Here's what I do so I can use houdini from my piece of #$&* laptop…. get a good desktop pc that can run houdini well and then connect to it remotely using logmein.com (I've found the default windows remote desktop doesn't work well with houdini as it doesn't work right with rendering)
This works pretty well for me as long as the internet connection for the laptop and for the desktop is pretty fast… you notice a bit of lag sometimes and I wouldn't recommend this for doing modeling but for any other type of work its fine since you're just moving pieces around in a scene and such and setting parameters.
You can use modeling programs like rhino, moi (nurbs) and silo (poly) that will run pretty well even on older laptops and then send it over to your desktop to do the visfx part in houdini.
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Technical Discussion » running Houdini laptop
- rdane1010
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Technical Discussion » mental ray and houdini
- rdane1010
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Sty.. what you are referring to are just pre-made shaders / materials that give a good output and you are correct that within houdini there isn't really anything on this level that is “pre-packaged”, rather you have to use the vex builder and / or play around with the existing materials they provide to get the output you want but any shader offered for mental ray can definitely be replicated within houdini and a great deal more customization can more easily be attained than it could for a mental ray shader due to the node based system rather than having to write custom code for the shaders (in mental ray)
Technical Discussion » mental ray and houdini
- rdane1010
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I don't really see why you would need to use mental ray with houdini.. as others have pointed out there are advantages to using mantra which already comes with it so this is likely the reason why you aren't getting much input as probably no one here is familiar with using it in houdini.. however if you want to use mental ray within another package like 3ds max there are ways to export different digital assets to other packages so you can render within that package using mental ray.
As someone who has used 3ds max before, the power of the vex shader builder simply is on another level than anything offered with a package using mental ray… also mantra definitely is quite a bit faster in my experience.
EDIT: as someone else pointed out.. apprentice doesn't support 3rd party renderers.. so do you have a commercial license? If you do then you should contact side effects for direct support which they should be able to provide.. if you are using apprentice than you have to give up on it since its not possible to use mental ray with apprentice.
As someone who has used 3ds max before, the power of the vex shader builder simply is on another level than anything offered with a package using mental ray… also mantra definitely is quite a bit faster in my experience.
EDIT: as someone else pointed out.. apprentice doesn't support 3rd party renderers.. so do you have a commercial license? If you do then you should contact side effects for direct support which they should be able to provide.. if you are using apprentice than you have to give up on it since its not possible to use mental ray with apprentice.
Technical Discussion » How find Houdini users in Marin County CA
- rdane1010
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Not sure but I am in northern California too in the Sacramento area, I kinda think the only place where there is a definite concentration of houdini users is in L.A. since its where the film industry is.
Technical Discussion » Weird problem when using displacement map with opacity map
- rdane1010
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I just wanted to close this out in case anyone else has this problem in the future as this caused me a few days worth of agony…
solution: I finally figured out that you have to match up the displacement map with the transparency map, to do this you make the part of the displacement map, (that you want to appear as being transparent) black (the blackest black you can make it) then when lined up with the opacity map it will show as being clear, otherwise it outputs this garbage where it shows specular glare off the part that should be transparent…. I'm not sure if this qualifies as a bug for side effects to look into for future releases.. I am guessing that not many people are using transparency maps with displacement maps in houdini since its normally used mainly for animation for which, as I understand it, transparency and displacement maps aren't normally used.
solution: I finally figured out that you have to match up the displacement map with the transparency map, to do this you make the part of the displacement map, (that you want to appear as being transparent) black (the blackest black you can make it) then when lined up with the opacity map it will show as being clear, otherwise it outputs this garbage where it shows specular glare off the part that should be transparent…. I'm not sure if this qualifies as a bug for side effects to look into for future releases.. I am guessing that not many people are using transparency maps with displacement maps in houdini since its normally used mainly for animation for which, as I understand it, transparency and displacement maps aren't normally used.
Technical Discussion » Houdini Apprentice 10 Startup Crash
- rdane1010
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Is this happening everytime and you can never open it? I've had this happen before on occasion but it usually runs for me.
Technical Discussion » Creating .rat file for transparency map?
- rdane1010
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I think I've got it figured out as far as the conversion from .png to .pic.. pretty straightforward now that I've been playing around with it a bit.
Technical Discussion » Creating .rat file for transparency map?
- rdane1010
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Thank you for the info… well, I had been trying this with a .png file, I don't know enough about the different formats to know if this has an alpha channel (but I know .png's support transparency in some mannner) I will try to convert to the other formats to see if it works since with the .png it has been acting very strangely where its almost transparent but not all the way.
I'm guessing that the transparency map needs to be in one of the formats listed here:
http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini10.0/io/formats/image_formats [sidefx.com]
? (although some wouldn't work on there, such as .jpg)
I appreciate any further advice on this as this has been giving quite a headache the last couple of days
I'm guessing that the transparency map needs to be in one of the formats listed here:
http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini10.0/io/formats/image_formats [sidefx.com]
? (although some wouldn't work on there, such as .jpg)
I appreciate any further advice on this as this has been giving quite a headache the last couple of days
Technical Discussion » Creating .rat file for transparency map?
- rdane1010
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I'm a bit lost here… I've been trying to learn how to use transparency maps properly in houdini, I have gathered from a post by stevenong that I should use a .rat file for the transparency map (thanks for posting the file with this) however I don't understand how to create a .rat file to be used for a transparency map.. I know to use the isixpack utility to compile them but I'm not sure I understand how to get the initial images from the base texture map that I have.. if anyone can shed any light on this or post a .rat file that can be used for a transparency map (I couldn't seem to get it from stevenong's file, just had it saved within the houdini file) I would greatly appreciate it.
Technical Discussion » Reflective glass material?
