is now code-cg.com.This site is maintained for informational purposes only
October 17, 2010 Leave a Comment
Your read it right.Pragmatic Artistry is now self hosted under the new domain name CODECG.COM. CODE-CG is an one stop spot for downloading scripts and plugins related to computer graphics in various scripting languages including MEL,Python,Perl,Hscript and many more.
Pay a visit to the revamped PRAGMATIC ARTISTRY
Watch out for new scripts and plugins in the coming days!!!
September 13, 2010 Leave a Comment
Finally got my linux distro equipped with full functionality to resume my work on open source platforms. Configuring the network using YaST was just a piece of cake with a really interactive UI that included every information for even the novice user to get the job done. This was the third time I was installing SUSE within a span of 6 months and I had switched back to good old windows every time because of the lack of fully functional drivers for my Radeon 4200. But this time the ATI repository came handy. Last two times I had tried the conventional ”windows-user style“: Download drivers>run the file>and there you go, which proved out to be the most stupid thing on the earth to do. I had just neglected the need for a xorg-x11-server which I finally downloaded using YaST.
The next thing was to get the X Window display driver for the ATI graphics accelerators and also ATI “fglrx” driver kernel module. Both packages could be found at:
http://www2.ati.com/suse/11.3/
After successful installation of the drivers the configuration can be set using the command aticonfig –initial which will save the xorg.conf with the new settings. Display modes can also be specified optionally using the command aticonfi –resolution=0,1280×1024,1024×768. I was planning to go with 1280×1024 resolution by default which left me with the need to specify just these two display modes.
The drivers can also be downloaded from:
X Window display driver for the ATI graphics accelerators
ATI “fglrx” driver kernel module
The next requisite was a screen capture tool that would help me prepare demos of the tools and also let me compile future tutorials which I intend to share in this space. Got hold of a simple and yet powerful screen capture App called recordMyDesktop. It provides two frontend options, one built on Gtk and the other on PyQT4. My love for Qt urged me to go for the Qt-based one.
Here is a screenshot of the recordMyDesktop App
The packages can be downloaded here
September 4, 2010 Leave a Comment
The above video demonstrates the procedure for adding new assets to an existing project directory tree created using MADAM. All the assets of the selected project can be accessed from the Assets tab in the Project Manager module.
The asset tab provides different options for managing the asset files of the project.The asset section has been categorized in to three types: Character, Bg, and Props. The category selection can be changed using the CATEGORY combo box. This will list all the asset names under the selected category. Each asset folder will contain the different file types Model, Texture, Rig and Render scene files.
New Assets can be created using the Add New Asset Dialog which can be accessed by clicking the Add button at the bottom left corner of the Assets tab
The Add New Asset dialog has a text field for entering the asset name and also a radio button group for specifying the asset category. Clicking Apply adds the asset in the specified category folder. Once the asset folder is created files can be added using the Manage button in the Assets tab. The Manage button provides the option for adding, updating, deleting and locking files.
Adding an asset file to the particular asset folder imports the specified file in to the repository. The File Info button in the Assets tab lists the revisions of the selected file. Clicking the File Info button brings up the MADAM Revision Log as shown below.
The selected file version can be checked out using the Checkout button in the Revision Log. This will open up a file browse dialog box where the user can select the path where the Work Copy should be saved.
September 3, 2010 Leave a Comment
The above video demonstrates the procedure for setting up a new project using the Project Manager Module in MADAM. The procedure involves choosing a network location for setting up the project directory tree. After choosing the location new project can be created using the Create New button in the Project Manager Dialog.
This brings up a dialog as shown below, where the user can specify the various attributes of the project including the Project Name, Number of Sequences, Sequence Name Padding. After specifying the attributes the Directory Tree can be created using the Create Project Directory button.
Below Screenshot shows the Project Directory Tree
The next step is to create an SVN repository for file revision control. The repository can be created using the Create Repository button in the Project Directory Creator dialog.This brings up the SVN MANAGER dialog as shown below.
The Server IP field is for specifying the machine IP in which the Subversion Server is running. The Check button can be used to know the status of the Server, whether its running or not. Once the server status is confirmed, the Browse button can be used to browse to the Project Directory. Select the project name from the combo box to get confirmation dialog asking whether Repository should be selected for the selected project or not. Select OK to create project repository.
July 22, 2010 2 Comments
A lopsided fight between two consenting unequals. An arena where the rules of fair play aren’t applicable. The sheer audacity of a frail android to challenge the herculean might of a formidable hulk. Pride, trickery, frustration and vengeance are all at play as the battleground turns murky. Hugo, a hulk with rippling muscles all over his frame responds to Lino’s open invitation in a newspaper advertisement to beat him in an arm-wrestling bout. The booty: One million dollars in cash. Hugo is gung-ho about winning hands down as Lino is not even half his size. Post the bout, Hugo goes berserk, Lino’s not impressed and all hell breaks loose. Watch this exhilarating fiction plot.
