Introduction to Maya - Rendering in Arnold
This course will look at the fundamentals of rendering in Arnold. We'll go through the different light types available, cameras, shaders, Arnold's render settings and finally how to split an image into render passes (AOV's), before we then reassemble it i
# 16 25-11-2002 , 12:49 PM
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Baby Duck, I think you have got confused. I was not comparing single processor with duals. I was comparing the processor speeds of the new Macs which are all duals anyway. What I was saying was the 1.25mhz machine was 1.44 times faster than the 867mhz machine based on the single processor speeds.

I am well aware about programs being optimized for dual processors, like Photoshop, Cinema4D and more importantly Maya 4.5 for the Mac - Hurray!!! Although I think that his is only for rendering which is a blessing anyway...

I NEVER SIT AND WATCH MY MACHINE RENDERING, I let it do that while I am down the pub...user added image


Tickety boo and ta ta for a bit...
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# 17 25-11-2002 , 01:00 PM
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and i have to tell you you got me wrong. you cannot apply - oh, only 1.44 times faster, so it is 1.44 times faster ...

# 18 25-11-2002 , 01:14 PM
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Wot?
I don't think I am catching your drift? I wasn't being offensive by the way I just thought we were on different buses going the same way...

At the end of the day all I am saying is, a far as Macs are concerned, is that the 1.25 machine isn't that much faster than the 867 machine. Consdering the 1.25 is over twice the price of the 867 then the 867 is a better buy for Mac users.

Sorry for any confusion - none ment!


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# 19 25-03-2003 , 06:56 PM
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Ok I am a Mac User with a Dual 1.25 ... so whats the deal , have u used Maya enough on your comp to notice bugs of any sort???



:banana:

# 20 26-03-2003 , 06:56 AM
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Originally posted by Kevin
lol gaz! I only here from mac users when they cant run the free videos LOL

I am running Maya both on a Mac (DP) and SGI (02).
Exept the tut mov (.wmv) everything is running smooth. Both machines are reliable enough to let them doing some rending over hours or even days... whether one of the PC's (don't remember which model but MS NT vers), got stuck after 2 h of rendering - maybe he didn't like the climate down here user added image


When the only tool you use is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail.
# 21 26-03-2003 , 03:26 PM
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I have Maya 4.5, running on a G4 DP 1 Ghz unit, 768 MB RAM, Dual 17" monitors, and a Nvidia GF4 MX with 64 MB RAM, OS 10.2. Everything works fine for me. No crashes, or hang-ups yet.

I really like the fact that the Dual monitors works so seamlessly. I have all my menu's, or Reference files thrown onto the other monitor, and it helps so much while working in Maya. Especially watching tutorial movies. Check my site out, and you'll see what I have done so far with Maya on the Mac. I'm still learning, but I think I'm moving along nicely.

# 22 26-03-2003 , 03:43 PM
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Not trying to start anything either, BUT, and I know many of you have seen this, but in case you have not, here is another bout of solid proof about the Mac vs. Pc war:

https://www.adobe.com/motion/pcpreferred.html

Sorry, but I keep hearing Apple admitting that for rendering, the mac is slower, but in floating-point math (vector animation) they are faster.

Well, this article shows that that is obviously not true anymore.
"The PC consistently outperformed the Macintosh machine, at an impressive rate."

Keep in mind, this article is showcased at ADOBE of all places, who as we all know has been a LONG TIME Apple proponent.

So, for the industry, this is a VERY BIG deal.

Again, I'm just pointing out the ADOBE article, and I did not mean to piss off anyoneuser added image


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# 23 26-03-2003 , 04:05 PM
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I'm pretty sure everyone is already aware that Intel chips are faster than the G4 now. What's not mentioned in the article, is Photoshop is the only program that is multithreaded and Dual Processor aware. That, in and of itself, should give you an indication of what a Mac is capable of. All those tests you see in the article, barring the Photoshop tests, are only being processed on one processor. So, a 3.06 P4 with hyperthreading, is much faster than one 1.25 G4. That much should have been apparent from the get go. If you notice though, the Photoshop tests are much closer than the AE tests. Doesn't suprise me though, especially since AE isn't multiprocessor aware.

Here's a pretty good article by Alex Alvarex, from Gnomon, at Apple's site: https://www.apple.com/creative/videophoto/gnomon/

He seems to not care about the speed difference of a PC-Mac. If you haven't seen any of Gnomon's DVD's, I think that you should know Alex knows his business when it comes to Maya.

# 24 27-03-2003 , 12:28 AM
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A very good article indeed - I got ahold of the all bundle dvds and as far as I've seen them they are one of the most professional learning tools regarding Maya.
At the end it comes down to using what suits ones needs and combining the strenght each OS has.


