Ok, I finally was able to get this to work and thought I would leave it here since I didn't get any responses.. in case the other four people on Earth that will work this way some day may look for it.
I am not exactly sure why it works but I fiddled around with different ideas about attaching information to the data before it ended up in the Cache.
Previously I was doing the (Convert) node from "All to Polygon Soup" after the Sim Cache.
I also was just using the default Outside/Inside/Chipping etc groups that the RBD Material Fracture creates.
Instead this time I applied materials Outside and Inside using those predefined groups to see if they would help Maya see information about the faces assigned after the UV process.
Somehow this ends up with a successful Alembic bake that doesn't crash Maya on import AND... with UVs.
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Technical Discussion » RBDmaterialFracture issues with UVs and details
- Intuition
- 28 posts
- Offline
Technical Discussion » RBDmaterialFracture issues with UVs and details
- Intuition
- 28 posts
- Offline
Technical Discussion » RBDmaterialFracture issues with UVs and details
- Intuition
- 28 posts
- Offline
I finally arrived at the magical numbers that stopped most of the weird issues above.
Now I am at the export stage and can't seem to get an Alembic written that has the UVs still intact.
I can see that my previous experiment with plugging the UVAutoSeams and UVFlatten did work as I can see the data post the FileCache node but I couldn't make it write an Alembic that wouldn't freeze Maya on import at first.
I tried using the convert node and it did make it so that the Alembic import in Maya worked right away, takes longer to convert but works.
BUT.. the alembic, while it animates fairly well (meaning refresh time scrubbing the time line) for such a large data set it does not have the UV info intact.
It seems the convert node may be getting usable polygon info but it does something to the UV information..
In Maya it shows up as a bunch of nested groups in the UV window but I can't find any UV info.
Now I am at the export stage and can't seem to get an Alembic written that has the UVs still intact.
I can see that my previous experiment with plugging the UVAutoSeams and UVFlatten did work as I can see the data post the FileCache node but I couldn't make it write an Alembic that wouldn't freeze Maya on import at first.
I tried using the convert node and it did make it so that the Alembic import in Maya worked right away, takes longer to convert but works.
BUT.. the alembic, while it animates fairly well (meaning refresh time scrubbing the time line) for such a large data set it does not have the UV info intact.
It seems the convert node may be getting usable polygon info but it does something to the UV information..
In Maya it shows up as a bunch of nested groups in the UV window but I can't find any UV info.
Edited by Intuition - June 12, 2023 16:48:43
Technical Discussion » Problem with Alembic export of shattered geometry to Maya
- Intuition
- 28 posts
- Offline
Switched convert node to From Type "All Types" and Convert To "Polygon Soup" and the alembic successfully makes it into Maya.
Scrubs pretty nicely as well. BUT... no UVs
I can still see them at the Convert node and the other nodes to test. But just ran from Convert to Alembic Rop to try and get it out to Maya. So It does make it to Maya but no UVs. Any idea how to force the UV attribute into the Alembic file?
Scrubs pretty nicely as well. BUT... no UVs
I can still see them at the Convert node and the other nodes to test. But just ran from Convert to Alembic Rop to try and get it out to Maya. So It does make it to Maya but no UVs. Any idea how to force the UV attribute into the Alembic file?
Technical Discussion » Problem with Alembic export of shattered geometry to Maya
- Intuition
- 28 posts
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I am at this step now as well.
Fractured an object using RBDMaterialFracture >ran object through UV process before it gets to RBDConfigure>RBDBulletSolver>FileCache
So now I have this pretty nice sim in FileCache that refreshes decently quick in Houdini but every attempt to get it back into Maya crashes Maya on import. Like... it doesn't kill Maya but rather freezes it up indefinitely.
I did successfully get a sim out of an earlier iteration of this using the convert node before the alembic ROP but that takes a very long time. About 13 hours to convert the whole sequence. Using Convert All Types to Polygon.
But for some reason this new iteration isn't successful in creating an Alembic that Maya can import. The Earlier iteration that worked didn't have UVs for the inner pieces and this version does. I can read the UVs if I preview the convert node after the File Cache. So they are transferring across the node network. Just need a way to make an Alembic that is usable in Maya.
