I understand your complaining because it's my opinion too that Houdini is growing at the speed of light for so many aspects, it's so powerful and advanced, but lacks very basic functionalities that would make it easier to work with. There are many aspects that look rudimentary. Coming from Maya I miss a lot of very basic stuff, it's not a matter of habit because I started using Houdini more than three years ago and I did a lot of work with it, but working is sometimes harder than what it could be with some small adjustments to the basic interface.
Working in the viewport is the first: selections are hard, manipulators are complicated and hard to pick with the mouse; when you move the camera it looses every time the center of interest or clipping planes suddenly hide half of the scene or you find yourself with a tilted point of view on the Z axis and it's space+g again and again. Snapping is a nightmare and animation editor is so overly complicated …
I love Houdini and its advanced features, but I'm sure that if Sidefx could concentrate to solve these little problems it would attract so many more people to use it even for the everyday work and not only for advanced stuff.
Ray
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Technical Discussion » Why is Houdini constantly making decisions for me?
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Some workflow similar to Maya nHair ?
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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Hello, I often use Maya nHair which essentially replicates selected curves to create “clumps” and gives some basic options to manipulate these clumps, it's very useful to quickly create hairs from simulated guides coming from Houdini. I wonder, is there anything similar inside Houdini (so i Can avoid going back to Maya) ? I was thinking about Hairgen Sop but it needs a skin geo. Thank you
Example video
https://www.facebook.com/raimondo.dellacalce/videos/10217084833465017/ [www.facebook.com]
Ray
Example video
https://www.facebook.com/raimondo.dellacalce/videos/10217084833465017/ [www.facebook.com]
Ray
Technical Discussion » Protein Database files (.PDB) and Houdini.
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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It would be nice to understand how to create this visualization of the pdb points
https://www.rcsb.org/3d-view/3J83?fbclid=IwAR0gZjqdEnIu-EJu9fUEaQGZFJlHR2qdfKvYOkCDdJWl3rdQn5y22JQK4RQ [www.rcsb.org]
https://www.rcsb.org/3d-view/3J83?fbclid=IwAR0gZjqdEnIu-EJu9fUEaQGZFJlHR2qdfKvYOkCDdJWl3rdQn5y22JQK4RQ [www.rcsb.org]
Technical Discussion » Protein Database files (.PDB) and Houdini.
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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John, thank you for these informations, very useful, in this moment I was trying to understand how to connect all those points using add testing all the attributes available after importing. I'm going to read the post you are telling me, it's exactly what I was looking for.
P.S. It was funny because I started to research online how to open these pdb files, I tried to see if Rhino, polytrans or Maya could open them, I tested a Maya mel script … crash, I was looking for an xml importer … then I thought … let me try … Houdini/import … all the points imported with complete list of attributes, noooo
Thank you
Ray
P.S. It was funny because I started to research online how to open these pdb files, I tried to see if Rhino, polytrans or Maya could open them, I tested a Maya mel script … crash, I was looking for an xml importer … then I thought … let me try … Houdini/import … all the points imported with complete list of attributes, noooo
Thank you
Ray
Edited by madrenderman - March 30, 2019 07:33:03
Technical Discussion » Protein Database files (.PDB) and Houdini.
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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Technical Discussion » Protein Database files (.PDB) and Houdini.
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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Hello John I just found this post because I need to import a pdb file, can you tell me where it is possible to find the executable you were talking about ?
Thank you
Thank you
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » an animator's questions about keyframes, timeline and animation editor
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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Working now almost daily with Houdini Indie I'd like to ask some questions about animation editor and timeline usage.
I'm sorry to mention Maya every time but I come from 22 years (!) of character animation using it.
I premise I love Houdini and I've been using it for almost 3 years now, I'm trying to migrate to it for all my work, but I'm experiencing some problems with keyframe animation. I have a lot of questions but these are the first
- One of the thing I do all the time in Maya is copying and pasting keyframes on the timeline. I select the keyframes on the “source” object and copy them, then paste it on the “destination” object timeline. If I do it in Houdini I can paste them only if the destination object is already animated, otherwise keyframes are not pasted.
Moreover I can't understand how they are pasted, I assume they are pasted starting from the frame I choose on the timeline, but they are not, they are in other positions in time; and sometimes not all the keyframes are pasted, only rotations, or only translations.
