|
By eternityblue - 9 Years Ago
|
I am giving Houdini Apprentice another shot, this free version is supposed to be most of Houdini but renders 720p max. Anyhow, I'm a complete novice with it, have only sat through a couple intro videos so far, but before I get too involved with it, I am wondering if anyone has experience integrating the two tools into a good workflow, and what sorts of things work well with iClone and what doesn't. I'd also like to hear experiences rendering and any settings I should change to get the best performance so rendering doesn't take days. Thanks in advance.
|
|
By GOETZIWOOD STUDIOS - 9 Years Ago
|
@eternityblue
It does not really work that way unfortunately, you don't open a thread with a kind of defiant attitude asking for someone to show off or to prove Houdini worth something and can be adapted to your iClone workflow.
I admitted elsewhere that Houdini requires a lot of patience and has a steep learning curve, this is not something you decide to use to quickly resolve your issues. The essence of Houdini is not to work fast but to do the job and never hit a wall, no matter what the challenge is (the only exception here being sculpting, you can't do what ZBrush do in Houdini). But - unless you are very experienced - you won't work as fast as with Maya, Softimage, 3DSMax, etc..
I'm using Houdini on a daily basis at work for VFX work but I'm unable to answer your question regarding a "good workflow" with iClone because it depends on what you mean by that and what you are using iClone for. Like any other 3d DCC tool you can do modeling in Houdini, so you can use it to create any object that you can import into iClone through 3DXchange. Houdini has the advantage to let you do procedural modeling at a level not reachable by any other software. You can do procedural animation as well, of course. So here there are no difference with any other 3D DCC tool: you create assets you get into iClone, for a very cheap and legit licence price (similar to a Maya LT subscription but with infinitely more power).
Regarding rendering, as I often mentioned it in my messages, I'm not trying to render anything outside of iClone. To me the point of iClone is to render as much as possible everything in iClone at "interactive speed" and max quality, I'm not interested in having final renders at realtime speed though. If I start rendering outside iClone then what the point of using iClone in the first place ? What I'm interested in iClone is still the "Machinima" idea and how to obtain the best results with its constraints.
Back to a "good workflow" I'm afraid I won't be able to produce a good receipt that you can instantly and magically apply to your workflow. I may help you though, if you ask precise questions about Houdini, except perhaps when it comes to character rigging/skinning and importing/exporting characters through Houdini/3DXchange as I didn't had the time yet to explore this area of Houdini!
I hope we will soon see Alembic import into iClone so it would really help for VFX work, this way we could easily import Houdini simulations into iClone. OpenVDB import would be a plus as well granted iClone introduce volumic rendering. Meanwhile, you can export alembic and camera from iClone to Houdini, so you can use your iClone objects as matte objects and render volumes and simulations in Houdini then composite the results either in Houdini or in HitFilm or whatever. For me this is the only exception I render outside iClone for now.
Not sure what to add for now, except I may appear a bit schizophrenic about Houdini, on one side I advise to discover and use it while at the same time I'm warning it won't be easy a requires a lot of patience and elbow grease. But ultimately, if you really learn Houdini, you will never regret it, you can do things in there you won't be able to do anywhere else.
What's for sure, and that was my point in the other thread is that in terms of power/price ratio, Houdini Indie is unbeatable (Blender aside as it is free of course).
So if you are young enough, full of energy and don't know yet where to put your money for a 3D DCC tool that you will probably use the next 30 of 40 years, then don't look any further ; )
|
|
By eternityblue - 9 Years Ago
|
|
Defiant attitude? I think you misunderstood me.
|
|
By eternityblue - 9 Years Ago
|
|
BTW when I say integrating workflows, I mean rendering separately in each and compositing in a video editor. At least until iC7 and potentially a plugin gets released. Anyhow, if you don't know, you don't know. See ya.
|
|
By eternityblue - 9 Years Ago
|
|
I am used to using multiple tools to get something done, ie. I don't make music in iClone, so if I can render out something custom and cool in Houdini with transparency, and then use that as a video layer with iC7's GI lighting, I think it would be pretty flexible. I definitely am not looking for machinima, so I don't care about making it outside, it ultimately is a prop, just like if I made a house in Blender.
|
|
By GOETZIWOOD STUDIOS - 9 Years Ago
|
@eternityblue
'defiant' might not be the right word, 'challenging' perhaps ? Sorry, English is not my native tongue.
