One of my favorite tools out of all that I have built, projector, has been updated to version 2.4! The worst part about v2.3 was how much time reprojector took to do it’s thing and the inspector windows popping up getting in the way. The best solution I could find at the time (about 1 year ago) was using GUI scripting which was a ridiculous hack that basically just presses the correct buttons quickly. 2.4 uses and includes the command line utility “seticon” written by Sveinbjorn Thordarson which changes icons very seamlessly. This update also allows changing multiple folder icons with projector and reprojector simultaneously. So if you have multiple folders you would like to add project folders to, drag them onto projector. If you have folders that all need the same icon, drag them all onto reprojector.

projector_v2.4 download page. . .

Log:
v2.4 – reprojector reworked to change icons instantly, change multiple folder icons at the same time, error checking
v2.3 – added auto-checking for Application Support folder, allows user to add their own folders/icons, design icon
v2.2 – added Premiere Pro and Shake icons
v2.0 – released! (new workflow including reprojector)
v1.0 – released!

[ andoru.labs | $ ]

MayaMaya has been updated to v1.1.1 and now is a universal tool that simply asks you to choose your Maya location on startup. You may need to reset the preferences if you have been using an older version of MayaMaya.

Download: MayaMaya

[andoru.labs]

I ran into a situation where I wanted to remove a lot of empty folders from a directory and did some digging and came up with a new stupid tool to make that easy. empty! just asks for a folder (you can run the app and choose one, or drag and drop one) and it will look for empty folders inside that directory and delete them. As folders that contain empty folders become empty, it will also delete them, but it won’t delete anything that contains proper files or folders with files in them.

You want to be careful with this if you are deleting stuff from a server as there is no confirmation to delete and no trash to restore from, so it would be wise to copy the directory to your computer first, run empty and move it back. It is a bit nerve racking to listen to it delete hundreds of folders but I have tested this on pretty heavy directories with multiple files and it works great, but… this tool is made available as is, I cannot guarantee it won’t run into a situation where important files may be deleted, make sure to back stuff up before using it on a heavy directory.

One cool thing I worked into this is the ability to select your folder in Finder, then simply run the app from Spotlight or Finder, and it will default to the last path you selected in Finder which is a great time saver. I will start integrating this into all my other tools where it makes sense as it is incredibly simple.

Download: Download page. . .

Log:
[2010.05.12: v1.0] – released!

Enjoy! If there are any issues, concerns, or requests please contact: andoruLABS.support. This app is free, no donations allowed on this one. . .

[andoru.labs]

NukeView updated to v1.2.1. Support for Nuke6.2v2 naming conventions

NukeView download page. . .

Log:
[2011.03.04 - v1.2.1]
-added support for Nuke 6.2v2 (adds ****-**** frame numbers to end of command)
[2010.10.6 - v1.2]
-added support for more naming conventions and made naming system more robust
[2010.10.6 - v1.1]
-updated for 64bit versions of Nuke (6.1v2…) that use new directory naming scheme
[2010.5.28 - v1.0]
-redeveloped to allow opening and drag and drop of any file in sequence, NukeView will find how many characters are in the fileCount and open it accordingly.
[2010.5.17 - v1.0]
-developed basic functionality

[andoru.labs]

projector updated to v2.3. Now allows the User to add custom icons and have then automatically recognized by the apps.

projector_v2.3 download page. . .

Log:
v2.3 – added auto-checking for Application Support folder, allows user to add their own folders/icons, design icon
v2.2 – added Premiere Pro and Shake icons
v2.0 – released! (new workflow including reprojector)
v1.0 – released!

[andoru.labs]

RenderQ_v1.2.1 with new preference system, default flags saved per application, some bug fixes, and a simple addition to sleep…mode.

RenderQ_v1.2.1 download page. . .

Log:
[2010.10.28 - v1.2.1]:

-ask for actual path for each render engine
-checks for current preferences and resets if required
-fixed localization issue related to file type naming
-ask to save default flags for each renderer
-adjusted render_fin sound volume and added sleepmode sound

[andoru.labs]

Not being one to do things half-assed I present to you:

light table!

A glorious new web app for the iPad (maybe the iPhone if you’re in the flip-book mood) that displays an incredible white background image as far as the eyes can see. Just visit the above link (or type “andrewandoru.com/lt”) and add this to your home screen:

Visit the site using the home screen icon and you will see this:

Find a nice chip clip, and you pretty much have yourself one of these:

Animate!

[andoru.labs]

After getting a few different requests for the “fn” app in different languages than English, I put together a universal version that should work with all the standard languages included in OS X’s “Language & Text” System Preference pane.

