jeff
Default values should be fine.
As you noted the only real parameter you need to tweak is the threshold which is the speed at which the object is moving before it is removed from the simulation.
If the object get's kicked again, it has velocity again and it is included in the sim again (is that even English?).

Thank you millions! It finally stopped! Lol.. Man, what a learning experience. quite sure I won't forget it..

Thank you again..

jeff
Yep. RBD Auto Freeze is a Dynamics DOP operator so it can only be added in a DOP network.

I'd insert it in to the network right after the first RBD Object node. That way the conext is limited to the RBD DOP objects created in that DOP node.

Excellent, and does it “Default” values normally do the job, or what do I need to understand about setting it?

Modifying Threshold?

Thanks!

Using somehing like ROP Render in the Objects network?

Right on, I was actually just trying this based off another post I read. I don't know enough to even tell where to put it and what input-outputs it should have.. Super new guy.

I drilled into Autodrop Network and Added it. Is the that right area even?

Thanks!

I have an object that is elevated off the Ground plane. I assigned it an RBD Object. When I hit play, it falls to the ground plane an more or less comes to rest but it keeps slightly vibrating in a sense.

How can I stop this? After it has rested around a certain frame I want it to change to a static type geometry or something and be done.

After that I will add some fluid emitters to emit liquid onto the top of the object and some more things..

Am I approaching this correctly? Quite new here..

Thanks for your expertise and experience…

Bare with me,
I have a logo that I added a static ridgid body to.
When the animation plays the logo object drops from the sky and lands on the ground plane and stops moving around frame 38.

What I want to do at this point is snapshot everything, minus any more autodrop or animation.

I then want to make a new project with frame one representing the position of my object in the previous take at frame 38.

My train of thought goes along the line of, Look at the position and scale attributes of my object at frame 38 and make a new project with the object at those cordinates etc.

I have tried to “Active Object” at frame 38 and copy the position, rotate attributes that is has into frame one of the new project but the logo object is not in the same position I was expecting.

Any help please?

Thanks again!

Hey There,
I'm looking for some direction on an effect.
I have a 2D logo, eps file, that I brought into houdini. I Used extrude poly (I think) on it to make it a 3D geometric object. I would now like to have fire flowing off the top of the letters, or originating from the letter shapes.

Any suggestions?

Thanks as always..

JColdrick
Yup, ask them to define the deliverables, you should be fine. Err on the side of too much information: there are lots of producers out there nowadays(especially with the permanent agency producers being a dying breed and everything being outsourced to lots of young inexperienced people) that are expecting you to know all this stuff and will happily fluff over the details because they don't even know what they are in the first place. Without being annoying about it, make sure you have a solid understanding of what they want.

Cheers,

J.C.

Wonderful insight and post. Thank you for the confirmation. I will be sure to squeeze all the details out of them I can.

Thanks for the reply!

I think I need to rescope my question.

I will be the one and only individual involved with the production. I am planning on creating this all in CG. My questions revolve around what requirements should I gather from the technical contact at the broadcast company.

Maby this is a question better suited for them to tell me. IE, what do they need specifically in the finalized product.

I may have the opportunity to develop an animation for a 30 Second TV commercial. What are the some details that I should gather prior to getting started on the animation itself?

Thinking:

Resolution, size, format?
File Format, Codex?
Delivery Method?
Frame Rate?
“Bleed”? (Donno if there is such a thing.) What would the exact time be?

Thanks!

Allegro
You were trying to render water over a bg image, yes?

Yes. If you wanna cut to the point.

Allegro
The problem with the water material is that it is designed for use in a 3d scene that is surrounded by other elements. It will reflect and more importantly refract the other elements of your scene. When compositing such a material, it is undesirable to have the water have anything but an opaque alpha channel as a glass/water material will not properly refract 2d layers during the compositing stage.

I was kind of starting to figure this was how it was working.

Which of course makes your task a little more tricky.

Allegro
Something you *may* be able to do is add an environment map to your material ( http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini9.5/light/map [sidefx.com] ). The third one there *may* be of use to you. This will get rid of the black color and make it seem that the water is reflecting/refracting an outdoor environment with a blue sky.

Testing this out now. Looks like it may get it close enough for what I'm trying to accomplish.

Allegro
You may also wish to have your background image render as a Phantom object, which means that it's colors will be taken into consideration during the render.

This is very interesting to me. I will go off and learn a bit more about it. So this is kinda handled in the comp view etc?

Thanks So much for your reply. I didn't realize that you posted because I forgot to have “Notify Me” Ticked in my original post.

Is there such a way to render out your liquid transparent and not black?

In my composition I have a background layer with a couple different terrains and I want my liquid pic sequence to be layered ontop of it so as it flows over the background image it picks up the colors under it.

I've learned how to not select my ground plane object during the rendering and that helps with my overall goal but when I layer my liquid on my image it looks like glossy black tar.

Thanks!

Awesome, this is exactly what I was looking for… Thanks a million!

You'll have to excuse my mutilating of terms here. I come from a 2D development world and I am working on translating what I know into the 3D world.

I am trying to generate something similar to this:

If we can think in “Layers”

Top Layer = Emit Particle Fluid
Bottom Layer = Tif. image of a landscaped yard.

End result to look like the fluid is emitting from an area in the tif file and then rolling down the image. (I have attached a jpg to clarify).

I have messed around a little bit with trying to create a grid, (Although the size never seems to be right, like I'm looking to specify the pixel size I want the grid to be so I can texture it with the tif file). I know this is apples to oranges, and I'm thinking things don't work this way, but I'm trying to learn.

I have tried Vex Layered surface from another post I found here. It's the closest I have come to what I want, but the lighting on it is weird etc. I'd like the rendered output to look identical to the original Tif file itself.

When I do have this all done, my goal is to render it out at the exact pixel dimensions of the original tif file.

I hope this makes sense and I know I have tons to learn. Interested in pointers to applicable tutorials or “Keywords”

I appreciate anyone's assistance and expertise here.

Thanks!