Ok, this should illustrate the example a little more clearly. I threw in a resample to exaggerate the effect. The more points you have, the more noise.

Also, it's easy to fine tune the numbers from the Aliases & Variables popup. Select the variable you want to edit, and middle click it's value for a number-ladder to interactively adjust the values.

Fuck

I have uploaded MY hip file. I will tell you what I see in your file and you can correct were I am wrong when I say the following. ( i changed the pic for better seeing Problems are the same.

#1. In my file you will see that I copyed your nodes from one project over to mine thinking I could just link my file to your nodes you will see that did not work.

#2. IF you copy YOUR


$TX + noise((($TX+0)*$my_noise_freq)+$T*$my_noise_speed,$TY,$TZ) * $my_noise_amp

and

$TY + noise($TX,(($TY+0)*$my_noise_freq)+$T*$my_noise_speed,$TZ) * $my_noise_amp

INTO my nodes MY picture goes BLACK. WHY? It does not go black on the butterfly hip that was posted for training.

#3 Correct, I changed my variables to read the same as yours

.53
.7
4
.18

This does nothing for my image. Then I saw it. yes fokes then one thing that up till now I had no idea about and when cut and pasted into MY nodes still made my image fail and get the red lines of death

72 * $my_grid_res
48 * $my_grid_res

I have my points just set to 100. I thought that setting them to 300 would do something but nothing. Never the less when you take my hip file and cut and past that information the image goes black. But not on the butter fly. (even tho it does not change the image the fact that it does not go black means there is something wrong my my project. I don't know what it is. I am going to guess my_noise_speed,$TZ) * $my_noise_amp is the problem I have no idea what nodes to re name so it works I mean I don't know shit you know what i mean. My nodes are named something different and I don't know what to re name or were those names came from?

The red lines of death is because the variables don't exist in the .hipnc file. So you have to do this with Hardashell.hipnc loaded:
- From the top menu, choose Edit > Aliases and Variables…
- Now enter in all those variables just like you did in the screenshot you posted.
- *SAVE* your file. This makes the variables permanent in your scene file. If you don't save, then you'll have to add these variables every single time.

Ok, the next problem I had with your .hip file is that it couldn't find the image because it's in the wrong path. I had to fix this in your /img/import_img/import node. Since you gave me the .pic in the same directory as the hip file, I just set it to $HIP/Temari.jpg. Now I see lines in the viewer.

Ok, now to add the noise. Since you already had the point_noise2 node in the file with the expressions, I just wired xform1 into it and then displayed it. Make sure you turn off the pink flag from the point1 node that you had because that will still display it. If you get the red lines of death here, make sure you typed in the names in the Aliases and Variables window correctly.

Now I get a bunch of jumbled lines. The noise strength is too strong. So I went back to Alias and Variables and changed my_noise_amp to 0.2. That made it better. But it's not “noisy” enough, so I changed my_noise_freq to 45.

Ok, so after all this, It still doesn't look like the cover. There's a few reasons for this:
- The screenshot looks like it has a lot more lines. To do this in your file, in the copy1 node, change the number of copies from 40 to say 100. Now try tweaking the camera position so that it's looking at the image from a lot farther way.
- From the screenshot here, http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/img/screengrabs/ghe01/ghe01a.jpg [thegnomonworkshop.com] it looks like there's a lot more nodes to get the final effect. I don't have the DVD so I don't know what else Garman did to get the final effect. Maybe there's a final file that renders exactly the cover on the DVD? If not, you could try asking.

Hope this helps. Let us know how it goes.

PS. I just notice that Garman has alpha in his image so that the background is actually gone in his example.

Have you looked at HER01_v10.1.hip from the project files on the disk?

If you keep the folder structure the same as it is on the DVD all the files will load in automatically. I know he pulls the image file used from the Chapter 07 folder.