Anyway, I've answered your question regarding rendering separately, you can do that by exporting alembic files and soon camera through fbx. You will have to redo/adapt your materials though, obviously.
If you want to learn something about Houdini you may always ask questions here, I'll answer if I can help.
|
|
By GOETZIWOOD STUDIOS - 9 Years Ago
|
|
eternityblue (1/28/2017)
I am used to using multiple tools to get something done, ie. I don't make music in iClone, so if I can render out something custom and cool in Houdini with transparency, and then use that as a video layer with iC7's GI lighting, I think it would be pretty flexible. I definitely am not looking for machinima, so I don't care about making it outside, it ultimately is a prop, just like if I made a house in Blender.
I think you misunderstood me. Creating billboards and impostors inside Houdini for using those as Sprites or popVideos or Bilboards or even Textures inside iClone is part of my "workflow" as well. It is indeed like creating external assets that you import and use inside iClone.
Regarding musics and sounds yes, obviously you don't create those inside iClone, those are also called "assets" and are created outside of iClone, I was not saying to do everything in iClone ^^
|
|
By GOETZIWOOD STUDIOS - 9 Years Ago
|
sw00000p (1/28/2017)
eternityblue (1/27/2017)
BTW when I say integrating workflows, I mean rendering separately in each and compositing in a video editor. At least until iC7 and potentially a plugin gets released..Houdini wait times for rendering is the same for most high-end rendering apps. Low - Medium - High You choice depends on you pc specs and how long you want to wait.
True, Mantra is not especially known to be the fastest renderer out there - yet it is not that slow - but it is quite rock solid, it will render pretty much anything you'll throw at it, with high quality.
|
|
By Kevin.S - 9 Years Ago
|
Houdini is the most powerful 3d program on the public market, Houdini artists are also one of the highest paid artists in the world,
there is nothing wrong with learning it...I have been trying to learn it also its abilities are amazing its in a league of its own.. You wont see
an epic movie made without the use of Houdini. Houdini and VUE are the top dogs in the film industry. Vue is environment software and has
been used to create the environment for over of the top 50 movies ever made including Avatar Lord Rings Harry Potters etc etc.
VUE
|
|
By GOETZIWOOD STUDIOS - 9 Years Ago
|
FYI: What's new in Houdini 16:
Houdini 16 Amarok
:)
|
|
By Kevin.S - 9 Years Ago
|
Such an amazing program!
|
|
By animagic - 9 Years Ago
|
|
A Houdini-iClone link would be great...
|
|
By GOETZIWOOD STUDIOS - 9 Years Ago
|
@animagic
Well there are already the "traditional links" to be used such as *.obj and *.fbx import/export, now including morphs with H16. iClone can also export alembic files but it is still one way to Houdini. We would need iClone alembic import to bring back some simulations into iClone.
What would be great is to have OpenVDB import into iClone too but as these carry heavy volumic data (3d data grids) this is another beast to render in realtime or even at interactive rates.
One workaround I can think of for now is to export some blocking assets and camera from iClone to Houdini, then render/bake volume simulations to popVideos/Bilboards/Sprites and use those back into iClone.
Last "link" would be to have Houdini Engine as a plugin to iClone. With the upcoming iClone API, perhaps this will be possible.
To clarify what kind of data could be transferred through which channel:
- OpenVDB files (*.vdb) carry data grids which embed density, velocity, temperature, fuel, etc.. those are useful for smoke, explosion, etc..
- Alembic files (*.abc) carry cameras, polygonal geometries, particles, transforms, useful for water simulations (you nearly always reconstruct polygon mesh geometries from water and viscous fluids simulation for rendering, and use particles for water splashes, foam, etc..), also useful for everything that deform (clothes, soft bodies, etc..) or not (rigid body dynamics).
- Filmbox files (*.fbx) for textured polygonal meshes (alembic does not carry textures nor material settings, only surface names), skinned characters, static or morphable geometries, hierarchical skeletons, cameras
- Wavefront Object files (*.obj) for textured polygonal meshes, morphs
|
|