Notes from the Future Desk - February
By:
Jerrod Long
on 3/4/2016
Pardon our mess… but, as promised, the Future is back in a new format. Instead of an assortment of information from each department, each monthly post will now be focused on one department. Up first is CG with information on tools, shading, vectors, and animation offsets.
Computer Graphics
Week 1: A Useful Tool.
Efficiency is king and sometimes little things make a big difference. Having a desktop and a laptop at the same workstation is pretty common these days, but switching from a keyboard/mouse to the touchpad is always awkward. I recently started using this software which switches dynamically from laptop to desktop simply by moving the mouse below the windows bar. No more touchpad, no more moving a mouse/keyboard receiver from USB to USB port. It works like a charm and makes me utilize both machines way more efficiently. I’d recommend you check out
Week 2: A Note About GGX Shading.
VRay’s Microfacet GGX shading model works great for well lit objects but I have noticed it is hard to control reflective specular artifacts for things indirectly shaded. Even with GI off, you will get specular noise that only appears with GGX. Switching to Ward will help fix this, so beware. Neil Blevins has a good page describing some of the
Week 3: Using Vector Textures.
3D Max has the ability to import Adobe Illustrator files nativly using the new
Week 4: Using Point Cache for Instanced Animation Offsets.
The 3D Max Point Cache modifier is a great way to duplicate an object/animation and introduce a time offset. It allows you to update all instances of an animation without having to maintain all but a single XML file.
QOTM
Your place for all the happenings in and around Jerrod Long that made it to print.
Adobe makes me feel like I’m living in communism.
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