Monday, August 16, 2010

meBakeRadiosity.slim

This Slim template implements bake_radiosity surface shader that was described in Pixar's RenderMan Application Notes - Point-Based Approximate Ambient Occlusion and Color Bleeding - 3.1 Baking a point cloud with area and radiosity data.

meBake.slim

meBakeAreas.slim

This Slim template implements bake_areas surface shader that was described in Pixar's RenderMan Application Notes - Point-Based Approximate Ambient Occlusion and Color Bleeding - 2.1 Baking a point cloud with area data.
Theresn't any separate standart template (at least in Slim 7.1 from RMS 1.0.1) for baking areas pointclouds using in Point-Based shading. Only if you are using shading components in conjunction with Environment light where this functionality is hidden under the hood.
See DiffuseEffects->ObjectCalculation->Approximated...
But this is more complicated method as for me...

meBake.slim

Thursday, August 12, 2010

meBake3D.slim + meTexture3D.slim vs Bakeable

The Bakeable template in Slim looks very powerful. And most part of its power is hidden under the hood. Depending of CONTEXT, defined in Bake generator, it can write pointclouds by bake3d  function call or reuse baked data by texture3d. BakeStyle parameter controls a special post job for Alfred  that converts pointclouds to brickmaps or texturemaps. But there are not controls to adjust some useful parameters (e.g. MaxError) for brickmake. The Bakeable is general purpose template, it needs DisplayChannels _float and _color for storing corresponding values to pointcloud file. And again, both bake3d and texture3d functions have optional parameters that are absent in original template...

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

FlatShader.tcl


FlatShader.tcl








This script flattens Slim shading network to subfolder inside current project but preserves the original shader name. You can modify parameters and nodes in original shading network and perform FlatShader again. Original Slim "Flatten" command fails to override existing shader with changed parameters list.
About how to setup user commands in Slim, see previous post Slim user commands

Slim user commands















For adding a custom user commands to Slim menu, you need to modify your custom slim.ini and TOR.ini. Also you have to write custom Slim template with your cmdui definition.

Tip:
To customize RAT environment, it is a good practice to keep your custom slim.ini and TOR.ini files in the directory defined in system environment variable RAT_SCRIPT_PATHS. You can define space-separated list of directories in this variable for connecting templates and settings from different location inside studio. 
E.g.: SET RAT_SCRIPT_PATHS=d:/slim //server/studio/slim

Sunday, August 8, 2010

meIndirect.slim

The Slim template meIndirectDiffuse,  as  meOcclusion.slim, is just a realization of standart RSL function indirectdiffuse with full set of available parameters. Its Slim's analog  — IndirectIllum has slightly less parameters for control.


meIndirect.slim 
meUtil.h

meEnsemble.slim

Slim's Ensembles and EnsembleAdaptors are very powerful features  for control shader connections and attributes. But everything can be enhanced a bit ; ) meEnsemble allows more flexible operate with desired RiAttributes attached to shaders and Maya's geometry.


meEnsemble.slim
meEnsemble_UI.slim
meAddAttribute_UI.slim

meCombineAOV.slim

After some experimenting with Slim's Shading Components, I've realized that may be this is great innovation in shader networks design with AOV (Arbitrary Output Variables), but not for me... I prefer to connect only simple (with one output) components to my own AOV instead of keeping a bunch of unused outputs through all shading network. meCombineAOV  is now my everyday solution while working in Slim.


meCombineAOV.slim
meCombineAOV_UI.slim

meOcclusion.slim

When first time I saw the Occlusion tempale in Slim, I was wonder, how few parameters it has, compares to parameters list for RSL occlussion function from PRman User Guide. Certainly, I agree that common Slim user may not need all of them, but what to do if You are advanced user? Right. Write your own template. Here is mine:

meOclussion.slim

For using it, you also need:
meUtil.h

Max and computers

My Cat Max likes computer devices.


What's up, doc?

Saturday, August 7, 2010

mtorRender.mel v.1.5.9



Long time ago (at least in 2004), when I've been working at a big (may be even biggest ;) Ukrainian postproduction studio with MTOR, I've found a lack of simple "Render" button in Pixar's Render Globals window. So, I've decided to write the MEL script for duplicating functionality of Pixar's Render Globals, but with some new features that allows to render, generate RIB files, save render presets and use Workspace editor in one "simple" tool.
And for sake of optimizing screen space, this window can be "minimized" to compact version with access only to main render controls.

Current version of the script is available for download from CreativeCrash (former Highend3d):
mesh_mtorRender.mel