Modeling and Houdini.

Forums Houdini Lounge Modeling and Houdini.

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HGaal: Member; 102 posts; Joined: June 2023; Offline

Dec. 15, 2023 5:53 a.m.

Look what a lovely addon I found. A fresh look at the interface. There is always a place for innovation, sidefx comrades.
Removing points, edges, polygons, adding points to edges, slicing like a polysplit, edge loop, creating polygons and closing holes in the form of a simple polybridge variation, retopo like in topobuild, transform along any axes, specific or normal, soft transform and smoothing , and even bevel on dots. And all this with just one tool and one LMB click!!! Ahahaha! No more hotkeys. Just click LMB. The laziest modeling ever, hahahaha. Well, only for calling the brush for smoothing and soft transform Shift + LMB. This is all ! Yes, there are major shortcomings in my opinion, the polysplit does not cut through the edges under the road by default, why? You can improve the polybridge to take into account the edges along the way and add a lot more.
But the interesting fact is the main thing - how much you can squeeze into one LMB click if you want! This is the correct development of design ideas about the right interfaces.
I hope this example will inspire developers to look at tools from a different perspective.

Image Not Found

Attachments:
bandicam 2023-12-15 13-25-16-497.mp4 (9.7 MB)


GCharb: Member; 250 posts; Joined: June 2016; Offline

Dec. 15, 2023 2:42 p.m.

The last few updates were about CFX, I doubt that improving modelling is high on SideFX's to-do list, especially since Houdini has over a hundred modelling nodes already, can modelling be improved in Houdini, sure, like everything else, should it be a priority since it is pretty good at modelling already, I don't think so!

Edited by GCharb - Dec. 15, 2023 17:47:52


PolyMarvels: Member; 883 posts; Joined: Sept. 2018; Online

Dec. 15, 2023 3:46 p.m.

I try to restrain myself from commenting here as I most definitely would sound arrogant at times, but I can't just stand aside and read what I read without having some kind of "damn, if only you knew" reaction. I will say this, modeling even in this state of Houdini is possible, and there is a legit workflow that allows a flow, there are most definitely great tools, and then some less great, but the fact is that there a almost 120 tools that you can use and abuse for modeling and some here are confusing toolset with UX. Of course, tools can always be better, but with what you have now, you can already do a lot which I have proved. I use no plugins! What you seek, is better UX, which I understand, some things can be improved, but yet again, even with what you have now, you can create an environment that can be as fluid as in any other software. I would say some things are harder to do some things are easier to do and some things are unique to Houdini. As everywhere!

My proposal would be if you guys are for it to make a Google Meeting and simply start discussing modeling in Houdini. And see if we can come to some kind of consensus on where modeling in Houdini is and what has to be done to make things better. And if someone would like, he can show their biggest struggles etc.. I can show how I model in Houdini and I would like to see others doing the same. The reason why I am proposing a live meeting is due to communication because writing and reading here can always give wrong impressions and things can be taken out of context.
We could simply make a modeling community and see how many people are interested, and then SideFX could start investing more time in UX for modeling if the number is big enough. Otherwise, few of us not gonna accomplish much, especially when some bashing for no good reason.

QA Specialist at Greyscalegorilla


kodra: Member; 208 posts; Joined: June 2023; Offline

Dec. 15, 2023 6:55 p.m.

I'm a diehard fan of Blender. However I don't think "pack everything into LMB" is that good a pattern that Houdini should learn from. Blender has these hotkeys for a reason.

And Houdini at the end of day is a node-based environment. If you really want to model in Houdini you should probably go with its "flow" (a.k.a. radial menus, reselect, jump up and down stream) rather than fight against it and try to use it as another app. Different apps are different no matter how much or little SideFX cares about modeling.


tamte: Member; 8554 posts; Joined: July 2007; Offline

Dec. 15, 2023 8:05 p.m.

I wouldn't mind Topo Build/Poly Draw getting more attention and more tools

Also it's procedural and doesn't need to stash the geo, however the state does that, so if there was an option to keep the tool multiparm live while using through viewport state, it may satisfy needs of people wanting to use it procedurally

Tomas Slancik
FX Supervisor
Method Studios, NY


HGaal: Member; 102 posts; Joined: June 2023; Offline

Dec. 16, 2023 5:26 a.m.