If there are any other questions for other languages, just let me know…

Download: fn download page…

Log:
[2010.11.21: v1.2]
-released!
-(Universal version) localized for all standard listed languages of OS X 10.6

Enjoy! If there are any issues, concerns, or requests please contact: andoruLABS.support. It is quite possible there could be a few little bugs or improvements that could be made so don’t be afraid to contact me. This app is free, no donations allowed on this one. . .

[andoru.labs]

Maya is an application that can sometimes crash. It is always due to user-error of course, but for those moments when your pathetic human brain is unable to keep up with the technology, Maya x_x is there for you.

Maya x_x is an AppleScript application based off of a fantastic shell script written by Dave Girard to easily open the recovery file Maya generates when it crashes. The clever bit of this app (the shell script) takes a look in your /var/log/system.log file for “Fatal Error”, a string of text that is common to all recent versions of Maya when a crash is detected and a recovery file is saved, and pulls out the proper path of the newly generated recovery file. LIke this. . .

"/var/folders/Sn/SnHxMpN7Gh82+IKBgzDDxU+++TI/-Tmp-/andoru.20101121.0159.ma"

. . .not exactly any easy file to find if you have to go digging around yourself. Maya x_x also checks that output to see which version of Maya generated the crash log, and opens the recovery file in the appropriate version of the app. It also gives you a simple app to throw in your utilities folder (or wherever you like), that you can easily call up from Spotlight by typing Cmd+Space, and “maya x”, and pressing return.

This is designed to work with Maya 2009-2011, and as long as Maya actually generates a recovery file, all should be well. While this won’t automatically close any scene you currently have open but it is a good idea to just use this app right after the crash occurs, and always make sure to give the recovery scene a once over to make sure nothing is out of the ordinary.

Download: Maya x_x download page. . .

Log:
[2010.11.21: v1.0] – released!

To answer some questions in advance, After Effects and Nuke have pretty decent crash recovery and automatic save systems build right in. After Effects will even put up a pop-up showing where the recovery file is saved. There is a great tool called AE Suicide that will force AE to crash more elegantly and hopefully generate this recovery file. Nuke’s built in autosave system does the job just fine, and Nuke rarely crashes.

Enjoy! If there are any issues, concerns, or requests please contact: andoruLABS.support. It is quite possible there could be a few little bugs or improvements that could be made so don’t be afraid to contact me. This app is free, no donations allowed on this one. . .

[andoru.labs] | [dave.girard]

AEae and MayaMaya have both been updated to include basic preferences and drag and drop functionality. This means you can now launch the app normally to open a specific number of new instances of the apps, or you can drag and drop project files onto the app to automatically open each one up in separate instances.

Download: AEae | MayaMaya

[andoru.labs]

Upon realizing that the latest update to my favorite Safari extension (YouTube5) now supports Vimeo embeds, I realized there was no longer a reason to have Flash enabled on my system, at least not my main workstation. As many have mentioned, and John Gruber explains well on his site Daring Fireball, it is pretty simple to enable/disable Flash by just moving the plug-in components from the folder that Safari (and most other browsers) expect to find them. This way you have an easy fallback if you want to enable the plug-in, without going through the trouble of downloading anything.

As a person who is in front of a computer a lot, I need to ration my clicks, I am in my twenty’s and I just don’t know much clicking this right hand’s got left. . .

flashy! is an AppleScript applet that makes the simple simpler by automatically enabling and disabling the Flash plug-in by moving the appropriate components from their normal directory, and placing them in a “.disabled” directory for safekeeping.

From this:

To this:

And that pretty much covers it. The app will check for the files in their original location, disable them if they are there, and try to put them back if they aren’t. A simple toggle switch. If flashy! can’t find any of those files it will politely inform you. . .

Download: flashy! download page. . . (319KB .zip)

Log:
[2010.11.04: v1.0] – released!
[2010.11.10 - v1.1] – restarts Finder after disabling Flash to avoid errors when re-enabling

Known Issue v_1.0: When using flashy!_v1.0 for the the first time, after using it to disable Flash, you actually need to go to “/Library/Internet Plug-Ins.disabled/” and select the Flash Player.plugin file, just select it, or you will get an error message when trying to re-enable it (also make sure to Reset Safari for the change to take place in your browser). You should only need to do this once, but I am looking into it (see v1.1 above). . .

Tip: Most browsers (including Safari) have an option to Reopen Windows from Last Session in the History menu. Also, put flashy! in your Utilities folder or wherever, and just run it from Spotlight. Cmd+Space, type the first couple of letters “fla…” and press return.

