Beveling and/or extruding vertices of an Icosahedron primitive can get you some pretty cool patterns:
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Author: Alan
You’ve probably heard of ICE keywords like “self“, “this” or “this_model“… but did you know about “this_parent“?
It’s not undocumented, but it’s often forgotten.
If you’ve ever seen a Maya rig, you’ve probably seen their joints system which draws “fake” bones. Fake as in that it’s just an OpenGL virtual representation of the hierarchy/parenting, not an actual object. I’m not a big fan, but I do like the concept of being able to sketch out a skeleton by duplicating and reparenting joints, and thanks to “this_parent” we can do the same in ICE!
What’s the smart way to pick any arbitrary number of items with XSI’s PickElement or PickObject commands? Read below… 😀
si = Application
def pickForever(**kwargs):
'''
Pick forever, and ever, and ever, and ever...
until you rightclick.
'''
# Default options
leftMessage = kwargs.setdefault('leftMsg', 'Pick something')
middleMessage = kwargs.setdefault('middleMsg', leftMessage)
selFilter = kwargs.setdefault('selFilter', 'object')
# Loop and yield forever until complete:
while 1:
out = si.PickElement(selFilter, leftMessage, middleMessage)
obj = out("PickedElement")
buttonPressed = out("ButtonPressed")
modifier = out("ModifierPressed")
if obj:
yield obj, buttonPressed, modifier
else:
break
# _______________________________________
# USAGE EXAMPLES:
def processIndividually():
'''
Deal with each pick, one object at a time...
'''
for obj, button, modifier in pickForever(leftMsg='Pick Object', selFilter='polygonmesh'):
button = ['left','middle'][button-1]
# (-1 because 0 means right, but is never returned.)
si.LogMessage( "Picked %s with your %s mouse button!" % (obj.FullName, button) )
def listExample():
'''
Getting a list of picked objects, only after picking is complete...
'''
pickedObjects = zip(*list( pickForever(leftMsg='Pick Object') ))[0]
si.LogMessage( pickedObjects )
# Cool, eh? :)
Ever wondered what’s the deal with *.xsiaddon files? What are they?
Well, they’re good ol’ XML with a bit of metadata and the files embedded in them are compressed with the zlib library and base64 encoded for safe plaintext storage.
How would we parse such a file? Check this out:
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A few reasons why I <3 SublimeText2
Pardon my occasional ranting and pause sounds (ehh, uhms), lol. I recorded this on the spot without planning what to show.
Anyhow, go try the program yourself! 😉
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Skydiving (November 2011)
Last November I jumped with two other friends, off a plane, tandem parachuting. It was briefly terrifying, then amazingly blissful, exciting and unforgettable. Everyone should do it! 😀
Skip to 11:32 to see me play it cool while I come to terms with the floor being ~12,000ft below me.
(If you’re curious why I’m posting it now; I only just got around to splicing our 3 dvds together.)
Hey guys, it’s been a while. Here’s some more commercials I did the character rigging for. Enjoy! 😉
Dragon candies:
Excel critters yet again:
Baygon: [a.k.a. RAID]
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Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to you all! Hope this one brings even cooler stuff than the last.
Here’s a video I took of how I spent my new year’s eve. 😀
I was responsible for rigging the jellyfish (tentacle sim. included) in this commercial for T. Rowe Price, produced by Psyop:
Enjoy! 😀 (Best appreciated in HD.)
Oh and check out the art of this concept artist that worked on it.
I hope you’re not lactose intolerant because these jokes can get cheesy… However, I’m certain at least one will bring a smile to your Friday. 🙂
Check it out: http://CGjokes.com/
It all started when I wrote the very first joke (the one at the very bottom.) I wondered if I could think of more, and so I did, but then I challenged myself to come up with a one-liner every workday or so. (Quality varies as it’s hard to write brilliant ones all the time, but I try.)
I looked online for more material but only found a really old thread from CGTalk, and many of their jokes were worse than my worst. I figured, if there’s sites out there listing trigonometry or Physics jokes, why can’t we have one more just for CG-related jokes? And so it came to be.
I will eventually run out of puns so I’d like to invite you, yes you, to think of hilarious material and submit it on the site. I will review any and all that come in and publish those that make me smile or chuckle; with your name as the post author of course. (If you leave a link to your blog I’ll link you if you get posted.)