Marc Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 So what is everyone using to groom long haired characters these days? Houdini's fur stuff is great, but that's pretty much where it ends and we may be needing a long hair tool soon. So short of rolling our own Houdini solution I'm hoping we can find a nice off the shelf tool that can work for us. I know Modo's got some good stuff. XSI's sucks... ok it doesn't, but it's all proprietary and getting the curves out of it requires jumping through hoops that I have little patience for. Other than that though, I'm not sure what's out there. Thanks Marc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allegro Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 So what is everyone using to groom long hair... Too long, did not read. I used to just let it dry naturally after showering. It's best to use conditioner, and to brush when wet. But seriously, sorry to say that I've never done anything with long hair in Houdini. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted September 17, 2009 Author Share Posted September 17, 2009 Too long, did not read. hmm... let me see if I can help : SowhatiseveryoneusingtogroomlonghairedcharactersthesedaysHoudinisfurstuffisgreatbutthatsprettymuchwhereitendsandwe maybeneedingalonghairtoolsoonSoshortofrollingourownHoudinisolutionImhopingwecanfindaniceofftheshelftoolthatcanworkforus M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owl Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 placing/forming guide curves in other software and then export to houdini Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_suz_ Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 i was thinking, building IK curves for the guide hairs: IK algorithms ;D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted September 18, 2009 Author Share Posted September 18, 2009 placing/forming guide curves in other software and then export to houdini uh...yeah... that's kinda what I said in my first post. So what other software? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owl Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 uh...yeah... that's kinda what I said in my first post. So what other software? any thing that can handle curves and export them, in my case its maya Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted September 18, 2009 Author Share Posted September 18, 2009 So Maya has decent long hair grooming tools? Really? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owl Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 nope, i said curves we have shave, but i personally find it easier to manually place and model each curve, and then make some adjustments with shave's brush. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted September 18, 2009 Author Share Posted September 18, 2009 Well we may as well use Houdini then and save ourselves some trouble . I was speaking more about things like Modo and XSI's curve editing tools where they have specific toolsets to comb/groom long hair. M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owl Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 Well we may as well use Houdini then and save ourselves some trouble . I was speaking more about things like Modo and XSI's curve editing tools where they have specific toolsets to comb/groom long hair. M just watched some modo presentation, looks interesting... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old school Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 No specific hair grooming tools right now. Just fur. There is the proto_install tool called Flowfield that you can give a try to do basic shaping of hair. To install you have to run the shell command proto_install and follow the prompts to install to one of the specified directories. You should be able to do this from inside Houdini by opening up a shell from the Window menu. You will need to restart Houdini. Left input is guide hairs, right input is vector field. See the attached example field to see what you can do. You have to have the proto_install tool flowfield installed. The vector field can be as crude as scattered points in space with a vector on them to shape the curves. It can't stretch or shorten hair but it can take the existing guide curves and allows you to shape them. I am sure you can mock up your own vex/vop/SOP solution to do this too. Volumes are intriguing as an intermediary step. hair_grooming_flowfield_sop.hip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allegro Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 There is the proto_install tool I must admit... I've never understood the purpose of proto_install. It seems like it's used to hide some pretty useful functionality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 'proto' means SESI doesn't support it in any way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abvfx Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 wow, although not perfect, this level of control is pretty decent. If only the edit sops'had a brush feature that could allow to to move/tweak elements. But i can settle for this. Think its time to revisit some of my fur projects. Thanks oldschool. How long has this sop sat unsettled in Houdini. I'm using 9.5, i wonder how far it goes back? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted September 19, 2009 Share Posted September 19, 2009 Ooh, is this similar to the flowlines generated by vector-field visualization in DOPs? I have wanted those visualizations to be available in SOPs for some time. (Also, just as a RenderHook -- ie, a viewport feature) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petz Posted September 19, 2009 Share Posted September 19, 2009 Ooh, is this similar to the flowlines generated by vector-field visualization in DOPs? I have wanted those visualizations to be available in SOPs for some time. (Also, just as a RenderHook -- ie, a viewport feature) afaik flowfield works similar to the attribtransfer-sop. it´s an interpolation of values. for flowline generation i have had great sucess using vtk throuth python or cgal as standalone. vtk it´s a bit tricky to compile but if this is done it´s easy to use within houdini. you can also put something together with a foreach sop. petz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
louis Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 If the edit sop could handle curves (or any unconnected points) with the brush tool it would be lovely indeed. Hacking around that is a little tedious.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thekenny Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 the editSop would need a spring or rope model where the "root" would be anchored and the solver would iterate over the "active" hair's length.. I was wondering if you could hook something like it up via VOPs now... haven't looked myself. Then you could grab a single point and drag the entire curve around easily. You will still end up moving points in the traditional editSOP manner.. the other SOP that we all would benefit from would be a maintain my length SOP. editing and resampling the curves will get you something not the right length which could be a problem Being able to maintain that attribute after adjustment would be great. The flowFieldSOP is handy for sure when you want to ensure there will be almost no hair to hair interpretations... not the easiest thing to do but handy nonetheless. there are all kinds of ways to manipulate the points in the long hair so you have a surface to model as well, it is just a bit more abstract.... thinking about a hair net that was a surface that was compromised of individual hairs at the same "depth" along the length of the hair itself...a few pointSOPs and sorting and bingo...... you could devise a way to move up and down the hair's length in a wafer approach were the brush tools would work. -k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 @thekenny and make sure when you write these tools for that feature film you're making that you maintain them for newer Houdini builds... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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