Hello,
Is there a way to ‘bake’ particle simulations into polygonal mesh geometry in Houdini? If this is not possible, can particle systems be converted to point clouds that can be surfaced? I am aware that fluid simulations can be made into polygon soups but I have yet to find information on whether particles systems can also be converted into editable geometry, much like Maya's nparticles can. My goal is to obtain tangible geometry that can be further edited using Houdini's modeling tools or other software.
I'll appreciate any assistance or insights. Thanks so much.
How to convert particle sim into mesh or point cloud
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- fpopxd
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- edward
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Houdini's particles systems just operates on points with special geometry attributes. So the information you seek doesn't technically exist because there's no “conversion” necessary. Just directly surface your particle system.
If you use the tools on the Particle Fluids shelf tool, nodes to surface the particle system into polygon soups are automatically created in /obj/particle_fluid or /obj/fliptank_fluid, etc. objects. If you go inside these, just display the “convertvdb1” node. In short, this is done by using a VDB From Particle Fluid SOP to generate a VDB from the points, and then the VDB is converted into a polygon soup. Ditto for the Ocean FX shelf.
To drive this point home. Here's two examples.
Example A
- Ctrl+click on the shelf tool, Create > Box.
- Jump inside in the network view pane.
- Append the VDB From Particle Fluid node
- Append the Convert VDB node, set the Convert To parameter to Polygon. Set the display flag (blue) on this node.
- Now you have 4 points surfaced
- Go back to the VDB From Particle Fluid node and change the particle separation to 0.5, this now produces a single “blob” because their radii now touch/overlap each other.
Example B
- Ctrl+click on the shelf tool, Particles > Fireworks
- In the network view pane, navigate to /obj/fireworks_particles/import_fireworks
- Append the VDB From Particle Fluid node
- Append the Convert VDB node, set the Convert To parameter to Polygon. Set the display flag (blue) on this node.
- Change the frame to 200 for some interesting looking particles to surface
If you use the tools on the Particle Fluids shelf tool, nodes to surface the particle system into polygon soups are automatically created in /obj/particle_fluid or /obj/fliptank_fluid, etc. objects. If you go inside these, just display the “convertvdb1” node. In short, this is done by using a VDB From Particle Fluid SOP to generate a VDB from the points, and then the VDB is converted into a polygon soup. Ditto for the Ocean FX shelf.
To drive this point home. Here's two examples.
Example A
- Ctrl+click on the shelf tool, Create > Box.
- Jump inside in the network view pane.
- Append the VDB From Particle Fluid node
- Append the Convert VDB node, set the Convert To parameter to Polygon. Set the display flag (blue) on this node.
- Now you have 4 points surfaced
- Go back to the VDB From Particle Fluid node and change the particle separation to 0.5, this now produces a single “blob” because their radii now touch/overlap each other.
Example B
- Ctrl+click on the shelf tool, Particles > Fireworks
- In the network view pane, navigate to /obj/fireworks_particles/import_fireworks
- Append the VDB From Particle Fluid node
- Append the Convert VDB node, set the Convert To parameter to Polygon. Set the display flag (blue) on this node.
- Change the frame to 200 for some interesting looking particles to surface
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