Hi all,

I'm not able to render the N deep raster when I do a Polygon Render as Subdivision, Other non-subd or nurbs render fine, Any tips?

Thanks in advance
tallkien

Greetings,

I was wondering what others on this list who attended SIGGRAPH thought
of this year's conference?
Any surprises? Disappointments?
Here's a few of my thoughts and observations …

San Diego …
What a pleasant town for SIGGRAPH, lots of happy smiling people! For
me, this was by far the most laid back and generally cool SIGGRAPH I've
ever attended, and it seemed that San Diego had a lot to do with
contributing to that vibe. The convention center is right on the
waterfront and it was really nice to be able to take a break from the
conference and watch the sailboats, and lots of people at the
Embarcadaro and marina enjoying life… it was so nice…

The SESI/Houdini meeting
Great to finally meet many people I've only talked to via phone and
email!
Some notes
1) No mention of CFD in Houdini This is surprising seeing how fluid
dynamics are showing up in so many places. There was a brief mention
that “the dynamics would in one place” in future versions of Houdini, or
something like that, I'm not sure.
2) No free HDK Darn … would have been a great thing to announce at
the meeting!
3) Still no Houdini book Why …? Yet more titles appearing for Maya,
Softimage, Max, etc., yet not a single book for Houdini.
4) Call for Houdini talent Holy crap! It seems the demand for Houdini
artists has doubled, tripled, or more … Good news!
5) The Inflate and Pelt SOP neat stuff for sure.
6) Congratulations to the Apprentice winners! Good work!

Houdini reception
Lot's of interesting conversations and excitement, a few fleeting
glimpses of people, some I didn't have a chance to talk with and wanted
to; please email. The number of schools teaching Houdini continues to
dwindle, yet the demand for Houdini artists continues to grow ..
puzzling. Oh, and T-shirts too! -)

Real Flow
Wow! That was a busy booth! Nice demo, and lots of interest. Very
promising young company. Sure wish Real Flow was procedural though.
They've got a new RBD engine that's really impressive, it's in version
2.5 which will be released in September, can't wait!

The job board
Oh how depressing … the ratio of job postings vs. resumes must have
been 120, or worse … that was the only place I saw really worried
faces …

No SGI!
There was no SGI booth … I was astonished … could they really be
gone forever … damn.

Cg
Mega cool stuff! I took a couple of classes, looks really promising
especially for the future of gaming and real-time gfx.

H/W algorithms
Mark Elendt paneled a very interesting and informative “Sketch &
Application” on H/W algorithms! The MIPS mapped texture talk was an eye
opener and Ian Stephenson's talk about RenderMan on the PS2 was a gas!
Grinning from ear to ear I was!

Fluids and level sets
Another really interesting Sketch, neat techniques and solutions for an
interesting set of problems.

Water, water, everywhere …
Another Sketch on fluids and water in production Asked why they used
Maya for the particle effects on Sinbad (they used the Calypso plugin
for Maya before Maya 5 came along) and not Houdini … the answer was,
“that's what I knew” … oh, OK.

Scientific and medical visualization …
A panel talking about the many areas of CG applications *outside* of the
entertainment world, very refreshing and interesting indeed! Certainly
a growing and alternative career path for CG artists.

The Art Gallery was all over the convention center instead of being
confined to a single room, very nice, art everywhere! The HDRI
display(s) in the Emerging Technologies area was really cool, so was the
“fog display”, a stream of water vapor that had an image projected onto
it, groovy. And it seemed the Guerilla Studio was always really busy.

Next year, Synaesthesia in LA … I'm there!

Comments?


–Mark

Hi everyone,

I am trying to render some depth passes, with my objects with matte ON and rendering only Pz in deep raster, and I have really a lot of crashes ( although I have 1Gb of RAM ). So I was wondering what parameters could help simplify the computation of this depth. I found that getting the near/far interval as small as possible could help, but this doesn't seem to be enough. Has anyone had similar crashs during renders? and a few work around? Maybe there are other ways to render depth information?
I tried to make a simple depth shader ( global variable into color output ) but I still have crashes. And depth would only be 8 bit, not floating point…
So, any suggestion is welcome!

I have a problem with scripting. This should not be difficult, but I can't find a solution. What I have is a series of hscript command stored in a variable, and I would like to execute them. the serie of commands is like:
cd `opfullpath(“.”)`; source $SCRIPTS/rendering/pre_render_diffus.cmd;
which is actually used in a pre render of a rop.
I tried with execute($myvar) but I had an error I don't understand ( maybe a space problem? ) . it seems that he believes “cd” is one command, `opfullpath(“.”)` is another one and so on…
I also tried to just type $myvar, but the pb was the same…
I don't know if I have missed something, but I am sure there is a way, so, any help appreciated!!

Hi all, i'm tourning from version 6.0.286 to 6.0.340, all works fine but my
otl library for my renderman shaders that i used with 6.0.286 don't work properly under 6.0.340.
I can install the otl library but when i create a new SHOP using ne of my shaders in the parameters pane the parameter dialog for the shaders appears blank, i can load the SHOP but the parameters disappears.
I use to make the otl the next command line
rmands -p -g 8 -L OPlibRMan.otl *.slo

Any clue???
Thanks

I need to set up an audit trail with Houdini, meaning from opening the program or a file everything gets recorded into a text file, and it has to be everything, including undo's, operator, time, date etc.

Any body any experience or helpful hints on how to set this up?

