Texture Robot updated to Version 1.1.0

Just a quick note to say that the Texture Robot script for Maya has moved up the chain to version 1.1.0. I'm getting closer to implementing all of the features I'd originally planned for it, including support for various renderers (Arnold, Vray) via the aiStandard material and the Vray Mtl. There's also support for Maya's blinn, which is useful in a viewport 2.0 viewport environment as you're able to display more types of texture map (including bump and specular) than the other materials. I've been using it a lot lately for quick previews and it works great. Of course, it's nothing compared to what you can do with the new Dx11 shader, which I'll hopefully get around to doing something about for games people in a later version.

There's also been a few added texture slots- Transparency, Cutout Opacity, and Emissive (self illumination/incandescence). I think this covers the most widely used types of texture map that people regularly use. There's SSS to deal with, but again, that's for the future, hopefully not to distant.

The last thing I want to mention is the added 'tooltip' descriptions as you hover over parts of the UI. Most of them just describe the thing itself (browse Texture Directory icon for instance), but if you hover over the texture slot labels on the left hand side, you will get a little message showing you where the texture slot connects into the various shader's parameters. For eg, hovering over the 'Spec Gloss' label will bring up the following:

TR- now with tooltips. Goody

So this is just a way to understand the different terminology across shaders, how the parameters relate to each other and hopefully it can help to clear up any confusion about where each texture slot is going. I used pretty standard names for each slot (specular instead of reflection, as I don't think anybody refers to a specular map as a reflection map, but I could be dead wrong) but just in case, these tooltips are there.

Next feature I'll be working on is a button to save out A custom setup within TR. That means, if you don't like the suffix 'd' for diffuse, but prefer 'c' for colour or something else, you can save your custom suffixes and next time you run the script, it will load your preferences. It should also save out the shader type, file extensions and the other various options. That would be pretty handy I think.

You can get the latest version of Texture Robot here.

Full Changelog.

Texture Robot - Home

DOWNLOAD LINK (ver 1.3.0 - July 27th, 2013)

Version 1.3.0 (July 27, 2013)

* Added Ptex support for Vray material
* Added insert Gamma Nodes option for Linear Workflows (mia_mat and Vray Mtl)
* Bug fix- Some Vray textures failed to assign to file nodes in previous version of TR
* Bug fix- The 'create shading network' button lit up green and "textures found" message displayed only if a diffuse file texture was found
* Bug fix- Misnamed icon filename

Version 1.2.1 (June 23, 2013)

* Bug Fix- # UnboundLocalError: local variable 'file_node4' referenced before assignment #

Version 1.2.0 (June 22, 2013)

* Added Store Config and Toggle Hypershade Buttons (top left)
* Added support for Ptex (mia_material_X and Blinn).
* For Ptex in MR, maya.rayrc file created in maya/prefs folder if it doesn't already exist (rendering will require Maya restart)
* UI Improvements - nicer button graphic, found textures highlit in green, info display window, new shelf icon
* Bug fix- Specular Gloss overwrote Emissive texture slot
* Bug fix- When creating a Blinn shader, script tries to delete node before it exists
* Bug fix- Script editor gives error @ Create Network if hypershade isn't open

Version 1.1.0    (June 10, 2013)

* Added support for Vray and Arnold renderers with Vray_Mtl and aiStandard material shaders
* Added support for Maya Blinn (useful for viewport 2.0 texture map previews)
* Added option for creating Place2D Texture nodes before file texture nodes
* Added transparency, cutout opacity and emissive (self illumination) texture slots
* Added 'tooltip' annotations to many UI elements
* Added support for vector displacement with 'vector space options' menu
* Set attribute 'Alpha is Luminance' to On for all file textures (when might someone specifically not want that? Email me!)

Version 1.0.1    (May 25th 2013)

* Fixed bug on Mental Ray plugin load
* Redirected Texture Robot 'Home' icon button to this page

Version 1.0.0    (May 2013)

* Initial Release version  



Noted Bugs / Rough Edges

* Once in a while I've noticed the Object list stops showing objects. This is fixed by closing Texture Robot, and reopening it. I'm not sure why this happens but I'm working on a proper fix.

