Hard Surface Design

[Mexxgen]

Hi peoples, hope u have a nice time.

I want to achieve a concave geo look. The example shows that kind of look i want to model. Im thinking about how this was done. I tried almost every technic i can imagine but dont get it right.. 
I thought of it like this
In my imagination it could be made like this: scatter points on only one side, copy geo to it and subtract with boolean... but the scattered geo has to look different and stuff, i mean... how do i achieve a procedural system where i can choose the length, the count and the size between the scattered objects making these lines over the body?
If there are any ideas around pls let me know. :/

The presentation can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0B4KKTdsdQ&t=827s&ab_channel=Houdini

 

[Aizatulin]

Hi,

you can use minimal surfaces. There is an Entagma example (using a solver). Deltamush should also work (in my example I get better results from the solver).

You can project curves onto the surface (using voronoi from the surface, grid lines or whatever).

Use these curves to cut the geometry (boolean from extruded / or polycut maybe).

Now this points (as part of the geometry) can be used as fixed points for the solver.

 

Here is an experimental file.

 

 

minimal_surface_deformation_pattern.hipnc

[Mexxgen]

ahh hi, thank u very much,

i like your file and solutions very much, but first thing, the entagma solver doesnt work for me, maybe its because im using 17.5

The other thing, i dont think it was done this way. But the "scattering stuff over the geometry part" comes closer i think. In the end, Saito can configure the count, the scale, the length and a seed with his settings.. couldnt it be made with intersecting geometry scattered on top of the base geo? I also scattered lines on top of the geo and minposed them with ray sop. I thought about sweeping something with a ramp setup and then bool it away.. but the seed option makes me think lol

[Librarian]

@Mexxgen You have file on Odforce... Be Active if you have Time.
@Aizatulin ThanK you .
 

[Mexxgen]

HOLY COW what the actual
 

[Aizatulin]

I have no idea, but it looks like, that the lines are not even create by intersections or something but taken from existing geometry. Maybe by shortest path from random point selection or something.

 

btw: as you can see in the first example from Konstantin, that Voronoi on 1d-scaled Mesh and Deltamush is doing the job quite well. 

 

Edited October 24, 2021 by Aizatulin

[Mexxgen]

Ok i did it, it really works well with the posted algorithms. I get nice fluent lines now on the geo.

Is there an option where i can somehow select the front pieces and the back pieces? Can i define some areas where it tries to select some of my wanted areas? I tried different stuff but it i can only figure it out how to iterate over the whole geo pieces.
But, for example, i want the front made out of glass.. is there a procedural way?

[Aizatulin]

You can extract centroid points and filter them by relbbox for example. All centroids are representing one piece. If you set an attribute on the centroids, you can easily transport this attribute back onto the original geometry (piece ~ point).

Here is an (simple) example.

 

 

hard_surface_front_selection.hipnc

Edited October 28, 2021 by Aizatulin

[Mexxgen]

so.. How do I get this all from a combined mesh? - I don’t even know how to combine fuel, tank and wings with body yet (sure maybe boolean but it has to keep this piece/islands)  - to this shaped mesh where selected edges (espacially the backside cut of the wing makes me think) will be "hard and blue haha"? I’m thinking of different approaches but maybe you have a quick solution so I don’t have to spend a lot of time trying them out :_)

aaaaand how do u think all those edges and islands were grouped for the later edge delete? Thanks in advance! @Librarian I researched every topic on this Akita saito stuff in this forum now but in the end everyone has more or less their own solutions and not directly akira saito sans.

I mean.. the delete edges algorithm which was used to carve the lines on the body is almost the same which creates those lines on the end of the wings and air intakes for example... isnt it? Those edges also became blue... and i think its not only because of visibility or

 

Edited November 18, 2021 by Mexxgen

[vinyvince]

On 24/10/2021 at 10:10 AM, Aizatulin said:

Hi,

you can use minimal surfaces. There is an Entagma example (using a solver). Deltamush should also work (in my example I get better results from the solver).

You can project curves onto the surface (using voronoi from the surface, grid lines or whatever).

Use these curves to cut the geometry (boolean from extruded / or polycut maybe).

