Honestly, I find the animation editors toolbar extremely inconstistent and unintuitive.
There are mode buttons for stepped and straight, but none for smooth (“auto” is completely missing) when I select a handle buttons that actually set parameters for handles are greyed out, some of the buttons can be interpreted in multiple ways and why is there a Q instead of a straight line for linear and a straight line without handles (the usual icon for linear) for straight and fit spline to keys looks like a smooth curve?
Confusion is program here. This is a real weak point and so unlike the rest of the software.
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Technical Discussion » Animation Editor Toolbar
- OneBigTree
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Technical Discussion » Animation Editor: Linear Curves don't stay Linear
- OneBigTree
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I know there aren't exactly linear curves in houdini only “straight” Curves which are beziers with aligned handles. This is fine as long as you don't move keys. In that case the aligned handles switch back to smooth which is extremely annoying. Is this a bug or “normal” behaviour?
If this is normal then SESI please, please, please add real linear curves, that stay linear until you tell them otherwise.
Edit: Forget the linear thing I just found the Qlinear mode. Still the slopes on straight curves should revert to zero when moving.
If this is normal then SESI please, please, please add real linear curves, that stay linear until you tell them otherwise.
Edit: Forget the linear thing I just found the Qlinear mode. Still the slopes on straight curves should revert to zero when moving.
Technical Discussion » H14 High Quality Lighting Issues
- OneBigTree
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I've noticed in H14 the antialiased and smoothed modes of the shadows in High Quality Lighting for the viewport have no effect.
Pointshadows and Anitaliased Point shadows look exactly the same and the various area shadow modes all look like the Standard area shadows.
In H13 antialiasing and shadow smoothing works with my card which wasn't even supported.
Also area shadows always seem to have only 3 samples and I have no idea how to change that.
Ambient Occlusion works fine though.
Pointshadows and Anitaliased Point shadows look exactly the same and the various area shadow modes all look like the Standard area shadows.
In H13 antialiasing and shadow smoothing works with my card which wasn't even supported.
Also area shadows always seem to have only 3 samples and I have no idea how to change that.
Ambient Occlusion works fine though.
Technical Discussion » H15 - poly bevel tool
- OneBigTree
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McNistor
The distinction I'm making (can't speak for others) is this:
when I'm referring to procedural modeling I'm referring to building systems that can later customized and possibly used as deform system, which usually includes things like chairs, ladders, rooftops, buildings with n floors, (you got the idea) as opposed to traditional where you're modeling a high dense and detailed mesh (a robot, a game character, etc.) where the option to go back 150 bevels is often useless since many other operations have been added on top and the evaluation of those would make a mess out of the heavily modified geometry when fiddling with the 150th bevel.
Therefore not what is happening under the hood, but how the users approaches and ultimately uses the model he's creating.
Anyway, the important thing we all agree with, is that Houdini should definitely keep its core workflow.
I have build systems like this in XSI, including bevels.
I think the main difference would be if you keep all you ops or not. I agree that in “traditional” modeling you seldom would want all your operators present in the final model. During the process the opposite is the case until you're satisfied with the model. In other tools youd collpse/freeze/delete-history frequently. In Houdini you'd have to bake out the model from time to time which is not very convenient. If there was a convenient and fast way to collapse the network while modelling you would use no special sop but only decide what to keep.
Houdini Learning Materials » ROP OutPut Driver/H14/non-Commercial Edition vs inst
- OneBigTree
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markOneBigTreeEricGarlic .
Hello, Go Procedural tutorial, “Quick Start” say to drop down a ROP output driver node and output BGOE files. However, the node errors as I have a non-commercial licence. Have I mis-understood the instruction or is the instruction not suitable for beginners who i expect like me will be using non-commercial licences in the majority of instance?
Thanks
The noncommerial and limited commercial versions have a different file suffix .bgeo.sc for noncommercial. you might need to edit that in the rop.
Clarification.
Actually, bgeo.sc is compressed .bgeo file (using BLOSC compression). These are often as fast (or faster) to read/write than plain .bgeo files, and take less disk space.
I don't believe that Apprentice encodes .bgeo files.
Ah ok, have only seen the .sc in apprentice. I had a similar problem in a tutorial, where I was writing out bgeo.sc files but a fetchnode somewhere was looking for .bgeo I think it was Ocean wavetank tutorial.
