by the way Peter…
I did (and do) love those training videos!
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Houdini Lounge » Hoo-ray! fer fancy book learnin'
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
Houdini Lounge » Hoo-ray! fer fancy book learnin'
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
Hi Peter,
pretty tired here so if I don't appropriately self-edit please forgive.
let me start of by saying I hope I didn't seem too critical of other learning methods in my praise of the new book.
I think the more methods available the better.
The videos passed on some very crucial info,
and yes I got the feeling that there was a sequential order to them.
When I teach people Maya,
I explain that the program is absolutely huge,
and that attempting to truly master the whole program is almost impossible.
The one thing Maya has going for it is a flood of info and educational materials available…
in fact it's almost overkill.
Houdini is even more complex.
It's funny when attending the recent Houdini “Boot-Camp” (which was great),
many of the instructors where taking notes (learning) from the other instructors.
Some of the students even taught the instructors a thing or two.
I don't mention that to somehow cast a negative light on their skills.
I bring it up because it shows how much there is to learn,
and how nobody ever really seems to stop learning in Houdini.
That and we all have our interests and areas of expertise.
The new book is something that I wish I had when I was starting!
Getting more than basic tutorials back in the day was only possible by taking classes at SideFX.
Glad that's changed.
It appears to provide a solid foundation (as I've progressed in it thus far),
in which research and learning in other areas can be built off of.
As for the old PDF approach.
It's cool, but they didn't really give a comprehensive enough scope of how to “put it all together”.
They were great, and I still reference them to this day.
Very tiny puzzle pieces, but how to put them together.
The videos were more in-depth,
but at the end one needs something to attach notes to (I believe).
So I think that ideally a hybrid might be the way to go.
It would take a bit more time than a video alone,
but far less than an entire book.
Here's what I'm thinking:
A printed hardcopy of a “skeleton” of the video tutorials.
These hardcopies would contain a small amount of reference pictures.
These would consist of complex parameter settings.
These are hard to see on a screen, and often said too fast (you could even say “pause video here”).
That and some basic shot's of what the scene looks like so you can always reference the information with easy visual recognition.
“Where was it that I added the vortex again… oh there's the picture… and there's the info I need”.
Then just have the basic do-this-do-that steps without theory or any explanation of any kind.
Leave the explanation/theory for the video.
Have room on the hardcopy for people to write extensive notes on.
Maybe a list of basic expressions,
and constructing/deconstructing a vex script would be nice.
A few basic pointers that are key to how to work in Houdini.
How to find the hotkeys, how to RMB on your node to get info, export, reference, add parameters, copy stamp, that sort of thing.
Almost like really nicely organized notes provided for the user, along with the basic step by step.
Again let the video explain in depth.
This cuts the book down to 1/15th the size.
The video has the actions and concepts,
and if you've watched it once, you don't need to watch it again because you have the hardcopy that shows you how to do things and where to locate certain key procedures.
I recently played around with learning Zbrush.
They have these automated scripts for learning the package.
Start the script and it builds things before your eyes.
I didn't really get much from them though.
They moved pretty fast, and (again) I just wanted the pages to dwell over at my own pace,
and to write on.
Perhaps others had a better experience with these.
Just thought I'd mention it.
I really hate to be so long winded about this,
but I guess I feel it's pretty crucial,
and I really appreciate yours (and everyone else's) efforts to provide educational info on Houdini.
all my best
Jim Ellis
pretty tired here so if I don't appropriately self-edit please forgive.
let me start of by saying I hope I didn't seem too critical of other learning methods in my praise of the new book.
I think the more methods available the better.
The videos passed on some very crucial info,
and yes I got the feeling that there was a sequential order to them.
When I teach people Maya,
I explain that the program is absolutely huge,
and that attempting to truly master the whole program is almost impossible.
The one thing Maya has going for it is a flood of info and educational materials available…
in fact it's almost overkill.
Houdini is even more complex.
It's funny when attending the recent Houdini “Boot-Camp” (which was great),
many of the instructors where taking notes (learning) from the other instructors.
Some of the students even taught the instructors a thing or two.
I don't mention that to somehow cast a negative light on their skills.
I bring it up because it shows how much there is to learn,
and how nobody ever really seems to stop learning in Houdini.
That and we all have our interests and areas of expertise.
The new book is something that I wish I had when I was starting!
Getting more than basic tutorials back in the day was only possible by taking classes at SideFX.
Glad that's changed.
It appears to provide a solid foundation (as I've progressed in it thus far),
in which research and learning in other areas can be built off of.
As for the old PDF approach.
It's cool, but they didn't really give a comprehensive enough scope of how to “put it all together”.
They were great, and I still reference them to this day.
Very tiny puzzle pieces, but how to put them together.
The videos were more in-depth,
but at the end one needs something to attach notes to (I believe).
So I think that ideally a hybrid might be the way to go.
It would take a bit more time than a video alone,
but far less than an entire book.
Here's what I'm thinking:
A printed hardcopy of a “skeleton” of the video tutorials.
These hardcopies would contain a small amount of reference pictures.
These would consist of complex parameter settings.
These are hard to see on a screen, and often said too fast (you could even say “pause video here”).
That and some basic shot's of what the scene looks like so you can always reference the information with easy visual recognition.
“Where was it that I added the vortex again… oh there's the picture… and there's the info I need”.
Then just have the basic do-this-do-that steps without theory or any explanation of any kind.
Leave the explanation/theory for the video.
Have room on the hardcopy for people to write extensive notes on.
Maybe a list of basic expressions,
and constructing/deconstructing a vex script would be nice.
A few basic pointers that are key to how to work in Houdini.
How to find the hotkeys, how to RMB on your node to get info, export, reference, add parameters, copy stamp, that sort of thing.
Almost like really nicely organized notes provided for the user, along with the basic step by step.
Again let the video explain in depth.
This cuts the book down to 1/15th the size.
The video has the actions and concepts,
and if you've watched it once, you don't need to watch it again because you have the hardcopy that shows you how to do things and where to locate certain key procedures.
I recently played around with learning Zbrush.
They have these automated scripts for learning the package.
Start the script and it builds things before your eyes.
I didn't really get much from them though.
They moved pretty fast, and (again) I just wanted the pages to dwell over at my own pace,
and to write on.
Perhaps others had a better experience with these.
Just thought I'd mention it.
I really hate to be so long winded about this,
but I guess I feel it's pretty crucial,
and I really appreciate yours (and everyone else's) efforts to provide educational info on Houdini.
all my best
Jim Ellis
Houdini Lounge » Hoo-ray! fer fancy book learnin'
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
Hey All,
This book is a very wonderful thing!
I'm a little over half way through it,
and while I am not a newbie…
(much of the info I was aware of already… or once was but had forgotten about)
it has already helped me immensely.
Allow me to explain why.
I'm an intuitive artist and although I am familiar with the concepts of synthesis,
I still often found myself at odds with Houdini.
I would have a certain amount of knowledge that allowed me to get what I often felt was most of the way to my goal,
but then something would not work as expected, or I would be lost in “Houdini Speak”.
Then thing got painful.
You see I work out of my home,
and am not surrounded by large amounts of fellow Houdini users.
The forum, help, and tutorials have been my only means of direct problem solving and education.
Speaking of help, I can't get my “help” to properly perform a “search” without freezing up…
but that's another story.
I have indeed taken Houdini classes before in the past,
but mostly found that I was left holding a bunch of real-cool puzzle pieces that I had to figure out how they fit together on my own later.
The “Bootcamp” was an exception to this…
but rather intensive, and unfortunately (due to time constraints) not really any time for personal exploration of newly acquired info.
The classes (all of them) are amazing, and of course I will take more…
but due to their very nature, re-referencing the material is not nearly as simple as a real “book”.
When working with the video tutorials I kept having to hit pause, rewind
and I couldn't write notes on them.
I love them and am thankful for them,
but hate having to give up half my screen space to them.
I had pretty good luck with this (sometimes slow) process of putting together these pieces,
but I would often forget one element and have to open up the video, consult my notes, and locate the nugget of knowledge that I had forgotten.
This was very time consuming.
Then along came this book.
I am only on page 200 something,
but already I feel as this book has been indispensable in putting together many of the puzzle pieces.
I think this is primarily due to the fact that the book was designed to work as self-contained unit.
This step by step overview is precisely what was desperately need for so long for people trying to learn Houdini.
I found myself saying out loud “Dogs of the 7th moon be praised, that is why that never worked for me”.
The fact that I was able to get information on how to clean up “cookies” was worth the price of the book alone…
where would I have found that info if not in this book!
The book is also a nice area for me to transfer my notes within a pre-existing structure.
An example might be the “cookie” operation.
I've written everything bit of info/problems I've run into (over time) while performing this operation on the pages surrounding the “cookie” tutorial.
I've highlighted this book, and quickly peruse the info when I need a refresher.
This is not something I could do with the video tutorials…
even though I have transferred knowledge to this book that I received from the video tutorials.
So what I'm saying is it is now not only a book of tutorials,
it is truly the organized sum of my Houdini notes/knowledge.
The book format also allowed me to casually go about self-exploration,
something that is unfortunately not really possible in intense group classes,
and a bit of a pain with the videos.
“I knew that already, but I didn't know that. What if I apply with this thing, that thing that I know that is not in the book… yeah yeah!”
Another note made on that book.
More puzzle pieces fit together.
Since I can remember these tutorials and have the images as a quick means to reference my memory,
I can find info right away.
I believe this opens up the package to the more casual user as well.
If part of that Houdini info falls away due to infrequent use,
this is a great resource for review.
To all involved in the creation of this book THANK YOU!!!!!!
I think it's the best move to date in the area of Houdini education.
I sincerely hope that there are more in the works.
As a side note of sorts.
At once point fairly recently I was feeling the need to get into Houdini and make some art.
Really felt inspired and emotional.
I could have “jammed” on my Hand Drum, or Sax, but I chose Houdini to work with.
I was trying to get everything working in a truly controled Houdini procedural fashion.
I kept running into barriers that were cramping my artistic inspiration.
My friend said to me “one thing to remember about Houdini, is it always tries to make you it's bitch”.
I then went back to work and just worked in a more traditional (non-houdiniesk) way.
I made some work and cured my headache.
That said, I always want to be Houdini's bitch,
I love the control and power that I have by being subservient to it's methods.
Now I feel I am one step closer to “jamming” in a truly procedural fashion.
A suggestion for a future book might be one that actually takes one through maybe 3 longer finished-production-quality projects.
That way people can really learn how to make something happen from start to finish.
This would also help with such items as “why did my normals turn into sparks that shoot out of keyboard when I did this modeling operation?”
Just a thought.
I would be interesting in consulting if anyone would be interested in further input.
Also, I love the section for “user comments” on the online help!
Very good idea!!!
Thanks to all the contributors of this fine book.
all my best
Jim Ellis
This book is a very wonderful thing!
I'm a little over half way through it,
and while I am not a newbie…
(much of the info I was aware of already… or once was but had forgotten about)
it has already helped me immensely.
Allow me to explain why.
I'm an intuitive artist and although I am familiar with the concepts of synthesis,
I still often found myself at odds with Houdini.
