betty

maybe try using an attractor on the trees to repel the partilces slightly as they approach. enough to get them out of the way and then continue on course.

hey marc that hair is really nice!

it would be good if somebody added mental ray to the mix as this now has sub-pixel displacements and vector based displacements, memory usage and motion blur features have also had a boost with v3.2 i've used it in xsi and it is very fast when it comes to ray tracing, final gathering, cuastics and area lights......seems to work very differently to mantra.. ...and isn't GI in mantra 'very' slow, i'd also be suprised/impressed if it can keep up with mental ray,s ray tracing. mantra seems to be a black art to me........but still trying! and it's great that large production houses are using it in production, with great results! thanks for the inspiration!

nice one will, i just saw the new beta 6 POPs video last night of the new parameters, ie cling and dynamic friction and thought - "wow! that's cool!....that's how i could i could 'clean up' that hip i posted."......nice job! you suprised me that you had both the 'cling' and 'dynamic friction' set to 0? i thought this would then not return a result.... and thanks, you reminded me that it helps if the vehicle is somewhat aerodynamic, silly thing to overlook.

very rough simple car travelling through rain. mmmm, very rough....is this like anything you were after? i'm sure you could play with this and come up with something, though anakin'z idea about remapping it onto the car from a more controlled flat surface sounds good. carinrain.hipnc

how 'bout the cycleCHOP, you can cycle and offset among other things...?, but after looking at the expression edward posted i must say, that's pretty efficient.

www.primalpictures.com all done in houdini, modeling, texturing, rendering.....etc quite amazing!!!

thanks everyone. and of course the odforce shader tutorials were the first ones i went to, but only ever did the i3d ones. i recall running from the others when i first saw them but now will go again and try and take those into VOPs. actually a couple of days ago i was doing a fair bit with i3d with tips from jasons tutorial and got really great results after some tweaking. thanks again i'll chase these up, and dig deeper in VOPs

this sounds promising. basically wanted a guide to help me build shaders in VOPs and actually understand what i'm doing. also to help me with rendering efficiency. actually started to get some nice renders with mantra but quickly hit a wall, and have had a lot of problems with very slow renders when doing raytracing and displacements. i know it is getting a real workout at the moment in some films which sounds great so i'm sure the capabilities are there, i just have to learn them. all the other general info in the book will help in this way i guess........i just picked up digital lighing and rendering to help me with basics. was talking to architects and realise there seems to be some work out there for 3d in this field, modeling with the main thing being the lighting and rendering so just plan to learn more. also looking forward to v6, i'm hearing radiosity...sounds interesting.

for people who are deeply into mantra, is mantra and renderman similar enough where a book like 'advanced renderman' and its companion book would be a vital source for study. or would the way to go simply be from the help docs and study the VOPs networks that make the current default VOPs. i just want to get better with rendering ( w/mantra ) and just wondering what is out there to assist me. thanks

hey arctor when using k to go back up the network once i arrive at the editSOP i just left-click and then am instantly back in the editSOP. even if i choose it in the network, it's the same deal. also i could use tab, or the hotkey i've assigned and am back in that sop without a new editSOP coming up. see if that works btw, i always have secure selection turned off.....maybe that has something to do with it...... actually just tried it with secure selection and the left-click will not work but by using a hotkey i do get back in.

arctor, is this what you were thinking of, www.odforce.net/tips/ there is a sample hip file by edward here. have you tried this out with your rigging?

hey alex that is a really fine model!! cool work! btw, what is going on with the ear? i notice a hole....are you doing this seperately and then polyknit to attach it? just wondering on your workflow.... keep it going, want to see the whole thing!

hey marc, that's coming along nicely. regarding the manga theme, are you going to render it with the cel-look. i would be interested to see what you come up with.

well i'm taking the 3dbuzz houdini course as well. the thing i'm finding frustrating is questions like "how many spheres are were created?", i'm getting wrong!! i failed a couple of those early tests and i watched the vtms. and yeah, i would have to agree that it is a really good thing for everybody to keep going over the basics, especially since houdini went into the v5.x stage and heaps of workflow issues have/are changing quite radically. it's also good to see heaps of people taking on the course, i'm sure this will lead to good things in the future. SESI and all houdini users would have to be happy with that! i actually don't mind the the way the vtm is conducted, calling edges - 'guys' and all that, but maybe one day we can get special vtms by houdini socialites..... i would love one by rangi sutton!! btw mg, i think it healthy to think of yourself and others as insane, this way you keep things in perspective