Fractured an object using RBDMaterialFracture >ran object through UV process before it gets to RBDConfigure>RBDBulletSolver>FileCache
So now I have this pretty nice sim in FileCache that refreshes decently quick in Houdini but every attempt to get it back into Maya crashes Maya on import. Like... it doesn't kill Maya but rather freezes it up indefinitely.
I did successfully get a sim out of an earlier iteration of this using the convert node before the alembic ROP but that takes a very long time. About 13 hours to convert the whole sequence. Using Convert All Types to Polygon.
But for some reason this new iteration isn't successful in creating an Alembic that Maya can import. The Earlier iteration that worked didn't have UVs for the inner pieces and this version does. I can read the UVs if I preview the convert node after the File Cache. So they are transferring across the node network. Just need a way to make an Alembic that is usable in Maya.
Technical Discussion » RBDmaterialFracture issues with UVs and details
- Intuition
- 28 posts
- Offline
So I have been stuck on this for a month or so on and off having time on the weekends.
I am trying to fracture a large boulder in my scene..
I am using RBDMaterialFracture node and did get a nice result starting with a simple test cube
Doing this tutorial here....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXaBMM7rOqY&t=886s [www.youtube.com]
....and later with this info...
worked my way up to a large boulder with some detail.
I realized I was being too ambitious with breaking apart the whole boulder geometry and so I opted to only shatter the front area so that I could save on calculation/sim time but now am running into a different set of problems further down the testing road.
One of the issues with my first test was that though I did get a nice test shatter I did not have consistent UVs from Maya > Houdini > back to Maya with Alembic as the animation cache format.
So I setup specific UVs so I could match my displacement object. Even baked in the displacement to the mesh so it would shatter at render time the same shape as the displaced original mesh..
So far so good.
Problem is that though I did get the object and UV into Houdini... I am having trouble working out where I can solve this UV on the interior pieces without changing the exterior pieces UV as I keep getting parts disappearing in the process.
Also even though I have had some success testing the UVautoSeam and UVFlatten nodes to deal with the interior UVs being mapped after the fracture... I am not sure how I plug it all back in after I get these results so that it all stays consistent post the sim and cache.
1st issue is just getting the RBD material fracture to stop losing pieces.
2nd issue is where do I plug the uv-nodes after I chain them out of the RBDmaterialFracture node?
Just plugging them into the rbd configure below it seems to lose the UVs again.
I currently have them like this but it doesn't seem to matter when I write the file.
I am trying to fracture a large boulder in my scene..
I am using RBDMaterialFracture node and did get a nice result starting with a simple test cube
Doing this tutorial here....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXaBMM7rOqY&t=886s [www.youtube.com]
....and later with this info...
worked my way up to a large boulder with some detail.
I realized I was being too ambitious with breaking apart the whole boulder geometry and so I opted to only shatter the front area so that I could save on calculation/sim time but now am running into a different set of problems further down the testing road.
One of the issues with my first test was that though I did get a nice test shatter I did not have consistent UVs from Maya > Houdini > back to Maya with Alembic as the animation cache format.
So I setup specific UVs so I could match my displacement object. Even baked in the displacement to the mesh so it would shatter at render time the same shape as the displaced original mesh..
So far so good.
Problem is that though I did get the object and UV into Houdini... I am having trouble working out where I can solve this UV on the interior pieces without changing the exterior pieces UV as I keep getting parts disappearing in the process.
Also even though I have had some success testing the UVautoSeam and UVFlatten nodes to deal with the interior UVs being mapped after the fracture... I am not sure how I plug it all back in after I get these results so that it all stays consistent post the sim and cache.
1st issue is just getting the RBD material fracture to stop losing pieces.
2nd issue is where do I plug the uv-nodes after I chain them out of the RBDmaterialFracture node?
Just plugging them into the rbd configure below it seems to lose the UVs again.
I currently have them like this but it doesn't seem to matter when I write the file.
Edited by Intuition - June 11, 2023 20:13:25
Technical Discussion » No motionblur for Alembic export to Maya rendered in vray
- Intuition
- 28 posts
- Offline
I am hitting this wall today with Redshift.
Followed this tutorial but still no motion blur in Redshift.
https://vimeo.com/254225706 [vimeo.com]
I am wondering if I still need to specify something on the Alembic Rop node as well.
