Live 2022.09.11
Greeble Techniques
Taking a look at some methods to quickly build out geometric detail using greebles. Everything is rendered with Karma in Solaris and instancing is done using packed primitives to optimize the memory footprint of the scene.
Scene File
Lot Subdivision
The Labs Lot Subdivision node is quite useful to quickly build detail to geometry.
Below are some examples of techniques using the lot subdivision node.
2022_09_11_labs_lot_subd.hiplc
2022_09_11_extract_face_transform_labs_lot_subd.hiplc
It's also possible to directly retrieve the transform matrix from the bbox SOP which simplifies this workflow even more. Thanks to Falcón Saavedra for pointing this out to me.
References
For more inspiration on how this type of workflow could be extended, check out methods described in this paper as well as Holden Haotian Zhang's Houdini Greeble Tool, shown below.
Video On Demand
- 00:02:05 Instancing methods in Solaris
- 00:03:55 Instancing using the copy to points LOP node
- 00:04:56 Editing the instance points inside of the copy LOP node
- 00:07:00 Instances and Prototypes
- 00:07:45 Directing the orientation of copies using the normal attribute
- 00:09:00 Adding ground plane, lights, etc.
- 00:14:45 Starting the second example
- 00:15:21 Labs Lot Subdivision SOP
- 00:16:46 Insetting surfaces using polyexpand node and a for loop block
- 00:19:27 Local control over extrusion using randomized zscale attribute
- 00:20:22 Scale faces independently using primitive properties SOP node
- 00:27:30 Using hscript expression to randomize the face rotations
- 00:28:31 Beveling edges
- 00:35:00 Extracting a transform matrix from each box
- 00:38:32 Adding labeled output nodes
- 00:43:25 Importing packed prims into Solaris as instances
- 00:45:06 Adding lights to the scene
- 00:46:00 Adding a camera
- 00:50:35 Adjusting spotlight parameters on the light
- 00:53:40 Adding a dome environment light
- 00:59:00 Creating materials
- 01:10:00 Setting up the physical lens shader for Karma
- 01:19:16 Enabling ACES using the SideFX labs menu
- 01:33:30 Using the image viewport in Solaris
- 01:36:20 Final composition and wrapping up