Camera Sequencer: Is there a way to playblast sequence with Ornaments?

[ddfzhh]

I am using camera sequencer to create previs, and that means there is a lot of shots in a sequence. When trying to playblast them using the "playblast sequence" option, the window popping up does not give me an option to show Ornaments like camera name or focal length, which is quite important for me. The only way to show ornaments using camera sequencer is to use the "playblast all shots" or "playblast selected shots" option, but these are not ideal because I cannot adjust the size of the video using these options. Because of this, the output of these kinds of render always have a really low quality.

Image: "playblast sequence" window

Image: "Playblast shot" window

Ultimately, I know I can just create a uber cam and just playblast that camera in the timeline; or I can playblast each shot one by one in the timeline. The latter one is definitely not a nice option since it will take a lot of time; and I do not want to create a uber cam because some of my shots are shooting a same animation on the timeline from different angle. Uber cam cannot be created if there are overlapping shots on the timeline.

Please let me know if you have a solution for this. Thanks a lot!!!

[brian.kramer · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I'm sorry this isn't working the way you expect, we probably should have a "Show Ornaments" check box in the Playback Sequence Options UI.

If you are comfortable editing MEL scripts then I have something you can try to get this working the way you want.

In your install directory of Maya you will find the script doPlayblastSequenceArgList.mel in the directory runTime/scripts/others.

Make a copy of this file for safe keeping.

Then open doPlayblastSequenceArgList.mel in a text editor.

Scroll down in the file and not far from the bottom you will see two locations where the playblast command is constructed.

Look for the flags -showOrnaments. You will see it has a value of 0 (zero). Change the values for this flag to 1 (one).

Save the file and run Maya.

The ornaments should now appear in your Sequence playblasts.

Not a great long term solution as you'll have to edit the file again if you want to turn off the ornaments. But it should address your immediate concern.

[ddfzhh]

Yes it works like a charm. Thanks a lot!!!!!

Though I do wish that there is a button for it....I am not familiar with coding but its not that hard right?

[brian.kramer · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I agree, there should be a Show Ornaments check box in the options window. I have logged a request with the team to investigate.

In the meantime, I have something else you could try to make the workflow a bit better.

1. Restore doPlayblastSequenceArgList.mel to its original state.
2. Locate your userSetup.mel script. You should find it in .../2023/scripts/userSetup.mel. If it does not exist you can create one. This script gets executed automatically when you start up Maya.
3. In userSetup.mel add the line global int $myPlayblastSequenceShowOrnaments = 0;
4. Make another copy of doPlayblastSequenceArgList.mel and save it in the same directory that contains userSetup.mel. For example, .../2023/scripts/doPlayblastSequenceArgList.mel. Maya will now use this version of the script instead of the one in the runTime/scripts directory.
5. Now open up your copy of doPlayblastSequenceArgList.mel in a text editor. We need to make a few changes.
   • After the opening { of the procedure add global int $myPlayblastSequenceShowOrnaments;
   • Scroll down to where the -showOrnaments flag is set to 0.
   • Replace the 0 value with " + $myPlayblastSequenceShowOrnaments + "
   • The line should now look like this: "\" -clearCache 1 -showOrnaments " + $myPlayblastSequenceShowOrnaments + " -precent 100 -wh " +
6. Make the same change to the other location of the -showOrnaments flag.

Now when you run Maya your local version of doPlayblastSequenceArgList.mel will be used instead of the default one. In the Script Editor add the following lines:

$myPlayblastSequenceShowOrnaments = 1;

$myPlayblastSequenceShowOrnaments = 0;

Execute either line as appropriate to change the visibility of ornaments when you use playblast sequence. Of course, you can drag each of these lines to the shelf for easier access.

Hope this helps,

-b