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Houdini Isn't Scary - Part 3 And a Bit: FAQ — Transcript

by Nine Between · 3,355 words · 443 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00welcome back to you Deanie isn't scary
0:02this isn't exactly part 4 this is more
0:05of a faq Q&A kind of thing where I
0:08answer a lot of questions that may have
0:10arisen and help you with anything that
0:12may pop up along the way that are
0:15unintended so this is more of a
0:17clarification part rather than a part in
0:20its own so we're going to go over a few
0:22things that may confuse you and things
0:25that I may have overlooked in the
0:26tutorials that I should have covered so
0:28let's get straight into it
0:31[Music]
0:35when you're working in Houdini you're
0:37often clicking around you know you're
0:39doing things you're getting things done
0:41you're making great effects but then
0:43sometimes bad things happen you end up
0:46clicking on who knows what this over
0:49here and this over there and all of
0:52these awful things have happened and you
0:55don't know where you are anymore and
0:56it's all just a mess
0:58right you don't know how to get back to
1:00your scene view from here you don't know
1:01how to get your original setup back and
1:04the way that you can just fix this if
1:06everything looks like a mess is to go up
1:09over here where it says bold and this is
1:11what is known as a desktop this is like
1:13a setup so as it went over in part one
1:15you have your scene here your network
1:17view and your parameters but there are
1:19other ways to set it up that's just the
1:21default one and that's called bold now
1:23there are others for example I like to
1:25use technical technical is nice if
1:27you're working with attributes a lot but
1:29if you've done something and you don't
1:31know how to get back to the way it was
1:32what you can do is you can say reload
1:34current desktop you click on that will
1:37take a moment
1:39but everything will come back to normal
1:42right and you won't lose any progress
1:44like if you had an object and yeah it
1:46wouldn't change anything we just bring
1:47you back it would just be like opening
1:49Houdini afresh right so that's a great
1:52way to reset things the other thing I
1:54want to mention are these things in
1:56between panels so as you can see there's
1:59this very thin bar between the scene
2:01view and everything on the right now
2:04what this does is it allows you to click
2:06and drag and adjust the size of Windows
2:08but if you go to the center of this bar
2:10you'll notice that says left mouse
2:12button click to minimize left pane and
2:14then it'll say the same for right so you
2:17can minimize the left pane or the right
2:18pane you minimize the left pane it
2:20pushes everything to the left it
2:23basically removes the scene and you can
2:25find this new thin bar on the left hand
2:27side to restore the minimize thing and
2:29then you can do the reverse and once
2:32again bring it back and this works in
2:34all panels and you can just do it like
2:37that
2:37you can also switch around your panels
2:38by clicking on the middle of the bar so
2:41now our network views at the top
2:43parameters at the bottom switch it again
2:45all right quite useful the other thing
2:47you can do is in a particular window if
2:50your note setup is getting quite busy
2:51you can press control B and this will
2:54maximize that window so if you press
2:56control B again will minimize control V
2:59control B probably right that's also
3:02useful if you want to focus on a
3:03particular panel and you want to just
3:05hide the others you can make one of them
3:07fullscreen and then another thing is we
3:09have these tabs you know you have your
3:10different tabs that do different things
3:12and if you close one by mistake so say
3:15you closed your scene view you can just
3:17create a new tab it's a new pane viewers
3:21see view right and then you can drag
3:23them over and put them where you want so
3:26just keep all of that in mind that's
3:28just to clear up any confusion that you
3:30may have because I remember when I
3:31started in Houdini sometimes I would
3:33click on a random thing and I wouldn't
3:35know how to get it back to normal and I
3:37would just close udg and open it again
3:39but really Houdini has stuff in place to
3:42help you when things like that go wrong
3:45[Music]
3:49this is a bit more of a technical one we
3:52talked about vertices points primitives
3:55now in Houdini a point is a position in
3:58space right but simply just a position
4:01in space and then you place a point at
4:03that position so now you have a point at
