EMBEDDING HOUDINI DIGITAL ASSETS
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Embedding Houdini Digital Assets

Houdini Digital Assets or HDAs are a big deal in Houdini. Digital assets allow you to turn your networks into reusable custom nodes with their own user interface. You can think of them as a preset but way more powerful. Really more like a plugin. As a matter of fact, many of the common nodes we use everyday day are themselves HDAs. A great deal of the tools in the GameDev Toolset are HDAs with of course some code magic. They are great for workflow and creating assets is quite fun too since you don’t need to know how to […]

Using The Houdini Shell Utility icp
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Using The Houdini Shell Utility icp

I’m a command line guy. Anytime I need to modify or convert images in bulk, rename images or even move images when you render 5000 frames to the Desktop I reach for a shell. If a tool is not available, I just whip up a quick Bash script to do some work. Now, there is definitely no shortage of image modification or conversion utilities and applications. You may have a favorite app you always reach for or you may do it the hard way of opening up that bulky image editor to do the modifications or conversions. What does this […]
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Redo Node Operations in Houdini Revisited

Well, this is embarrassing. Another one of those, staring you right in the face type of things. Or when you have a hammer, you want to nail stuff. Remember our last #QuickTip and how we did this little process to reselect or redo the operation on an node? Well, that is still valid for certain nodes, however there is a better way to achieve the same. Waaaay better. The Little Arrow You may have thought that redoing an operation on a node was rather cumbersome. Agree, not the most straight forward way of doing it. Have a look at the following […]

Abstract image
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Redo Node Operations in Houdini

So here is something you most likely encounter at some point. We know we can go back and change the parameters of nodes in Houdini. That’s the beauty of its procedural workflow. However, what happens when you’re working with groups or a node that is affecting a certain set of primitives or points and you decide you need to modify the selection? In other words, you want to subtract or add to the group’s set for example. In this #QuickTip we will see how to redo node operations in Houdini.   The Problem Let’s say you are working on some […]

Different Ways to Randomize Scale in Houdini
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Different Ways to Randomize Scale in Houdini

So when I first started learning Houdini I would jump in and try to recreate simple scenes that I would often do in Cinema 4D. One of them was to randomize uniform scale on a bunch of geometry. Simple enough. I would start to create the scene and then realize I had no clue how to do it. WTF! It can’t be that hard to randomize scale in Houdini.   Well, it isn’t. It’s actually really easy. I just didn’t know about one important attribute known as @pscale. I bet if you’re just starting out, you have fallen victim to […]

Creating Spare Parameters in a Python SOP
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Creating Spare Parameters in a Python SOP

The other day I was watching Just One of the Guys and suddenly I thought how would you go about creating spare parameters in a Python Sop in Houdini. I mean, we know that in our trusty VEX Wrangles, we write a line of code, click on that little thingamajig and suddenly we have our custom parameter. However, I don’t remember seeing one of those in a Python SOP. Hmmm… Anyways, today I’ll go exactly over that!  We will be creating spare parameters in a Python SOP and connect the Python code to the parameter. A little different than in […]
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Quickly Jump to VOP Inputs and Outputs in Houdini

These days I find myself in Wrangles more than I do in VOPs. I also prefer seeing the code as opposed to using the visual “programming” in applications such as Houdini or Unreal Engine. However, sometimes it’s just easier to wire up some nodes or maybe you’ve received a file constructed with VOPs. Hopefully, that person was kind enough to label and name their operators. If not, it’s like diving into an unknown sea of nodes. If that’s the case, this #QuickTip will help you out and show you how to quickly Jump to VOP Inputs and Outputs in Houdini. […]

Automatically Create Redshift ROPs When Starting Houdini
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Automatically Create Redshift ROPs When Starting Houdini

Remember the 123 and 456 Python scripts that we talked about extensively here, here and here. Sure you do. Those scripts are quite handy since you can customize Houdini when starting up or when opening a scene. I make great use of them. I know when starting up Houdini I want a camera and a Mantra node so I have the scripts automatically create them for me with some default parameters already set up. However, what if you are one of the cool kids using these new fancy render engines such as Octane, Arnold or Redshift? What if you want […]

Creating Attributes with Python in Houdini
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Creating Attributes with Python in Houdini

A few questions have rolled in regarding the Mograph Multishader #QuickTip. Remember we were grabbing a bunch of images from a folder to randomly texture some geometry. One question in particular was how to have Houdini automatically determine the number of images in a folder? This would require we query the folder somehow and store the data in some variable or attribute. What better way to do this than with our friendly neighborhood programming language, Python. In this #QuickTip, we will be creating attributes with Python in Houdini to help us determine the number of objects in a folder and […]

Mograph Multishader Effect in Houdini
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Mograph Multishader Setup in Houdini Revisited

Mistakes. Mistakes are great. They help you learn and improve. As they say, if you are not failing, you are not progressing or something to that effect. In our Mograph Multishader Setup in Houdini #QuickTip, we looked at how to texture planes with random images from a folder similar to Cinema 4D’s Multishader. We are back to look at some of the things I goofed up on. Are you ready? Mistake One If you recall, our setup was rather simple. A network for our frame and a network copying our frame to a bunch of scattered points. We wrote some […]

Mograph Multishader Effect in Houdini
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Mograph Multishader Setup in Houdini

So if you run in the Mograph circles you most likely have come across the infamous random image to plane deal. You know the one. The one where you take a folder full of images and map them to individual planes. I know I’ve had my share of it. Sure enough, I was asked to do it again recently. Normally, I would reach for Cinema 4D and quickly set it up. However, I wanted to try it in Houdini since I figured this would be a piece of cake. There are probably multiple way of dealing with this setup in […]
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Setting up Bash/WSL for Houdini on Windows

If you are a UNIX nerd like me, you were probably jumping for joy the day Microsoft WSL was announced. Now you have access to lots of the UNIX goodies that your Mac and Linux friends have. I love myself a Bash shell and it’s one of the main reasons I prefer Mac and Linux or Windows. However, now I can make life easier for myself by using Bash on Windows. In this #QuickTip, we will be setting up Bash/WSL for Houdini on Windows. I’ll show you how to set up Windows to initialize the Houdini environment and have access to […]