- rdane1010
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I see how to do it now.. I'm able to do it with a texture map that is semi transparent in the glass
Technical Discussion » Glass shatter issue.
- rdane1010
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I've had similar issues when importing geometry where it puts everything as one object.. here's my post about this..
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=16747&highlight= [sidefx.com]
I ended up just deciding to save each piece separately in my other program (that I'm importing from) and importing each object separately to houdini. (not that what the people said won't work.. just I find it easier to separate it when saving it from the other software then doing a bunch of work within houdini to separate it)
Also.. since you're using Maya why not do an .FBX file as this recognizes the different parts of the object (if I remember correctly maya supports fbx)
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=16747&highlight= [sidefx.com]
I ended up just deciding to save each piece separately in my other program (that I'm importing from) and importing each object separately to houdini. (not that what the people said won't work.. just I find it easier to separate it when saving it from the other software then doing a bunch of work within houdini to separate it)
Also.. since you're using Maya why not do an .FBX file as this recognizes the different parts of the object (if I remember correctly maya supports fbx)
Technical Discussion » Removing object from a render after doing the render?
- rdane1010
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Yeah I think mattes is what I am thinking of.. thanks, I didn't know what it was called.
Technical Discussion » Removing object from a render after doing the render?
- rdane1010
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Thanks for the response.. I think one of those may work.. I need to look into what they do in more detail… basically this is what I want to do:
render an object within a box so that the raytrace hits all sides of the box during the render but then to remove one side of the box within the final output of the render so that the object shows over transparency. (so that the object can be composited into another scene)
render an object within a box so that the raytrace hits all sides of the box during the render but then to remove one side of the box within the final output of the render so that the object shows over transparency. (so that the object can be composited into another scene)
Technical Discussion » Removing object from a render after doing the render?
- rdane1010
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I'm using the environment room approach more and more with a square room and the environment map shader (usually with a gradient) to take renders of objects… in the past I used to use a structure around the object and leave one side open to get the object against a transparent background for later compositing, I'm wondering is there a way to, after doing a render, remove an object from the render so it just shows the object I want against transparency?
I'm not really sure this matters for the end quality of the render but being able to do the initial render against a background helps me see it better (since if the object of focus has dark colors around the edges you can't tell where it ends and the nothingness starts) thanks for any help on this
I'm not really sure this matters for the end quality of the render but being able to do the initial render against a background helps me see it better (since if the object of focus has dark colors around the edges you can't tell where it ends and the nothingness starts) thanks for any help on this
Technical Discussion » backface?
- rdane1010
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Is this imported geometry? I've had something similar when importing some nurbs objects ( if I remember correctly).. if it is imported post which program its from, format, etc
Technical Discussion » Reflective glass material?
- rdane1010
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I'm using 295… well for now I've just taken to making a reflective object partially transparent (opacity).. maybe this is just the way to do it rather than using the glass shader / material?
Technical Discussion » Reflective glass material?
- rdane1010
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I've spent a long time trying to figure this out but just can't seem to get it.. I want to make a glass material reflect the scenery but can't figure it out.. I used to be able to do this in 3ds max but nothing I try in houdini as far as modifications to the glass material works.. if anyone has an example of this I would greatly appreciate if you could post the file.. I've been trying it in a box with an environment map (I have no problem doing this with any other material that has reflective properties.. chrome, reflective, silver etc)
Technical Discussion » Weird problem when using displacement map with opacity map
- rdane1010
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Technical Discussion » Problem puzzled me for some days.
- rdane1010
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I took a look at the file.. well I think for one your light is way too bright so thats part of the problem.. if you did this in real life it would look kinda weird too (shone a really bright light on a lemon up close).. also try increasing your shader quality, maybe ray trace quality too… in the main object SOP area click on lemon object < render < dicing then you can do this as I think thats part of the problem too.
For this kind of thing you usually want to use a room around the object since the way it is know its basically like you have a bright light in a vacumm (like outer space) whereas within a room you can dim the light and move it further away… if you want to get a shot of the lemon with no background just leave one end of the room open and shoot it there against the nothingness
edit: the lights not necessarily too bright.. just too close to the lemon
For this kind of thing you usually want to use a room around the object since the way it is know its basically like you have a bright light in a vacumm (like outer space) whereas within a room you can dim the light and move it further away… if you want to get a shot of the lemon with no background just leave one end of the room open and shoot it there against the nothingness
edit: the lights not necessarily too bright.. just too close to the lemon
Technical Discussion » Weird problem when using displacement map with opacity map
- rdane1010
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I'm getting this weird problem when I use a displacement map in a material that is using an opacity map. I have included a link to a render below and the houdini file… you can see the wooden ball is showing through the object that has the opacity map and no displacement or anything is showing over it but to the left it is showing hints of the displacement.. so it seems that when nothing is behind the object with the opacity map then it shows part of the displacement map… it seems to me that this is a bug but of course I could be wrong.. would appreciate any advice on this.
http://rick-dane-files.s3.amazonaws.com/opacity-map-problem.jpg [rick-dane-files.s3.amazonaws.com]
http://rick-dane-files.s3.amazonaws.com/opacity-map-problem.hipnc [rick-dane-files.s3.amazonaws.com]
EDIT: it has nothing to do with the ball as it shows that over it when I move the ball too… I guess this might have something to do with the uv mapping / object / tiling so I need to play around with it more
http://rick-dane-files.s3.amazonaws.com/opacity-map-problem.jpg [rick-dane-files.s3.amazonaws.com]
http://rick-dane-files.s3.amazonaws.com/opacity-map-problem.hipnc [rick-dane-files.s3.amazonaws.com]
EDIT: it has nothing to do with the ball as it shows that over it when I move the ball too… I guess this might have something to do with the uv mapping / object / tiling so I need to play around with it more
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