I've been learning to code over the past few years but have recently started a course "TD Certification" by Allan Mckay. I've decided to track my progress here so will be posting up any scripts I work on for work and anything else I can think to script.
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I've found in the past that I have struggled to find applications for the coding I was learning, but as a result of this course I feel I now have enough knowledge, and the ability to plan out a script. I had always found blank page syndrome difficult to deal with in relation to coding, never really knowing what could be done and how to go about it. Through the course I have found out that the easiest way is to break any job up into single steps and then work on each one of those one by one, combining them where needed. The course began focusing on Maxscript but towards the end we have moved on to Python, where I would have a small amount of experience which I am now finding I have a greater understanding than i thought I did beforehand.
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At the bottom of this post is the code for the first situation I have found where I can apply what I have learned to a task at work - I needed to replace geometry and update a texture for 15 files and then submit each one to Deadline with a versioned up folder and file name. Below is the plan I came up with to get myself started.
1.Import new head
2.Extract new texture
3.Apply new texture to body
4.Align new head to old one
5.Attach head to 'Char_CTRL_Main'
6.Remove old head and band
7.Version up render output
8.Turn render on
9.Make sure correct viewport is rendering
10.Save new max file
2.Extract new texture
3.Apply new texture to body
4.Align new head to old one
5.Attach head to 'Char_CTRL_Main'
6.Remove old head and band
7.Version up render output
8.Turn render on
9.Make sure correct viewport is rendering
10.Save new max file
11.Send to farm
While going through these steps I realised I could skip step 2 by bringing the new texture and setting a flag <#useMergedMtlDups> on the import function to specify to use the updated merged material instead of the scene one. EDIT: this unfortunately did not work as planned at which point I figured out how to transfer a texture from the imported geo to the rest of the geo in the scene that needed it to be applied on.
At the beginning of this exercise I had to pipe certain text items directly in, mainly around the version number for the max files and render outputs, but as I progressed I figured out some ways to extract these with code, thus allowing for the script to be used beyond 'v2.1'.
At present the only things that need to be entered manually are the location of the max files folder, and the assets that need to be replaced and/or deleted.
I really enjoyed this exercise, it was a great excuse to test out what I've learned over the last 2 months, both in terms of knowledge and how to go about building a script. Plenty of Google searching and testing single lines of code, but the satisfaction of getting something like this to work is hard to put to words.
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I am hoping I will get some more jobs that will allow me to push myself further, and I have some plans for a studio pipeline overhaul, to change the folder and file naming structure to allow for much greater automation of simple tasks.
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maxFiles = getfiles @"O:\VirtualTour_VR\3D\Projects\Scenes\*.max"
for i = 1 to maxFiles.count do
(
loadMaxFile (maxfiles[i])
::filein @"O:\VirtualTour_VR\Scripts\DeadlineSubmitter_v01.ms"
mergeFileName =
@"O:\VirtualTour_VR\3D\Projects\Scenes\ScriptTest\CharUpdatedHead01.max"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------- Update geo and texture
oldHeadGeo = $Char_Head
headParent = $Char_CTRL_Main
bandRemove = $Char_HeadStrip
innerHead = $Char_InnerHead
mergeMAXFile mergeFileName #useMergedMtlDups
newHeadGeo = $UpdatedHead01
newHeadGeo.transform = oldHeadGeo.transform
newHeadGeo.parent = headParent
innerHead.parent = headParent
delete oldHeadGeo
delete bandRemove
$Char_Body.material = meditMaterials[1]
viewport.setCamera $PhysCamera001
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------- Make new folder and rename output path
rc.output_rawFileName = outputPath
---------- Save new max file version
maxFilePathSplit = (filterstring (maxfilepath) "\\")
parentMaxFolder = pathConfig.removePathLeaf maxfilepath
newMaxFileSave = parentMaxFolder
maxFileNameSplit = (filterstring (maxfilename) ".")
maxFileVersion = maxFileNameSplit[2] as integer
maxFileVersioningUp = (maxFileVersion + 1) as string
newMaxFileName = maxFileNameSplit[1] + "." + maxFileVersioningUp + "." + maxFileNameSplit[3]
newMaxFileNameFullPath = maxfilepath + newMaxFileName
if (doesfileexist newMaxFileNameFullPath) != true then
(
saveMaxFile newMaxFileNameFullPath
)
else
(
messagebox "!!!Warning!!!\nA more recent max file already exists\nJob has been submitted anyway"
)
----------Send to deadline
DLRenSubmit _JobName _Priority _Comment _UserName _Group
)
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