Autodesk kills off Softimage

[sanostol]

hi mario, geo files are missing or not locked, would be easier if the geo is available

[Mario Reitbauer]

Oh sry.

Here the scene and geo files:

 

Martin would you mind if I would add you on skype ? (if you use that) as I've seen you are german.

Coworker and me are swapping to houdini and it might be rly handy if we would have someone to ask some questions if tutorials and forums don't provide the answers.

 

Feel free to add me in skype (also everyone else):

skype Id: marioreitbauer

dog_fur.zip

Edited March 8, 2014 by Mario Reitbauer

[abvfx]

Mario your question pops up quite often. I feel i have had relative success with the Fur module so i will record an Artist based walkthrough of what the best approach is when using fur, surface grooming/external guides, rendering optimizations etc. 

Edited March 8, 2014 by abvfx

[Mario Reitbauer]

Yea I was searching the forum here but actually with no result.

That questions was asked some times but I couldn't find a solution which worked.

 

Whats important for me is:

Beeing able to use external guides where I can then use the normal Houdini grooming and dynamic Tools on top.

 

Very kind of you that you offer your help here. Very much appreciated, ty !

[mawi]

Oh sry.

Here the scene and geo files:

 

Martin would you mind if I would add you on skype ? (if you use that) as I've seen you are german.

Coworker and me are swapping to houdini and it might be rly handy if we would have someone to ask some questions if tutorials and forums don't provide the answers.

 

Feel free to add me in skype (also everyone else):

skype Id: marioreitbauer

Hey.

 

Your fiber curves seams to have inverted direction.

I reordered and added some nodes in the guide_curves_body_v08 network.

 

Also when using custom guides one needs to keep a eye on the guide radius parameter found in the guides tab.

To high and your fur will interpolate guides over a big area, leaving your hair with a really smooth shape.

To low you run the risk of having hairs without a guide inside radius distance. Those hairs will stand straight out,

 

This parameter defaults with a expression you might have to kill.

 

 

edit...

Beeing able to use external guides where I can then use the normal Houdini grooming and dynamic Tools on top.

 

Ive build a set of SOP-tools to handle this. Im sorry that I cant share the nodes. but in general they are all transfering fiber guides shape to houdini guides in one way or another.

hairtest_02.hipnc

Edited March 8, 2014 by mawi

[Mario Reitbauer]

Ty a lot ! This rly helps me, now at least I know what I did wrong.

Edited March 9, 2014 by Mario Reitbauer

[abvfx]

oops I didn't see you posted your file. Glad you got the help you needed.

 

I have recorded the first part of the walkthrough/tutorial. It should be completed by tomorrow. I hope there is enough good content for anyone interested in Fur.

[Zach]

I think something SI and Houdini users have in common is the feeling of working with the "underdog," for lack of a better word. At least, in the US. It makes for very dedicated user-bases, and I can certainly imagine how betrayed a career SI artist must feel right now, despite the "writing being on the wall" for a good while now.

 

It's fortunate that XSI 2015 will have an open implementation of Alembic (maybe not for Exocortex, who provided a commercial implementation in 2012) - I'm sure that alone will keep SI in some pipelines for at least a few years, that and its excellent Arnold integration (which I hope sees continued development). Had I not delved into Houdini first and committed to learning the crap out of it, I'd be an XSI artist, without a doubt.

 

The only positive spin on this is that it will be great to have XSI users join the Houdini community and contribute their perspectives. But Autodesk's acquisition, non-support, and ultimate shuttering of SI is an unconscionable example of anti-industry practices. I feel fortunate that SideFX is independently owned, and that's not something that looks likely to change in the near future.

[Zybrand]

Hello everyone, just to help with the statistics on the debate about SI users crossing over to Houdini I'm one of the refugees switching to Houdini . I agree that a lot of SI TDs will make the switch to Houdini but there will be people going in all sorts of different directions depending on past experience and what their needs are.

 

I built most of my career so far on ICE so Houdini seemed like the only logical next step. I actually started learning Houdini a month ago because I took a job at a place that use Houdini in their pipeline. But I have about 7 years experience in SI so I think I will use it in a personal capacity at least for a few years still.

 

So far learning Houdini has been a combination of amazement and frustration, but I guess that will happen learning any new software when you are so use to something else. I am really enjoying Houdini and it has a lot of stuff a always wished I had in SI.

[Doum]

Hey Zybrand, 

 

I'm also an eXSI user with 7years of experience , but I started to learn houdini a year ago and I can tell you that after 3 months of learning, the basic concepts and expressions are in your mind, the learning curve start to change at this moment and everything seem to be easier to do in houdini.

 

Watch videos, there is a lot of stuff on vimeo 'goprocedural' and also CMIVFX and FXPHD if you have the chance. 

 

I've stopped using Softimage 6 month ago and I do not miss it.

 

I hope you will enjoy houdini like I do.

 

Cheers

[Zybrand]

Hey Doum,

 

Thanks for the motivation and the training links , yeah I'm watching as much training as I can to try and get all the concepts in my head.

I'm sure I will enjoy Houdini a lot.

 

Cheers

[abvfx]

The Walkthrough/Masterclass is done (uploaded it overnight). I recorded it in 1080p since when you are dealing with fur and you need to see what is going on. I didn't expect it to be so long (1hr 16min), i hope it is coherent enough to sit through.

 

On the vimeo page there is also a chapter listing if you would like to skip to a specific part. Hopefully this is of some use. 

 

(1080p version is currently encoding)

 

 

 

Edited March 11, 2014 by abvfx

[Netvudu]

oooooh, you rock Andrew.

Hopefully, I will find some time to check this video tonight

[abvfx]

Thanks Javier, 

 

I hope it is easy enough to sit through. I can sometimes suffer from British mumbling syndrome.

 

Hope it helps, and shows new users a different side to Houdini that doesn't get enough attention.

[magneto]

I love how you started the video without even wasting a second If only there was a video as in depth as yours for every worthy/complex question.

 

Cheers mate

[sebkaine]

Thanks Andrew, great tutorial.

[abvfx]

@magneto : hehe, thanks. There are many worthy questions, i could easily imagine a scenario with dozen of 10 second questions with hour long responses.   

 

@sebkaine Glad you like it. It was fun/interesting to make. Hope to do more in the future.

 

To be honest I was a bit surprised by the viewership, it is not something i am used to . I'm happy SESI liked it and put it on their Tutorial page. If i do another one i will be more disciplined with my explanations.

 

I have been thinking about other topics but don't want to promise anything yet, it will obviously come from more of an artist's perspective, but we all enjoy a bit of logic so vops and some expressions aren't out of the question.   

[pcbiajante]

Hi Andrew! Great video! Thank you very much for sharing with us!

[theflu]

jes, nice video. but crazy workaround. 

for so long now only directions to paint, hope yeti, or sth like yetis approach

finds its way to inside houdini...

[magneto]

Maya 2015 is announced:

https://area.autodesk.com/maya2015

 

Seems like they are following behind SESI with a lot of new features, except Bifrost.

Edited March 18, 2014 by magneto