This seems to work!

One thing on time samples though: it seems that even if time samples are authored in a sop create node, and the shotoutput node is set to render a specific frame range, only time samples for the current frame are written out to the layer.

Attached is a file with that example

Thanks! I'll update to that build and test this out. I'll post here if I run into any issues. Thanks for clearing that up!!

Just to add to this - this setup below works using the usd rop node, correctly sublayering the sop create that was cached out to test_v1.usd into the shot usd.

This same setup, when using the shot output node, outputs only the light primitive to the shot usd, and ignores the sublayer entirely. This seems to lead to something being misconfigured with the shot output node, but I have no idea what that may be

Hi all.

I have been very interested in the new shot builder tools in Houdini 21, however I have been having a very hard time getting into them and understanding how it is meant to work. As there is little documentation, I followed it as best as I could, but I am getting very odd results. Here's my process:

1. Created a project using the single layer template - starting here to not over complicate
2. Created a shot and switched to it using the shot context dropdown
3. Added a shot load
4. Added a shot edit for the selected shot
5. Diving into the edit shot node (Shot Layer Edit), I added a sop create, just making a bumpy sphere, and also added a simple light primitive
6. I added a shot output node and published the shot.

The result is, as expected, shot_v01.usda, however it contains only the light primitive, and not the sop create.
Odd result. My next step is that I tried to cache out the sop create to a usd file and sublayered it in inside the shot edit node, again publishing via shot output.

Again, only the light primitive exists in the newly versioned shot usda file

I cannot seem to get the shot edit node, or shot output node, to save out or sublayer in newly created geometry made with a sop create node.

Where could I be going wrong?

Attached is an example file of this issue along with the output usd files

Thanks!

Hey all! I am trying to get the maya service block example file working, but am having trouble getting it to work properly.

I created a maya service, pointing to the mayapy.exe file, using the default arguments. No errors come up in pdg, however the maya file never opens, it just toils endlessly.

Does anyone have a fix for this? I also noticed that the status of the mayascript worker never changes to active.

If anyone has some insight, I'd love to get this up and running! I have been using the deprecated shared server but I'd like to switch over to this newer service server type.

I am on Houdini version 20.5.445, and Maya 2022, using the mayapipeline.hip file that ships with houdini

Day 26 - Melting Anvil

GSG textures and anvil used

Day 25 - Leaf Flood

A burst of vellum leaves advected by a cold axiom volume

Day 16 - Dance

Late submission! Here's my little guy doing a backflip. He's pretty happy he finally made it

Day 15 - Run

Way behind on this one! Too busy of a day to get much done, but here's my little apex robot guy with some procedural animation

Mardini Day 13 - Scales

Copernicus scales using sdf, GSG dome light for some of the lighting

Day 12 - Grunge - Old Hammered Bronze

Bronze material made with COPs, GSG HDRI for some of the lighting

Day 11 - Fabric - Cozy Blanket

Hope you like it! Was a little tough to get frame times down far enough while still maintaining quality. Managed to get 1 minute per frame from Redshift though with some optimization.

Copernicus for the fabric color pattern, supported by 3d weaves made primarily using vex over a grid of lines and some hair groom tools - about 90,000 curves per frame. Really looking forward to some usd husk procedurals that could handle point deformation for fabric curves at render time, I know someone is out there working on a toolset for it that looks pretty sweet.

Day 10 - Metal

I used copernicus to create some scratches, smudges, and some directional noise to help create the metal textures used for this paneling.

Hope you like this simple abstract looping animation!

Mardini Day 09 - Driftwood

Copernicus used for the driftwood and rocks, redshift noises used for the beach

Hope you enjoy it!

Mardini Day 8 - Stone - Obsidian Zen Room

I used copernicus for the obsidian materials, and greyscale gorilla textures for the room and other elements

Day 07 Entry: Brain Squids

Some Copernicus reaction diffusion to help create a brain model, vellum (of course), and compositing with Copernicus

Hope you like my creatures

Marnini Day 6 - Rave Dude

Hope you like this funky guy.
Primarily the capybara model/animation, vdb to spheres, and of course vellum.

Greyscale Gorilla textures, comped with Copernicus

My Day 5 - Environment Rubik's Cube

A Rubik's cube is challenging because pivots change with each rotation. I found a good method for addressing this using vex to control animation detail attributes and a for loop to add more rotations. Each cube belonging to each axis is re-grouped inside the for loop before moving onto the next rotation sequence. Really satisfying solve for what would otherwise be a huge headache to rig.

I really liked the concept of shuffling pieces of the world around. It would be interesting to try this with more elements at play such as water, clouds, and foliage.

Mardini Day 4 Entry - Infrared Island

Some TOPs finally!! A very simple but super useful wedge setup to generate tree assets to then scatter in Solaris. Hope you like it!

My Submission for Mardini Day 3! Some glassy abstract architecture for this one

Lots of booleans and some for looping. Forgive the mess of nodes