joelgvfx Posted April 16, 2011 Share Posted April 16, 2011 Hey all. I'm a maya user who has slowly been getting into houdini, and I've finally come across a scene which I don't think can be accomplished by maya. So, I'm looking for a bit of help in recreating my scene in houdini. The maya particle system involves a fair bit of per-particle coding, and I'm not sure how to achieve this in houdini. Here's the scene run-down: a) I have a dynamic curve (maya hair curve) and it is undulating with turbulence. - fairly sure I can work this out on my own . I am animating a particle emitter along a curve - this I can do. c) The particles emitted are 'goaled' to the closest point on the curve - Not sure how to recreate this? A creep pop perhaps? d) The strength of the 'goaling' is relative to the particles distance from the curve when it comes to rest (ie the particles which come to rest close to the curve are goaled more strongly than the ones which come to rest further away. - No idea how to achieve this in houdini. e) Small clumps of particles have curves joining the particles together (like a molecule) - I couldn't achieve this in maya, which is why I'm switching over to houdini. I believe I need to use an "Add" sop with particle grouping? Any help would be very much appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smaugthewyrm Posted April 17, 2011 Share Posted April 17, 2011 waaaay over my head. lolz. but i had to comment on your reel. wow. freek'n impressive bro. wackyweezel - joel goodman reel 2010 as for your question... maybe there is a hint or clue in this video by peter quint: PQ Dynamic Spheres vimeo the 'molecule' and the particles you described made me think of PQ's vid. good luck and awesome reel! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosku Posted April 17, 2011 Share Posted April 17, 2011 Hey, I'm attaching my half-assed effort to reproduce it before I head out. I'll leave adding lines joining the particles together to others I also come from doing particle work in Maya, and as you have a ton more tools that you can utilize in Houdini, it's really better to try & imagine a solution in the Houdini context. Like what I'd try to do in Maya with particle-goals, here I did using Volume Gradients as velocities. As you can see in the file, I converted the line into a tube, calculated a Volume Gradient out of it (updates every frame obviously), and added that Gradient to particle velocities in a VOP POP. To adjust the strength of the goaling, I again made use of the magnitude of the Volume Gradient, modifying & multiplying that into the added velocity. Good luck, maya_to_houdini_goals.cosku.1.hip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joelgvfx Posted April 18, 2011 Author Share Posted April 18, 2011 Hi Cosku, thanks for the reply. (and smaugthewyrm, thanks for the showreel complement!) I thought it would probably be more helpful if I uploaded a playblast of what I'm trying to achieve. Surging particles(12:50 Sydney time: Vimeo currently queued for convertion... will take another 25mins before available) In addition, I need lines to be dynamically drawn between some of the particle making clumps of "molecule-like" structures. I think your test scene may give me some clue about the curve goaling, but any further elaboration would be appreciated! cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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