Very true! I couldn’t resist so I went ahead and bought myself a license since I am an Maya user. Maya is not complete in its toolset which goes for most packages but it is faster for me to work in and if something like NEX would be developed for Houdini it sure would give it more usability.
As I have come to understand about this type of workflow enhancements it seems to mostly apply for creature/organic modelers and not so much for people in other departments. But my guess though is that animators and others would also find some of the concepts behind its functionality useful. The key is customisation.
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Houdini Lounge » H9 similar to NEX/Maya plugin.
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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Houdini Lounge » H9 similar to NEX/Maya plugin.
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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This is not a shameless plug for NEX, It is simply put the way I would want H9 to allow the user to interact with Houdini in the modeling process.
I´ve said it before in other threads but the videos cant say it better really. So if any of you Houdini developers happen to view the videos please do consider similar improvements for H9.
NEX [draster.com]
I´ve said it before in other threads but the videos cant say it better really. So if any of you Houdini developers happen to view the videos please do consider similar improvements for H9.
NEX [draster.com]
Technical Discussion » edgecups after subdivide?
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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Oh yeah, thats what I´m talking about It wasnt clear to me at first but the following procedure give desired results.
geometry–>crease–>subdivide(Generate Creases)–>edgecusp(crease group)–>delete(crease group)
it is actually equal to hard edges in other packages. The nice thing about it is it totally procedural and one can also pipe the crease group into polybevel and get fine control over edges.
geometry–>crease–>subdivide(Generate Creases)–>edgecusp(crease group)–>delete(crease group)
it is actually equal to hard edges in other packages. The nice thing about it is it totally procedural and one can also pipe the crease group into polybevel and get fine control over edges.
Technical Discussion » edgecups after subdivide?
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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Thanks for your reply Edward but grouping edges is one of the the things that I have not figured out how to do in Houdini. Is it even possible? I think I´ve seen some workaround script somewhere but no luck really. Or do you mean the creaseweight attribute on vertices? I dont know how to group that either.
Any help in that area is much appreciated
Any help in that area is much appreciated
Technical Discussion » edgecups after subdivide?
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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Is it possible to control a edgecusp after subdivision ? What I would like to do is being able to let edgecusp use the same edges defined in creaseSOP.
crease–>subdivide–>edgecusp
crease–>subdivide–>edgecusp
Houdini Lounge » Why normals aren't vertex but point in polygons?
- Mikael_Amion
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I agree with you that splitting points is an awkward approach compared to a vertex-based normal position crease.
I would like to see a solution for imported geometry with hard edges so Subdivision SOP and OpenGL display takes it into account. However not all applications are using hard edge information so cusping edges can be good in some cases. Creasing points are not working as expected either since the faces remaines smooth and not faceted, faceted with single point that is. Along with this should also be a procedural way of ordering edges. As it is now I have not found an easy way of creating a procedural network with PolyBevel since edge information is static and breaks at any change upstreams.
And as you say, keeping the legacy approach is good but introducing a vertex based is faster and gives a greater degree of ways to sharpen edges.
I would like to see a solution for imported geometry with hard edges so Subdivision SOP and OpenGL display takes it into account. However not all applications are using hard edge information so cusping edges can be good in some cases. Creasing points are not working as expected either since the faces remaines smooth and not faceted, faceted with single point that is. Along with this should also be a procedural way of ordering edges. As it is now I have not found an easy way of creating a procedural network with PolyBevel since edge information is static and breaks at any change upstreams.
And as you say, keeping the legacy approach is good but introducing a vertex based is faster and gives a greater degree of ways to sharpen edges.
Technical Discussion » Group last/first point and smooth points question.
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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Sweet. The curve files you posted nailed what I was looking for. Thank you for taking the time to reply.
Hopefully someone in the developer department see this thread and notice the smoothing issue. If it´s a bug it would be lovelly to get it working.
