thingmaker

Hello, I have a question about texturing in EI. If I have several objects that are close together and all using the same master material, the repeating pattern is obvious. In another 3D program I would add a random function to the texture X, Y or size or something but I can't figure out how to do this in EI. It would seem that applying a random function in the cell in the frame mode of the Project window would be the place but I can't get it to work. What technique do other people use to avoid this repeating pattern issue? Thanks. -Derryl

I have never really been clear on the best way to do this either. I have tutorials from early versions of EI using Fog and there is also Ian's video in the EI Tutorial section but it is older and quite involved as you have to change all of your materials to white. There is a export type called .EIZ which exports a file similar to the Fog pass but unlike a true camera where there is a 'sweet spot' which goes out of focus before and after, "the .EIZ is the depth from the object to the camera plane." That is what the manual says but how does it determine which 'object'? It must mean from the camera to the camera plane. I have tried expanding this grayscale depth map in Photoshop using levels to control the depth but the number of grays is too narrow. Tom isn't this what the .EIZ format is for? -Derryl

Thanks for the tip on Substance Designer and Bitmap2material. Got them both both man, what a hassle to install... Thanks. -Derryl

The brick 3D shader works for me on a Mac w/OS 10.9 and EI 9.1. As Joseph said above, I get the brick pattern but random gray bricks and the top is funky. The top is always square bricks even though you can configure height, width and length. But I believe this is because it is always calculated as a 2D projection from the side. -Derryl Bricks

Saul, according to e-on you can create trees for you personal use but to offer them to anyone you must sell them though their other site http://www.cornucopia3d.com (so that they can get a percentage). I bought Plant Factory Studio for $400. when it first came out but haven't put anything on their model site. Prices are pretty reasonable there though. -Derryl

Steven, I am using Mt. Lion (10.8.4) as well and it is working for me. Under get info/Version I see: Saturday, July 27, 2013 8:10 PM Ray Trace, 2000x2000, Millions+ Time: 2 Min. 24 Sec. Frame 0

Yes Tomas, you were right. I had turned off the 'low detail preview' but not to the one I was exporting.. I did it to the correct one and now I get the full amount of instances. Thanks!

Thanks architruc. That's a good idea. I tried this and I had many scale/alignment issues (fixed by unchecking Deformations and Transformations) but the biggest problems were that the master materials don't come in with the exported fact and I am only getting 1/10 of the Placer Deposit objects. Hopefully I will hear back from Blair at Northernlights3D.

Thanks Alex, the hairs that I am using with Placer are only 9 verts/8polys each. Don't know where else I can reduce.

Hello, I have a complex model that will not render (out of memory) if I use more than 2 copies of it. The reason it is running out of memory is because I am using Placer Deposit which is not 64bit yet. I am wondering if I were to use Proxy to create the additional instances of the model, would that lower the memory required when it goes to Camera? If not does anyone know of another workflow workaround? Thanks. -Derryl

Strange. I can see both links correctly. The movie link comes right up and plays immediately. I am on Mac OS 10.8.3. -Derryl

The biggest drawback in moving from Snow Leopard to Mt. Lion is that without Rosetta you can no longer use Modeler. Sadly, Apple has killed any attempts at emulation. - Derryl

Bernd, I agree with you in respect to how Adobe screws everything up beyond comprehension. Adobe and their paranoia has cost me untold hours with reinstalls, having to take computers to another location because of a firewall to get it to install, and as you said fighting with them about not deactivating before losing a drive. I am presently looking for alternatives to all Adobe products. But other companies have handled it much better. I use FormZ way more now that they have gone dongle-free. I was always forgetting that thing and was dead in the water. Maya, too. I just use these now without any hassle. The activation is transparent. I won't buy ZBrush because of their activation nightmare. Just using the demo I was always caught in an activation loop. -Derryl

I have updated the chart to show whether the plug-in is Mac or PC (thanks Reuben) and whether if works with 7, 8 & 9. - Can anyone else confirm that none of the TripleD shaders work in v9 on the PC? I am only Mac and mine work. - If you can confirm that a plug-in or shader works please also let me know if it is Mac or PC as well. I can also be emailed at dr (at) 4dmaze (dot) com. Thanks. -Derryl

Thanks for the input guys. It's taking a little longer to incorporate the other versions + Mac/PC. Should have it up tomorrow.