I would have a certain amount of knowledge that allowed me to get what I often felt was most of the way to my goal,
but then something would not work as expected, or I would be lost in “Houdini Speak”.
Then thing got painful.
You see I work out of my home,
and am not surrounded by large amounts of fellow Houdini users.
The forum, help, and tutorials have been my only means of direct problem solving and education.
Speaking of help, I can't get my “help” to properly perform a “search” without freezing up…
but that's another story.
I have indeed taken Houdini classes before in the past,
but mostly found that I was left holding a bunch of real-cool puzzle pieces that I had to figure out how they fit together on my own later.
The “Bootcamp” was an exception to this…
but rather intensive, and unfortunately (due to time constraints) not really any time for personal exploration of newly acquired info.
The classes (all of them) are amazing, and of course I will take more…
but due to their very nature, re-referencing the material is not nearly as simple as a real “book”.
When working with the video tutorials I kept having to hit pause, rewind
and I couldn't write notes on them.
I love them and am thankful for them,
but hate having to give up half my screen space to them.
I had pretty good luck with this (sometimes slow) process of putting together these pieces,
but I would often forget one element and have to open up the video, consult my notes, and locate the nugget of knowledge that I had forgotten.
This was very time consuming.
Then along came this book.
I am only on page 200 something,
but already I feel as this book has been indispensable in putting together many of the puzzle pieces.
I think this is primarily due to the fact that the book was designed to work as self-contained unit.
This step by step overview is precisely what was desperately need for so long for people trying to learn Houdini.
I found myself saying out loud “Dogs of the 7th moon be praised, that is why that never worked for me”.
The fact that I was able to get information on how to clean up “cookies” was worth the price of the book alone…
where would I have found that info if not in this book!
The book is also a nice area for me to transfer my notes within a pre-existing structure.
An example might be the “cookie” operation.
I've written everything bit of info/problems I've run into (over time) while performing this operation on the pages surrounding the “cookie” tutorial.
I've highlighted this book, and quickly peruse the info when I need a refresher.
This is not something I could do with the video tutorials…
even though I have transferred knowledge to this book that I received from the video tutorials.
So what I'm saying is it is now not only a book of tutorials,
it is truly the organized sum of my Houdini notes/knowledge.
The book format also allowed me to casually go about self-exploration,
something that is unfortunately not really possible in intense group classes,
and a bit of a pain with the videos.
“I knew that already, but I didn't know that. What if I apply with this thing, that thing that I know that is not in the book… yeah yeah!”
Another note made on that book.
More puzzle pieces fit together.
Since I can remember these tutorials and have the images as a quick means to reference my memory,
I can find info right away.
I believe this opens up the package to the more casual user as well.
If part of that Houdini info falls away due to infrequent use,
this is a great resource for review.
To all involved in the creation of this book THANK YOU!!!!!!
I think it's the best move to date in the area of Houdini education.
I sincerely hope that there are more in the works.
As a side note of sorts.
At once point fairly recently I was feeling the need to get into Houdini and make some art.
Really felt inspired and emotional.
I could have “jammed” on my Hand Drum, or Sax, but I chose Houdini to work with.
I was trying to get everything working in a truly controled Houdini procedural fashion.
I kept running into barriers that were cramping my artistic inspiration.
My friend said to me “one thing to remember about Houdini, is it always tries to make you it's bitch”.
I then went back to work and just worked in a more traditional (non-houdiniesk) way.
I made some work and cured my headache.
That said, I always want to be Houdini's bitch,
I love the control and power that I have by being subservient to it's methods.
Now I feel I am one step closer to “jamming” in a truly procedural fashion.
A suggestion for a future book might be one that actually takes one through maybe 3 longer finished-production-quality projects.
That way people can really learn how to make something happen from start to finish.
This would also help with such items as “why did my normals turn into sparks that shoot out of keyboard when I did this modeling operation?”
Just a thought.
I would be interesting in consulting if anyone would be interested in further input.
Also, I love the section for “user comments” on the online help!
Very good idea!!!
Thanks to all the contributors of this fine book.
all my best
Jim Ellis
Edited by - April 6, 2006 19:59:58
Technical Discussion » Preview surface and displacement shader
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
Hey Henry,
on further inspection I think this a bug.
Don't worry though.
Just build your shaders in inside of SHOPS (instead of of obj/model/shopnet1)
and then when it's time to reference them for the actual geometry (by placeing a “shader sop”) just reference the shaders from SHOPS instead of the obj/model/shopnet1 location
So that should get you through the lessons on shops.
This will later be a problem with the creation of OTL's, but that doesn't happen until much later in the book.
Unless I'm missing something here,
this is a bug.
Anyone else have any ideas?
I'm using houdini master version 8.0.474
Jim
on further inspection I think this a bug.
Don't worry though.
Just build your shaders in inside of SHOPS (instead of of obj/model/shopnet1)
and then when it's time to reference them for the actual geometry (by placeing a “shader sop”) just reference the shaders from SHOPS instead of the obj/model/shopnet1 location
So that should get you through the lessons on shops.
This will later be a problem with the creation of OTL's, but that doesn't happen until much later in the book.
Unless I'm missing something here,
this is a bug.
Anyone else have any ideas?
I'm using houdini master version 8.0.474
Jim
Technical Discussion » Preview surface and displacement shader
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
Hi Henry,
actually it's a bit confusing.
here's the trick that got it to work for me.
1) Forget about all OBJECTS/OBJ and GEOMETRY/SOPS sops for a sec,
(primarily where you have been working in this book)
and in a window change from OBJECTS/OBJ and jump into SHOPS (select from the top pull down menu). Put down your Polka Dots and Choppy Water shaders here inside of SHOPS.
2) Now change the dropdown menu back to GEOMETRY/Sops, jump into your object and place a “Shop Network”. Jump inside it and you should have access from the “shops drop down menues” at the top (in the stow bar) of the viewport window. The left one is for “Polka DOts” and the middle one is for “choppy water”
This threw me for a bit. I don't think it's a bug though, but it might be.
Jim
actually it's a bit confusing.
here's the trick that got it to work for me.
1) Forget about all OBJECTS/OBJ and GEOMETRY/SOPS sops for a sec,
(primarily where you have been working in this book)
and in a window change from OBJECTS/OBJ and jump into SHOPS (select from the top pull down menu). Put down your Polka Dots and Choppy Water shaders here inside of SHOPS.
2) Now change the dropdown menu back to GEOMETRY/Sops, jump into your object and place a “Shop Network”. Jump inside it and you should have access from the “shops drop down menues” at the top (in the stow bar) of the viewport window. The left one is for “Polka DOts” and the middle one is for “choppy water”
This threw me for a bit. I don't think it's a bug though, but it might be.
Jim
Technical Discussion » Vop texture blur? Simple yes/no/maybe?
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
Hello all,
thanks so much for the answers/clues!
Now I know.
And Jeff, yeah I knew about the COP solution…
won't work for my situation.
But thanks.
Jim
thanks so much for the answers/clues!
Now I know.
And Jeff, yeah I knew about the COP solution…
won't work for my situation.
But thanks.
Jim
Technical Discussion » Vop texture blur? Simple yes/no/maybe?
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
Hey Thanks Peter!
Yeah I know about the filtering inside the “Texture” vop, I just wanted to have selected blurring for separate color channels… and a few other tricks.
I've been looking for examples where such a thing occurs, but have not been able to find any… do you (or anyone else) know of any?
Since I've got you here and you've been so good in helping to educate me in the past… I have another related question. :twisted:
In Vops I keep running into this “Grid Patterning” on my textures. At first I thought it was a matter of resolution, but I've had it happen with High-Rez “.pic” files before. In certain cases it's almost like someone took a “Graph Paper Lines” and placed them over the image.
I have included a couple stills where this is happening in a minor way.
stillA: A “Texture” vop run directly into the “Cf” of the “Output” vop. Notice around the right hand side of the outer eye, you can see this “grid” I'm talking about.
StillB: “Bump Map” to “Lighting Model” to “Output”. This time you can see it a bit more all over the surface.
thanks again
Jim
Yeah I know about the filtering inside the “Texture” vop, I just wanted to have selected blurring for separate color channels… and a few other tricks.
I've been looking for examples where such a thing occurs, but have not been able to find any… do you (or anyone else) know of any?
Since I've got you here and you've been so good in helping to educate me in the past… I have another related question. :twisted:
In Vops I keep running into this “Grid Patterning” on my textures. At first I thought it was a matter of resolution, but I've had it happen with High-Rez “.pic” files before. In certain cases it's almost like someone took a “Graph Paper Lines” and placed them over the image.
I have included a couple stills where this is happening in a minor way.
stillA: A “Texture” vop run directly into the “Cf” of the “Output” vop. Notice around the right hand side of the outer eye, you can see this “grid” I'm talking about.
StillB: “Bump Map” to “Lighting Model” to “Output”. This time you can see it a bit more all over the surface.
thanks again
Jim
Technical Discussion » Vop texture blur? Simple yes/no/maybe?
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
Hello all,
I'm not sure how simple this one is (most likely very simple)
but I'm looking to add a blur to Vops.
Anyone who cares to assist most certainly is thanked in advance.
here is my basic setup:
A “texture” vop runs through some other vops and is piped into the “Cf” of the output.
what I want to do:
Right before the network gets piped into the “Cf” of the output, I'd like to pull a blur on the texture.
I would have thought there would just be a “Blur” vop, but no.
So I assume this is rather simple if you are already have some knowledge of text based shading language. I've poked around for quite a while, and still haven't figured this one out (shader newbie).
thanks
Jim
I'm not sure how simple this one is (most likely very simple)
but I'm looking to add a blur to Vops.
Anyone who cares to assist most certainly is thanked in advance.
here is my basic setup:
A “texture” vop runs through some other vops and is piped into the “Cf” of the output.
what I want to do:
Right before the network gets piped into the “Cf” of the output, I'd like to pull a blur on the texture.
I would have thought there would just be a “Blur” vop, but no.
So I assume this is rather simple if you are already have some knowledge of text based shading language. I've poked around for quite a while, and still haven't figured this one out (shader newbie).
thanks
Jim
Technical Discussion » same object: different UV coordinates for alpha and diffuse
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
thanks Simon
that did the trick!
Unfortunately the “layered shader” doesn't have multiple bump inputs,
so it's up to me to build one in vops. Also some “texture tiling symmetry” options would be nice. I don't know why the folks at SideFX didn't build that into their “layered Shader”.
But now that I know about (and how to use) the “layer” sop, I can build that into my shader with the “shading layer” vop.
One thing though. I could only get the “layer” sop to work prior it's associated “uv texture” sop.
thanks again
Jim
that did the trick!
Unfortunately the “layered shader” doesn't have multiple bump inputs,
so it's up to me to build one in vops. Also some “texture tiling symmetry” options would be nice. I don't know why the folks at SideFX didn't build that into their “layered Shader”.
But now that I know about (and how to use) the “layer” sop, I can build that into my shader with the “shading layer” vop.
One thing though. I could only get the “layer” sop to work prior it's associated “uv texture” sop.
thanks again
Jim
Technical Discussion » Inflatable object. Any suggestions ?
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
Matrixman's reply seems like a good one.
Another technique to creating your blend shapes might be a simple “lattice”.
