Maya nHair - how hard to repro?

[scaron]

First - you don't have any proper styling tools. I like the styling tools the original Softimage Hair has - this is one of the biggest pros of it.

with the new custom tool sdk, i think this is possible now.

[ace63]

First - you don't have any proper styling tools. I like the styling tools the original Softimage Hair has - this is one of the biggest pros of it.

with the new custom tool sdk, i think this is possible now.

Yes I thought so too when they introduced the new SDK - problem is that it will probably take quite some time to implement this.

[dwigfor]

Essentially its now the Nucleus solver that's driving nHair so it improves things abit.

I'm waiting to see some of this stuff though ;)
http://www.3dworldmag.com/2011/08/09/au ... echnology/

That does sound great! Bellsey, I don't know if you have contact with the decision makers higher up on what new technology goes to what platform, but if you want to mention to those people, that if Autodesk wanted to really sell a lot of Suites, then it would be the smartest move to put that XGen into Softimage first - that would sell the most Suite seats -fast. If they put it into Maya first, that would do little for the sales of Suites.

I just read an interesting post on cgtalk that sounds directly related to why Autodesk hasn't released xgen yet... Infringement of Joe Alter's patent.

And the trigger for suing Disney is (from the legal doc):

Quote:
What has brought the Defendant's infringement(s) to the Plaintiff's attention wast heir announcement that they plan to license their production software in direct competition with the Plaintiff for worldwide distribution.



Seeing as autodesk were licensing Xgen (http://www.3dworldmag.com/2011/08/0...gen-technology/). Wondered why we haven't seen any results from that deal yet?

Including xgen with (presumably) Maya would have cut the knees out from underneath Shave sales, so Alter is understandably concerned.

cheers,
chrisg

Yeti Fur will not be sold in the US
“To avoid a potential ongoing and expensive legal dispute with Joe Alter respecting the scope of his patent, Peregrine and Alter have executed a settlement agreement in which Peregrine has agreed not to sell or license the Yeti plug-in to users located within the geographic boundaries of the United States until his patent expires.”

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread. ... ge=1&pp=15

[Hirazi Blue]

The "Alter vs. Disney" case seems to already have been settled:

Alter now claims, and court records confirm, that he and Disney agreed to a settlement.

(Quoted from here)

No mention of the kind of settlement, obviously... Quoting Joe Alter directly:

I can’t discuss the settlement, however you can be pretty sure it wasn’t enough to cover the damage this thing’ll do but was enough to feel good about at least standing my ground and not being a complete puss.

(Quoted from here also)
;)

[Mathaeus]

Yeah.....poor Yeti. BTW, from my understanding, patent is related to 'stepping' creation of local coordinates along strand. Functionally, something similar to 'deform by curve', or 'extrusion along curve' operators in 3d apps. Ironically, imho just this feature didn't helped that much, nicely to say.

Just for the record, *if* I'm right, no one of ICE hair systems uses this. At least, no one of public available. Exactly for kristinka Hair, this method requires 'repeat' node, which I learn to avoid in order to keep the performance. So actual method for creating local cords in kH is a 'stupid', but very reliable transfer from NURBS geo - which then introduces additional complexity.... And ICE has more than enough force to drive this.

Imho, great styling, still artist friendly, belongs to Hair Farm for Max, which is using the 'Hair Mesh', or, interpolation along mesh extrusion. Who knows, maybe this one is patented, too.

[talent103]

I hear that Cinema 4D has the best hair system. Not sure if that is true or not.

[Mathaeus]

I hear that Cinema 4D has the best hair system. Not sure if that is true or not.

Yes, definitively *much* more options than XSI hair, reliable simulation.... Only one small 'I don't like' from my side, it's a 'post process' way of shading in default renderer, but I think this is intentional, to get it faster.

[talent103]

Well I upgraded to the Softimage Suite last year and just installed 2013 last weekend so I will be trying out Maya's N hair and see how I like it.

[ace63]

Well the good thing is we can now transfer Maya Hair to Softimage via Alembic

[origin]

hairfarm's stuff is also patented. Maybe thats the reason these tools never got updated?http://www.ephere.com/geometry/hair/

[talent103]

Yes Ace I forgot about Alembic. I will see if I can use that to import to XSI. I was actually thinking of just rendering a hair pass from Maya. However if I can keep the rendering in XSI that might be best.

[jamination]

Well the good thing is we can now transfer Maya Hair to Softimage via Alembic

this is great for some people, but I don't see Softimage getting another hair solution from Autodesk (as much as it may be needed) for this very reason. If they spread the strengths among all 3 packages, it encourages suite purchases, and I really hate the idea of having to learn another package in order to do something that should be included in the base package (of Softimage, that is).

[bottleofram]

this is great for some people, but I don't see Softimage getting another hair solution from Autodesk (as much as it may be needed) for this very reason. If they spread the strengths among all 3 packages, it encourages suite purchases, and I really hate the idea of having to learn another package in order to do something that should be included in the base package (of Softimage, that is).

Hear, hear!



I knew from the day those suites came out, this can not end well for the end user. And this idea that softimage is benefiting because its being included in both suites is also a bit of a nonsense. ICE might benefit from it, but softimage as a whole... not at all. Quite the opposite.

[Hirazi Blue]

Well Autodesk needn't give us a new hair system, per se. They just should hire Joe Alter to bring his apparent black box (luceric's words, not mine) somewhat and somehow up to date, if Joe can find the time between court cases, that is...
;)

[luceric]

that post said the exact opposite of trying to fix or update the built-in hair.

[Hirazi Blue]

Sure, but I mentioned the post for the sole reason you called XSI Hair a "black box" there.
And that's exactly why I linked to it...

his apparent black box (luceric's words, not mine)

;)