Followed this tutorial but still no motion blur in Redshift.
https://vimeo.com/254225706 [vimeo.com]
I am wondering if I still need to specify something on the Alembic Rop node as well.
Technical Discussion » ROP Alembic Output Nodes gives a lot of warnings
- Intuition
- 28 posts
- Offline
Wanted to chime in that I was able to get Alembic to work witha RBD fracture setup out of Houdini to Maya.
Using the Convert node to first convert "all" to "polygon soup" before the file cache was one method of clearing out other data
that seemed to be making the Alembic file wonky and end up loading into Maya very slowly as it raises ram and then crashes eventually.
BUT... even though I did do this convert, I added another one post the file cache between the FileCache and Rop Alembic output using "mesh" to "polygon soup"
This made my very large 170-GB almebic animation of exploding rocks load into Maya very quickly. None of the sitting there waiting for it to load forever was happening. Just enough time to load the geometry into the GPU which was about 15 seconds on an i9 with 32gb ram and a 3070 card.
It plays decently fast and I could make a 550 frame playblast with it in under a minute to test it.
I will add that I was not able to get the alembic to load into Maya 2020.4 without crashing no matter what I did but through a process of elimination (trying everything/options etc one at a time) I did find it would import into Maya 2019 quite well.
I now have to try getting the motion blur to work by adding the promote attribute node and getting Cd/vector data into the Alembic successfully to see that Motion blur is working.
Screencap showing the complexity of the alembic I was creating. It does not have the Convert nodes in the graph yet.
Using the Convert node to first convert "all" to "polygon soup" before the file cache was one method of clearing out other data
that seemed to be making the Alembic file wonky and end up loading into Maya very slowly as it raises ram and then crashes eventually.
BUT... even though I did do this convert, I added another one post the file cache between the FileCache and Rop Alembic output using "mesh" to "polygon soup"
This made my very large 170-GB almebic animation of exploding rocks load into Maya very quickly. None of the sitting there waiting for it to load forever was happening. Just enough time to load the geometry into the GPU which was about 15 seconds on an i9 with 32gb ram and a 3070 card.
It plays decently fast and I could make a 550 frame playblast with it in under a minute to test it.
I will add that I was not able to get the alembic to load into Maya 2020.4 without crashing no matter what I did but through a process of elimination (trying everything/options etc one at a time) I did find it would import into Maya 2019 quite well.
I now have to try getting the motion blur to work by adding the promote attribute node and getting Cd/vector data into the Alembic successfully to see that Motion blur is working.
Screencap showing the complexity of the alembic I was creating. It does not have the Convert nodes in the graph yet.
Edited by Intuition - March 6, 2023 22:59:49
Technical Discussion » ROP Alembic Output Nodes gives a lot of warnings
- Intuition
- 28 posts
- Offline
I am hitting this wall as well but can't seem to make it work by just putting an unpack SOP before the Alembic Rop.
I have exported Alembics from Houdini to Maya many times before but never with a Fracture node creating a ton of smaller bits.
I was thinking about baking a Redshift Proxy but then would need to next the shaders in correctly before sending it back to Maya.
So I was still just wanting to solve this on the Houdini side so I could get it into maya somehow.
I have exported Alembics from Houdini to Maya many times before but never with a Fracture node creating a ton of smaller bits.
I was thinking about baking a Redshift Proxy but then would need to next the shaders in correctly before sending it back to Maya.
So I was still just wanting to solve this on the Houdini side so I could get it into maya somehow.
Technical Discussion » Sculpt Brush removing hairs?
- Intuition
- 28 posts
- Offline
Ok, so the best I could do was to reduce the amount of guides in the initial guide generation in order to stop having guides disappear when I brushed/groomed the hair.
So I get a shape I like but... now when I generate the hair... it is very patchy.
Is there a way to refresh this to force Houdini to fill in the patchy areas?
So I get a shape I like but... now when I generate the hair... it is very patchy.
Is there a way to refresh this to force Houdini to fill in the patchy areas?
Technical Discussion » Sculpt Brush removing hairs?
- Intuition
- 28 posts
- Offline
I am working on creating and styling some hair for a character today.
Last time I did this process was a few releases ago and some of the nodes/brushes were named differently.
I eventually found my way to the screen brush... by using the guidegroom node in the "sculpt" mode.
