It's very convenient in various character scenarios to be able to manipulate the geometry points at the object level. While generaly is OK to make a handle permanent, sometimes you need to have the transformations placed in a hierarchy. The obvious example is a character deformed with a lattice, when you need to transform the points of the lattice and maybe to place them in different hierarchies, at the object level.
This is doable right now, with CHOPs or expressions or obj merge SOPs, but requires some work.
I think it would be nice to have the option of “glueing” a handle to a null.
So, in my edit SOP for one point of the lattice I would rt-click on the handle and choose: create null for transform. A null would be created at the same level with the object holding the lattice, and the handle will get the transformation from the null. You can then transform and parent the null and the handle (and its associated point) will stick to it.
Dragos
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Houdini Lounge » RFE: promote handle to null
- digitallysane
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Houdini Lounge » Thank You all at SideFX
- digitallysane
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Yeah, I think Houdini Apprentice is as open as a non-commercial software can be. Everything is there for the beginner or power user to learn and experiment. The only thing I would like (but it's by no means a show stopper anyway) would be to be able to render at PAL resolution (720x576), even if the watermark would be a little bigger. Again, it's just a convenience for someone in a PAL country.
Dragos
Dragos
Houdini Lounge » animation q?
- digitallysane
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Speaking strictly about character animation, Houdini is a much better tool than XSI, both for rigging and animating. What you might gain from using XSI is a lower price for the entry level package, hair & cloth (you can do those in DOPs which are only available in Houdini Master - 17K USD), and maybe a larger tutorial base.
In Houdini you have an extremely powerful and flexible bones system, skinning controls, CHOPs which are the Animation Mixer on steroids (but with a slower workflow for simple tasks), very good modelling and best of all, OTL and takes.
With OTLs you can package your character in an operator and just begin animating. You can modify the setup while you do your animation and everything updates automatically.
With takes you can save multiple versions of the scene in the same file, compare them, mix them. Ideal for character work.
And yes, you can do squash and stretch setups.
As Simon suggested, try the rabbit and also the skeleton http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=145 [sidefx.com] OTLs for a quick view on what's possible.
Also, browse the character tutorials in the new help system which is very nice in Houdini 8
Dragos
In Houdini you have an extremely powerful and flexible bones system, skinning controls, CHOPs which are the Animation Mixer on steroids (but with a slower workflow for simple tasks), very good modelling and best of all, OTL and takes.
With OTLs you can package your character in an operator and just begin animating. You can modify the setup while you do your animation and everything updates automatically.
With takes you can save multiple versions of the scene in the same file, compare them, mix them. Ideal for character work.
And yes, you can do squash and stretch setups.
As Simon suggested, try the rabbit and also the skeleton http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=145 [sidefx.com] OTLs for a quick view on what's possible.
Also, browse the character tutorials in the new help system which is very nice in Houdini 8
Dragos
Houdini Lounge » New Site Feedback
- digitallysane
- 1192 posts
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Houdini Lounge » New Site Feedback
- digitallysane
- 1192 posts
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After spending some time on the site, I have the following observation: the main menu on top seems too thin. It becomes lost between the Houdini logo and the big titles. Maybe some more padding on top and bottom will make it stand out better?
Dragos
Dragos
Houdini Lounge » New Site Feedback
- digitallysane
- 1192 posts
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Houdini Lounge » New Site Feedback
- digitallysane
- 1192 posts
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Every time I try to download something from Exchange I get the message “File does not exist”.
Firefox 1.0.4 on XP SP2
Dragos
Firefox 1.0.4 on XP SP2
Dragos
Houdini Lounge » New Site Feedback
- digitallysane
- 1192 posts
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Congratulations for the new look and the new logo (even if I'll miss the stingy Houdini logo…)
The first “bugs”, now: in some places paragraphs end suddenly, like here [sidefx.com]
Also, the “key features” column on the right is inconsistent. For example, the “Characters” entry is displayed only on some pages. Speaking of characters, the Character rigging page displays Available in: Houdini Select, which is not true?
That's it for now…
Dragos
PS Speaking of the new look, is there a KTM motorcycle hidden somewhere at sidefx?
The first “bugs”, now: in some places paragraphs end suddenly, like here [sidefx.com]
Also, the “key features” column on the right is inconsistent. For example, the “Characters” entry is displayed only on some pages. Speaking of characters, the Character rigging page displays Available in: Houdini Select, which is not true?
That's it for now…
Dragos
PS Speaking of the new look, is there a KTM motorcycle hidden somewhere at sidefx?
