General tips and tricks, along with a collection of videos/tutorials I’ve found around the internet. Being added to regularly by @Javier Diaz 🐸

• 📙 Table Of Contents

🔫Resources

PureRef

PureRef

OCIO

OpenColorIO

HDRI Haven

HDRIs * Poly Haven

DJView

DJV

🎭 Maya

Maya Documentation

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/getting-started/caas/simplecontent/content/maya-documentation.html

Maya Documentation

Arnold Render Vis Toggle Script

# Vis Switch
import maya.cmds as cmds

proxyMesh = cmds.ls(type='mesh', sl=True)

def visSwitch(OnOffVar):
    for each in proxyMesh:
        cmds.setAttr('{}.castsShadows'.format(each), OnOffVar)
        cmds.setAttr('{}.receiveShadows'.format(each), OnOffVar)
        cmds.setAttr('{}.motionBlur'.format(each), OnOffVar)
        cmds.setAttr('{}.primaryVisibility'.format(each), OnOffVar)
        cmds.setAttr('{}.smoothShading'.format(each), OnOffVar)
        cmds.setAttr('{}.visibleInReflections'.format(each), OnOffVar)
        cmds.setAttr('{}.visibleInRefractions'.format(each), OnOffVar)
        cmds.setAttr('{}.doubleSided'.format(each), OnOffVar)
        cmds.setAttr('{}.aiVisibleInDiffuseReflection'.format(each), OnOffVar)
        cmds.setAttr('{}.aiVisibleInSpecularReflection'.format(each), OnOffVar)
        cmds.setAttr('{}.aiVisibleInDiffuseTransmission'.format(each), OnOffVar)
        cmds.setAttr('{}.aiVisibleInSpecularTransmission'.format(each), OnOffVar)
        cmds.setAttr('{}.aiVisibleInVolume'.format(each), OnOffVar)
        cmds.setAttr('{}.aiSelfShadows'.format(each), OnOffVar)

# Turn It ON
visSwitch(1)

#Turn It OFF
visSwitch(0)

Arnold Enable\Disable AOV Script

### enable
import maya.cmds as cmds
    
aovList = cmds.ls(type="aiAOV")
for i in aovList:
    cmds.setAttr('{}.enabled'.format(i), True)
    print("Turned On: " + i)

### disable
import maya.cmds as cmds
    
aovList = cmds.ls(type="aiAOV")
for i in aovList:
    cmds.setAttr('{}.enabled'.format(i), False)
    print("Turned Off " + i)

💈XGen

<aside> 🥧 Here’s the thing with XGen, it is dumb. You can’t just move nodes/objects around because it’s all hard coded into multiple files. Once you realize that, it begins to make sense. There are ways to fix things, but keep these core rules in mind:

• Do not move collections/descriptions around, it will break.
• Do not edit uvs after the fact, it will break.
• All uvs should be within 0-1 space, udims are not supported.
• Assign a lambert to your scalp mesh, if you have any other shader… it will break.

</aside>

XGen Primers

JesusFC has a “Getting started with XGen” playlist.

Introduction to Xgen

Light Collab has a great primer on creating XGen grooms.