MaxToHou | How to manipulate selections (made with groupSOP)

[MichaelK]

Hello everybody!

 

Although the question has already arisen in my last thread I would like to dedicate a separate topic to it

since I deem it a quite substantial puzzle piece of our workflow and haven't found anything specific on this topic yet.

(Unless, of course, there are smarter ways to do that in Houdini..)

 

 

1) Can anyone shed some light on how to make changes to selections, which have been created via groupSOP, for

further use down the chain, e.g. applying a "deformer"-SOP?

 

e.g.

groupSOP selection  --> convert to soft selection/ selection with falloff

                                  --> grow or shrink that groupSOP selection

 

 

2) How can I pass on the groupSOP selection to an e.g. Edit SOP and customize it there?

(as it is possible with the MeshSelect- or VolumeSelect-modifier in 3ds Max)

 

 

Thank you for reading.

 

Cheers,

Michael

[konstantin magnus]

1)

 

Points, edges and primitives are either in groups or they are not. If you need transitions you should use attributes or (if you have to stick with groups in some cases) have a look at softTransform and softPeak.

There is also some room for expanding selections by converting point selections to primitives or edges. Mind the toggle "Omit entities" under Edit-Convert in group sop. You can convert them back and forth several times.

Afaik there is no real group expanding or shrinking implemented in Houdini yet.

 

2)

 

you can change whats in a group if you choose nodes named something with "group", VOPs, wrangle nodes and probably python also.

Edited February 15, 2016 by konstantin magnus

[Atom]

You can group via spherical bounding and grow/animate the radius of the sphere or box over time. Or create multiple bounding objects and animate/position over time.

 

If you have not watched Konstantin's video on how to model a shampoo tube I recommend it. There are a lot of selection tricks demonstrated.

 

Thanks again for that tutorial Konstantin!

Edited February 15, 2016 by Atom

[MichaelK]

1)

 

Points, edges and primitives are either in groups or they are not. If you need transitions you should use attributes or (if you have to stick with groups in some cases) have a look at softTransform and softPeak.

There is also some room for expanding selections by converting point selections to primitives or edges. Mind the toggle "Omit entities" under Edit-Convert in group sop. You can convert them back and forth several times.

Afaik there is no real group expanding or shrinking implemented in Houdini yet.

 

2)

 

you can change whats in a group if you choose nodes named something with "group", VOPs, wrangle nodes and probably python also.

Hi Konstantin,

I have been reading/ watching more on creating and transfering attribute as this seems the most suitable for my needs and this is going to take a while.

I am a little disappointed though that there isn't a more straightforward/easier approach in Houdini.

As for VOPs and wrangle nodes, I really don't know these waters...yet.. and python, unfortunately, not in this life..

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, though!

[MichaelK]

You can group via spherical bounding and grow/animate the radius of the sphere or box over time. Or create multiple bounding objects and animate/position over time.

Thank you for that suggestion, but I am grouping by Cd from attribute map, image driven. The spherical bounding and growing the radius is nevertheless a neat tip. Thank you!

[konstantin magnus]

How about changing the colors beforehand.

[MichaelK]

I did. I tried to standardize it. Made an action in PS (enlarge selection, feather, fill) set up 3 different attribute map sops, but this approach involves a looot of tweaking (attr map sops) and is not so standardized after all. Especially not when the strokes in PS have a different width.

[konstantin magnus]

dont do it in PS! thats not procedural! ; )