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Just for kicks: Printing out shading trees
kick -tree prints the shading network for a shader node. For example, given this: polymesh { ... shader "Sources.Materials.DefaultLib.Material.standard.SItoA.41000.1" ... } standard { name...
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[MtoA] Recipe for linear workflow
Ingredients 1 x Maya 1 x MtoA 1 x Monitor calibrated to sRGB Linear textures Procedure In the Render Settings, set all the Arnold gamma correction settings to 1.0. Set your Render View > Display to...
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Changing ASS files with the Arnold Python API
If you want to change something in existing ASS files, don’t write an ad-hoc script or your own parser for the ASS file. Use the Arnold API. The Arnold API includes a set of Python bindings, so you can...
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[MtoA] Creating color masks with a custom AOV and the Utility shader
In this video, I show how to a color mask AOV using a custom AOV and the Utility shader. Topics covered include: - Creating a custom AOV - Setting the default shader for a custom AOV - Setting up the...
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[SItoA] Adjusting camera exposure
Arnold added support for per-camera exposure awhile ago: Camera exposure control: All cameras, even custom cameras, have an exposure parameter that scales the pixel samples by 2 ** exposure ....
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[SItoA] Expressions for standins of animated sequences
A standin can load an animation sequence, such as circling_cubes.[1..25].ass. For example, if you open an Arnold_Standin property, click Browse, and select a sequence, Softimage automatically inserts a...
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Another case of a missing entry point
In this case, a user installed the latest MtoA, but when he went to load mtoa.mll in the Plug-in Manager, he got this error: --------------------------- Settings/Preferences: maya.exe - Entry Point...
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[SItoA] Unlimited batch rendering with xsibatch -processing
Hat tip: Andy Jones on the Softimage mailing list You can use xsibatch -processing to render scenes with Arnold. With -processing, xsibatch uses a Processing token instead of a Batch license, so you’re...
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[MtoA] The case of the renderer that failed to register
In this case, a customer running Maya 2013 on Ubuntu reported this error when he tried to load the mtoa plugin: API error detected in plugins/mtoa/Main.cpp at line 710: (kFailure): Unexpected Internal...
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Day 2 at FMX: The allure of Arnold
fxguide quick takes It was only in a small-ish room but the hustle and bustle outside the Solid Angle Arnold workshop showed just how much buzz this renderer has. In the session, Solid Angle founder...
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[MtoA] Using standins to load animation sequences
To load an animated sequence into a standin: In the Attribute editor for the StandInShape, under File/Frame, your Path should be something like example.####.ass (you must use four # symbols for the...
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[MtoA] Relative paths for standins
You can use relative paths in Maya (like “/Dog.ass” in the Path box of the StandinShape attributes). It can be relative to the project, or relative to the Procedural Search Path. An exported ASS file,...
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[SItoA] Stopping procedural textures from swimming
The Noise shader can access the Pref coordinates to prevent swimming. But for other procedural textures, you’ll have to take a different approach (unless you whip up [a relatively simple] shader to get...
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Using gobos instead of IES lighting profiles
Arnold does not support IES lighting profiles [generally, IES profiles are not used a lot in film/VFX work]. Most of the time, you can do what an IES light does by using an appropriate gobo (aka a...
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Texture search paths
With Arnold there are two things in an ASS file that specify the location of a texture file: The texture filename, which can be an absolute or relative path. The texture_searchpath in the render...
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[arnold] Getting RLM diagnostics from Arnold
If you want to double-check what license servers Arnold is trying to connect with, set the log verbosity level to the maximum, and you’ll get something like this: ' INFO : [arnold] 00:00:00 438mb [rlm]...
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Creating object mask AOVs that include opacity
Create a custom RGB AOV. Use aiWriteColor to write the object mask to the custom AOV. The Input color of the aiWriteColor is the mask color, and you have to enable Blend to get the opacity blended...
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[MacOSX] Setting up RLM to always start automatically
If you want the RLM license server to automatically start everytime you restart or turn on your Mac, you need to create a launch daemon. Don’t worry, it’s not as scary as it sounds First, you need...
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