some displacement and deeps shadows problem

[blackchicken]

Hello guys

I have some little problems. I create some meteoritic explosion on earth (stereo), and have little problems. First with displacement,. Hi res map of clouds, constant material I add mantra vex displace map, same map as colour and opacity. All is great only some little problems near camera, If smaller resolution, holes is on another place, Where is the problem? object is simple plane 40*40 sub and render tab mantra subdiv on

another little problem is with deep shadow, spot light, pix sam 4 4 softnes 3 quality 1, 1024 res, As you can see there is some lines, I tried change shadow bias but not help, I cant find any solution. Do you know where it could be?

some little antoher questions, still must learn alot but I love houdini, mantra is great render, perfectly implemented. Some little questions.

1, Is there some solution how I could quick render only selected objects?

2, has houdini some layers? no takes, like render layers, but like standart layers like in maya?

3, how I could put vex inside material? I have some shader for smoke, mix from miguel and some odforce shaders, but I olways must copy vex from older projects scene then create material in new. Some houdini materials has wex directly inside.

4, It is possible render glow in mantra or all is post

5, How I could invert group, select something and invert selection will be my group

6, Sim data, If I simulate DOP data, save it to the disk, then from dop network import it back, dop import dont import it. I dont need bgeo seq. For what is sim data?

7, Keyed camera. Why, If I have keyes on cam, so I have it definitely set for shot, If I move or rotate, keyes will add new numbers, why> it is possible turn it off somewhere? I like maya stile, you could rotate cam how you want, but if you move next frame cam jump back to keyed position...

8, Has houdini something like SETDRIVEN KEY like in maya? I saw python dvd from 3dbuzz there they programing something like that but I dont buy it yet. Has houdini something in package? Thanks a lot, There is test, a lot of work still, but in stereo looks realy cool Sorry for stupid questions but you know, new software a lot of questions :afro:

[Michael1]

I think the answer to your first question might be that you need to set your displacement bounds on your geometry. If you set it above 0 this should stop the holes appearing in the geometry.

Cheers.

[blackchicken]

Thanks a lot michael, I choose another material (maple leaf) which haz opacity and displacement with bound and all is ok.

But I have still problem with deepshadows. Lok at the picture, I thing that I must smooth shadows to destroy all artefact but problem is with shadows matte shader. Alpha is no solid where is no shadows, If I choose raytrace shadow, All is ok for compositing. Where is problem? Thanks a lot .....BC....

[sam.h]

Thanks a lot michael, I choose another material (maple leaf) which haz opacity and displacement with bound and all is ok.

But I have still problem with deepshadows. Lok at the picture, I thing that I must smooth shadows to destroy all artefact but problem is with shadows matte shader. Alpha is no solid where is no shadows, If I choose raytrace shadow, All is ok for compositing. Where is problem? Thanks a lot .....BC....

make a new spotlight and make sure that when you look through the light that you aren't seeing too much space around your objects. turn up the resolution of the shadow map and leave everything else at default and see if it is better ....

I also took out the box from the shadow mask on the spotlight.

[blackchicken]

thanks a lot SAM.H yes, It was problem with shadow mask of ground, but what if I need cast shadows from the ground? What is the solution? Thanks a lot again

[varomix]

some little antoher questions, still must learn alot but I love houdini, mantra is great render, perfectly implemented. Some little questions.

1, Is there some solution how I could quick render only selected objects?

2, has houdini some layers? no takes, like render layers, but like standart layers like in maya?

3, how I could put vex inside material? I have some shader for smoke, mix from miguel and some odforce shaders, but I olways must copy vex from older projects scene then create material in new. Some houdini materials has wex directly inside.

4, It is possible render glow in mantra or all is post

5, How I could invert group, select something and invert selection will be my group

6, Sim data, If I simulate DOP data, save it to the disk, then from dop network import it back, dop import dont import it. I dont need bgeo seq. For what is sim data?

7, Keyed camera. Why, If I have keyes on cam, so I have it definitely set for shot, If I move or rotate, keyes will add new numbers, why> it is possible turn it off somewhere? I like maya stile, you could rotate cam how you want, but if you move next frame cam jump back to keyed position...

8, Has houdini something like SETDRIVEN KEY like in maya? I saw python dvd from 3dbuzz there they programing something like that but I dont buy it yet. Has houdini something in package? Thanks a lot, There is test, a lot of work still, but in stereo looks realy cool Sorry for stupid questions but you know, new software a lot of questions :afro:

1. Create a mantra node, in the Objects tab in the candidate objects field choose all the objects that you wanna render, you can also choose wish light you want there, in the candidate lights.

you could also use this method as render layers (2.), if you just want DISPLAY layers use the good old forgotten (for some), groups, just press x on the network view, that's exactly like display layers.

3. make a HDA(Houdini Digital Asset), of your shader, that way it always be available, just like any other shaders, right click on the surface node and choose COMPILE VEX CODE TO SHOP TYPE, save it in the default otl file or create a new .otl file and put in in your $HOME/houdini10.0/otls folder, so houdini loads it everytime.

4. I always do glow in post, but houdini does have a glow shader, you may wanna look that

5. Ctrl + i inverts selection

6. Use a ROP DOP to out put and a FILE to bring that back, change the operation of the FILE node to Read Files

7. Turn off autokey, and unlock the camera, to go back to your camera select it from the drop down menu in the viewport

8. That can easily be done with expressions, linking attributes and clamping/fitting those, Stephen Tucker, did a great set of tutorials on Hscripting

ok

hope that helps

[blackchicken]

perfect, thanks a lot varomix, little bit closer to feel like at home in houdini thanks a lot again. I have little question. I have still problem with materials, In maya I could quickly create very complex shaders. For example, terain. I use oldchool methot but gret for me. I have laaarge terain, In maya I have two lets say 2k textures, one green one brown, I mix it with blend node and blender(texture which combine it together) I usualy paint onto surface in viewport, In maya easy add clean texture with paint function and create black white file. Then I use it as blender in blend material node. So I could easily paint shore of river, green areas, with 50perc grey I could blend two textures together all with one map directly in view. It is possible create this some easy way or I must visit vex Another great thing is that I could repeat textures each independently how much I need. After 5 months of teaching houdini I cant fint how I could repeat texture :bag: there is some decal and so on but where I found lets say repeat texture 5* U 10* V coord? Now I do it by scaling mapping but thats very bat sollution. Thanks a lot all of you guys and thank god for this great forum. Nice weekend.... :nuke: