I need the lattice because the body and head is one mesh. My blendshapes aren't done in Houdini, i do them in Zbrush (fast/accurate). I was planning on doing about 80 or so base shapes on the face and to have the body in the same file is just silly and will take up unnecessary disk space.
So cut the head off the body, sculpt, and then use the lattice to re-attach after the blendshapes.
I use the “sopcreateedit” function to turn the external fileSops into edits that just store the deltas so i can use the “Assume Morph Network Setup” and “Assume Only Coordinate Changes In Input” but these changes have marginal speed improvements.Not to mention i will need to have corrective shapes and have this all driven in the viewport by control objects.
Do you not have speed problems with this setup or is it just me?
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Houdini Lounge » Character Animation...Blendshape, Lattice SOP speed??!!
- phrenzy84
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Houdini Lounge » Character Animation...Blendshape, Lattice SOP speed??!!
- phrenzy84
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So over the years i have played around and tested Houdini's rigging capabilities and sops that work with them.
And one thing that i constantly find is the speed of these sops really dissuade me for using it in character animation. You can optimize you scene as much as possible but there comes a point where you need a certain level of detail to work with.
For example Blendshapes can become incredibly slow, and forget about any automation, even for straight forward networks the speed of evaluation can become very painful. And in animation, for whatever features you build into a rig it is almost irrelevant if it doesnt update at a decent framerate.
Ie
I create a bunch of blendshapes for a character and to save on memory, they are only on a model of just the head. Then i use a lattice sop to attach the head to the body at (displayed rendertime) so the head can be animated a fast as possible.
I dont expect the lattice to work super fast in the viewport keeping everything together but it is incredibly slow, but even the simple poses on the head become very slow to work with.
Is this an area that others are looking to see improvements? Character animation in general sometimes feels a little neglected from update to update. Im always waiting for some new UI possibilities or new handles because I can really see Houdini give Maya/XSI a run for their money.
And one thing that i constantly find is the speed of these sops really dissuade me for using it in character animation. You can optimize you scene as much as possible but there comes a point where you need a certain level of detail to work with.
For example Blendshapes can become incredibly slow, and forget about any automation, even for straight forward networks the speed of evaluation can become very painful. And in animation, for whatever features you build into a rig it is almost irrelevant if it doesnt update at a decent framerate.
Ie
I create a bunch of blendshapes for a character and to save on memory, they are only on a model of just the head. Then i use a lattice sop to attach the head to the body at (displayed rendertime) so the head can be animated a fast as possible.
I dont expect the lattice to work super fast in the viewport keeping everything together but it is incredibly slow, but even the simple poses on the head become very slow to work with.
Is this an area that others are looking to see improvements? Character animation in general sometimes feels a little neglected from update to update. Im always waiting for some new UI possibilities or new handles because I can really see Houdini give Maya/XSI a run for their money.
Technical Discussion » Houdini Rendering Times
- phrenzy84
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TheLexx
Thanks protozoan.
I guess Houdini is more for big film studios with lots of computers. If one person or small studio wanted to make a Houdini film, are there options to speed up the rendering process eg specialist equipment or online render farm ?
No this is the incorrect way to think. Mantra is fast but because Houdini has a lot of options and controls you can slow it down without having that much of an effect of the final render.
I can render a face with 4k color/spec/reflec/displace/sss textures, tessellated to around a millions polygons with Subdivision surfaces, with HDR environment lighting and an Area light in just over a minute. I could knock that time even lower if i tried harder to optimize my scene. All of this is I do on one machine.
I could also increase the render times a great deal without much of a difference.
edit/ just read you are new to cg, sorry if i am using a lot of word you might be unfamiliar with. But really my message is the same. Also the reason why big studios use Houdini is because of the freedom it allows. Many packages struggle to do what Houdini can. And an experienced user can take advantage of what Houdini has to offer.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Is Wren now locked off for HD users?
- phrenzy84
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Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Is Wren now locked off for HD users?
- phrenzy84
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Title kinda says it all.
I was doing some toon experimenting and now i get “Output driver not supported in Apprentice version”
Am i doing something wrong?
I was doing some toon experimenting and now i get “Output driver not supported in Apprentice version”
Am i doing something wrong?
Houdini Lounge » Houdini and Multi UV Tiles
- phrenzy84
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Yep its a pain .
I'm not quite sure i fully understand you when you say named UV sets? You you referring to my naming “face”, “back” “L_Leg” etc? I only do that to make it easy on file referencing usually the naming is just character_diff_u$v$.tif
Is there anything i can do the make this easier/streamlined?
I'm not quite sure i fully understand you when you say named UV sets? You you referring to my naming “face”, “back” “L_Leg” etc? I only do that to make it easy on file referencing usually the naming is just character_diff_u$v$.tif
Is there anything i can do the make this easier/streamlined?
Houdini Lounge » Houdini and Multi UV Tiles
- phrenzy84
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The most efficient way i have dealt with this is through VOP's.
I use UV transforms and TwoWay's to turn textures on or off. It's kind of a pain but it works. I have tried to get the Multi Parm list working in the parameter editor, so all i need to do is click the “+” icon to add a texture and set the UV space but i failed.
Maybe i should give it another shot because switching over to H12.5 i had to re-edit my skin setup. And bundling this into a VOP asset, would make things a lot easier.
Here is what most of my parameters on my skin shaders look like
edit/ I am interested in seeing Robert's method too.
I use UV transforms and TwoWay's to turn textures on or off. It's kind of a pain but it works. I have tried to get the Multi Parm list working in the parameter editor, so all i need to do is click the “+” icon to add a texture and set the UV space but i failed.