Another technique to creating your blend shapes might be a simple “lattice”.
Technical Discussion » same object: different UV coordinates for alpha and diffuse
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
thanks for the info Simon,
but after hours of futzing with the “layer” sop, I'm still just as lost… actually more so.
The help for the “Layer sop” requests that “you should consult your open GL manual”. Since there are no examples of how to actually use this sop (in a chain or otherwise), the help was of very little help.
I did my best to do things logically, and then simply tried trial and error. I only ended up with error. I couldn't even get two colors to blend.
What is the exact placement in the chain (in regards to my example above)?
I assume it's after the “shader” sop.
Are two “shader” sops used or only one?
I imagine I could eventually figure this next one out, but since I've never used layer sop before, and I'm running into these basic problems… it's got me second guessing myself.
What would the actual settings in the layer sop be to get my desired affect? Again, I thought I knew this one once I placed the sop down, but after trying every conceivable variation, I don't even trust my own judgment anymore.
thanks again
Jim
but after hours of futzing with the “layer” sop, I'm still just as lost… actually more so.
The help for the “Layer sop” requests that “you should consult your open GL manual”. Since there are no examples of how to actually use this sop (in a chain or otherwise), the help was of very little help.
I did my best to do things logically, and then simply tried trial and error. I only ended up with error. I couldn't even get two colors to blend.
What is the exact placement in the chain (in regards to my example above)?
I assume it's after the “shader” sop.
Are two “shader” sops used or only one?
I imagine I could eventually figure this next one out, but since I've never used layer sop before, and I'm running into these basic problems… it's got me second guessing myself.
What would the actual settings in the layer sop be to get my desired affect? Again, I thought I knew this one once I placed the sop down, but after trying every conceivable variation, I don't even trust my own judgment anymore.
thanks again
Jim
Technical Discussion » same object: different UV coordinates for alpha and diffuse
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
Hi All,
There must be a simple way to do this, and please forgive this question if it seems overly obvious… but I'm a lone artist trying to work on his film.
What I have is one object.
What I need to do is have two different sets of “UV coordinates” : one for the diffuse map, and one for the alpha/transparency map.
This will allow me to move around the diffuse map all I want, but the alpha/transparency map stays stationary (the transparency giving me the effect of “torn edges”on a rather boring piece of geometry)
To complicate matters, I need to use a vop shader that I created.
So using a pre-existing layered shader isn't going to work (I think).
So my initial attempt was simply to place a “UV texture” sop into a “shader” sop (the shader sop has the alpha). Then I piped this into another “UV texture” sop, and then piped that into another “shader” sop (this new shader sop has my Diffuse map). Of course it didn't work, but I don't think I'm yet up to speed enough to try attempt to edit my “vop shader” to allow for different UV coordinates… if it's possible.
any help would be much appreciated.
The simpler the solution the better.
thanks
Jim
There must be a simple way to do this, and please forgive this question if it seems overly obvious… but I'm a lone artist trying to work on his film.
What I have is one object.
What I need to do is have two different sets of “UV coordinates” : one for the diffuse map, and one for the alpha/transparency map.
This will allow me to move around the diffuse map all I want, but the alpha/transparency map stays stationary (the transparency giving me the effect of “torn edges”on a rather boring piece of geometry)
To complicate matters, I need to use a vop shader that I created.
So using a pre-existing layered shader isn't going to work (I think).
So my initial attempt was simply to place a “UV texture” sop into a “shader” sop (the shader sop has the alpha). Then I piped this into another “UV texture” sop, and then piped that into another “shader” sop (this new shader sop has my Diffuse map). Of course it didn't work, but I don't think I'm yet up to speed enough to try attempt to edit my “vop shader” to allow for different UV coordinates… if it's possible.
any help would be much appreciated.
The simpler the solution the better.
thanks
Jim
Technical Discussion » Water drops
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
Hello Harlequin,
I'm down with what you're doing.
Unfortunately I'm a beginner in many ways to Houdini….
but I couldn't help but try to aid you after such a….
(well I won't say it) response.
My lame attempt to aid you in such a manner.
But hey, we all have to start somewhere, and I can certainly empathize given the (sometimes) rudimentary questions I post.
Since you want scales,
you could set up some form of mathematic division based on distance of object to collision plane, or vice versa.
Same mathematical division that Pythagoras shot his wad on. Distance=harmonics and basic subdivisions… or even Micro-tonal.
The distance-harmonic can be as large or small as need be to gain the affect you want… as long as it adheres to the basic divisional equation.
I think the first steps are to create a particle system that releases particles at some form of interval (automated or animated).
These particles will be allowed to collide with only the surface that you choose them to collide with.
A collision event could be created, that triggers a sample (wav or aiff) with a trigger chop that references the collision event (the particle hitting the surface.
An object (such as a sphere) could then be attached to the particle (as well as a meta-object that works as a “magnet-deformer”) to push and pull on the surface it's colliding with.
If this doesn't make much sense, check out the old PDF tutorials available on the side-fx “community page”. Check out the “chops” and “pops” tutorials. Many of these are written for older versions, so they can be a bit of a pain in the neck, but if you can decipher how things may have been updated, it's a really key source of info.
Also there is a great chop that is called the “Oscillator” that actually creates synthetic tones and is initially set-up to conform to the western scale.
You can also have Midi input and output through Houdini. You can trigger animation, or use animation to trigger sound. Far-freakin out blah!
also check out “www.derivitiveinc.com” for realtime performance solutions in a Houdini-esk software.
Hope that helps
Visual music baby!
Jim Ellis
I'm down with what you're doing.
Unfortunately I'm a beginner in many ways to Houdini….
but I couldn't help but try to aid you after such a….
(well I won't say it) response.
