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Shaders and materials good tutorials?


ISUther

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Hello, 

Regarding one of my another project i found out that i need to learn more regarding shaders and materials in houdini. 
I have found tutorials that are sadly out of date. 
I did think to buy on payday this dude-s tutorial for shaders 
http://www.rohandalvi.net/textures

Or do you know any good free tutorial regarding Houdini shaders and materials. 
 

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Hey, 

If you take a look at this topic. 



There i am working on one project and user named Atom (forum name)
posted me sample where he added leaves to my animation. 
But i did not understand well how it is done and when i did mimic what he did in the hip file is failed to create pleasable result. 
 My goal was to create leaves and then add very very detailed texture to leaves and i realized that i need to learn more regarding those uv mapings and everything in order to understand how it works and able to create production quality animation that has good shaders on object. 
Atm i use drag and drop method but i do not get exactly how those work. 
I did start to watch one tutorial that i found on youtube: 

 
But there i discovered that he uses older version so i cant follow everything in the tutorial as he uses there older type nodes also that are no longer in houdini ( in time frame: 14:44 in this video he creates Mantra Surface >> VEX Super Material ) and this got me confused as i do not have it any more in my houdini. 
Ofcourse i did take notes in that tutorial (attachment added)
And also here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB9I2brBRYs
There ( at time frame 03:05 he nis using "Use Color Map" and uses pre-pared color map and that got me confused) as i do not have that pre-prepared maps that they use there. 
I wanted to know what those actually fo etc. 
So my goal was to learn how they create those cool looking different kind of textires to the surface and how they create custom shaders. 
Atm often what i do is drag and drop stuff on to the object and just adjust different bars (same time looking at render view to see what is plea sable to the eye.)

Intro to Shaders and Materials in Houdini FX.PNG

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Here is a quick re-work of the Rohan Dalvi posted Grow ivy scene. I have added a simple grid that is UV mapped so you can use any leaf you like for the texture. I removed his curve and placed an arc to match your design reference. There are a few notes in the network. You can control leaf stem length to lift the UV mapped grid away from the vine stem. You can also colorize the leaf stem and vine stem as well as an overall tint.

The mirror copy of the right side is accomplished using a COPY REFERENCE of the left side with the x-scale set to -1.

 

I am attaching the three images that I used in the material as well.

ap_rd_grow_ivy.hipnc

Untitled-1.jpg

Beech_Leaf_0001_alpha.jpg

Beech_Leaf_0001_bump.jpg

Beech_Leaf_0001_diffuse.jpg

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Ok. 

Thank you. 
Atm trying to read and understand the file you attached. 
As in order to learn i need to understand what nodes are doing. 
Can you explain me what is the "curve_LEAF_SHAPE" node doing and what is "grid_UV_FOR_TEXTURE" node doing?

"curve_LEAF_SHAPE" node seems to have Selected as "Polygon" and CVs and has coordinates
and
"grid_UV_FOR_TEXTURE" node has Primitive type - "Polygon" and Connectivity as Quadrilaterals

Note! I am new to UV and textures. 
I am sorry for my nobish questions all i want to to is create the animation and same time learn how it is done etc as in future (may be after 2 years) i am able to do cool animations myself without mimicking some one else tutorial 
 

1.png

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If you notice, both of these nodes are plugged into a Switch node. One of the powers of Houdini is being able to swap source geometry very easily. The switch allows for A->B comparison of two inputs. In this case, the original curve_LEAF_SHAPE which Rohan Dalvi created and the grid_UV_FOR_TEXTURE mesh I added. Try changing the Switch Index from 0 to 1 and observe the results. The alternate input will feed the rest of the network.

Just as a point on a mesh have an XY coordinate, a texture projection has a companion UV coordinate. U is roughly equated to X and V is similarly equated to Y. These two coordinate sets will be nearly equal when the surface is a simple plane. When the surface is more complex, they diverge.

Check out the Wiki on UV.

Edited by Atom
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Hello, 
Thank you again for helping me. I think i did start explaining the hole idea wrong or did not provide all nesesary information. So here it is:

I have project that i want to do. 
Idea is like this: 

There is a logo. 
Similar to this one: 
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/481668402348437505/MC24RYMK_400x400.png

My goal or idea is that logo occurs in 3 D animation. 
------------------------------------
Step 1: Stev (or branch?) grows from nothing to shape 
also on same time when Stev is growing leaves are bending from the Stev in to the shape that you see in logo. 