Cheers
Hopefully someone in the developer department see this thread and notice the smoothing issue. If it´s a bug it would be lovelly to get it working.
Cheers
Technical Discussion » Group last/first point and smooth points question.
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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Hi Wolfwood. Thanks for your detailed reply. The example with the displaced grid works fine for me as well but try to create a polygon tube and append a smoothsculpt in y axis and you´ll see that it performs the smoothing in the normals direction.
And the 0 to $N works excellent as long as the point numbers goes from zero to number of points. What I´m looking for is to group the end points in both directions even when the points have random sorting order.
Ne thoughts?
And the 0 to $N works excellent as long as the point numbers goes from zero to number of points. What I´m looking for is to group the end points in both directions even when the points have random sorting order.
Ne thoughts?
Technical Discussion » Group last/first point and smooth points question.
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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1. How can I group the last and first point on a curve? This is something the Join SOP seems do do a good job at when wrapping last to first, however I cant get my head around to find a similar pattern for grouping.
2. Is it possible to smoothsculpt points in EditSOP on explicit axis? It seems to me that it performs it on the average normal only. Even with axis selected.
Thanks
2. Is it possible to smoothsculpt points in EditSOP on explicit axis? It seems to me that it performs it on the average normal only. Even with axis selected.
Thanks
Houdini Lounge » Soft lock
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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The downside of soft locking is that it doesnt get saved with the file. At least that was the behaviour a couple of releases ago. Do you experience it?
Houdini Lounge » How would I make houdini a better modeler? Oh, I'm so glad..
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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Simon
Yes, yes, and yes - these would be really good enhancements for interactivity and speed. Please RFE them, or I will if you like.
Do feel free to RFE it Simon
Houdini Lounge » How would I make houdini a better modeler? Oh, I'm so glad..
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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I think what lisux means,if i understand right, is that we have Subdivision built into polygons and assign hotkeys so we can move up and down in Subd level in current SOP. In addition there should preferably be an option for cage or Isoline display. In other packages this is how it is done;
-XSI have +/- on to change level. Isoline display.
-3DSmax name is Nurms meshsmooth. It works the same way. Polygons with Isoline display
-Maya does not have Subd level swithing on current poly but have something called smooth proxy (works a bit like houdini)but they have hiearchial Subd´s as a unique geometry type. KBD keys 1,2,3 to change level.
-Wings3D has Subd on current polygons but you only have 1 level. Isoline display but points on cage. Shift+Tab for level switching.
-Silo has Subd on current polygon with Isoline display and point/edge/face manipulation on Isoline. C+V keys as default.
The key is to be able move the components on the lowres geometry but to have the “cage” wrapped around the divided polygons so it looks like the edges are curves that makes the boundaries similar to how it is displayed for Nurbs. Having so that you move the components on the Isoline surface and not on the cage gives you the freedom to work on the surface and not around the surface.
-XSI have +/- on to change level. Isoline display.
-3DSmax name is Nurms meshsmooth. It works the same way. Polygons with Isoline display
-Maya does not have Subd level swithing on current poly but have something called smooth proxy (works a bit like houdini)but they have hiearchial Subd´s as a unique geometry type. KBD keys 1,2,3 to change level.
-Wings3D has Subd on current polygons but you only have 1 level. Isoline display but points on cage. Shift+Tab for level switching.
-Silo has Subd on current polygon with Isoline display and point/edge/face manipulation on Isoline. C+V keys as default.
The key is to be able move the components on the lowres geometry but to have the “cage” wrapped around the divided polygons so it looks like the edges are curves that makes the boundaries similar to how it is displayed for Nurbs. Having so that you move the components on the Isoline surface and not on the cage gives you the freedom to work on the surface and not around the surface.
Houdini Lounge » How would I make houdini a better modeler? Oh, I'm so glad..
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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Wolfwood: I do use Nurbs for some models. I usually plan my nurbs model in another way since there are more strict rules but some of the enhancement for polygon workflow can also be applied for Nurbs.