My lame attempt to aid you in such a manner.
But hey, we all have to start somewhere, and I can certainly empathize given the (sometimes) rudimentary questions I post.
Since you want scales,
you could set up some form of mathematic division based on distance of object to collision plane, or vice versa.
Same mathematical division that Pythagoras shot his wad on. Distance=harmonics and basic subdivisions… or even Micro-tonal.
The distance-harmonic can be as large or small as need be to gain the affect you want… as long as it adheres to the basic divisional equation.
I think the first steps are to create a particle system that releases particles at some form of interval (automated or animated).
These particles will be allowed to collide with only the surface that you choose them to collide with.
A collision event could be created, that triggers a sample (wav or aiff) with a trigger chop that references the collision event (the particle hitting the surface.
An object (such as a sphere) could then be attached to the particle (as well as a meta-object that works as a “magnet-deformer”) to push and pull on the surface it's colliding with.
If this doesn't make much sense, check out the old PDF tutorials available on the side-fx “community page”. Check out the “chops” and “pops” tutorials. Many of these are written for older versions, so they can be a bit of a pain in the neck, but if you can decipher how things may have been updated, it's a really key source of info.
Also there is a great chop that is called the “Oscillator” that actually creates synthetic tones and is initially set-up to conform to the western scale.
You can also have Midi input and output through Houdini. You can trigger animation, or use animation to trigger sound. Far-freakin out blah!
also check out “www.derivitiveinc.com” for realtime performance solutions in a Houdini-esk software.
Hope that helps
Visual music baby!
Jim Ellis
Technical Discussion » Vop Tile/Mirror texture?
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
Hey Mario,
thanks so much!
I checked out your example, pretty cool.
Very kind of you to make that for me…
and you're right, trying to explain that in an email without a actual scene example would have been exceedingly complicated!
It seems as if the main key to making this example work was the “Inline Code” vop, in which the user implements vex code.
It will take me a bit of time to deconstruct exactly what you did (and to decipher the vex code) but once I do that, it seems I could really build off of this “starting structure” that you gave me.
This example will also be really helpful in my education in vops/vex.
thanks again
Jim Ellis
thanks so much!
I checked out your example, pretty cool.
Very kind of you to make that for me…
and you're right, trying to explain that in an email without a actual scene example would have been exceedingly complicated!
It seems as if the main key to making this example work was the “Inline Code” vop, in which the user implements vex code.
It will take me a bit of time to deconstruct exactly what you did (and to decipher the vex code) but once I do that, it seems I could really build off of this “starting structure” that you gave me.
This example will also be really helpful in my education in vops/vex.
thanks again
Jim Ellis
Technical Discussion » Vop Tile/Mirror texture?
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
Gave it a shot.
The “Clamp” Vop doesn't inhibit the streaking of the pixels (unless I'm missing something).
The other suggestion of the “Fraction” vop didn't really seem to do anything at all when placed either before or after the “UV_transform” vop. I'm not really sure what this particular vop is suppose to do.
In the “help” it says:
“Computes the fractional component of the argument.
This operator computes the fractional component of the argument. This is equivalent to (val - floor(val)).”
Being new to shader writing this leaves me scratching my head. I wish there was a good example of this in use, so I would have a better idea of how it works in application not in theory which is new to me.
You said I could use this to “wrap the UV's” myself. When hooked into the chain (as you suggested) all parameters were grayed-out, and it didn't seem to do anything.
There was my attempt at what your kind suggestions Edward.
Did I miss something?
thanks again
Jim Ellis
The “Clamp” Vop doesn't inhibit the streaking of the pixels (unless I'm missing something).
The other suggestion of the “Fraction” vop didn't really seem to do anything at all when placed either before or after the “UV_transform” vop. I'm not really sure what this particular vop is suppose to do.
In the “help” it says:
“Computes the fractional component of the argument.
This operator computes the fractional component of the argument. This is equivalent to (val - floor(val)).”
Being new to shader writing this leaves me scratching my head. I wish there was a good example of this in use, so I would have a better idea of how it works in application not in theory which is new to me.
You said I could use this to “wrap the UV's” myself. When hooked into the chain (as you suggested) all parameters were grayed-out, and it didn't seem to do anything.
There was my attempt at what your kind suggestions Edward.
Did I miss something?
thanks again
Jim Ellis
Technical Discussion » Vop Tile/Mirror texture?
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
Thanks much Edward!
I thought of doing it in Cops, but there are other mad modifications that I want to perform to this that need to be on the Vex level.
I know that Vops/Vex can reference cops, but I'm really trying to build a solid shader that I don't have to enter into Cops every time I need to use it. Seems like it should be easy enough to do.
I'll try out your suggestions.
Since I'm new to Vops I would never have thought of what you suggested.
Sounds like it should work, makes sense to me.
I'll type back and let you know how it goes.
thanks again!!!
Jim Ellis
I thought of doing it in Cops, but there are other mad modifications that I want to perform to this that need to be on the Vex level.
I know that Vops/Vex can reference cops, but I'm really trying to build a solid shader that I don't have to enter into Cops every time I need to use it. Seems like it should be easy enough to do.
I'll try out your suggestions.
Since I'm new to Vops I would never have thought of what you suggested.
Sounds like it should work, makes sense to me.
I'll type back and let you know how it goes.
thanks again!!!
Jim Ellis
Technical Discussion » Vop Tile/Mirror texture?
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
Hi all.
I'm attempting to create a shader using Vops that will tile/mirror a texture. I don't know VEX, and am new to Vops in general. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
Perhaps this is really simple, but I'm not having any luck with it. The idea is that I want to have the image repeat at least twice in U and V, and be able to control how each duplicate image is placed. In other words, I want to have the ability to control the rotational values independently for each copy of the image in each of the four corners of the shader space.
