Steve's Blog

May 28, 2019 Houdini Digital Assets Youtube - Introduction to Houdini - Chapter 4- making digital assets By: Rohan Dalvi Making Digital Assets in Houdini seems to be a core part of creating a procedural model generator, so this tutorial gets into the very basics of setting one of these up. The practice used here is that you create a Null object off to the side where you "Edit the Paramter Inteferface" under the settings of the node (the gear icon). You select the type of values you want to vary (floats, ints, ramps, vectors, colors, etc.) and add those to this Null object. Specifiying a range here can be helpful to inform the user of useful values. You then "Copy Parameters" from this Null control node, and "Paste Relative Expression" to the nodes/variables that they make sense. This way, when the Null control node has its values changed, they will directly correlate with changing the designated value within your network of nodes.

May 23, 2019 C# LINQ Extension Methods Microsoft - => operator (C# Reference) Youtube - C# Tutorial 13 LINQ Extension Methods By: Derek Banas I was working on a tutorial for GPU Instancing and dynamic batching a while ago to look into some ways to visually instantiate a lot of objects in Unity without overloading the computer and there was a lot happening in the code I was unfamiliar with. The biggest parts that stood out were the " => " operator along with some list and array methods. The => operator was used within a list method called "Select", so I started looking into both of those. The name of the => operator is the lambda operator. The simplest aspect seems to be that it's a function with the parameters on the left side and the performing function on the right side. IT also seems to be used a lot with LINQ, which I am unfamiliar with.

Vimeo - Jeff’s Top 10 Features of H17 | Jeff Wagner | Houdini Illume Webinar By: SideFX Houdini This video was suggested to me as a useful reference for possibly aligning and snapping objects together. I am looking for a way to properly connect objects together for my frog generator tool so I can build the frog out of all its separate pieces.

May 21, 2019 Houdini Copy to Surface Basic Tutorial Youtube - Copy Object to Primitive Center By: Emīls Geršinskis - Ješinskis This simple tutorial is another way to project copies of objects onto the surface of another object. I came across this working on a separate part of my Houdini project, but this will come in handy very soon so I just wanted to document it.

May 20, 2019 Houdini Procedural Fence Asset Vimeo - Intro to Procedural Modeling in Houdini: Making a Fence Asset By: trzanko Notes: Projecting Curve down onto surface - make sure curve is entirely above surface first - done by transforming this up in y an amount equal to the bounding box of the terrain - can use Ray node - used wrangle - VEXpression to project curve onto terrain: vector rayd = {0, -100, 0}; vector hitP, hitUVW; int hitPrim = intersect(1, @P, rayd, hitP, hitUVW); @P = hitP; - this has every point fire a ray downward and determines where this ray intersects the terrain, and then sets that point's position to the intersection point Create Orthos - used a Polyframe node - turned off the Normal Name and reassigned the Tangent Name to "N" - this made all the point normals basically follow allong the curve - use VEXpression to direct normal vectors - used wrangle: - VEXpression: vector up = {0, 1, 0}; v@side = normalize(cross

May 18, 2019 Houdini Tutorials Procedural Assets Vimeo - Intro to Procedural Modeling in Houdini: Making a Fence Asset By: trzanko SideFX - Introduction to Procedural Modeling By: SideFX - Game Tutor Since my main issues for my procedural modeling project stem from not being familiar with procedural asset tools, I figured I should finally take that approach for my tutorial searches to help learn some new techniques. This led me to this great tutorial on creating a simple fence asset that I think will actually give me some pretty relateable tools when it comes to positioning parts for my frog generator. I am really hoping this helps me control the digits and toes of the frogs in a much nicer way. The other link is actually a series of small tutorials. I wanted to grab these as well since they cover the basics again, which is something I can still use review on as often as possible, as well as leading into the creation of a procedural stair asset. This seems fairly s

May 16, 2019 Follow Player Script for Unity Follow with Formation and Noise Vimeo - Demonstration of the FollowFormation Scripts with Noise Features By: Me This clip just shows off the different aspects and functionalities for my FollowFormation scripts so far. I was working on a system in Unity for a class project that would allow a player to collect objects around the map by running into them, and then they would follow the player around in some sort of formation. This ended up working better by splitting the concept up into two classes: Leader (on the player object) and Follow (on the following objects). Leader script Since we wanted to control the general formation of these objects as well, we'll start with the Leader script. To make a simple and easily modifiable system, we decided on making a system based on a bunch of transforms childed to the player that would serve as the formation locations. The Leader script basically just grabs all of the children ob

May 15, 2019 More Houdini Basics Add Node, Along with Basic SOPS and Loops Youtube - Houdini add node tutorial (RUS) By: Houdini Nodes Houdini - Add geometry node By: SideFX Youtube - Houdini Training - Appendix 01 - basic SOPs overview By: Gianvito Serra Youtube - Houdini Tutorial - SOP loops By: 3D Tutorials and News My procedural modeling class recommended looking into the "Add" SOP to get some webbing for my frog feet generator, and searching for this also led me to some interesting basic overviews concerning SOPs in general in Houdini. Although I don't speak Russian, the first quick video still makes sense with what is happening visually. The other videos are just really nice overviews for a lot of different SOP options available, which are going to be key for me to have a good understanding of for my frog generator.

