A Great Conjunction

It's funny what computer graphics does for me. I have noticed that it is a mental outlet so I can utilize both the artistic and technical aspects in some way. It certainly is a great deal of work however, and since I'm not in "the business" I've found my pursuits in the subject amorphous and without any true goals. Additionally, ... Read More...

VOP COP Raster Depths

This was an odd video to do since it seems to be a simple topic but when talking about it out loud it starts sounding complicated. I'm basically covering several sub-topics which support the overall topic. Despite the confusing ramblings in the video, what you should take away from it is that in VOP COPs, the "Raster Depth" setting can ... Read More...

Sprites On Points Digital Assest

Sprites are pretty cool, but in a clean install of Houdini you can only use them on particles using the Sprite POP. It turns out, you can add some attribute trickery to make sprites work on plain ol' points. The cooler thing is that this Sprite SOP concept works in Houdini Escape (which doesn't have particles). I wrote a full ... Read More...

Varying Materials Using A Single Shader

Nothing ground breaking here, but for someone who is into neat little tricks to control shaders, I thought this was worth showing. What the video covers is a way to vary the materials on a single object using a single shader (differing from the usual method of using multiple shaders for different pieces of an object).  I'll leave it at ... Read More...

Houdini And 3DConnexion Devices

UPDATE: I thought I was doing something special and unique but it seems someone has beat me to it. Still, even with all the effort I've put into this (and it still not being totally usable yet), I'm finding the experience very fulfilling. When even failing is enjoyable, one must take note and realize that you must really love what ... Read More...

Houdini Occlusion Asset

I've received a few requests for an asset of the occlusion inline VOP I used for the occlusion video so I thought I would put one together. I call it "Occlusion 2" mainly because it's the second occlusion VEX function. The occlusion VOP that comes with Houdini is actually the first function which gives you occluded irradiance which is a ... Read More...