Enjoy! If there are any issues, concerns, or requests please contact: andoruLABS.support. It is quite possible there could be a few little bugs or improvements that could be made so don’t be afraid to contact me. This app is free, no donations allowed on this one. . .

[andoru.labs] | [youtube5] | [daring.fireball]

Quick update to RenderQ to v1.2 to work with latest 32/64bit release of Nuke (make sure to Reset Preferences). Also added system sleep and maya project settings…

RenderQ_v1.2

[andoru.labs]

5DtoRGB is a Mac OS X app developed by Rarevision that is “designed to transcode your footage to a camera master format, either as Apple ProRes QuickTime files or DPX files.” Not a necessity for a lot of DSLR users, but great for any medium to heavy post work and those wanting to get the most flexibility when color grading. Another interesting bit is the ability to add an alpha to ProRes 4444 clips based on the luminance, to make it quick and easy to work with footage in post. Could be very useful for those shooting effects elements, etc.

At this point in time, 5DtoRGB is still in beta and works only as a single shot transcoding method. Meaning only one clip can be processed at a time. I would imagine Rarevision is planning to add batch functionality to their app in the future, but I see this as a very useful tool that people would like to put to immediate use. I developed 5DDtoRGBB to make it simple to open multiple instances of 5DtoRGB and prepare clips for encoding. I haven’t tested encoding times thoroughly, but I would imagine opening a massive number of 5DtoRGB instances and having them all process clips simultaneously will only end in tears.

5DDtoRGBB v1.1 (9/7) addresses this by having an “Auto” mode. Not quite a batch solution, but still very useful. In Auto Mode, 5DD will allow you to select or drag and drop multiple clips, and one instance of 5DtoRGB will load up with the first clip in the queue, allow you to convert it, then quit that instance, the next one will load up, and so on and so forth. So you still need to manually choose options for conversion and select a destination, but still can save some time. This is likely going to be redundant when Rarevision puts out on update, but I find it a good exercise to help improve my current and other future workflow tools. Rarevision has confirmed that a command line version is in the works so more 5DtoRGB stuff will definitely be happening in the future.

Included in the download is 5DDtoRGBB, and a Reset 5DDtoRGBB Preferences app which does exactly that. It sends the preference file (which is stored at ~/Library/Preferences/com.andorulabs.5DDtoRGBB.plist) to the trash. As you may have noticed, I also included a nice unofficial icon for 5DtoRGB as well. Let’s see if Rarevision is interested. . .

Demo:

Download: 5DDtoRGBB (871KB .zip)

Log:
-2010.9.06 – v1.0 Released!
-2010.9.07 – v1.1 added “Auto” and “Manual” modes

I have contacted Rarevision with the hopes that they will add command line functionality to their app so I can incorporate 5DtoRGB encoding into my RenderQ app and have a single simple solution for all heavy duty processing I do on my workstation. In the meantime, I am working on adding drag and drop functionality to this tool, and the ability to open multiple clips up in their own separate instance of 5DtoRGB, ready to press convert and began encoding when ready. Still not a complete batch processing solution, but a good workaround until. . .

Update (9/7): Rarevision says a command line version is indeed in the works and more features are coming soon.

If there are any issues or concerns please contact: andoruLABS.support. Also, this tool is free but feel free to donate if you find it useful.

[5DtoRGB] | [andoru.labs]

Probably the most valuable couple of megabytes on this site, my storyboard templates have continuously been one of the top sources of traffic. For me, storyboarding is simultaneously the most rewarding and frustrating part of the film making process. It is very rare that a scripted scene survives the storyboarding step unscathed. While you really don’t need anything special to produce a great sequence of storyboard panels (choices range from the lowly diner napkin to the highest end Wacom Cintiq), we live in a world where people offer up all shorts of wonderful options and tools free of charge, and you would be silly not to take a look at them. I never found anything I really liked to draw my panels on so I put together some of my own a little while back.

Recently I updated them just a bit and while I tend to do most of by story boarding on one of these beauties. . .

. . . I also put together some .psd versions for people that like to work digitally from start to finish. Working in Photoshop also gives you the ability to mask off panels and shuffle things around easily.

You can checkout some examples of these templates in use on my current Floating World project page.

Demo:

QuickTime Version 1280×800 (26MB)

iPhone Version (8MB)

Download: andoru.LABS 2010 Storyboard Templates (1.54MB .zip)

Log:
[feel free to use and distribute these in accordance to the CC license presented at the bottom of this site]
-2010.8.06 – Updated for 2010 and simplified
-2010.8.06 – Added .PSD templates for digital storyboarding

Like I already mentioned, there are many ways to create a storyboard. Being arguably the most important part of the film-making process I recommend doing it with some class. . .

