I've been using Houdini for about two years now, and I've never dared to come here and ask for help. But I've been running into the same issue across several projects, and I'd like to both understand the theory behind it and hear how you'd work around it.
The problem, in short
Two things keep coming up:
- I can't cleanly deform a "clean" geometry (flat topology + extrusion) without pinching showing up as soon as I get to shading.
- I can't get a growth to work between a sharp topology (the clean model, the one from the modeler) and a rougher one (the kind that would be ideal for simulation).
The actual case
I have a surface with typography embedded in it. (img_1)
What I need: to trigger deformations upstream, i.e. before the typography appears. (img_2)
My current approach:
I generate a flat version of my geo, just the typography area — using a Ray. (img_3)
My ripple animation was made on a remeshed version, so I transfer it onto my Ray with a Point Deform. (img_4)
Since the flat version and the extruded one now share the same topology, I follow up with a Blend Shape. (img_5)
Here's the result once the material is applied. (img_6)
And this is where it breaks down, that area literally blows up. (img_7)
I know the result makes sense given the method. What I'm after are more elegant workarounds.
My question
How do you deform a product-type geometry, the kind of clean model a modeler hands you, meant to hold up in close-up — and apply effects like ripples to it, without going through VDBs (too heavy, and often too approximate)?
Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to look into this. Let me know if anything is unclear, I'm happy to go into more detail.