Edit: I checked, it was the texturemap export from the wave tank. Apprentice exports picnc (hence the confusion). The fetchnode looks for .pic. So maybe not the solution for the original question
Technical Discussion » H15 - poly bevel tool
- OneBigTree
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McNistor
Ah, so this is the one.
As others have said, it's probably more suited for procedural stuff, but that's not to say it couldn't come handy from time to time in the traditional poly modeling.
The new C4D bevel modifier has some interesting options too and it is procedural (maxon seem very proud of having discovered nondestructive modelling in r16 )
Traditional modelling in XSI is procedural as well. I'm not sure why there seems to be the need for a distinction.
Houdini Learning Materials » ROP OutPut Driver/H14/non-Commercial Edition vs inst
- OneBigTree
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EricGarlic .
Hello, Go Procedural tutorial, “Quick Start” say to drop down a ROP output driver node and output BGOE files. However, the node errors as I have a non-commercial licence. Have I mis-understood the instruction or is the instruction not suitable for beginners who i expect like me will be using non-commercial licences in the majority of instance?
Thanks
The noncommerial and limited commercial versions have a different file suffix .bgeo.sc for noncommercial. you might need to edit that in the rop.
Technical Discussion » H15 - poly bevel tool
- OneBigTree
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grayOlorin
One thing that houdini could do better than anyone is to drive the bevel amount with a vertex attribute. That is more for the procedural modeling though
That's what I meant with nonconstant radii. Blender has something of that kind called bevel weight. It's basically a point attribute and allows for different radii along a bevel based on the bevelweight resulting on conic bevels. Very useful.
PS: Modelling in houdini should never get nonprocedural. Maybe a mix, like a tweak node with an internal history, that can be collapsed. That way you'd have a temporary modelling history but keep your network simple and memory footprint low. When tweaking points you wpild want to keep your steps to be able to trace it back or what ever but once you're satified you'd usually freeze/collapse it. Just like the edit node but with an extension.
Edit: attached an example of bevel with variable width (its MoI and nurbs and only to visualize what I mean)
Technical Discussion » H15 - poly bevel tool
- OneBigTree
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McNistor
What I'd like different for Houdini, is to have some onscreen (near the cursor?) widgets à la 3dsMax (but better ), because as of now it's just like in Soft and Maya and probably others and having to pull sliders onto the other side of the screen is not that hot.
The option to add/remove what sliders to be added on the tool's widget would be a great addition.
I think there will be more onscreen sliders for other tools too in the future. There are several now, introduced recently, not exactly a widget near the cursor but close
While the bevel tool in XSI is quite versatile it is not state of the art anymore. Bevels with non constant radii are the future. I look forward to what SESI comes up with.
Houdini Lounge » Houdini 15 Wishlist
- OneBigTree
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halfdanpezetkoThat's precisely the plan under consideration.
Cusped display mode with auto cusping and auto-recomputation by given angle threshold…pezetkoIt will be an optional object-level property. Most likely turned off by default, unless starting with shelf-created primitives. We're acutely aware of speed requirements, hence why it wasn't introduced in H14.
But please don't do unnecessary (slow) recomputation of normals in other modespezetkoAnd neither do we intend to. We just want it to get to a stage where it's not embarrassing. Everything else is gravy.
IMHO for Houdini it's impossible to compete with other modeling tools without those features and even with them it would be very hard to compete…
I just read this. This sounds exactly like the optimal solution to me.
As for competing: this is not a race, this is only about what is necessary.
Like every car needs a steering wheel, no matter how fast it can go or what shape it has or what engine powers it. Simple as that.
And doing it right is the best philosophy of all.
Houdini Lounge » Houdini 15 Wishlist
- OneBigTree
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pezetkoMartybNzOneBigTree
I have a wish for H15:
A simple method to keep the normal SOP automatically at the end of the network with the viewport flag on, so I can see my angle based normals -
Perhaps a new shader, ‘Cusped’ could be added below the Scene level, Display As menu.
Unfortunately that wouldn't helped and it would induce another confusion when objects are exported.
This display mode have nothing common with actual normals on the object.
See this example after exporting to the Maya:
I can imagine plenty of beginners that would be confused why their normals aren't exported correctly out of houdini while they can see them correctly with this “cusped” display mode. And even harder to convince them why they are wrong.