Houdini Lounge » The Great Divide in CG Facilities: Adapt or Die
- digitallysane
- 1192 posts
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I generally agree with MatrixNAN on the workflow “features”. However, for the things I would like to use Houdini for (broadcast, short deadline work) all those very efficient features are becoming irrelevant at the end of the job: the rendering is slow. The built-in shaders are incomplete, and, as I read on odforce, some of them are buggy. In this perspective, XSI is far ahead. Practically, for a broadcast job, all the time you might gain because of the advantages of Houdini will be lost when it comes to rendering. It is practically impossible to use area lights *and* motion blur in a project and expect reasonable render times (this is something usual with XSI). XSI renders faster with moblur than Houdini without. For me this is the only *real* showstopper when it comes to Houdini.
I know there are many professionals on this forum working on feature films and using mantra with various custom shaders who say mantra is very fast and efficient. For me, out-of-the-box, Houdini Apprentice is much slower in the lighting/rendering area than XSI.
Dragos
I know there are many professionals on this forum working on feature films and using mantra with various custom shaders who say mantra is very fast and efficient. For me, out-of-the-box, Houdini Apprentice is much slower in the lighting/rendering area than XSI.
Dragos
Technical Discussion » Calculating Alpha and Opacity correctly
- digitallysane
- 1192 posts
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I found the math for all the usual compositing operations here:
http://www.vbaccelerator.com/home/VB/Code/vbMedia/Image_Processing/Compositing/article.asp [vbaccelerator.com]
Dragos
http://www.vbaccelerator.com/home/VB/Code/vbMedia/Image_Processing/Compositing/article.asp [vbaccelerator.com]
Dragos
Technical Discussion » How top make normal materials for mental Ray in Houdini
- digitallysane
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As far as I know, Houdini does not offer a shader authoring environment for MentalRay shaders, as it does for Mantra (and RenderMan since 6.5). So you should author your shaders elsewhere (by writing and compiling C-code or by using some shader authoring tool).
In Houdini, as far as I can tell, you can have SHOPs for your mental ray shaders so you can use them as any other shader (at the object level or with the Shader SOP). In the Shading tab of objects there are also some MI specific SHOP fields.
I suppose that at this moment the render region does not work with Mental Ray (its ability to work with RMan is one of the advances of 6.5).
As for the black rendered file, there is probably something wrong with your environment setup, and MentalRay does not find its shaders.
Dragos
In Houdini, as far as I can tell, you can have SHOPs for your mental ray shaders so you can use them as any other shader (at the object level or with the Shader SOP). In the Shading tab of objects there are also some MI specific SHOP fields.
I suppose that at this moment the render region does not work with Mental Ray (its ability to work with RMan is one of the advances of 6.5).
As for the black rendered file, there is probably something wrong with your environment setup, and MentalRay does not find its shaders.
Dragos
Houdini Lounge » prman rendering losing geo
- digitallysane
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When you use the “End cap faceted” or “End cap shared” option in the Cap SOP, Houdini actually puts a closed curve (not a surface) at the end of the tube. Houdini (and Mantra) interpret closed curves as being “filled”.
You can check this by displaying a CircleSOP in shaded mode. It looks like a filled disk. You can also check by middle-clicking on the cap operator, and you'll see what geometry you have at that point in the network.
Probably RenderMan does not consider these curves as being “filled”, so you need to use a ConvertSOP and convert the curves (“From Type” set to “NURBS curve”) to NURBS surfaces or Trimmed NURBS Surface.
Dragos
You can check this by displaying a CircleSOP in shaded mode. It looks like a filled disk. You can also check by middle-clicking on the cap operator, and you'll see what geometry you have at that point in the network.
Probably RenderMan does not consider these curves as being “filled”, so you need to use a ConvertSOP and convert the curves (“From Type” set to “NURBS curve”) to NURBS surfaces or Trimmed NURBS Surface.
Dragos
Technical Discussion » Bridging?
- digitallysane
- 1192 posts
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You can select the two polygons and append a Skin SOP. Maybe you'll need to use a Primitive SOP before, with the Face/Hull-> Vertex->shift option, to shift the vertices on one poly, in order to avoid twisted skinning.
Dragos
Dragos
Technical Discussion » 'set driven key' in houdini
- digitallysane
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Houdini Lounge » combining sliders in facial animation tutor
- digitallysane
- 1192 posts
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Maybe you can snapshot the channels in CHOPs (in a Constant CHOP).
Then use a Blend CHOP or Interpolate CHOP to sequence them.
Dragos
Then use a Blend CHOP or Interpolate CHOP to sequence them.
Dragos
Technical Discussion » Knife Digital Asset ?
- digitallysane
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I never used Lightwave but from what I heard, the Clip SOP in Houdini does pretty much the same thing as the knife tool in LW.
Dragos
Dragos
Technical Discussion » How to make particles flow along a spline? Old question.
