cmiVFX Launches a New Houdini Training Video - Procedural Road Creatio

[cmiVFX]

cmiVFX Launches a New Houdini Training Video - Procedural Road Creation Stage II: The Crash Barrier

Watch High Definition Training Videos For The Visual Effects Industry Instantly From Anywhere In The World.

Curitiba, PR, Brazil December 22th, 2009 — cmiVFX | cmiStudios launches a brand new video for SideFX Software's Houdini application. This video is the second in a series of in-depth videos related to procedural man made city elements! The lecture presents a variety of approaches and techniques to create a Crash Barrier procedural system. These videos explain all the information you need in depth and to the topics extent. We will also be including discount bundles of our videos in the future to help save additional money to our customers. When it comes to high end CG and VFX training, there is only once choice... cmiVFX!

SideFX Houdini - Procedural Road Creation Stage II : The Crash Barrier

http://cmivfx.com/SideFX_Houdini_Training/road_generation_2/default.aspx

Setting things Up

We want to avoid to have too many virtual car casualties lets make those road virtually safer. Like everything you want to create procedurally you need to understand what the basics are making the object what it is. You will get an overview what element to consider when placing crash barriers. You'll learn how to procedurally create the placement of the crash barrier by using Vops such as compare, modulo & importattribute.

Building the crash barrier model

A novel method will be presented to cut a spline up into several segments to be used later as crash barrier placement holders. The crash barrier cannot be build without it's basic components. You'll prepare the basic profiles in order to create the crash barrier. You'll see how to create an absolute space carve digital asset for creating proper placement of the crash barrier support poles.

Setting relationships between the shapes

A digital asset works best when its energy lines and chakra's are all in place. To create a good procedural shape you must find as much relationships between the shapes as possible. You'll be explained how to build these relationships and you'll learn how to use expressions and variables to create the relationships between the created shapes.

Grouping the elements in preparation for the uv's.

Like stated before a procedural model without proper uv's and textures loses a lot of it's power. In this session you will learn how to create procedural groups of the crash barrier in relation with the spacing between the support poles. You'll see how to get parts from a texture by using random selection within a forloop.

Setting relationships between the uv's and the texture.

Just like with creating the relationships between the geometry you'll have to constrain the uv's to specific boundaries. Using expressions you'll gain experience into controlling the uv's in such ways that they access specific parts of the texture allowing you to create complex procedural mappings. You'll see techniques to to simplify expressions by braking them up using spare parameters. Furthermore you'll learn how to "steal" uv positions from the crash barrier for the support poles using the raysop.

Completing the graph into a fast usable digital asset

One of the most important things to consider when creating your tools is that you want to provide the user with fast and clear feedback. It is all about communication with the user. Here you'll learn techniques to provide fast feedback when manipulating the asset and how to create a global scale controller so that you are still able to work with normalized values.

Prototyping on a simplified version

Mountains are big obstacles... Time to get a big drilling machine and a bridge builder. In this section you get to learn how to create the spline segments you need for creating the tunnels and bridges you need for the landscape. Performance is always an issue if you want to build a good functioning tool set. Learn how to use the performance monitor to compare various strategies in your modelling.

Finalizing the graph into a digital asset

You have to cross a pond a few meters wide, are you going to build the Golden Gate bridge for that? This section you will finalize the digital asset and it's functions. You'll measure the sections lengths in order to make choices what bridge to use possible. As always you'll finish the digital asset into a versatile tool by upgrading the tool that it works on a 3 dimensional landscape using a raysop, by creating a proper interface and by creating relationships between the parameters. You'll be proposed with some ideas how to extend the tool to more functionalities.

This video is available today at the cmiVFX store. cmiVFX Video Player Online Store

http://cmivfx.com/store/Browse.aspx?Category=11

About the Author:

Kim Goossens is a 38 years old belgian CG-artist who is working as a freelancer and CG-instructor with a long history in CG-graphics starting back at 1989 He became quite known for his creation of the GIRL later adopted by DAZ3D. He is currently teaching Houdini procedural modeling for games at the IGAD program at the NHTV University of Applied Sciences. While working on various game projects and commercials both as Art-director and technical artist, he gained a profound knowledge of tools such as Maya, Max, Zbrush, Modo, shake and Houdini. His biggest passion has always been to research strategies to increase production and quality, which has led him to research procedural modeling and naturally, be hired by cmiVFX.

Kim Goossens FXMOGUL

About cmiVFX

cmiVFX is the leader in High Definition Video Training for the Visual Effects Community. To test drive the new cmiVFX TVOD © system, visit http://www.cmivfx.com/cmi_vod.html For additional information about cmiVFX, visit www.cmivfx.com.