* If TR finds both a bump map file and a normal map file, it will try to hook both of them up to the network, which will result in an error. Same goes for displacement and vector displacement. A workaround for this problem while working in Maya is to temporarily change the suffix of one of the slots (the one you don't want to use) to something unrecognisable (ie, change bump from 'b' to 'x', then refresh the texture slots. A proper fix will be to code in some radio buttons which toggle between bump and normal map or displacement and vector displacement.


Features or possibilities planned for future versions

* Update currently selected shader via filename versioning, ie- of the two files 'apple_d_v01.jpg' and 'apple_d_v02.jpg', the latter file will be selected and will overwrite the current entry in the file texture node, or create a new node if none existed.

* Shader conversion (from mia_material_x to VrayMtl for eg) (? a bolt on feature, low priority)

* Udim (multi UV patch) support

* 'Super auto' feature - if a scene object(s) matches a name in Texture Robot's object list, the script will automatically apply the associated textures to the selected (unselected?) geometry. This could be an 'outside the UI' feature, possibly another shelf icon or hotkey, leaving the UI as a general configuration tool.

* SSS layer slots for combined SSS and mia_mat etc,

* Dx11 shader support

* UI improvements


INSTRUCTIONS:

Video coming Soon

Introducing Texture Robot - Auto File Texture Assigner for Maya

Humbly but proudly presenting 'Texture Robot'

Today I'm pleased to announce a new tool for Maya. 'Texture Robot' represents my first foray into building Maya tools with Python and I'm surprised it works at all, but it does. This little robo does the job of automatically assigning common file textures (maps) into shading networks based on simple filename conventions.

Since a video is worth a thousand pictures (at 25 fps running for 40 seconds anyway) below's a quick preview demonstration of the new script in action. Over the next week or so I'll try to find the time to create a new post here on the blog which will serve as 'Home' for Texture Robot- it'll include some proper instructions, a program changelog and updates on any planned or new features, of which I have a few in mind already.

So without further ado, take it away- Texture Robot...

   


Edit : the script is now online at Creative Crash.

Assign MIA or VRay Materials to Objects with a Click (Or Two)

POST UPDATED 3/3/2013

Generating a custom shelf with all of your favourite Maya scripts and tools in it can help save a lot of time

Something I've thought for a while would be nice is just a little shortcut that would create a mia_material and assign it to the currently selected object automatically, without needing to go into the hypershade and hunt through shaders, or use the right click menus. The other day I noticed that if you have VRay installed, on the VRay shelf tab (it takes over the previous 'Rendering' tab) there's a shortcut item there for applying a VRay standard material to your object. If you right click on the icon and select 'edit' (taking you into the Shelf Editor) you'll see the code is pretty simple...

createAndAssignShader VRayMtl ""

From there, I was happy to discover that if you swap out 'VRayMtl' for 'mia_material_x', it creates a mia_x instead. Logical I guess... but still pretty cool.

So now I have a new icon in my main custom shelf tab- whereby a single click creates and applies a standard Vray material, and double clicking applies a mia_material instead. I've also taken advantage of the 'Popup Menu Items' feature of the Shelf Editor (accessible via the far right tab) to include a few more select materials which I use constantly.

Adding additional menu items to a shelf icon shortcut with the Shelf Editor

This is a a simple case of copy pasting the previous code into new menu items and replacing 'VrayMtl' or 'mia_material_x' with the relevant new material. Once you have your additional menu items, right clicking on the shelf icon will bring them up.

Quick access to frequently used materials

Of course, this shortcut is only one step reduced from using the actual right click menu, selecting 'Assign Favourite Material', and then selecting your material. But the point is it's still faster, and right clicking on a shelf icon brings up the menus instantly, whereas the right click menu takes a second to appear, which can be a little frustrating. Anyway, I like it. It makes me a happy Maya user.



PS, for more material related shortcut goodyness, I also really like this one from Dave Girard -author of '101 Autodesk Maya Tips'...

Basically it's just a fast way to get to an object's material attributes. This is like my favourite shortcut in Maya now. I have it mapped to 'Alt-A' (mapping it to CTRL-A apparently messed up a bunch of my other shortcuts or something).



