What would make your workflow better?

DarthNater · Mar 2010

I've decided to focus a little more on programming and I need some help from everyone...

I have no idea what the hell to create. This is where this thread comes in:

What could I create to make you're lives easier? I'm not going to be doing any scripting yet so please don't say things like (make max do this...) I'm talking a complete, standalone program that may speed up or improve your flow.

The only idea I had, and I started working on this a few years ago so some if it is done - was a program that would give you a grayscale map (things like noise, clouds, etc...). I tend to use it when I just want a quick organic mask for making materials in UE3 and don't feel like firing up PS. (it's a Lerp's best friend

)

Joao Sapiro · Mar 2010

well making my workflow easier is to incorporate usefull things in modeling or painting package, those dont require me executing another program and exporting stuff etc.

Sorry for not beeing helpfull :P maybe someone has a good idea !

DarthNater · Mar 2010

This is true Johny. I was trying to avoid making a solution for just 1 package, also, I've been putting off learning .Net for years now and I think it's time (I know I could then use that with MAX, hopefully the other big packages will follow)...

bounchfx · Mar 2010

a back massage from Scarlett Johansson. that'd definitely improve my workflow.

but really, stuff like GoZ is great, making it easier for programs to communicate back and forth with each other. I've still yet to find a good way to do projection painting between 3d max and Photoshop (though i watch the video at slipgatecentral's blog (forgot his name but he won DW4) often and I want a workflow like that but so far haven't had any luck)

just keep your ears (eyes) open around the forum to see what people are bitching about and try to find a way to improve that for them

Sage · Mar 2010

You know what would rock, a set of procedural textures like noise etc, that you can make a loopable animations with! Also a converter that can turn these to say animated normal maps if desired.

Along those lines a set of filters that are always seamless or won't break a seamless texture.

Kwramm · Mar 2010

some clever program that handles default paths and paths of the current project across all programs I use. Export an obj from max? It wants to put it in the /export folder. Want to load stuff in ZB? It looks for it somewhere else. Same goes for Maya...
I source textures in PS from drive X but my work is on drive Z. Sure the next save dialog will pop up on drive X though.

There's some "default path" programs for Win but they all have their shorcomings (or tend to stop working with Win 7).

Sorry, I can't think of anything else and I doubt that you'll be able to create something like this if you're just looking into programming

Ruz · Mar 2010

soemthing to do with cloth simulation or even hair. now hair stuff would be awesome ie low poly plane hairstyle generator

DarthNater · Mar 2010

Sage wrote: »

You know what would rock, a set of procedural textures like noise etc, that you can make a loopable animations with! Also a converter that can turn these to say animated normal maps if desired.

Along those lines a set of filters that are always seamless or won't break a seamless texture.

That's sorta what I was working on a few years ago. I wanted it to make tilable procedurals... Maybe I'll go back to this until I get something more useful

@Ruz, that's a good idea too. Once I get back into the swing of things, I'll look at that (that shouldn't be too hard really...)

@Kwramm - Can't you just change them all to the same folder in the respected program? That has to be a setting somewhere :P

Ben Apuna · Mar 2010

A universal file format that would work with all 3d applications and all game editors and store everything perfectly (geometry, transformations, vertex normals, vertex color, multiple UV sets, smooth groups, rigs, animations, blend shapes, scale information, subD weighting, etc...).

ZacD · Mar 2010

A project organizer for multiple apps would be good, also with options to invert green change on normal maps with a click, and a way to put the transparency map into the alpha channel of the diffuse and the height map into the alpha of the normal maps without having to open an image editor.

pior · Mar 2010

I think it would be interesting to dig in the recent photoshop coding/customization possibilities. For instance someone released a whole new interface for CS4, to make it behave like a sketchpad (lost the link BTW!! Anyone has it?) And if you go even further, you can program some UI widgets letting you create new color pickers, maybe a brush tester/organizer tool, and so on.

As far as 3D goes : focusing on UI user interaction on the biggest apps. Like the max ribbon but better? Pie menus too, just like in the wacom driver.

And to bridge the two worlds : a solid solution for exporting a screenshot to photoshop, paint over it, and reapply it on the mesh (obj, or inside max or maya). All solutions available at this current day pretty much suck with no exception! I wouldnt mind a standalone app for that, if it's powerful enough.

