Hi all!

I have a few Solaris workflow questions that I figured it would be great to clarify. Usd brings lots of different concepts to the table and I just wanted to ensure I’m not chasing something “against the grain” here.

1a- got 3 lights. Saved them as lights_postvis.usd This are lights quickly setup by our layout department that includes a lighter.

1b- got 3 shaders. Made in materialLibrary. 3 networks with a principled shader that have a few nodes plugged in for extra control. Saved this as materials_base.usd

2- new scene, I’m a lighter. Say scene manager (or sublayer ir reference etc depending on case but for now let’s say scene manager) -> bring in lights_postvis.usd I can see them nicely in the scene graph.

3- layer break (as I intend to save changes to loghts_postvis.usd to lights_lighting.usd say). how do I access all their settings so I can tweak it all in a familiar, light parameter, organized by tabs as the original lights?

4- bring in materials_base.usd -layer break- How do I access all their settings so I can tweak it all in a familiar, material parameter, organized by tabs as the original materials? Can I see the material networks as they were constructed and do changes? I’d be happy with auto generated UI parameters from exposed settings in the original material networks.

Thanks, I hope this makes some kind of sense as currently it all feels easy to construct but tricky to work with after the fact.

Thanks!

3. The Light LOP can work in “Create” or “Edit” mode. In edit mode, it can be used to make edits to an existing light. If you right click on the light prim in the scene graph tree and choose “Edit Primitive -> New node” from the context menu, it will create the Light LOP for you, set to edit mode, pointed at the light prim, and with all the options set to “do nothing” by default. You can also use a Light Mixer node to tweak existing lights.

4. If you used Parameter VOPs or Bind VOPs to “promote” the settings you want to control onto the UsdShadeMaterial prim, you can again use RMB -> Edit Primitive to create an Edit Properties pointed at the Material prim, and with parameters for controlling all the parameters you promoted onto the material. For larger reorganizations of the shader, in some situations you can use a Material Edit node to instantiate a VOP network that describes the shader, and applies edits to the UsdShadeShader primitives. The “some situations” means this works reasonably well for UsdPreviewSurface shader networks, and RenderMan shader networks, and it may work for some other third party shader networks. But unfortunately at the moment Karma shaders cannot be reconsituted this way by the Material Edit not because Karma shaders are expressed as blocks of source code, not networks of nodes.

Ok, Thanks for the input. Let me have a play and if i hace any additional doubts I’ll reply back.

Thanks!