Well, others applications somehow manage to provide proper object display in the viewport. In fact maya has the most elaborate viewport of all of them and a lot of what it shows has nothing to do with what gets rendered or exported. The viewports purpose is mainly to provide an approximation of what the final scene or object should look like before it is rendered or even finished. It is so much more that a Dataview as it seems to be perceived by the “simguys”.
I really don't care how it's done. I just know we need it for modelling, for rapid prototyping, for our supervisor and clients who want to get an impression of the look as early as possible and so on. I think “Better Viewport” is the most requested feature in all 3d programs and there is a reason for it.
There could be, for example, and I suggested that when I submitted the rfe for it, a switch saying: “use display cusping for rendering (and export)”
Those are all minor technicalities, that can be handled by an outstanding team like sidefx and user who are capable of learning houdini, don't you think?
Technical Discussion » Modeling tools in Houdini 14 and beyond
- OneBigTree
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jordibares
Although there are a few quirks the truth is that the release is huge in scope and features, not only UX but point dynamics and crowds are huge tasks that I am sure will keep evolving until they are finished, the same than the UX.
Good times ahead, now I am going to pray they incorporate overrides like XSI and we can all go for a beer.
;-)
I'm so glad you didn't use the term “the future is bright” :wink: …
Technical Discussion » Modeling tools in Houdini 14 and beyond
- OneBigTree
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McNistor
I too am glad that SESI has shown us they're willing to make Houdini a bit more “mainstream” by improving the modeling side and other aspects in the user-friendly category.
I'm just hoping that the pace will pick up a bit otherwise it will take at least three or four versions until I might consider investing (financially, time wise and emotionally) into Houdini.
If I were to own a big studio (when I say “big” it's not without reason) I'd do that right now, for the FX part if not something else. Currently I couldn't justify doing something like this since every time I try to work in the viewport Houdini antagonizes me in one way or another. Reminds me of Maya and why I chose to do without it (Softimage users will feel what I'm saying).
Closing with something more practical, I'd say (or rather repeat myself) that bevel and bridge tools are not what is currently missing the most in Houdini.
What is currently missing is a streamlined viewport interaction/workflow - the way transform tools work, how you display and isolate geometry/components and other things I don't recall right now.
And it then comes the need to improve the scene editors a bit. And orginizing the viewport ('D') and general preferences which are not that well organized IMO. I won't go into detail right now, but there are things that could benefit a lot from “shuffling” things around a bit.
Pretty sure these last words will send waves of bum cringes to Houdini veterans.
I have to say, even as an hardline XSI user, I don't find it difficult to adapt to certain concepts in houdini. On the other hand, yes, streamlined workflows are whats missing most, but only in the modeling area. The way that most shelf tools work for dynamics is very efficient. Setting up a simtank is easier than anywhere else.
The funny thing, and I think that is typical for houdini, the more “high end” the task, the better the workflows and tools, while at the same time “low end” tasks like scene viewing, geometry manipulation (vertexpushing) and project management are significantly under evolved. This comes of course from it's history and it is not likely that we will see a complete change towards mainstream applications there. But I think it is likely, that we will see something that is worth to adapt and eventually make houdini even for XSI users a new home.
Technical Discussion » H14 Project Management Issues
- OneBigTree
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First of all, as mentioned before:
The project manager browser does not allow the “file” field to be empty when selecting a project root directory while setting or creating a project.
Second: Setting a project for a new scene does not seem to alter the HIP variable, only the job variable. Set Project is completely useless.
Third: Houdini does not remember the last project, forcing me to struggle with those issues every time I create a new scene.
Fourth: Because I have to enter something in the file field of the project browser, this string shows up int the list of recent projects, making it invalid.
Am I the only one who is seeing this? Am I missing something? Because this only helps creating directories not switching projects easily.
Edit: the issues with the file field occur only sometimes. I wasn't yet able to determine the exact circumstances.
The project manager browser does not allow the “file” field to be empty when selecting a project root directory while setting or creating a project.
Second: Setting a project for a new scene does not seem to alter the HIP variable, only the job variable. Set Project is completely useless.
Third: Houdini does not remember the last project, forcing me to struggle with those issues every time I create a new scene.
Fourth: Because I have to enter something in the file field of the project browser, this string shows up int the list of recent projects, making it invalid.
Am I the only one who is seeing this? Am I missing something? Because this only helps creating directories not switching projects easily.
Edit: the issues with the file field occur only sometimes. I wasn't yet able to determine the exact circumstances.
