entagma

VEX101 - A (Not So) Quick Recap & Fake Hanging Wires

We decided to record (sort of) a repetition, going over some of the fundamentals in VEX.

Along the way we'll talk about how to generate catenaries: The curves that wires / chains form when hanging under their own weight. (Hint: it looks a lot like a parabolic curve.)

VEX101 - Starting A Function Library

You asked for it (and some of you also already answered it): How do you save your custom functions into an external file, so you can build your own library of functions?

This Quicktip goes over saving out your functions into an external header file.

Render Setup: Kitbash Vein Growth

Here's the render setup for the Kitbash Vein Growth tutorial. As always it uses Redshift3D and the "Old Industrial Hall" .exr that you can download from sIBL http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html.

Full Res Artwork: Kitbash Vein Growth

Heres the 4K Full Res rendering for the Kitbash Vein Growth tutorial.

AHTYA04 - Working With Clones Part 1

3D packages other than Houdini often offer a dedicated system to control and animate lots of clones. Be it Mash in Maya, MoGraph in Cinema4D or Animation Nodes in Blender. In Houdini you have to build such a system yourself, if you want to quickly and easily animate clone effects. In todays episode of AHTYA I'll show you how to code a cloning system with falloffs and effectors. We'll dive deeper into VOPs this time and create interfaces for our operators. This video is the foundation for the ...

VEX101 - Custom Functions

Functions. We've been using them quite a lot in VEX. Basically every time you call something like rand() or nearpoint() we are using a function. That means calling a separate piece of code that SideFX created for us in order to provide easy access to intricate functionality (like finding points close by - which itself can be a non-trivial task).

However what if we'd like to create our very own functions for more specialized cases like subdividing a mesh? Fear not - we can create our own...

AHTYA03 - Noisy VOPs

Hi there,

here's the next AHTYA episode. Besides a plethora of inbuilt compiled operators Houdini offers the possibility to develop your own operators, using the VEX programming language. As coding is not for everyone, Houdini has a visual, node based coding environment, too, called VOPs. Short for Vex OPeratorS. This time I introduce you to VOPs. As a practical example of using VOPs we work with noise. After explaining the priciples of Perlin noise, we build a VOP network that allows f...

Full Res Artwork: Constraint Networks

As always in UHD glory :)

Render Setup: Rigid Body Constraint Networks

As usual set up to render using Redshift. For texturing we used one of Cornelius Dämmrich's great free textures. Get them here: https://gumroad.com/l/OYhL

AHTYA Schedule

As you might have noticed, the release frequency of our AHTYA premium course stalled a bit lately. This was mainly due to the fact that both of us were/are involved in quite major projects at work. Good news is: the crunch time should be over now so we can get back to recording/publishing.

And because some of you guys asked: The release schedule for AHTYA will be biweekly, resuming Thursday next week (May 24th).

Cheers, Manu & Mo

VEX101 - If-Statements

The last basic control structure we'll be discussing is ubiquitous when writing code: it is the if-statement.

In this tutorial we'll use it to improve our simple point connector setup to take into account a minimum point distance and to only connect points in a rectangular fashion.

Render Setup: Directions From Growth

Here's the render setup for this scene, using Redshift3D. The file relies on the Old Industrial Hall HDR from: http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive/

Here's the initial geo used by the setup: http://www.entagma.com/wp-content/downloads/DFG_testgeo.zip

Full Res Artwork: Directions From Growth

Download in 4K.

VEX101 - Arrays & Foreach-Loops

You'll need them when building lists, saving connectivity information on your mesh or when looking up nearby points: Arrays.

In theory nothing more than a list of values, arrays are handy for quite a few things we'll encounter frequently when developing VEX scripts. This tut gets you started with the basic theory and usage of arrays.

You might also want to have a look at SideFX's help page on arrays: 2018-05-10 07:32:11 +0000 UTC View Post

VEX101 - For Loops

Suppose you want to calculate a point's position over and over again - but writing down hundreds and hundreds of lines of the same code? Seems a bit tedious. Fear not - the mighty for-loop is your friend for exactly this situation.

In this tutorial we'll go over the basics of using for-loops to create a three dimensional version of an old-school (analog) CG trick: Lissajous Curves.