Cheers

Andre

http://www.sidefx.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1504 [sidefx.com]

CgChannel [cgchannel.com] has posted an article on Side Effects' presence at SIGGRAPH 2003. Please read the article here: CgChannel article and video [cgchannel.com]

What are your recommendations for a AGP card in the $500 range. The two I'm considering right now are a Quadro FX 500 and a GeForce FX 5900. Alot of 3d programs(Maya,XSI, Solid Works) offer realtime hardware shading with Quadro FX cards has any one herd anything about Houdini offering this? If there not how about a Quadro4 980 XGL as they are now under $600

I noticed a problem with the handles on Houdini.. I haven't been able to recreate it “at will”, but this has happened to me twice recently..

What happens is, if I rotate the view, the handles go crazy.. instead of staying the same size as they should, they get bigger or smaller depending on the rotation of the view..

Here's a screenshot…



http://unxetas.web1000.com/handlecraze.jpg [unxetas.web1000.com]

(you have to click on a link on the bottom of the page to access the image )

The screenshot was taken in mid-rotation. Hope anyone can help me solve this!

Thanks in advance

Valiant is Hiring Experienced Lighters, Shader Writers and FX TD?fs to work in London.

Vanguard Animation is hiring experienced Lighters, Shader Writers and FX TD?fs to work on Valiant. This is the first studio backed, 3D animated feature in Europe and will be starting production this autumn. As the show will be done at Ealing Studios in London, England, you must have hold a passport from a country in either the European Union or British Commonwealth.

We are seeking experienced applicants whose reel consistently demonstrates strong lighting skills. Ideally, you have experience with Maya, Houdini or RenderMan. You should have great attention to detail. At this time, we are only accepting reels from applicants with at least 3 years experience.

If you are interested in applying for this position, please e-mail your CV tojobs@vanguardaniamtion.com and be sure to use the following in your subject line ?gSesi Candidate?h. (If you are applying for a lighting position and you have experience with painting, lighting live action or studio photography, please be sure to include examples of that work as well.) In addition, to ensure that your CV receives our immediate attention, please immediately send us a CV, Shot List and Reel to

Sesi Candidate
Vanguard Animation
Ealing Studios
Ealing Green
London W5 5EP

Hi guys! My first post here .. I am involved in a spare time project where we're modeling our objects in LW and would like to do particles in Houdini (steam, dust etc. from a moving robot) - evertyhing based on 3d-tracked footage. I am interested in input on how the workflow should be - maybe an object-sequence from LW in obj-format?

Included a hdri-test of our robot…

cheers!

jostein.

I've been getting the fatal error quite a few times today, and I get kicked out. I made my model parts as polygons and then decided I need sharper edges in some parts, so I used a convert to go to nurbs surface. I can use it about 2 times and then when I try it on a third I get the error. I did have to delete a convert op once because I didn't like the effect, is this the reason? Or am I working too fast (not waiting for the computer/Houdini to finish what it was doing)? It doesn't seem to be still working when I go to continue on. Actually, I can place the convert op and select the polygons and it's okay. But when I change it from polygon to nurbs surface that is when I get the fatal error and have to exit. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? I did my model as polygons because I wanted to use polyextrude a lot.
I just thought of something: Are you not able to convert some faces of your polygon object? Do you have to convert the hole object? I did eventually manage to convert the parts I wanted to, but each section was basically going in the same direction. Where there was a bend, I used another convert op. I would post the hipnc file but I can't open it without getting the fatal error, so I thought no one else would be able to open it either. Oh yeah, this is in Version 6.0.286.

Hey,

I was just watching the “Realistic Arm Setup” video and kinda liked the way the controls were all available in the viewer pane as opposed to having to switch back and forth between custom slider OPs. Definately a speed boost as it allows you to focus more on posing rather than “Now where did I put those hand controls…” kinda issues. With HUD sliders of course my point is all but obsolete. I also like the way the hand stays planted where you put it

Anyway, my question here is, this particular setup robs me of that nifty little IK/FK blend slider in the KIN Chop which just might have made life sooo much simpler. I know this sounds like wanting to have my cake and eat it too, but has anyone found a way around this little hitch? … and yes i have heard of multiple arm setups… I just want my cake :wink:

tallkien

hi, i need to use getright to dl the update to houdini 6 but the site doesnt seem to support this with the durrent d/l method. can any supply a link. i need the update coz current ver. of apprentice edition crashes everytime.


thanks.
gav

It seems to me that I have seen something on this subject before, but I can't find it again for the life of me. Does anyone know where I can find documentation on transferring camera information from 3d Studio Max to Houdini?

Thanks

I want to make a matrix character effcet in houdini, just like the one in the “Matrix” film.
I have tried many ways,but I can't figure it out..My idea is that using the switch node to swtich the letter abcde……z,
so I create the 26 letters and connet them to the switch op. now , how can I randomly get the value just 0,1 ,2 ,3 ,4….25,between 0 t0 25,integer?
so I can connet the swtich op to the copy op, and connet a particle to the template of copy.
That is my idea and problem.

I tried to do Ice Bash tutorial, but I don't think it applies to V5.5. Simply it dos not work. The ice surface does not crack. Has anyone successfully completed this tutorial in 5.5 or 6.

Dave R

Is it possible to turn on snapping in the UV Editor?

Greetings,

I'm offering some new Houdini courses, first in LA at the Side Effects
office and if there's a demand for other locations I would be pleased to
bring the courses there.

Since I'm trying to keep the courses as affordable as possible,
generally $199/day, there needs to be a minimum of 8 students enrolled
for a class to be scheduled. The courses will be scheduled on an
informal, “as needed” basis.

Here's the URL for the course descriptions
http//digitalcinemaarts.com/edu/workshops.html

Please feel free to email me off-line if you have any questions.
mstory@xion.org

Thanks!


–Mark