How to do this in Houdini (2d lattice deform)

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Hi

I am coming from Blender, where I had developed a work flow that I liked for a specific task. I am struggling to replicate that workflow in Houdini, and wondered if anyone could point me in the right direction.

The task is “projecting” multiple objects (e.g. small, sub-divided cubes) downwards onto a curved surface (e.g. a squashed sphere).

What I would do in Blender is attach these objects to a lattice with only 2 dimensions, and then shrinkwrap that lattice onto the surface of the curved object. See these screenshots which… hopefully make it clear what I mean…(let me know if not).





Using this method, the small objects deform, slightly, to match the curved surface, but they otherwise retain their shape. That isn't essential, I would settle for them rotating to match the target surface normal, but the aim of the game is to essentially “stick” the small objects to the target one.. There may be 100s of the small objects.

I can't seem to do this in Houdini, mainly because I don't think you can create a 2d lattice like you can in Blender.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? I've been looking through the available SOPs, but can't find what I want.

Cheers for any help
Edited by uHaughtyGrayAlien - 2020年7月19日 05:11:23

Attachments:
lattice_example_before.png (197.3 KB)
lattice_example_after.png (157.9 KB)

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Hi,

You can try something like this:

Attachments:
deform.hiplc (157.3 KB)

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Hello ,
I think you could use point deform this way
plug your boxes into the first slot , the rest grid into second and projected one (like with a ray sop) on the third
then change the minimum point number to be 4 and the max to 10 for example and change the radius of influence….

Haha sorry , same answer twice , ive been too slow !
Edited by Benjamin Lemoine - 2020年7月19日 12:48:40

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SharedScreenshot.jpg (279.2 KB)

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Oh wow, thank you both. Point Deform looks like exactly what I was searching for.

Really appreciate it, thank you.
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