Now this points (as part of the geometry) can be used as fixed points for the solver.

 

Here is an experimental file.

 

 

minimal_surface_deformation_pattern.hipnc

 

There is no magic setting there excepted patience and hard work to understand why it reach a this stage to every step fo the process and keep changing it.

I took me a while to find my way, I have self learn Houdini or (and every software i have used in 20 years actually), it's not easy beast to master but once you get into it, you might not want to use anything else My efforts start to pay now im happy to receive appreciation on my research from Akira, have everyday week conversation with him and even sometimes found solutions to some of his questions. At least it happens twice 

which I could not even imagine just 2 years ago. No he doesn't share any of this setting, but it makes you even more proud when you reach something by your own . There are super power smart guys here! they will be your heroes  

 

Start simple with simple goal and grow from that with method and thinking. Understanding a process is as equally important as understanding design...

Here's one my quick test, OPENGL capture here no render, you could find on my numerous post on LinkedIn showing different approach.  There are many way possible, i could use even POP and sim . I also code my own noise in VEX for some example and obviously build personal HDA/solver which i refine with time or where for special occasion... It's something to get an interesting process result from a given form , keeping a consistent good result for any input shape is much more difficult and building a structured design too...

After each share off course some common ground... Still have so much to learn,  Im not lacking about ideas and new solutions to try,  some are in progress and not shown here but yeah, im not going to get bored tomorrow 

Have fun

 

v*

 

________________________________________________________________

Vincent Thomas   (VFX and Art since 1998)
Senior Env and Lighting  artist & Houdini generalist & Creative Concepts  (Freelance to Hire)
 http://fr.linkedin.com/in/vincentthomas

 

solver.mp4

solver.mp4

[Librarian]

I see  some  activity  have Fun @Mexxgen..now if you combine and make some experiments  sky its limit
 

CellAnimation077.hiplc

voronoi.hiplc

[Mexxgen]

Thank you so much guys, i experimented with all files ive found and barely slept because im so hyped about the way. 

[Librarian]

@Mexxgen Share some experiments when you Found Time.
Right now trying to found some file-s from L-system shaping with boxes and MetaBall..its old file from H 9.5 I know only that can be convert to Nurbs and vice versa and combining with those Vex codes in  new Curve tool oj oj .

[himedo6979]

On 18.11.2021 at 7:49 PM, vinyvince said:

Does it look like the displacement technique was used here? Or are these bumps parametrically created using a curvature node or something similar?

[Mexxgen]

Heyho

Something i dont get.. How do i combine the wings with the body without loosing my edge groups plus get the seams between? Maybe not with groups but with pieces?
After that i want to do something with all that unshared edges

Have a wonderfull weekend!

[Librarian]

here you have those tricks @Mexxgen
on qiita.com
now Students sharing work you have that trick explained on advent Houdini for 2021 year .Have fun

[vinyvince]

You mean edge seam from your boolean operation if it's what you are doing here?

Have you enable to output abseam group in the boolean? They will get some seam edge that, but i can't guarantee they will be clean. Looking at how simple your shape are they should be okay now

I don't like surface boolean, to my experience they hardly give clean edges and may fuck your topology. Off course on basic shape and stuff, yeah it's working but after on something complex with intrigue and numerous shapes...

Maybe you could polycut instead of boolean

 

 

[Librarian]

@Mexxgen in posted ("cable" file) you gonna find that Trick .Have Fun.
 

[Mexxgen]

16 minutes ago, vinyvince said:

You mean edge seam from your boolean operation if it's what you are doing here?

Have you enable to output abseam group in the boolean? They will get some seam edge that, but i can't guarantee they will be clean. Looking at how simple your shape are they should be okay now

I don't like surface boolean, to my experience they hardly give clean edges and may fuck your topology. Off course on basic shape and stuff, yeah it's working but after on something complex with intrigue and numerous shapes...

Maybe you could polycut instead of boolean

 

 

Thats a super nice idea with polycut ty so much!!

[Librarian]

@Mexxgen now in detail explained
"77qiita.com/procedural_design/items/d7689f0074c4a9cb5927"
remove 77

Edited December 24, 2021 by Librarian