When the only tool you use is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail.
# 25 27-03-2003 , 02:24 AM
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I've heard the reason Adobe are getting annoyed with Apple is because Final Cut Express is eating into alot of their market share.

with regard to Alex's article could someone shed some light on this " Maya projects can also involve hundreds, if not thousands, of textures and rendered frames. On the PC, navigating through those files is a headache, but with Mac OS X it’s easy to find and organize my data. "
How does OSX make navigation faster/easier? Anyone able to post a screen shot of the mac file browser?
Not trying to start any flames - I'm genuinely curious user added image

# 26 27-03-2003 , 02:35 AM
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Ok ive seen problems with Mac oS X 10.2.4, Nvidia Titanium and 1.25 dual, 512 Mb ram.

The issue is with image plane.

I have to battle all the time to reproduce the correct istance of an image in photoshop to get it working in Maya.
Most of the time I get a image plane with a Black Image. Nobody noticed this???

Common let me here it.

BTW, yeah little dissapointed about speed, but overall I love my Mac and sitting on this machine all day long is much more pleasent. Dual 1.25 and MAC OS X feels good !!!

Hopefully updates to this "Young" O.S. will help.

And as far as chips ? ... well it can only get better no?

Whats up with Renderman ..no os X version ?????

# 27 27-03-2003 , 02:57 AM
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Whats up with Renderman ..no os X version ?????

render farms are usually made up from cheap, fast x86 based box's. I'd imagine a Mac renderfarm would be considered an unwise investment to most , so pixar / Steve Jobs decide it wouldnt be worth doing it.

# 28 27-03-2003 , 04:40 AM
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Screenshot

I've attached an image showing the three different types of file browsing , aside from putting my HD in the Dock and using it like the START menu in Windows, which I've done before, but menu's flow forever, and it gets a little confusing.

1. Icon layout. Pretty simple, the icons of the folders are layed out so you can see what's in them

2. Basic List Layout. Lists what is in a folder. Sort by kind, date, name, etc... OS 9 standard layout.

3. Column Layout. This is the layout Alex is talking about. Same as List+...As with any layout, type a letter/first few, which selects the folder you want. Or Use the up, down, left, right, keys to navigate through the folders. It literally takes about a 1-5 seconds to get to where you want. It's also cool because drag-n-drop applies to any layout. You can even have the same file folder window open numerous times, in order to get files to and fro quickly.

Of course this also applies to Disks, Network (Windows or Mac, files are accessed the same) DVD's, anything. The drag-n-drop feature is great for getting files to and from applications too. DVD Studio Pro allows you to just grab a file from your hard drive, and instantly add it to your assets folder. Pretty cool if you ask me.

As far as Adobe and Apple having problems, I guess people don't know that Apple's Quartz technology, is based on Adobe's Postscript technology, and is liscenced for Apple's use in Quartz. The entire image on screen is completely anti-aliased, rendered on the graphics card, and is PDF. When you do a screen capture in Mac OS X the file is saved as a .pdf. When you want to print a file to disk, it saves the print run as a .pdf. IMO, I like that a lot because I can save tutorials from the net as .pdf files so I can always have them available. I can see where people are saying that FCP is cutting into the sales of Premier. But I think Adobe has much more going for it than just the Apple version of Premier. I really don't see why Adobe would be upset with it, IMO.

I really don't know why Apple hasn't released Renderman for OS X yet. I don't think it's because people can't use it for a renderfarm, because, if you don't know this, most studio's use every available computer to render sometime or another. If you go to AliasWavefront's website, there are a few studios, Orphanage, Method, and Reality Check, that all use Maya on the Mac, and have Mac renderfarms. One guy from Reality Check said they use something like 40 Macs inhouse to render with when they aren't in use. That doesn't mean they all have to be DP units though. They're just available to render with. I think I read somewhere that it took Pixar 2 days to port Renderman to Linux, so being that they are already familiar with OS X/Unix (They've written a software program to do storyboards with OS X), I don't even think it would take them that long to port it. So time spent in porting it really isn't an issue. Maybe they're just waiting for more of a demand for it. I dunno really.

Apple has an uphill battle that they need to climb, but it's nothing like the battle they faced during the early/mid 90's. Now they actually have a market, money, and momentum with OS X. I'm excited to see where they go next.


Last edited by wchamlet; 27-03-2003 at 05:08 AM.
# 29 27-03-2003 , 05:28 AM
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image pane issues anybody?

# 30 27-03-2003 , 05:39 AM
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I've never had any problems with image planes. Have you tried using a lower resolution, like 72 dpi? Or just try various file types and see how that goes. Are you using these for backgrounds, or are you using them as reference files to model by?

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