Plugins for Al.Che.My too!

throttlekitty · Mar 2010

Ruz wrote: »

soemthing to do with cloth simulation or even hair. now hair stuff would be awesome ie low poly plane hairstyle generator

How about a vertex re-indexer for polygon hair or complex layered meshes?

pior · Mar 2010

Agree with Ruz on the lowpoly hair too!!

JordanW · Mar 2010

Try using hair and fur, you can place low poly meshes as the hair object

Mr_Drayton · Mar 2010

Uhm... An holographic 3D machinery to manipulate 3D models like clay?

Haha, really, the best thing would be having some sort of visual editor for making NDS games... And some kind of 3DS Max plugin to remove seams between UVW maps!

Kwramm · Mar 2010

DarthNater wrote: »

@Kwramm - Can't you just change them all to the same folder in the respected program? That has to be a setting somewhere :P

In theory - yes

but as tech artist I work with many different projects, files and apps. Having a central place to manage those settings for the apps I use would be awesome.

I know there's extensions around for windows file open/save dialogues and you might be even able to make this stuff app specific by looking at running processes or whatever. It's just that I never really found a tool that actually performed flawlessly.

ZacD · Mar 2010

I really wish there was a standard for organizing files, so you don't have to re attach every texture when going in between apps.

[Deleted User] · Mar 2010

3d texture painting with a normal map showing, using photoshop brushes. And a pony.

Something to sort out the render order for alpha stuff in Max would be cool. Like if it moved the pivots or re-created the objects in a specific order, just to make it look right for viewport rendering.

Folder shortcuts from a sidebar on the regular windows Open dialog would be nice, so that you could skip to whatever folder you're working in when going between programs.

CheeseOnToast · Mar 2010

Some kind of "magic" retopology tool, that could let you draw the major edgeloops on a high/decimated highpoly model, and fill in the rest for you, with adjustable, real-time parameters. Yeah, I know, incredibly difficult to do.

UV mapping used to be a chore, but the tools are there now and I actually enjoy the process using Headus UVLayout or similar. Topology tools are improving, but they're not there yet and it's still the most tedious part of asset creation for me just now.

Clockwork · Mar 2010

While UV tools are better than in 1950s, it's not a single button click and done. So make that.

DarthNater · Mar 2010

Well, that's a lot of suggestions, thanks everyone! Looks like Hair and Fur are winning at the moment HA.

I don't know if this exists, but what if I made an app that loaded your mesh and you could 'paint' low poly planes where you wanted the hair?

Oh and Krwamm, I'm going to look at the major apps and see if I can change settings without actually opening the app (like an .ini file or something) maybe I could whip you something up that allowed you to set paths...

Mark Dygert · Mar 2010

CheeseOnToast wrote: »

Some kind of "magic" retopology tool, that could let you draw the major edgeloops on a high/decimated highpoly model, and fill in the rest for you, with adjustable, real-time parameters. Yeah, I know, incredibly difficult to do.

UV mapping used to be a chore, but the tools are there now and I actually enjoy the process using Headus UVLayout or similar. Topology tools are improving, but they're not there yet and it's still the most tedious part of asset creation for me just now.

You can almost do this now.
Lay out your rings lets say for an arm so one at the shoulder, one at the elbow and one at the wrist. Then select the boarders and use bridge, turn up the segments and use MaxRetopo or ConformWrap to conform the low poly mesh to the high.

Also there is polydraw in polyboost, but you're right its not a one click, done kind of affair, I'm not sure you can get that...

Kwramm · Mar 2010

DarthNater wrote: »

Oh and Krwamm, I'm going to look at the major apps and see if I can change settings without actually opening the app (like an .ini file or something) maybe I could whip you something up that allowed you to set paths...

That's actually a good idea! cheers

Farfarer · Mar 2010

Application-sensitive cutomiseable multi-leveled pie-menus.

Something that could detect which app it was activated on top of and give a menu of options that'd be sent as keystrokes/instructions to that app.

