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+<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
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+<html>
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+<head>
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+ <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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+ <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Mozilla/4.61C-SGI [en] (X11; U; IRIX64 6.5 IP19) [Netscape]">
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+</head>
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+<body>
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+
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+<center>
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+<p><b><font size=+1>SoftImage Tips and Tricks</font></b>
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+<p><font size=-1>[email protected]</font>
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+<br><font size=-1>updated 2/26/2002</font></center>
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+
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+<p><br>
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+<br>
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+<br>
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+<br>
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+<p>The following document contains certain advice for getting models and
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+animations through the
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+<br>soft2egg converter in one piece. Some of these restraints are
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+due to differences between Panda
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+<br>and SoftImage and some are workarounds for SoftImage idiosyncrasies.
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+The first section is advice
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+<br>for set-up, modelling, and animation. The second section describes
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+some frequently seen problems
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+<br>after conversion attempts. If you have any questions please don't hesitate
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+to ask.
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+<br>
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+<br>
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+<p><b><u>Section I - Set-up</u></b>
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+<br>
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+<p> <u>Hierarchy naming:</u>
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+<p> The converter needs to ignore
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+most of the constraint hierarchies and they are not always
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+<br> flagged invisible so the
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+code will ignore any nodes (and anything below them) with the
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+<br> following strings in their
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+names:
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+<p>
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+con-
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+<br>
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+con_
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+<br>
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+fing-
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+<br>
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+eyes-
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+<br>
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+faces-
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+<br>
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+head-
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+<br>
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+camRIG
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+<br>
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+bars
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+<p> If you don't do this, the
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+converter will make geometry for the sliders and the camera. I freely
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+<br> admit there is some kruft
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+in this keyword list.
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+<br>
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+<p> <u>Model naming:</u>
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+<p> Try to make the models have
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+consistent names through the revision process. SoftImage is
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+<br> terrible about appending
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+version numbers onto everything in the scene file (null12_1_1, etc.)
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+<br> Each time a model name changes
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+it's highly likely that a makefile or the show code will break.
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+<br> While it is possible to
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+"fix" this with wildcards (null12*) it is undesirable as this is no longer
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+<br> unique and can cause other
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+problems.
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+<br>
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+<p> <u>NURBS Textures:</u>
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+<p> Textures applied to closed
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+NURBS surfaces in Soft will have problems in Panda. This is because
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+<br> Soft uses phantom vertices
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+in their NURBS representation and this seems to affect where they
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+<br> start and stop applying
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+the texture. This can be fixed by shifting the NURBS parameterization.
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+<br> You can do this on the surface
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+in question through the Soft GUI, or you can do for all surfaces
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+<br> in the scene upon conversion
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+with the "-x" option to soft2egg.
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+<br>
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+<p> <u>Model scale:</u>
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+<p> It seems the general convention
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+here in the VR Studio has been for the animators to scale the
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+<br> character models up by a
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+factor of four while animating. I believe this is because Soft has limited
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+<br> precision. Thus models should
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+be scaled by a factor of one fourth to look right in Panda.
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+<br>
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+<p> <u>Non-uniform scaling of joints:</u>
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+<p> A non-uniform scale is one
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+that is not the same in all three axes (ie x=1, y=1, z=0.5). If an
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+<br> animation puts a non-uniform
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+scale on any joint then you must place the key word "scale-" in
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+<br> the name of the joint that
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+does that scale.
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+<br>
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+<p> <u>Face shape trickiness:</u>
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+<br>
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+<p> Currently SAAPHIRE (the SoftImage
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+API) is broken when it comes to reading expressions
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+<br> which determine shape weights.
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+Because of this you MUST put the expressions in strict order
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+<br> of the shape numbers they
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+affect (ie the expression for shape 0 must be before 1, etc.)
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+<br>
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+<p> <u>Animating Nulls:</u>
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+<p> When constructing a skeleton
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+for the player the converter looks at the skeleton nodes in Soft.
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+<br> If you are animating a null
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+directly through some relationship you need to make the converter
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+<br> aware of that by flagging
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+the null with the prefix "joint-" in its name. Alternatively, you
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+can
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+<br> do a "GroupAsSkeleton" on
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+the null in question to make it actually part of the skeleton. It will
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+<br> then have a tiny "Skel"
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+above the node in the Soft's schematic view.
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+<br>
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+<p> <u>The Minus One Frame:</u>
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+<p> Our animation system works
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+by computing offsets from a neutral pose in the -1 frame of the
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+<br> scene file. If the character
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+is not in the "jesus pose" at frame "-1" all bets are off. Animation
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+<br> should not start on anything
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+in the scene until frame "1".
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+<br>
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+<br>
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+<p><b><u>Section II - Known Pathologies</u></b>
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+<br>
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+<p> <u>Part not where it should be:</u>
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+<p> Frequently Soft does not
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+update the position of parts that are moved and skinned. It will look
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+<br> right in Soft until you
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+cut it out of the hierarchy. If the geometry stays where it is after cutting
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+<br> it is fine. If it
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+pops to a different position it will be problematic. We never did find
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+a way to make
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+<br> Soft update its position
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+but we did find a fix: do a "duplicate immediate" on the geometry while
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+<br> it is in the correct position;
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+cut out the old geometry and delete it; skin up the new copy you just
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+<br> made.
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+<br>
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+<p> <u>Part stretched out while animating:</u>
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+<p> If you put a non-uniform
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+scale on a joint and don't tag it as described above it will most likely
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+<br> be extremely stretched out
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+and creepy looking on playback (like Edward Scissorhands). There are
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+<br> other things that can cause
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+this too (like scaling an egg model and not the egg anim channel and
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+<br> vice versa). But when in
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+doubt, throw in the "scale-" flag.
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+<br>
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+</body>
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+</html>
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gregw