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Houdini Jobs » Procedural Modelers at Zoox
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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Thanks, applied yesterday if you accept contract/remote. I'm developing a city asset system myself for a personal project.
Technical Discussion » Pose Library Errors
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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So anyone know what these errors mean? One is with a stock rig by control MMB dragging to blend the poses. The other is a custom character rig with poses I set up as a test…I can't get custom built poses to input on the timeline, but can on the stock rigs…
Technical Discussion » Bone Mirroring - automate with Python?
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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goldfarb
you can make a quick shelf tool for this
make a new shelf tool and pop this into the script tab:# get the selection nodes = hou.selectedNodes() for node in nodes: y = node.parm("ry").eval() * -1 z = node.parm("rz").eval() * -1 node.parm("ry").set(y) node.parm("rz").set(z)
this will change the “ry” and “rz” values on any selected node
THANKS!!!
Technical Discussion » Bone Mirroring - automate with Python?
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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Hello all,
I'm working on a tutorial for bone rigging for game meshes (stock houdini rigs/workflows on tutorials aren't game friendly). One part of the lesson is avoiding a -1 scale by manually mirroring bone nodes (the mirror tool in Houdini mirrors with a -1 scale which causes issues when sharing the rig with other programs).
Anyway I was wondering if there's a way to automate what I'm doing below, which is after copying the right side bones to the left, I multiply the bones' Y and Z axis by negative one to get a manual mirror while retaining a +1 scale. For the record, you CAN NOT freeze the transforms as the -1 scale Houdini applies is in the capture bone tab, not the transform tab.
I'm wondering if there's a way to automate this in Python. I do not know python but want to keep the graph CLEAN and free of for each loops and constraints and references to avoid problems when exporting to other software as that has been a source of frustration when exchanging Houdini rigs back and forth.
Would anyone know the code to create what I'm assuming is a for each loop with a * wildcard tageting bone nodes ending in _L, then create a variable for it's Y axis, create a variable for it's Z axis, then set the Y axis to the Y variable*-1, then set the Z axis to be the Z var *-1 ?
8 Minutes into the video is what I'm referring to…the link is set to start at 8 mins but isn't working.
I'm working on a tutorial for bone rigging for game meshes (stock houdini rigs/workflows on tutorials aren't game friendly). One part of the lesson is avoiding a -1 scale by manually mirroring bone nodes (the mirror tool in Houdini mirrors with a -1 scale which causes issues when sharing the rig with other programs).
Anyway I was wondering if there's a way to automate what I'm doing below, which is after copying the right side bones to the left, I multiply the bones' Y and Z axis by negative one to get a manual mirror while retaining a +1 scale. For the record, you CAN NOT freeze the transforms as the -1 scale Houdini applies is in the capture bone tab, not the transform tab.
I'm wondering if there's a way to automate this in Python. I do not know python but want to keep the graph CLEAN and free of for each loops and constraints and references to avoid problems when exporting to other software as that has been a source of frustration when exchanging Houdini rigs back and forth.
Would anyone know the code to create what I'm assuming is a for each loop with a * wildcard tageting bone nodes ending in _L, then create a variable for it's Y axis, create a variable for it's Z axis, then set the Y axis to the Y variable*-1, then set the Z axis to be the Z var *-1 ?
8 Minutes into the video is what I'm referring to…the link is set to start at 8 mins but isn't working.
Edited by GaryHanna - 2018年4月1日 17:29:53
Technical Discussion » Python / HScript request
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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Can anyone help me out here
I want the pomadd handle to take on the pre transform Z axis of the “transformZ” transform node it's controlling.
I tried remapping preformx_tz:preformx_tz in the code but it doesn't work
I want the pomadd handle to take on the pre transform Z axis of the “transformZ” transform node it's controlling.
I tried remapping preformx_tz:preformx_tz in the code but it doesn't work
Technical Discussion » Handles in HDA's - how to toggle them on and off
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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Technical Discussion » Handles in HDA's - how to toggle them on and off
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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Hello all,
I exported several handles to an HDA I'm working on and I need them to toggle on and off automatically according to what the user specifies in the ordered menu, I can't get it to work nor can I find any documentation on what to do.
