Folks,

I've got a small scene with 2 pieces of geometry in it. geoA and say geoB. I'll applied a UV texture and a shader to geo0 with an image that I've very happy with.

However the problem is that geoA's surface should be a shiny reflective surface and thus I want the reflection of geoB to be seen on the surface of geoA.

Obviously I could add a Vex Metal to geoA and this would make it reflective but then of course I lose my Uvtexture image which I want to keep.

So how can I make the surface of geoA reflective whilst still retaining the UVtexture that I've added.

Many thanks in advance.

Cheers
Starkhorn

I'm not quite sure what the problem is. I just tried putting down a Sphere using a VEX Decal SHOP (and default.pic as the texture) and a Grid using a VEX Metal SHOP. It reflected the texture map without any problems when rendering using the default mantra rop.

Hi Ed,

I think I must have explained it wrong or silly in my first post. The geometry that has the texture is the grid, but the grid also must be shiny as well.

Alright, I have 2 pieces of geometry. A CD and a sphere. The CD is basically a grid with a Vex Decal applied in a shader SOP, then lots of poly-splits and blasts to make the grid into a CD shape. (BTW, if anyone has a faster way to have done that then I'm all ears as it took ages to do).

So when you render, the CD looks vaguely like a CD except one obvious problem in that nothing reflects off the CD like a real CD would. i.e do a fast mantra render and you can't see the reflection of the sphere on the surface of the CD. (you were applying the Vex Decal to the sphere, whereas I'm wanting it to be on the grid/CD AND also have grid/CD be reflective)

So my question is how can I make the surface of the CD/grid geometry shiny (whilst retaining my Vex Decal shader texture) so that it shows the reflection of the sphere ?

Cheers
Starkhorn

ps I wanted to attach my scene to the post but it doesn't seem to be possible.

Try using the VES Super Material then you can have texture maps and reflection together.

Also, why not just build the CD out of two circles skinned together?

Thanks Simon. That was really useful and seems to be working.

Only wish the help function in houdini 7 covered all the parameters for Vex Super Material in the texture and properties tabs. Are these documented anywhere in pdf's like in houdini 6 ?

For the two circles and skinning them together. Yeah I had tried doing that, but my texture file was a jpg which was done in photo-shop and basically it was obviously in a square/rectangle frame.

So anytime I applied that texture to a circle object, the borders of the jpeg would over-lap onto the underside of the circle which ruined the effect that I was trying to do, i.e. have just a CD on it's own.

Hope that makes sense ?

Thanks for the Super Material though….it seems to be doing the trick….I just not too sure what all those parameters mean though.

Cheers
Starkhorn

Experiment…. keep your mantra mplay window open while you render frames, then adjust parameters, then render again. VEX_Supermaterial has some pretty generic setting on its main “Shader” tab and the “Texture” and “Properties” tabs are pretty much just the same thing over and over again (map for your specular… map for your ambient.. map for your reflections… etc.)

The best advice I can give when dealing with shaders is experiment as much as possible. Again, just leave mplay up and do quick renders as you change parameters to get a better idea of what they do.

You probably already know this, but if you dont it could help – each shader control panel (where all the parameters are) has a little ? icon in the upper right hand corner. If you click on that you can get help related specifically to that shader.

Same goes for pretty much any other op in Houdini.

As far as texturing your CD goes…… did you try using UVTexture or UVproject (sops) to control how your image is mapped? IF you play with the values in those sops (scale. offset) you should be able to scale your image up so you no longer see the square edges.

A CD should be as simple as a circle sop followed by a copy sop followed by a skin sop. After the skin sop you should append a uvproject sop, and after that a shader sop to apply your VEX_supermaterial.

Good luck!