Think of it like four images on a screen, one in each corner. I want to be able to control how each image is rotated and scaled, but they never occupy any more/less screen space than one quarter of the screen. I want this kind of control for my textures. If I scale the entire screen down, I get more copies of those four screens around the edges of the original. The easiest solution would be to create four “texture” vops, scale them down in size, place them in each corner, merge them together, and then pipe that into a single “Texture” Vop, but you can only place a “string” value into a texture vop.
So I went about attempting to build a VOP that will have the image duplicated four times (one in each corner of the UV space). I don't want to have to loose the ability to “Repeat” the “wrap” effect (if I scale down my UV's in a “UV_Texture” sop) because this is crucial for creating more copies of the image.
I've been able to make it tile into four copies of the image by:
1) bringing in a “Shading Layer” Vop and running the UV's into four separate “UV_Transform” Vops, which scale the size of the UV, so that each transform occupies 1/4th (or one of the texture space corners) of the area that will be merged together.
2) Each “UV_Transform” is then piped into the S and T of 4 separate “Texture” Vops that are set to “Decal” for their “Wrap” parameter.
3) So the outputs of these are merged into 2 separate “Color Mix” vops.
4) the 2 “Color Mix” vops are then merged into another “Color Mix” vop, and then the output is multiplied by 4 (to brighten everything back up again), and this gets piped into the main output.
This does not give me what I'm after because I've lost my “Repeat” function (when I scale the UV's in a “UV_Texture” sop) by having to be forced to use a “Decal Wrap” for each “Texture” vop. The “Decal” setting was the only means by which I could find to avoid “pixel smearing” on the edges when initially scaling down the UV's in the “UV_transform” vop.
Also any inversions/rotations of UV for each of “the corners” tends to be rather messy (playing with the pivots here might help this).
Again, what it really seems like I need to be able to do is take my output, and run it as the input of another “Texture” Vop. Condensing four Texture Vops into One! The Final “Texture Vop” could then have it's “Wrap” set to “Repeat”, and all would be great… birds would sing, children would dance… but the input of a “Texture” vop does not allow RGB/RGBA values in… only a “String Values”. Sigh.
I've built a great “Tiling Gadget” for “Touch” (Real-time Houdini like performance tool), but it implemented an “off camera rendering trick” that can only be achieved in “Touch”… or so I believe.
If I get this one figured out (with maybe some help from any of you) I'll post it to the “exchange” page of the Houdini Community.
thanks loads.
Jim Ellis
I'm attempting to create a shader using Vops that will tile/mirror a texture. I don't know VEX, and am new to Vops in general. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
Perhaps this is really simple, but I'm not having any luck with it. The idea is that I want to have the image repeat at least twice in U and V, and be able to control how each duplicate image is placed. In other words, I want to have the ability to control the rotational values independently for each copy of the image in each of the four corners of the shader space.
Think of it like four images on a screen, one in each corner. I want to be able to control how each image is rotated and scaled, but they never occupy any more/less screen space than one quarter of the screen. I want this kind of control for my textures. If I scale the entire screen down, I get more copies of those four screens around the edges of the original. The easiest solution would be to create four “texture” vops, scale them down in size, place them in each corner, merge them together, and then pipe that into a single “Texture” Vop, but you can only place a “string” value into a texture vop.
So I went about attempting to build a VOP that will have the image duplicated four times (one in each corner of the UV space). I don't want to have to loose the ability to “Repeat” the “wrap” effect (if I scale down my UV's in a “UV_Texture” sop) because this is crucial for creating more copies of the image.
I've been able to make it tile into four copies of the image by:
1) bringing in a “Shading Layer” Vop and running the UV's into four separate “UV_Transform” Vops, which scale the size of the UV, so that each transform occupies 1/4th (or one of the texture space corners) of the area that will be merged together.
2) Each “UV_Transform” is then piped into the S and T of 4 separate “Texture” Vops that are set to “Decal” for their “Wrap” parameter.
3) So the outputs of these are merged into 2 separate “Color Mix” vops.
4) the 2 “Color Mix” vops are then merged into another “Color Mix” vop, and then the output is multiplied by 4 (to brighten everything back up again), and this gets piped into the main output.
This does not give me what I'm after because I've lost my “Repeat” function (when I scale the UV's in a “UV_Texture” sop) by having to be forced to use a “Decal Wrap” for each “Texture” vop. The “Decal” setting was the only means by which I could find to avoid “pixel smearing” on the edges when initially scaling down the UV's in the “UV_transform” vop.
Also any inversions/rotations of UV for each of “the corners” tends to be rather messy (playing with the pivots here might help this).
Again, what it really seems like I need to be able to do is take my output, and run it as the input of another “Texture” Vop. Condensing four Texture Vops into One! The Final “Texture Vop” could then have it's “Wrap” set to “Repeat”, and all would be great… birds would sing, children would dance… but the input of a “Texture” vop does not allow RGB/RGBA values in… only a “String Values”. Sigh.
I've built a great “Tiling Gadget” for “Touch” (Real-time Houdini like performance tool), but it implemented an “off camera rendering trick” that can only be achieved in “Touch”… or so I believe.
If I get this one figured out (with maybe some help from any of you) I'll post it to the “exchange” page of the Houdini Community.
thanks loads.
Jim Ellis
Technical Discussion » Mantra: Bump-Vex render issues (help... anyone know.)
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
Hey All,
thanks for the replies!
I certainly appreciate them!
As I said… I am new to VEX, and I think my problem could be pilot error….
but I'm not sure yet.
How embarrassing… but we all have to start somewhere/sometime I suppose.