This seems to work the same way BUT... today I noticed that each brush stroke seems to remove hairs.
After about 10 strokes there is almost no hair left.
Is there a setting I am missing that removes the guide hairs?
Want to be able to style this hair without it disappearing.
Probably a simple mistake on my part, but can't seem to figure it out looking through the settings.
Thanks
Last time I did this process was a few releases ago and some of the nodes/brushes were named differently.
I eventually found my way to the screen brush... by using the guidegroom node in the "sculpt" mode.
This seems to work the same way BUT... today I noticed that each brush stroke seems to remove hairs.
After about 10 strokes there is almost no hair left.
Is there a setting I am missing that removes the guide hairs?
Want to be able to style this hair without it disappearing.
Probably a simple mistake on my part, but can't seem to figure it out looking through the settings.
Thanks
Edited by Intuition - Nov. 3, 2022 18:20:56
Houdini Lounge » Simple Copy usage case with Dynamics issue
- Intuition
- 28 posts
- Offline
Thanks, I will try these out.
Yes I have 16.5 because my Dual Xeon 8 core computer is old enough now that it says the SSE3 instruction set is too old and wont allow the install of 17+. I have a i9 16 Core cpu and Mobo I am assembling. Hopefully I will be able to get it complete by April and use the latest versions.
Yes I have 16.5 because my Dual Xeon 8 core computer is old enough now that it says the SSE3 instruction set is too old and wont allow the install of 17+. I have a i9 16 Core cpu and Mobo I am assembling. Hopefully I will be able to get it complete by April and use the latest versions.
Houdini Lounge » Simple Copy usage case with Dynamics issue
- Intuition
- 28 posts
- Offline
I seem to be making a very simple mistake.
I have created a cube with BOX.
I used the COPY sop to create 3 cubes along x
Used another COPY to create 3 rows of those cubes along z
Used another COPY to create 3 rows of the rows so I have 27 cubes lines up in a grid style fashion.
I then create a grid with extruded thickness for the floor and add the RBD to it as well as set it to static so it will be passive and not be affected by gravity so that it can simply be the solid floor the cubes collide with.
I press play all the COPY'ied cubes fall and act as individual cubes and bounce off the floor and each other freely.
Everything seems to work as I imagined.
The problem is now that I want to bring in a custom model of dice and do the same thing.
So in the geo object I use the file node instead of create a box node and load up my dice poly object.
I hook it up to the chain of COPY sops and it does replace my box cubes with the dice model.
This is where the problem lies.
Well when I press play in the dynamics the cubes do not fall freely as individual cubes but instead seem to act like solid rows of dice.
Also, I have a custom shaped wall that is like a skateboard ramp the way it curves.
I noticed that bullet wants to basically wrap a convex hull around the entire object.
So where normally I was testing on a flat extruded floor which worked as planned... I now see that the custom shaped wall doesn't seem to be able to be accurately calculated because the settings are for primitive shapes or a convex hull.
I am sure all of these are novice mistakes when using dynamics in Houdini.
Just so you know I have been using 3d software since 1995. Maya, Softimage, Max, etc. even Houdini. I just have never really utilized Houdini for dynamics before.
Softimage didn't care what the shape was back in 2005 with the Physx implementation. I could put any shape in and press play and it always just worked and often it near realtime.
Somehow Bullet became the standard and seems to be far less capable than Physx was over 15 years ago.
I came over to Houdini because the Maya side dynamics were also having the same troubles inside of Mash which seem to also use Bullet.
Thank you for any insight you have in helping me try to solve these basic problems which are simply trying to get dice to bounce down a ramp geometry. These are things I used to take for granted in Softimage as they just worked no matter how weird or strange the shapes were. What ever happened to PhysX? It seemed far more advanced than the Bullet solution everyone seems to have conformed to in the last decade.
I have created a cube with BOX.
I used the COPY sop to create 3 cubes along x
Used another COPY to create 3 rows of those cubes along z
Used another COPY to create 3 rows of the rows so I have 27 cubes lines up in a grid style fashion.
I then create a grid with extruded thickness for the floor and add the RBD to it as well as set it to static so it will be passive and not be affected by gravity so that it can simply be the solid floor the cubes collide with.