PSS, Apologies to anyone who has written to me asking a question and I've failed to reply. I'm not trying to ignore you, I'm just a new dad with a busy work schedule and there's just very little time between work and fatherhood for chasing things up. I'm just tired. Sorry about that. :(

Radial Anisotropy w/ mia_material

Anisotropic Brushed Metal Material

Here's how to create a cool, radially anisotropic metal type shader with the mia_material in Mental Ray/Maya.


(PS, For a  general introduction to anisotropic materials in CG, I recommend this great article by Neil Blevins at his CG Education website).


Jumping straight in- first, let's create a simple object in which to apply our shader to. For convenience sake- let's just use a poly disk, which you can find (yes, Maya has a poly disk!) by holding shift and right clicking in the viewport, then selecting 'Poly Disk'. Then create a new mia_material (or mia_material x) in the hypershade and apply it to the new object.

We're not going to worry about any of the other parameters apart from anisotropy for now; just scroll down through the mia_material until you reach the Anisotropy tab and click on it to extend it's parameters.

In the Anisotropy section of the mia_material there are three main parameters to consider. An 'anisotropy' parameter set to the default of 1 actually produces no anisotropic specularity, instead we get a normal, run of the mill isotropic (same in all directions) or rounded highlight. By moving the slider past or below one, we are able to stretch the highlight out. I find that turning the slider all the way down to .1 works fine. You'll notice that as soon as you adjust the Anisotropy parameter, the other two parameters- Rotation and Channel, become unlocked.

Next, we will need a texture in order to define the direction of our anisotropy. Click on the checker icon to the right of the Rotation parameter and select Ramp. In the ramp node, alter the Type to 'Radial Ramp', and make a two colour gradient that runs from black at the top to white on the bottom. Your sample swatch should look just like the one below. It's important to not get the colours reversed as that will not produce the desired result.

Make sure your ramp is set up correctly

At this stage you may want to do a quick test render. Turning on Mental Ray's IPR renderer can be useful when searching for a decent angle which will pick up the highlight. Rotate the camera around your object with IPR turned on and see how things are looking. Most probably you will observe a strange bending present in the highlight. This is where the 'Channel' parameter in the Anisotropy tab comes in. Default is -1. Set the channel to -2 and you should be now getting nice, straight, fanning anisotropic highlights (alternatively you can rotate the uv's of the disk 90 degrees).

Channel set to -1 on left, -2 on right

As far creating basic radial anisotropy with the mia_material, that's pretty much it.

For a more metallic look, try dialing down the diffuse colour/weight in the shader and give your material something to reflect... ideally some nice image based lighting. It's also a good idea to break up the highlight a little by putting something like a constrasted circular brushed metal texture into the colour slot of the reflection tab. Play around with the glossiness and glossy samples also.

You now have the unbridled power to create the bottoms of pots and pans and stereo knobs. :)

Click to Enlarge

Final example shader (in motion)

Procedural Dents 'n' Dirt / Downward Drips (Part 3)

AO based weathering featuring DDD (Dents, Dirt, Drips)

Lately I've been working on trying to get some directionality into an AO weathering type shader. A problem with my previous shader was that the streaks weren't just dripping down from surfaces, but also dripping up. The current solution is to pipe the Out Colour of a Maya snow texture into both the bright and dark inputs of an AO node. Adjusting the 'depth decay' of the snow as well as the 'threshold' seem to be the main tweakable parameters here, along with AO spread.


I'm attaching an .ma scene file + shader if anyone would like to experiment (12 mb)
http://www.filedropper.com/ddddshader


Just the DDD shader
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/shaders/c/ddd-shader-dents-dirt-drips

Maya 2013 - New Node Editor

A new look for Maya's next gen Node Editor

Originally introduced as part of the Maya 2012 SAP (Subscription Advantage Pack), it appears that a new Softimage style node editor will be included with the upcoming release of Maya 2013, replacing the Hypershade/Hypergraph/Dependency Graph of previous versions. On first impression, I have to say I like the look of this new editor. Being able to quickly expand a node to get a better visual sense of input and output connections seems very useful. With this one new feature, the old secondary Connection Editor becomes redundant and everything is nicely unified within a single editor. Pretty nice.

Another welcome addition which will save time is the new TAB field - allowing for a more convenient way to quickly search for and generate nodes, ala Nuke.

Press TAB to quickly search/create nodes

Check out the video below for a quick demo of the new Node Editor in action...