Maybe i should give it another shot because switching over to H12.5 i had to re-edit my skin setup. And bundling this into a VOP asset, would make things a lot easier.
Here is what most of my parameters on my skin shaders look like
edit/ I am interested in seeing Robert's method too.
Houdini Lounge » Why is Houdini so awesome?!?
- phrenzy84
- 249 posts
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Personally i find applications that have an almost equal balance of both artistic and technical backgrounds are the most successful in securing the largest possible userbase. Modo for example has a strong artistic side with a technical backup where as Houdini has a strong technical side with an artistic sidekick.
With users of Maya you can be an artistic user or a technical one, this is the type of goal i think it would be good for SESI to achieve without compromising what they have achieved so far.
I feel that if Houdini would improve such things like its UI customization (by that i am talking about custom UI's for rigs like persistent sliders in the current version of Houdini but better) and its animation tools we would would see an even wider adoption to compliment its other artistic tools.
With users of Maya you can be an artistic user or a technical one, this is the type of goal i think it would be good for SESI to achieve without compromising what they have achieved so far.
I feel that if Houdini would improve such things like its UI customization (by that i am talking about custom UI's for rigs like persistent sliders in the current version of Houdini but better) and its animation tools we would would see an even wider adoption to compliment its other artistic tools.
Houdini Learning Materials » Short OP videos, yay or nay?
- phrenzy84
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Some operators are easier to use than others. But when it comes to operators especially SOP i find the help invalueable along with its example files.
Houdini Lounge » Please SESI,add a layered version of Mantra Surface material
- phrenzy84
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Or as an alternative, should someone create something like this and upload it to orbolt, SESI could approach them asking to include it in the main package. If the specific user isn't willing then so be it but im sure many would be happy to have their creations included in a build of Houdini.
Technical Discussion » Shadow matte material working with Sky enviroment background
- phrenzy84
- 249 posts
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Hey there,
Quick question, i dont know how to get the Shadow matte material to work when the background is generated by Sky environment map.
It would be great to get results straight in mplay rather than having to move over to cops.
cheers
Quick question, i dont know how to get the Shadow matte material to work when the background is generated by Sky environment map.
It would be great to get results straight in mplay rather than having to move over to cops.
cheers
Technical Discussion » High-frequency details: Bump or displacement mapping?
- phrenzy84
- 249 posts
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I don't see why you are deliberating so much over what seems like a simple decision. Bump mapping ill yeild the same results for less render time and computation. I'd say do it
Houdini Lounge » noodle shape
- phrenzy84
- 249 posts
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Work in Progress » Character - Hitch
- phrenzy84
- 249 posts
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I will, still need to fix certain things. As you might see in this blendshape test there is some wierdness with the displacement i need to fix.
Obviously lots more to do.
Obviously lots more to do.
Technical Discussion » Is there no way to compute & render just a single channe
- phrenzy84
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Hey guys, i resurrected an old thread on this topic a while back and never really got a solution.
Is there anyway to render out just a single channel or a selected few instead of computing everything and extracting the images planes you want.
ie I just want the multi SSS channel and thats it, everything else can remain the same. Yet i have to render it all. Apart from ripping shaders apart so thats the only thing that will calculate is there no way to render out just the image planes you require?
Is there anyway to render out just a single channel or a selected few instead of computing everything and extracting the images planes you want.
ie I just want the multi SSS channel and thats it, everything else can remain the same. Yet i have to render it all. Apart from ripping shaders apart so thats the only thing that will calculate is there no way to render out just the image planes you require?
Houdini Lounge » Rigging
- phrenzy84
- 249 posts
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Technical Discussion » how do you fix displacement artifacts?
- phrenzy84
- 249 posts
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There is actually lots of content there regarding displacement bounds, not to mention the forums. Using search can help find these topics.
This is one of many pages that help set it up.
http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini12.1/howto/sopocean [sidefx.com]
But again, this is no file nor screenshot to be able to identify the problem. This might not even be the solution to your problem.
This is one of many pages that help set it up.
http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini12.1/howto/sopocean [sidefx.com]
But again, this is no file nor screenshot to be able to identify the problem. This might not even be the solution to your problem.
Technical Discussion » how do you fix displacement artifacts?
- phrenzy84
- 249 posts
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Technical Discussion » how do you fix displacement artifacts?
- phrenzy84
- 249 posts
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A pretty well documented subject, im sure you will be able to find alot of threads on the topic. Sounds like a Displacement Bound issue, but i have no idea, no screenshot, no file.
Houdini Lounge » Houdini 13 Wishlist.
- phrenzy84
- 249 posts
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Speaking as an “artist”, while some areas might need be little tweaks here an there for the more artsy inclined people. (ie an improvement to the sculpt node to have a Move feature, so one could actually sculpt the guide hairs, or something like ).
The way Houdini works speaks more to me than say a program like Maya (or Cinema 4d in your case). Being able to work in a truly non-linear fashion is more art driven then anything else i can imagine. It just takes getting used to and really benefits the users that take the time to comprehend how to manipulate the power is available to them.
Oh and one thing that need an update HELP.
Its really good, but there are a few holes here and there and not to mention the python documentation.
The way Houdini works speaks more to me than say a program like Maya (or Cinema 4d in your case). Being able to work in a truly non-linear fashion is more art driven then anything else i can imagine. It just takes getting used to and really benefits the users that take the time to comprehend how to manipulate the power is available to them.
Oh and one thing that need an update HELP.
Its really good, but there are a few holes here and there and not to mention the python documentation.
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