Why not do it backwards? When I know exactly how I want things to end and it is an easy task like a simple arc to get them there, I always consider doing it backwards.
Place your arrows in the ground in random orientations how you want them, and then have them randomly arc up out of the ground and back to their source. You could also have a little vibration right before they arc up to simulate the vibration of impact when played backwards.
Then you bake the geometry out with a Geometry ROP and read it back in with a file SOP in backwards order. You could then layer other stuff on top of this.
Just one of the old standbys… Before there was all this complex RBD and dynamics stuff, we used to rely on tricks like this for shots like this.
Keep it simple.
-Craig Hoffman
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Technical Discussion » Faking dynamics with a rain of arrows?
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
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Houdini Lounge » Houdini & Games
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
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.> btw, how far away, in terms of ability, is the OpenGL shading
> language or the DX9 stuff compared to VEX or RSL?
Very different, but similar.
The HLSL (OpenGL/DX9) stuff has both Vertex shaders and Pixel Shaders which seperate and each share some of the load of what we consider a shader and has to deal with Semantics passed from the application.
It is very doable to do a VOPs like implementation for this hardware shading stuff (both RTZen and Shaderworks do something similar right now), but just making Houdini be able to hook up to an OpenGL 2.0 shader created externally in something like RenderMonkey (which supports OpenGL2 as well as DX9) and use it in a viewing window would be great too.
-Craig
> language or the DX9 stuff compared to VEX or RSL?
Very different, but similar.
The HLSL (OpenGL/DX9) stuff has both Vertex shaders and Pixel Shaders which seperate and each share some of the load of what we consider a shader and has to deal with Semantics passed from the application.
It is very doable to do a VOPs like implementation for this hardware shading stuff (both RTZen and Shaderworks do something similar right now), but just making Houdini be able to hook up to an OpenGL 2.0 shader created externally in something like RenderMonkey (which supports OpenGL2 as well as DX9) and use it in a viewing window would be great too.
-Craig
Houdini Lounge » Houdini & Games
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
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As far as DX9 Vertex Shader 3.0 and unlimited length hardware shaders, the NVidia 6800 supports these.
I have one of these at work (EA), but couldn't really test it yet because the new ATI RenderMonkey software that supports these things was just released at Siggraph.
-Craig
I have one of these at work (EA), but couldn't really test it yet because the new ATI RenderMonkey software that supports these things was just released at Siggraph.
-Craig
Houdini Lounge » Need an nVidia card to replace ATI
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
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The 6800 is a whole new beast- it supports Pixel Shader 3.0 and is the ONLY card out right now that does. Pixel Shader 3.0 is the hardware rendering technology that allows streamless branching, texture reads in Vertex shaders, and unlimited shader length for your HLSL shaders.
If you don't care about this (and there isn't much software that takes advantage of these things yet- ATI's RenderMonkey and NVidia's FX Composer do), then don't worry about it- but it is the wave of the future, and if Houdini ever supports OpenGL 2.0 for hardware rendering with VOPs or something, it will most likely only be for cards that have unlimited shader length like this one.
The hardware rendering demos with the 6800 are very impressive- much more so than the other cards you are talking about, even Quadro's.
-Craig
If you don't care about this (and there isn't much software that takes advantage of these things yet- ATI's RenderMonkey and NVidia's FX Composer do), then don't worry about it- but it is the wave of the future, and if Houdini ever supports OpenGL 2.0 for hardware rendering with VOPs or something, it will most likely only be for cards that have unlimited shader length like this one.
The hardware rendering demos with the 6800 are very impressive- much more so than the other cards you are talking about, even Quadro's.
-Craig
Houdini Lounge » Houdini & Games
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
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As far as a real time engine goes, I don't think there will ever be any development toward that at Side Effects, but Houdini is quite close already for certain types of things, as long as those creating the simulation keep things reasonable and Side Effects eventually supports some of the real-time hardware rendering technology (and perhaps starts using the GPU for computationally intensive POPs, etc.).
I think it would be cool if Side Effects eventually just made a freely distributable player so that we could make a .hip file with our virtual walkthrough/simulation or whatever running and allow the user to manipulate the camera and whatever other “controllers” we provide without being able to edit the hip file at all.
If the display technology (OpenGL 2.0) was there, we could create some compelling interactive simulations. Though not quite Virtools quality/capability, it would open up Houdini to some other uses that it would be perfectly slated for as CPUs and GPUs continue to speed up.
-Craig
I think it would be cool if Side Effects eventually just made a freely distributable player so that we could make a .hip file with our virtual walkthrough/simulation or whatever running and allow the user to manipulate the camera and whatever other “controllers” we provide without being able to edit the hip file at all.
