[oz42]

Hi, me again!

I've brought this before http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... 04&t=34007 and wondered if there is any movement on the ability to animate the sky (i.e. time of day) in Softimage? I'm just about to upgrade to 2011 (waiting for serial number from Autodesk!) and am taking on a project for a telescope animation that needs to be shown during a sunset. You mentioned last time that you tried to activate this feature in XSI 6 and had the app crash. I'd be quite happy to beta test a new plugin with this feature if it'd help as the telescope project is not due until August and I'll have time to iron out the creases.

Also, there is still a problem with changing the camera aperture on an animation (which may become an issue for the above project). The animation always uses the aperture setting of the first frame even if I change the setting over time in Softimage.

Thanks in advance.

[Mihnea Balta]

We'll soon release a new build of the plug-in which supports animating the sky parameters (starting with XSI 7). I've tried to reproduce the problem with the aperture, but I couldn't - in my tests, it animates correctly. Does it happen with any scene in your case, or only with a specific one?

[oz42]

Mihnea, thanks for getting back so quickly.

Very good news about the animated sky parameters! I know it's not wise to give delivery dates but can I safely undertake my telescope project with an August deadline on the assumption that the new plugin will be ready by then? (PM me if you'd prefer)

I'll send a problem scene over regarding the aperture issue, thanks.

[Mihnea Balta]

The version with the animated sky is already packaged and good to go, but we'll hold it back until we fix the 2011 issue you reported in the other thread. Hopefully we'll be able to release it next week, or the week after that at the latest.

[oz42]

that's great news, I can't wait

Not wanting to complicate things but Softimage 2011 SP1 just came out I'm hoping that with a minor update release this won't effect the plugin