Introduction

You are able to create two types of Arnold Scene Source product

• Arnold Scene Source

• Arnold Scene Source Proxy

Arnold Scene Source (.ass)​

Arnold Scene Source contains whatever user selects when creating the publish instance. Arnold Scene Source can be published as a single file or a sequence of files and its determined by the frame range set on the publish instance. Use those values for producing still or animated standin.

Validation of the Arnold Scene Source publishes​

After triggering publishing via Publisher a round of different validation checks being triggered informing user if anything setup wrong and offering set of Repair actions to fix those issues.

Most common Validator is for checking proper asset hierarchy. Just by following the report you are able to adjust your scene hierarchy to match the desired one.

Here is an example of wrong hierarchy set as the model Groups assigned to the standin being children of the World and no such a hierarchy being allowed so need to be adjusted properly.

And the invalid hierarchy seen in the Maya Outliner

Instead of having the Content_GRP and Proxy_GRP in the standin sets, you should put in the actual objects geometries instead to fix this validation failure. As seen below the correct one:

Validators ASS has relative texture paths and Validate Arnold Scene Source cbID allows you to set up the context correctly by using Repair action.

Once all Validators being resolved you are ready to publish the Arnold Scene Source aka Standin product with the .ass representation being ready to be loaded using Loader tool located in the Ayon toolset.

Arnold Scene Source Proxy​

The main difference of this product type being possibility to use proxy geometries for viewport performance reasons. If this is not an issue use the first standin type instead. Once the publish instance have been created, there is a proxy_SET created inside of the Main_SET.
Meshes assigned to the proxy_SET will be the viewport representation of the standin. Once render triggered, they are switched for the content of the Main_SET on the fly. In order to utilize operators and proxies on the standin, the content and proxy nodes need to share the same names (including the shape names and cbIDs).

Here you can see we are having Content_GRP for renderable objects and Proxy_GRP for viewable objects in the maya viewport. Each having the same objects inside as duplicates differing only by level of detail. Note that offset of Proxy objects is just for sake of clarity and normally would be in the exact same location as high detail meshes for rendering aka Content_GRP.

If a product has a proxy_SET representation, this will be used as display in the viewport.
At render time the standin path will be replaced using the recommended string replacement workflow:

For advanced users

You can stop the proxy swapping by disabling the string replacement operator found in the container.

Standins

Using Standins​

You can use published standin in your workfile via AYON / Load action. User is able to load Arnold Scene Source , Arnold Scene Source Proxy and even Alembic products as standin allowing taking advantage of arnold features also for other products like animation and pointcache.

Standins and LookDev​

Standin supports look products and its assignment. If look product being available, You can assign the look to the loaded Arnold Scene Source ass and Alembic abc using AYON -> Look Assigner...

primaryVisibility
castsShadows
receiveShadows
aiSelfShadows
aiOpaque
aiMatte
aiVisibleInDiffuseTransmission
aiVisibleInSpecularTransmission
aiVisibleInVolume
aiVisibleInDiffuseReflection
aiVisibleInSpecularReflection
aiSubdivUvSmoothing
aiDispHeight
aiDispPadding
aiDispZeroValue
aiStepSize
aiVolumePadding
aiSubdivType
aiSubdivIterations