This is the second article of two that show solutions to common problems faced when using Python in XSI.

It discusses a useful way of importing your own Python modules into your plugins.

This article is the first of two that will show you solutions to a couple of common problems you’ll face when using Python in XSI.

Here we look at passing functions to PPGs to be used as PPG logic. Something simple in other scripting languages, but harder in Python.

Exporting ICE compounds. What could be simpler?

Well, as it turns out, quite a lot. Especially if you forget to tick a certain checkbox…

A tool free to download for XSI, that mimics the Tab menu from Houdini and Nuke.

A great way to speed up your workflow.

A complete guide to retiming particles in ICE.

The techniques discussed in this article were used for Sky Sports’ “Super Sunday” television ident at The Mill, earlier this year.

How many times have you tried to cache out data in XSI’s ICE and found that your custom attributes have disappeared?

Check out this post for a tried and tested method of working around this problem.

Soft Effector is a plugin that removes the snap from IK animation. Also provided is a version that works with stretchy bones.

The SaveRenderMesh shader allows you to capture the actual tesselated geometry that mental ray uses to produce the final render and saves it out as an OBJ file.

This means you can create geometry from sub-division surfaces, displacement maps, particle instances, hair, and geometry shaders.

A tool for visualising particle distributions in XSI

Post Light lets you accurately light your scene from inside XSI’s FX Tree. You can add lights to the scene and in a matter of seconds, Post Light will render an accurate preview of how the final render will appear.

Full documentation after the link.