kamild Posted October 21, 2007 Share Posted October 21, 2007 Hello, I have been looking to try Houdini for a two or free years, and it seems that the moment is now. My main focus is architecture design and visualization and I am using LightWave 3D daily. Can you tell me what are the possible benefits of procedural workflow in Houdini regarding my field of work? I saw articles about procedural city modelling in Houdini and it was really interesting to see that kind of approach, but what about some small scale projects? Interiors, commercial buildings, homes? Are there any real reasons to try Houdini in this kind of work, or should I stick with LW (I will use it anyway, but I want to bring something new to my workflow)? Kamil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kubabuk Posted October 22, 2007 Share Posted October 22, 2007 (edited) Czesc Kamil, The biggest advantage of Houdini is definitely possibility of creating your own object library using HDAs (houdini digital asset). From my own experience proceduralism is not so powerful in a small scale projects like interiors (unless you focus on creating procedural furniture and reuse them later ) in this area 3dmax rules because it's so simple and easy to use - and it's faster to put objects and tweak them manually. The huge difference appears in exteriors where chaos and variety becomes more important. Than you will find some houdini's features very useful and easy to control (instancing, copy stamping, lsystems). It takes some effort to get familiar with H and also some time to build your own library. But once you have done that you will never go back to any software again kuba Edited October 22, 2007 by kubabuk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peja_ Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 As I'm also interested in architectural visualization, can anyone give me a link to some gallery with qualty works, because I cant find any? I want to see what Houdini can do in this field... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petz Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 http://www.arte-factory.com/ but afaik they use vray for the rendering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewlowell Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 (edited) I think if Mantra was used correctly it could outmanuver VRAY any day of the week for that stuff, and COPs could really help automate the lighting and rendering process. I've used VRAY in a studio context before and don't think it's all it's cracked up to be, but that's just me But, in terms of advantages for architecture ... you'd really have to think of how people already use proceduralism in architecture. How would buildings be constructed without blueprints and interchangeable parts? What about standard sizes and libraries of different basic components like nails, screws, all that other good stuff? All of these procedures can be mimicked in Houdini without scripting. Especially with the new For-Each SOP. On the down side most projects will probably take longer in the initial preparation phase with Houdini, but I think once a few buildings are constructed, you'd probably have your own house and city generator liberary of Digital Assets that could dramatically improve efficiency and reduce mistakes. Edited April 7, 2008 by andrewlowell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peja_ Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 (edited) Yes, i have been reading a lot how Mantra could outperform V-Ray, but it seems noone can give some proof Edited April 7, 2008 by peja_ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 (edited) Hi, I too have a few newbie questions. Forgive me for hijacking the thread, but I didn't want to fill the board with my lousy and probably a little dumb Qs. So... I'm a newbie to 3D. I've just started learning MAX but I want to know the alternatives . I guess you should know a few things before answering: I'm not good at drawing at all, I've never done any graphic design and I barely use Photoshop to crop/resize and edit some pictures. But I have a lot of free time on my hands so I want to do something, and 3D art has always fascinated me and here my questions come: Is Houdini user friendly, i.e. is it a good first app. for a beginner? Do I have to code my own stuff in it (I remember hearing about that a few years ago but I don't remember) and how hard is that if it's true (I've tried to learn C/C++ and others but without a lot of success). Also, is it essential? As the original poster I'm more interested in interior/exterior design, some space scenes if I advance as much, starships (yeah, a Star Trek geek here lol, something similar but not as detailed as this maybe http://josif.deviantart.com/art/Space-Travel-65990453 ), guitar or other instruments modeling etc. Basically - more geometric stuff. Having that in mind, is it worth to start with Houdini or I should stick with MAX and maybe if I become good or at least more experienced then I should check H out? Thank you in advance for answering. I know how annoying newbies can be, so I apologize if you felt the sudden urge to slap me while reading this Edited April 8, 2008 by liquid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peja_ Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Your question is not dumb, and I think it is ok to post a new topic about it. However, I would like that this topic stays about architectural visualization. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
symek Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 (edited) Yes, i have been reading a lot how Mantra could outperform V-Ray, but it seems noone can give some proof Outperform in what? There is nothing like a tool for everything. There are tools for a special purpose. VRay (Chaos Group) gets 95% of its income from visualization and freelance market and it's clearly focused on needs particular for this kind of work. Mantra *is a production engine. It was designed for companies making movies. It outperforms any non-reyes renderer in that fields (including/excluding mental ray depending on perspective - this is different story). The main differences in user's expectations of these markets (as I see them): - in movies only 5-20% of scene illumination comes from some sort of GI (including AO). The rest is hand crafted for a fine control and artistic purposes. - in movies every single shot is rendered with motion blur, most of with depth of field - in movies pictures are shown on >5x10m screen on which any bad pixel is clearly noticeable - in movies pictures are moving... which means any inconsistent between frames are unacceptable - in movies your work depends on others, which means your are focused on very specific moment in a whole process, which you need to control fully. Iterations concern that very moment, not a whole shot. That means you need an organic way of abstracting from a rest of the scene's content. (This is crucial and non-obvious feature of any production tool, since, for