Spore Creator Released

The long awaited game/simulation called SPORE has finally been released... well not really all of it. The Spore Creator is the companion to Spore which allows you to create a wide array of original creatures. There is a huge library of parts( arms, legs, eyes, fins...) that are used to design original 3d and fully rigged organisms. It's great fun.

It would be great if there was an exporter that allowed these creations to be used in 3d apps like Maya. Are you listening Electronic Arts?



Spore the game/simulation is due in September. It is a PC game' which is a bit odd. It will also be available for Nintendo DS and Mobile devices. I can't imagine it won't be ported to the consoles as well, but right now it's apparently not planned. Here is some other info about Spore Creator.



With Spore you can nurture your creature through five stages of evolution: Cell, Creature, Tribe, Civilization, and Space. Or if you prefer, spend as much time as you like making creatures, vehicles, buildings and spaceships with Spore’s unique Creator tools.
CREATE Your Universe from Microscopic to Macrocosmic - From tide pool amoebas to thriving civilizations to intergalactic starships, everything is in your hands.
EVOLVE Your Creature through Five Stages - It’s survival of the funnest as your choices reverberate through generations and ultimately decide the fate of your civilization.
EXPLORE your world and beyond - Will you rule, or will your beloved planet be blasted to smithereens by a superior alien race?
SHARE with the World - Everything you make is shared with other players and vice versa, providing tons of cool creatures to meet and new places to visit.

Maxwell Render is Updated

Next Limit Technologies announces an update to Maxwell Render. The new version Maxwell Render 1.7 adds new features and enhancements. I covered Maxwell Render in Chapter 4 of Maya Plugin Power. Anything that Next Limit does is of superior quality. Check it out and get yourself a demo version. You can download a pdf user guide to new features in v1.7 HERE.

This latest update, which is available now for existing customers, offers several new and vastly improved features including:A new Physical Sky system: several real-life, physically accurate parameters can be used to control the look of the sky and the resulting light in the scene, ranging from common Earth values to exaggerated fantasy skies. A new Sub-Surface Scattering component: SSS simulates the effect of light entering a translucent object and scattering inside it. Fully rewritten, the Maxwell SSS component follows an entirely new approach compared to the old system or to any other SSS system currently available. Enhancements in the Material Editor: incremental updates in the material preview, storing material swatches, new image controls, wizards, and more. An easier-to-use and faster Material Editor. Plug-in enhancements: all available plug-ins have been updated to ensure full compatibility with version 1.7, and have seen improvements and bug fixes. Improvements in Maxwell Studio: texture handling and memory optimizations, Realtime OpenGL preview of Physical Sky, improved material browser, and much more. Maxwell Render 1.7 and the updated plug-ins are available for download from the customer download area. All Maxwell Render customers will receive an email with the new link. The public release of Maxwell Render 1.7 will take place some days after the client release, when the demo will be re-enabled so that non-clients can test drive the new version.

New Texturing Tools from RenderHeads

I stumbled upon these two helpful plugins and wanted to mention them here. You can see some video demos of them in action HERE. Check them out and get a trial.

Autodesk Maya Plugin - UVAutoRatio Pro

Overview
To get the most out of textures they should be mapped in proportion to the size of the geometry. Not doing so means that different parts of the scene will have different texture distribution, resulting in some textures appearing blurrier than others while some will be overly sharp, making the scene appear inconsistent and strange. Those objects with too much texture mapped to them waste memory and cause aliasing (flickering) due to the overly high frequency of texels.
Artists in the game and film industry can spend hours scaling UVs up and down manually trying to get them to the ideal proportion. This isn't a particularly fun job, in fact it's not something we should be wasting our time with. Wouldn't it be great if this tiresome task was automated?
Enter UVAutoRatio Pro: the complete tool for automating all texel ratio tasks.

Features

Very fast algorithm! Can quickly process thousands of objects/shells and very high polygon meshes.
Simple and flexible workflow. Just a few clicks to wield supreme power.
Operates on both meshes and UV shells.
Automatically fixes overlapping UV shells in a non destructive manner.
Maintains usage settings between sessions.
Compatible with all modern versions of Maya.
Windows installer for painless installation.
Unit-aware. No matter what distance units you're using it will give the correct results.
Professional support.