For texturing we used Cornelius Dämmrich's awesome free textures. Have a look at his freebies here:...

VEX101 - Creating Chladni Patterns

To demonstrate what you can achieve with even basic programming, we set out to create what some credit with starting modern acoustics: Chladni Patterns. Those lines of sand visualize how an oscillating metal plate vibrates. Watch out - we'll be using a bit of highschool math in this one.

We used a few texture maps from our good friend Cornelius Dämmrich for rendering this one - check out his freebies, a really neat collection of useful CG bits: 2018-04-25 14:10:19 +0000 UTC View Post

Render Setup: Interference Patterns In VEX

Set up to render using Redshift. We used the trusty Barcelona Rooftops HDR for lighting. You'll need to download it from: http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html

Full Res Artwork: Interference Patterns In VEX

As always in full UHD glory!

VEX101 - Generating Curl Noise

Ah! What can be more relaxing than having our copies transformed by everyone's favorite noise - the curl noise? This is the same technique we used to create this course's preview image.

After this one we'll look into how we can combine simple VEX with a bit of math to visualize acoustic patterns.

VEX101 - Accessing Other Stream's Attributes

Up until now we've only been accessing attributes on our main geometry stream. But what if we'd like to read another geometry stream's attributes?

AHTYA02 - About Geometry And Attributes

Dear Patrons,

here's part two of "Adding Houdini To Your Arsenal". In this episode I explain Houdinis geometry format in quite some detail. The relationship between points, primitives and vertices is shown and we create some geo from scratch. I introduce you to the attribute system. Houdini allows for storing any information on geometric entities. Using this system, any value can be varied per point, per primitive or per vertex, which lays the foundation for Houdinis procedural power. 2018-04-06 11:37:26 +0000 UTC View Post

VEX101 - Generating Randomness

Generating seemingly random numbers is a surprisingly elemental and often used part in our VEX setups. In this video we'll talk about the basics of generating random numbers and using them to orient our copies.

AHTYA01 - Intro To The UI And Basic Concepts

Dear Patrons,

so today the Houdini introduction for 3D artists starts, with a basic episode outlining the functions of the different parts of the UI and some of the important concepts of Houdini. I discuss the Scene and Geometry level of the Network editor and tell you about the differences of object and geometry nodes. 

Along the way I point out some specialty UI elements of Houdini. This lesson is quite basic to give you a cozy start.

I'm looking forward on hearing yo...

Render Setup: Rayleigh Taylor Instability

Ready to be rendered using Redshift :)

Full Res Artwork: Rayleigh Taylor Instability

As always in UHD glory :)

Adding Houdini To Your Arsenal

Dear Patrons,

"Adding Houdini To Your Arsenal" is our next premium course. It addresses 3D artists that are proficient with another 3D tool and want to learn to use Houdini in companion to their main tool or exclusively. The course requires good general 3D knowledge, but no prior Houdini knowledge. It's designed to help you learn the most important parts of Houdini as fast as possible, to be able to use the software in your next production. The course starts next week and will run in pa...

VEX 101 - Functions

Functions are the commands we call in VEX to tell Houdini to do stuff: Create a point, find points nearby, generate random numbers etc.

We go over the general structure of a function call, how to find functions and how to read Houdini's function reference. The function reference might be one of the main tools that we'll be using when designing VEX code. It is ike a dictionary that translates VEX into human readable text. It is kind of neat but takes a bit of getting used to.

After...

VEX 101 - Variables

Another fundamendal building block of our VEX scripts are variables. In this tutorial we go over the theory behind variables and quickly discuss some basic examples of how to use them inside of a wrangle.

VEX 101 - Data Types & Accessing Attributes

EDIT: Aaand of course i forgot to attach the list of Houdini's built in attributes. Here it is.

We'll go over the basic data types we will be using when building VEX based setups. 

Also if you haven't heard of them yet - attributes allow you to attach arbitrary data to your geometry. A Point position is an attribute, as well as a point's number.

However you can also create custom attributes to drive your setup.

Or use special built-in attributes to control the fun...

VEX 101 - SOP Wrangle Basics

An Attribute Wrangle can behave very differently depending on how you set it up. This is one of the distinctive features of VEX which will be very useful when creating code-based setups.