Category Archives: GENERAL

A quick update from the author!

Posted by anoop a k on

Hello Everyone. I always thought the next post would be something more like an apology for the lack of updates from my end. But, since the current schedule at work place is gonna stay the same for couple of months more, I felt I should give you all a quick update to inform you all that “I will be back” with more interesting stuff once I am relieved from the current tasks which I am assigned to, at R&H. Most of you might have seen the trailer for the feature that is currently in production in our studio. For the ones who missed it, check it out here

Houdini Demoreel 2011

Posted by anoop a k on

Houdini Demoreel 2011 featuring some of the most amazing visual effects created using Houdini including the recent work done by  Rhythm and Hues in feature films Hop, Yogi Bear, Mr.Poppers Penguins, X-Men: First Class, Red Riding Hood. Enjoy!

Building OpenEXR libraries on Linux ( openSUSE 11.4 )

Posted by anoop a k on

 

OpenEXR is a high dynamic-range (HDR) image file format developed by Industrial Light & Magic for use in computer imaging applications. In order to develop plugins and tools that can handle OpenEXR file formats, you need to have the OpenEXR libraries built for your OS.

I had been not using Maya for the past few months since I have been dealing with proprietary applications used at my workplace. So I decided to continue work on Maya whenever I get back home after the days work. And what better way to start things all over again than starting with the API.

So I made a checklist of the libraries and other tools which I need to get built to start working on the same.So here I was building OpenEXR on openSUSE 11.4 and I stumbled across few things here and there which I felt would be valuable if I share with you all.

Building OpenEXR on you OS requires the zlib and ilmbase libraries which has to be linked at the time of configuring.So the first task is to get zlib and ilmbase libraries built on your machine.
I had my libraries installed in my sandbox folder which is /usr/local/sandbox referred by environment variable $SANDBOX. In case you have installed in locations other than standard paths like(/usr/include and /usr/lib) you need to make the build aware of the same.

setting the the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH to $SANDBOX/lib/pkgconfig will let OpenEXR get the package info regarding zlib and ilmbase.

./configure –prefix $SANDBOX LDFLAGS=-L$SANDBOX/lib CPPFLAGS=-I$SANDBOX/include

make

While executing make if you come across the following error

main.cpp:195:28: error: ‘strcmp’ was not declared in this scope
make[1]: *** [main.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/anoop/apps/sources/openexr-1.6.1/exrenvmap’
make: *** [all-recursive] Error 1

you can fix it by including

#include <string.h>

in the header file list of main.cpp in both exrmaketiled and exrenvmap dirs.

and then execute

make install

Recommended PC Configuration for CG Artists – May 2011

Posted by anoop a k on

Back to blogging again! I had moved in to a new apartment and my ISP turned out to be too inefficient with the shifting process, making me wait for more that 20 days to get the connection shifted to my new place. And on the professional side, I was pretty much occupied with the current feature productions happening in the studio.

But in the mean time, I got a chance to dig in to the latest computer hardware out there, to help out my friend with a new configuration for home. My search stumbled across a few components which I felt would do justice to the kind of work we deal with, on a day to day basis.

Hence thought of sharing the configuration with you in case some of you find it useful. So here it goes…

Intel Core i7 2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz approx 16500 INR

Asus P8P67 PRO approx 12600 INR

Gskill Sandy Bridge 16GB 1600 DDR3 approx 10000 INR

Corsair 1000HX approx 15000 INR

Cooler Master CM690 II Advanced approx 5500 INR

2 x Dell Professional 2311H 23-inch widescreen monitor 26000 INR

MSI N580GTX  Lightning approx 30000 INR

2 x WD 1TB 6Gbps SATA3 approx 9400 INR

Corsair CSSD F80GBP2 BRKT 80GB SSD force series approx 10000 INR

Total approx 1,34,700 INR

Disclaimer: Please note that the configuration suggested is based on personal experience and does not guarantee in anyways high performance for all kinds of applications available on the market. The individual user experience may vary depending on the resources demanded by various applications under different working environments. The approximate prices listed are based on market study and may vary depending on different factors and hence are not supposed to considered as final price listings.

Installing Foundry Mari on openSUSE 11.3

Posted by anoop a k on

MARI is a creative texture-painting tool that can handle extreme projects. MARI was developed at Weta Digital to handle the massively complex, highly detailed look development work demanded of the texture department by projects such as DISTRICT 9, THE LOVELY BONES, and AVATAR.

This is how the installation directory looks like. You can add symlink to the mari* shell script in the bin folder if you want. In case you are not executing the script from the same directory, you need to make slight modification to the script to make it accessible.