Step 2: When leaves have ocured Stev itself disolves (particles or some other smooth way)
Note! Leaves should have high level of details as i am planing to create close up camera shots with moving camera (so leaves cant be paper thin and should have bumps and dephs as you see outside in nature.)
Here is one example where texturing in Zbrush is used.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDChCU_4wos

I am not sure was this the best  way to start with this project. And i am not sure that Zbrush is right tool as if is want leaves to bend and evolve is that possible using 3-d object  that i model in zbrush? (or alternative that i find somewhere high detailed leaves (Must be laurel leafs and similar as you see in logo that i mentioned above)

I Did get idea to do it when i was looking at: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhr3HjHW_oU

Details that i wanted in this animation on leafs is high.
I am not sure what is the best way to create leaves and is zbrush good for that as i do not want my leaves look cheap and like paper but actual leafs. 
May be use reference method in Zbrush?
Method that one person is using in this video (Time frame: 08:35). 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ididulfg9w

If you have good idea how to proceed and should i re-do the animation and not use FX Hive tutorial in order to achieve animation that i explained above?

Step1.png

Step2.png

Textures.png

Zbrush.png

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You can model leaves, but a leaf really is the definition of a paper thin object. What you can do to make it appear more natural is to deform the flat grid that the source leaf reside upon. In the attached scene I have done that with a mountain sop. The rendered output is a combination of the three posted image maps of a leaf plugged into a mantra shader. I am leveraging diffuse, bump, opacity and displacement in the material along with displacement of the grid via the mountain.

 

The material holds up pretty well under closeups too.

Untitled-1.jpg

Untitled-1.jpg

ap_single_textured_leaf.hiplc

Edited by Atom
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Hello, 

Thank you so much for trying to help me.
I added a .hip file. 
Can you take a look at the file and let me know what i am doing wrong. 
I had to create copy of it by mimicking what you did in the file where you re-created what i had, ( ap_rd_grow_ivy.hipnc )
At the moment i have few issues there.
I am uploading at the moment explanation video on you-tube and will post it tomorrow morning. And hopefully it will give a better overview what problem i face now. 
Hip file attached. 

Leafs.hip

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Hello,

Thank you. I will take a look at the file eavning when i am back @ home.
Currently at work (IT Support :D )
I am learning and trying to understand Houdini every day eavning after work 2 hours and on week ends 10 hours a day.
That makes about 30 hours per week. And i have alot to cover and go over and learn.
But this is the only way i see.

But here is the video i uploaded yesterday.
I have all questions in the video.
I hope you find the time to answer those. And thank you so much for helping me and teaching me.
My next plan is to go over all nodes that i have in the animation and undertand them better in order to learn more.

 

Edited by ISUther
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Hello again.

I worked with tith the last file you attached and created copy of that in to my Houdini. (can`t use copy paste method as we have diferent houdini-s)
I have full versioon. But anyhow i created the file same way as you have but häving problems there.
Here is the video where i am explaining my main questions regarding this topic.
What i want to create is this way that siv grows from 0 to a shape and leaves grow from stiv but they should connect to the stiv also Natural way. 
Leaves should connect to the stiv more Natural shape and end result they should evolve or grow this way that they create the similar shape as you see the default logo that i attached.
May be i started it wrong and need to use another method to create leaves?

May be i need to do it his way that:
1.) Make seperate object for Main stiv that grows from nothing in to the wide U shape
2.) Create som how 3 DOTS on one side of U shape and 3 dots to ohter side of U shape (those dots indicate from where smaller steavs grow
3.) Create leaves that grow from smaler steaves in to the shape that i have in logo sample that i attached above.
4:) Make the texturing and bump maps and everything needed in order to make leaf look real
Note! I may want to make leave a bit transparent later when i "play" with lights and get some nice angle or view.

Leaves must have high level of details and same goes with stiv


 

 

Edited by ISUther
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Hello, 

It is me again:)
I did think about it and decided to scratch the project and do it step by step in order to learn every step what something is doing and from there i should be able to build something special.
I am going to do the same project but from scratch using step by step method.
And not going to copy nodes that he used in his tutorial.

May be that this way i am able to learn it better.  

Restarted all the project, 

Here is the link: 

 

Edited by ISUther
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