I press play all the COPY'ied cubes fall and act as individual cubes and bounce off the floor and each other freely.
Everything seems to work as I imagined.
The problem is now that I want to bring in a custom model of dice and do the same thing.
So in the geo object I use the file node instead of create a box node and load up my dice poly object.
I hook it up to the chain of COPY sops and it does replace my box cubes with the dice model.
This is where the problem lies.
Well when I press play in the dynamics the cubes do not fall freely as individual cubes but instead seem to act like solid rows of dice.
Also, I have a custom shaped wall that is like a skateboard ramp the way it curves.
I noticed that bullet wants to basically wrap a convex hull around the entire object.
So where normally I was testing on a flat extruded floor which worked as planned... I now see that the custom shaped wall doesn't seem to be able to be accurately calculated because the settings are for primitive shapes or a convex hull.
I am sure all of these are novice mistakes when using dynamics in Houdini.
Just so you know I have been using 3d software since 1995. Maya, Softimage, Max, etc. even Houdini. I just have never really utilized Houdini for dynamics before.
Softimage didn't care what the shape was back in 2005 with the Physx implementation. I could put any shape in and press play and it always just worked and often it near realtime.
Somehow Bullet became the standard and seems to be far less capable than Physx was over 15 years ago.
I came over to Houdini because the Maya side dynamics were also having the same troubles inside of Mash which seem to also use Bullet.
Thank you for any insight you have in helping me try to solve these basic problems which are simply trying to get dice to bounce down a ramp geometry. These are things I used to take for granted in Softimage as they just worked no matter how weird or strange the shapes were. What ever happened to PhysX? It seemed far more advanced than the Bullet solution everyone seems to have conformed to in the last decade.
Technical Discussion » Best Linux Distribution for Houdini 17
- Intuition
- 28 posts
- Offline
So many 3d software developers use CentOS as the framework for their linux releases that I simply followed to avoid any headaches.
A long time ago at Digital Domain we had Debian as the standard linux for the whole facility but there came a point where doing all the rpm to deb conversions became silly.
The good news here though is that SideFX makes Deb based builds as well as Rpm so it doesn't matter what you pick.
The trick starts when you start using 3rd party render engines which may not have deb options.
Maybe Redshift does though, not sure.
A long time ago at Digital Domain we had Debian as the standard linux for the whole facility but there came a point where doing all the rpm to deb conversions became silly.
The good news here though is that SideFX makes Deb based builds as well as Rpm so it doesn't matter what you pick.
The trick starts when you start using 3rd party render engines which may not have deb options.
Maybe Redshift does though, not sure.
Technical Discussion » Mask out/in gravity
- Intuition
- 28 posts
- Offline
I have a simple flip fluid falling into a bowl then launching off the side that is tipped.
The particles fall from the source object and slide along the bowl and fly out the lowest edge.
What I want to do is create a sphere or box or anything that basically cuts off the gravity once the particles leave the bowl.
I'd assume this is “Mask Field” node and that I would plug it into the gravity input on the right that says “accepts mask field”.
The issue here though is that since it is inside an AutoDopNetwork how do I pass along to the mask field the geometry I want to use to mask the gravity?
I thought it would simply be the SOP Geometry node and just put the SOP path to the sphere or cube I am using to mask the non-gravity area.
But once this is all hooked up the gravity isn't affecting anything. I started the mask geo half on the particles and half off to test.
Any thoughts appreciated.
The particles fall from the source object and slide along the bowl and fly out the lowest edge.
What I want to do is create a sphere or box or anything that basically cuts off the gravity once the particles leave the bowl.
I'd assume this is “Mask Field” node and that I would plug it into the gravity input on the right that says “accepts mask field”.
The issue here though is that since it is inside an AutoDopNetwork how do I pass along to the mask field the geometry I want to use to mask the gravity?
I thought it would simply be the SOP Geometry node and just put the SOP path to the sphere or cube I am using to mask the non-gravity area.
But once this is all hooked up the gravity isn't affecting anything. I started the mask geo half on the particles and half off to test.
Any thoughts appreciated.
Technical Discussion » Houdini 6.5 questions :)
- Intuition
- 28 posts
- Offline
Ok,
I figured out the particle situation.
Created two grids… boy is the edit and poly/point selection and switch between transform quite tricky compared to now.
