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Technical Discussion » parameter node still broken in material builder
- Island
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Houdini Indie and Apprentice » How to scale a texture map by nodes
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I have a shader that has one texture map for bump and roughness and another for base diffuse color. I want to scale one texture map but not the other, so I can't do this by UV transform. Is there a way to scale a texture map linked to the diffuse channel with a node?
Experimenting a bit, it looks like I can come close by adding a UV coordinates node and UVxform before one texture and omitting the UVxform before the second texture.
Experimenting a bit, it looks like I can come close by adding a UV coordinates node and UVxform before one texture and omitting the UVxform before the second texture.
Edited by Island - Jan. 28, 2022 13:53:50
Houdini Lounge » How to set the opactiy for UV islands?
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Houdini Lounge » Sluggish viewport on OSX
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I don't know if it is important, but if one adds and deletes materials the Houdini file will continue to bloat. Even "save as" gives a bloated file. Copying the objects to a new Houdini file shrinks the file back to a good size, so there is something that doesn't get deleted when materials are added and removed.
I will be happy when spinning beachballs are not the norm with Houdini on OSX, often with "evaluating python" showing.
I will be happy when spinning beachballs are not the norm with Houdini on OSX, often with "evaluating python" showing.
Edited by Island - Jan. 28, 2022 12:48:35
Technical Discussion » How to add extra edge loop after boolean?
- Island
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Avoid booleans if possible and you will get better topology (note ugly n-gons in your example). Bridging or poly extrusion will generally be all you need. Either of the two methods in attached Houdini file are better than booleans. If you have to use a boolean, I would then delete the ngon (third example) and rebridge the edge loops.
Edited by Island - Jan. 27, 2022 19:31:15
Technical Discussion » parameter node still broken in material builder
- Island
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Adding the two additional nodes seems to obviate the need to add the additional displacement nodes. I'm not sure why that fixes it without all the additional displacement nodes. In the SideFX tutorial, none of this was necessary, but maybe things changed between Houdini 16 and 19 that broke some defaults.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » How can i collapse several nodes in single one like maya?
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I think Tomas was saying it is pretty much always a bad idea to delete the history. You can't delete just a few nodes. You can freeze a node and delete the upstream nodes, but all that does is make any changes impossible and bloat the file. The whole point to Houdini is that it is procedural. If you want to use it as a non procedural modeler, it works fine, but there is no reason to delete the nodes for that either. You can right click on the terminal node and export it and then create a new Houdini file and just import what you exported. But generally the issue is you don't want to look at the node tree, because it is complicated. The options I mentioned will make it less complicated. You can color code nodes or change the shapes. You can take a series of nodes and make them a network and collapse that. You can make a subnet out of a bunch of nodes. If the crossing wires get really complicated, add an object merge node and just reference the terminal nodes from a chain of nodes and go from there. It is pretty easy to make things look more readable.
Technical Discussion » parameter node still broken in material builder
- Island
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jsmack
I did notice there was an issue combining a material without a displacement context for the shaderlayer export with one that used displacement. It caused the model to explode. After adding 'displace' to the contexts on the layer struct, it worked fine though.
I wonder whether that is the issue with my file. You are saying you can't use layer mix with two material builders or a material builder plus a principled shader if one of them has displacement and the other doesn't unless you add some displacement nodes to the one that has no displacement? Also, why did you add the two additional nodes after the layer mix in your original example? Without them, it fails even with an extra uv coordinates node. See attached Houdini file. One object that has the additional nodes renders fine. The one that is similar to the SideFX tutorial but with the extra UV coords node fails.
Edited by Island - Jan. 25, 2022 20:47:36
Technical Discussion » parameter node still broken in material builder
- Island
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I understand your advice to collapse the entire network into a builder to avoid contamination of networks, but I don't really understand the reasoning regarding connecting them to UVs. The UV coordinates node gets built into the material builder when one selects the nodes and compacts them into a material builder. The geometry test objects have UV's already created and in SideFX's tutorial, they do exactly what I did but get a working result in the layer mix: https://vimeo.com/212603065?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=1723479 [vimeo.com]
Addendum: I missed your previous demo file. I see what you did, but can't figure out why adding another UV coordinate node as you did and connecting it to the material builder's UV input still does not work with the material builder. The attached nodal system still did not work. The only "fix" was adding a compute lighting and output variables and parameters node as you did in your example in addition to the second UV coordinates node, but which was not done in SideFX's tutorial. At least your fixes got it working but I am mystified by the differences between the tutorial and the need for your additional nodes.
