missing render globals or broken ui (maya)

mel script to fix stupid broken render globals (or broken ui in general)


deleteUI unifiedRenderGlobalsWindow;



buildNewSceneUI;

adding or removing vertices to cluster sets. selectcluster then verts run script

string $sel[] = `ls -sl`;
string $cluster[] = `listConnections $sel[0]`;
string $clusterSet[] = `listConnections -type objectSet $cluster`;
int $num = size($sel);
for ($i = 1; $i < $num; $i++)
{
string $item = $sel[$i];
sets -add $clusterSet $item;
}

string $sel[] = `ls -sl`;
string $cluster[] = `listConnections $sel[0]`;
string $clusterSet[] = `listConnections -type objectSet $cluster`;
int $num = size($sel);
for ($i = 1; $i < $num; $i++)
{
string $item = $sel[$i];
sets -rm $clusterSet $item;
}

might have to explicitly name the cluster set if things go awry.. eg.#

sets -add cluster2Set $item

stupid vray primary visibility alpha tip

when using primary visibilty and alphas start going black, try doing ->

render globals, vray globals , materials max transparency levels and set it to something higher than the default of 50. maybe 500...
comes in useful for hiding fur and you want a seperate tech pass with just a shadow. omg.

credit to Tony Bosworth Cosgrove for this handy hint

particle kill field, maya sorta

stolen from somewhere...

Maya doesn’t have any such thing as a ‘killField’, so were are going to hack one using a uniform field node. Select the particles, then create the uniform field. Rename the uniform to killField. Set these settings:

Magnitude = 0.001

Attenuation = 0.0

Direction = 0.0, -1.0, 0.0

Volume shape = cube

When you have the particle selected and you create a field in Maya, the field is automatically connected to the particles. Now that the uniform field is created,scale it up in the scene so it is underneath where the particles are falling as I’ve done here:

In the particle attibute editor, change the lifespan mode to lifespanPP.

Now that we understand that, lets create a particle expression to tell Maya what to do with this killField. Open the attribute editor for the particle system, right click on lifespanPP in the per particle (Array) attributes section and choose ‘Creation expression’. Now add this expression:

if (mag(inputForce[0]) >= 0.001)

{

lifespanPP = 0.0;

}

mel script to fix octane render bullshit messing up hypershade..

optionVar -remove "renderNodeTypeTreeInitializeUserProc";
optionVar -remove "renderNodeTreeInitializeUserProc";

yeti things

nice info here - http://the-art-of-rouhollah-toghyani-blog.16451.n7.nabble.com/

basically instead of flooding a mesh with guides, as I've been doing, place guides with a little more thought & use it to drive the length of the "grow" & play with the influence radius.. Using a texture for the initial "scatter" density still seems to work well, although clean edge transitions still look a little patchy. I think using some maps to drive the opacity of these areas might help. ie, start to fade hairs as they approach the edge?

Crux of the link is - Use layers of hair - set A is a sparse distribution with correct lengths and overall shape. set B adds density and is clumped to set a. set C adds further density & some flyaways.