hey guys. have a question, i need to create a particle effect like this photo by using the houdini particle system, but i don't know hao….

could anyone tell me the best way to do it?

thx.

[img70.imageshack.us]
[g.imageshack.us]

NEO.Anderson
hey guys. have a question, i need to create a particle effect like this photo by using the houdini particle system, but i don't know hao….

could anyone tell me the best way to do it?

thx.

[img70.imageshack.us]
[g.imageshack.us]

There are alot of different ways to achieve that . You can do it by just deteriorating the image and composting a animated ramp between layer a and then deteriorating particle version. birthing particals with color info transferred from the animated range of the ramp withthat traveling over the length of the object. There are many examples in the help (f1) open them and look at the files. you can learn sooo much from in there by breaking down the examples. Each node has notes that you can access by clicking on the gear and choosing “edit comments”

Have fun

Hi,
Sorry to piggy back off of this chain, but I've got a similar query. Two days ago I bought the Apprentice version of Houdini. I have some prior experience in C4D, and so far I'm really wondering why I've been wasting my time with that other app.

Being new to H9, can you give me any insight on how to :

“…just deteriorating the image and composting a animated ramp between layer a and then deteriorating particle version.”

I understand the concept, but I'm not sure of the method. I understand how to create a plane and set it to emit particles. I also understand how to make those particle infer colors from an original plate. But I don't get yet how to manipulate the particles and do an animated ramp between two layers (for lack of a better word, sorry still fuzzy.) C4D calls this an affector, but the logic is entirely different in H9.

My goal is to make various text and images blow away in a multitude of different ways (i.e., into sand, wind, clouds, etc…).

Not to carry on too much, but from what I've tried so far, it seems to me that the default behavior for images with an Alpha channel is to fill particles even within the transparent areas. So I'm hoping that the creation of the ramp might shed light on what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks a million.

steve.gaas
Hi,
Sorry to piggy back off of this chain, but I've got a similar query. Two days ago I bought the Apprentice version of Houdini. I have some prior experience in C4D, and so far I'm really wondering why I've been wasting my time with that other app.

Being new to H9, can you give me any insight on how to :

“…just deteriorating the image and composting a animated ramp between layer a and then deteriorating particle version.”

I understand the concept, but I'm not sure of the method. I understand how to create a plane and set it to emit particles. I also understand how to make those particle infer colors from an original plate. But I don't get yet how to manipulate the particles and do an animated ramp between two layers (for lack of a better word, sorry still fuzzy.) C4D calls this an affector, but the logic is entirely different in H9.

My goal is to make various text and images blow away in a multitude of different ways (i.e., into sand, wind, clouds, etc…).

Not to carry on too much, but from what I've tried so far, it seems to me that the default behavior for images with an Alpha channel is to fill particles even within the transparent areas. So I'm hoping that the creation of the ramp might shed light on what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks a million.

Well the very first thing you should do is sit down and break down your concept and get out on paper/wacom exactly what you would like to achieve. Start out without drawing. just describe what you want to happen like a script. Figure out how long the scene/s will be begging to end. Brain storm. The next step is to draw frames of the most basic and the most spectacular of your shots without thought of weather or not you are able to do it or not (sky is the limit attitude) It is through these concept sketches that you can begin to realize and figure out timing of what you want to happen and when . you can arrange the sketches into story board form and then write notes below the frames if there are to be cues to sound etc. Once you have done this you can then single out each type of event (text emit, object emit debris etc.) . You could do this many ways in Houdini in one fell swoop using the “switch” node and copy node with various “stamping” . To get hands on examples of the nodes just lay one down in your network area and click on the question mark.
Essentially what you want to do is to have a traveling range to source your particals from . You can do this by laying down a group sop and choosing “range” in the “operation” section under the “Number” tab. You could use an expression to have the range travel. By doing this. You can create a group of points or primitives that you can call upon in your “source” Pop to birth debris/numbers/dust/and so on. from. To access the group. After laying down a popnetwork. jump into the network (hit the letter “i”) , lay down a source pop, choose your group from there.
There is much to do just keep to your plans and experiment , look at some examples of each of the nodes . you will learn fast the possibilities are endless. To bring everything together, the most flexible way to deal with this will be to composite layers of before and after to give you more control over some of your elements. You can then use more animated masking to really funkify your scene.

Wow.. Your brain is huge I can tell.

I have the ideas pretty much solidified over the last few days of pondering. Now it's down to making them happen.

You've given me much to research. Thanks for the info. I will start tracking down some of the items you mentioned. I'm familiar with the switch, but need to read up on the group sop and pop as it relates to destruction of an image and/or geometry. H9's workflow is new to me, but it's a good way to do things I think. I'm just not confident on the network and connections yet, but will get there.

I'm sure I'll have many more specific questions later! Thanks again.

