Portfolio piece - script

Professional
#1

Hi everyone,

I have been looking at other tech artist’s website/portfolio and I couldn’t quite categorize the tool they made. There are a few that are similar, but for the most part, everything is strictly made for a specific job. The most common I found are rigging scripts.

I am currently working on script/tools portfolio pieces. However, I have no idea what to make a tool for. So far I know MEL, and I am learning maxscript but learning maxscript is easy. On the other hand, knowing what to make something out of it is very difficult.

Do you guys have any recommendation on what tool to make?

Please and thank you.

#2

Ask your fellow students/friends you work with what really bothers them about their workflow, and try to come up with a technical solution. Its more than likely they have some tasks or processes that are incredibly inefficient or even frustrating.

#3

+1

I was going to write a long response, but in truth, that’s the type of tools that you create. Now, given there are tools you’ll build for pipeline related things, but those are done on a case by case basis because not all pipelines can necessarily use the same pipe tools.

Taking complicated, annoying workflows that artists use and boil them down to really simple,easy to use tools is where it’s at. I created some really awesome tools here in house for skinning that are incredibly simple, basic math equations in fact, but do them so fast and have such flexibility that they’ve become pretty indispensable.

Doing the same thing with the nuke pipeline, simplifying tasks and building very flexible and very fast tools that the artist use and they’re all tools the compositors requested to help them avoid long grind-like tasks.

#4

making things faster is what makes tech artists indispensible. the most predictable and awesome part of my day is telling a producer that i took a 20 minute task that artists had to do 3 times a day and turned it into a button click. the look on their faces is like christmas morning every time. i definitely echo what was said above… find an annoying process that you or your friends constantly do over and over again, and make it fast. displaying to potential employers that you a) can recognize these situations and b) were able to provide an effective solution is something that i look for a lot in entry level positions.

#5

sounds like an awesome moment and a big pat on the back at the end of the day.

i have been asking a bunch of my friends of what they do often that annoys them or usually confuses them. i will definitely take all of your advices and hopefully find a very solid task and simplify it to a couple of buttons that would look great as a portfolio piece.

#6

A fun exercise is simply sitting in on a session with your friends working. Even casually observing what they’re doing will reveal annoyances they don’t even think about themselves.

The golden rule of user driven tests is that users rarely know what they want, and I think the same applies to our users.

#7

You can also post a topic for requests on a artist forum like polycount.
There are always people who would like a tool for some problem/slow task.

#8

The above sounds like you’re new to 3ds Max. Sure, MaxScript is dead easy once you figure out how to read the docs as almost every plugin has it’s own slightly different API, but the real deal is working around all the issues you expected to just work. E.g, you’re working on a script and suddenly Max decides to start doing this on you:

** Unknown System Exception **

Once you overcome that stage, you’re good to go. :slight_smile:

SamiV.

#9

thanks guys. i do like the idea of sitting in with my friends as they work and do some observations. the polycount idea is also great. i’ll do both of these and hope to come up with something.

on the other hand, i am not new to 3ds max. In fact, it is the software I began doing 3d stuff. It just happens that MEL Script is the first scripting language I learned that is 3D software related. that said, i still have tons of learning when it comes to 3ds max.