DavidKahlVFX

An Unreal World

I started a learning journey for unreal engine. I wanted to do that for ages but since I got a bit sick, so recording was not possible, I used the time to dig into gathered learning material.
Incorporating unreal into my personal know how seems to be the logical step. Epic with unreal seems to pull ahead in the constant battle of the game engines, while their investment into SideFX makes it even more interesting for us Houdini guys.
As I just shared on the discord - there is a new chann...

Format of the Library

A question to everyone wanting to use or is just interested in the idea of the Wrangle tool and the library.

As you know, one of the base ideas of the library was to have all the most important functions in there, for quick access so you don't need to jump to the docs all the time.

But there is a question of format. Let's look at an example.

The function intersect.

So the ques...

Project File | Chapter 4 - Clip 1

Be aware - I updated the project to 18.5 now

DK Wrangle | Dev Log 0.2.4

If you watch the dev log you can see what got added so far.

You already knew the override function but now, as decided by the poll, there is now the option to merge libraries together.

That way you can build your own file, still get new entries from me or even share your own snippets with the community.

Also seen in video is a new feature, allowing you to grab new entries from a file that I am keeping online. It will make it very easy to get new entries. 

The func...

Categorize Points | Chapter 4 - Clip 1

A bit late - since I am now in version 18.5. I am also doing the voice over myself but still use descript to overwrite words with AI if I make a mistake.

Descript really makes all the difference, even if I am not using it to generate the whole narration.

Transcript

congratulations. You made it into the fourth chapter. 

Yeah. And now we are going to... hey, wait a second. Where is the other guy? 

Sorry, I have an urgent appointment. Dave can do this on h...

AI Voice vs awkward but real german Voice

It is time to find out :)

Here you can listen to my latest voice profile that I plan to utilize in Chapter 4.

Listen to it here

https://share.descript.com/view/Oc6AkN34P0u

Now - for descript I obviously need to create a full script to create the narration. With a full script It is not really an issue to voice it myself. Descript does still save some time but it comes down to maybe 1 hou...

Next Feature in DK Wrangle

Hey folks,

finally we can start doing what I intended this tier to be. To decide the next steps in the wrangle tool.

The wrangle seems to be a tool with much potential but there is alot to do to make it easy to use and versatile.

Here are some ideas:

A text search:

Either for the entry names or even better full text. For example type "intersect" and you get all snippets loaded into the dropdowns that use intersect in it

Merge libraries:

2020-11-13 07:49:51 +0000 UTC View Post

Project File | Finished Chapter 3

The File for Reference

Final Tunnel Construction | Houdini Railsystem | Chapter 3 - Clip 3

A bit late - it is slowly getting close and I might need more  time now. 

This is the final of chapter 3.

I am going to re-record some stuff now since to adjust for Houdini 18.5. But since I have already a finished screen capture it should go quickly. 

But again maybe it takes longer than a week now for the next clip.

Transcript:

Well, I have a wonderful electronic invention. I want you to see,

welcome to the third and last clip of...

DK Library for the DK Wrangle Tool

I was considering to make a library for the 10$ tier first, but since this is a Work in Progress - basically a library that will constantly grow - I wanted to share this early stage with all patrons.

At this moment I started to build the infrastructure with 3 contexts and 23 categories. They are not fleshed out yet.

Going forward I will continue to grow each section in the library.

Currently I added mainly custom snippets and utilities, codings that you would also find in th...

Project File | Chapter 3 - Clip 2

The newest file.

DK Wrangle v0.2

- cleaned up the UI

- Save Entry checks for existing data

- Override Entry ... does that

- Override and Delete Option in the Load from File Tab

Override and Delete | DK Wrangle v0.2

This was easier then I though and I managed to build these two options in a few hours. And mainly since I needed to look up python dictionaries.

So the smallest change is that the About tab is now a collapsible folder. That solves the empty space when the other 2 are closed.

The first real improvement was done to the Save Entry function.

Before it would just append the new entry, even if you already have it with that name, category and context. Now it checks if that entry ex...

Adding Terrain Details | Chapter 3 - Clip 2

Transcript :

We are now in clip two, of chapter three. We left of with a finished mask on the projected terrain to blend in the tunnel geometry. I grab an object merge and point to that last status of the height field. We definitely need to add some noise here, but for that, we should add a bit of blur to the mask.

Maybe with a little less strength. It should just be enough to avoid harsh seams. Now let's try to add some noise to it. We can connect the mask directly into the secon...

