programs to do my work and sometimes it gets hard to remember how to do something or if the option you are looking for exist in the program you are currently using. I am running into this issue now. I built a scene with cars racing inside a stadium. I have to start with my camera at the top (bird's eye view) and finish my scene with the camera at ground level. The problem is that my end position is outside the stadium. Removing part of the stadium is easily done by using a "clip plane" in Houdini, I have done it many times. But now, this is a series and everything is done in EI. I can't find a way to clip just a section of my geometry. I would like to avoid doing it in a modeler and re-importing geometry. I thought of using a clipping map, but it involves a lot of objects. Is there a way to tell the camera not to render geometry before a determined distance, or something like tat? Thanks, Christian

Hi Tom, The problem happened when I double clicked on my channel name in the project window. A dialog box asks if you want to keep or delete the velocity controls for the selected channel. By mistake, I clicked "no", and opened the F Curve window, obviously without velocity channels. I could not figure out a way to re-generate the velocity info. There are transform channels in my project window but no velocity. And yes, the green arrows are on. Is that info lost for good, should I just go ahead and rebuild my camera? It's probably the quick way around but I a curious to know if there are other options. Christian

By mistake, I deleted the transform channels of my camera on my way to the F-Curve editor. I have not found a way to create new ones or to undo that action. Is this possible or should I create a new camera and start from there? Christian

AH!!! I knew it had to be a simple answer. You are absolutely right, the problem layers are all (and probably were in the past) Ubershapes. I did not know about the auto naming option. I will for sure remember from now on. I do have the new version but I am still using v8 because I haven't found the time to install a v9 RenderFarm. I know, it doesn't take that long... I am looking forward to use v9 in production because of all the changes you made to it. Thanks for the quick reply. Christian

Hi, this is a simple issue that has been nagging me for ever. Whenever a script is getting complex, it becomes important to keep everything organized. I have problems renaming objets and layers. Changing the names by selecting the layer and typing a new name in the top field works fine. The only problem is that it does not keep the changes. Usually, the layers go back to their original names after saving and re-opening. I am working on a project that will make me loose track of the numerous controllers involved if I can't rely on "safe-renaming". Is there something I am doing wrong? Is there a better way to rename layers?

Thanks Tom, It was not documented, and it works. The only problem is that you have to leave the program alone as it does the batch. If I click on a different window (like checking emails) it goes away and stops. Picky little bugger... I am making progress. I could not have done it without these postings. Thanks, Christian

I am trying to animate crashing waves on a cliff, not easy. The budget is small, not the expectations. I can't afford to buy Realflow for this one, so I am trying to get there with blender. So far I have generated a few tests with collision object and it points in the right direction. Beside the obvious long time involved in the baking phase I am running into a few more issues: • CONVERSION... I have OBJ2FACT but can't quite batch convert. It has an option to open a folder, and when I ask for conversion, it does the frames in sequence but I have to sit there and click "CONVERT" and "OK" for every frame. Am I missing something, has someone done it successfully? • SHADING... I had to increase the detail to 330 for Blender to generate a mesh with acceptable detail. On import it looks blocky, very low tesselllation. What should I use for normals value? is 100 better or should it be more? It looks like I get the best results by subdividing the geometry, but it gets quite large, and I have to do it manually, not practical... Could be that I will have to buy Realflow anyway, it is easier to set-up, seems quicker and should import better with the Northern lights plug-in. I have to keep my sanity and my client happy. Any thoughts or feedbacks are appreciated. Christian

Yes, scaling was the issue. We have models built in Maya and converted to FAC with Transporter or O2F. The scale is not always the same. Thanks, Christian

Here is a new one. All my windows (views) went blank after merging two scripts on my MacBook Pro (EI8). All the geo is there, it renders, can be selected but it is impossible to work this way. I don't know what caused it since I have successfully merged projects before. I can't find any way to get the views to refresh. Any idea? Thanks, Christian

Merci pour la clarification, je vais tester pour voir. If it works (and it should) it will prevent us from having to change all extensions. At least, we got the problem fixed. I still don't understand why some renders are tagged as 25fps and others at 26.087fps, all rendered from the same script with the same hardware. This problem may go away with EI 9. Thanks for your help. Christian