Slim
Appearance & Template Documents

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Praparing a Shader to be Imported into Slim

Figure 1 shows that two files have been prepared using the Cutter text editor. Infact, any text editor could be used but a distinct advantage of using the Cutter software that I have written is that when a RenderMan Shading Language (RSL) source file file is compiled (using Cutter) the associated Slim appearance file automatically generated.

Figure 1
A Slim Appearance Document plus a pre-compiled Shader

Strickly speaking it is unnecessary to prepare a Slim appearance file in addition to the shader itself. Any compiled shader can be imported by Slim. However, because a Slim appearance document contains specific GUI information that determines the exact appearance of the editor that will be used by an artist to control the parameters of a shader, such documents offer important benefits.

With or without an associated Slim document, an imported shader ie. the slo file, has been pre-compiled and as such, although the parameters of a shader can be adjusted, it is in essence a static shader and cannot become part of a shading network consisting of Slim nodes connected one to another. Hence, the option to "connect" a shader parameter to another node is not available from within the shader editor.

Praparing a Slim Template to be used to Create Nodes in Slim

The next diagram, figure 2, shows a slim template has been prepared using Cutter. Again, any text editor can be used to write a template but Cutter can significantly ease the pain of doing so because it has some ability to automatically create a template file from either a shader source code document or a user-defined RSL function.

Figure 2
A Slim Template Document

A Slim template document is essentially a Slim appearance with some additional text that describes how Slim should generate its own shader source code file. When a node created from the template is attached to an object in Maya and rendered, a temporary source code file is saved in,

    maya/projects/default/rmanshader/tmp (RAT)
    maya/projects/default/renderman/untitled/slimshaders/temp (RMS)

Immediately after the source code has been created it is compiled and subsequently used by the renderer. As the far as the renderer is concerned it is using a "regular" shader. The fact that, in most circumstances, the (temporary) shader is result of an artist using a mouse driven GUI to form a shading network of connected "nodes" is of little consequence except that because the shading artist is shielded from the RSL source code they are free to create shading networks that potentially can generate inefficient shaders.

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Figure 3