4:06a position so that point can hold all
4:08sorts of information that can alt
4:09attributes and that's the basis of what
4:12is known as a point attributes we've
4:13created those before then if you have
4:15two points or more and you connect them
4:18once they connect that you end up with
4:20what is known as a primitive so those
4:22are multiple connected points you can
4:24connect two points to create a line
4:26primitive or three points to create a
4:28triangle or four points to create a quad
4:30now what that means is that multiple
4:33primitives can share points however
4:36that's where vertices come in each
4:39corner of a primitive as a vertice so
4:42that means that vertices are unique per
4:44primitive in a basic quad you have four
4:47points making up one primitive with four
4:49vertices all right and we can if you
4:51take a look at this if we go into
4:53Houdini we can create a grid
4:58I've inside that grid make it a one by
5:00one with only two rows and two columns
5:02right so it's just a single block but
5:06what we could do here is we can also
5:07share primitives so if we activate
5:09primitive numbers this is primitive
5:11number zero as you can see if you
5:13activate points we have four points and
5:15then we can also display vertex markers
5:18as you can see there's one in each
5:19corner right pretty basic four points
5:22one primitive or vertices what happens
5:25if we increase this to three rows and
5:27three columns now what you'll notice is
5:29that we have three points across three
5:31points down that means we have three six
5:33nine points but with one two three four
5:38primitives and then as we've said before
5:41vertices are unique per primitive so
5:44each primitive store has four vertices
5:47although we have nine points and only
5:49four primitives we have 16 vertices so
5:53what does this mean well this changes
5:55the way that attributes work for example
5:58if we have to add an attribute so let's
6:01add eight color and that's only added to
6:03a particular group so what we're going
6:06to do is we can to drop a group node
6:09and I'm just going to duplicate it you
6:11can duplicate but holding alt clicking
6:13and dragging so I have my three groups
6:16over here
6:18and then I'm going to do the same for
6:19the color so holding alt click and drag
6:24and then just plug a group into each one
6:26of these so now for the first one what
6:29I'm going to do is I'm going to group by
6:31primitives have the default so I can
6:33click and drag over some primitives
6:35enter then I'm going to go to the next
6:38one I'm going to set it to points click
6:41and drag over some points enter right
6:45now we have that group where I'm second
6:48group and the third group will set this
6:50one to vertices click and drag press
6:53Enter
6:54now let's go on to our color nodes we
6:56can select all three of them at the same
6:58time let's make all of them blue and in
7:01the group that we want for each of them
7:03is Group one in all cases so now we can
7:06take a look at the difference so for the
7:08first one when it changes to a primitive
7:10group because that's what our group is
7:12and as you can see it makes sure that
7:15the color does not bleed over into the
7:18other block it is maintained only on
7:20each primitive if we go over to our
7:24second one over here where we have it
7:25running over points you'll notice that
7:27it sort of bleeds over right it bleeds
7:30from the points and then as you go
7:32across the primitive it blends between
7:34the one value to the other points value
7:37and finally if we go over to vertices we
7:40can make that last one a vertex
7:42attribute now you can see that is held
7:44by only a single vertex that vertex over
7:47there bleeds between that one that one
7:49and that one
7:50so the attribute that you have on there
7:51blends across and as you can see this
7:54makes quite a difference depending on
7:56what look you're going for
7:58you need your attributes on different
8:00parts of geometry so take note of that
8:02it's very easy to switch between so you
8:05can easily change from flowers primitive
8:06to point and you can also use things
8:09like an attribute promote and that can
8:12promote it from one class to another you
8:14plug those in and then you choose the
8:16attribute name so we know that this is
8:18cd4 color and then you can change it
8:21from a primitive to a point or a vertex
8:25and detail we'll get back to that at a
8:27later point
8:32as we noted in part one we have three
8:36axes in Houdini we have the x axis the y
8:39axis and the z axis x axis being
8:42horizontal y axis being vertical and the
8:46z axis being your depth and you may have