I see in the binding's tab there's an onoff parameter but nothing happens when I try to put in a boolean. And the coding for “hide when” or “disable when” doesn't work with handles, only parameters…I've had that put into the translation parameters the handle is controlling but it doesn't hide the handles. For the record I'm not a programmer so not sure if this is even a scripting issue, but figured there's at least be a user friendly option.
I exported several handles to an HDA I'm working on and I need them to toggle on and off automatically according to what the user specifies in the ordered menu, I can't get it to work nor can I find any documentation on what to do.
I see in the binding's tab there's an onoff parameter but nothing happens when I try to put in a boolean. And the coding for “hide when” or “disable when” doesn't work with handles, only parameters…I've had that put into the translation parameters the handle is controlling but it doesn't hide the handles. For the record I'm not a programmer so not sure if this is even a scripting issue, but figured there's at least be a user friendly option.
Houdini Engine for Unreal » UE4 Crashes when using Heightfield Erode
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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It's too processor intensive. Timeshift Node to select a single frame after your erode node followed by a file cache node to create a new file with the erode features burnt in helps.
Houdini Engine for Unreal » UE4 World Composition w/ Houdini
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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dpernuit
Hi,
Unfortunately, HDA containing tiled landscapes (via the Tile Split nodes) won't work with world composition:
When imported in UE4 via the plugin, they will give you properly sized/placed landscapes, with layers, and thanks to the upper/lower tile overlap parameters Chris mentioned above, without any overlap.
But the World composition system in Unreal only works with image files, and wont accept Landscape Actors.
(our original goal was to try to hook up tiled heightfields directly to World composition, but until it gets some form of update, this wont happen as the system really expect manual user interaction…)
The only solution you have is to bake out the Heightfields to image files via the heightfield output node, using the x_y naming convention expected by Unreal.
Ok thanks. I tried doing it via level streaming (not world comp) per tile and did have overlaps even with the upper and lower overlaps as well as distorted height values and offsets as though it recalculated the origin based on height for each tile vs. the whole scene and didn't match when aligned. Is there a work around for level streaming and not using world comp possibly?
Houdini Engine for Unreal » UE4 World Composition w/ Houdini
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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Sorry for the late reply, but still confused.
Does this mean you can NOT use Houdini HDA's with Tile Split nodes with World Composition? IE - you would HAVE to export the tiles and layers as bitmaps then import as opposed to importing an HDA with layers automatically assigned to the landscape material?
I'd prefer not to manually hook up a few hundred landscape layer bitmaps as masks and also getting the tiling ratio is a chore - it's derived from the Unreal components ie - tile by 4033 etc but then there's the padding issue to resize the UVs by to get the layers to match.
Does this mean you can NOT use Houdini HDA's with Tile Split nodes with World Composition? IE - you would HAVE to export the tiles and layers as bitmaps then import as opposed to importing an HDA with layers automatically assigned to the landscape material?
I'd prefer not to manually hook up a few hundred landscape layer bitmaps as masks and also getting the tiling ratio is a chore - it's derived from the Unreal components ie - tile by 4033 etc but then there's the padding issue to resize the UVs by to get the layers to match.
Houdini for Realtime » Procedural Hair Cards HDA BETA RELEASE
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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Doudini
Hi Gary,
thanks for sharing the tool. It looks really great.
I must be getting old and cant seem to find the Download Link on your website for some reason.
Is it possible you can post a direct link to the zip file?
Or download on Orbolt
Orbolt Download
Edited by GaryHanna - 2017年11月15日 23:36:20
Houdini for Realtime » Procedural Hair Cards HDA BETA RELEASE
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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Doudini
Hi Gary,
thanks for sharing the tool. It looks really great.
I must be getting old and cant seem to find the Download Link on your website for some reason.
Is it possible you can post a direct link to the zip file?
DOWNLOAD on Psynema… [www.psynema.com]
Edited by GaryHanna - 2017年11月15日 23:35:24
Houdini for Realtime » Procedural Hair Cards HDA BETA RELEASE
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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vyking
Hi GaryHanna
I'm trying your asset for the hair witch is really powerful but i'd like to dive into it to see if i can make it multithread.
Is it possible to have a version of the asset with the permission to dive into it?
Cheers
The version on my site should be unlocked, I believe the Orbolt version is blackbloxed and would take a while to update but I'll get on it. In the mean time the one on my site should be open.
