Inflate mesh

[Librarian]

Just wondering for Best Approche in Houdini ---  on this  ???

 

[vinyvince]

Distance from edge could be a good start to get your elevation value with maybe additional wrangle to normalize the value on local area with intersect function.

You could guide the edge flow quad meshing by feeding him with the curve border and from the boolean or scatter circle before extrusion and cutting... See what i mean?

 

 

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

[sebkaine]

For an exotic approach i would definitly give heightfield a try, with half-torus gradient influence convert as heightmap. then curvature analysis mask and blend mask.

You could also height project a reference half-poly torus then merge them with heightfield tools.

you can then convert to vdb , or convert to poly with booleans for holes.

for the clean poly like topology across the roof i would give a try with quad remesher on the very dense geo generated from heightfield / vdb with colors per torus and color vertex guided topology.

heightfield.hiplc

Edited March 14, 2022 by sebkaine

[vinyvince]

Point advection here for some variante 

[vinyvince]

You could also use the distance from polyexpand and with a vertex wrangle like so

 

 

________________________________________________________________

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

[flcc]

A try with Polyexpand2D node. However, as you can see, at circle intersections, the topology is not crazy. The real challenge here is topolgy.
By the way the setup easily fails when you change circles size. would need some improvements !

 

inflate F.hiplc

[sebkaine]

for a houdini workflow, i think that working on a flat shell, where you focus on your flat torus shell, that you merge and cut, would be the first part, then you create your hard edge group and try to keep clean Cd for each torus, you send it to quad remesher with edge and Cd constrain.

i don't see how you could procedurally generate a clean topo shell without quad remesher ?  remesh / labs instant mesh / vdb convert / height field convert none of them will give you clean quad flow. 

i would also try to create 2 types of flat guiding cv's corresponding to the edge loop of the higher part of the roof and also the doors entry

then i would deform those 2 curves as main controler guide of the form

and compute the deformation of the flat shell according to their position from the guided cv's in vex or with deformers.

EDIT: even quadremesher doesn't sound good enough to get very precise and accurate flat topo polyexpand 2d might be a good idea in that regard. 

deform_02.hiplc

 

you can be very close to your ref, but imo where houdini will suck is for the fillet tool , when you use a nurbs modeler, the intersect function of a nurbs modeler, then curves fillet at intersection will be very hard to replicate. 

and often what create the beauty of those models , is the clean mathematical fillet patch between two shapes.

 i am not sure you will get those nice fillet interp and holes between shapes easily.

 

Edited March 15, 2022 by sebkaine

[sebkaine]

Polyexpand is also interesting but not perfect. this question is a good rubik's cube for the brain  

I would probably go for a polyexpand + quad remesher path, but this problem need some love if you really want to get a clean edgeflow

polyexpand.hipl

c

[Atom]

When I saw the reference, I immediately thought of a poofed-up cloth roof.

Building on Sebkaine's hip file, in this variation, a pin group is used on the edges, and the entire piece is turned into a vellum cloth. A noisy wind pushes the mesh up, providing an uneven final surface. This version uses the instantmeshes quadifier instead of Exoside. Lower stiffness for more ceiling height.

ap_poof_up_flat_shape_deform.hiplc

Edited March 15, 2022 by Atom

[vinyvince]

Ah man , you first get me excited thinking you built a good quadremesher in Houdini. Sadly i don't own Exoside Quadremesher.

Here's another try with few Vex to deform the intersection offending points

________________________________________________________________

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

[sebkaine]

That's cool vince ! the hardest part would be to relax the edge loop in v direction in order to have a match topology between each patch for merge. 

Quad remesher is nice , it cost a litlle but it offer remeshing qulaity  you can't  match with vanillia houdini tool. 

I try to combine polyexpand + area isolation with voronoi + quad remesher.

it's not bad , but the topology is not perfect like the reference.

i really feel that poly is clunky for those kind of work, i really prefer nurbs for that kind of stuff.

for exemple just the clean flat topology is hard to get, and we haven't even talk about beveling between each torus. 

I'm curious to see if some modeling expert can come with a fully working solution. 

Cheers

 

expand_remesh.hiplc

Edited March 15, 2022 by sebkaine

[sebkaine]

ahah this exercices is really addictive ! i finally got something good enough , i have refactor a lot just polyexpand + quad remesher , i think you have enough to mimic the reference, the only part that need extra work is how you compute the displacement map, where you need to precisly evaluate edgedist instead of my old school att transfer. 

expand_remesh_003.hiplc

[Librarian]

crazy Setup's Dudes @sebkaine @Atom
this just need more Love ..where is Muscle Deform in H19?  ...hm...
Nurbs and Ocean(VEx).

 

uvArchL.hiplc

[vinyvince]

Garden for kids and dog walkers

Very simple setup

[flcc]

I've downloaded the grasshopper example file of the video and asked a colleague who uses rhino to take a look.
@sebkaine You were right, the topology is actually done with Quad remesher (the one included with rhino, I don't know if it's the same). For the rest of the set-up it is more or less the same.

Then...  sebkaine is the winner haha.
clap clap clap clap clap.

Librarian you will have to offer a prize

Edited March 16, 2022 by flcc

[Librarian]

ta tan taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa @sebkaine
 

[vinyvince]

Im sure Emmanuel will like this tast this one once his kids are in bed

I remember Houdini talking they were working a suppposely game changer quad remesher, let's see... Hopefully much much (much) better than the Lab quad remesher

By the way, here s a modified version the Sidefx Lab "quad" remesher, test it by yourself

Left is customized lab quad remesher, middle is Sidefx Lac default quad output from a remeshed pig

HDA attached

quader.hda

[sebkaine]

ahah great guys ! whisky it is !

for quad remeshing algo , the best imo is zbrush cause it give you the ability to draw topology guides directly from cv's. quad remesher from exoside is in second place. and i think this is the same guys that coded the two. at least in the early Zbrush release. 

but the big plus is that you can run it throw SOPs procedurally, and Zbrush can't match that. 

[vinyvince]

There is actually a guy who wrote a bridge with zbrush, so you could send it to zremesher, tried few months ago and it was working. Can't remember how automatic it was, i doubt you will be able to batch process but give a try Manu, Alexey is a smart guy, great tool

https://alexeyvanzhula.gumroad.com/l/nuBwF

 

 

 

________________________________________________________________

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

 

 

[sebkaine]

Great stuff Vince i didn't know this tool exist , very interesting especially the zRemesher + Blendshape connection.