hi carlos,
how's this:

n = hou.node(“/obj/geo1/blendshapes1”)
nblends = n.parm(“nblends”)
nblends.set(3)
slider1 = n.parm(“blend1”)
slider1.setAlias(“targetshape1”)
slider2 = n.parm(“blend2”)
slider2.setAlias(“targetshape2”)

-j

sorry if you've read this before…

How does one properly export deforming geometry from maya and import it into houdini in such a way that deformation motion blur works correctly with a 0.5 shutter interval?
Maya's alembic export settings: step size = 1, and FrameRelativeSample = 0.0 and 0.5
houdini is set up with camera shutter=0.5 geo_motionsamples=2

I'm getting intermittent frames with no motion blur at all, and, motion blur is as though shutter=1.0.

I know I can work around the issue by lerping the geometry sampled at the integer frame values, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to.

In the Edit Sop, if you want to move a face in a direction parallel to the normal, use the Peak Handle instead of the Transform/Rotate handle.

hey rob
here's the only way I was able to get it to work:
Edit the houdini.env file in your home/houdini12.0 directory.

define your path using the “@” symbol to mean all the standard path locations. Mine looks something like this:

HOME = “CUsers/john/Documents”
MYJOB = “CUsers/john/proj/foo”
HOUDINI_OTLSCAN_PATH = “@/otls;$MYJOB/otl;$HOME/houdini12.0/otl”

I had to define the vars used in the path *in this file*. No matter what I tried I could not get externally defined env vars to resolve from here. I was hoping to be able to change $MYJOB on the fly as I jumped from project to project and *not* have to hard code it here, but I couldn't figure it out.
Nonetheless, at least I can have my otls sitting in logical folders and not lose them.

I'd love to know if there is a syntax that is able to use a windows environment variable in this file. (%BLORT% doesn't work; $BLORT and \$BLORT all return null strings when you examine the path).

If this method doesn't appeal to you, you might want to consider using the OPLibraries file. It would have hardcoded paths to each and every one of your otls.
-j

ok, last stab at it….
sounds like all you wanted was a point constraint…
-j

looks like a bug. you should submit it.
it appears to work fine in version 10.
-j

I don't get it either. If I had to take a guess tho, I think what you want to do is have angular and linear stretch stiffness vary across the length of your wires. This would give you flexibility at one end, and stiffness at the other.

there are plenty of ways you can do this, attached is one simple method using a metaball and a magnet sop to create point colours, and then taking the CR component of the colour and making that your kangular strength.
-j

can you post a hip file? I don't think I've ever seen this kind of behavior.

interesting. probably a bug.
An approach you might consider is to use a ForEach Sop to iteratively fuse points with a gradually increasing threshold distance.

In the attached file, the distance parameter expression in the foreach sop is set to fuse up to a maximum of 1 unit:
clamp(…) * 1
if you want the threshold to be 1.5 as you originally stated, change the *1 to *1.5

Not sure exactly how you're using the looping variable in conjunction with the already randomly offset looping index value inherent in the file name. Seems redundant to carry around the extra RANDOFFSET point attribute, unless you're using it somewhere else.

This works for me:
grid->scatter->attribcreate
AttribCreate:
Name = instancefile
String = $HIP/horse_dir/horse.`padzero(4, wrap($PT + $F, 1, 100))`.bgeo

yes you are correct. when you strip out all other variables, diffuse and reflected components are simply added to produce the final output color.

If you dive into the shader you can see that the diffuse and reflected componets are combined via an Add operator.
(double-click on the mantrasurface shader, then double-click on the surfaceModel)

if you're dead set against using an expression to make an inverse relationship between diffuse color and reflected color, you could always modify the shader network to make it “automatic”.