How to apply "global" settings in takes?

[Pancho]

In order to isolate lights and reflection panels I need for single render passes I use takes to isolate/activate certain these and disable all other lights and geometry which isn't needed. So, now I'm able to see and judge what certain light settings, positions, rotations do to the overall look of the scene. The problem, all settings are grayed out and I need to include these settings in the take, BUT I want these settings to apply to all takes and the main take. How do I do this in the most practical way? Is there a "mode" in which everything isn't grayed out and the settings I apply also change in the main take and all sub takes? Right now I switch back to "Main", apply the settings, go back to my take and render. NOT - VERY - EFFICIENT.

Cheers
Tom

[doctorbob]

Hi Tom,

i made a python script to "push" take values back to the root take. I find it rather handy - if you have an override you want to make global, right click and send it back to the main take.

You'll need to save this into a "PARMmenu.xml" file somewhere on your houdini path (eg C:\Users\cgardner\Documents\houdini15.5\PARMmenu.xml).

When you restart houdini, you *should* get a "push override" item in the parameter right-click menu when you're in a take.

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<menuDocument>
	<menu>
<scriptItem id="pushOveride">
<label>Push Override</label>
<context>
<expression>hou.takes.currentTake() != hou.takes.rootTake()</expression>
</context>
<insertAfter>take_activate</insertAfter>

<scriptCode><![CDATA[
parms = kwargs['parms']
if parms:
    parm = parms[0]
    pt = parm.tuple()
    ctake = hou.takes.currentTake()
    for p in ctake.parmTuples():
        if p == pt:
            keyframes = {}

            for parm in p:
                if parm.keyframes():
                    keyframes[parm.path()] = parm.keyframes()
                else:
                    if parm.parmTemplate().type().name() == 'String':
                        if parm.unexpandedString():
                            keyframes[parm.path()] = parm.unexpandedString()
                        else:
                            keyframes[parm.path()] = parm.eval()
                    else:
                        keyframes[parm.path()] = parm.eval()

            rootTake = hou.takes.rootTake()
            updateMode = hou.updateModeSetting()
            hou.setUpdateMode(hou.updateMode.Manual)
            hou.takes.setCurrentTake(rootTake)

            for k in keyframes:
                hou.parm(k).deleteAllKeyframes()
                if type(keyframes[k]) is tuple:
                    for key in keyframes[k]:
                        hou.parm(k).setKeyframe(key)
                else:
                    hou.parm(k).set(keyframes[k])

            hou.takes.setCurrentTake(ctake)

            ctake.removeParmTuple(p)
            hou.setUpdateMode(updateMode)

]]></scriptCode>
</scriptItem>
	</menu>
</menuDocument>

cheers,

chrisg

Edited April 19, 2017 by doctorbob
stupidity

[doctorbob]

for posterity:

http://www.chris-g.net/2017/04/19/houdini-pushing-overrides/

cheers,
chrisg

[Mattias WATF]

Thanks for this tool, doctor bob! Just what I was looking for!

///Mattias

Edited March 24, 2020 by Mattias WATF
typo