Project File | Chapter 3 - Clip 1

The File for the new chapter

DK Wrangle v0.15 --> v.016

Hey folks,

I needed to make a quick adjustment to how the entries are saved. 

The context is now also saved in the entries themselve to make sure that you can save categories with the same name. 

Of course this messed with the initial free file. So I quickly bring this out to you where the context is also added to the json file. The asset checks if the entry is inside of the current context AND category.

In addition to that I am trying to allow placeholders i...

DK Wrangle v0.1 Introduction

Hey folks,
i managed to get this to a state that seems stable enough to already be useful.
The tool can be found here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/43212675

There is still some stuff to figure out. If  you start button smashing you might provoke python errors. 
BUT if you use it as intended you can already use it. Since this tool is based on the HDA in combination with a json file -...

File Download - DK Wrangle v0.1

Introduction at

https://www.patreon.com/posts/43210620

Intro Video

https://youtu.be/stNN79VRAao

Procedural Terrain | Chapter 3 - Clip 1

Transcript

Welcome back to chapter three. Last time we ended with the created tunnel curves and had an initial shape for the tunnels as well. In this chapter, we are going to add more detail to our terrain. And with a finalized landscape, we do the split again, and then use the final tunnel to do the boolean operation.

In this clip, we are using the basic tool set for height fields. The thing that stands out though, is that we are using what we created before to direct ...

Project File | Chapter 2 Finished

And here we have chapter 2 finished.

Mirror Connection | Community Challenge #1

For quite some time I was thinking about ways to make this group feel like a community. Have active conversations, people picking each others brains to solve a common problem.

And this is what I came up with, refined after some back and forth on discord.

For this first time I already delivered the initial idea. But in the future I see us vote on the next community challenge. This can be the functionality of a single vex function, a problem to solve or an idea that you got from a m...

Procedural Tunnel Creation | Chapter 2 - Clip 4

I am going to add screenshots and descript correction as soon as I can :)
Summary
welcome to the last clip of chapter two, a clip so short that it barely made it into its own video. This will only be a short segment, but it is quite important. We are going to block out the tunnels like the terrain. This will not be the final output, but it will be the outline. We need to go back to the height field to find the tunnels we need the terrain slice.

Tunnels can only exist in this area...

Project File | Chapter 2 - Clip 3

The file for the superformula part. Easy to create typos here - so it might be the first one to come in handy.

Project File | Chapter 2 Clip 2

And here is the File for the recent clip

Superformula Rail | Chapter 2 - Clip 3

In this Clip we create the shape of the rail. We do that In a very nerdy way. By using the superformula as basis.

Summary

In the third clip of chapter two, we are going to create a shape for the rail. We are going to create this shape in the most nerdy way possible. The starting point will be a result of the super formula. I came to that idea when I made a tutorial on this math formula. I noticed that one of the figures you can get out of it, it kind of looks like a rail.

...

Content as a blog style readup

Since I started using descript, I am able to get an 95% accurate transcript. At the moment I am using it to create good subtitles.

But it would also allow me to create a written summary of the whole video. Together with screenshots you get a good idea of the video.

My question to you guys is if that would be helpful in any way. 

It would allow you to either scan over it and decide if a video contains what you are interested in OR if you are in a situation where you can'...

Custom Orientation | Chapter 2 - Clip 2

 In this chapter we are going to create a custom orientation on the curve  that will allow us to have the train leaning into a turn and also  follow its slope.  We are going to use the super formula to create an  interesting shape for the rail itself and finally isolate tunnel  segments for further processing. 
In this clip find the right leaning factor foreach piece of the curve.  We use it to create a custom orientation.  

Project File | Chapter 2 - Clip 1

Here is the file to the latest clip.

Lerp and Leaning - Chapter 2, Clip 1

In this chapter we are going to create a custom orientation on the curve  that will allow us to have the train leaning into a turn and also  follow its slope.  

We are going to use the super formula to create an  interesting shape for the rail itself and finally isolate tunnel  segments for further processing.  

In this clip we lerp the curve and categorize it into leaning groups.  

The latest project file follows in a patreon exclusive pos...

Rail Course Delivery - Quick Info

I am going to release the Rail project clip by clip.

Since I struggle foreach single minute that I can get I have to at least give myself 1 week in between. But I am sure there will be phases where even that will not be enough.

But let's assume it will go as planned.

In that case I am releasing 1 clip on youtube and Patreons get access to the following one.

I start those posts as an auditorium post. After 2-3 days - giving me time to answer possible questions, the post...