If the display technology (OpenGL 2.0) was there, we could create some compelling interactive simulations. Though not quite Virtools quality/capability, it would open up Houdini to some other uses that it would be perfectly slated for as CPUs and GPUs continue to speed up.
-Craig
Technical Discussion » maya 2 houdini model artifact?
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
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If you want to maintain the normals as they were in Maya without recalculating them in Houdini (which could lead to different results), use the Primitive SOP and do a “Reverse” in the Vertex option of the “Face/Hull” tab.
-Craig
-Craig
Houdini Lounge » backing vertex color to texture?
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
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Doesn't “Bake VEX” just bake the results of the VEX shaders onto the points or CV's of the object? I don't think it really creates proper texture maps, but I never used it.
-Craig
-Craig
Houdini Lounge » Houdini Controls
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
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This should be on by default, and it bugs me that it isn't. I always have to go and turn it on because I like it there.
Perhaps on the next release this can default to “on”?…
-Craig
Perhaps on the next release this can default to “on”?…
-Craig
Houdini Lounge » Dose anybody else miss OD[force]
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
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It seems broken again. When I could get to it a half hour ago selecting the different tabs in the codex shaders all resulted in the same selections, so something was still amiss.
-Craig
-Craig
Technical Discussion » Houdini 6.1.208 in Windows 2000?
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
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No problems here running 6.1.208 on Windows 2000. This is with a GeForce3 card and a Wildcat. I am pretty sure I have all the latest drivers/updates.
Just thought I'd chime in.
-Craig
Just thought I'd chime in.
-Craig
Technical Discussion » muscle problem
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
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Also, don't forget the boneangle() function. Depending on which joint you are creating muscles for, it could simplify things.
-Craig
-Craig
Technical Discussion » Reflection and Refraction using VOPs
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
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Watch these tutorials if you haven't already:
http://sidefx.vislab.usyd.edu.au/houdini_video/by_topic/rendering/index.html [sidefx.vislab.usyd.edu.au]
I don't know if any speak directly to Refraction, but they give some of the basic gist of wiring up the VOPs.
-Craig
http://sidefx.vislab.usyd.edu.au/houdini_video/by_topic/rendering/index.html [sidefx.vislab.usyd.edu.au]
I don't know if any speak directly to Refraction, but they give some of the basic gist of wiring up the VOPs.
-Craig
Technical Discussion » Audio CHOPs trouble
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
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Technical Discussion » vex layered surface shader and alpha's
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
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Those shaders probably assume that the image was properly pre-multiplied. This means that no R, G, or B level can be higher than the A level.
That is fairly standard and necessary for most compositing software too.
If you created your RGB and your A seperately, just multiply the RGB times the A and put it back into your RGB channels. Or create your own VOP and do this.
-Craig
That is fairly standard and necessary for most compositing software too.
If you created your RGB and your A seperately, just multiply the RGB times the A and put it back into your RGB channels. Or create your own VOP and do this.
-Craig
Technical Discussion » RE: issues with openning tif files of rendered animation
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
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Another method for image conversion is to read all of your images into the Houdini image viewer ‘mplay’ (although some places it is called ‘hview’) and then save them out from there in a different format.
It works quite well, and if you have Select (like me) and don't have COPs it can save you a lot of frustration.
-Craig
It works quite well, and if you have Select (like me) and don't have COPs it can save you a lot of frustration.
-Craig
Technical Discussion » Light is lighting opposite side of object,opposite if its pl
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
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I had the same problem with importing .obj files made in Maya.
The geometry had Normal (N) attributes and when I turned on normals they visibly showed to pointing in the correct direction (outward), but they were rendering as if the face was pointing backwards.
Perhaps the primitives are oriented backwards, but the normal attribute is correct. I am not sure, but I would like to know the answer to this too.
I had to reverse the normals with the Point SOP to get them to render correctly, but if I remember correctly it messed up the GL shaded view. I didn't try the reversing vertex orders with a primitive SOP…
-Craig
PS: Another idea is to build a VOP to shade with and turn on the “Ensure Face Forward” option.
The geometry had Normal (N) attributes and when I turned on normals they visibly showed to pointing in the correct direction (outward), but they were rendering as if the face was pointing backwards.
Perhaps the primitives are oriented backwards, but the normal attribute is correct. I am not sure, but I would like to know the answer to this too.