You then create geo… then dive inside and create a popnet…. then dive inside of that… and create…
… a locator to start the particles… a force downstream to affect them… then add the collision nodes, one for each geometry.
Then I fiddled with the attributes on the collision nodes to create bounce at first then slide on surface after bounce was exhuasted.
Ok and the snapshot worked. Now on to try and use this for RBD.
I figured out the particle situation.
Created two grids… boy is the edit and poly/point selection and switch between transform quite tricky compared to now.
You then create geo… then dive inside and create a popnet…. then dive inside of that… and create…
… a locator to start the particles… a force downstream to affect them… then add the collision nodes, one for each geometry.
Then I fiddled with the attributes on the collision nodes to create bounce at first then slide on surface after bounce was exhuasted.
Ok and the snapshot worked. Now on to try and use this for RBD.
Technical Discussion » Houdini 6.5 questions :)
- Intuition
- 28 posts
- Offline
Man, that sounds…. difficult…. any lead on info or tutorials to try the RBD method out?
Edited by Intuition - Dec. 15, 2019 07:27:51
Technical Discussion » Houdini 6.5 questions :)
- Intuition
- 28 posts
- Offline
Wait… WHAAAAT?!
Houdini 6.5 questions? How, you ask?
Well, I have a couple old SGI machines. An Octane and an O2. Actually have two O2.
Anyways, I have Houdini 5.5 and 6.5 on one of them. The keys work except that they expire 2012.
So I set the date back and they work fine. Anyways, I am in the process of making old youTube vids for the sake of posterity for software that used to run on old SGI in Irix.
In the meanwhile I see in Houdini 6.5 these tabs on the geo objects that say “physical”.
The attributes seem to imply rigid body dynamics.
Yet, unlike the modern Houdinis, there is no auto setup for RBD networks in Houdini 6.5
There is documentation with the software but nothing that covers geometry RBD.
Only one hip file showing how to make particles stick to a surface and slide along them.
Does anyone here remember this last era of Houdini in Irix, which is version 6.5, and if it is possible to setup a network manually that would let me run some rigid body dynamics of some basic cubes, or spheres, falling in a pile on a flat plane?
Thanks.
Houdini 6.5 questions? How, you ask?
Well, I have a couple old SGI machines. An Octane and an O2. Actually have two O2.
Anyways, I have Houdini 5.5 and 6.5 on one of them. The keys work except that they expire 2012.
So I set the date back and they work fine. Anyways, I am in the process of making old youTube vids for the sake of posterity for software that used to run on old SGI in Irix.
In the meanwhile I see in Houdini 6.5 these tabs on the geo objects that say “physical”.
The attributes seem to imply rigid body dynamics.
Yet, unlike the modern Houdinis, there is no auto setup for RBD networks in Houdini 6.5
There is documentation with the software but nothing that covers geometry RBD.
Only one hip file showing how to make particles stick to a surface and slide along them.
Does anyone here remember this last era of Houdini in Irix, which is version 6.5, and if it is possible to setup a network manually that would let me run some rigid body dynamics of some basic cubes, or spheres, falling in a pile on a flat plane?
Thanks.
Edited by Intuition - Dec. 15, 2019 00:47:17
Houdini Lounge » Start as a Houdini FX artist
- Intuition
- 28 posts
- Offline
Thou I don't post in the sidefx forums often I will chime in on this topic.
I've been living/working here in Los Angeles since 1995 in CGI/VFX.
Your reel is decent. The water sim looks pretty good. The face peel looks standard and the krakatoa and fluid sim explosion are also just standard.
People in Southern CA have seen hundreds of these kinds of reels. Often they are not just from specialist in fx.
They are from people who model, rig, animate, texture, shade, simulate, render in multiple engines etc in Maya and Max as well as having some fx capability in Maya or Max or even Houdini.
So we'll get reels and see what you've shown and about ten other things all together for one person.
Now that being said. When it comes to Houdini specific reels I would say your water sim is detailed BUT it is just going down all over the model. Many reels come in with not only detailed water but also showing the water moving and pushing scene geometry around. The water changing the walls from dry to wet. Water building up against something and filling up and pouring over. All in one shot.