- digitallysane
- 1192 posts
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There is a step by step tutorial on this site, in the Community section
http://www.sidefx.com/community/learn/effects/index.html [sidefx.com]
Look for pops_followpath.pdf. It's for an older version of Houdini, but I don't think this would be a problem.
Dragos
http://www.sidefx.com/community/learn/effects/index.html [sidefx.com]
Look for pops_followpath.pdf. It's for an older version of Houdini, but I don't think this would be a problem.
Dragos
Houdini Lounge » CHOPs as a NLA tool
- digitallysane
- 1192 posts
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JColdrick
Just for the record, folks, “blending between takes” has been in houdini for many versions now…ever since CHOPs AFAIK. I remember the first demo - a character sitting at a desk and blending between “explaining with his hands”, swinging his leg, etc. That's trivial to setup. I think the key point here is the ability to edit channels in CHOPs without committing to a sample rate. Some might argue you can do it now(just call up a chan editor and source that channel in a CHOPnet), but I think Sane's point is more of a GUI thing than anything else…
Exactly, it's just about workflow. I know that it's possible to do blends, mixes, sequences in a myriad of ways. But for straightforward character animation it's a little bit too complicated to setup and unflexible… It might be trivial to set up, but it takes waaay too much time.
Dragos Stefan
Houdini Lounge » CHOPs as a NLA tool
- digitallysane
- 1192 posts
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JColdrickYeah, a Channel Editor CHOP is the perfect way of putting it.
I guess they're thinking that you use the channel editor to manipulate animation curves, and I guess that what you're suggesting is to have a Channel Editor CHOP and the ability to move functions through CHOPs without necessarily committing them to a sampling rate?
Personally I find going back and forth to CHOPs a major pain and anything that can be done to make it faster/simpler would be good, which is why I biased my view on your first post.
On the other way, I think the CHOP way of working with sampled data is excellent. I just want the source of this data to be keyframed segments, and an easy way to (repeatedly) create those sources.
It's like you would place a Constant CHOP, create/name your channels, lock it and then (blindly) edit its channels in the Channel Editor. Instead, I'd like to animate my object in the viewport, with handles and so on, and then save my keyframed animation in a container, which keeps it editable inside but outputs sampled data, like the wave or pulse CHOPs do.
I really think this would be a great time saver especially for character work.
Hmmm, in a perfect world there would even be a hotkey which would temporarly disable your CHOPnet and key the fcurves in the “current” container on the timeline, while you adjust the viewport handles.
Dragos
Houdini Lounge » CHOPs as a NLA tool
- digitallysane
- 1192 posts
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Yes, having CHOPnets “inside” of channels can be cool. Actually, this wasn't exactly what I was thinking about (if I understood correctly your post).
I pretty much like CHOPs as they behave now: you manipulate your channel then use them to override the original channel. What I don't like is that once you bring your data into CHOPs, is pretty hard to manipulate your original f-curves.
The main problem is that (as far as I know) Houdini does not have a way to store/save clips of fcurves, in a file or in an “instance” inside the .hip. You can fetch the curves and lock the Fetch CHOP, but then you have a sampled image of yor curves. As I understand, you can save those, but they are not keyframed segments, just sampled channels.
What I suggest is having a way to, let's say, right-click on a keyframed channel (or group of channels, or a whole operator) and “save” its keyframed segments in a “container” operator (CHOP). So you now have the keyframes/segments, editable. You can add keys and do whatever you want.
At the same time, you can delete the original keys, do another animation and then save this in another container. Then pipe those two (or more) containers in a Sequence CHOP or Blend CHOP, or COmposite CHOP and voila: straightforward NLA! If you realise that some keys in the first container need some adjustment, just open them in the Channel Editor and do your editing.
Dragos
I pretty much like CHOPs as they behave now: you manipulate your channel then use them to override the original channel. What I don't like is that once you bring your data into CHOPs, is pretty hard to manipulate your original f-curves.
The main problem is that (as far as I know) Houdini does not have a way to store/save clips of fcurves, in a file or in an “instance” inside the .hip. You can fetch the curves and lock the Fetch CHOP, but then you have a sampled image of yor curves. As I understand, you can save those, but they are not keyframed segments, just sampled channels.
What I suggest is having a way to, let's say, right-click on a keyframed channel (or group of channels, or a whole operator) and “save” its keyframed segments in a “container” operator (CHOP). So you now have the keyframes/segments, editable. You can add keys and do whatever you want.
At the same time, you can delete the original keys, do another animation and then save this in another container. Then pipe those two (or more) containers in a Sequence CHOP or Blend CHOP, or COmposite CHOP and voila: straightforward NLA! If you realise that some keys in the first container need some adjustment, just open them in the Channel Editor and do your editing.
Dragos
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