Yes I am aware of it but I also have an idea on how to improve it. For each time that you select a new point the operator dialogue comes up and when you start to drag it creates a pop in the viewport. Not a big one but noticable which delayes the interactivity. Make an option to turn it off and combine it with multi component selection filter and pre highlight selection and you have a winner.
A short explaination for those who have not used multi component sel.filter it means that it can allow for selection of faces/edges/points without having to switch between them so you can have face/edge in the left stowbar or points/face or whatever you like. Combine it with pre highlight selection that gives a visual feedback by highlighting the component that you hover over, or from a optional distance in the view, then you will instantly know what component you are going to modify with minimal selection errors so you dont have to be careful.
Another,perhaps not obvious, thing that could minimize the steps to modify geometry is that since you can access the point data in each node´s spreadsheet I think it would be great to be able to manipulate point transformation not only by numerically typing it into the spreadsheet but also allowing for viewport manipulation in current node. The node gets softlocked in spreadsheet and the same could be done for the viewport.
Yes agreed, it would be great.
edward
Have you noticed that you can just turn off the handle while in the Edit tool and drag the highlighted geometry?
Yes I am aware of it but I also have an idea on how to improve it. For each time that you select a new point the operator dialogue comes up and when you start to drag it creates a pop in the viewport. Not a big one but noticable which delayes the interactivity. Make an option to turn it off and combine it with multi component selection filter and pre highlight selection and you have a winner.
A short explaination for those who have not used multi component sel.filter it means that it can allow for selection of faces/edges/points without having to switch between them so you can have face/edge in the left stowbar or points/face or whatever you like. Combine it with pre highlight selection that gives a visual feedback by highlighting the component that you hover over, or from a optional distance in the view, then you will instantly know what component you are going to modify with minimal selection errors so you dont have to be careful.
Another,perhaps not obvious, thing that could minimize the steps to modify geometry is that since you can access the point data in each node´s spreadsheet I think it would be great to be able to manipulate point transformation not only by numerically typing it into the spreadsheet but also allowing for viewport manipulation in current node. The node gets softlocked in spreadsheet and the same could be done for the viewport.
lisux
it would be great to have the option to have an “underground” subdivision SOP
Yes agreed, it would be great.
Houdini Lounge » How would I make houdini a better modeler? Oh, I'm so glad..
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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Good discussion. I beleive, and it has been mentioned before, that most of the people that want to change Houdini way of modeling are mainly organic modelers and other modelers coming from a background in another package where they have seen better/faster ways of working. All of those who have followed the increased popular discussion the last couple of years about subd techniques know that there is alot of development going on for Modo,Silo,Hexagon etc. and the main thing that they all have in common is that they increase the speed and makes the user work interactively at almost the speed of thought (no kidding it can go extremelly fast).
So from my own experience in organic modeling I think that the best way to improve Houdini modeling is to add Interactive workflow combined with the current nodebased. More operators would of course be beneficial but making so that the current toolset is faster to work with would make a whole lot of difference. Here is a few.
-Pre Highlight Selection, including brush picking.
-Multi Component Selection Filter
-Color feedback and Edge distance for Soft Radius in EditSOP.
-Interactive Path Extrusion.
-Pre visibility in tools such a Bevel,edgesplit etc. combined with cancel option.
-Sticky Keys (editable)
-Interactive Slide (probably a function in EditSOP).
-Tweak/Drag as and alternate in EditSOP
-Isoline Subd Display.
etc.
These are functionalities that of course would be optional to give everyone their choice of workflow and it would still allow for procedural topology if so desired.
Perhaps that we that have experience from other packages should put our genious brains together and do a proposal backed up with problem analysis and proposed implementations with images/videos on a single location? It could perhaps be worth the effort.
So from my own experience in organic modeling I think that the best way to improve Houdini modeling is to add Interactive workflow combined with the current nodebased. More operators would of course be beneficial but making so that the current toolset is faster to work with would make a whole lot of difference. Here is a few.