8:49heard a compositing term known as Zeta
8:52that refers to how far along the z axis
8:56a particular object is so how does this
8:59relate to working in Houdini well when
9:02we create an object for example if we
9:05create a sphere under the parameters
9:07you'll notice that translate rotation
9:09and scale all have three components to
9:12them these three components pertain to
9:15our axes and in this case the order is
9:18important we follow it as x y and z and
9:22they relate directly to the three
9:24components you see over here as you can
9:27see we have this translate over here the
9:29first one would be X so if we move this
9:32a sphere moves along the x axis and if
9:36we move along the second component that
9:38moves us along our y axis and we can
9:40move along our z axis as well and when
9:43it comes to scaling you can scale along
9:46particular axes as well
9:48I would work with the rotation is you
9:50can almost think of it as a rotisserie
9:52so you would put a skewer through a
9:54particular side and then spin it around
9:56that direction so if you put a skewer in
9:58vertically in other words along the y
10:02axis and this would spin towards the x
10:05axis so as you can see if you spin it
10:09along the y axis it rotates like that
10:12and you can almost visualize the skewer
10:15down the middle as if it were a
10:17rotisserie same thing if we rotate
10:19around the z axis or the x axis
10:24so that makes up these components and
10:27you may notice something in the bottom
10:29left of your viewport you see that it
10:31has XY and Z and I chose it as red green
10:35and blue now if we go inside our sphere
10:39and drop down a color node you'll notice
10:43something interesting our color node
10:45also as these three components and more
10:50interestingly they correspond to XY and
10:53z as well except they correspond to a G
10:56and B red green and blue as you can see
10:58in the bottom left so if you make
11:01everything on here zero except for X
11:06unless it becomes red because when
11:09working with vectors as what these are
11:11called these values that have multiple
11:13components to them they're called
11:15vectors when you work with a vector most
11:18common type has three components to it
11:21they can be referred to as X Y Z 0 1 2
11:24or RGB and in this case it's our red G
11:29green B blue so if we want purple then
11:33we want to add to B so our G B make that
11:37one you get purple
11:39and so you can figure out how all of
11:41this works of course you don't have to
11:42know this it just makes it easier to
11:44work with because you actually
11:45understand what each of these values are
11:47it helps making sure that nothing is
11:49obscure because now we have a very clear
11:51understanding that each one of these
11:53corresponds to a different color value
11:55so great how exactly as a vectors let's
11:57go to the next part when you go inside a
12:06node in Houdini and you want to drop
12:09down a new node there are multiple ways
12:12of connecting it to other objects so if
12:14we drop down a null the most common way
12:17is to click on this output and plug it
12:19into that input all right very basic
12:22however there are other ways so let's
12:25say we have our sphere so I'm placing a
12:26sphere here I click on the output right
12:29so now I can plug it in somewhere but
12:32then I press tab and type now it will
12:36connect it automatically switching is
12:38very easy if I want to switch which
12:40output is going into this input you can
12:42click on the output click on the input
12:45and it'll switch them right so that's
12:48very basic but you can also do things
12:50like cutting connections so you can hold
12:53Y and we'll bring up this scissor tool
12:55and you can just click and drag and it
12:58will cut anything that you cross
13:01they things are plugged in like that
13:05you can cross right pretty cool what
13:07happens if your network is becoming a
13:08bit of a mess so let's drop another now
13:10connect this to all of these and just
13:13move these you know in some weird way
13:16what you can do is you can press out and
13:18what L does is it lays it out
13:21it lays it out in a neat way for you and
13:23the other thing that you could do is if
13:25they are all a mess like this you can
13:29select a couple of nodes so say you only
13:30one select the nulls all shift-click on
13:33a null click on the next one and click
13:35on the next one and then you can do
13:36something like shift a which will align
13:40them or horizontally you click and move
13:43to the right and then you can distribute
13:45them evenly by holding alt and a
13:49and you end up with that nice little