Psynema Download Link… [www.psynema.com]
Edited by GaryHanna - 2017年11月9日 17:46:02
Houdini for Realtime » Procedural Hair Cards HDA BETA RELEASE
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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NEO.Anderson
This May save my ass!… Thank you. will try ASAP.
Good to hear, I'd love to see the results and let me know if there's any issues please. Thanks.
Houdini for Realtime » Procedural Hair Cards HDA BETA RELEASE
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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Hello all,
I've always wanted a way to automatically make hair cards in Houdini using its hair grooming system and I've been working on one over the summer and just released the BETA version.
HAIR CARDS OTL [www.psynema.com]
The documentation is long but it's written for people who may not know Houdini well. Basically make sure your hair generate node has a hairclump node then plug it into my Hair Cards asset and experiment with the sliders. It needs to be baked in Substance Designer since that has a “bake by mesh name” feature - I made groups for each individual hair card and it's corresponding clump, so baking won't be a mess contaminated by all those hairs. Each card is baked together ONLY with its corresponding hair clump using Substance Designer's “bake by mesh name” feature as opposed to baking the entire high poly hair mesh to the entire hair card wig.
I'd love feedback and the asset is downloadable on my website link provided or it's also on Orbolt.
Last pic is rendered in iRay w/ Substance Designer. That's Houdini's hair grooming system baked onto low poly cards no handpainted touch ups at all.
I've always wanted a way to automatically make hair cards in Houdini using its hair grooming system and I've been working on one over the summer and just released the BETA version.
HAIR CARDS OTL [www.psynema.com]
The documentation is long but it's written for people who may not know Houdini well. Basically make sure your hair generate node has a hairclump node then plug it into my Hair Cards asset and experiment with the sliders. It needs to be baked in Substance Designer since that has a “bake by mesh name” feature - I made groups for each individual hair card and it's corresponding clump, so baking won't be a mess contaminated by all those hairs. Each card is baked together ONLY with its corresponding hair clump using Substance Designer's “bake by mesh name” feature as opposed to baking the entire high poly hair mesh to the entire hair card wig.
I'd love feedback and the asset is downloadable on my website link provided or it's also on Orbolt.
Last pic is rendered in iRay w/ Substance Designer. That's Houdini's hair grooming system baked onto low poly cards no handpainted touch ups at all.
Edited by GaryHanna - 2017年11月5日 15:23:39
Technical Discussion » Bake Texture issues
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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Think I figured it out - the games baker HDA in the low node (two levels in) has a bad parameter reference and can't read the low poly object specified by the user in the root of the HDA. Dug into it and set it manually and appears to be working.
Edit -
Error
Python error: Traceback (most recent call last):
File “”, line 1, in
File “opdefDriver/rop_games_baker?PythonModule”, line 40, in pre_bake
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.717/houdini/python2.7libs\hou.py”, line 35323, in set
return _hou.Parm_set(*args)
PermissionError: Failed to modify node or parameter because of a permission error. Possible causes include locked assets, takes, product permissions or user specified permissions
Edit -
Error
Python error: Traceback (most recent call last):
File “”, line 1, in
File “opdefDriver/rop_games_baker?PythonModule”, line 40, in pre_bake
File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.717/houdini/python2.7libs\hou.py”, line 35323, in set
return _hou.Parm_set(*args)
PermissionError: Failed to modify node or parameter because of a permission error. Possible causes include locked assets, takes, product permissions or user specified permissions
Edited by GaryHanna - 2017年9月6日 21:46:28
Technical Discussion » Bake Texture issues
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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Anyone know why I always have issue baking textures?
Happens the past few versions w/ Houdini and w/ various projects, the attached being an example.
The BakeTexture node (high to low poly) gives me various errors, notably “Cannot UV render without normals” - but I have normals on everything. The included project is baking hair to hair cards (and yes I have checked the render flag on the guide grooms and have use sop geometry checked).
The Games Bake Texture node by Kruel et al I never got to work - it always gives me error rendering child errors.
Happens the past few versions w/ Houdini and w/ various projects, the attached being an example.
The BakeTexture node (high to low poly) gives me various errors, notably “Cannot UV render without normals” - but I have normals on everything. The included project is baking hair to hair cards (and yes I have checked the render flag on the guide grooms and have use sop geometry checked).
The Games Bake Texture node by Kruel et al I never got to work - it always gives me error rendering child errors.