-Pre Highlight Selection, including brush picking.
-Multi Component Selection Filter
-Color feedback and Edge distance for Soft Radius in EditSOP.
-Interactive Path Extrusion.
-Pre visibility in tools such a Bevel,edgesplit etc. combined with cancel option.
-Sticky Keys (editable)
-Interactive Slide (probably a function in EditSOP).
-Tweak/Drag as and alternate in EditSOP
-Isoline Subd Display.
etc.
These are functionalities that of course would be optional to give everyone their choice of workflow and it would still allow for procedural topology if so desired.
Perhaps that we that have experience from other packages should put our genious brains together and do a proposal backed up with problem analysis and proposed implementations with images/videos on a single location? It could perhaps be worth the effort.
Technical Discussion » Copy vertex order?
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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Thanks for the reply guys.
Edward: I´ve tried both operators and with no luck really.
Antoine: What you say about the vertex order being the order for points in primitives becomes apparent when trying to convert to nurbs since it creates the U and V from the vertex order. If each polygon dont have the same direction and startingplace similar to previous face Houdini will try to create rows&columns from what is.
My idea was originally that I could perhaps Import polygonal geometry and extract “patches” from a quad only topology and create some sort of script in reverse or primitive SOP that could do something like; if any primitive VTX order is different from Primitive X then adjust order to align. Was it something like that you were able to do in Sort SOP MichaelC?
The other thought was that I could transfer VTX order from another geometry that has same amount of faces but a more desirable VTX numbering. It can of course be achieved manually with shift but it would nice to be able to automate it.
Cheers.
Edward: I´ve tried both operators and with no luck really.
Antoine: What you say about the vertex order being the order for points in primitives becomes apparent when trying to convert to nurbs since it creates the U and V from the vertex order. If each polygon dont have the same direction and startingplace similar to previous face Houdini will try to create rows&columns from what is.
My idea was originally that I could perhaps Import polygonal geometry and extract “patches” from a quad only topology and create some sort of script in reverse or primitive SOP that could do something like; if any primitive VTX order is different from Primitive X then adjust order to align. Was it something like that you were able to do in Sort SOP MichaelC?
The other thought was that I could transfer VTX order from another geometry that has same amount of faces but a more desirable VTX numbering. It can of course be achieved manually with shift but it would nice to be able to automate it.
Cheers.
Technical Discussion » Copy vertex order?
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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Hi, I am trying to find some solution to adjust imported geometry that has its primitive vertex order randomly unordered.
Is it possible to copy vertex order from one primitive to another primitive?
And if so would it be possible to copy vertex order from a singel primitive and apply it to another geometry or rest of current geometry?
Is it possible to copy vertex order from one primitive to another primitive?
And if so would it be possible to copy vertex order from a singel primitive and apply it to another geometry or rest of current geometry?
Houdini Lounge » trimming problem
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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Houdini Lounge » The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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Hi. The book “The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants by Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz and Aristid Lindenmayer” mentioned in the help files for L-systems is available online for free in .pdf format. I have not seen it mentioned before so I thought I could spread the message.
http://algorithmicbotany.org/papers/#abop [algorithmicbotany.org]
http://algorithmicbotany.org/papers/#abop [algorithmicbotany.org]
Technical Discussion » Converting trimmed paste surface?
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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Yeah I was thinking the same but didnt know if its a bug or as you say a lack of feature. I was kind of expecting it to work since it works fine in the Paste itself and Convert SOP has allways worked in most other cases. Perhaps someone in the development could elaborate on it?
Technical Discussion » Converting trimmed paste surface?
- Mikael_Amion
- 129 posts
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Maybe I´m missing something. I played around with the Nurbs toolset and notice that I cannot convert to polygons a pasted surface that has a trimmed geometry as its Feature/Spawn surface. Converting just a trimmed surface works fine though.
Is it supposed to work?
Is it supposed to work?
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