Would be very handy for "expert modes" or when using tablet and not having to be precise about clicking buttons on the edge of the screen.

gsokol · Mar 2010

To improve my workflow? I'd like to see something similar to UnreadEds Asset Browser for my files. That way I can see all the assets I have in one location, and preview them without opening 3dsMax/photoshop/etc....

This would be especially cool if...say..you had a model of an evil robot, and you previewed it in the browser, and you can just launch 3dsMax with the evil robot file from there.

Would save me a lot of time when going through old files I haven't touched in a long time...

Illusions · Mar 2010

pior wrote: »

And to bridge the two worlds : a solid solution for exporting a screenshot to photoshop, paint over it, and reapply it on the mesh (obj, or inside max or maya). All solutions available at this current day pretty much suck with no exception! I wouldnt mind a standalone app for that, if it's powerful enough.

Have you given Photoshop CS4's 3D layers a try? You can either paint directly on the mesh, or paint in another 2D layer above it, and then merge the 2D layer down, at which point it will be applied like a projection texture, except with dropoff along the mesh edges. Also, if you're painting directly on the mesh, you can double click the texture .psb that Photoshop assigns to it and edit it in another document the traditional way.

@DarthNater - Like Pior and Talon said, a nice pie menu like Wacom has, or a nice right click menu like Maya has, or a pie taskbar/dock would be nice.

Edit:

fly_soup wrote: »

Folder shortcuts from a sidebar on the regular windows Open dialog would be nice, so that you could skip to whatever folder you're working in when going between programs.

I'm going to test it now, but if you have Windows 7 there is a fold in your user/documents folder called Links. If you put a shortcut to a folder in there, it should show up on the sidebar so long as you have it active.

Edit: Works in both the Explorer windows and Open File windows...

Marine · Mar 2010

radial menu on my intuos4 does just that, talon, might have been added to drivers for older tablets, but i've no idea

Kevin Johnstone · Mar 2010

For max 10 it would be handy to to have a script that converts to edit mesh, converts to edit poly, runs an Edit Normals > RESET modifier, Reset Xform 3 times and Collapses all ... you know, just so we could run this at the end of every operation in the grasping for straws hope that the app wouldnt crash so often and the mesh sections would remain operable on...

yes, i am Kevin's bulging forehead vein.

Firebert · Mar 2010

Kevin Johnstone wrote: »

yes, i am Kevin's bulging forehead vein.

hahahahahahahaa.... awesome

DarthNater · Mar 2010

Kevin Johnstone wrote: »

For max 10 it would be handy to to have a script that converts to edit mesh, converts to edit poly, runs an Edit Normals > RESET modifier, Reset Xform 3 times and Collapses all ... you know, just so we could run this at the end of every operation in the grasping for straws hope that the app wouldnt crash so often and the mesh sections would remain operable on...

yes, i am Kevin's bulging forehead vein.

That's doable too.... Maybe if you're shit wasn't so hi poly it wouldn't crash though! Seriously though, that wouldn't take all but 10 minutes to write up. Let me figure out these config files first :P

Everyone else, I'm liking this radial menu idea too. That may take some time though. I'm working on this junk in terms of how long they will take me to complete so I'm not ignoring you

SyncViewS · Mar 2010

Hi guys, sorry to hijack the thread. Kevin do you mean something like this script? It does exactly what you asked for, well resets XForm once only, but should be enough. Let me know if you like something else, like resetting the pivot or placing it somewhere, and so on.

macroScript IC_MeshFinalizer
category:"IllusionCatalyst Tools"
buttonText:"MeshFinalizer"
tooltip:"IC.MeshFinalizer"
(
    on execute do
    (
        for theNode in selection do
        (
            if ((superClassOf theNode) == GeometryClass) do
            (
                convertToMesh theNode
                convertToPoly theNode

                theEditNormMod = Edit_Normals()
                addModifier theNode theEditNormMod

                local iNumNormals = theEditNormMod.getNumNormals node:theNode
                theEditNormMod.Reset selection:#{1..iNumNormals} node:theNode

                resetXForm theNode
                collapseStack theNode
            )
        )
    )
)

JohnnyRaptor · Mar 2010

hmmm...something that boosts my motivation...that would ten-fold my workflow...

