community ice projects

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gustavoeb
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community ice projects

Post by gustavoeb » 02 Nov 2011, 02:17

Hey guys I was wondering...
there is this community animation project section in this forum and the thing is quite dead really. on the other hand everybody and theyre neighbors seem to be doing cool ICE experimatation in vimeo and personal blogs. how do you feel about mixing both of this in a community ice project.
there are many simple and useful stuff we could tacle like new deformers, cool kine compounds or polished tools for motion graphics.
it would be useful to have an experient TD guiding each projects, but tasks should be split according to ones capacity.
how do you feel about this?
Gustavo Eggert Boehs
Blog: http://www.gustavoeb.com.br/

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Hirazi Blue
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Re: community ice projects

Post by Hirazi Blue » 02 Nov 2011, 13:42

It might be an idea to just start one workshop and take it from there. If it gets enough response, a second one could be started after that (and so on, you get the idea). So open a workshop thread and I'll make it a "sticky" for the duration of the workshop. If it turns out to be a success, we could conceivable place all the workshop threads in their own sub-forum. But the untimely demise of the CAP makes me kind of hesitant to start off with too much zeal.
;)
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bottleofram
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Re: community ice projects

Post by bottleofram » 02 Nov 2011, 14:35

There was a suggestion somewhere (maybe cgtalk but who knows) to get a workshop going on slowly developing mograph stuff since there are many users outside looking IN to ICE and basically being quite lost at how would all this work to their needs. ICE is many things, but its not "new user" friendly. Not at all.

Just something to think about, but I like the idea.

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Re: community ice projects

Post by gustavoeb » 02 Nov 2011, 17:41

Understand your scepticism Hirazi, I feel a little like this when sugesting the idea also. And your workshop suggestion really might be the best place to start.

So where should this thread be placed?
Cooperation & Jobs
or ICE?

Anybody else got some more ideias for what this workshop should be on? I think motion graphic tools are a nice place to start because many of them are quite easy to build in ice.
many users outside looking IN to ICE and basically being quite lost at how would all this work to their needs. ICE is many things, but its not "new user" friendly. Not at all.
We could tackle this with some scripts and PPG logic as long as we have some knowladge people participating... Which leads to needing to get the word out. We should not be bounded by this forum, specially if the thread ends up in a category people don't bump into very often. People could also post theyre entries on vimeo, the mailing list, twitter and such and link back to the forum.

Anyways, just some thoughts
Gustavo Eggert Boehs
Blog: http://www.gustavoeb.com.br/

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Hirazi Blue
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Re: community ice projects

Post by Hirazi Blue » 02 Nov 2011, 19:42

I'd start a thread in ICE or even ICE Tutorials (as it should be a learning experience to all) ;)

BTW - My skepticism is all due to demise of the CAP, in which I truly believed at some point, not because I'm no supporter of more community activity, which I am & as such I do welcome initiatives like this one wholeheartedly. I am just hesitant to put too much of my own weight into promoting it and making special room in its own forum , if it ends up just like the CAP...
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Re: community ice projects

Post by Chris_TC » 02 Nov 2011, 23:30

bottleofram wrote:There was a suggestion somewhere (maybe cgtalk but who knows) to get a workshop going on slowly developing mograph stuff since there are many users outside looking IN to ICE and basically being quite lost
It's a nice idea. A good set of motion graphics compounds would be very useful. I've already done a bit of dabbling in this regard, making compounds similar to some Cinema 4D tools.
http://vimeo.com/28009143
http://vimeo.com/28239732

I don't remember the exact state of the cloner compound (second video), but I believe I had it almost ready to be shared. So if a starting point is needed, it might serve as one.

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Re: community ice projects

Post by gustavoeb » 03 Nov 2011, 01:15

Hey Chris the cloner compound seems very good indeed, many functionalities found in moGraph are there.
Maybe we can start from there and build other stuff, like the effectors in moGraph... Since you already worked on this maybe you are the best person to point us in the right direction...
Gustavo Eggert Boehs
Blog: http://www.gustavoeb.com.br/

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Re: community ice projects

Post by Chris_TC » 03 Nov 2011, 19:44

For what it's worth, here is the cloner compound. There are two cosmetic problems with it:
1) When bringing it into the ICE tree it's red, and it stays red until you connect an object into the "Geometry Name" port. Maybe someone has an idea on how to fix this? It doesn't hamper the functionality if nothing is plugged in, but it looks crappy with that obnoxious red color.
2) When working with an instance group, one has to connect the group name as a node into the "Instance Group" port, which is fine. But on the compound itself, there is a reference that has to be set manually to the same name because the "INSTANCE SHAPE" factory node is set up in a really strange manner (you can't just plug a name into it).