 #!/bin/bash
 # This version is intended to launch Mari from the directory this
 # script is located in, does not require Mari to be installed

#export presentScriptPath=`dirname $0`
 export presentScriptPath="/usr/local/Mari1.0v4"
 export currentPath=`cd $presentScriptPath; pwd`
 export binDir=$currentPath"/bin/"
 export PATH=${PATH}:$binDir
 export mariLog=$MARI_LOG_FILE
 if [ "$mariLog" == "" ] ; then
 export mariLog=/scratch/logs/MariLog.txt
 fi

# Look for options
 for p in "$@"
 do
 case "$p" in
 "--verbose")
 # turn off the log output
 export mariLog=
 ;;
 *)
 ;;
 esac
 done

if [ "$mariLog" == "" ] ; then
 $currentPath/bin/MriBin $@
 else
 $currentPath/bin/MriBin $@ &> ${mariLog}
 fi

I have commented out the line

 export presentScriptPath=`dirname $0`

and replaced with

 export presentScriptPath="/usr/local/Mari1.0v4"

which is the installation directory for Mari

Disclaimer: Please support the developers as I do not in any way support piracy. Go out and purchase the softwares if you like them.

MADAM moves out to new space

Posted by anoop a k on

So after a short gap spanning almost six months, I have decided to continue my work on MADAM again. Not exactly continue, but start the development all over again from scratch. The reason to take up this decision to rewrite the code from scratch is quite simple. I feel that the elements and the design pattern I had considered for MADAM was bit primitive in terms of the recent technological advancements in the industry. So I decided to spend some time researching the best tool set which I can make use of to rebuild MADAM from scratch. One of the new elements which I have considered is the integration of Git in to the development process.

To start with, I decided to move the previous threads on MADAM to a new blog altogether. Just that a few navigation paths will change. But it will still be hosted under CODE-CG.

You may have a look at the new space where MADAM is gonna reside by following the link below

http://codecg.com/category/development/madam/

Setting up python2.5 for Massive Prime

Posted by anoop a k on

Python can be used in Massive by typing commands directly in the textport and from scripts. The textport is accessed from the Options menu. Scripts can be run from the textport using the execfile() function and from the commandline using the -script commandline option.

Three versions of python are supported by massive ver<4.0, Python1.5, Python2.2, and Python2.5. For ver<4.0 Python2.5 is selected by default while starting massive. You can  specify a particular version of Python by entering one of the following in the textport

 #!pyscript15
 #!pyscript22
 #!pyscript25

openSUSE 11.3 comes with pre-installed Python2.6.5. Hence in case you want to use Python2.5 with massive you need to install Python2.5 can be downloaded from here. Massive will need the shared library for python to be in the $PYTHONHOME in order to support the specific python version. If you are building python yourself, you can get that done by specifying

./configure   –enable-shared   –prefix=/usr

I missed that step while building and I didn’t wanted to build it all over again. Instead found a workaround for the same. Since I had Foundry Nuke installed on my machine, which comes with a shared library for Python2.5 (libpython2.5.so.1.0), it was just a matter of creating a symlink to the shared library path on /usr/lib64 for libpython2.5.so.1.0

ln -s   /usr/local/nukeVersion/libpython2.5.so.1.0   libpython.2.5.so.1.0

If these operations have been successful, you will be able to access Python2.5 modules within massive.Else you will be getting an error echoed in the console like this

libpython2.5.so.1.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Installing Massive Prime on openSUSE 11.3

Posted by anoop a k on

Massive is the premier simulation and visualization solution system for generating and visualizing realistic crowd behaviors and autonomous agent driven animation for a variety of industries, including film, games, television, architecture, transportation, engineering, and robotics. Using Massive, an animator, engineer or robot developer designs characters with a set of actions and reactions to what is going on around them.

The installation manual that comes along with massive is sufficient for a noob to get massive running on your machine. But if you are planning to run massive on a Linux machine, you better go through the Troubleshooting section too. Even after getting the mhost server running you may still get an error “could not open connection” while executing massive from the shell. If u are using Fedora, you will be happy to see the following section under the Troubleshooting section

I am on Fedora and get a “could not open connection” error message when trying to start Massive.

The “could not open connection” error you’re getting is because the X server on Fedora has TCP connections disabled by default. Massive is trying to connect to the X server over TCP and failing. If you add the following line to the [security] section of your /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf it should remedy the problem.

DisallowTCP=false

But under openSUSE running on KDE, you wont find a gdm installation at all. Hence in order to enable TCP/IP sockets for X11, you need to follow the instructions below.

  • Set DISPLAYMANAGER_XSERVER_TCP_PORT_6000_OPEN=”yes” in the /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager file
  • Running /sbin/SuSEconfig to propagate that setting
  • Restart your display manager through /usr/sbin/rcxdm restart

Disclaimer: Please support the developers as I do not in any way support piracy. Go out and purchase the softwares if you like them.

Cecelia-The Balcony Girl from DNA Inc

Posted by anoop a k on

The last among the short films from DNA Inc in which I played the role of a mentor is out on Youtube now. The film brings back to screen Alex, the protagonist of the film “Feel the Punch“, which was the most recent film from DNA Inc. The film had won several awards including the prestigious TASI Viewer’s Choice Award in the year 2010. It brings me great joy to see the remarkable achievements DNA Inc has made in a span of one year.  Wishing DNA Inc a bright future ahead…