February 17, 2010 1 Comment
This is the first High-Definition short film from batch I of DNA Inc. And also my first assignment as Mentor since I got associated with DNA Inc. The task handed over to me was that of supervising and reviewing the asset building process and also setting up an efficient pipeline at par with the one available in high-end production houses.
The execution of the project in the scheduled time frame was indeed a challenge with 70-plus shots spanning across a duration of 4 mins. But I am glad that the effort was paid off in the end with the successful completion of the film as scheduled and also an amazing portfolio for every student who was involved in project.
The film was done entirely in Maya 2009 and rendered using Maya Software Renderer.
February 16, 2010 Leave a Comment
The year 2009 had been a wonderful year in terms of the professional assignments taken up.Relocating to a new city like Hyderabad too added enough thrill to life.But the most remarkable one being my new avatar in the form of mentor for the students of DNA Inc, a Path-Breaking initiative by Dilsukhnagar Arena.
The challenge of managing the work schedule at the same time wearing the cap of a mentor helped me in improving my time management skills. The last three months had been quite productive in terms of the tasks taken up, but at the same time found myself completely disconnected from the online space since the free time after work was minimal.
Now that I feel my absence in this space has crossed the tolerance level, I thought its time to get back and share the new things which I explored in the past few months.
December 7, 2009 Leave a Comment
QCalendar widget is one of the handy widgets provided by PyQt that can be included in your maya custom UI for the user to deal with date information.Apart from providing current date information to the user, Qcalendar widget can be used to get valid date inputs from the user.It includes a set of signals like selectionChanged() and currentPageChanged() which can be used to update the information based on user selection.
The selected date can be retrieved using the method selectedDate() which will return a Qdate.The day() and month() methods of QDate can be used to get seperate day and month values. Similarly longMonthName() method can be used to get the long names of the month since the method month() gives the month in number format (12 for December).
The usage is as follows:
myDate = myCalendar.selectedDate()
month = myDate.month()
day = myDate.day()
monthName = myDate.longMonthName(myDate.month())
The calendar grid visibility can be set for east readability using the setGridVisible() method which will accept a boolean value.
myCalendar.setGridVisible(True)
November 27, 2009 1 Comment
One more addon to favor the frequent visitors to this page.Now you can sign-up with your e-mail to get live updates of new techniques and tutorials covered in this space in your mail inbox. I just loved this new widget that wordpress introduced couple of days back which will help you keep track of your favorite blogs. Enter your e-mail address on the subscription widget and hit the Sign me up button and there you go!!!!
October 21, 2009 Leave a Comment
Finally, an end to the silence.For those of you who paid visit to this page more often, I hope the passive state that existed for more than two weeks didn’t disappoint you. Been there at the python conference that was conducted for the first time in India, the enthusiasm from the open source fraternity urged me to explore new realms of film making too. The days that followed were spend at the doors of google with just one goal; To come up with the best available tool set for open source film making. And all the doors led to one ultimate tool, BLENDER!!!. Even though I used to keep track of the recent advances in this wonderful animation package, the enthusiasm couldn’t be carried over to the next level since once you get back to work, you were always provided with the ones from software giants like Autodesk. But Pycon ignited a new fire in me to explore more in this direction and come up with a feasible solution for use in production. It was quite inspiring to find lot of actvity going on in this direction in online forums. Among those the one which caught my attention the most was the Blender to Renderman Artist Tools. I had a tough time getting a copy of the same since there were torrent links that were having very few seeders and also the ISO link that was provided was not working at all. Anyways now that I got a copy with me I thought it would be better to make it available for the ones who are already looking for a copy.Below listed are the contents of brat .5 rc2.
Compiled and sources of Blender 2.48, Aqsis 1.4.2, Pixie 2.2.5
Mosaic 0.2 Beta
Python 2.5.4 (installation for Windows – Linux already has it)
CGKit 2.0
Shaderman 0.7 and ShadermanNEXT
SLer
Shader sources (hundreds of them!!)
Shaderman shader projects
OpenEXR 1.4.0 (Windows install, Windows and Linux source)
OpenEXR 1.4.0 sample images
Dr. Queue (compiled and source)
Cutter
GIMP
Cinepaint (Linux only!! There is no recent Windows build)
Documentation from Pixars Online Research library as well as SIGGRAPH papers
Crimson Editor (Windows code editor)
Dev C++ and MinGW (Windows only, Linux has gcc which is the basis for all Linux builds)
Python scripts for Blender (various usefull ones not released with Blender)
Voodoo (for visual effects camera matchmoving)
Blender files (examples and test files)
Some usefull textures
You can download the ISO here or using the the widget on the sidebar
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