Demo Prep

Still don't have the swig code running from cmd or any python code called in a windows environment, so for now I'll just have to call it from cygwin.
-options for creation of many files that have the flush growing (basefile input), or a single image file (basefile input, radius)

Within Maya, open python command line
import shader (will only run once per session, after that Maya stores the code)
to run again reload(shader)
-choose appropriate files (default used if none chosen)
-adjust displacement if desired

Fun with SWIG

Spent a long while trying to figure out user input from a mouse click. Looked into C++, openCV, and python options, none were working out very well so I've decided to leave that for now. I'll get the system working with text or argument input first.

I've been working and testing the code by just compiling the C++ code, time to make sure I can still swig it into python code. Still worked great just running from the mintty window, but then I tried creating a python file that would call the wrapped code. This proved more difficult that anticipated. In the wrapper commands I was somehow not creating the necessary file for the wrapped code to be treated as an importable module. Lots of googling and reading later I discovered distutils, a python setup file that takes care of all of the necessary flags, files, etc. It builds the file necessary to make an importable module and cuts down on my compilation code as well :
swig -c++ -python example.i
python setup.py build_ext --inplace

sorry no pictures this post :(

[EDIT: 27 Nov 2011]
Well I got a system in maya working that generates a wonderful SSS shader based on user selected images.
Went to build in the flushing generation and even though I got the import working yesterday apparently it only works in a Unix environment. Trying to run through a windows environment I'm back with the same "No module named _example" error...

References:
http://www.swig.org/Doc1.3/Python.html#Python_nn9 (31.2.2 - 31.2.6)


Python GUI References:
http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/2010help/CommandsPython/textField.html
http://www.rtrowbridge.com/blog/2010/02/maya-python-ui-example/
http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/2011help/CommandsPython/fileBrowserDialog.html
Good Code to Have: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2010-August/1252307.html

Mouse Click Input References:
http://dasl.mem.drexel.edu/~noahKuntz/openCVTut3.html
http://www710.univ-lyon1.fr/~bouakaz/OpenCV-0.9.5/docs/ref/OpenCVRef_Highgui.htm#decl_cvSetMouseCallback
http://www.ida.liu.se/~ETE257/timetable/LecturePythonPygame2.html
GetCursorPos()
http://www.daniweb.com/software-development/cpp/threads/123456
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/windows/21620/

Image Editing (Flush Growth)

No, it is not centered on his face. While testing I merely set the circle's center at pixel 1000,1000 

My next task will be to work on user selection, which will help determine the circle's center point.

[EDIT 18 Nov]

it might be a bit hard to notice at first, but this video shows the red growing in an "O" form, leaving the middle of the circle un-reddened. These un-reddened inner circles will be placed at the user selection points (both eyes and the mouth), so that these areas are not reddened, as can be observed. 

[http://topics.dirwell.com/health/files/2010/03/Face-Flushing.jpg] 

Alpha Review

link to video on vimeo: http://vimeo.com/31619992

Image Editing (pt 2)

With help from Joe Kider, we got swig and openCV up working together nicely.
I'm working on writing the code in C++ using openCV, then using swig to wrap it in python.
Look I can make a red circle!

Now to add falloff..

[EDIT: 9 Nov 2011]
OMG

blended with the texture map to give:

although it's blending the black as well, which is making the texture much darker..

[EDIT: 10 Nov 2011]

OOH YEAHH

and bloopers!

good reference: http://www.cs.iit.edu/~agam/cs512/lect-notes/opencv-intro/opencv-intro.html

http://processing.org/learning/pixels/