If there are any issues or concerns please contact: andoruLABS.support. Also, these templates are free but feel free to donate if you find them useful.

[andoru.labs]

After using Nuke for quite awhile now I have really started to like it’s built in viewer. It has easy controls to view multiple channels, simple region of interest, exposure and gamma controls, and proper keyboard shortcuts (jkl) for playback. I found myself often opening up Nuke just to use the viewer to take a look at renders and recently discovered while digging through the documentation that Nuke can be launched in viewer only mode using the command line. If you have ever visited this site before it is probably well apparent I am a fan of making AppleScript droplets for utilizing command line features of apps, and this was no different.

NukeView is a simple app that allows you to easily open an image sequence in the Nuke viewer without going through all the steps of opening the app, creating read nodes, finding the sequence, etc. You can simply drag and drop any file in the sequence onto NukeView and it will open Nuke in viewer only mode, then begin playback of the sequence.

Demo:

QuickTime Version 1172×720 (50.6MB)

iPhone Version (15MB)

As mentioned NukeView expects the “filename.count.ext” naming syntax and that you actually choose or drag and drop one of the image sequence files, not the folder that contains them.

UPDATE: 2010.10.6 | For those downloading NukeView again after this date, make sure to reset preferences as they are now setup differently. NukeView will now ask for the full path of the Nuke executable. For those not familiar:

1. Right click on the Nuke app to “Show Package Contents” and find the Nuke6… executable alias (/Nuke6.x.app/Contents/MacOS/Nuke6.x)

2. Reset preferences if you were using an older version of NukeView

3. Launch NukeView and it will ask you for the executable path, just drag and drop the Nuke executable (Grey UNIX file) from Finder into the open dialog.

Download: NukeView (1MB .zip)

Log:
-2010.5.17: developed basic functionality
-2010.5.28: redeveloped to allow opening and drag and drop of any file in sequence, NukeView will find how many characters are in the fileCount and open it accordingly.
-2010.10.6: updated for 64bit versions of Nuke (6.1v2…) that use new directory naming scheme. Please reset preferences before using this version.

Enjoy! If there are any issues or concerns please contact: andoruLABS.support. Also, this app is free but feel free to donate like a maniac.

[andoru.labs]

Remember all those render droplet apps I was always going on about? Forget about them. I haven’t told any of them yet, but their services are no longer required. Each app performed it’s job perfectly well, but I am all about teamwork here, and there is no “Q” in team. . .

Which has nothing to do with RenderQ, the latest update to the render droplet apps; which not only combines the functionality of MayaRender, AERender, NukeRender, and all of their Q counterparts, it does them all one better by using a little bit of intelligence. RenderQ is a drag and drop render queue app that will send Maya, After Effects, Nuke, C4D, and Shake renders to Terminal and queue them up for easy and efficient local rendering. It is now very easy to set preferences for the version of each app you are using, as well as enabling and disabling additional flags for each filetype. RenderQ will also automatically detect the filetype and submit the job accordingly.

Also included is RenderQ maitre d’ to pause and resume renders and will also show which render engine is currently active and the last job submitted to the queue.

Demo:

QuickTime Version 1280×800 (92MB)

iPhone Version

Support for more apps could very well be coming in the future. A $0-25 donation is customary. I prefer to keep this sort of thing on the honor system rather than setting up some sort of direct cost. If you use this tool at a facility I suppose a site license will cost you $0-$1000.

Download: RenderQ download page…

Enjoy! If there are any issues or concerns please contact: andoruLABS.support. One thing I didn’t mention in the demo is that there is also a simple app included to reset the RenderQ preferences. It is quite possible there could be a few little bugs or improvements that could be made so don’t be afraid to contact me. Also, this app is free but feel free to donate, as many hours of work were put into it.

[andoru.labs]

With a bit of testing and a tiny bit of additional code I was able to build a basic queueing system into my render droplet apps. Instead of having each version open up a new Terminal window and start a separate simultaneous render, the “Q” versions of the apps will send everything to one Terminal window and render them one after the other. Not only does this make the apps easier to use, it should actually make rendering with all of them much more efficient, especially when you need to render multiple project files, scenes, or scripts. Now you can get them all set to render with the “Q” droplets and go to sleep, go drink some coffee, or better yet, go work on something else.

Demo:

QuickTime Version 1440×900 (46MB)

iPhone Version

Download: AEaeCS5 (165KB .zip)

Log:
-2010.5.1: Updated for After Effects CS5
-2010.5.6: added “Q” version

Download: MayaRender (6.7MB .zip)
Includes MayaRender2009-2011.