I think it could be the actual bump maps repetition is forming strange tiling issues on the edges that just happen to harmonize with the “bucket size”.
The relative relation of the tiling to the bucket size made me initially think there could possibly be a problem with rendering bump maps on Meta objects with Mantra. This (or course) I now doubt.
I'm just now getting back to the scene to trouble-shoot it on this recently devised notion.
I'll type back and let you know what I find.
Thanks again for your help given to this VEX newbie.
all my best
Jim
thanks for the replies!
I certainly appreciate them!
As I said… I am new to VEX, and I think my problem could be pilot error….
but I'm not sure yet.
How embarrassing… but we all have to start somewhere/sometime I suppose.
I think it could be the actual bump maps repetition is forming strange tiling issues on the edges that just happen to harmonize with the “bucket size”.
The relative relation of the tiling to the bucket size made me initially think there could possibly be a problem with rendering bump maps on Meta objects with Mantra. This (or course) I now doubt.
I'm just now getting back to the scene to trouble-shoot it on this recently devised notion.
I'll type back and let you know what I find.
Thanks again for your help given to this VEX newbie.
all my best
Jim
Technical Discussion » Mantra: Bump-Vex render issues (help... anyone know.)
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
hello all,
I'm new to (but excitedl/sickly) working in VEX.
I have a very simple shader with a bump map that is being applied to Meta objects.
When I render (in the background or foreground with mantra) there is this rendering artifact.
You know how when you render, your image fills in little “box” increments (I don't know what it's called), until eventually you have an entire frame/image from these little separately calculated rendered boxes. Well these little boxes are leaving strange “grid patterns” on the edges of each box. So in the end, my render looks like graph paper. Each box leaves a funny outline.
This only happens when I use the bump map.
Even when my bump map settings are extremely low,
and the “Displace Bound” (on the obj level) is set high,
this effect still shows up.
Here is a link to an image that this happened with:
http://www.emsh.calarts.edu/~jim/bogus.1.jpg [emsh.calarts.edu]
This happens in Houdini version 7.0.348 for windows (and a previous version of 7 as well).
anyone run into this one before?
any help/insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Jim Ellis
I'm new to (but excitedl/sickly) working in VEX.
I have a very simple shader with a bump map that is being applied to Meta objects.
When I render (in the background or foreground with mantra) there is this rendering artifact.
You know how when you render, your image fills in little “box” increments (I don't know what it's called), until eventually you have an entire frame/image from these little separately calculated rendered boxes. Well these little boxes are leaving strange “grid patterns” on the edges of each box. So in the end, my render looks like graph paper. Each box leaves a funny outline.
This only happens when I use the bump map.
Even when my bump map settings are extremely low,
and the “Displace Bound” (on the obj level) is set high,
this effect still shows up.
Here is a link to an image that this happened with:
http://www.emsh.calarts.edu/~jim/bogus.1.jpg [emsh.calarts.edu]
This happens in Houdini version 7.0.348 for windows (and a previous version of 7 as well).
anyone run into this one before?
any help/insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Jim Ellis
Houdini Lounge » live realtime animation performance (Touch) at Club Moog L.A
- Jim Ellis 2001
- 60 posts
- Offline
A new dance club,
“Club Moog” (A tribute to the space-tastical early days of electronic
music),
is having its grand opening this Friday (2-4-05 from 9:00pm-2:30am)
at the “Infusion Gallery” on Gallery Row in Los Angeles.
Myself (Jim Ellis) http://emsh.calarts.edu/~jim/ [emsh.calarts.edu]
and
“I is the Mondi” http://www.dyskinetic.com/ [dyskinetic.com]
will be performing an extended live-animated-visual set,
re-mixed by a surprise VERY special guest.
I will be primarily using “Touch” (Houdini's real-time relative)
http://www.derivativeinc.com/home/home.asp [derivativeinc.com]
while Mondi (recently voted one of the “Top 10 Students to Watch” by REZ
magazine)
will be performing with a stunning real-time application of his own
creation.
Other visuals of the evening performed by:
Floppy Ghost Arm, Innerspace OuterSpace, and Mr. Steve McQueen.
DJ's include:
Flem
Hypnotique
Lance Rock
Fluffy the DJ
Theremin performance by Sukho Lee of Sexu Roba.
Club Moog/Infusion Gallery:
Located on Gallery Row
828 South Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90014
***Alley Entrance***
Donations at the door
before 10 - $4.00
after 10 - $7.00
Hope to see you there!
“Club Moog” (A tribute to the space-tastical early days of electronic
music),
is having its grand opening this Friday (2-4-05 from 9:00pm-2:30am)
at the “Infusion Gallery” on Gallery Row in Los Angeles.
Myself (Jim Ellis) http://emsh.calarts.edu/~jim/ [emsh.calarts.edu]
and
“I is the Mondi” http://www.dyskinetic.com/ [dyskinetic.com]
will be performing an extended live-animated-visual set,
re-mixed by a surprise VERY special guest.
I will be primarily using “Touch” (Houdini's real-time relative)
http://www.derivativeinc.com/home/home.asp [derivativeinc.com]
while Mondi (recently voted one of the “Top 10 Students to Watch” by REZ
magazine)
will be performing with a stunning real-time application of his own
creation.
Other visuals of the evening performed by:
Floppy Ghost Arm, Innerspace OuterSpace, and Mr. Steve McQueen.
DJ's include:
Flem
Hypnotique
Lance Rock
Fluffy the DJ
Theremin performance by Sukho Lee of Sexu Roba.
Club Moog/Infusion Gallery:
Located on Gallery Row
828 South Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90014
***Alley Entrance***
Donations at the door
before 10 - $4.00
after 10 - $7.00
Hope to see you there!
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