ive decided to start posting some inspirational links
....some of the stuff out there blows my mind !
Ian Worrel and Co. - wow !
Timelapse snails
incredible pencil sculptures
Petri Dish Art !
Love and Theft
Octopodi
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
PBR test 2
and the seond images is the same but with a colour limit applied - and then equalised by the preview in the 'IPR' / renderview - which takes the gamma right down to .172 something...something....
note the self illuminted tube isnt darkened - the image is / was linear from Houdini.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
matching the plate
instead of doing what i used to do and line up geo
in the viewport - albeit a big one, with a bg image plate...
now i make my objects render with a wireframe
shader, and zoom in on the region i need to match
and render only that little area.
With a wire frame shader - on the geometry it becomes really
quick - almost intereactive - so in one view i can edit or transform my geometry and in the other i can see the wireframe render update over the plate and i can get a much better match.
* rendering at 2048x1172 gives you much clearer idea if your geo is accurate anough - but theres no point if your rndering at less res than your screen res - you may as well just line it up in the viewport ! :)
...kinda reminds me of using max's virtual viewport. :)
you can do a virtual viewport in Houdini as well...a post for another day.
in the viewport - albeit a big one, with a bg image plate...
now i make my objects render with a wireframe
shader, and zoom in on the region i need to match
and render only that little area.
With a wire frame shader - on the geometry it becomes really
quick - almost intereactive - so in one view i can edit or transform my geometry and in the other i can see the wireframe render update over the plate and i can get a much better match.
* rendering at 2048x1172 gives you much clearer idea if your geo is accurate anough - but theres no point if your rndering at less res than your screen res - you may as well just line it up in the viewport ! :)
...kinda reminds me of using max's virtual viewport. :)
you can do a virtual viewport in Houdini as well...a post for another day.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
copy stamp play
experimenting with new techniques and re-appropriating methods is too much fun !.
this is simply some static scattered
cubes with a motion blur attribute randomly stamped on them.
less cubes, less motion blur
regarding the maya to houdini pipeline:
animation is brought in via the fbx format
(NB in the fbx import options check `unlock vertex cache`
otherwise all the animation will be saved in the Houdini file resulting in very large hip files rather than referenced on disk like it should be)
also check 'import directly to /obj' to bring the nodes directly into the root level of houdini thus bypassing a useless encapsulating layer of hierarchy
so far we have been starting a new blank session of Houdini to import the fbx files
and then copying and pasting the relevant nodes made by this fbx import into ANOTHER houdini session which is setup for Houdini specific geometry caching and rendering.
the models come into Houdini automatically with a vertex cache SOP that links the model with its associated animation CHOP (channel operator) to give it the life that puts bread on out tables.
By default the path to the animation involves the object name in it
(in the choppath parameter)
such as :
../../fbx_chops/MDL_tongue02_chopfile
the fbx import process automatically adds "_chopfile" to the end of the name
after sourcing the object name (tongue02) in this case which makes our live kinda esier once we get our heads around whats happening
we can then replace this path with this :
`"../../fbx_chops/" + opname("..") + "_chopfile"`
we've split up the string adding quotes and + signs to concatenate it .
the cmd 'opname' looks at the objects name in question procedurally and automagically
derives it - no matter which object we are dealing with.
".." is like 'the node, one level up from where we are now' - just like unix.
the single quotes around the expression force it to evaluate.
this new expression can then pasted onto ALL the vertex cache SOPS in every animated object - and pasted all in one hit using the attribute spreadsheet.
when the animation in Maya is updated or changed, we simply copy in the CHOP network *ONLY* and as long as no object names have changed in maya - we can link the new animation from maya to the old models in Houdini (essentially the same models - because they cant change point count). The Chop netwotk name shouldnt change either - but if it does - we just change our expression to suit.
why cant we just past in the new animation network and all the paths will automatically connect as they are ? well we could....but if there is any old fbx animation networks hanging around in houdini, it will add a '_1' increment to the name and break the path.
why cant we just remove the "_1" from the name of the animation network ?
we could but any paths that are specific - or explicit or not using an expression
will automatically update to follow the current fbx animation it is connected to, in an attempt to keep the paths connected.
