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Technical Discussion » WRL Geo Format
- the_squid
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Technical Discussion » Realistic arm tutorial is useless to H7 users.
- the_squid
- 132 posts
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Technical Discussion » WRL Geo Format
- the_squid
- 132 posts
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WRL files, also known as VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) cannot be imported into Houdini natively as far as I know. Has anybody had experience working with these kinds of files? I've searched online for a converter but havent had much luck. Any info would be appreciated!
Technical Discussion » I need your suggestions
- the_squid
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This is a problem with Houdini. Documentation… why is there so little of it?
As to your question, I think you should continue to invest time in Houdini. The best way to learn IMO is to work at a facility that uses Houdini as part of its' pipeline on a regular basis. If you cannot do that you'll need to use the little documentation you have and spend more time investigating the software on your own.
Post straight forward questions on the forums and we'll do our best to answer you.
As to your question, I think you should continue to invest time in Houdini. The best way to learn IMO is to work at a facility that uses Houdini as part of its' pipeline on a regular basis. If you cannot do that you'll need to use the little documentation you have and spend more time investigating the software on your own.
Post straight forward questions on the forums and we'll do our best to answer you.
Technical Discussion » Directional Lights (a question from a Maya user friend)
- the_squid
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Why are “directional lights” not a light type in Houdini?
Is there a quick and easy way to achieve the effect of a directional light in Houdini?
Is there a quick and easy way to achieve the effect of a directional light in Houdini?
Technical Discussion » Additive attribute transfer over time
- the_squid
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Interesting… I was thinking of the attribute transfer POP…. so you bring up a very good point. I always use the POP version for particles and completely forgot there's a sop as well. Thanks for waking my brain up Edward
Technical Discussion » Additive attribute transfer over time
- the_squid
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Technical Discussion » Additive attribute transfer over time
- the_squid
- 132 posts
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I'm working on a fun little experiment using pops to create a caterpillar who goes through a complete life cycle. This means going from caterpillar to cacoon to butterfly, and then from butterfly to an egg back into caterpillar. I probably wont finish this one but attempting it has brought up a question.
I would like to have plants with certain edible parts. Those edible parts would be colored green. The caterpillar wants to get to the green parts but once he's had enough he needs to move on.
If I set the green value to .2, I want that value to be additive over time when it is transferred to my caterpillar point. The longer the caterpillar stays around parts of the plant with a .2 green value, the more green is added. Once he is 100% green he will go into “roam mode” until he feels hungry again.
Similarly, the non-edible parts of the plant need to be a different color, possibly red. And the red value needs to take away from the green value slowly over time, so that after a while of crawling around, the green value goes away and he becomes “hungry” again.
Just wondering if anybody has ever tried something similar to this…
I would like to have plants with certain edible parts. Those edible parts would be colored green. The caterpillar wants to get to the green parts but once he's had enough he needs to move on.
If I set the green value to .2, I want that value to be additive over time when it is transferred to my caterpillar point. The longer the caterpillar stays around parts of the plant with a .2 green value, the more green is added. Once he is 100% green he will go into “roam mode” until he feels hungry again.
Similarly, the non-edible parts of the plant need to be a different color, possibly red. And the red value needs to take away from the green value slowly over time, so that after a while of crawling around, the green value goes away and he becomes “hungry” again.
Just wondering if anybody has ever tried something similar to this…
Technical Discussion » rand ... more random?
- the_squid
- 132 posts
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The rand() function isnt really random like Maya's. It will create a random result once but that random result will be the same until you change the seed. If you have several things you want to randomize, make sure each one has a different seed.
Example:
rand($PT*99.715)*1
rand($PT*71.223)*1
rand($PT*56.3354)*1
Example:
rand($PT*99.715)*1
rand($PT*71.223)*1
rand($PT*56.3354)*1
Houdini Lounge » Massive
- the_squid
- 132 posts
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Hey guys,
I wanted to update this thread since we just had our very first Massive demo! The demo was done by Steven Regelous and went over exceedingly well with the artists and producers. The Massive demo covered all the technical bases while also providing some very cool imagery and real-time interractive examples of Massive technology. They satisfied the thirst of both TD's and Animators alike, and the producers liked what they saw immediately.
