I am trying to find some info/tutorials/examples about creating custom shaders using the Material Builder VOP node in H16+.

I have been reading the houdini help, but it does not get me far enough…

For example, I have gone through the documentation here:
http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/shade/build.html [www.sidefx.com]

But I am still not sure how to do some basic things.

For example, if you take a look at the attached file, I have made a simple material, and all I want to do is to make it the same color as the whatever “Cd” is on the points. So I wire“Cf” globals into “Cf” output. But it does not work… what am I doing wrong?

Also, I have trouble seeing that data that is coming out of these VOP nodes. I tried putting in a “print” node and ticking “output text to console” but I don't see anything.

Cd, is Cd, not Cf. Cf is the final shaded color, which is undefined/black for a shader's input. Connecting Cf->Cf will do nothing.

For your simple point color constant shader, connect a ‘Surface Color’ VOP to a Compute lighting Node's Ce input, and check ‘Use Point Color’. Then either assign the compute lighting node as the material, or connect its outputs to the Output node.