May 13, 2019 Pixel Art Techniques Youtube - 3 PixelArt Techniques/Common Mistakes (Doubles, Jaggies & Outline) (Tutorial for Beginners) By: MortMort Pixel art is one of my go-to's when I want to do a bit of 2D art for game projects I'm working on, so this video I came across seemed helpful. This tutorial outlines a few common mistakes people make when doing simple pixel art and how to touch them up to make them look a lot nicer. A lot of it is focused on issues when making curves that either lead to weird patterns or inconsistencies. The end goes over proper outlining for sprites and how to use your outlines to emphasize certain features, like points/sharp ends.

May 12, 2019 Unity Shader Graphs Basic Tutorials Youtube - MY NEW FAVOURITE FEATURE! - Shader Graph Tutorial By: Brackeys Youtube - FORCE FIELD in Unity - SHADER GRAPH By: Brackeys These tutorials get into the basics of using the Shader Graph feature in Unity. This seems like a nice tool to have a basic understanding of to make some cool effects, so I want to check in on it at some point.

May 9, 2019 Frog Generator Houdini Project Helpful Guides Youtube - Piranhaconda - Houdini SOPs Muscle and Wrinkles Tutorial By: AuthorityFX Vimeo - Working with Noise By: SideFX Houdini Vimeo - Houdini 16 Masterclass | Custom Shading By: SideFX Houdini I am looking at creating a frog generating tool with Houdini as my final project for a procedural modeling class, so I just gathered a few tutorials that I thought might be helpful. The skin of the frogs is going to be a key feature that I don't have much experience with, so I want to look into noise and shaders and how those go together to apply there. The first video just seems like a generally helpful video for creatures, especially those without fur since the wrinkles should be much more noticeable. Frogs will also have some very visibly wrinkly locations dealing with their legs and face especially I think.

May 8, 2019 Human Fall Flat Workshop - Node Graphs Learning the Basics General Notes - Can modify button actions real time and they will adjust (press, hold, toggle) - For Connections: &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp- Syntax &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp- [GameObjectName : ScriptName] &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp- InputType : NameOfInput &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp- InputType is either Input or Output &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp- Clumped GameObjectName and ScriptName means that script is attached as a component to that gameObject - NG = NodeGraph - Node outputs of "value" &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp- generally means it's measuring some amount of something (usually normalized 0 - 1) &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp- i.e. SignalAngularVelocity has an output of "value", which is a

May 7, 2019 Dynamic Batching/GPU Instancing Following Tutorial Youtube - [Unity] GPU Instancing Tutorial By: Blendcraft Creations In Unity, the benefits of GPU instancing may not be imediately noticeable by the FPS alone in the editor. This first tutorial shows that the FPS is more properly represented in an actual build of the project. Even though this is an older Unity version, that is still good to note to test all the way through to see if you are getting the expected results. Following this tutorial appeared to work as intended, but it did have a weird issue where I couldn't create lower numbers of instances of objects. Upon inspecting the script, I determined that any number below 1000 most likely would not be rendered out based on the for loop creating the batches at start. The following code snippet is where the issue was occurring: private void Start() { int batchIndexNum = 0; List currBatch = new List (); for (int i = 0;

May 6, 2019 Scriptable Objects in Unity Basic Tutorials Youtube - Unity3D - Using ScriptableObject for Data architecture / sharing By: Unity3d College Youtube - Introduction to Scriptable Objects - Unity 2018 Tutorial By: Chris' Tutorials Youtube - How To Improve Your Game With Scriptable Objects - Unity By: Dapper Dino - Coding Tutorials I'm just saving some decent looking tutorials from starting with scriptable objects in Unity. These are something I still haven't really gotten to in Unity, and I especially want to get a handle on them since they are apparently a useful tool in passing information between scenes using the new scene management approaches in Unity.

May 5, 2019 Houdini Modeling Tutorials Spider Webs and Sine/Cosine Fun Youtube - Procedural Spider Web - Houdini Tutorial By: FX HIVE EVOLUTION Youtube - [Houdini Tutorial] 0031 Spider Web (Slow version) By: Junichiro Horikawa Side FX - FUN WITH VEX | SINE & COSINE By: ILLUSIONISTICS These are some more Houdini tutorials that are more focused on modeling. Again, this is just to help me get some ideas for my final Houdini procedural modeling project. These seemed fun and pretty simple so they're nice examaples to just get a little more practice without setting up for a huge project.

May 3, 2019 Houdini Modeling Tutorials Basic Modeling for Practice Youtube - Beginner Houdini Modeling Tutorial | Tire Model By: CGI Nerd Youtube - Low Poly Hard Surface Drone Character Houdini Modeling Tutorial By: CGI Nerd These two tutorials just cover the full process needed to make two separate models with some variability. These just look like good places to get some practice modeling in Houdini in general, exercising the basics like using a lot of nodes I already know in a new way while learning how to use a few new ones all together. I just want to get a look at a few more ways to approach overall models before deciding on a final project idea for my Houdini procedural modeling class.

May 2, 2019 Exporting Videos from Houdini Make Houdini Animations into Videos Vimeo - My Flower Blooming Animation Vimeo - Water flowers blossoming in Houdini. Tutorial + project (HIP,comp,ae) By: Mike Stoliarov I attempted to get into this large tutorial/project showin in the Water Flowers tutorial. The video is more of a time lapse than a tutorial really, so it's not the best resource to learn from. However, the video links to a downloadable version of the actual Houdini project itself, so I could use this to learn from. After getting the project to finally run at all, I was able to follow along with the very first steps in the overall process. They imported some flower assets (petals, centers, stems, etc.), but I just made the petals and central object in Houdini itself. I was able to replicate the interesting point noise that is the foundation of the water effect, and translated it into a way to move color across my flower. After that, I just used similar tec