Look Effects contributed to all VFX effects for the recently released zombie movie Warm Bodies. They had to create a post apocalyptical world filled with zombies and their arch enemies: the Boneys. Two species which like to gather as hords.
We are thrilled to share that Autodesk has acquired key intellectual property (IP) and the team from Golaem!
What does it mean for you?
As of today, nothing changes: our developers and support teams are still there and committed to supporting you and your projects.
We understand that, with Golaem’s acquired team, Autodesk will next work toward integrating Golaem’s key intellectual property (IP) into Autodesk’s current product offering.
Golaem proudly announces the release of Golaem 9, a groundbreaking version that elevates the quality level of crowd characters to animated hero characters with the same acclaimed user-friendly interface and efficiency
At the first launch, a few setup steps are required to configure maya and the Golaem License.
If you are not confortable with editing environment variables, either see this with you sys admin, or check the relative section Environment Variables
First, you will need to add the Golaem Deep root folder, where the .mod file can be found, to MAYA_MODULE_PATH environment variable.
You will also need to set the golaem_LICENSE or RLM_LICENSE variable to point to your golaem license folder.
Once this has been done, you should be able to find Golaem Deep, displayed as glmDeep.mll or glmDeep.so depending on your OS, in the Plug-in Manager (found in windows-settings/preferences submenu).
Plugin Manager displaying the Deep Deformer Plugin
Once loading the plugin, you should see a line dumping the current Golaem Deep version :
While the Maya.env method may seem simple, it has a huge drawback.
As stated in the Autodesk documentation: "The variables set in the operating system take priority over any settings in the Maya.env file".
Which means that if one variable is already defined in the system, even if you define it in the Maya.env by replacing or appending something to its value, it will not be taken into account (except for some particular variables like MAYA_MODULE_PATH)... You should then be very cautious when using the Maya.env method and check that your environment variables values are really taken into account.
It is convenient to setup one computer this way, but very cumbersome if you deal with a great number of computers.
Configure operating system environment by opening Control Panel > System window, then going to the Advanced or Advanced System Settings tab and clicking the Environment Variables button.
You can either create a user variable (active only when the current user is logged on), or a system variable (always active on this computer).
For a render farm, it is recommended to use system variables because render farm software sometime launch render using a different user account, or as a service (with the system account). But note that when using a System Variable, you will need to restart the computer so that it is taken into account.
When setting a variable on a user computer, it is enough to set it as User Variable, and you will only need to restart Maya so that it is taken into account.
How to choose between User and System variable on Windows?
If you are a USER and probably want to setup a node-locked license on your computer, choose to create a new USER variable. This way you will not have to restart your computer, but juste relaunch Maya again to take the new variable into account.
If you are a SYSADMIN trying to setup variable at the computer level, you need to create a SYSTEM variable (in our example MAYA_MODULE_PATH for the plugin to be found automatically, but your variable may be called differently depending on what you are trying to do). For this variable to be taken into account, you need to restart the computer.
You can check the begining of this video, about Golaem Crowd, to see how to do that in practice, and maybe even create your own launcher script to be able to customize the way you launch your DCC software with Golaem
Group Policy
If you use Group Policy Objects (GPO) to administer your computers, you can simply add Environment Variable Items. The Environment Variables will then be automatically set on all applicable computers.
You can either create a user variable (active only when the current user is logged on), or a system variable (always active on this computer).
It is recommended to use system variables because render farm software sometime launch render using a different user account, or as a service (with the system account).