Everybody feel free to pick the compound apart if you think that it may serve as a starting block. I've called it MOG Cloner and put it into a Task category called MoGraphics. These are all merely suggestions, as is the whole compound itself.
I think the compound controls are straightforward if you play with it for a bit. "Obj control A" and "Obj control B" allow you to use nulls to interactively control the placement of the cloned objects. When something is plugged into these ports, they override "Position A" and "Position B".

Image
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MOG Cloner.xsicompound
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Re: community ice projects

Post by Pooby » 03 Nov 2011, 20:32

How wonderful! Thanks Chris

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Hirazi Blue
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Re: community ice projects

Post by Hirazi Blue » 03 Nov 2011, 22:48

Somehow I don't think, picking apart a compound will be a good way
to lure unsuspecting users to a thread and to keep them there.
While it's an interesting idea, I'd say, start off with something "from scratch".
As to what that should be: I frankly haven't got a clue...
~x(
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Re: community ice projects

Post by Chris_TC » 04 Nov 2011, 01:18

Hirazi Blue wrote:Somehow I don't think, picking apart a compound will be a good way
to lure unsuspecting users to a thread and to keep them there.
While it's an interesting idea, I'd say, start off with something "from scratch".
As to what that should be: I frankly haven't got a clue...
~x(
It's pretty difficult to get something like this going and even harder to keep it going. If we want to make something meaningful, things get complex quickly (as in: lots and lots of nodes).

By "picking apart" I didn't mean to look at every node in the compound, rather to assess the overall functionality, the grouping of options etc. to see if this is useful and makes sense. But regardless, I don't think it's a topic for complete newcomers to ICE.

I suppose the question is whether this is intended as a how-to thread or as a thread in which existing ICE users can join forces and put something together. A logical next step for example would be to make a compound that allows iterative control over size, rotation, translation and color based on Point ID. A beginner may be lost, but there are many ICE users who can easily take this on. On the other hand, if it's a how-to thread, things would need to move way more slowly. We would need to start with one small thing, explain it in detail, then move on to the next thing. Or give an assignment and let users figure it out.

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Re: community ice projects

Post by owei » 04 Nov 2011, 07:20

Hi guys!

...following this one not very close, still too busy ;)
Here is an idea. What about simply renaming the "Community Animation Project" in "Community Projects". This way we won´t need a new section for these new projects and it would be clear, what´s going on there. What do you think?

best,
oliver

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Re: community ice projects

Post by clyder » 04 Nov 2011, 09:55

owei wrote:Hi guys!

...following this one not very close, still too busy ;)
Here is an idea. What about simply renaming the "Community Animation Project" in "Community Projects". This way we won´t need a new section for these new projects and it would be clear, what´s going on there. What do you think?

best,
oliver
Tha is good idea IMO. Creators of the projects could follow some rule for naming their threads, like "[ANIMATION]_ProjectName" or something like that.

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Hirazi Blue
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Re: community ice projects

Post by Hirazi Blue » 04 Nov 2011, 11:10

Okay, following owei's suggestion I've changed the name of the" Community Animation Project" forum into "Community Projects" and created a forum called "Community ICE Project" underneath it. Furthermore, I've taken the liberty to lock the Community Animation Project. The "Community Projects" forum is locked also, but it's subforum "Community ICE Project" should be accessible to all....
Use wisely... ;)

I moved this thread to the new forum, as the discussing how to approach this seems to be still ongoing.

BTW - @Chris_TC - I didn't suggest it shouldn't be complex. I''m all for complex, I only suggested it might be something more "from scratch", by which I mean something different. "From scratch" gives the user the idea of participating in something new. That's the "lure" I was talking about....
;)
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Re: community ice projects

Post by Chris_TC » 04 Nov 2011, 17:30

Hirazi, I thought that throwing a starting block out there might help get things moving. Unfortunately, that's not the case, as evidenced by the lack of participation in this thread.

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Re: community ice projects

Post by gustavoeb » 04 Nov 2011, 17:34

Don't think that is gonna start overnite, specially during weekdays... I intend to take a look and do some testing with that first building block as soon as I have some time to spare :)
Gustavo Eggert Boehs
Blog: http://www.gustavoeb.com.br/

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