It'll be a big investment in time to get back to producing work to the level you are currently in Max but once you're there you won't be limited by plugins (or autodesk). As you grow as an artist you'll have room to expand into Houdini.
I've been using Houdini for nearly 3 years now and I'd say it took me a year to really ‘get’ it, and then every few months I have another big revelation about how everything is connected and how data is moved around. This is after using Maya for 14 years, I now dread having to load it up.
You can get a long way without learning vector math but it will definitely help down the road. As someone else said about, check out http://www.entagma.com/ [www.entagma.com] for some cool procedural tutorials, though they're definitely on the technical end of things.
The tutorials section of sidefx is great too.
https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/ [www.sidefx.com]
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Houdini Lounge » Would Houdini be overkill for me? (Static form creation)
- Hezza
- 17 posts
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Technical Discussion » per-particle attributes from Maya nParticles to Houdini via Alembic
- Hezza
- 17 posts
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Don't worry, you have to list the attributes in the alembic export window but I was naming them wrong. They also seem to go into the detailed field in houdini instead of the primitive list like above, but reckon I can figure it out now
Technical Discussion » per-particle attributes from Maya nParticles to Houdini via Alembic
- Hezza
- 17 posts
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Bumping this old thread in the hope that someone sees it.
I'm having trouble getting Maya to export PP attributes, P, V and ID are there in Houdini but nothing else. (They're not there as primitive attrbs that I can promote yet)
So I think I'm missing something on the Maya side, but there's not really any options on the Alembic export. I'm trying to bring across some of the firework's examples that are in the Content Browser for a quick turn around job.
Cheers
Martin
I'm having trouble getting Maya to export PP attributes, P, V and ID are there in Houdini but nothing else. (They're not there as primitive attrbs that I can promote yet)
So I think I'm missing something on the Maya side, but there's not really any options on the Alembic export. I'm trying to bring across some of the firework's examples that are in the Content Browser for a quick turn around job.
Cheers
Martin
Technical Discussion » how do you get white hairs in houdini 16
- Hezza
- 17 posts
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I don't think its setup to work by default. You'll probably need to use a primitive wrangle/vop to randomly assign what ever the attribute is that the shader picks up.
Technical Discussion » Motion Blur and Hair in h16
- Hezza
- 17 posts
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Hi there,
I was wondering if I'm missing something on getting hair to have motioblur in 16. If I use SOP geometry on the furGen node then it works, but if I generate at render time using mantra procedural it doesn't have blur. I've tried checking ‘Geometry Velocity Blur’ on the Sampling tab under Render but that doesn't seem to work…
If I generate a V attribute on the guide curves will that be passed onto the fur gen?
Cheers
Martin
EDIT: Ignore this, its listed as an issue in the change logs, going to try a new version.
I was wondering if I'm missing something on getting hair to have motioblur in 16. If I use SOP geometry on the furGen node then it works, but if I generate at render time using mantra procedural it doesn't have blur. I've tried checking ‘Geometry Velocity Blur’ on the Sampling tab under Render but that doesn't seem to work…
If I generate a V attribute on the guide curves will that be passed onto the fur gen?
Cheers
Martin
EDIT: Ignore this, its listed as an issue in the change logs, going to try a new version.
Edited by Hezza - April 21, 2017 14:33:23
Houdini Lounge » Some questions for Houdini users
- Hezza
- 17 posts
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If houdini 16 hadn't got the new fur tools then I'd be chomping at the bit for an alternative, they were terrible compared to other systems (xgen, yeti etc).
Been using the new system for a couple of weeks on a fur job and there's a few little quirks but when you get your head round them its super powerful and directable.
I think you'd have to come up with something pretty ground breaking to outdo whats now included in the base package…
Been using the new system for a couple of weeks on a fur job and there's a few little quirks but when you get your head round them its super powerful and directable.
I think you'd have to come up with something pretty ground breaking to outdo whats now included in the base package…
Edited by Hezza - March 20, 2017 06:53:16
Houdini Lounge » Render deep without saving beauty
- Hezza
- 17 posts
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The few times I've used deep I just turn off all the lights/aovs for that output ROP and render with the same amount of primary samples as the beauty render, then use a deepRecolor in Nuke.
It worked for me but I was only trying to get deep data into pgBokeh to get nice defocus on fine bits of geo, worked well but wasn't really proper deep compositing…
It would be nice to be able to save out the deep sample data from the beauty render. Turning deep on in my beauty render with all its AOVs was giving 700mb+ exrs
It worked for me but I was only trying to get deep data into pgBokeh to get nice defocus on fine bits of geo, worked well but wasn't really proper deep compositing…
It would be nice to be able to save out the deep sample data from the beauty render. Turning deep on in my beauty render with all its AOVs was giving 700mb+ exrs
Houdini Lounge » Houdini forgetting where $HIP is?
- Hezza
- 17 posts
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Yeah we don't really use the $JOB variable at our studio, renders/caching is all taken care off on farm submit. $HIP is just useful for knowing where the currect file is saved.
I'll get the latest version installed and if its still happening open a ticket.
I'll get the latest version installed and if its still happening open a ticket.
Houdini Lounge » Houdini forgetting where $HIP is?
- Hezza
- 17 posts
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But it never did that under houdini 14/15/15.5. If I open a hip file in our usual houdini dir on the network, then do a save as it'll be trying to save it in my user folder.
Houdini Lounge » Houdini forgetting where $HIP is?
- Hezza
- 17 posts
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Is anyone else having a problem where houdini 16 (CentOS 6.8, houdini 16.0.504.7.7) seems to forget where its saving scene files?
If I do a ‘save as’ if defaults to my user directory and I have to navigate to where I'm working on the network, clicking $HIP takes me back to my user directory too.
