ISUther

Thnx for tips. Tho have to figure out how to plug in those different texture maps. And atm sss makes my model gray. *explained in video above + i do not want to buy ready shader i want to understand what i am doing wrong and how to connect something. But not many houdini shader tutorials out there, Especialy skin shader ones. As redshift skin shader for houdini Vray skin shader for houdini or Arnold skin shader for houdini. Need to have options for stuff like this> As creating proper skin shader i need to have: * Base color map - Dictates base color of skin * Epidermal Color map - Outer layer of skin * Subdermal map - Deepest layer of skin * Mid scatter map - This is layer where i want to paint also veins * Specular map primary- Dictates skin general specularity * Specular map secondary - Dictates where are the oili areas in the face (As you may know skin is in some areas more oily then others) * Displacement map * Curvature map * AO map

Hello, I have problem creating skin shader in Houdini using Arnold. As creating proper skin shader i need to have: Base color map - Dictates base color of skin Epidermal Color map - Outer layer of skin Subdermal map - Deepest layer of skin Mid scatter map - This is layer where i want to paint also veins Specular map primary- Dictates skin general specularity Specular map secondary - Dictates where are the oili areas in the face (As you may know skin is in some areas more oily then others) Displacement map Curvature map * AO map Note! i use UDIM-s Here is video i made where i try to also explain the issues i have.

but thnx. I will try to create it. Planing to study skin shader all weekend. As long as it takes i need to understand this.

Then it flishes down many arnold skin shader tutorials as many of them use Al shaders in them. I am trying to find good solution for skin shader. Solution that can give me good results. Results that you see in game trailers and cinematic on characters. Many skin shaders have like basic sliders and all give almoust same result. But i need variations. Variations on fifferent layers etc as over all that is what makes the skin shader shine. Base color map - Difuse as o understand (Dictates base color of over all skin color) * Epidermal Color map - Outer layer of skin * Subdermal map - Deepest layer of skin * Mid scatter map - This is layer where i want to paint also veins * Specular map primary- Dictates skin general specularity * Specular map secondary - Dictates where are the oili areas in the face (As you may know skin is in some areas more oily then others) * Displacement map * Curvature map * AO map and more. Many of those default skin shaders that those rendering engines have suck as they have specular maps all the same and lack input of those shaders. Of course there are other issues that i at start did not know. For example in redshift Discovered also that there were several problems but the main source of the color looking strange was that your diffuse color map is also in linear space and so it required you to make it read in linear by changing the rs texture node to use 1.0 gamma. Also I did not have GI turned on in the render settings or a Redshift Object tag to add the displacement and tesselation. The Displacement is also a Tiff vector displacement so this means the displacement node needed to read it in as a vector format and be remapped to -0.5 min and 0.5 max because TIFF formats do not allow negative values like EXR. By the way for UDIM I can use the <UDIM> token instead of the more complex expression. This is what i have atm. I am not happy it looks like crap. Frusturates when in shadr build up you try to change something and you do not see effect. And then trying to figure out what is wrong. I am not interested in key shot look dev or substance painter as those are usles in cinematic and VFX pipeline.

Hey! Thank you so much for trying to help. This means a lot to me. As when i study myself and no mentor i some times study something and then discover that it is no longer done this way or it does not work any more with this or that is some times frusturating. regards AL shaders i got this info> https://answers.arnoldrenderer.com/questions/10628/arnold-trial-renders-object-as-it-has-lights-on-it.html?childToView=10693#answer-10693 alshaders is not longer being developed. Also have problem. I do not have AIImage node and i think i am missing some other nodes also.

Thnx! DO you know good tutoprials for Houdini alshaders. cant connect it directly to OUT:material

Thnx again. Also trying to figure out why i get this error.. happens when i start tweaking parameters in Arnold "ropnet1" Atm trying to figure out other issue: 00:00:06 2065MB WARNING | [htoa.node.node] [soho] Parameter not found: radius (ar_radius) 00:00:21 2150MB WARNING | [htoa.node.node] [soho] Parameter not found: radius (ar_radius) 00:00:22 2186MB WARNING | [htoa.node.node] [soho] Parameter not found: radius (ar_radius)

thnx. But where do i get alshaders? Or i get those only when i buy arnold? (not included in trial?)

Here is where i try to explain the issue.