Autodesk Maya Plugin - SD_polyColorPerVertex

SD_polyColorPerVertex is a plugin command for Maya for advanced vertex colour manipulation. It was written to complement a tool by David Berenguer Viaplana called SD_vertexColorsPro2. David's script allowed artists to manipulate colours in real-time and was great for rapid user feedback. It was written in MEL though, and thus suffered severe slowdowns on anything but the simplest meshes.
This plugin command was written to cope with performing vertex colour manipulation on large meshes in real-time. While working on this we decided to add a few other features such as: randomise, contrast, levels, blur, dilate, erode and support for more selection types.

Features

RGB & HSV (and alpha) replace operation
RGB & HSV (and alpha) relative operation
Written for speed
Effects: contrast, levels
Filters: blur, dilate, erode
Supports all selections: object, face, edge, vertex, vertex-face, vertex-face on edge and face

The Gashlycrumb Tinies

I meant to have this post for Friday the 13th... but... ummm... well... it was Friday the 13th and things got in the way.

I am working on a project right now that made me think of one of my favorite artists. I always loved the pen and ink styling of Edward Gorey and the gothic genre. Here is a link to the 28 odd pages of alphabet drawings that constitute the "Gashleycrumb Tinies". It's my favorite book by Gorey. I have always been influenced by his unique work. Check out Amphigorey and other Gorey books HERE. It's macabre fun.

Maya Open Source HDR image readers

Cryogenic Graphics has released HDRFlowMaya2008. This open source code is a collection of floating point image readers for Autodesk's Maya 2008. Originally supported on OSX only it is now available for XP/Vista. It supports ILM's OpenEXR, DPX, TIFF, HDR and digital camera's RAW formats.

HDRFlow is a open source framework and application to process and capture high-dynamic range (HDR) and RAW images. It is written in C++, and is both cross-platform and hardware accelerated on modern GPUs.

It is in development and current features include:

- Multiple channel playback
- Real-time hardware based pan and zoom
- GPU based visualisation tools
- Extensive Python scripting
- Look up tables support

SIGGRAPH 2008 Advance Program is available now.

The SIGGRAPH Advance Program is available for download. It's a .pdf file. Check it out. It's a good way to check out whats in store this year and helps you plan your assault on the conference in LA. There are changes to the levels of participation this year so read it carefully. I think the changes are smart ones.

Remember that the advanced registration deadline is July 4th. It will save you a little money registering prior to this date.

Voice-O-Matic Automatic Lip Sync for Maya Characters

I love a good catchy name but Voice-O-Matic makes me feel like dicin' and slicin' veggies. I suppose the product name is no reflection about how well a software program functions... Look at the Video Toaster. It started a revolution. I have not had a chance to toy with VOM so I can't really comment. The product was ported from 3D Max. The company Di-O-Matic has a slew of O-Matic plugins and software for Max. VOM and VOMbatch are their first attempts at gaining some of the Maya marketshare.


The Voice-O-Matic website can be found here
You can get a video Demo here.

VOM has some impressive features. If anyone has a chance to use it. Let me know what you think.


- Complete phonetic support, use up to 40 different phonemes
- Support most languages, including English, French, Spanish, Japanese and
others
- Intelligent smoothing, to get better lip synchronization results
- Weight-able Visemes Intensity, easily set emphasis on any given Visemes
- Standard keys creation, so animations can be modified easily
- Custom tangents type, change the keyframe tangents type
- Audible phoneme audio cues, hear the phonemes pronunciation
- .lwv file support, use LISET from Microsoft to process the audio recognition
- Scripting support, to easily fit in your pipeline
- Float Licensing, so you can share license(s) across your network.
- Batch Processing, VOMBatch exclusively available to VIP members

Lenore, Big Headed Kitty, Roman Dirge and more...

I have always been inspired by the strange and macabe. There are many artists that are really original and are constantly amusing to me. One of them is Roman Dirge. His most famous effort was the comic series called Lenore. I was recently turned on to a stash of short webisodes of Lenore animation. These are stories from the comic that Sony had turned into flash shorts. It consists of the whole set of 26 episodes ever created. Check them out before they are gone forever.



Lenore Stash




Roman also created some other comic stories. One of these was previously unknown to me. It's called The Cat with a Really Big Head, and One Other Story that Isn't as Good.