Not a show stopper but pretty frustrating!
If I do a ‘save as’ if defaults to my user directory and I have to navigate to where I'm working on the network, clicking $HIP takes me back to my user directory too.
Not a show stopper but pretty frustrating!
Technical Discussion » Hair & Grooming
- Hezza
- 17 posts
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If you use a brush to groom curves then change something upstream you will need to click ‘recache strokes’ for it to update.
Technical Discussion » Transfering Material extra attribute between Maya and Houdini
- Hezza
- 17 posts
- Offline
cgmagic.sunheHezza
Pretty sure alembic is capable of this, under the export options there's a bit for extra attributes, but getting it all running smoothly will probably take some scripting both ends.
Thanks Hezza, however, I think the Alemtic format does not contain material, and I need the extra atrribute under the material not the geo.
Cheers
Yeah I don't think you're going to find an out the box solution, going to take some scripting and development I reckon.
Technical Discussion » Transfering Material extra attribute between Maya and Houdini
- Hezza
- 17 posts
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Pretty sure alembic is capable of this, under the export options there's a bit for extra attributes, but getting it all running smoothly will probably take some scripting both ends.
Technical Discussion » New fur system and baking painted point masks.
- Hezza
- 17 posts
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Hi all,
I was wondering if there was an elegant solution for baking a load of point masks I've painted in the new H16 fur system?
I've been grooming for a few days now and my input model has changed slightly meaning all my masks are now broken. The mesh you paint on inside the GuideGroom and HairGenerate nodes don't have the same UV's as the input mesh, so I'm currently object merging each paint node to a separate geometry sop and attribute transferring the mask data onto the new model, then using a constant shader and a bake rop to save out the data to a black and white mask.
Its working but feels a bit convoluted as I have several masks between the GuideGroom and HairGenerate nodes which now all need baking out separately.
Having a ‘bake mask to UV space’ button would be amazing, or an option to feed in a separate SOP model that masks are painted on which is then attribute transferred onto your Rest Skin.
Otherwise the new groom system is AMAZING compared the the previous, still getting my head round a few bits but loving it so far.
M
I was wondering if there was an elegant solution for baking a load of point masks I've painted in the new H16 fur system?
I've been grooming for a few days now and my input model has changed slightly meaning all my masks are now broken. The mesh you paint on inside the GuideGroom and HairGenerate nodes don't have the same UV's as the input mesh, so I'm currently object merging each paint node to a separate geometry sop and attribute transferring the mask data onto the new model, then using a constant shader and a bake rop to save out the data to a black and white mask.
Its working but feels a bit convoluted as I have several masks between the GuideGroom and HairGenerate nodes which now all need baking out separately.
Having a ‘bake mask to UV space’ button would be amazing, or an option to feed in a separate SOP model that masks are painted on which is then attribute transferred onto your Rest Skin.
Otherwise the new groom system is AMAZING compared the the previous, still getting my head round a few bits but loving it so far.
M
Technical Discussion » Does anyone Bake anything anymore?
- Hezza
- 17 posts
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Hi all,
I'm working on a snowy landscape, lots of tree's with snow on, thick snow covering the ground etc, that will need a few different camera moves over it.
None of the geo/lights really change between frames and raytracing all the GI and SSS every frame will get heavy quickly.
Does anyone still bake out photon maps, pointclouds and brickmaps and use the micro polygon renderer? Does this still all work out the box, I assume I'll need to switch back to old pre PBR shaders etc…
Thanks for any pointers
Martin
I'm working on a snowy landscape, lots of tree's with snow on, thick snow covering the ground etc, that will need a few different camera moves over it.
None of the geo/lights really change between frames and raytracing all the GI and SSS every frame will get heavy quickly.
Does anyone still bake out photon maps, pointclouds and brickmaps and use the micro polygon renderer? Does this still all work out the box, I assume I'll need to switch back to old pre PBR shaders etc…
Thanks for any pointers
Martin
Technical Discussion » Hair Shader question for white/blonde hair...
- Hezza
- 17 posts
- Offline
For those interested I went with having Transmit Objects turned on and dropping the refraction limit right down, this gave 90% of the transmission effect I was getting with a higher limit but rendered in half the time, and then graded that AOV up in comp, along with a little bit of the fake caustics I managed to get a pretty nice soft looking hair with loads of scatter.
Technical Discussion » Hair Shader question for white/blonde hair...
- Hezza
- 17 posts
- Offline
Hi there,
I'm trying to shade a fairly long haired dog which has almost white hair with lots of blonde/yellow coming through on the denser area's, especially when backlit.
I'm almost getting there with the inbuilt Hair Shader but was wondering how others are doing this?
At the minute I can turn on Transmit Objects which produces a nice backlit effect but is incredibly heavy to render. Is this essentially path tracing dual scattering?
The other option is to only use Transmit Lights to get some transmission and use the Fake Caustic options under opacity to lift the darker shadows, which renders quickly but doesn't quite have the depth of going the full Transmission route.
Are there any ways to cheat the dual scattered look? I've had a read of the papers but its a bit beyond me…
Any help is much appreciated
Martin
I'm trying to shade a fairly long haired dog which has almost white hair with lots of blonde/yellow coming through on the denser area's, especially when backlit.
I'm almost getting there with the inbuilt Hair Shader but was wondering how others are doing this?
At the minute I can turn on Transmit Objects which produces a nice backlit effect but is incredibly heavy to render. Is this essentially path tracing dual scattering?
The other option is to only use Transmit Lights to get some transmission and use the Fake Caustic options under opacity to lift the darker shadows, which renders quickly but doesn't quite have the depth of going the full Transmission route.
Are there any ways to cheat the dual scattered look? I've had a read of the papers but its a bit beyond me…
Any help is much appreciated
Martin
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