Progress Update:
After presenting the 3/4 check in last class, I was asked to test the pipeline with fellow classmates.
Negatives:
When I had everyone test the creation scripts, I let them press the "run code" button in VS Code. A lot of people expected to have to change the code, but that wasn't needed for this test. A simple GUI will help to alleviate this error in user flow.
USD is also a new concept to a lot of people at SCAD. While Solaris is gaining adoption throughout the VSFX department, the underlying understanding of USD is a bit lacking, including myself. Hopefully Mesa will alleviate the need to know a bunch of USD's intricacies.
Positives:
The idea of referencing using USD was very appealing to everyone who tested the pipeline. Some students current workflow is to make an update to a mesh, re-export it, import it into Houdini, and then copy the transforms from the previous version to the latest version. Shaders also have to be copy and pasted from each Houdini file when there is an update. By using USD, these changes would propagate into every shot.
Those who tested the pipeline as liked how organized everything is.
There may be students who use the pipeline beginning Winter quarter.