example, in general purpose applications there is no way to fine control shadow quality for volumetric effects in abstract to AA setting of a final render. This is bad. ) whereas - in visualizations 80-100% of illumination comes from GI. - ... non motion blur and rare depth of field - ... pictures are rendered in high res but shown in its normal size. - ... they are static (possibly camera animated, in which case photo realism expectations are not held any more) filtering issues are not a problem also. - ... scenes are usually handled by one computer or artist. - ... should I continue? What you're really comparing in case of pure Mantra and VRay is a very specific setup, not a renderer it self. VRay is a one-setup-render, very fine tunned for his work. Mantra is a all-setup-renderer which is close to non-setup since the state it comes with Houdini by default is useless for any advanced work. If you'll know it better you see how to use Point Clouds as a light maps, how to write a proper GI light shader since default one is simply busted, how to setup a car paint shader good enough for both total and closed up shots, rendering fast with MB or static shots, incorporating a few specular models that fit to your practical needs and so on and so forth... (Try to render nice car close up with the shader that comes with VRay... he he. Good luck!) On this thread: http://www.forum3d.pl/f3dbb/index.php?md=t...123187&pg=9 the guy who was complete noob about Houdini was writing a GI PC Light Shader for Mantra. After two weeks of investigation he could force Mantra to render high quality GI frame in time less then 1 minute. Still he has some problems with it, but please note, he saw Houdini for a first time few weeks ago. Outperform in what you meant? Edited April 8, 2008 by SYmek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdg Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 On this thread: http://www.forum3d.pl/f3dbb/index.php?md=t...123187&pg=9 the guy who was complete noob about Houdini was writing a GI PC Light Shader for Mantra. After two weeks of investigation he could force Mantra to render high quality GI frame in time less then 1 minute. Still he has some problems with it, but please note, he saw Houdini for a first time few weeks ago. do you think its possible to get an abstract of this thread? Don't speak no Polish It looks very interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
symek Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 (edited) do you think its possible to get an abstract of this thread?Don't speak no Polish It looks very interesting. Georg, I don't think this would have much sense, as the bigger part of the thread treats with basics how to deal with spaces in light shader or "why for a Christ sake pcexport() doesn't save data to a file", as I naively expected . I hope Andrzej is going to publish final version. Possibly soon. There is also a whole setup for merging point clouds from two frames and so forth. During this long conversation many interesting things came out. Like the good reason to use irradiance cache (which above setup tries to mimic in essence). You really don't want to read 10 pages of our mistakes, do you? Edited April 8, 2008 by SYmek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdg Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 You really don't want to read 10 pages of our mistakes, do you? Actually I wouldn't mind, as I think this is a good way of learning. the bigger part of the thread treats with basics how to deal with spaces in light shader or "why for a Christ sake pcexport() doesn't save data to a file", as I naively expected blush.gif um, basics? To me this is a point where mantra/houdini outperforms other applications: If you want you can tweak them very easyily. But if you arent interested in the behind the scenes stuff vray does a far better job. The hours it would take me to build such shader/setup as described in this thread can never outperform the rendertimes of a vray. how to write a proper GI light shader since default one is simply busted why is it busted and how to write a proper shader then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Netvudu Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 SYmek...what is the estimated release date for your "Mantra rendering" DVD? :notworthy: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
symek Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Mario...what is the estimated release date for your "Mantra rendering" DVD? :notworthy: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mario Marengo Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Mark Elendt and/or Andrew Clinton, what is the estimated release date.... oh, wait... guess they're too busy writing the damn thing Ivan DeWolf, Jason Iversen, Jeff Wagner, Stu, (and I'm forgetting a few), what are your estimated release dates... ? Actually, there are a number of people who visit these forums who could write such a book. Including you, Simon. We just need to extend that silly 24-hr-day thing to something more reasonable, like say, 100-hr-days -- let's go metric! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 someone needs to win the lottery (I'm looking at you stu)... I have a rigging DVD finished and ready for release...you know, in my head.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Swann Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 (edited) I have a rigging DVD finished and ready for release Thats really good news ...you know, in my head.... you are BAD man michael , it is not funny there are many who will be very thankfull if you make DVD like this Edited April 8, 2008 by SWANN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jordan Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 (edited) The only way to get more user for houdini is to release more tutorials. Here is my wishlist:- Mantra RenderingDVD (From Full Irradiance to PBR) tutorial VEX Fundamental DVD tutorial. VOP intermediate DVD tutorial. Houdini Rigging DVD tutorial. Opps, i forgot to put From fundamental to advanced CHOP DVD tutorial. Thank you so much. Edited April 8, 2008 by Jordan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Symbolic Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 The only way to get more user for houdini is to release more tutorials.Here is my wishlist:- Mantra RenderingDVD (From Full Irradiance to PBR) tutorial VEX Fundamental DVD tutorial. VOP intermediate DVD tutorial. Houdini Rigging DVD tutorial. Opps, i forgot to put From fundamental to advanced CHOP DVD tutorial. Thank you so much. Yeah... we need a rendering DVD... especially as Mantra is getting so strong.. with PBR that has such a great potential and almost no documentation... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dpraxisstudio Posted November 2, 2017 Share Posted November 2, 2017 If you need professional 3d architectural rendering design service, explore it ...! Architectural Visualization Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.