tkngs

Hi Marc, There's a potential opportunity in a games-related opening in Singapore too. Please PM me if you are interested to explore further. Cheers, tk

I posted the reply below in the SESI forum but I will just repost them here, just in case. Sorry for duplicating Hi, On your three render nodes running SUSE Enterprise Linux with the custom Python build, can you check if you have the openssl libraries and header files installed? If not, you should install them and do a full rebuild of your Python 2.5 to have the openssl libraries included into your Python 2.5 runtime. The openssl library will have the sha module that is needed. Hope this helps! Cheers, tk

Hi Alvin, Thanks for the suggestion and point noted. This first workshop is meant for trainers and it is an intensive five full-day course so it seems like those who are working in studios may not attend this workshop due to the time commitment and the nature of the course. However, we are working together with the education institutions after this to offer Houdini introduction and training classes to industry professionals and those who are interested in the industry. I will post more details when these courses are up. It will take a while though as the wheels are just starting to turn. Cheers, tk

Hi alpotnis, It is a student training and educational studio and lab to allow students in this school to learn and grow with Houdini in their course of study and for their projects. Steven, Yes, there are teachers and trainers from a few institutions attending the trainers' workshop Cheers, tk

Hi Ray, The course details are here: Houdini Trainers' Workshop in Singapore If you are interested and have the time to attend (it is five full days of intensive training), please drop me a message. We can certainly meet for a drink after the course, and whenever Alvin or Steven is back in town Cheers, tk

Hi Ray, Sorry for the delay, I was out the whole day. Yes, Peterr is with Side Effects Toronto and I am with Side Effects Asia Pacific. We are having a one-week Houdini trainers' course going on during the last week of February (23rd-27th) at Nanyang Polytechnic. The course instructor is Peterr You're most welcome to come by and we can have a mini-shug (Singapore Houdini User Group) Cheers, tk

Hi Ray, Welcome to odforce! I'm tk and I am from Singapore too, and a fellow Houdini user In fact, Side Effects Software has just set up a joint visual effects lab/studio with Nanyang Polytechnic last Dec and they have established the Asia Pacific HQ as well, based in Singapore too. If you have any questions, just holler. We can always meet anywhere comfortable in Singapore to share ideas and notes. Cheers, tk

Hmmm, will need to explore deeper into the way houdini computes the volume density of metaballs, whether it's constant density or allows user-controllable falloffs via weights etc. The i3dshaders rendered out in jason's part 1 tutorial based on geometric equations also has a glow around them too, which leads me to believe the glow effect also comes from the use of the 'vex 3d texture fog' shader (used in both hips). The ray marching algorithm used in the fog shader to walk thru the volumetric blob to sum the density and shade the results - the outer regions of the metaballs are less dense (if you shoot a ray straight thru from the eye/camera) and thus the glow effect and a dense core. We may need a custom fog shader as well for highly controllable renders. My guess so far... cheers, tk

I have made another set of VOPs network of image3d shaders that access the geometry info of metaballs based on jason's i3d shader writing tutorial (part 2) for self learning. You can find the excellent i3d shader writing tutorials by jason iversen here. As with the previous reference, switch to Outputs and generate the necessary i3d files via the rops (i3d_simplemeta_gen, i3d_uniquemeta_gen and i3d_metaballs_space_gen). For more details, switch to Vex Builder and drill into the 'forpoints' vop in each i3d shader to see how the loop works. The blend_attribute i3d shader is not included in this hip. Also attached are images generated by each of the shader. Please feel free to comment and suggest improvements or corrections. Hope this stuff is useful. Look forward to more sharing and learning with everyone cheers, tk tk_i3d_metaballs_vop.zip

Hi all, Here's a simple reference VOPs network of i3d shaders based on Jason Iversen's image3d shader writing tutorial (part 1 only) that I built while working on some write-ups on Houdini.tk_i3d_spheres1.zip To start, switch to Outputs and generate the three i3d files (it'll be created in the same directory as this hip file) using the three image3d ROPs in there, namely i3d_simple_sphere_gen, i3d_sphere_gen and i3d_spherenoise_gen. You can visualise the generated i3d files in Geometry by toggling the display flag of the appropriate isosurface SOPs(reload the i3d files if necessary). In Objects, there are three atmosphere objects already created (i3d_simpleshere, i3d_sphere and i3d_spherenoise). Turn on the render flag of the i3d object you want and render (either View: Mantra or mantra1). Remember to 'home' your 3D viewport/camera if you do not see anything. Feel free to comment Let me know if there are problems with the VOPs network or the hip file. cheers, tk