It's Testing Me (Patreon)

While setting up Maya's cameras the other day, I realized I'd forgotten one of the thumbnailed images. Posing it should have been quick, except Maya kept locking up on me. It felt like it was actively testing me...

Difficulties aside, the possibility of a nude version of this comic came up on Discord, which could be a way to make it fun again so I can power through & get it done. No promises, but I am considering it.

As for those difficulties...

Maya has a tendency to leave behind some garbage when you delete certain things. Suppose that at some point you use a plugin, either actively or even just to test it out, but later you remove everything it was used for. You can remove every trace of it that you find, but the file will still contain a "requires" line in its header, referencing that plugin. And the only way I know of to remove that is to open the file in a text editor, if it was saved in ASCII format.

One plugin I'd used for a while, was the Mental Ray renderer. For about a decade it was packaged with Maya, not as its default renderer, but certainly the more versatile option. I think it was discontinued by Nvidia in 2017, though. As of the 2019 version, which I'm still using, the plugin seems to still be available as a separate download, which Maya would notify me of anytime I would open one of these files.

The Mental Ray shaders that were once used were deleted from these files a long time ago, but some traces other than the "requires" line were left over, hidden from view. In one file there was even a reference to a plugin that I must have used maybe once several years ago. Just a test, and yet its footprint remains.

I don't know yet if removing all of that garbage from the files will solve the lock-ups. Having yet another thing go wrong was enough to push me over the edge, so I'm taking a couple of days away from everything, to clear my head.

Yesterday my bicycle also broke for the second time this summer, so until I can get it fixed, that's one less method of head-clearing. But it also means I'll have a break from sore legs and physical exhaustion. I'm headed back to Florida in a month, so it's a question of whether I wait that long to get my exercise, or can I get the bike fixed sooner? The local repair shop can't get the replacement parts, so I'm more or less on my own.