I got it working but now have new issue. Arnold trial renders object as it has lights on it even tho i have 0 lights added Arnold trial renders object as it has lights on it even tho i have 0 lights added I am first time using Arnold. Should it work this way? And when i add a light and try to change the intensity nothing happens renders out same way

my Houdini env file looks like this: # # Houdini Environment Settings # # The contents of this file are read into the environment # at startup. They will override any existing entries in # the environment. # # The syntax is one entry per line as follows: # VAR = VALUE # # Values may be quoted # VAR = "VALUE" # # Values may be empty # VAR = # # Example: # # HOUDINI_NO_SPLASH = 1 # htoa config start PATH = "$PATH;C:/Users/ISUther/Documents/Arnold_renderer/htoa-3.2.0_r9e1313b_houdini-${HOUDINI_VERSION}/scripts/bin" HOUDINI_PATH = "C:/Users/ISUther/Documents/Arnold_renderer/htoa-3.2.0_r9e1313b_houdini-${HOUDINI_VERSION};&" # htoa config end HOUDINI_DSO_ERROR = 2 PATH = "C:/ProgramData/Redshift/bin;$PATH" HOUDINI_PATH = "C:/ProgramData/Redshift/Plugins/Houdini/17.0.352;&" HOUDINI_NVIDIA_OPTIX_DSO_PATH = C:/Users/ISUther/Documents/houdini17.0\optix Note! i do have redshift also installed, but i wanted to try Arnold for skin shaders as i am trying to pick a rendering engine for houdini. Arnold itself (that installation) is installed to directory as: C:\Users\ISUther\Documents\Arnold_renderer I have installed Houdini 17.0.352 And arnold for houdini is version 3.2.0-165753147

Arnold for Houdini 17. Anyone got it to work? I downloaded HtoA 3.2.0 from https://docs.arnoldrenderer.com/display/A5AFHUG/HtoA+3.2.0 Installed also license server from here: https://docs.arnoldrenderer.com/display/A5AILIC/Installing+RLM+on+Windows houdini env file was automatically edited by plugin installation. But i cant get it to work. In houdini there is no arnold shelf and cant add it as there is no such shelf.

Hey, Thank you so much for trying to help me. My issue was shading but same note i do understand that texturing is also important. If textures are bad no shader can make model look better. This is my model at the moment This is retopo version of model (I have full model retopo done not only head). But on same note i realised that UV-s have t0o be also good so i wont get any texture stretching and other similar issues. Same goes with cuts and where those are placed. Here i try to show how it was textured in Mari and what texture maps i used. Also how and what result i see in Houdini. In Houdini i created Redshift node in Shop and inside only base color is at the moment connected. I have no clue where to connect Multy chanel map and displacement.

I know Houdini focus has been VFX, I have few questions regarding cinematic pipeline. Hero characters, close shots UDIM-s etc. I know by the fact UDIM-s are used in films and often also on hero characters and in VFX pipeline. Main reasin is that you have more control over texture details on specific model. For example: If i have a character face and i need specific part of that face to be more detailed then other i have udim-s and that specific part (UDIM tile / UV tile) that covers that area of face has higher UV texture resolution thus means that that area can have more detailed / higher rez textures. Now typical pipeline i understand is so called Sketch to screen workflow. (same workflow that Aaron Sims Creative Studio uses) and many others. 1. Model is sculpted 2. Model retopology is done (retopo that supports and follows basics for topo that is needed for animation) 3. Model is animated (in maya or houdini) 4. Model is textured (ptex or UV-s) 5. VFX is created 6. Look dev that means shaders are created, lights are created etc) 7. VFX compositing (nuke etc) 8. and final shot(s) are rendered. What i struggle is how to proceed with my pipeline. Need to focus on specific things and not to try study full program as houdini is huge. Need to take one project and step by step try to complete it. SO at the moment regarding my project> 1. Sculpting part is done 2. Retopology part is done 3. UV-s are done (Used Unfold 3D( and model has UDIM UV-tiles 4, Model is tegxtured in Mari (So now model has UDIM textures) tho i was thinking for second to try ptex also but i think it does not support xyz texturing method. And now i am strugeling with shader building as there are not many good tutorials regarding Houdini skinn shader-s. And not getting good result with those. For second i was thinking to use substance painter as in that case you do not have to build shader from scratch. Example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaUoYyWfMzE&t=75s But problem is that Substance does not have fully implemented full UDIM-s support. It does support UDIM-s but you cant paint seamlesly over model that has UDIM-s. Explained here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihQTBc_e8DM So now i was thinking may be i can do skin shader in Maya as there are way more maya btutorials regarding UDIM-s and skin shaders then there is Houdini, But as my plan was also to create VFX effect i would try to do it in Houdini. And now arises question can i do VFX in houdini and shaders in maya and some how bring those over to Houdini or vice versa_

Is the substance painter and Houdini link working now? I am trying to figure out good pipeline for Houdini. 1. I sculpted model in zbrush 2. Retopology aldo done 3. UV-s done in Unfold 3D and textured in Mari but creating shader is something new to me. I know that there is some sort of link between substance painter and Houdini. So basically you texture model in substance painter and you get out textures that are going directly to houdini with the shader. So basically i can build VFX effect on top of my model in houdini same time having textures applied to the model. Does anyone uses this pipeline and does it work and how exactly?