So if we ever have 2 or more fbx animation networks in the one houdini file - it can easily be broken. This is avoided with the expression meaning we only have one name to keep an eye on one name - the fbx CHOP subnet name.
this gives us a workflow to simply update animation from maya by coping and pasting one node from one Houdini file to another and hopefully everys at the pub by 6 pm with a beer in there hand and smiles on there faces :)
----------------------------------------------
we could also just go into the fbx animation node and simply copy all the CHOP nodes, then paste them into the old fbx_chops subnet node (*after* deleting all the old ones to avoid houdini's automatic renaming) which is even easier !
animation is brought in via the fbx format
(NB in the fbx import options check `unlock vertex cache`
otherwise all the animation will be saved in the Houdini file resulting in very large hip files rather than referenced on disk like it should be)
also check 'import directly to /obj' to bring the nodes directly into the root level of houdini thus bypassing a useless encapsulating layer of hierarchy
so far we have been starting a new blank session of Houdini to import the fbx files
and then copying and pasting the relevant nodes made by this fbx import into ANOTHER houdini session which is setup for Houdini specific geometry caching and rendering.
the models come into Houdini automatically with a vertex cache SOP that links the model with its associated animation CHOP (channel operator) to give it the life that puts bread on out tables.
By default the path to the animation involves the object name in it
(in the choppath parameter)
such as :
../../fbx_chops/MDL_tongue02_chopfile
the fbx import process automatically adds "_chopfile" to the end of the name
after sourcing the object name (tongue02) in this case which makes our live kinda esier once we get our heads around whats happening
we can then replace this path with this :
`"../../fbx_chops/" + opname("..") + "_chopfile"`
we've split up the string adding quotes and + signs to concatenate it .
the cmd 'opname' looks at the objects name in question procedurally and automagically
derives it - no matter which object we are dealing with.
".." is like 'the node, one level up from where we are now' - just like unix.
the single quotes around the expression force it to evaluate.
this new expression can then pasted onto ALL the vertex cache SOPS in every animated object - and pasted all in one hit using the attribute spreadsheet.
when the animation in Maya is updated or changed, we simply copy in the CHOP network *ONLY* and as long as no object names have changed in maya - we can link the new animation from maya to the old models in Houdini (essentially the same models - because they cant change point count). The Chop netwotk name shouldnt change either - but if it does - we just change our expression to suit.
why cant we just past in the new animation network and all the paths will automatically connect as they are ? well we could....but if there is any old fbx animation networks hanging around in houdini, it will add a '_1' increment to the name and break the path.
why cant we just remove the "_1" from the name of the animation network ?
we could but any paths that are specific - or explicit or not using an expression
will automatically update to follow the current fbx animation it is connected to, in an attempt to keep the paths connected.
So if we ever have 2 or more fbx animation networks in the one houdini file - it can easily be broken. This is avoided with the expression meaning we only have one name to keep an eye on one name - the fbx CHOP subnet name.
this gives us a workflow to simply update animation from maya by coping and pasting one node from one Houdini file to another and hopefully everys at the pub by 6 pm with a beer in there hand and smiles on there faces :)
----------------------------------------------
we could also just go into the fbx animation node and simply copy all the CHOP nodes, then paste them into the old fbx_chops subnet node (*after* deleting all the old ones to avoid houdini's automatic renaming) which is even easier !
Monday, March 1, 2010
some opscript
from odforce...
mental note to self:
"You can always run
opscript -r -b /obj/*
that will show you all the commands needed to reproduce the object networks in a script format.."
mental note to self:
"You can always run
opscript -r -b /obj/*
that will show you all the commands needed to reproduce the object networks in a script format.."
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