Technical Discussion » Modeling tools in Houdini 14 and beyond
- OneBigTree
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I think even if the improvement look small they indicate that SESI has understood what is needed. It is not surprising that there isn't “more” because most of the development focus has been on the pointdynamics for this release and weren't expecting that sudden demand from guys like us .
I think we can expect a lot more in the modelling field.
Also I think the selection tools and other additions are great, in some ways better than XSI's. they are very well thought through and intelligent. It also shows SESI are willing to pick up common ideas and improve them. It will take a while but the direction is set. I'm very optimistic.
I think we can expect a lot more in the modelling field.
Also I think the selection tools and other additions are great, in some ways better than XSI's. they are very well thought through and intelligent. It also shows SESI are willing to pick up common ideas and improve them. It will take a while but the direction is set. I'm very optimistic.
Houdini Lounge » Houdini 15 Wishlist
- OneBigTree
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edward
During the H14 beta, this issue was discussed and I think most people agreed that there should be some option that uses auto cusped vertex normals for display. However, this was discussed too late in the process to make it for H14. Given the renewed focus on modelling tools, I would suggest those people who think this is a good idea to submit it so that there's a clear desire from the community for this feature.
That's why I posted it here
Houdini Lounge » Houdini 15 Wishlist
- OneBigTree
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protozoanI have experienced errors for example when adding an edgesplit while having a facetnode at the end of the chain.
A facetSOP produces an actual open edge, when using its cusp-functionality, with double points and all. You should use vertex normals for what you are trying to do. (Or at least for what I *think* you are trying to do)
In H14 this workflow has been streamlined by neatly packing it into the new NormalSOP, which is what you should add to your chain. All your woes should go away, splits etc. should work normally since the edges all stay closed.
Unless you want an open edge of course, with all its implications.
It should not matter what SOP is at the end of the chain if I insert the other SOP before it, shouldn't it?
The problem in question was, that with a SOP at the end the second or third Split wasn't inserted in the chain. Not a geometry problem, but a network problem.
On the other hand I really don't see why I should waste time (read: money) and effort for something so trivial. If I want to have to create tools for the most common tasks then I can use maya but I just don't have time for that. I just use software where this isn't such a big issue.
Houdini Lounge » Houdini 15 Wishlist
- OneBigTree
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MartybNzOneBigTree
I have a wish for H15:
A simple method to keep the normal SOP automatically at the end of the network with the viewport flag on, so I can see my angle based normals -
Perhaps a new shader, ‘Cusped’ could be added below the Scene level, Display As menu.
Yes, that is what I'm talking about
Houdini Lounge » Houdini 15 Wishlist
- OneBigTree
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circusmonkeyOneBigTree
I have a wish for H15:
A simple method to keep the normal SOP automatically at the end of the network with the viewport flag on, so I can see my angle based normals - how I want them to be in the finished model- while working. Of course it would be easier if I had another option for the viewport display in addition to flat and soft shaded, but that would require a lot of people to really and completely change their workflow.
You could do this simply by making your self some tools and adding it automatically to the end of the tree. The great thing about Houdini is you are given the frame work to make tools to suit “your” work flow
Rob
Yes, so why make things like everybody else? Convenience is for babies, right?
But seriously, I tried that. Sadly, as I said, this can be problematic. I have experienced errors for example when adding an edgesplit while having a facetnode at the end of the chain.
Why not just do something that is very common, can be turned on and of like subdivision and texture and be done with it. It hurts no-one, I promise
Edit: this isn't “my” workflow. Thousand of modelers are used to that. That is why the percentage of models “done in houdini” at turbosquid is near zero.
Edited by - Jan. 23, 2015 17:29:40
Houdini Lounge » Houdini 15 Wishlist
- OneBigTree
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I have a wish for H15:
A simple method to keep the normal SOP automatically at the end of the network with the viewport flag on, so I can see my angle based normals - how I want them to be in the finished model- while working. Of course it would be easier if I had another option for the viewport display in addition to flat and soft shaded, but that would require a lot of people to really and completely change their workflow.
A simple method to keep the normal SOP automatically at the end of the network with the viewport flag on, so I can see my angle based normals - how I want them to be in the finished model- while working. Of course it would be easier if I had another option for the viewport display in addition to flat and soft shaded, but that would require a lot of people to really and completely change their workflow.
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