Addendum: I missed your previous demo file. I see what you did, but can't figure out why adding another UV coordinate node as you did and connecting it to the material builder's UV input still does not work with the material builder. The attached nodal system still did not work. The only "fix" was adding a compute lighting and output variables and parameters node as you did in your example in addition to the second UV coordinates node, but which was not done in SideFX's tutorial. At least your fixes got it working but I am mystified by the differences between the tutorial and the need for your additional nodes.
Edited by Island - Jan. 25, 2022 18:55:59
Technical Discussion » parameter node still broken in material builder
- Island
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The parameter node still seems to be broken in the material builder over several Houdini builds. I'm not sure if it pertains only to the OSX version, but if one collapses several material nodes into a material builder and then adds a parameter node set to custom structure and shader layer, it will not accurately output a layer to a layer mix. Attached is a screen shot of the material setup and correct render when the nodes are not collapsed into a material and a parm node added and a screen shot when they are showing the problem. According to SideFX's videos, this should work.
Edited by Island - Jan. 25, 2022 17:06:25
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Best way to animate KineFX?
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sdugaro
You are likely going to need to wrap what you are doing in an hda, promote rigpose parms to the toplevel of the hda and specify the Default State on the hda as kinefx__rigpose so all the contained rigpose parms can be activated.
I don't have experience with kinefx but have done a fair amount of rigging with different 3D apps that use either bone based or joint based systems, as well as some face morph/posing. You will drive yourself crazy trying to animate the joints or bones directly even after setting up fk and ik chains. As mentioned above, the key is good naming, good parenting and constraints, use of nulls with proper display and most of all, promotion of parameters in an HDA. You animate the parameters rather than the joints or bones directly, as they can prevent impossible twists or values that are out of range for a joint and they are much more interpretable in an animation editor. Organization is the key to sanity.
Attached is a screen shot of a hand rig (admittedly old style, but the principles still apply). The colored dots are separate from the hand rig and used to control the suture curves.
Edited by Island - Jan. 25, 2022 17:29:40
Technical Discussion » Cutting an indentation into a chess piece
- Island
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A boolean subtract on two closed meshes works if you created your curve so that all the points on the curve increase steadily with respect to the rotation axis. If two points are level or out of order in ascending y direction (assuming y axis rotation), it doesn't seem to work in my experience. But more importantly, it creates bad geometry and you will never be able to subdivide it or probably bevel the edges. The soft boolean plugin does often create some ngons but solves the edge bevel well. Note ngons and non aligned points in attachment from a simple subtractive boolean. The cleanup will take more time that just doing poly modeling. So it is possible, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Edited by Island - Jan. 25, 2022 00:04:12
Technical Discussion » Cutting an indentation into a chess piece
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Soft Boolean plugin:
https://alexeyvanzhula.gumroad.com/l/iWQyT [alexeyvanzhula.gumroad.com]
Generally, other than the soft boolean plugin, I would avoid booleans in subD modeling and use bridging and bevels instead. Booleans are great for CAD nurbs modeling, but have lots of issues with anything complicated. Unfortunately, Houdini will not be the best bet for what you are trying to do if you want to make the knight or have a face on the king or queen. For those, would do better with a dedicated sculpting program or at least one that does sculpting better than Houdini. Remember that the mirror node and fuse are your friends and will greatly simplify making chess pieces.
