Hi Everyone,
This is a post to talk about my video "Procedural Tool to Art Direct Your Instances"
In this video, I created a demo of an HDA Toolkit which I had made to Populate a scene using multiple caches and how the toolkit can help artists in various situations.
The OTL uses a bundle system, so we can switch between a low-resolution proxy cache and a high-resolution render cache anytime. This makes it easy for artists to preview shots, layout simulations and art direct timing as per their needs. Artists can visualize the proxy cache but render the final sim using a different null.
The setup comes with two modes.
A randomizer mode:
1. creates random variations for bundles (render cache and proxy combined is a bundle) that used during instancing.
2. creates random pscale based on min and max.
3. random roation from -360 to 360 only in Y as of now.
4. a min and max range of startframes to trigger your caches that animate.
5. Further there is a global seed value to pick to your liking.
A defined mode: This method builds menus for each point that is input and can be customized precisely to your needs.
1. There is also a global setting incase you want something by default
2. hit the enable toggle and customize only particular points
3. a dynamic menu dropdown which lists all input bundles to select from.
4. a pscale slider for that particular instance.
5. a startframe to trigger
6. a rotation value in Y as of now
Further we have provided an Override OTL which can be used to override settings when artists are in a rush. The override tool has been built just to fix small settings, create alternatives to the existing setup or input selected group of points to fix. It also comes with an option to trigger frames based on point number in sequence so an artists can trigger a row of particles on a curve.
The VEX Code is available and the OTLs are open and free to inpect. Please feel free to contact me at sharan@chakshuvfx.com with any queries or questions and customizations.
I will be upgrading the setup soon with more functions and ideas that I have.
1. Trigger caches based on a map. Artists can input a map with various colours saying (0.9, 0.7, 0.5) for sand or (0.1, 0.9, 0.8) for water etc and it will trigger the caches with variation based on the input map.
2. Further providing artists an option to paint directly within houdini so that they can just paint where they want to trigger.
3. adding more options like rotation in all axis' and min max randomizations etc.
4. randomize materials and variants.
5. the same system within the Solaris environment.
Thanks!
Sharan