I'm trying to recreate the CHOP Lag / Overshoot / Smooth in vex. Trying to add some features to a little sequential value generator i'm feeding to animated geos / cameras to automate animatino.

Script looks like that, but it's all a bit abrupt, the ease in and out function is not working as expected, I'd love to smooth things in and out with controls. Any pointers welcome.

Cheers.

int frame = @Frame;

// Timing Controls
int rot_interval = chi("rot_interval");
int pause_interval = chi("pause_interval");
float rot_rand = chf("rot_interval_randomness");
float pause_rand = chf("pause_interval_randomness");
float ease = chf("ease");

// Axis Controls
float x_step = chf("x_step");
float y_step = chf("y_step");
float z_step = chf("z_step");
float flip_prob_x = chf("flip_prob_x");
float flip_prob_y = chf("flip_prob_y");
float flip_prob_z = chf("flip_prob_z");

int auto_pingpong = chi("auto_pingpong");
int dir_manual_x = chi("dir_manual_x");
int dir_manual_y = chi("dir_manual_y");
int dir_manual_z = chi("dir_manual_z");

// Estimate rough phase
int estimated_total = rot_interval + pause_interval;
int rough_phase = frame / estimated_total;

// Random Phase durations
float rand_rot = fit01(random(rough_phase * 111.1), 1.0 - rot_rand, 1.0 + rot_rand);
float rand_pause = fit01(random(rough_phase * 222.2), 1.0 - pause_rand, 1.0 + pause_rand);

int actual_rot = max(1, int(rot_interval * rand_rot));
int actual_pause = max(0, int(pause_interval * rand_pause));
int total = actual_rot + actual_pause;

int phase = frame / total;
int local_frame = frame % total;

// Axis setup
vector step = set(x_step, y_step, z_step);
vector flip_probs = set(flip_prob_x, flip_prob_y, flip_prob_z);
vector rot = {0, 0, 0};
vector base = {0, 0, 0};

int dir_table = array(dir_manual_x, dir_manual_y, dir_manual_z);

// per-axis rotation accumulation with direction
for (int axis = 0; axis < 3; axis++) {
float acc = 0;
int dir = dir_table;

// Flip history
for (int i = 0; i < phase; i++) {
if (auto_pingpong == 1 && random((i + axis * 1000) * 999.9) < flip_probs) {
dir *= -1;
}
acc += dir * step;
}

base = acc;

// Flip this phase
if (auto_pingpong == 1 && random((phase + axis * 1000) * 999.9) < flip_probs) {
dir *= -1;
}

float target = acc + dir * step;

if (local_frame < actual_rot) {
float t = clamp(float(local_frame) / float(actual_rot), 0.0, 1.0);
float s = t * t * (3.0 - 2.0 * t);
float shape = lerp(t, s, ease);
rot = lerp(acc, target, shape);
} else {
rot = target;
}
}

@x_rot = rot.x;
@y_rot = rot.y;
@z_rot = rot.z;

Struggling with the gridmarkets install, it keeps breaking, works for a bit, then can't find the "lib" folder which is perfectly installed in the otls folder, vairables at set properly, i'm getting super confused. THis stuff is quite unreliable. Any idea how to fix this stuff please?



thanks a lot,

A.

Just taking a shortcut here. I'm having a problem with gridmarkets submitter not finding the "lib". It was working fine, i submitted jobs, then suddenly it just won't find the grodmarkets_lib, which is perfectly installed in the proper otls folder. I had that yesterday and somehow managed to fix that by installing/reinstalling and all buncha of manual clean up and sequence of stuff i can't recall. But it worked again... and bam, today again the same crap, it just won't find the lib. Have you ever had that issue? Their crappy enjoy lunacher app does not let you choose the location of installation of their files so god knows what it does. But it appears it installs in some obscur users folder that has nothing to do with the main one.

Any pointers welcome, this stuff is a real pain.

Cheers,

A.

Taking a shortcut here, what would be the parameter to use to entirely kill the sim on of a vellum set up based on attribute. I'm not getting a soft transition when using the "pinned / soft" mode for groups of points and would rather use an attribute of my choice. I tried scaling the stifness and bending using an attribute but that didn't work out. Killing the stretch and bending does not preserve my points position, they still move aournd.

Any pointers welcome, it's an Eeeemmergencyyyyy.

Thanks,

A.

tamte
you can play with Attribute Blur SOP after your Connect Adjacent
- in Group set all points except for anchor points
- uncheck Fix Border Points as for Curves all points are border points
- additionally you can control it by weight attrib
- also play with creating your connections, essentialy you probably want the adjacent connections only between lines of the same clusters or something to not have cross webbing

Definitely getting a little more interesting. Just not quite sure yet how to create polys in between those lines by proximity or by clusters of strings. Guess next step is to transfer the cluster / strings attributes and use that to add polygons. Again, any pointers appreciated. I like the way this is going so far. The main structure is almost there.

Thanks a bunch,

A.

Mike_A
Polybridge SOP with a curved spline for the bridge?

That sounds like a good approach for the core of this structure. I'd have to give a try from that angle too. Cheers.

tamte
you can play with Attribute Blur SOP after your Connect Adjacent
- in Group set all points except for anchor points
- uncheck Fix Border Points as for Curves all points are border points
- additionally you can control it by weight attrib
- also play with creating your connections, essentialy you probably want the adjacent connections only between lines of the same clusters or something to not have cross webbing

Thanks Tomas, I'll give that a try. And yes you're right, i didn't correct it in that quick attempts, but definitely would avoid crossings. I figured if i can find a way to get a nice curvy (exponentially stretching) look for simple string clusters i could reuse the recipe to create more random connections between the extreme bits of those strings clusters to get some more variations attaches to the organs. Perhaps even get those circular looking membranes in between some of the clusters.