Log:
-2009-12-1: added 2010 versions plus V-Ray, and 3delight droplets.
-2010-3-10: fixed Maya 2010 versions to work with the changes that were made to the location of the “render” binary.
-2010-3-20: fixed typos in latest Mental Ray versions (2009 & 2010) and removed “mail_cmd” in MayaRender2010 (universal version), top secret feature coming soon. . .
-2010-4-10: Updated for Maya 2011
-2010-5-06: Added “Q” versions

Download: NukeRender (725KB .zip)
Includes NukeRender6.0v5, for instructions on older versions go to NukeRender page.

Log:
-2009-5-01: Updated for Nuke6.0v5
-2010-5-06: Added “Q” versions

Enjoy! If there are any issues or concerns please contact: andoruLABS.support. Also, this app is free but feel free to donate like a maniac.

[andoru.labs]

AEae. . .

. . . and AERender have both been updated for After Effects CS5. I worked night and day to make this happen, changing the 4 to a 5 took a good 2 mins out of my life. Once again more time was spent on the new icons. But I must. . .

Download: AEaeCS5 (165KB .zip)

Log:
-2010.5.1: basic functionality

Download: AERenderCS5 (748KB .zip)

Log:
-2010.5.1: basic functionality

I have tested both with no problems but as usual, if there are any issues or concerns please contact: andoruLABS.support. Also, these apps are free but feel free to donate if you have the means.

COMING SOON:

“Q” versions of all the render droplet apps! With a slight adjustment to the scripts, I have found a way to allow a simple but effective queuing system to all the droplets. Will be available soon. . .

And for the record, RotoBrush is cool and all, but the addition of the FreeForm plugin is HUGE for anyone doing Matte Paintings, nearly all of the bicubic cards (3D point manipulation) functionality of Nuke and the camera controls from Maya equal a 3D workspace that is finally enjoyable to use. Bravo CS5, Bravo. And don’t even get me started about photoshop.

[andoru.labs]

Another ridiculous one I decided to make while checking h264 encoded versions of renders in QuickTime Player 7 for compression differences before uploading them to the web. Yes I know that I could open up something like AE or Nuke and easily do difference comparisons between the footage:

But I found the time it takes to do that and all the other things I could get distracted by in AE or Nuke end up taking more time than I really want to spend anyway. And just visually comparing the difference the way the audience will see it makes more sense anyway. So my normal image quality check would require aligning the QuickTime Player windows and cycling between them by using (command ⌘ + ~)

As you would imagine aligning the windows is difficult to ever get perfect. Luckily this was something Applescript could easily handle so I first wrote a simple script that would easily line up all the open QT player windows to the frontmost window. Now I was able to easily cycle between the windows with the same hotkey combo mentioned above. I thought I would try automating this a bit and also found a way to have difference do this for me automatically for me by telling it how many times to cycle and how fast to do it. So now the process is simple. Just open the content you would like to compare in QuickTime Player 7, click the difference app in your dock or Finder toolbar. . .

. . . and difference will line up the content and will ask you how you would like to automatically cycle the images (you can quickly just type 0, return, 0, return if you would like to do it all manually) and then you can just sit back and check it out for yourself, the way your eyes see it on a screen.

Luckily this process seems to be less important as encoding for the web gets better but I always find it a good idea to at visually check to see how something compares to the original before putting it out there for the world to see. With an app this easy to use you no longer have an excuse.

Demo:

QuickTime Version 1440×900 (70MB)

iPhone Version

Download: difference (360KB .zip)

Log:
-2010.3.25: basic functionality
-2010.3.27: added automatic cycling

Not 100% sure if QT player was called QuickTime Player 7 in 10.5.8 so anyone using Leopard let me know and I will make sure to include a version that works.

Enjoy! If there are any issues or concerns please contact: andoruLABS.support. Also, this app is free but feel free to donate like a maniac.

[andoru.labs]

Updated both MayaMaya and MayaRender for 2010 & 2011 versions. Maya 2011 is a must have upgrade if you are working on OS X, loads of new features, lots of bug fixes (although I am sure some others will pop up) and just an all around better version of Maya for the Mac. Oh, and 64bit! Who doesn’t want to have multiple iterations of that sexy UI?

Just download from the same location as before using the links above. Both apps are tested and should be working just fine with the new versions, please let me know if you have any issues.

Side Note: You may have seen the little orange plus signs recently added below each post, those are there to let you easily share and link to these posts on other sites, so feel free to do so.

[andoru.labs]