Now as you can imagine this discovery sent us for a loop as our site is similarly named. The truth be known we were unaware that there were other similarly afflicted cats in the world. Roman's cat is not the hero of our site. He certainly has a much "bigger" problem than our "Big Headed Kitty" has. We wish Roman's cat all the best and hope the swelling goes down. We really do.
You can get a copy of The Cat with a Really Big Head, and One Other Story that Isn't as Good here at Amazon. If your interested in Lenore...You can get the comics here.

Craft Animation delivers new plugin for Maya

Craft Animation has introduced a new plugin for Maya. This is not mentioned in Maya Plugin Power. Check it out...

If you hate splines you are not alone. Make one little change to the spline and everything along the path gets changed!

That's because splines work in percentages. What if they didn't? What if you could actively 'drive' the node along the spline? What if you could program 'waypoints' to stop, slowdown, wait etc.

Craft Spline Speed-Controller does just that. If you change the length of the spline your 'waypoints' will stay in the same place. Each waypoint gives you the option of programming a speed change, a stop or a delay. The possibilities are endless. Below are a few case studies.

SIGGRAPH 2008 Los Angeles

It's time to start saddling up for SIGGRAPH 2008. Prices for airline flights are not getting any cheaper with the fuel situation in this country. Don't procrastinate Register NOW. Don't wait till the last minute or you may find yourself without a SIGGRAPH sanctioned hotel and reasonable airfare.

Don't get stuck booking the Milner... Trust me on this...



The Evolution Starts Now

SIGGRAPH 2008 is evolving along with the computer graphics and interactive techniques community. We're dissolving the borders between traditional SIGGRAPH programs to create a more fluid, interdisciplinary conference. And we're offering presenters more flexible options for sharing their work.
Join us in Los Angeles in August for the highest quality, most timely educational experiences the community has to offer, presented by the most powerful and most engaging leaders in computer graphics and interactive techniques.

SIGGRAPH ASIA call for participation

Thought I would mention SIGGRAPH ASIA 2008. They still have open calls for participation. I think it's exciting that they are holding an Asian event.

The first ACM SIGGRAPH Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphicsand Interactive Techniques in Asia opens in Singapore on 10 December 2008.

For four fascinating days, SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 will extend the horizons of innovation and excellence. It will feature creative, scientific, and educational work that provokes thought, explores ideas in innovative ways, addresses contemporary issues, interactively engages viewers in discovery, and stimulates their intellect and imagination.

All members of the computer graphics community in Asia and throughout the world are invited. Reserve your exhibit space now. Submit your work for consideration when the online submission system opens in early February. And in early July, when online registration and hotel reservations become available, make plans to be in Singapore for this historic event.

Call for Participation
Now Available: Online Submission forAll SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 Programmes

Giant Killer Robots and those that TRY to protect us

Watching the Marvel webisode from the previous post reminded me of a really funny CG short I saw at SIGGRAPH 2007. It was called The Recent Future Robot: Helper Z. I have no clue as to what all of the title means but it made me laugh. I usually come away with a few personal Best of Shows. This was one of them. Maybe I was in a mood but I really couldn't stop laughing. Just goes to show that if you have a good story or clever idea it can go a long way. Check out The Recent Future Robot: Helper Z here:

CG, Iron Man, and why I'm not a casting director.

I saw Iron Man this weekend and it was great. I had a few thoughts...

Director Jon Favreau has always gone on record as saying he likes to keep the use of CG to a minimum. If an effect can be done by practical means then he prefer it do be done that way. That seems reasonable. I certainly won't hold that against him. When he needed his CG effects he went to ILM. The film is entertaining, fun and engaging. That's what's really important. The transition between practical and CG effects is seamless. I have this really bad habit of watching a film for the visuals alone. Watching a film always becomes an unavoidable game of "CG or Practical: You Make The Call" or "How would I do have done that effect?". I am breaking myself of this habit and just enjoying the film as it was intended. It's hard. I'm progressing in baby steps. I am trying to save those games for the DVD release now.

If you'd like to see Iron Man with Spiderman and the Hulk check out this full CG webisode clip from the Marvel Kids ... Very nice stuff.




