Updated 2019-08-05 

Avalon

This page provides a transition guide from using Avalon's native Launcher to Allzpark.

Walkthrough

Quickstart

This part assumes a successful Quickstart.

powershell

bash

mkdir $env:USERPROFILE/projects
subst P: $env:USERPROFILE/projects
$env:REZ_PACKAGES_PATH="~/packages;$(allzparkdemo --packages)"
$env:MY_PROFILES="bleed"

mkdir ~/projects
$REZ_PACKAGES_PATH=~/packages:$(allzparkdemo --packages)
$MY_PROFILES=bleed

# Convert PyPI packages to Rez
git clone https://github.com/mottosso/rez-pipz.git
cd rez-pipz
rez build --install
cd ..

# Install PyPI dependencies
rez env pipz -- install avalon-core avalon-colorbleed
rez env pipz -- install pyqt5==5.8  # Any PyQt5 would do, this one requires Python 3

# Install Avalon demo project
git clone https://github.com/mottosso/bleed.git
cd bleed
rez build --install
python -m avalon.inventory --save

# Launch!
allzpark --demo

~/projects

For the purposes of this demo, the Avalon projects are assumed to be in this directory.

pipz

These are the base requirements for running Avalon

REZ_PACKAGES_PATH

For the purposes of this demo, we'll expose the Allzpark demo packages, primarily maya, blender and rezutil for use when building bleed. We could also have made a maya, blender and rezutil package globally, and skipped this step.

avalon.inventory

We'll also need this project uploaded to Avalon's MongoDB database. I'd like to skip this step, to instead automatically create projects post-launch, based on variables set in the Allzpark profile.

Bleed Profile

Let's have a look at how bleed is laid out.

• bleed/package.py

name = "bleed"
version = "1.0.15"
build_command = "python -m rezutil build {root}"
private_build_requires = ["rezutil-1"]

Nothing special here; we're building on the rezutil package from the Allzpark demo library to simplify the installation somewhat, it handles copying of the contained userSetup.py.

_requires = [
    "~blender==2.80.0",
    "~maya==2015.0.0|2016.0.2|2017.0.4|2018.0.6",

    "pymongo-3.4+",

    "avalon_core-5.2+",
    "avalon_colorbleed-1",
]

Again we're referencing blender and maya from the demo library, in this case a number of versions of Maya to cover all bases. Allzpark displays every version that matches this pattern, in this case 4 versions of Maya.

pymongo is the only real dependency to Avalon, the others being vendored, due to being the only one that isn't a pure-Python library. Finally, Avalon core and the colorbleed config is added are requirements to this profile.

@late()
def requires():
    global this
    global request
    global in_context

    requires = this._requires

    # Add request-specific requirements
    if in_context():
        if "maya" in request:
            requires += [
                "mgear",
            ]

    return requires

You'll notices the previous _requires = [] had an underscore in it, which makes it invisible to Rez. Instead, we use this function requires() with a @late() decorator which makes Rez compute the requirements of this package when called, as opposed to when built.

If called during built, the previously specified requirements are included. However, when called the in_context() function evaluates to True which in turn queries the request we made, e.g. rez env bleed maya, for whether "maya" was included. If so, then it goes ahead and appends mgear as another requirement for this profile.

This is how you can specifiy conditional requirements for a given profile, requirements that come into effect only when used in combination with a particular set of requirements, like maya. In this case, mgear is only relevant to Maya, and not Blender.

def commands():
    import os
    import tempfile

    global env
    global this
    global request

    # Better suited for a global/studio package
    projects = r"p:\projects" if os.name == "nt" else "~/projects"

    env["AVALON_PROJECTS"] = projects
    env["AVALON_CONFIG"] = "colorbleed"
    env["AVALON_PROJECT"] = this.name
    env["AVALON_EARLY_ADOPTER"] = "yes"

Next we give configure Allzpark with the necessary environment variables.

• AVALON_PROJECTS is typically a global value for your studio, and better suited for a package required by every profile, like a global or studio package. I've included it here to keep the example self-contained.
• AVALON_CONFIG here we reference the avalon_colorbleed requirement
• AVALON_PROJECT storing the project name into the environment, referencing the this variable, which is the equivalent of self from within a class; it references the members from outside of the commands() function, in this case the name of the package itself; "bleed"
• AVALON_EARLY_ADOPTER finally enabling some of the later features of Avalon

if "maya" in request:
    env["PYTHONPATH"].append("{root}/maya")  # userSetup.py

Another conditional event; the bleed package includes a folder of profile-specific Maya scripts that are added to PYTHONPATH only if maya is part of the request.

env["AVALON_TASK"] = "modeling"
env["AVALON_ASSET"] = "hero"
env["AVALON_SILO"] = "asset"
env["AVALON_WORKDIR"] = tempfile.gettempdir()

Finally, the members that we need to get rid of from the application launching process of Avalon; these need to happen post-launch.

Differences

Overall, Allzpark and Launcher are very similar.

• All Knowing Launcher has all the information related to a project, asset and task
  • We'll need to split this responsibility and let Allzpark handle anything related to application startup, but leave assets and tasks to Avalon
• Working Directory Launcher is responsible for creating a working directory, prior to application launch
  • Because is knows all of these things, it's a good fit for creating the initial working directory wherein an application saves data, like Maya's workspace.mel file and associated hierarchy. Because Allzpark isn't concerned with such things, we'll need to let the host deal with this.
  • An upside of this is that artists would then be able to switch task/asset/shot without a restart

Todo

• DB Create Avalon MongoDB project document post-launch
• Working Directory Create working directory post-launch
  • E.g. via "Set Context"
• Create new assets interactively, rather than from .toml
  • I.e. launch "Project Manager" from Allzpark

The above example works, but embeds too much information into the Allzpark profile, notably these:

env["AVALON_TASK"] = "modeling"
env["AVALON_ASSET"] = "hero"
env["AVALON_SILO"] = "asset"
env["AVALON_WORKDIR"] = tempfile.gettempdir()