I had to reverse the normals with the Point SOP to get them to render correctly, but if I remember correctly it messed up the GL shaded view. I didn't try the reversing vertex orders with a primitive SOP…
-Craig
PS: Another idea is to build a VOP to shade with and turn on the “Ensure Face Forward” option.
Technical Discussion » Houdini Select and Kaydara Motionbuilder
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
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I was thinking the same thing, but was wondering how you would use it specifically.
Would you model in Houdini, then rig and animate in Kaydara and then bake out geometry frame by frame to import into Select? I don't know Kaydara's capabilities, so that is why I ask.
I was also considering Poser since the new one supposedly has decent cloth and hair dynamics. Not sure though.
-Craig
Would you model in Houdini, then rig and animate in Kaydara and then bake out geometry frame by frame to import into Select? I don't know Kaydara's capabilities, so that is why I ask.
I was also considering Poser since the new one supposedly has decent cloth and hair dynamics. Not sure though.
-Craig
Houdini Lounge » Disney shuts down production on ...
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
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Well, since I work there, I guess I can comment.
The official word on what is happening at the Orlando Studio will be made on January 12th. In all honesty, no one here is holding their breath and practically everyone has already interviewed with every major studio out there and is getting ready to move, or has decided to leave the film industry.
After a run of films from “Fantasia 2000” to “Treasure Planet”, I just moved out to Orlando a year and a half ago to be closer to family and to work at a more intimate studio that was capable of making a great original film like “Lilo & Stitch”. It's a sad day.
I won't comment on the logic of closing the small studio that made the cheapest and most succesfull films in the Disney roster of the last decade…
-Craig
The official word on what is happening at the Orlando Studio will be made on January 12th. In all honesty, no one here is holding their breath and practically everyone has already interviewed with every major studio out there and is getting ready to move, or has decided to leave the film industry.
After a run of films from “Fantasia 2000” to “Treasure Planet”, I just moved out to Orlando a year and a half ago to be closer to family and to work at a more intimate studio that was capable of making a great original film like “Lilo & Stitch”. It's a sad day.
I won't comment on the logic of closing the small studio that made the cheapest and most succesfull films in the Disney roster of the last decade…
-Craig
Houdini Lounge » Disney shuts down production on ...
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
- Offline
Well, since I work there, I guess I can comment.
The official word on what is happening at the Orlando Studio will be made on January 12th. In all honesty, no one here is holding their breath and practically everyone has already interviewed with every major studio out there and is getting ready to move, or has decided to leave the film industry.
After a run of films from “Fantasia 2000” to “Treasure Planet”, I just moved out to Orlando a year and a half ago to be closer to family and to work at a more intimate studio that was capable of making a great original film like “Lilo & Stitch”. It's a sad day.
I won't comment on the logic of closing the small studio that made the cheapest and most succesfull films in the Disney roster of the last decade…
-Craig
The official word on what is happening at the Orlando Studio will be made on January 12th. In all honesty, no one here is holding their breath and practically everyone has already interviewed with every major studio out there and is getting ready to move, or has decided to leave the film industry.
After a run of films from “Fantasia 2000” to “Treasure Planet”, I just moved out to Orlando a year and a half ago to be closer to family and to work at a more intimate studio that was capable of making a great original film like “Lilo & Stitch”. It's a sad day.
I won't comment on the logic of closing the small studio that made the cheapest and most succesfull films in the Disney roster of the last decade…
-Craig
Houdini Lounge » Disney shuts down production on ...
- craiglhoffman
- 252 posts
- Offline
Well, since I work there, I guess I can comment.
The official word on what is happening at the Orlando Studio will be made on January 12th. In all honesty, no one here is holding their breath and practically everyone has already interviewed with every major studio out there and is getting ready to move, or has decided to leave the film industry.
After a run of films from “Fantasia 2000” to “Treasure Planet”, I just moved out to Orlando a year and a half ago to be closer to family and to work at a more intimate studio that was capable of making a great original film like “Lilo & Stitch”. It's a sad day.
I won't comment on the logic of closing the small studio that made the cheapest and most succesfull films in the Disney roster of the last decade…
-Craig
The official word on what is happening at the Orlando Studio will be made on January 12th. In all honesty, no one here is holding their breath and practically everyone has already interviewed with every major studio out there and is getting ready to move, or has decided to leave the film industry.
After a run of films from “Fantasia 2000” to “Treasure Planet”, I just moved out to Orlando a year and a half ago to be closer to family and to work at a more intimate studio that was capable of making a great original film like “Lilo & Stitch”. It's a sad day.
I won't comment on the logic of closing the small studio that made the cheapest and most succesfull films in the Disney roster of the last decade…
-Craig
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