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]

Maya x_x updated to v1.1. Support for Maya 2012. 2012 is good, it’s splash screen is real big…

Maya x_x download page. . .

Log:
[2011.04.09: v1.1] – updated for Maya 2012
[2010.11.21: v1.0] – released!

[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]

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]

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]

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]

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 version of the original post to show off what is possible with projector_v2!

Quite possibly the laziest of all the lazy apps. projector is a simple workflow droplet app that allows you to easily create and change project folders and icons to keep your film/animation projects nicely organized at a glance. So you can easily go from this:

To this:

In no time at all.

Demo:

QuickTime Version 1440×900 (160MB)

iPhone Version

Download: projector download page. . .

The icons included are modified versions of the default OS X 10.6 icons or icons included with the specific apps, and a few 2001: A Space Odyssey icons made by Mischa Mclachlan.

If you have any requests for icons to include in the release let me know in the comments! It will be easy to keep track of that way and stay attached to this post.

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] | [mischa.mclachlan]

Quite possibly the laziest of all the lazy apps. projector is a simple workflow droplet app that allows you to easily change project folder icons to keep your film/animation projects nicely organized at a glance. So you can easily go from this:

To this:

In no time at all.

Demo:

QuickTime Version 1280×800 (39MB)

iPhone Version

Download: projector download page. . .

I have also included a .pdf User Guide so check it out if you have any problems.

The icons included are modified versions of the default OS X 10.6 icons or icons included with the specific apps, and a few 2001: A Space Odyssey icons made by Mischa Mclachlan.

If you have any requests for icons to include in the release let me know in the comments! It will be easy to keep track of that way and stay attached to this post.

Enjoy! If there are any issues or concerns please contact: andoruLABS.support.

[andoru.labs] | [mischa.mclachlan]

I really don’t enjoy setting renders in Maya, and I definitely don’t enjoy manually setting up command line renders, but it is definitely the way to go when it comes to rendering animation.

The purpose of these little apps is to make that a drag and drop process:

MayaRender – Drag any Maya .ma or .mb onto this droplet to automatically start a command line render in terminal. (Asks to choose Renderer and add any additional Render Flags, universal version will ask which Maya version you would like to use)

Maya SW, MentalRay, and RenderMan, and V-Ray are setup to automatically startup up renders as soon as a file has been dragged onto them, avoiding having to put in any options. (The renderer will automatically use whatever you have setup within your Render Globals in your scene)

Download: MayaRender (6.2MB .zip)
-(Based on code originally developed by Dustin & Cody Beltram.)

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

Enjoy! If there are any issues or concerns please contact: andoruLABS.support.

[andoru.LABS]

Not very Friendly at all:

Do you like having your Finder and Application windows organized in a specific way? Or maybe you spend a lot of time re-positioning your windows to specific locations when they are moved around.

Well this app I developed called “layout” can turn all of that time spent re-organizing your windows into a simple one-click process.

Here is a video explaining exactly how it works and how to set it up to fit your own setup:

Download full 1440×900 video
[98.23.mb Quicktime .mov]

Included in the package is an Instructions file for reference on getting your own configuration working.

Download:

[UPDATE]: layout 1.0 now available, fixes and changes include:
-Will now check to see which Finder windows and Apps are open and run accordingly. Won't open every listed app to re-position it, will only position the currently open Applications.
-Finder is now setup to make your default layout if no windows are detected.

layout 1.0
(63kb .zip file)

layout is a set of 2 apps, one “Get Sizes” to find the position of your application windows, and “layout” to reset them to this default position. The setup is pretty simple, just open all of the apps you would like specifically positioned, maybe Firefox, iTunes, and others. Then, run Get Sizes SETUP to configure the Get Sizes app to fit your specific setup. Run layout SETUP to configure your particular version of layout, then simply drag your version of the “layout” app, to your finder toolbar, or where you would like it.

Feel free to leave a comment (donation) on this post if you have any issues or questions. And let me know what you think. Enjoy, or ignore and move on. I promise it is worth it.

[App originally based off idea and scripts developd by "francodecoyo" of MacThemes, and reworked and completely re-scripted by me]

It’s great to be able to change your volume and brightness and whatever on the fly with your fn keys. It’s not so great when working in programs like Maya and After Effects, Nuke, or Shake where you really need those keys to act as normal fn keys, to change menu sets, and other things.

That is what “fn” is for. It simply Toggles “Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys” in Keyboard preferences.

This is how it works:

fn1.1 in action

I like to keep it in my dock or finder toolbar so whenever I need to switch that preference I can do it quickly.

Download: fn download page. . .

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]