hi,

i'm a relative newb to Houdini, studying animation for a semester at uni, and want to animate on top of a live action film short.

most of the shots have the camera static, but a couple have the camera panning. i'm not supposed to use another software package for the entire process (nor could i afford one), and have no idea how to go about this.

i used adobe premiere 6 to edit the original footage, so now have an AVI and a premier file, only to then discover that Houdini does not import files like this. how do the professionals (and me if i don't go mad in the meantime) get the video into the background to accurately animate the models so they interract with their surroundings?

as far as i could see, i would have to import individual images for each frame or in steps of 25 (PAL) and display on a surface that covers the background so i could see the movement (or if not, just display the file in the background), then composite the final render with the live action background footage.

also, if i have to generete images of the frames, what's the best way to do that?

is there an easier way?

i've searched the forums and google for an answer to this, sorry if this is a dumb question…

I think you just about have it right.
Just make a sequence of frames, save them out of premiere to a directory and load them in via file cop and reference that as a background image in your viewports, or you can directly point the background at the same sequence on disk. If you load it via cops though you can manipulate it, should you need to, before displaying it. Houdini won't import the sequence it just references it, so there is no overhead other than the files having to be on disk. They can be jpgs though if you like and so they shouldn't take up too much disk space.

thanks simon,

that helps a lot, saves me scartching around and sleepless nights in front of comp trying to find a better way

I think as a rule of thumb with houdini there are always 10 ways to do things, it's not worth stressing too much about which is the right way, pick a way that suits you and use it. Then if at some point in the future it doesn't do everything you need it will be easy to change, that's Houdini's strength.