Massive is very, very cool. Everything I wanted to build into my Houdini crowd (test) system Massive already has, including things I was pretty sure I wouldnt be able to do in Houdini, like having a useable RBD solver at my disposal.
I won't go into any details about how Massive works but it is a very fresh way of approaching crowd simulations. I highly recommend setting up a demo and looking into it.
I wanted to update this thread since we just had our very first Massive demo! The demo was done by Steven Regelous and went over exceedingly well with the artists and producers. The Massive demo covered all the technical bases while also providing some very cool imagery and real-time interractive examples of Massive technology. They satisfied the thirst of both TD's and Animators alike, and the producers liked what they saw immediately.
Massive is very, very cool. Everything I wanted to build into my Houdini crowd (test) system Massive already has, including things I was pretty sure I wouldnt be able to do in Houdini, like having a useable RBD solver at my disposal.
I won't go into any details about how Massive works but it is a very fresh way of approaching crowd simulations. I highly recommend setting up a demo and looking into it.
Technical Discussion » Crowdstorming
- the_squid
- 132 posts
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Thanks, although one reason behind my idea to build everything procedurally was to free myself from the bounds of IK… if I can build a procedural character who's deformations come from the bones up (spline based, basically) I can multiply the character many times before running into serious slowdown issues. 100 IK skeletons with param()'s in the bones could take forever to bake through. It may be my only option though…
My other option of course is to build a good sized library of looping animations in Poser (yes, Poser – perfect for posing people and exporting geometry sequences) and then use those instead.
The most ideal setup would contain either nice models brought in off disk or run through an IK solver, alongside procedurally built models for use in the background.
I'm really very interested in the possibility of finding a way to “fake IK” using something as simple as a 3 point spline, where points 0 and 2 are the goal and root, and point 1 is the knee.
My other option of course is to build a good sized library of looping animations in Poser (yes, Poser – perfect for posing people and exporting geometry sequences) and then use those instead.
The most ideal setup would contain either nice models brought in off disk or run through an IK solver, alongside procedurally built models for use in the background.
I'm really very interested in the possibility of finding a way to “fake IK” using something as simple as a 3 point spline, where points 0 and 2 are the goal and root, and point 1 is the knee.
Technical Discussion » Crowdstorming
- the_squid
- 132 posts
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I'd like to build a character from the spine up who can be used for distant shots, can be procedurally animated easily, and can be modified to be male, female, fat, skinny, short or tall. My ideal setup would be a completely procedural model that can be animated and deformed without having to go through IK.
This way, I can setup all of my param()'s and have each character inherit it's own unique size, shape and animation for crowd simulation.
I remember way back in some older versions of Houdini there was a SOP called the “arm” or “limb” sop. It allowed for you to setup a simple IK arm/leg at the SOP level.
I'm running into obvious problems with my model… the lack of a skeleton being a big one of those problems. I'm basing everything off what is essentially a bone structure built from points (connected with polys) which looks very much like a stick figure. I have nice deformations on the hips, shoulders, kneck and spine but I'm running into problems with the limbs.
Obviously, without IK my “human's” legs poke through the floor whenever I drop the hips down. If I lock the feet to the floor, my legs just get shorter as I lower the hips down. This is all to be expected.
But is there a way in a point sop or otherwise to fake IK so this doesnt happen??? I wonder…
IK has to know a few things to work. 1.) how many bones 2.) distance between those bones 3.) distance to maintain between bones 4.) bone root 5.) bone goal and 6.) bone hierarchy
This isnt exactly easy for me to impliment. I wonder if any of you have had success animating characters this way (remember, this is for distant shots) using deformations instead of IK and more specifically if any of you know how to “fake IK” at a procedural, SOP-based level.
If I have to, I'll go into the world of real IK == but I'd like to keep everything as procedural as possible. That is, if IK is even possible for use with crowd sims. Most ideal would be 100% procedural. It's a lot to ask, but… any ideas?