PolyMarvels
but the fact is that there a almost 120 tools that you can use and abuse for modeling and some here are confusing toolset with UX.

Sorry for the cartoonishly convoluted example, but the point is that you can use punch cards to calculate 2+2 or an AI voice assistant. The result is the same. But there is a difference in labor costs. And if something is more complex than 2+2, the difference will be big, which has long made punch cards meaningless. Although punch cards and magnetic tapes worked and work great, nothing has changed. But the world has long come up with more convenient practices. Nobody says that you can’t do with punched cards what a person can do, for example, with a flash drive. You're just not competitive. You just need to copy the best practices, that's all. Convenience is synonymous with attractiveness.
I really enjoy modeling in Houdini myself and love many of his instruments. But much can and SHOULD be improved and accelerated; modern standards of convenience are long ahead. And start with the damn polysplit.

I would even add more - thinking about the potential of modeling in Houdini, I’m generally surprised how they allowed other programs to grow so much. Houdini could almost become a standard. But he didn’t... Such potential was not realized. Because convenience is one of the decisive factors if you are not a monopolist, IMHO.

Edited by HGaal - Dec. 16, 2023 05:40:25


GCharb: Member; 250 posts; Joined: June 2016; Offline

Dec. 16, 2023 8:27 a.m.

HGaal
I would even add more - thinking about the potential of modeling in Houdini, I’m generally surprised how they allowed other programs to grow so much. Houdini could almost become a standard. But he didn’t... Such potential was not realized. Because convenience is one of the decisive factors if you are not a monopolist, IMHO.

Houdini is the standard for procedural modelling, nothing beats it in that regard, what some of you want is improvements in direct modelling, again, not sure if this is high on SideFX's to-do list, especially, as I already said, since it is quite good at direct modelling as it is!

Again, I am pointing at PolyMarvels video tutorials where he very adeptly demonstrates that direct modelling in Houdini is quite good and that it has very solid tools to accomplish that task!

https://www.youtube.com/@polymarvels

Edited by GCharb - Dec. 16, 2023 09:32:36


HGaal: Member; 102 posts; Joined: June 2023; Offline

Dec. 16, 2023 10:09 a.m.

The question is essentially - how can I make it so that polyextrud is called up by hotkey indicating "extrudefront" in the groups?


Alexey Vanzhula: Member; 538 posts; Joined: Dec. 2006; Offline

Dec. 16, 2023 10:44 a.m.

HGaal
The question is essentially - how can I make it so that polyextrud is called up by hotkey indicating "extrudefront" in the groups?

Attachments:
Untitled.png (144.1 KB)

https://gumroad.com/alexeyvanzhula [gumroad.com]


HGaal: Member; 102 posts; Joined: June 2023; Offline

Dec. 16, 2023 1:34 p.m.

Alexey Vanzhula
HGaal
The question is essentially - how can I make it so that polyextrud is called up by hotkey indicating "extrudefront" in the groups?

Not quite what I wanted. This will help in the node tree. But I would like the extrudes called using the Q hotkey or another in the viewport to work with the same group, if it is specified - extrudefront or frontSeam. But since the frontseam group is broken in current versions, let at least extrudefront be used. If I need to, I will interrupt or change this chain, but in 90% of cases I am happy with using the extrudefront group by default. You can save the checkbox for activating the extrudeFront group as default, but the selection of the group in the first line is not saved (for the viewport). And selecting a node from the shelf or calling via Q or calling via a custom hotkey fills the group with the polygon number, and not the extrudefront name.
The fastest thing I found was to click on the gear each time and load a saved preset called extrudeFront. Or drag it from the shelf to the network, then the default settings will work. Here are our “punch cards” peeking out. Perhaps can write some kind of script so that all this is filled out correctly, but I don’t know how to do it.


kodra: Member; 208 posts; Joined: June 2023; Offline

Dec. 16, 2023 2:33 p.m.

You can do it, but to do it "seamlessly" (a.k.a. just like native Houdini way) you will probably need to dive into soptoolutils. Unfortunately it's not documented...


