Houdini 22.0

Copernicus heightfields and terrains

Create realistic terrains with Houdini’s Copernicus heightfield tools.

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Overview

Houdini’s Copernicus system is the perfect choice for realistic, flexible, and fast terrains. Unlike traditional SOP-based heightfields, Copernicus-based heightfields work with 2D maps instead of voxel grids. This circumstance makes them incomparably faster. You also have access to a huge library of image-processing tools, as well as specialized nodes to shape your terrain. Another advantage is that many Copernicus operations are GPU-accelerated.

The Copernicus-based approach is the beginning of a completely new paradigm. The mid-term goal is to transfer the entire functionality of SOP-based heightfields to Copernicus. You’ll not only profit from faster development cycles, but also from an improved workflow with more possibilities and better tools. Examples for this new approach are the new strata node, additional noise types, or the possibility to add boulders to your terrain. You’ll also get new tools for colorizing your terrains and give them a realistic look.

Warning

Currently, Copernicus-based heightfields are not a replacement for Houdini’s traditional SOP-based approach. The Copernicus version still lacks some nodes and optimizations for processing huge images.

You can export Copernicus heightfields to Houdini’s SOP space and apply SOP-based heightfield nodes. Please note that the COP-SOP terrain pipeline is still in an early state. Especially masks might not work as expected. It’s also possible to export your terrains to Solaris and render them with Houdini’s native Karma engine.

Subtopics

Creation

  • Base terrain

    Fundamental settings and nodes for terrains.

  • Workflows

    Fundamental concepts for Copernicus terrains.

  • Projection

    Make any geometry part of a heightfield.

  • Terrain recipes

    Learn from examples how to work with heightfields in Copernicus.

Masking

  • Masking

    Define zones of interest and detail.

Natural effects

  • Erosion

    Turn mountains into dust.

  • Slump

    Fill tranches with debris and create flow maps.

  • Terracing

    Step by step closer to the top.

  • Strata

    Layered natural history.

  • Boulders

    Rock your terrain.

VEX

Colors

Conversion

  • Conversion

    Prepare your terrain for further processing.

Houdini 22.0

Getting started

Using Houdini

Character Animation/Effects

  • Character

    How to rig and animate characters in Houdini.

  • Crowd simulations

    How to create and simulate crowds of characters in Houdini.

  • Muscles and tissue

    How to create and simulate muscles, tissue, and skin in Houdini.

  • Hair and fur

    How to create, style, and add dynamics to hair and fur.

  • Feathers

    How to create highly realistic and detailed feathers for your characters.

Dynamics

  • Dynamics

    How to use Houdini’s dynamics networks to create simulations.

  • Vellum

    Vellum uses a Position Based Dynamics approach to cloth, hair, grains, fluids, and softbody objects.

  • Pyro

    How to simulate smoke, fire, and explosions.

  • Fluids

    How to set up fluid and ocean simulations.

  • Oceans and water surfaces

    How to set up ocean and water surface simulations.

  • MPM

    How to simulate different types of solid materials (such as snow, soil, mud, concrete, metal, jello, rubber, water, honey, and sand).

  • Destruction

    How to break different types of materials.

  • Grains

    How to simulate grainy materials (such as sand).

  • Particles

    How to create particle simulations.

  • Finite elements

    How to create and simulate deformable objects

Pipeline

  • Executing tasks with PDG/TOPs

    How to define dependencies and schedule tasks using TOP networks.

  • HQueue

    HQueue is Houdini’s free distributed job scheduling system.

  • Houdini Engine

    Documents the Houdini Engine C, Python APIs, and Houdini Engine plugins

  • Machine Learning

    Houdini provides a platform for machine learning which supports synthetic data generation, preprocessing, training models, exporting trained models, and deploying trained models

Nodes

  • OBJ - Object nodes

    Object nodes represent objects in the scene, such as character parts, geometry objects, lights, cameras, and so on.

  • SOP - Geometry nodes

    Geometry nodes live inside Geo objects and generate geometry.

  • DOP - Dynamics nodes

    Dynamics nodes set up the conditions and rules for dynamics simulations.

  • VOP - Shader nodes

    VOP nodes let you define a program (such as a shader) by connecting nodes together. Houdini then compiles the node network into executable VEX code.

  • LOP - USD nodes

    LOP nodes generate USD describing characters, props, lighting, and rendering.

  • ROP - Render nodes

    Render nodes either render the scene or set up render dependency networks.

  • CHOP - Channel nodes

    Channel nodes create, filter, and manipulate channel data.

  • COP - Copernicus nodes

    COP nodes provide real-time image manipulation within a 3D space.

  • TOP - Task nodes

    TOP nodes define a workflow where data is fed into the network, turned into work items and manipulated by different nodes. Many nodes represent external processes that can be run on the local machine or a server farm.

  • APEX - APEX nodes

    APEX nodes provide operations for building up the functionality of APEX graphs, which are used in KineFX to create character rigs and perform other geometry manipulation.

Scene building, Karma rendering, Image processing

  • Solaris and Karma

    Solaris is the umbrella name for Houdini’s scene building, look development, and Karma rendering tools based on the Universal Scene Description (USD) framework.

  • Copernicus

    Houdini’s 2D and 3D GPU image processing framework.

Mantra rendering and shading

Reference

  • Menus

    Explains each of the items in the main menus.

  • Viewers

    Viewer pane types.

  • Panes

    Documents the options in various panes.

  • Windows

    Documents the options in various user interface windows.

  • Stand-alone utilities

    Houdini includes a large number of useful command-line utility programs.

  • APIs

    Lists all the reference documentation for the ways you can program Houdini.

  • Python scripting

    How to script Houdini using Python and the Houdini Object Model.

  • Expression functions

    Expression functions let you compute the value of parameters.

  • HScript commands

    HScript is Houdini’s legacy scripting language.

  • VEX

    VEX is a high-performance expression language used in many places in Houdini, such as writing shaders.

  • Properties

    Properties let you set up flexible and powerful hierarchies of rendering, shading, lighting, and camera parameters.

  • Galleries

    Pre-made materials included with Houdini.

  • Houdini packages

    How to write and combine multiple environment variable definition files for different plug-ins, tools, and add-ons.

  • hwebserver

    Functions and classes for running a web server inside a graphical or non-graphical Houdini session.