What made a bigger impression on me was Robert Downey Jr's performance as Tony Stark. He was really terrific. He WAS the movie. It just reminded me of my lack of vision for casting. I think I have a fertile imagination but I am not able to make the connection between actor and character. Oh sure, Pierce Brosnan as James Bond that was easy... Daniel Craig as James Bond now that was visionary. He wound up being one of the best 007's in decades even as people complained harshly. I stay neutral now. Ever since I predicited dread and doom for Die Hard because someone thought Bruce Willis would make a good action star, I recognize my deficiency. I would not have had the vision to pick Robert Downey as Tony Stark. Now I can't imagine anyone else in the role. He owns it.

That's why I'm not a casting director.

I received my copies of Maya Plugin Power

Well, two days to go before the release of "Maya Plugin Power" on May 9, 2008. I got my copies on May Day. I have to say that for all the struggle... It turned out great. I am very proud of the final result.

They finally changed the cover image to the proper one on Amazon.Thanks to all the people that help me get this book out the door.

Cheers,

Mark

Smith Micro releases Poser Pro with Maya support

Hi,

Poser has become a very popular program and it screams to be used in a larger production pipeline. Intergration of Poser with higher end packages has been dubious at best. There have been solutions for integrating Poser with Maya, Max, and C4D. Reiss Studio created a plugin called Body Studio that allowed for the export of Poser files to Maya, Max, and C4D. interPoser Pro is an app from Kuroyumes Development Zone for integrating C4D and Poser.

http://www.reiss-studio.com/

http://www.kuroyumes-developmentzone.com/products_interposer_pro.html

I don't know much about interPoser Pro but from C4D users I have talked to it's great. My experience with Reiss Studio has been less than stellar. I have owned Body Studio for Maya for years and have never gotten it working correctly. Their customer service is terrible. While upgrading it for possible inclusion in Maya Plugin Power I was charged 3 times for the software. repeated attempts to remedy my problems have fallen on deaf ears. Their custmer service is a huge joke. I would be happy to document my problems for anyone interested. Their total lack of interest in returning my emails ultimately led to their exclusion from Maya Plugin Power. This was a real shame.

But I digress... SmithMicro is now the company name attached to the developement of Poser(SmithMicro is Efrontier). They have announced Poser Pro. Below is a portion of their press release from the website.

Poser Pro includes PoserFusion™ plug-ins, which enables hosting of both animated and static Poser scenes in Autodesk® 3ds Max®, Autodesk® Maya® and Maxon's CINEMA 4D. Poser Pro supports COLLADA data interchange, which permits the import of 3D data and the export of Poser scenes with character rigging and blend zones, morph targets, texture information, lighting, cameras and other scene details.

This mean that Poser now includes native plugin support for Maya, Max, and C4D.

I can't yet confirm this but Reiss Studio may have sold their plugin technology to SmithMicro. If anyone can confirm that I would love to hear about it. If that is the case I am sure SmithMicro didn't purchase Reiss Studios lousy support.

Here is a link for more info on Poser Pro.

http://www.smithmicro.com/default.tpl?group=news_full&id1=433&id2=13

and check out this blog for great info on Poser Pro

http://www.poserpro.net/blog/poser_pro/


Anyway you slice it, this is great news for those of us interested in incorporating Maya and Poser.


Stay Tuned,

Mark

Anzovin Studio Releases New Plugin

I haven't had a chance to look at it yet but if The Face Machine is half as helpful as The Setup Machine 2 is, it's going to be great. I'll write a report on it as soon as I get my hands on it and test it out. In the mean time you can check it out here





Cheers,

Mark

BHK Website links for Maya: Plugin Power

Here are a couple of links for the Maya Plugin Power website. More to come. Please let me know if there are any problems, complaints, or suggestions.

Big Headed Kitty Gallery

Maya Plugin Resource Links

Maya Plugin Chapter Compatibility Chart

Thanks,

Mark

Who is Big Headed Kitty?

I know. Strange name for a website, blog, and cat. The Big Headed Kitty (bhk) is a character we have been working on. He's a kitty. He has a big head. You get the idea.

This is also the blog of the www.bigheadedkitty.com website. This will be a clearing house for my book, "Maya: Plugin Power". This will have news, corrections, additions, extras, and anything else pertaining to the book. I also hope to use this site as a comprehensive collection of knowledge on Maya plugins, and other software that may work well in conjunction with Maya.

Look for Maya: Plugin Power on Maya 9, 2008

or order it here.

ttfn,

Mark