I'm curious if anybody has had success using Houdini for clothing design and draping, ala Marvelous Designer. As far as I can tell there are two big workflow obstacles:

1. Setting up a pattern in Houdini is a pain since the curve tools are pretty awkward. How would you create a rectangle and then bezier curve only one edge, for example?
2. Vellum Drape seems to require an equal number of points on each side of a welded seam. MD just lets you connect edges. I can't imagine it's practical to go through every single seam and somehow make sure they all have the same number of points.

Am I missing something? I've seen the Houdini flamenco dress example and it looks great. I'm sure it's possible to make this work (since Houdini can basically do everything), but is there any hope of having things be anywhere near as easy as MD?

1) Yeah, curve tools aren't the best but maybe you can import?
2) Do you need vellum drape? In case you do I think it should be possible to create equal pts procedurally. That seems like a classic houdini task. Probably there's no ready-made solution for your specific case but it's the kind of thing that occurs frequently in a studio environment. I think it should be doable.

Soothsayer
1) Yeah, curve tools aren't the best but maybe you can import?
2) Do you need vellum drape? In case you do I think it should be possible to create equal pts procedurally. That seems like a classic houdini task. Probably there's no ready-made solution for your specific case but it's the kind of thing that occurs frequently in a studio environment. I think it should be doable.

Ah good idea about importing. I could create the design in Illustrator and then SVG > Maya > geo. Or maybe Houdini can handle SVG, will have to check.

If that works out then the only real obstacle is fiddling with points. Is there a way to remesh with specific edge point count? Definitely seems like the perfect task for Houdini. Alternatively, maybe it's good enough to weld some points if the edges aren't equal and then remesh or fuse the result.

The thing that got me thinking about this is the new (amazingly good) vellum brush in 18.5. Seems like such a great setup for creating character clothing if I can get a good workflow set up.

Ohh, I figured it out. There are two nodes, Planar Patch and Planar Patch from Curves, that give you specific point counts along edges. Fantastic! That makes the Houdini Draw Curve node somewhat bearable, but I tried going the Illustrator > Maya > Houdini route and that works great too.

Edited to add a proof of concept. Some refinements need to be made but overall the process is pretty manageable. Planar Patch is a lifesaver. Certainly not quite as easy as MD, but being able to go in with the Vellum Brush afterwards is awfully nice.

BrianHanke
.. but I tried going the Illustrator > Maya > Houdini route and that works great too.

Hello,
You can also save “eps” file directly from illustrator and read them in houdini with the “file” node.

julca
Hello,
You can also save “eps” file directly from illustrator and read them in houdini with the “file” node.

Oh nice, that works great. I tried importing the AI file as well (the Houdini docs say it's possible) but it didn't work.