Houdini 21.0 Nodes Geometry nodes

Surface Deform geometry node

Deforms points using a polygon surface.

Since 20.0

This node computes how a polygon mesh deforms compared to its original rest point positions, and applies those deformations to the input geometry. Each point in the first input is deformed by the surface location closest to it on the rest deformer.

Parameters

Group

The group of points to deform.

Group Type

Defines the type of elements the group operates on.

Mode

Capture and Deform

The node will perform both a capture point and deform operation.

Capture

The node will perform only a capture point operation. This is intended for some customization of the weights prior to deforming.

Deform

The node will perform only a deform operation. In this mode, the capture attributes (prim and primuv) are expected to be found in the input geometry.

Capture

Piece Attribute

Specifies the name of a string or integer point or prim attribute to use to treat the geometry as separate pieces. The attribute must be present on all inputs. Points with the same value in this attribute are considered part of the same piece. When you specify a valid piece attribute, this node deforms each piece using only the lattice points with the same piece value. This lets you deform independent objects (pieces) in a single pass.

Deform

Treat Deformer as Subdivision Surface

Control whether the deformer geometry should be treated as a subdivision surface. When enabled, the deformer geometry is interpreted as a subdivision surface, resulting in a smoother deformation.

Attributes to Transform

The attributes to be transformed by the deformer.

Compute Velocity

Compute velocity from linear and angular velocity (v and w) on the deformer. The third input must have a velocity attribute in order for the output velocity to have a non-zero value.

Blur

Blur

Blur the transforms from the deformer, before they are applied to the input geometry. This helps to give a smoother result, and is useful if the deformer is a lower resolution than the input geometry, or if the input mesh and rest deformer surfaces don’t overlap properly. This doesn’t blur any detail in the input mesh, but effectively increases the influence of nearby regions of the deformer on each point of the mesh.

Method

The blurring model to use on the transforms from the deformer, before they are applied to the input geometry.

Uniform

Blur point transforms evenly regardless of point distance from one another.

Edge Length

Blur point transforms accounting for the fact that some points are closer than others. This option preserves relative distances between points, which is especially useful when points on the input are unevenly distributed.

Blurring Iterations

The number of times the transforms from the deformer are blurred, before they are applied to the input geometry. The higher the number, the more blurring.

Mode

The mode chooses how to specify the size (or “strength”) of each blurring iteration.

Laplacian

Each iteration has the same size specified by the Step Size parameter

Volume Preserving

Iteration sizes are chosen to blur based on a noise frequency chosen by the Cutoff Frequency parameter

Step Size

Size of each iteration when Mode is set to Laplacian.

Cutoff Frequency

Noise frequency to remove. The larger this value, the more it will keep the original shape of the geometry. This option controls the blur strength in Volume Preserving mode.

Pin Border Points

Fixes all points on unshared edges on a polygonal surface. These points will not be blurred.

Attributes

Delete Capture Attributes

Delete capture attributes (prim and primuv by default) after deformation.

Primitive Attribute

The attribute storing the index of the closest prim on the deformer.

Primitive UV Attribute

The attribute storing the coordinates within the closest prim on the deformer.

Geometry nodes