- I tried to copy/paste in anim editor, but if I copy translate keyframes on one object and paste them on another, the keyframes are pasted on rotations (!)
- If I delete all the keyframes from the timeline or from the anim editor, the channels are not set free as I expect, they remain colored with light green, there is no animation curve anymore, but they are connected to something … another problem coming from this “ghost” animation curve that remains active is that when I delete all the keyframes from an object, it doesn't remain where it is, it's moved in another position, and this is annoying.
- This one drives me crazy … again, coming from Maya I find very useful the shortcuts shift+t to keyframe translations, shift+r for rotations etc. , but they work only sometimes, I thought maybe I have to click inside the viewport and then press shift+t, or maybe on the timeline, but there is no rule, sometimes it works, sometimes not
- This is again only my opinion but, again … coming from Maya … animation editor in Houdini has too many controls that confuse the animator, ease out, ease in, match out, match in, it reminds After Effects curve editor (arghh) … in Maya there are only flat,stepped, linear, spline and weighted tangents, I never needed anything more than that.
- I already talked about this in another post but it's very important for me, there is no way to change animation curves tangent type only for selected keyframes and not for an entire segment or curve.
The typical example is when I animate a camera that has to look it's already moving at the start of the shot, and then slows down and stops at the end of the shot. In Maya I select all the starting keyframes (translate, rotate, etc.) an set them to linear, then select all the last keyframes and set them to flat. Done. In Houdini I have to do it manually for every single keyframe because if I set the keyframes to linear they all become linear.
- This is due to my limited knowledge for sure but … why sometimes on the timeline only some keyframes are visible/exposed ? For example only rotations, only translations, or other ?
Thank you
Ray
I'm sorry to mention Maya every time but I come from 22 years (!) of character animation using it.
I premise I love Houdini and I've been using it for almost 3 years now, I'm trying to migrate to it for all my work, but I'm experiencing some problems with keyframe animation. I have a lot of questions but these are the first
- One of the thing I do all the time in Maya is copying and pasting keyframes on the timeline. I select the keyframes on the “source” object and copy them, then paste it on the “destination” object timeline. If I do it in Houdini I can paste them only if the destination object is already animated, otherwise keyframes are not pasted.
Moreover I can't understand how they are pasted, I assume they are pasted starting from the frame I choose on the timeline, but they are not, they are in other positions in time; and sometimes not all the keyframes are pasted, only rotations, or only translations.
- I tried to copy/paste in anim editor, but if I copy translate keyframes on one object and paste them on another, the keyframes are pasted on rotations (!)
- If I delete all the keyframes from the timeline or from the anim editor, the channels are not set free as I expect, they remain colored with light green, there is no animation curve anymore, but they are connected to something … another problem coming from this “ghost” animation curve that remains active is that when I delete all the keyframes from an object, it doesn't remain where it is, it's moved in another position, and this is annoying.
- This one drives me crazy … again, coming from Maya I find very useful the shortcuts shift+t to keyframe translations, shift+r for rotations etc. , but they work only sometimes, I thought maybe I have to click inside the viewport and then press shift+t, or maybe on the timeline, but there is no rule, sometimes it works, sometimes not
- This is again only my opinion but, again … coming from Maya … animation editor in Houdini has too many controls that confuse the animator, ease out, ease in, match out, match in, it reminds After Effects curve editor (arghh) … in Maya there are only flat,stepped, linear, spline and weighted tangents, I never needed anything more than that.
- I already talked about this in another post but it's very important for me, there is no way to change animation curves tangent type only for selected keyframes and not for an entire segment or curve.
The typical example is when I animate a camera that has to look it's already moving at the start of the shot, and then slows down and stops at the end of the shot. In Maya I select all the starting keyframes (translate, rotate, etc.) an set them to linear, then select all the last keyframes and set them to flat. Done. In Houdini I have to do it manually for every single keyframe because if I set the keyframes to linear they all become linear.
- This is due to my limited knowledge for sure but … why sometimes on the timeline only some keyframes are visible/exposed ? For example only rotations, only translations, or other ?
