Was following the tutorial of Nine Between's "VEX isn't Scary", trying to make a loop video. I got every part correct except my loop just cuts off in between. I don't understand why is it happening. Here's my VEX expression:-
float blend = frac(@Time) + @P.x + @P.y;
float positionBlend = chramp('position_blend', blend);
v@P = lerp(v@P, 0, positionBlend);
v@Cd = chramp('color_value', positionBlend);
Hi all, I'm new to Houdini yes, but not to the VFX industry!
Wondering if anyone knows a quick fix for this. Basically, my animation is an alembic import which doesn't carry velocity. While trying to calculate this velocity I was told to use the trail node, but the moment I use it, it somehow throws off the angle of my particle emissions.
My particles should be moving forward with the animation (which is why I need the value), which the trail node actually helps with BUT throws off completely the angle..
Anyone either knows a way to fix this angle issue? Or simply another way to calculate the velocity that wouldn't change the orientation of the spray?
Thank you for any help
What optimizations would you guys recommend I add to this setup? (Ignore the red squiggly lines, they're not connected to anything). I have a basic mannequin character that I animated in Blender (where he just torso twists and bends one arm) that I've imported into Houdini using the USD character import node. I wanted to add some tetrahedral simulations on top so he can eventually flop around like a zombie.
To achieve this, I used a timeshift to freeze the first frame of the animation, did the vdb from/to polygons, remeshed that so it's more accurate in Vellum. Then I used an attribute transfer to transfer a paint I did on the arm of the original model, to the same arm of the remesh. The pointwrangle simply adds everything not included in the paint to a group which the vellum sim will pin later on. From there I feed a point deform into the vellum tetrahedral setup, so the character now animates properly. The arm uses the attribute paint to flop around, which is controlled by a soft pin to target. The "hard" pin to target pins the rest of the body to the animation so it's effectively ignored by the simulation.
This is really slow. Like 30 frames per minute to calculate. I mean I know it's Vellum and tetrahedrals, but this isn't a very complex model or setup, and it's the only thing in the sim. If I don't have any pin to target/animation constraints, and let the tetrahedral model simply flop down to the ground, it calculates everything pretty quickly. Around 2-3 frames a second. Why is it that adding a pin to target slows down the calculation considerably?
Any insight would be appreciated. You can find a zip containing the hip file and the usdc file with the skeletal animation here if you'd like to take a shot optimizing the Vellum tetrahedral simulation. Thanks!
Trying to import this fbx file and the whole viewport goes black for some reason.
I've tried many troubleshooting regarding to what the sidefx forum said but can't seem to find any specific errors as this freezing houdini. I'm also pretty sure that both HoudiniServer and HoudiniLicenseServer are running and the license server manager thing is fine. My current suspicion is the administrator file folder access problem which I'm quite confused as if I've already set their folder to all access, but the launcher seems to struggle and loops the process when I tried to repair or reinstall the specific houdini 21 build
Current laptop (Acer Nitro v15) specs
Window 11
i9-13900H
Rtx 4060 laptop 8gb / intel iris xe 16gb
32Gb
Probably the worst software introduction next to solidworks
One of my tributal vdeos to trionda done in houdini and redshift
If you are interested the HDA + example files is available now on gumroad link in the instagram bio link
I’ve started animating in Houdini this month and I’m getting the good ol candy wrapper on the bending joints. I’m looking for an advanced apex rigging tutorial that can help me learn the tools more in depth to improve my rigs. I’m using a custom metahuman and I’ve pretty much followed the documentations rigging examples and most of the helpful stuff on YouTube to set up a full character. However, things like corrective poses and driver bones are necessary for improved deformation.
If you guys can recommend any high end courses let me know.
Mark Fancher just uploaded his entire stop being afraid of houdini course for free on YouTube (some of the videos are still uploading)
I realize that there are a lot of Maya character artists who want to dive into Houdini, so I made the tutorials necessary to cater to this demographic of artists. If anyone is wondering where to start with character lookdev in Houdini, you can check out my videos on Youtube for free:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKuS5qxlPx0AA9OO29IyFMWe9ckGgbBkK&si=kXh0egWSZ3hFllc3
I hope it’s helpful!
Hi guys! I'm back lol with a follow-up. I had last time put up a PC spec for review, and well, due to a personal emergency, my funds have fallen short. I do need to invest in a pc and get that portfolio up. But currently, I do not have the funds for a whole new PC. Do you think I could add an EGPU to make it work? These are the specs of my laptop right now, which is an ASUS Vivobook Pro 14X. Your help is appreciated. Thank you very much.
Hey proc dev and artists!
I’ve been building Curvoteca, a free curve/function reference tool for technical artists, Houdini users, shader work, and tool development.
It shows previews, equations, and snippets for VEX, OpenCL, TS, Python, and much more.
Started because of Houdini and my own needs. Includes wrangle params with chf/chi and Houdini OpenCL-style #bind, etc @ calling snippets.
Would love feedback:
- whether the VEX snippets feel useful
- what curve families are missing on your daily work or curiosity
- whether Houdini OpenCL snippets should be a separate copy target or format
Enjoy!
No paid product here, just looking for feedback. Btw, snippets bugs exist, fixing overtime and adding more content as I can.
obs... deleted and reposted as reddit was giving img errors and issues, not sure why.
I built KeystoneMCP, a local MCP server that gives AI clients persistent project context across sessions.
The idea came from building a Houdini MCP. Tool-specific MCPs can expose an application very effectively, but the model still lacks wider context such as:
KeystoneMCP handles that as a separate context layer. It stores projects, tasks, versions, dependencies, workflow rules and audit history as structured state. The AI consults Keystone before using another MCP, then records the result afterward.
Architecturally, it follows:
AI client + tool MCPs + project-context MCP
It does not aggregate or re-export other MCP tools. Its role is to give the model reliable state, exact paths, preflight checks and valid next actions so it does not have to infer everything from chat history.
It is currently focused on solo creative users, but I think the context-first pattern could apply beyond creative work.
Full disclosure: this is my project and will be a commercial product. I have left the product link out to keep this focused on the MCP architecture.
Hi
I'm making falling petals using vellum sim.
I scattered points on a grid, adjusted the pscale based on the camera distance, and used a copy to points node to instance the flower petal geometry onto those points.
Here is the issue: When pscale is set to 1, the petals look completely fine—no distortion, and the polygons look clean. However, when I scale down the pscale to 0.1 (to match my camera frame), the petals get heavily distorted, wrinkled, or bloated like in the attached screenshot.
^ pscale = 0.1
^ pscale = 1 (it's good)
Has anyone encountered this issue before? Why does reducing the pscale value break the geometry like this, and how can I fix it?
Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Title is pretty self explanatory. I’m learning about environmental creation in Houdini and recently discovered Natsura. Curious of the following:
—anyone here using it? Do you use it in combination with Speedtree?
—perpetual licenses are such values today. What is the sense that Natsura becomes a staple in Houdini and Unreal work?
This was created using a pyro burst and transferring the velocity onto the geo. I was wondering what can be used to make the explosion not so uniform, as it follows the shape of the explosion too closely!
