For VEX/VOPs, I would recommend trying to stick to VOPs at the beginning if you are just starting (and you are trying to do “simple” operations). Although you sometimes feel like you can just “code” something really quick, the beauty of Houdini is that you do not have to. This will allow you to learn “vocabulary” without having to worry about “syntax”

After you get comfortable with the vocabulary, then I feel learning the syntax for vex code is much easier, as you will know what you want to do, and are just trying to figure out how to do it in VEX instead of VOPs. At that point, like BlackPixel said, you can always make a quick vopnet, right click on it, view vex code, and find the syntax to the function you were looking for. VEX is actually a lot like shading languages (HLSL, GLSL), so when I use a snippet, I tend to get into “shader writing” mode (although some of the new array stuff borrows from python, and some of the sprint manipulation stuff is very C based). You can also click on the small drop down menu on the right of your code box to see some quick examples

I started Houdini before snippets even existed, and learned a lot of my vex by using VOP networks… and I am glad I did I feel for me once I got comfortable with VOPs, that was the moment at which I simply could not go back to other software (doing stuff in Maya right now feels like I am moving in slowmo…)

wow, these look really nice! One recommendation I would have is to see if you can make the slime more gradually dissapear into the work as the worms move far away from each other (right now it looks like the slime simply dissapears). Some slime in the table would be awesome too! looking great!

Hey Werner, have you looked at the texture bake ROP node? if you are using the one in 15.5 it should be a lot more straighforward than the one in 15.0

I would have to +1 this. Tutorials are great to learn “vocabulary” (and you can still watch them), but putting Houdini to a practical use is easily the BEST way to learn it. In my first days learning Houdini, I would force myself to solve problems at work in Houdini, while still watching (just watching, not “following and doing”) tutorials to learn vocabulary and helped a lot

also keep in mind that there are MANY ways to solve problems in Houdini, and the first solution that you come up for something will seem obsolete after a year of using it. Enjoy! it's been a fun ride since I got into it!

Great job with this Werner and co! looking forward to see what you guys have coming in the future!

ah thank you for the clarification Andrew. Next time I may actually try to use this when I need to pass transform instances (was using the instance node before)

mh… based on what you have here… perhaps the operator internally “closes” the curve to get a winding order? (which is not possible on a straight line?) what happens if you start with a straight line, then move the last point over a bit (to allow for an L shape) ?

hey guys, I noticed this on the journals:

Maya: Added support for outputting pack primitives.

How are packed prims represented in Maya? are they represented as geometry caches? a new primitive type? or simply polygons?

thank you!

Hey guys, has anyone noticed the houdini 15.5 rss feeds spamming a massive amount of duplicates? it is almost as if, for every update, we get a repeat of every changelog:

You most likely can, but depending on how you your setup works, you could make a digital asset which “hides” your whole setup under a nice and simple operator (it is really a matter of an object merge of the two objects into a subnet and setting your second object as a “phantom.” I think either way would be a valid approach

If you wanted to do it before the shader, you can actually use a copnet to modify your texture (transform or anything else ), then feed it into your material texture input using the op: syntax

opobj/cop2net/somenode

Or this for relative

op:`opfullpath(“../cop2net/somenode”)`

However, you can also in the shader transform your s and t before feeding into the texture vop without modifying uvs

(again without looking at your file so pure speculation…!)

what about just rendering the mesh twice? one with displacement (which in essence gives you a hi res model), and another one with your target UVs, then turn on normal map in the bake texture ROP?

Hey Morgan, without looking at your scene (I am at home now), have you tried the housing 15.5 version of the operator? It is MUCH easier to use…!

Super excited about this guys! I highly recommend trying it out (I been doing so on my side and providing feedback)

http://www.sidefx.com/news/substance-in-houdini/ [sidefx.com]

It is great to see a collaboration as such in between Sidefx and Allegorithmic! Your innovations are what is transforming our industry as we know it!

Thank you Andrew! That works!

Thank you, let me try feedly. I was using outlook

Hey guys, for some reason, the RSS feeds for the h15.5 journal do not seem to be working for me on outlook. Is this working for anyone?

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjOCJrhSBGUG9uqJ2rMe6ByLJcTD9Jau7 [youtube.com]

video number 2 and 8 cover those specific areas, but if you follow my playlist from the beginning, it should help you get started

Is there a way to query or turn the Asynchronous flag off programmatically before starting a maya process? I.e via setting an environment variable in python or C#?

I know in Maya, when we turn that optionVar off, it requires a restart, which made me think this would be possible?

Thank you!

Hey guys, I noticed I do not get emails anymore when someone replies to a thread which I am watching. Do we need to do something explicit now to ensure I get an email notification?

thank you!