Hello, I read a post earlier where someone had asked if there was a list of what plugins and shaders have been updated. I thought that would be great as well. So I made one. Online EIAS Plugin and Shader status I am still updating this list and I can only test the ones that I own to see if they work in EI9 (As you can see there are quite a few overall..) I don't mind keeping this updated. It would be tremendously helpful if people could send me an update on the plugins/shaders that you have and know that work (or know which don't work) in EI9. Or in the unlikely event of someone finding an error in my list.. :shy: -Derryl

Fantastic news. Bummer about the incompatibility with older plug-ins. Any chance of having an 'export settings' option? At least in the future that would save countless hours of having to do screenshots of every setting and re-inputting them. Can't wait. Will finally be able to render some very complex Placer stuff. Thanks! -Derryl

Wow, that's impressive. Great work Diego. Well paced. -Derryl

Hello Richard, did you try also with models that use UV textures? That is where I have problems. Without UV it works fine for me too. -Derryl

Hello, I have having issues with models that were originally in 8 and then opened in 9. For example, I have a .OBJ tree with leaves from FormZ that I have brought in to EI V8. I apply a texture for the leaf and clip map to cut it out. It renders fine. If I open the same project in EI V9 the textures are wrong. I can't tell if they are moved or inverted (but inverting them again doesn't help). I have tried this on several V8 projects and they all look wrong. Has something changed regarding clip maps? Still can't upload anything to the forum, says "Used 786.53K of your 500K" https://dl.dropbox.c...1209-trees8.jpg https://dl.dropbox.c...1209-trees9.jpg

Tomas, that is good news. Thanks for the update. -Derryl

Hello Tomas. In previous releases there were usually press releases by the plug-in companies showing support. I haven't seen anything from anyone. Northern Lights hasn't responded to emails and it appears that Konkeptoine (non-EIAS distributed) and TripleD are gone. For those of us that have a considerable investment in plug-ins this is worrisome. Almost any existing large project I open in V9 wont render without stripping out the plug-ins/shaders first which can be arduous process. Many older projects won't open in 9 without crashing. Can you provide any enlightening news about the plug-in/shader future? :) Thanks. -Derryl

Hey Al, I have used LODe Stone in the past but now I use Atengo's Balancer which allows you to select and reduce polys in select parts. For example you may have a figure with a dense poly count only in the facial area but the rest is pretty low and you don't want to reduce it globally by 50% which would distort the body. http://www.atangeo.com (mac & pc). -Derryl

Joe, thanks. UV was the key to getting this to work correctly. I haven't been able to use Transporter for years, a PowerPC/Rosetta casualty. But I do have FormZ and that got the file in separated. Diego, thanks for the offer. I was able to do it through FormZ. Man, what a pain it is that they don't sell Object2Fact anymore. For anyone that is interested, here is what I did to get it to work: - Opened the .obj file in FormZ. I used v7 but 6.7 worked too. - Use the Separate tool. This gives you about 12k objects. - Open the Bark and Leaves textures and make sure the Texture and Clip maps are connected. - Select by 'similar texture' and move to separate respective groups. In the model above there are 8k leaves. - Export as .fact / by Group / Facetted / Triangulate all Facetted / 'with textures', TIFF. - In EI import the .fact file. - Select all of the leaves (which should be in its own group) and select one of the leaves and under 'object info' select Shading / Texture / Use UV Space. Then Right Click and in the pull-down select 'Set Selected' - You may have to enlarge the textures and then copy it to the Clipping Path under Geometry and replace the image with the supplied clip image. But that's about it. - I had issues with EI not remembering where the texture was and giving an error "Texture can't be found on volume Texture" but closing and reopening EI made it look for it so I could reconnect it. -Derryl https://dl.dropbox.com/u/31924077/120920d-Tree.jpg https://dl.dropbox.com/u/31924077/120920d-Tree.mov

Hello, I am using v8 and I am unable to import any models with textures regardless of what I try. I downloaded a free model from XFrog.com with textures already applied. (Bristlecone Pine http://xfrog.com/product/X-16.html) The .obj file comes in as one object with no textures. The textures are definitely there as I can see them when importing into other programs such as FormZ or Balancer. In FormZ I can break the model apart and reimport it back into EI but the normals are wrong so you can't accurately apply new textures to the leaf planes. Even a simple sphere with a texture gets stripped when importing into EI. Is there a tried and true method for bringing in models with textures? Thanks. -Derryl