DarthNater · Mar 2010

Johnny I have sites that may help with that.... But they aren't safe for work. ha

Sync - post all you want. If you have a solution already, there's no point in me wasting my time :P Please, continue to help, there is a lot of good ideas here haha

macroScript IC_MeshFinalizer
category:"IllusionCatalyst Tools"
buttonText:"MeshFinalizer"
tooltip:"IC.MeshFinalizer"
(
    on execute do
    (
        for theNode in selection do
        (
            if ((superClassOf theNode) == GeometryClass) do
            (
                convertToMesh theNode
                convertToPoly theNode

                theEditNormMod = Edit_Normals()
                addModifier theNode theEditNormMod

                local iNumNormals = theEditNormMod.getNumNormals node:theNode
                theEditNormMod.Reset selection:#{1..iNumNormals} node:theNode

                resetXForm theNode
                resetXForm theNode
                resetXForm theNode

                collapseStack theNode
            )
        )
    )
)

There, now it does it 3 times HA

Blaizer · Mar 2010

For a better workflow, it's just to use better and improved apps.

An example, GOZ will make our workflow better ^^

I would like to paint my 3d models in realtime with quality (specular, bump, etc), photoshop style. Actual tools are very bad for me.

Ruz · Mar 2010

apparently Leanardo Da Vinci invented uv mapping.
EDIT oh sorry no that was parachutes

Mark Dygert · Mar 2010

ha, I don't think Ror's bulging forehead vein was being serious... but it never hurts to have another script, so thanks.

I like the hair/fur ideas.

I started creating a system, where you would designate a hair plane, it would grow hair, create a camera and render it, and UV map the geometry to match the camera view and apply the new material to the plane. basically a "capture hair cut" feature.

I ran into issues with getting the planes mapped when they where non standard shapes and there was an issue with getting things arranged. In the end it was easier to make a few planes and copy them around rather than try and juggle a bunch of cameras and UV layouts.

DarthNater · Mar 2010

Vig wrote: »

ha, I don't think Ror's bulging forehead vein was being serious... but it never hurts to have another script.

Shut up Vig, forehead vein's don't know anything else but seriousness!

update: Zbrush appears to use INI files and cfg files to save configs, but the damn things are all gibberish. I'm emailing pixologic to see if they can help at all (HA)... Can someone send me a config file (if it has one) for Maya and any other software you want me to try to get this default directory program thing (thats it's codename) to work with? I only have Max 2010, Zbrush, Photoshop and Mudbox so thats the only ones I can try and set this up with...

DarthNater · Mar 2010

Looks like Zbrush is out of the loop... You can't edit files from outside the program. boooooooo

I'm just waiting for my VS 2008 download to finish, and I'll start on Max. I guess you need it to use the Max SDK (and no I'm not pirating it, I'm using Dreamspark).

teaandcigarettes · Mar 2010

I want a package that gives an ability to model in sub-div, use sculpting tools (that are up there with Zbrush/Mudbox), has a nice, non-cluttered interface and 3d-painting features with proper masking and blending modes.

I heard that modo does most of it, but I'm not sure if it has reached that level yet. I'm too afraid of trying it out; I would hate to have my dream (the about a magical package that does it all and picks up chicks in the meantime) getting crushed.
Basically, the less time I spend switching between the programs, the happier I am.

Someone has mentioned it before; magical UV and retopology tools would be damn nice. Topogun and maxRetopo make my suffering less painful though.

pior · Mar 2010

Hehe Synch you actually need to reset xforms a few times, I usually click it three times. (but I know for sure that one and two give different results in many cases!)

DarthNater · Mar 2010

pior wrote: »

Hehe Synch you actually need to reset xforms a few times, I usually click it three times. (but I know for sure that one and two give different results in many cases!)

I've even had it go ape shit after collapsing it and I had to reset Xform AGAIN! Maybe that will be fixed in 2011................................................................................................................................. HAHAHAHAHAHA

Kwramm · Mar 2010

pior wrote: »

Hehe Synch you actually need to reset xforms a few times, I usually click it three times. (but I know for sure that one and two give different results in many cases!)

wohoo! And I thought I was the only paranoid x-form button masher. I'm not alone anymore!

What would make your workflow better?

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