There's actually a tutorial on this I believe. http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1423&Itemid=132 [sidefx.com]

Yeah, i've seen that tutorial. It's really good stuff. But there are a lot of small issues with the way that tutorial works. Like how H9 frames the picture with particles. You can't tell in his Tutorial, but there is a black border that particles will stick to on 2 sides that is not present in the original image. And if your image has an alpha, there are other issues as well. And the wind affects all particles, rather than only particles that I want to affect, like a wiping vertical destructor from left-right. I've got a lot I still need to learn!

And the wind affects all particles, rather than only particles that I want to affect, like a wiping vertical destructor from left-right. I've got a lot I still need to learn!

I'd bet you could solve this easily with a group pop/sop.

steve.gaas
Wow.. Your brain is huge I can tell.

I have the ideas pretty much solidified over the last few days of pondering. Now it's down to making them happen.

You've given me much to research. Thanks for the info. I will start tracking down some of the items you mentioned. I'm familiar with the switch, but need to read up on the group sop and pop as it relates to destruction of an image and/or geometry. H9's workflow is new to me, but it's a good way to do things I think. I'm just not confident on the network and connections yet, but will get there.

I'm sure I'll have many more specific questions later! Thanks again.

Ha! No, my brain is quite average sized for a human. hehe. You will find that Houdini is addictive and will be difficult to go back to using less flexible tools once you start seeing the benefits of truly procedural work from begging to end.
I hope you enjoy exploring. Take it one step at a time. You will find that the more planning you do on the look you wish to achieve, the less time you will spend messing around(well a little less) with experimenting with looks. Once you get to the stage where you can have many sources with the pop merge bringing them together or separate birthing from multiple interacting groups (look at the “interact” pop examples) plus the “collect”, “creep” and the “group” based on age or life of particals in planed use will help your task as well. Look at examples for these partical oporators.

A bit OT.
What is unique about this very image is it's source
It's an example of krakatoa:

http://www.franticfilms.com/software/products/krakatoa [franticfilms.com]

The problem is not in doing a turbulent dissolve effect which is fairlu straight forward, but on doing it on huge amount of particles.
You hit a million particles with a modest size 1k image, and well… people write inhouse renderers for things like this.

peliosis
A bit OT.
What is unique about this very image is it's source
It's an example of krakatoa:

http://www.franticfilms.com/software/products/krakatoa [franticfilms.com]

The problem is not in doing a turbulent dissolve effect which is fairlu straight forward, but on doing it on huge amount of particles.
You hit a million particles with a modest size 1k image, and well… people write inhouse renderers for things like this.

indeed. that is some cool software.

I decided to have a little play with an idea in my head after thinking about eroding geo and birthing from that with animated deteriorating . you just have to figure out how you want your particals to flow. Planning and more planning and you will do it . ( your computer willing )
:idea:

peliosis
The problem is not in doing a turbulent dissolve effect which is fairlu straight forward, but on doing it on huge amount of particles.
You hit a million particles with a modest size 1k image, and well… people write inhouse renderers for things like thisSmile.

Have you tried the cluster_this procedural described in this thread [sidefx.com]? Its possible to get point counts on par with krakatoa!

mrice

peliosis
The problem is not in doing a turbulent dissolve effect which is fairlu straight forward, but on doing it on huge amount of particles.
You hit a million particles with a modest size 1k image, and well… people write inhouse renderers for things like thisSmile.

Have you tried the cluster_this procedural described in this thread [sidefx.com]? Its possible to get point counts on par with krakatoa!

I was able to easily render 40.000.000 of particles with Mark's dso. The only problem is that in current stage there isn't much control on these particles. I hope Mark will be able to push development further soon, specially cvex support would be awesome.

yup, with cvex control its going to be dangerous

SYmek

mrice

peliosis
The problem is not in doing a turbulent dissolve effect which is fairlu straight forward, but on doing it on huge amount of particles.
You hit a million particles with a modest size 1k image, and well… people write inhouse renderers for things like thisSmile.

Have you tried the cluster_this procedural described in this thread [sidefx.com]? Its possible to get point counts on par with krakatoa!

I was able to easily render 40.000.000 of particles with Mark's dso. The only problem is that in current stage there isn't much control on these particles. I hope Mark will be able to push development further soon, specially cvex support would be awesome.

That is very cool. I am going to have a go with that too.

SYmek
I was able to easily render 40.000.000 of particles with Mark's dso. The only problem is that in current stage there isn't much control on these particles. I hope Mark will be able to push development further soon, specially cvex support would be awesome.

Greetings,

I just saw this thread, and yes, I'll be working on this again next week.

The biggest problem I've had has been the noise functions, I'm using a simple noise generator from the HDK. With the CVEX calls, one of the benefits will be much more control of attributes/noise. Plus, some of my math is questionable, but that will get ironed out too.

Plus I want to implement “Z slicing” so you generate layers of instances and be able to create all that much more detail after comping the layers together.


Mark