VEX101 - Accessing Other Stream's Attributes

Hi Ray, 1 - point attributes in your main stream will be automatically bound and accessible suing the @-syntax ( although you could use the point function too). For all other stream you'll have to use the point(), prim() or detail() functions. 2 - What you're visualizing is the normals of the mesh you copied onto the template points, not the template points' normals. Cheers, Mo

Entagma

Ray J

use an external compiler, like visual studio code. And you can autocomple function, its really helpful, if you are starting.

Luis Román

Haha, damn, wishful thinking on my part :) Maybe I’ll send in a feature suggestion to SFX. Thanks Mo!

Travis Rogers

Hey Travis, that's just the magic of video editing :) Cheers, Mo

Entagma

Hi guys, sorry in advance for the noob question, but this issue is triggering my OCD. What is the keyboard command to auto complete function names in the wrangle parameter window? I can't seem to find it documented anywhere and nothing I try seems to work. Mo seems to make it happen at 02:07. Thanks in advance!

Travis Rogers

Hi Juan, hm... that's typically stuff I'd rather do inside Houdini. You can definitely export point attributes via alembic to C4D, however I'd have to look up if/how you can transfer orientation attributes. Regarding the almebic question - do you mean exporting multiple geo streams as single alembic? Sure - absolutely doable. Just use a merge SOP to merge the streams, then export. Cheers, Mo

Entagma

hey mo, so lets say im appending some more dense geo to this set up after its been animated, or perhaps further manipulate the animation in c4d, can i somehow transfer the point orientation to a simple matrix obj in cinema to replace with other geo and access mograph tools ??. Also its just grinding to a halt as multiple alembics in my scene, is there a way to make 1 object animated alembic ?

Juan Iturbe

Normals are an extremely inutitive way to orient copies. Not necessarily the most stable. But simple. Not much math to memorize or understand about it. An orient-quaternion solves problems like flipping (which can happen in certain situations when using only Normals to orient copies) and a Matrix orients your copies using an axis system. Toadstorm has a nice blog post on the details: <a href="http://www.toadstorm.com/blog/?p=493" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.toadstorm.com/blog/?p=493</a> To answer your question why you'd want to use Normals over a quaternion or a matrix: Because it is quick and easy. However in some cases you might find the need to use something more stable :) Cheers, Mo

Entagma

I feel like you were looking over my shoulder yesterday and then decided to make a tutorial just for me! Haha. Thanks so much. Quick question: I often see people using normals to affect orientation of clones, rather than orientation. Why is that? Is it just because it's easier and more straightforward. I think orient uses vector4 right? I struggle to understand how to affect quaternions predictably.

JP Castel