This way, I can setup all of my param()'s and have each character inherit it's own unique size, shape and animation for crowd simulation.
I remember way back in some older versions of Houdini there was a SOP called the “arm” or “limb” sop. It allowed for you to setup a simple IK arm/leg at the SOP level.
I'm running into obvious problems with my model… the lack of a skeleton being a big one of those problems. I'm basing everything off what is essentially a bone structure built from points (connected with polys) which looks very much like a stick figure. I have nice deformations on the hips, shoulders, kneck and spine but I'm running into problems with the limbs.
Obviously, without IK my “human's” legs poke through the floor whenever I drop the hips down. If I lock the feet to the floor, my legs just get shorter as I lower the hips down. This is all to be expected.
But is there a way in a point sop or otherwise to fake IK so this doesnt happen??? I wonder…
IK has to know a few things to work. 1.) how many bones 2.) distance between those bones 3.) distance to maintain between bones 4.) bone root 5.) bone goal and 6.) bone hierarchy
This isnt exactly easy for me to impliment. I wonder if any of you have had success animating characters this way (remember, this is for distant shots) using deformations instead of IK and more specifically if any of you know how to “fake IK” at a procedural, SOP-based level.
If I have to, I'll go into the world of real IK == but I'd like to keep everything as procedural as possible. That is, if IK is even possible for use with crowd sims. Most ideal would be 100% procedural. It's a lot to ask, but… any ideas?
Technical Discussion » Baseball Stitches
- the_squid
- 132 posts
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Technical Discussion » Baseball Stitches
- the_squid
- 132 posts
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I'm having a technical problem.
It is probably an easy one to fix…
I have uploaded a file here:
http://www.danielnaulin.com/pages/4/index.htm [danielnaulin.com]
Once you get to my wonderful temporary website, click the link that says “Download ‘Orientation_v1.zip` here”
Here’s the problem:
In my continued effort to illustrate Houdini's awesomeness, I offered to model the stitches for a baseball another artist is modeling in Lightwave. I thought it would be easy. It was, initially because I was using rk helix spline (from Houdini exchange) which is an awesome tool BTW. This gave me a great phone chord effect, but I need different geometry for the stitches so the helix spline is no longer an option.
Instead, I thought I could very easily take the spline I'd been given and use the points to copy/stamp the stitch geometry onto. This would be a very easy step if I had the normals facing in the direction I want them to face… here of course comes the tricky part.
In the file I've posted here I've used a very classic two source setup with a point sop using both sources to determine the normals (one sources points are offset by 1)
This makes my stitch orient perfectly down its own Z axis, but its X and Y axis flip all over the place.
What I need is essentially a spline I can copy/stamp my stitches to that will force them to line up correctly. If you've ever seen a baseball up close, you'll know what I mean.
Any ideas?
It is probably an easy one to fix…
I have uploaded a file here:
http://www.danielnaulin.com/pages/4/index.htm [danielnaulin.com]
Once you get to my wonderful temporary website, click the link that says “Download ‘Orientation_v1.zip` here”
Here’s the problem:
In my continued effort to illustrate Houdini's awesomeness, I offered to model the stitches for a baseball another artist is modeling in Lightwave. I thought it would be easy. It was, initially because I was using rk helix spline (from Houdini exchange) which is an awesome tool BTW. This gave me a great phone chord effect, but I need different geometry for the stitches so the helix spline is no longer an option.
Instead, I thought I could very easily take the spline I'd been given and use the points to copy/stamp the stitch geometry onto. This would be a very easy step if I had the normals facing in the direction I want them to face… here of course comes the tricky part.
In the file I've posted here I've used a very classic two source setup with a point sop using both sources to determine the normals (one sources points are offset by 1)
This makes my stitch orient perfectly down its own Z axis, but its X and Y axis flip all over the place.
What I need is essentially a spline I can copy/stamp my stitches to that will force them to line up correctly. If you've ever seen a baseball up close, you'll know what I mean.
Any ideas?
Houdini Lounge » Massive
- the_squid
- 132 posts
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Excellent advice. This is exactly why I'm posting the question, because it's very possible that we could do everything we'd want to do with Massive in Houdini instead, but of course it would take a long time to setup. If Massive truly is plug ‘n play (as it says it is with it’s new “ready to run agents”) it might be worth purchasing. But if it will take us 1-2 months to get it working in our pipeline, it might be worth it to just build it ourselves. There are advantages to both, obviously. I would be really interested to hear what somebody who's had experience with Massive has to say about their experience.
Houdini Lounge » How to organize geometry following a pattern?
- the_squid
- 132 posts
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You should very easily be able to copy different objects to different points based on point numbers. Is this all you want to do?
By the way the file created by hoknamahn worked fine for me also, and I'm running WindowsXP :cry:
By the way the file created by hoknamahn worked fine for me also, and I'm running WindowsXP :cry:
Houdini Lounge » Massive
- the_squid
- 132 posts
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That's very interesting. I'm looking into getting Houdini into our pipeline and we're pretty sure we're going to go for it. At the same time, we've been getting a lot of crowd sim projects to bid on, so now the emphasis has shifted from Houdini to Massive. I realize Houdini could be utilized for doing some pretty intense crowd sim stuff, but it would take an initial investment of time which on commercials we dont necessarely have.
Houdini Lounge » Massive
- the_squid
- 132 posts
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I'm looking into Massive for handling crowd sims but I keep thinking Houdini could be good for crowd work as well. Anybody out there have experience using Houdini to populate stadiums, city streets, etc? I know it's capable of some of the simpler crowd sims, like ambient motion, people standing around, etc. But I wonder if something like Massive could be built within Houdini to handle more complex behavior, blending between motion capture loops, handling large data sets, but also knowing when and where to use certain motion loops (based off particle attributes for example.) I wouldnt want to go as far as simulating battles, but it would be good to have a crowd that can go from ambient “standing around” to running down the street if necessary.
Technical Discussion » Scripting Q
- the_squid
- 132 posts
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SOLUTION FOUND!
for i = 1 to 21
chrmkey -t 0 /obj/geo1/break_shit/popnet${i}/source${i}/impulserate
chkey -t 0 -v 0 -m 0 -A 0 -F ‘nprims(“/obj/geo1/break_shit/sort’${i}'”)/1' /obj/geo1/break_shit/popnet${i}/source1/impulserate
…So something I did during my last post mustve been wrong… and Edward gets kudos for having the solution all along
for i = 1 to 21
chrmkey -t 0 /obj/geo1/break_shit/popnet${i}/source${i}/impulserate
chkey -t 0 -v 0 -m 0 -A 0 -F ‘nprims(“/obj/geo1/break_shit/sort’${i}'”)/1' /obj/geo1/break_shit/popnet${i}/source1/impulserate
…So something I did during my last post mustve been wrong… and Edward gets kudos for having the solution all along
Technical Discussion » Scripting Q
- the_squid
- 132 posts
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Here's what it puts into my Impulse Birth Rate when I do what's been recommended:
nprims(“/obj/geo1/break_shit/sort`${i}`”)/1
Notice the ticks remain intact – not exactly what we wanted :wink:
The problem is I'm entering a string into a parameter using the chkey command. chkey allows you to set a key, set the frame for the key, and set the value for the key. In this case I'm setting a string instead of a value, so I have to indicate that it's a string by using the ``
Once I do that, it's no longer evaluating the section within the ``'s as part of my “for each” loop.
nprims(“/obj/geo1/break_shit/sort`${i}`”)/1
Notice the ticks remain intact – not exactly what we wanted :wink:
The problem is I'm entering a string into a parameter using the chkey command. chkey allows you to set a key, set the frame for the key, and set the value for the key. In this case I'm setting a string instead of a value, so I have to indicate that it's a string by using the ``
Once I do that, it's no longer evaluating the section within the ``'s as part of my “for each” loop.
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