Exocortex Alembic released

[Memag]

Alembic for Softimage

The Exocortex Alembic for Softimage plugin, a component of the Exocortex Alembic suite , is our deep integration of Alembic into the Autodesk Softimage DCC tool. The design of the Exocortex Alembic for Softimage plugin, lead by Autodesk Master Helge Mathee , serves as the basis for all of our other implementations.

The primary interface with our Softimage plugin is via the Alembic File Import and File Export commands, accessible via scripting as well as through the Softimage menu system. Our Exporter automatically bakes your selected scene elements into a compact and organized Alembic file. Our Importer automatically recreates your scene elements from the Alembic file including both your geometry and your transforms. We do bake down complex transform hierarchies into a flat tree for ease of scene composition.

Our importer makes use of live operators for streaming Alembic data into the target objects, thus operating similar to how referencing works in Softimage scenes. Referencing data allows for one to version that live data separate from the scenes being used to combine that data into a coherent whole for rendering.

read more...



Moderator edit: I know I'm inconsistent (sorry), but I thought this warranted a new thread (it being a release after all this time),
so I split this from the "beta" thread - HB

[Maximus]

While it is exciting that a lot of things are coming out for softimage, its a bit frustrating to see those same things integrated by other software houses in their packages.
Feeling like Soft is becoming plug-in dependant which is going to start to be expensive.
Hats off to Helge and Exocortex for the work which should always be recognized and i'm sure it will be worth the price. Dont get me wrong, its just that i expected to see some of the actual plugins out there (this included) developed and integrated by Autodesk.

Nice new nonetheless, good work. Next gonna be Ptex support? Multichannel EXR for mental ray?

[Hirazi Blue]

I wonder what happened to development of Exocortex MaelstromFX, as I cannot seem to find it on the newest incarnation of the Exocortex website anymore (at least not directly), while this was one of the main products Exocortex itself was developing AFAIK.

But quickly adding a remark about Exocortex Alembic: It looks impressive, but as Alembic seems to be a pure pipeline enhancement (but an important one at that), as a strictly single user I see no benefits from it personally.

[Memag]

as a strictly single user I see no benefits from it personally

If you use Max, Maya, SI for your daily work, Alembic would be quite handy to move data around.

[xsisupport]

as a strictly single user I see no benefits from it personally

If you use Max, Maya, SI for your daily work, Alembic would be quite handy to move data around.

Don't you already have FBX for that? Alembic is more about moving data through a pipeline, not so much about transferring scenes back and forth between apps.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/x ... mvdvnhkJYJ

The Alembic format isn't a format meant to round-trip scenes between applications like FBX. It's about baking everything down and move that cached data down in the pipeline. It's not lossless and doesn't define a way to store materials information, for example, like Collada would. For Autodesk, it's more of an alternative to nCache (and fully-plotted FBX files). A very high-performance one.

[Memag]

I stand corrected.

Alembic is the computer graphics interchange format developed by the two entertainment giants last year
and focused on efficiently storing and sharing animation and visual effects scenes across multiple software applications.

http://www.alembic.io/updates.html

[luceric]

First thing, read the front page of http://alembic.io, or read background on it.
Alembic is about moving baked geometry, although it can do somewhat do particles as well, but you can't interchange particle attributes between arbitrary apps easily.

A drive-by person with a web browser may think that a format that is said to "move animation between packages" would support animation curves. Alembic does not, and that's only one of the many things it does not. But that doesn't need to be said when Film VFX people talk to other VFX People because they wouldn't try to do this, they work in a pipeline with everything baked and moving forward down the pipeline. The Houdini simulation guy also doesn't care about shading and materials. They created this as super .obj sequence alternative.

Would it be useful for a freelancer on his PC? I would say only if FBX and its baking would fall of its face for some reason. The performance benefits you would get if at a point when you're dealing with baked geometry caches and lots of data.

[Kzin]

First thing, read the front page of http://alembic.io, or read background on it.
Alembic is about moving baked geometry, although it can do somewhat do particles as well, but you can't interchange particle attributes between arbitrary apps easily.

A drive-by person with a web browser may think that a format that is said to "move animation between packages" would support animation curves. Alembic does not, and that's only one of the many things it does not. But that doesn't need to be said when Film VFX people talk to other VFX People because they wouldn't try to do this, they work in a pipeline with everything baked and moving forward down the pipeline. The Houdini simulation guy also doesn't care about shading and materials. They created this as super .obj sequence alternative.

Would it be useful for a freelancer on his PC? I would say only if FBX and its baking would fall of its face for some reason. The performance benefits you would get if at a point when you're dealing with baked geometry caches and lots of data.

its not only to move things from one packgae to another, its also from one department to another. working with baked stuff for lighting/shading is way more comfortable and stable then dynamic scenes in which you have to resimulate all the stuff.

[Hirazi Blue]

As Exocortex is also planning Alembic plugins for Maya and Max I am wondering how plugin "independent" (as in: doesn't care whose plugin you use) this format really is. Autodesk included Alembic functionality in Maya 2012 SAP, AFAIK, but I assume Exocortex will be planning something that's even better. Would you need the Exocortex Alembic for Maya plugin to interact optimally with the Softimage one? Or would the Autodesk version for Maya do just as well?
Or is this perhaps, for the old folks around, something like the infamous MSX revisited? A basic framework with too many options to build upon, making it not all that interchangeable in the end?
;)

[luceric]

We were wondering this week what is the advantage for maya. I have a theory, but I think exocortex should clarify that.

[Lord Futzi Voldemort]

Don't you already have FBX for that?

yes, we should have. but since fbx is still a bit like a one legged man, everything that helps in this field is welcome.


Achim

[Chris_TC]

yes, we should have. but since fbx is still a bit like a one legged man

When trying to exchange data between Softimage and Max or Softimage and Maya, I'd have to say it's a bit like a one legged blind man with no ears.
The path from Max to Softimage is completely useless because everything comes in triangulated (yes, I did turn off the option in the Max exporter). And forget about something like curves, they get thrown away. Also, the resulting scene is one big mess of nested nulls. OBJ may be old, it may be simple, but at least it works. No curves with that either, but the geometry and scene layout make sense. It just works.

I've already given up hope that we will some day be able to export scene layers and instances out of Softimage using FBX. According to the compatibility chart, Max and Maya handle these things fine via FBX, but not Softimage. Oh well, I digress, as this isn't something the Alembic format can help with either.