Technical Discussion » Houdini and Substance Painter
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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Had a few questions…
I keep exporting FBX files to Substance Painter but it can never read the vertex colors. Anyone have any idea what's going on or any thing people generally miss? I have the FBX settings on default unless I'm supposed to change something but experimenting with all sorts of changes yields no vertex colors.
Also how do you get Substance Painter to recognize the different mesh names? I've tried group names matching with _high and _low suffixes to isolate baking to mesh parts as well as attribute primitive strings with the name of the mesh with the suffix…and Painter can't read the parts independently of one another and feels like I'm forced to explode the mesh to bake. I hope the only way isn't to have EVERY PART at the object level as that's not practical. The mesh in question I want on ONE texture sheet so no I do not want a separate material index for each single part in case anyone suggests that
As for baking internally I've tried the gameshelf baker and pointed it to my high and low mesh … it exports 256 by 256 black tiles no matter what I do despite the resolution being set to typical 2048, 4096 etc.
Thanks.
I keep exporting FBX files to Substance Painter but it can never read the vertex colors. Anyone have any idea what's going on or any thing people generally miss? I have the FBX settings on default unless I'm supposed to change something but experimenting with all sorts of changes yields no vertex colors.
Also how do you get Substance Painter to recognize the different mesh names? I've tried group names matching with _high and _low suffixes to isolate baking to mesh parts as well as attribute primitive strings with the name of the mesh with the suffix…and Painter can't read the parts independently of one another and feels like I'm forced to explode the mesh to bake. I hope the only way isn't to have EVERY PART at the object level as that's not practical. The mesh in question I want on ONE texture sheet so no I do not want a separate material index for each single part in case anyone suggests that
As for baking internally I've tried the gameshelf baker and pointed it to my high and low mesh … it exports 256 by 256 black tiles no matter what I do despite the resolution being set to typical 2048, 4096 etc.
Thanks.
Houdini Engine for Unreal » FlowMaps and Rivers
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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Sorry for the dumb question but
How exactly do you do the workflow for Flowmaps. I know there's the comb and obstacle nodes in the gameshelf, but if you wanted to copy a fluid simulation, would it be as simple as doing:
0. Timeshift/freezeframe your fluid mesh
1. Attribute transfer the velocity onto your flat river plane from your sculpted fluid sim.
2. Then with a wrangle, normalize the velocity attribute, then add the X/z values to the UVs? ie @uv += @velocity;
I know people blend the uvs back and forth - one with rest one with the distorted UVs but not sure how to do that - I mean I know how to add the layer node to create a uv2, uv3 etc, but as far as importing into unreal, the extra uv sets created in Houdini don't translate over on my meshes only showing one UV set.
For Vorticity/foam - I'm assuming you just make a vertex colored mask then blend/lerp to your content?
How exactly do you do the workflow for Flowmaps. I know there's the comb and obstacle nodes in the gameshelf, but if you wanted to copy a fluid simulation, would it be as simple as doing:
0. Timeshift/freezeframe your fluid mesh
1. Attribute transfer the velocity onto your flat river plane from your sculpted fluid sim.
2. Then with a wrangle, normalize the velocity attribute, then add the X/z values to the UVs? ie @uv += @velocity;
I know people blend the uvs back and forth - one with rest one with the distorted UVs but not sure how to do that - I mean I know how to add the layer node to create a uv2, uv3 etc, but as far as importing into unreal, the extra uv sets created in Houdini don't translate over on my meshes only showing one UV set.
For Vorticity/foam - I'm assuming you just make a vertex colored mask then blend/lerp to your content?
Houdini Engine for Unreal » UE4 World Composition w/ Houdini
- GaryHanna
- 32 posts
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dpernuit
Hi,
Both the naming issue and the heightfield output tiling issue are known bugs.
I'll let you know when they are fixed.
Unfortunately, using a HDA and a Heightfield tile node to export the data to UE4 through HEngine will not solve your issue for two reasons:
- the heightfield tile node doesn't have an option to share the edge vertices between the landscape tiles, so there will be a missing strip between each landscape. Trying to fix this by using padding on the tile node will create overlaps.
- The world composition workflow in UE4 really needs image files inputs, whereas an hda will populate a level with one or multiple landscapes.
Thanks I'll keep hitting refresh for a fix
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