Class 15

Progress Update:

Today is the 3/4 check in for class. Here is the video that I presented:

Current status of Mesa

As discussed in the last blog post, I can now create shows, sequences, shots, sets, and props using JSON templates. However, all the files that I've been creating are only temp files, they empty. During class today, I made a couple of changes that make all of the files usable.

I saved models and shaders to the temp files I created. I then bound the shaders to their corresponding geometry and saved that as another file. Lastly, I imported the file again, and saved it out so I could utilize the payloading functionality in USD.

While two boxes are nice, I needed to test this process using an actual asset.

I've also created a TOP network at the bottom of the file to recache all the USD files that are created. This can be recached via a headless command line script. In theory, you could recache every asset in succession with a single Python script.

However, this is a very heavy-handed way of updating the mesh or materials of an asset. In practice, you only need to recache the geo.usdc or mtl.usdc files since the new geometry and shaders will automatically update in any files that reference them.