Hi Labsters,
Fall is here, and we are already bracing for winter, but we are definitely not taking things slower. We will have plenty of nice things coming up soon (did someone say UVs?), but for now, let’s focus on what we recently released.
New Tools
Internally known as Tubby Cut (due to a certain Labs developer that likes cats and puns 😸), Labs Cut Hole automates the process of cutting an octagonal hole in the mesh and producing a result with clean topology. Circular holes are commonly used in a hard-surface modelling workflow, and this tool makes it easier to manage.
We were very much inspired by this CGTyphoon guide and we now offer this workflow-in-a-box with Labs Cut Hole.
The new Labs Impostor Baker, now powered by Copernicus, captures a mesh from multiple viewing angles and bakes the result into texture atlases for use in real-time engines and lightweight rendering workflows.
Impostors are commonly used for distant vegetation, rocks, props, and other assets where full geometry would be too expensive to render. Labs Impostor Baker generates sprite-based representations of the source geometry along with supporting maps such as normals and base color.
Different impostor capture modes are available depending on whether the asset should be viewed from all directions, only from above, or as a turntable-style billboard.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because Labs Impostor Baker SOP is now so flexible that it replaces the previous impostor texture workflow that included Labs Impostor Texture OUT, Labs Impostor Camera Rig OBJ, Labs Octahedron Lens SHOP, and Labs Turntable Lens SHOP, which all will be removed in Houdini 24.0. We have also created Materials to use with Unreal Engine.
Labs Biome Configure LOP Recipe
For the ones who can’t get enough of our Biome tools (you know who you are), good news! A new Biomes recipe is now available in LOPs. Designed for environment artists, this recipe makes it easier to set up the Biome toolset in LOPs so you can get up and running quickly.
Community Spotlight & Tutorials
Zoe Edwards made a crochet mesh generation workflow, based on a (put-on-your-nerd-glasses) scientific paper, and the result looks absolutely gorgeous. You feed geometry, it calculates the stitches, et voilà, crochet! Zoe you’re spoiling us, if only real-life crochet were that easy.
Node of the Month
Labs Validate Geometry Type SOP
Validate the contents of your geometry before it reaches the next stage of your network. Labs Validate Geometry Type checks for the expected geometry type and element count, and can display an informational message, warning, or error if the input doesn't match your criteria. It's a simple way to insert a validation check in your workflow.
Contact Us
We love seeing what you’re building with Labs and we’ll keep sharing our findings. If you’re working on something cool, please contact us and share it. The best way to reach out is through Discord. Our official SideFX server is public, and we’re there too.
See you next month — stay creative!
SideFX Labs
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