Baldric Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 (edited) Hello everyone, my issues might seem like easy ones to most of you, but since I'm new to Houdini, I thought I would ask for help from more experienced people... :-) So, I am using some designed paths from adobe illustrator as my starting point for geometry in houdini. All I want is to be able to extrude these shapes into geometry blocks I can use for all kinds of things in houdini. But I am having problems getting proper topology out of it. Attached with this message is a houdini file with my current stand, plus the illustrator file I have been using for the example. The first problem I had was getting a high enough resolution geo out of the extrusion. Out of the box it is far too low poly. This got better when I resampled the curves, but now I have the problem, that I don't get any points in the "corners" of the shapes... The resample distributes the points smoothly and well, but I haven't found a way to make it behave such that it would put points also where there was a point in the original curves, which would give me predictable corners. Is this possible in some way? The second issue is with the front and back of the extrusion. They are created as a single face/primitive, but what I need is a resolution and topology that matches that of the side, so I will have good and predictable topology for beveling the edges etc. How can I achieve this? Also, I am not getting the poly bevel to give me the results I would expect either... Does anyone have any answers to these questions, or a few minutes to check out my script to perhaps see what I am doing wrong? I am looking for a workflow here, since I would like to be able to use illustrator files as my starting point. Help would be truly apreciated! :-) EDIT: have also attached a jpg of the problems as they are now. Thanks, Doug ai_test_houdini.rar Edited March 14, 2014 by Baldric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eetu Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 I think the first problem is that the polygons you're getting from the ai file are not really connected to each other, they have a different number of points on coincident edges etc. Hard to say if that's Illustrator's or Houdini's "fault". I do not know Illustrator that well, maybe you could somehow merge the shapes into one before saving? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldric Posted March 14, 2014 Author Share Posted March 14, 2014 Thanks for your reply eetu! I don't think that merging the different shapes into one is a good idea, because I need the separated chunks, since I will eventually animated them all separately. But I could look into, if it is possible to get a "higher resolution" path out of illustrator... Don't know if that is possible though. Anyone else have any suggestions? Cheers! Doug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tar Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 Definitely search the forums here and on SideFX- all Illustrator files are fiddly but can be taken care of. *Sorry no time to check the file. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldric Posted March 21, 2014 Author Share Posted March 21, 2014 Well, I did some searching, but didn't really find anything that would give me the kind of control I want. At least not in an easy way... So, i just modeled up in Maya. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LEO-oo- Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 Do you want to achieve something like this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldric Posted March 23, 2014 Author Share Posted March 23, 2014 Thanks for your reply Leo, that is kind of what i wanted to have, but not really completely. I got to a very similar result to what you are showing using a resample node and then a facet node. Is this what you did too? But that still left me with just one large polygon in the front and back of the extruded shapes. What I ultimately wanted was to have good, proper quad topology all over the end model(s), and I didn't get that to work. Also, when I tried to bevel I didn't get the result I wanted either. In fact the polybevel tool failed to work at all in some of the more sharp angles of the parts... Doug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LEO-oo- Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 At this point I use only the AI curves in combination with the Polyextrude SOP. The problem with your AI file is: You have 13 single shapes and the Extrude effects the curves separately. Additional some of the points overlap. You have to connect the curves to one single shape. Additional you should split the part on the left side and export a second AI curve. I recommend to export only the half of the curve and use the Mirror SOP to create the full object. The points in the middle maybe overlap with the rest of the curve and cause problems with the Polyextrude SOP. I haven't split the second curve in the example. I added some more points in the AI file at the round parts of the logo. The curves are not clean. ai_example.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tar Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 (edited) What happened when you tried this workflow? http://forums.odforce.net/topic/19335-illustrator-workflow/?hl=illustrator Edit: As an example I cleaned up two of the shapes in AI, then they could be extruded and beveled as Bezier shapes in Houdini. From there you can convert them to any resolution. ai_test 2.zip Edited March 23, 2014 by tar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldric Posted March 24, 2014 Author Share Posted March 24, 2014 Thanks for your replies guys! @ Leo: The .ai files has all the separate shapes, because I want 13 separate objects for animation purposes. They are constructed this way, so they easily "fit" each other's shape. So one single object is not a solution. But the points overlapping, and shapes that are too thin are certainly things I need to be more careful about I guess. @ marty: I never tried to extrude as Bezier shapes, and then convert. I opened up your example file (thanks for it). It is definitely better than what I had before, but not quite what I want. Even though one can extrude and bevel this way, I am still left with the large single n-gon in the front and back of the extruded shape, also after using the convert node. Also the bevel in this case, only adds thickness, instead of cutting off an area of the edge, which is a problem when all the shapes are made to fit snugly into one another. Thanks for your help though. Cheers! Doug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tar Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 (edited) a super roughy - insert bevels + sans-ngon front. probably needs some treatment on the Ai file. ai_file_test_v002TEST.hipnc Edited March 24, 2014 by tar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LEO-oo- Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 @Baldric Try to add more control points in AI - then export all the 13 single tiles as curves... HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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