A sub-thread (the discourse plugin hates threads)
Houdin—Max?
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the complexity of the pipeline can vary greatly between studios though (edited)
like all we got is some tools for validating content in maya, and adding some extra data that unity picks up and works with on the other end (edited)
yeah, i’m usually more interested in the process/thoughts
basically: do you think about validating data, if so on which side of the pipeline
do you standardize export processes
do you offer similar tools in multiple dccs or do you have one bespoke dcc?
do you generate lods or ask artists to make them manually?
yeah so pretty simple, stuff just seeing if its part of the thought process
yeah
depending on engine/usecase they might talk about look dev in engine v dcc
Yeah, and honestly adapting pipeline hostile tools, and inserting them into a pipeline is always a fun topic to explore as well
@bob.w should we move this to #blender then /s (edited)
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also, do you track stuff in jira/shotgun, do you/what do you version?
Or photoshop…
or max
agree with photoshop
have too little experience with max
Maya i found just fine when it comes to pipeline
Maya is pretty much the gold standard, but that might be Stockholm syndrom
not dug into houdini enough yet
Maya is pretty much the gold standard, but that might be Stockholm syndrom
I think the answer is both.
yes
Maya really did make some smart decisions, or at least was stuck with some very adaptable constraints.
Their plugin system turned out to be highly adaptable, and the fact that they dogfooded MEL for building most of the application got them an incredibly flexible scripting layer (edited)1
the best scripting api’s are always ones like that, where they use it internally to do features as well
I don’t know how intentional it was, but it also seemed to respect the 80/20 rule really well.
In that the last 20% was always going to be the hardest part, so why force it? Instead they’d build a very workable core, and leave it up to teams/studios to layer on that last layer where they could optimize for whatever local maxima they needed
I mean, that kind of attitude is what made most of us angry enough to be like “fuck you I can do this part better, and I will” so I’m thankful for spurring me towards my current career, but while annoying in the moment, from a broader “working with other tools” perspective it works out really well because you aren’t forced to do everything the "Maya Way "
that is how i learned program
was doing env art, think i had like maya 2009 or something
and had a fuck you i can make a better tool for this moment
pff now i know C++ and Python
though back then was C++ and mel i needed to figure out for that tool
also helps with Maya’s C++ api and scripting interface i have never hit a brick wall where i find what i want is impossible
hit cases where it becomes very hard and i question if the time investment is worth it but never impossible (edited)
trying to work with blenders python api you bump into things you simple can not do with it all the time
Is that just because they feel like it shouldn’t be at the python layer? Or that nobody wanted to support it like exposing geometry nodes for instance
modifers as well
so 2 of the major concepts not exposed
it feels more like its for automating things then making new tools
Frieder Erdmann Today at 12:01 PM
explain how you’d design a lod system (when to switch lods, based on what factors, how many lods, how to generate them, what problems might you encounter with lod steps, logic changes in lods?)
6 replies
And how do you manage all the generated data
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thats when i tell the story about the artist trying to defeat our lod system with a massive underground triangle (edited)
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I love and hate clever artists
was based on screen percentage, so what they did was pretty effective
it could also be a bit hit or miss on these answers depending on whether someone has worked on a specific subject
well would assume questions would cover multiple subjects
Frieder Erdmann Today at 10:51 AM
what is dot product
20 replies
This is a Dot product.
Amazon.com
A dot product is the result of multiplying two vectorshttps://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/vectors-dot-product.html
Math explained in easy language, plus puzzles, games, quizzes, worksheets and a forum. For K-12 kids, teachers and parents.
yeah it seems to be the nr1 interview question
feel like asking what it is, but also giving a few cases where its useful for their work (edited)
see if they explain how they solved a problem with it, or explain how its used in lambert shading or something similar (edited)
Could even change it up asking for the cross or inner product (though honestly I only know that the inner product is a thing, and isn’t the dot or cross product, so I’d fail that question)
do not think i ever used the inner product unless i know it by a other name
use dot and cross all over the place though
Yeah. Honestly I only know that some of these things exist thanks to https://bivector.net/ related talks/code/papers
BiVector.net: Geometric Algebra Resources
Explore modern Geometric Algebra with Bivector’s interactive diagrams, tools, libraries and video lectures.
So much linear algebra bounced right off of my brain because I was trying to learn it and differential calculous at the same time, and I couldn’t only keep one going
i think i’d expect anyone who is hired for shaders, procedural content or for tech animation (rigging or procedural animation) should be able to answer it and then have a bit of a discussion where/how its useful
Yeah, like I can think of times I’ve used dot products to help with a bunch of shader or half-angle tests, even if I can’t remember how to do the math myself anymore
tons of shader work, worked in engines where i had to do lighting models myself
even if its just “yeah you can do fresnel with it” or “i can make the thing look at the other thing”
but have also used it for camera logic as well
Yeah, is thing looking towards thing? are my vectors close to parallel
Hell I used it to generate concavity maps once upon a time
i would hope anyone that does shaders knows NdotL and N dot viewVector
though other fun stuff, like dot up or the wind direction with normal for snow on top of things
I always asked the dot question, less than a quarter of people knew the non-geometric meaning