Alexey Vanzhula: Member; 538 posts; Joined: Dec. 2006; Offline

Dec. 16, 2023 5:36 p.m.

HGaal
Alexey Vanzhula
HGaal
The question is essentially - how can I make it so that polyextrud is called up by hotkey indicating "extrudefront" in the groups?

Not quite what I wanted. This will help in the node tree. But I would like the extrudes called using the Q hotkey or another in the viewport to work with the same group, if it is specified - extrudefront or frontSeam. But since the frontseam group is broken in current versions, let at least extrudefront be used. If I need to, I will interrupt or change this chain, but in 90% of cases I am happy with using the extrudefront group by default. You can save the checkbox for activating the extrudeFront group as default, but the selection of the group in the first line is not saved (for the viewport). And selecting a node from the shelf or calling via Q or calling via a custom hotkey fills the group with the polygon number, and not the extrudefront name.
The fastest thing I found was to click on the gear each time and load a saved preset called extrudeFront. Or drag it from the shelf to the network, then the default settings will work. Here are our “punch cards” peeking out. Perhaps can write some kind of script so that all this is filled out correctly, but I don’t know how to do it.

is this what you need?

group = "extrudeFront"

viewer = hou.ui.paneTabOfType(hou.paneTabType.SceneViewer)
cur_node = viewer.currentNode()
if cur_node.type().category() == hou.sopNodeTypeCategory():
    extrude = cur_node.createOutputNode("polyextrude")
    extrude.setParms({ "group": group, "outputfrontgrp": True, "frontgrp": group })
    extrude.setDisplayFlag(True)
    extrude.setRenderFlag(True)
    extrude.setHighlightFlag(True)
    extrude.setCurrent(True, True)
    viewer.enterCurrentNodeState()

https://gumroad.com/alexeyvanzhula [gumroad.com]


HGaal: Member; 102 posts; Joined: June 2023; Offline

Dec. 17, 2023 3:10 a.m.

Alexey Vanzhula
is this what you need?

Jesus loves you, Alexey.
But where to enter this code?


kodra: Member; 208 posts; Joined: June 2023; Offline

Dec. 17, 2023 4:02 a.m.

HGaal
Alexey Vanzhula
is this what you need?
Jesus loves you, Alexey.
But where to enter this code?

Well... wherever you can put python code.

For example, make it as a shelf tool.

Edited by kodra - Dec. 17, 2023 04:03:05


HGaal: Member; 102 posts; Joined: June 2023; Offline

Dec. 21, 2023 9:07 a.m.

One of the biggest annoyances in Houdini for me is the lack of simple rectangles with simple round corners. The nuance is that polybevel bevels the corners of a flat polygon differently than the edges of a box and makes them not quite round - the screenshot shows an example of the difference between a bevel box and simpleshape from labs, in which bevel is simply made. Sidefx - where is your sense of aesthetics? I have to box, select edges, bevel, delete everything except one polygon, then align it. Long, inconvenient.
Does anyone know any ready-made HDA to quickly and conveniently set up such rectangles with correctly round corners?

Edited by HGaal - Dec. 21, 2023 09:08:07

Attachments:
bevel.png (855.3 KB)


Alexey Vanzhula: Member; 538 posts; Joined: Dec. 2006; Offline

Dec. 21, 2023 9:39 a.m.

Edited by Alexey Vanzhula - Dec. 21, 2023 09:40:00

https://gumroad.com/alexeyvanzhula [gumroad.com]


kodra: Member; 208 posts; Joined: June 2023; Offline

Dec. 21, 2023 10:41 a.m.

At this point I'm not sure if it's satire or not.

If anything this guy made me reflect on whether my past complains about SideFX are exceeding.


CYTE: Member; 679 posts; Joined: Feb. 2017; Offline

Dec. 21, 2023 11:24 a.m.

It's simple. If you want to model in Houdini get Modeler and support Alexey!

Cheers
CYTE


HGaal: Member; 102 posts; Joined: June 2023; Offline

Dec. 21, 2023 5:24 p.m.

САЙТ
It's simple. If you want to model in Houdini get Modeler and support Alexey!

Cheers
CYTE

We are waiting for Modeler 2024. Alexey will apparently save the reputation of the developers again.

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