Is there any way to import SVG graphics as 3d vectors in Houdini? That functionality would be great!

Wow I didn't know that last bit! That's really helpful thank you!

Any ideas on how I can do that on a linux system (like ubuntu?). It's just that I don't remember actually being prompted to set the name during installation… thanks again.

I want to reinstall my whole linux system. I have an HD license, what do I need to back up (only the license files?). Is there any other problem I should watch out for? Thanks in advance.

I'm a relatively recent joiner, but I have also noticed the tone of a lot of messages recently starting to get a bit rude. The thing I like best about this forum is that you get to read so much advice and techniques from very experienced (but friendly) users… I think it would be a shame for these users to be chased away by the new dynamics in the forum, or to look elsewhere for a more closed and restricted community forum. What do you think can be done to keep the tone polite and friendly while leaving open access? Is it even possible to moderate such a thing? Anyhow, thanks for all the experts out there who are willing to lend a helping hand, and to share their work and experience, you rock!

Hi I'm trying to export a 2d track into 3d space. I've brought in the data through chops and fitted it to uv space (0-1) through a range node (1-2048 in x, 1-1556 in y).
My first try was to use a grid at a certain point to project uv cordinates from camera… and transfering attributes between chops and the grid with point sops and finally a transfer attribute that copies color with the 3d information in it to the tracking point. In short this technique worked, but the metaball sampling doesn't seem to be accurate enough and I get random jumps. I've tried playing with the kernel values but nothing makes it better.
Could any ones suggest a more intelligent (and accurate) approach?

Well if you can use Houdini on windows vista, the worst OS ever, I don't see why there shouldn't be a port to Mac OS , which is a very decent operating system. I'm a linux user but I worked for years with macs and can't say anything bad about them in terms of performance (they're a bit closed to my liking and a bit expensive though).

I agree, for some of us that would like to use Houdini at a small studio or as freelancers it is too difficult or time consuming to write our own exporters. Seems to me that sidefx wants to appeal to a broader audience (example: the Cartoon character rig), and a great way to do this is to help them migrate their projects to houdini (and maybe export them back to their package of choice if needed).

I've done some more test on it, and this are the problems I have found: Everytime I reboot I have to restart the license server manually (I don't really know how to set it up so that it runs automatically at boot time, any ideas?)
Drop down menus and buttons don't draw correctly, but they're still useable.
I get a ton of errors on the shell but houdini works ok.
I'll keep updating this, and I'm sure others will join in soon!
Might try and install ubuntu 7.10 which is great, but I want to give this OS a try as it seems to be very optimized for the hardware and it is fast to boot (around 15 seconds!)

First of all, enable the Full Desktop mode, it's pretty simple if you follow this instructions:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/11/06/eee-pc-tips-a-crash-course-in-linux/ [downloadsquad.com]
Then, download the latest production build for 32-bit Debian, and install it.
For some reason, I had to reinstall sesinetd, and installed the apprentice license after that.
I also set this environment variables, by using the /export/ command in a shell:
HOUDINI_OGL_SOFTWARE=1
HOUDINI_ENABLE_THREADED_UI=0
Just source houdini, and run it.
And finally, change the UI size to tiny or small or whatever, you won't be able to reach the apply button unfortunately, but just close the window and restart houdini.
I got some graphical glitches as well, but this were fixed when I restarted the system (startup the first time was really slow, but when I restarted it was very fast). Everything seems to work fine, it's just a matter of customizing the UI and desktop environment to maximize available space. The performance is much better than I expected!
Please share any additional tips!

Again, just trying to keep this topic hot! What we really need is first and foremost, documentation! There is a big caps concerning character animation in the docs. After that, tutorials would be nice too!

Nice blog, keep up the good work! :wink:

I'm having trouble with the shadow maps. No matter what I do, Houdini won't create a rat file when I click render, and all I get is a weird shadow map in the shape of the cone light. (I have Autogenerate Depth map toggled on).