Explosions demo'd at the pro level show not just a plume going up that is nicely lit, but smaller smoke shards with hot pieces flying outward making tertiary smoke streaks as well as an initial shockwave.
The aura looking particles look a lot like many krakatoa demo reels that were being shown in 2011-2012.
Everything you are showing is pretty good but you must know that you are trying to get hired in an industry that has 20+ year vets that have a little of everything on their reel.
Don't get me wrong, Houdini specialists are getting more in demand. BUT… in Oct 2017 a company wanted a pile of leaves that flew up from a car driving by them on the road… then hte shot went into bullet time and pushed DoF on the single leaf. The single leaf then began to change from organic to liquid metal ala Terminator 2 and then the leaf broke up into mercury bubbles and then formed again into a logo. That is more a modern Houdini fx reel factor for getting hired above others with the usual smoke plume, water flood, and particle dissolve reels.
You have a talent here. I am not ripping on your reel. It shows great potential. Hopefully you'll get your break. Just try to think of a couple more details in water sims… pushing things around etc. The extra details help sell you.
I've been living/working here in Los Angeles since 1995 in CGI/VFX.
Your reel is decent. The water sim looks pretty good. The face peel looks standard and the krakatoa and fluid sim explosion are also just standard.
People in Southern CA have seen hundreds of these kinds of reels. Often they are not just from specialist in fx.
They are from people who model, rig, animate, texture, shade, simulate, render in multiple engines etc in Maya and Max as well as having some fx capability in Maya or Max or even Houdini.
So we'll get reels and see what you've shown and about ten other things all together for one person.
Now that being said. When it comes to Houdini specific reels I would say your water sim is detailed BUT it is just going down all over the model. Many reels come in with not only detailed water but also showing the water moving and pushing scene geometry around. The water changing the walls from dry to wet. Water building up against something and filling up and pouring over. All in one shot.
Explosions demo'd at the pro level show not just a plume going up that is nicely lit, but smaller smoke shards with hot pieces flying outward making tertiary smoke streaks as well as an initial shockwave.
The aura looking particles look a lot like many krakatoa demo reels that were being shown in 2011-2012.
Everything you are showing is pretty good but you must know that you are trying to get hired in an industry that has 20+ year vets that have a little of everything on their reel.
Don't get me wrong, Houdini specialists are getting more in demand. BUT… in Oct 2017 a company wanted a pile of leaves that flew up from a car driving by them on the road… then hte shot went into bullet time and pushed DoF on the single leaf. The single leaf then began to change from organic to liquid metal ala Terminator 2 and then the leaf broke up into mercury bubbles and then formed again into a logo. That is more a modern Houdini fx reel factor for getting hired above others with the usual smoke plume, water flood, and particle dissolve reels.
You have a talent here. I am not ripping on your reel. It shows great potential. Hopefully you'll get your break. Just try to think of a couple more details in water sims… pushing things around etc. The extra details help sell you.
Edited by Intuition - Feb. 22, 2018 19:21:17
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Using patterns as bump maps instead of images.
- Intuition
- 28 posts
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I can't seem to figure out what is probably a very easy thing to overlook.
I am using the patterns like dots/brick/checker etc to do shading tests but I can't seem to get them to simply be just bump maps.
I don't know what to hook up to the principled shader to see the bump.
I can hook the “amount” up to color, roughness etc and it works as intended. But it doesn't seem to want to hook up to any bump parameter without a red warning sign or it just not doing anything.
I see the displacement node in the lists but couldn't make that work with patterns.
As soon as I just put an image path in the bump I see bump. But I am simply wanting to use the patterns for bump or displacement.
Where am I over thinking this? Or is there some conversion node or attribute I am not hooking up right?
Thanks for any help
I am using the patterns like dots/brick/checker etc to do shading tests but I can't seem to get them to simply be just bump maps.
I don't know what to hook up to the principled shader to see the bump.
I can hook the “amount” up to color, roughness etc and it works as intended. But it doesn't seem to want to hook up to any bump parameter without a red warning sign or it just not doing anything.
I see the displacement node in the lists but couldn't make that work with patterns.
As soon as I just put an image path in the bump I see bump. But I am simply wanting to use the patterns for bump or displacement.
Where am I over thinking this? Or is there some conversion node or attribute I am not hooking up right?
Thanks for any help
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