Hey everyone,

Houdini engine is pretty awesome I have to say. Is it possible to make a digital asset and specify different parts of it to come in under different transform+shape nodes in Maya?

I don't want to bring in multiple digital assets as I still want these separate objects to hook up to the same set of sliders. Maybe I can make multiple geometry objects in Houdini and have some way to link them to a single asset export/parameter list?

Many thanks.

Yup, you can actually create an asset out of a OBJ subnet. This would allow you to have multiple object nodes in your asset. And each OBJ node will come into Maya as two different transforms and shapes. See the attached asset for an example.

Just that easy, awesome thanks! 8)

Another question Andrew,

Can we create nested groups in our digital asset? I assumed that making more OBJ subnets within my subnet would achieve this, but the asset in Maya seems to ignore these nested subnets from Houdini and just creates everything parented to the root subnet.


Thanks again.

That's actually the expected behavior at the moment. When Houdini Engine outputs objects, it flattens the objects into one level.

I see, thanks clearing that up. It is definitely useful in some cases to flatten the transforms. Just out of curiosity, any plans to allow for nested hierarchies?

dsierra
Just out of curiosity, any plans to allow for nested hierarchies?

We don't have anything planned yet. :? I can see how it could be useful though, so we might look into adding some support for it in the future.

awong
Yup, you can actually create an asset out of a OBJ subnet. This would allow you to have multiple object nodes in your asset. And each OBJ node will come into Maya as two different transforms and shapes. See the attached asset for an example.

If anyone is wondering how to do this, go to the top toolbar, select Assets>New Digital Asset from Selection. This automatically creates a subnet node without the 4 inputs on top.