Thank you
Ray
Edited by madrenderman - March 28, 2019 04:42:07
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » animation editor: change tangent type to one keyframe only
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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Houdini Indie and Apprentice » animation editor: change tangent type to one keyframe only
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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Thank you guys, there is some workaround but it's not the same function as Maya and I think it's really important for keyframe animation work, I sent a feature request to sidefx support, fingers crossed
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » animation editor: change tangent type to one keyframe only
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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9 is the same as “flat tangents” in Maya, if there was also “spline”, “linear” and “stepped” I would have solved the problem
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » animation editor: change tangent type to one keyframe only
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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Hello everyone.
very basic question, I hope someone can help me. I want to change tangent type (for example bezier to linear) to some keyframes in the animation editor, but using the dropdown menu Houdini converts an entire segment, and not only the selected keyframes. I'm showing what I'm trying to do in the attached video using Maya.
Thank you
Ray
very basic question, I hope someone can help me. I want to change tangent type (for example bezier to linear) to some keyframes in the animation editor, but using the dropdown menu Houdini converts an entire segment, and not only the selected keyframes. I'm showing what I'm trying to do in the attached video using Maya.
Thank you
Ray
Edited by madrenderman - March 25, 2019 08:28:48
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Houdini to Maya: one .fbx (or .abc) with multiple geos
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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If you export an alembic by default Maya will see one node, you have to create an attribute for every scattered geometry, easiest way is to use an assemble node after the copy to points, the assemble creates a name attribute for every copy (based on connectivity). Then in the alembic rop you can specify the attribute “name” in the field “Build Hierarchy from attribute”. Maya will see all separated nodes.
See the attached example
Ray
See the attached example
Ray
Technical Discussion » Convert Mental Ray to Mantra
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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If it is a standard Maya blinn shader it should be very easy to convert it to a similar Mantra shader, parameters are different but the blinn has very few and “old style” controls like specular, eccentricity, spec rolloff, you can substitute them playing with reflectivity parameters …
Technical Discussion » Tutorial H17
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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Houdini Learning Materials » Learning Mantra
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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In my opinion one of the best to start is HelloLuxx “learn Jumpstart Vol. 8 – Intro to Lighting & Rendering” by Adam Swaab
https://helloluxx.com/product/houdini-training-learn-jumpstart-vol-8-intro-to-lighting-rendering/ [helloluxx.com]
https://helloluxx.com/product/houdini-training-learn-jumpstart-vol-8-intro-to-lighting-rendering/ [helloluxx.com]
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » How to randomly scatter geometry inside another geometry
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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You can do it using an isooffset sop which creates an internal volume inside a sphere for example, followed by a scatter sop which creates points scattered through the volume, and then copy to points your geo to these points.
Or you can use pointsfromvolume sop which creates directly points inside a volume (same sphere for example) and then use copy to points.
To randomize rotation and scale the easiest way is to use an attribute randomize sop, one for the orient attribute, and one for the pscale attribute.
Look at the file I attached
Or you can use pointsfromvolume sop which creates directly points inside a volume (same sphere for example) and then use copy to points.
To randomize rotation and scale the easiest way is to use an attribute randomize sop, one for the orient attribute, and one for the pscale attribute.
Look at the file I attached
Edited by madrenderman - Sept. 25, 2018 21:42:03
Houdini Lounge » "Snap a move" like in Maya
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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@Doudini yes! I discovered this function today, it's completely hidden and undocumented. It works, a bit rudimental but it works.
Working in the viewport in Houdini is laborious …
Working in the viewport in Houdini is laborious …
Edited by madrenderman - Sept. 22, 2018 03:31:54
Houdini Lounge » "Snap a move" like in Maya
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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Hello, is it possible to move an object snapping to points/curves/grid but clicking directly on a specific point, without using the manipulator ? It's something I do all the time in Maya (on Maya documentation it's called “snap a move”) and saves a lot of time, maybe in Houdini it's possible but I don't know how.
I attached a clip to better show what I mean.
Thank you
Ray
I attached a clip to better show what I mean.
Thank you
Ray
SI Users » Color picker?
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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Maybe these links can be helpful
https://houdinitricks.com/pick-colors-from-image/ [houdinitricks.com]
https://houdinitricks.com/sample-colors-outside-of-houdini/ [houdinitricks.com]
https://houdinitricks.com/pick-colors-from-image/ [houdinitricks.com]
https://houdinitricks.com/sample-colors-outside-of-houdini/ [houdinitricks.com]
Houdini Lounge » Siggraph 2018
- madrenderman
- 129 posts
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