13:51setup another cool thing you can do is
13:53you can add what's known as a dot in a
13:56connector so if you alt and click on a
13:59connector it'll add this dot and this
14:02dot acts almost like a midpoint as you
14:05can split from
14:10that's just a way of meeting things up
14:12and the cool thing about the dot is if
14:15you want to replace the input it almost
14:18acts like a null in its own so another
14:21thing that you may want to do is if this
14:23box is too small and you have a large
14:26node set up and you're very busy with
14:28nodes you don't really need to see the
14:30scene view or anything you could press
14:32ctrl + B in this box over here to make a
14:35full screen so we can write like this
14:37let's drop down a switch
14:41now if you have a switch you'll notice
14:44that they aren't separate inputs there
14:46is just this one bar and this means that
14:49you can connect multiple things in you
14:51know you can connect as many of these as
14:53you want but the thing that I want to
14:55show you is how we control which input
14:58is which so I'm just going to press Y
15:00click and drag cut all of those now
15:04let's say I plug my box in and then I
15:07plug my sphere in as you can see it
15:10considers the box as the first input and
15:12the sphere as the second input so you
15:15can switch between which input is coming
15:17through if we take a look at our
15:18viewport
15:21we can switch back and forth between
15:23these two and you end up with a dotted
15:26connector versus I saw the connector the
15:27solid one is showing which is currently
15:29being viewed so you know very easy to
15:32swap back and forth but what happens if
15:33we want our box to the our second input
15:35well what we can do is we can rearrange
15:38them in here you can press up and let's
15:41switch them around all right so just a
15:44neat little trick and you can do this
15:46with a merge node as well if you have a
15:48whole bunch of things merged in
15:51and your orders on mixed up you can
15:54switch them around over here
15:58so this is just a meekness thing
16:00basically because you're working with
16:02nerds a lot of the time you want
16:03everything to remain neat and you know
16:06there are other things that you can play
16:07around with such as Network boxes if for
16:10example all of these nulls aren't
16:12important to see you can put them in a
16:14network box right move them around as
16:17one unit and also minimize them
16:21and then of course give this a name of
16:24its own so you can call it something
16:25like in our box and this just neaten
16:28things up and makes it a lot easier and
16:30you have other tools you can press seed
16:32that will bring up your colors you can
16:34give different things different colors
16:36by clicking on them and then clicking on
16:38a color so doing it this way you can
16:41color coordinate various things and it
16:43just makes working in Houdini a little
16:45bit easier and if you have a nerd
16:46halfway between a connector a cool way
16:50to disconnect it his tacky just wiggle
16:52it around if your wiggler comes loose so
16:55that's a pretty cool thing that I
16:56haven't seen in other software no yeah
16:58something plugged in when lip comes
17:00loose and you can slide it in somewhere
17:02else
17:04and so that's all very useful just to
17:07make your life a bit easier when you're
17:08working with nerds
17:09your nerd setups don't become a complete
17:12mess I hope that this helped to clear up
17:14some of the confusions that you may have
17:16had with Houdini you know a lot of those
17:18small things that kind of pop up when
17:20you don't expect them kind of things are
17:22getting your way and you spend an hour
17:24trying to find on Google honestly it
17:26just ends up wasting a lot of your time
17:27so this is really just for convenience
17:29we'll be back with part four soon I do
17:32hope you enjoyed this if you did enjoy
17:34this please leave a like consider
17:35subscribing we are releasing these
17:37tutorials a lot more often than we used
17:39to and it seems to be the direction that
17:41this channel is going to take so thank
17:43you for supporting us thank you for
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17:46so if you want any more content you can
17:49go over to our patreon and check it out
17:51over there and a special thanks to all
17:53of our patrons who make this possible
17:55they make it free for everyone else and
17:57so you know a huge thank you to them and
17:59here they are here's the credits thank
18:02you for watching I'll see you next time
18:25you

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