He doesn't give you the video footage used in the cover art though. It's just animated text, but it illustrates the effect.

edward, Can you please modify This hip file that i am about to post please? I had my main file branched off and I don't know were to every plug in those #'s

I want you to take a look and Line #2 and the nodes. Because I copyed them from the Hip file Lines_with_noise hip that was posted above. Aliases and Variables Take a look None of the options are there anymore. The ones that let you set the noise ect It flat out is gone. Now I am really desperate and I am going to post this so called solve all problems its right in front of my face Hip file from the DVD. I won't post the footage but I am going to post the file. I will Send one last E-mail to acky letting him know what I have done out of respect and if he wants it removed I will but I feel that this is going no were fast. People are saying do this do that edit this edit that but are not really giveing me a compete hip file or somethin to look at. I am only getting bits from so many hip files. The lines_with noise.hip file looked great i think only problem is I can't get my image to work in that file. ^^^Yes edwards i know what you said. I just had the file split and am not sure what to edit. I fixed the file. I am now going to post the E-mail that Acky sent me and maybe someone can de-bunk the code.

***
I looked at your file. Some basic things you need to add.

First, you need to transfer the color information to the line width,
which is done with a ‘width’ attribute. You'll only see the width in
the rendering.

1. Add an “attributeCreate” sop AFTER the point SOP.
2. set the variable name to be “width”
3. Set the first value to be $CR
4. Render.

The width information goes directly to the shader at render time and
only works on lines, not surfaces. You never see the width in the
viewport, only the render view.

You should also apply a shader, a camera and lights or the render will
be black. I would suggest the clay shader.


He sent more but It was just telling me to change the W to w

Which file are you talking about? The Hardashell.hipnc file renders properly after the following steps I previously posted. Which part are you having trouble understanding?

First were do I plug in this $HIP/Temari.jpg?

Next, Why are the following GONE


My_grid_Res
My_noise_amp
My_noise_freq
My_noise_speed

Thats right download the hip above. The above it gone.

Navigate to the /img/img_import/import node in the tree view. Look in the parameters. I'm afraid that you should probably go through more of the tutorials and understand more of how to navigate around. Blindly changing things around isn't going to get you very far, esp. with the final production file

I assume the variables are gone because you didn't save the .hip file after
putting them in.

I have posted the file off the DVD. Can anyone help me out here?

Dude, you gotta chill out.
This is a hard tut, I did it in 8, where it was created for, and it was still difficult. You just gotta watch the DVD and learn to problem solve. The biggest asset Houdini artists have is problem solving. Just keep watching the dvd and follow and listen closely. Its going to be different now that you are in 9. If you can get 8, do it there. Then take it into 9.

I have been watching it for 4 weeks now. I don't get it. I can't Force people to help me but thats why I am giveing the DVD away to anyone that can make a .hip file complete to look at. I do not understand. Add to the fact that he does NOT tell you how he did the noise i mean. Yes I am at the point were I am asking for help on this forum,cgtalk,odd force. I am all over all the forums now. I ordered the DVD on 12/5/07 I DO NOT understand this effect I have been trying to tell people that. It looks like you know alot about this effect and you know houdini very well so for someone that has NEVER worked with H before yeah its beyond hard. Thats why I am asking for help.

Ok, so can you get the HERO file to work? I had to do the following to get mine to work - i turned off the “trail_compute_velocity” and “delete1” nodes inside the cover_art1 node. Then I had to replace the copy node and deleted the copy stamping in it so i could just get the spheres to work. I didnt get the color working in it yet -running out of time for the moment.

Looking at your file from the desperate.zip - you are missing the my_grid_res variable. To make it- go to Edit>Aliases and Variables. In this window - on the left type the name of the variable, on the right type the value. Hit Enter. If you dont then it wont save your variable. If you are having trouble making variables or understanding the concepts (they can be difficult!) then just use numbers and as you get more use to Houdini exchange the numbers for variables. Basically if a node is using a variable (a word with $ in front of it) and it is not in this list, then you NEED to make it or replace it with a number.

Whenever a node turns yellow or red you can middle mouse on it and read the error. Use that to debug you nodes. Also, if a node has blue text next to it, middle mouse on it to read the comment. I have commented some nodes for you.

Don't give up!

http://forums.odforce.net/index.php?showtopic=6308&st=0&p=42150&#entry42150 [forums.odforce.net]

arctor
http://forums.odforce.net/index.php?showtopic=6308&st=0&p=42150&#entry42150 [forums.odforce.net]

Thank you all. I am going to keep all files. This story has come to and end.

Wooties