Another way to handle this that also requires a plugin is to use clip nodes set to keep above and below to make edge cuts according to the cutout. Then with a little creative polyextrude, clipping, and mirroring, you can get a reasonable model, but it will not be all quads. Add the plugin for QuadRemesher to this and you have an all quad chess piece. Add a bevel if you want to the cutout out area to soften the edges.
https://alexeyvanzhula.gumroad.com/l/iWQyT [alexeyvanzhula.gumroad.com]
Generally, other than the soft boolean plugin, I would avoid booleans in subD modeling and use bridging and bevels instead. Booleans are great for CAD nurbs modeling, but have lots of issues with anything complicated. Unfortunately, Houdini will not be the best bet for what you are trying to do if you want to make the knight or have a face on the king or queen. For those, would do better with a dedicated sculpting program or at least one that does sculpting better than Houdini. Remember that the mirror node and fuse are your friends and will greatly simplify making chess pieces.
Another way to handle this that also requires a plugin is to use clip nodes set to keep above and below to make edge cuts according to the cutout. Then with a little creative polyextrude, clipping, and mirroring, you can get a reasonable model, but it will not be all quads. Add the plugin for QuadRemesher to this and you have an all quad chess piece. Add a bevel if you want to the cutout out area to soften the edges.
Edited by Island - Jan. 24, 2022 19:22:16
Technical Discussion » Cutting an indentation into a chess piece
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The softboolean plugin would be your best bet.
Edited by Island - Jan. 24, 2022 15:51:59
Technical Discussion » Displacement issue
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Technical Discussion » Displacement issue
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I would like to have aanoise used both for color and displacement. I created two simple principled shaders, "green" and "blue" and added a layer mix. I'm using rest position to add an aanoise and have this both affect alpha of the mix and displacement. I want to displace along normal a small amount inward for one of the shaders, but it doesn't seem to be working correctly. Have I connected the outputs incorrectly? Thanks.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » How can i collapse several nodes in single one like maya?
- Island
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Export a bgeo, or make a subnet, or make a network box, or start another tree with an object merge node.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Revolve, Subdivision and Front view selection problems
- Island
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If you look at Draog's first model, you see the issue using a Bézier curve for straight lines. They are basically very short Bézier and give three almost overlapped points, which give ugly creases. It is true that you can use actual Bézier curves to generate a bevel type segment, but I find it is easier just to add my own points with straight segments if one plans to add a later subdivision node. I use Bézier all the time in illustrator, but generally retopo illustrator figures rather than deal with the mess that comes from direct imports. It is easier with retopo to make sure the points are such that subdivision doesn't cause it to blow up. I actually use nurbs curves more than Bézier as they are more useful in CAD programs.
Edited by Island - Jan. 21, 2022 21:29:23
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Revolve, Subdivision and Front view selection problems
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You can add a convert node, but you will have a lot less control of topology. It you want to avoid ngons and tris, I would do proper polygon modeling and subdivisions. There are cases like recreating fonts where converting Bézier curves and resampling is helpful.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Revolve, Subdivision and Front view selection problems
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I'm glad you got it working. Creating a curve in bezier mode and trying to convert that to polygons generally will just be frustrating, as you found. You can do it, but you will need to go through a delete the bezier handle points, and that takes longer than recreating the curve from scratch in polygon mode.
Regarding the fuse node. When one revolves around the y axis with a point on the y axis, you actually will get multiple overlapping points there. It is messy, so I fuse them together. You can see the issue if you look at the bottom center point with point numbers turned on. Before the fuse, it is a mess. After the fuse, it is one point. I think I deleted out the triangles anyway later, so it probably doesn't matter. Personally I think it good practice to make an all quad model, so I remove ngons and triangles. That is why the blast and polyfill nodes. See attached for issue with overlapping points.
Regarding the fuse node. When one revolves around the y axis with a point on the y axis, you actually will get multiple overlapping points there. It is messy, so I fuse them together. You can see the issue if you look at the bottom center point with point numbers turned on. Before the fuse, it is a mess. After the fuse, it is one point. I think I deleted out the triangles anyway later, so it probably doesn't matter. Personally I think it good practice to make an all quad model, so I remove ngons and triangles. That is why the blast and polyfill nodes. See attached for issue with overlapping points.
Edited by Island - Jan. 20, 2022 22:06:33
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