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Learn how to use the Paint Instances LOP in Solaris to place and edit asset instances directly in the Houdini viewport. This tutorial covers setting up an asset catalog, adding assets as prototypes, placing cactuses on terrain, working with USD point instancers, and using place and paint brushes to build a natural scene layout.

You’ll also explore practical techniques including brush scaling, random rotation, density control, fill brushes, lasso-based scattering, edit-last-stroke adjustments, delete and replace modifiers, and refining instance placement around existing objects. This workflow is valuable for artists who want more direct, art-directable control when scattering assets and creating natural, lived-in environments in Solaris.

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CREATED BY

PArcara09
PETER ARCARA

SideFX Training Lead

More from Peter Arcara

COMMENTS

  • LukeP 3 weeks, 1 day ago  | 

    Absolutely love those how to videos. Should be a how to for every topic in the manual, including foundational and overview of ever node!

  • Mirko Jankovic 3 weeks, 1 day ago  | 

    Trying to follow along, but when I try to add to:saguaro_instances node from asset catalog nothing happens, it does not want to add instances to paint instance node at ll...

    • PArcara09 3 weeks ago  | 

      Hi there. I just opened my scene file that was shared, and I think the issue is that the assets aren't in a folder, and are just sitting at the top level of the unzipped folder. Try this:

      1) Put all of the extra files (assets and database files) into a folder named "usd".
      2) Within that new "usd" folder, make another folder named "assets".
      3) Move all of the asset folders in the new new "assets" folder.

      I think that the problem is that my database files assumed that folder structure, which wasn't properly carried over to the ZIP file. I'm going to reupload a new ZIP as well.

    • PArcara09 3 weeks ago  | 

      There should also be an updated ZIP now if you or anyone else is still running into this issue.

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