But how would you mesh that mess of adjacent connected points eventually? I tried vdb, but i feel in order to get thin details i would have go crazy on the amount of points. Anything that allows to create poly only on the outter shape of that structure?

Thanks a bunch.

A.

Mike_A
I've seen various examples of vellum based 'sticky tape' being pulled apart, which looks somewhat similar. Perhaps if you Google that you might find some direction.

Kind of hoping for a Sop solution, not vellum, nothing simulated. I feel it should be possible to contract (point relaxing or so) the strings in an organic curvy fashion by the center of each cluster of strings... following a Ramp fall off based on transferred UV attribute along those strings, something in that line. I"m just not quite sure how to mesh those clusters accurately yet. But i'm pretty sure it would be faster and more controllable to avoid the Vellum road.

Cheers,

A.

I am trying to create organ's adhesions as seen in those gross attached pictures. And after 10 minutes in Houdini i realized it wasn't going to be that simple to get this nice organic look, with all the tensions between each strings of adhesions. I feel there is a bit of a challenge that might be little above my paygrade on this one. Not sure how to create attractions between points to fake "tensions" while preserving the placement of the points attached to the surface. And then surface only the outter points of those strings and ignore those inside the strings. Any pointers or real help would be more than appreciated.

Cheers,

A.

jsmack
If you see it every time you come out of your camera view, it's because your camera is all jacked up with 2d view transforms on it.

I understand now. Indeed, i had some transform on the "screen window Y" (on purpose), i did not know it affected the viewport. For some reasons i assumed it was a render only feature. Is there anyway to keep it at rendertime but not having it displayed in the viewport perhaps?

Thank you,

A.

How do i reset and completely eradicate that 2D camera madness. Every single time i get out of the camera view i end up in this cropped and displaced overlay 2D camera view that i can't seem to shake off. it's saved in my file. I must have made the mistake to navigate using the 3ds max shortcut in there (Ctrl + shift + middle click) or something alike... and now i have that blue dashed frame horrible viewport. Please oh please, how do i get rid of it.

Cheers,

A.

toadstorm
I agree that caching and rendering the cache is generally the best solution.

As to why the farm isn't cooperating, my guess is they're running a different version of MOPs than you're running locally. You could try reaching out to them and seeing if they can get an environment set up with the latest experimental build, or whatever it is that you're using.

If you do want to embed your asset definitions into the HIP file, you need to go to the Configuration tab of the Asset Manager and enable "Save Operator Definitions to Hip File".

Thanks, that was indeed the solution. I get identical renders with and without Mops installed afterward. The reason i did not cache is cause i'm instancing RS proxies and it was an other level of complications to cache that out without expecting any problems. Caching RS proxies through Houdini's caching system... i never tried, and caching the Mops points also came with its share of surprises. Cheers.

Need help badly to send my Hip file to a renderfarm, but i'm using mops and redshift3D proxies, and although i tried to embed the HDA into the file i'm not sure io did it correctly as the result from the renderfarm is drastically different than my local renders. The proxies are placed differently in the scene or missing. What is the process to embed HDAs into the file please? Any pointers needed badly and urgently please.

Cheers,

A.

+1 Also interested.

Trying to render with the opengl rop because for some unknown reasons my flipbook just stopped working (???). But i can't get the Opengl rop to render exactly what i see in my viewport? Tring to render with headlight only, but it just keeps using an other viewport lighting mode. Any pointers welcome.

Cheers,

A.

EDIT: Turning off the lights helped. Cheers.

How would you go about "instancing / copying" 3d connected primitives. As in sub-elements of a geometry? I have a bunch of assets all grouped in an imported alembic. I'd like to spray that around my scene onto my point cloud without having to separate the grouped primitives into geos first. I'm not scared of VEX on Wednesdays, so feel free to throw a couple of lines at me if needed. I Do have a preference for that old hidden copy stamp approach though. Whomever decided to force us to go the "for-each" approach has no love for average intellects.

Cheers,

A.

WHat i can add is i'm also having some very slow auto-saving over the network. I have a laptop connected directly to my main workstation, i'm using it to render on the side, got myself a extra redshift license just for that purpose, and oh boy does it take long for houdini to auto-save the HIP file but also to save the Exr / Png sequences ove rthe network when rendering. Strangely enough i don't have any speed issues when accessing the network folder from windows explorer. So i'm wondering obviously if there is something i can do within the Houdini preferences to speed up that process. Takes longer to save out the file than it takes to render it.

Now something weird is that it loads the scenes just as fast over the same network than it does when loading is locally :$ Very confusing.

My environment is windows 10 x64 pro / H19.5.640.

Cheers,

A.

Wow, that never got an answer? :$

Jonathan de Blok
not directly but if you first delete them and then paste the new collection it should rewire them automatically to whatever the original collection was linked to. (if all the names are identical)

Hey Johnathan, thanks for jumping in. But the idea is to not have to deal with nodes individually. I'm dealing with converted materials (using the Material extractor hda), a whole lot of them, and the issue is that when extracting materials from similar assets (Kitbash stuff in my case) it overwrites the change i made to the existing duplicated materials. So i'd like to just save the ones i made change to and then just copy paste those over the newly extracted materials. It would take too long to just even copy paste and rename the dupes.

Cheers,

A.

Is there a way to Paste "overwrite" nodes instead of Houdini renaming new nodes with incremental numbering?

Cheers,

A.