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cmiVFX Launches a New Houdini Training Video - Procedural Road Creation : Building Powerful Assets
Watch High Definition Training Videos For The Visual Effects Industry Instantly From Anywhere In The World.
 
Curitiba, PR, Brazil November 25th, 2009 — cmiVFX | cmiStudios launches a brand new video for SideFX Software's Houdini application. This video is the first in a series of in-depth videos related to procedural man made city elements! The lecture presents a variety of approaches and techniques to create a single procedural road system. These videos explain all the information you need in depth and to the topics extent.  We will also be including discount bundles of our videos in the future to help save additional money to our customers. When it comes to high end CG and VFX training, there is only once choice… cmiVFX!
 
SideFX Houdini - Procedural Road Creation : Building Powerful Assets
http://cmivfx.com/SideFX_Houdini_Training/road_generation/default.aspx [cmivfx.com]
 
Creating the basic shapes
When creating procedural models you want to keep the controls simple, but as powerful as possible. Learn how to build the basic shapes for the road using the tools of Houdini and how to maintain procedural control over them. Reconstruct the shapes to get clean geometry. Proper measurement of shapes is really important but can hinder you in your modeling process. We’ll guide you through the normalization of shapes to keep the procedural control of measurement, so it is easy to redefine the dimension of your shapes. We show how to use variables in combination with transformation tools to automate that important process. Use the powerful preset option in the nodes to dramatically speed up your productivity in Houdini.
 
Building the road shape
Optimized geometry is always very important, we don’t want to waist memory and performance on useless geometry compromising the performance of your video game or film pipeline. We’ll show how to optimize the division of the road path shape, fine-tuning it that the most optimal division of the road is being reached without compromising the curvature quality of the road. Only controlling the road-path to create a complete road? You’ll learn in detail how to use the sweep-tool to create the road profile along the road path and how to control its heading, pitching and banking.
 
Creating UV’s
A procedural model without UV’s looses much of its intended power. Creating proper UV’s can be very time consuming are therefore really important to tackle as soon as possible, especially since it will become much harder to create UV’s in a procedural way the further you are in the modeling process. You’ll learn how to apply UV’s in various ways, their implications, how to apply materials onto geometry and even how to use image files directly from internet into Houdini. We’ll show the difference between vertex UV’s and point UV’s and you’ll see different solutions to solve unwanted effects such as UV wrapping along the seams.
 
Preparing the graph for a digital asset
A procedure is almost rendered worthless if it cannot be simplified or collapsed into a single function. Repackaging, recombining your previous effort is the raw power of procedural modeling, allowing you to work at an ever increasing speed with more freedom and flexibility.  Here we’ll show you how to gradually prepare your graph to become a digital asset by extending its functionality to be able to work with multiple road paths. Using expressions you will learn how to create optimal UV’s procedurally independent from the road lengths. 
 
Extending the flexibility of the digital asset
Just like it is really important to get UV’s as soon as possible, so is it for groups just as important. Here we’ll show how to use a carve tool “in a procedural way of course” to extract the right pieces and give proper names using the group node. You’ll learn in detail how to make all UV’s working procedurally for multiple profile shapes using expressions and UV transform tools. The capping of the swept road and the UV’ing of those caps is all made procedural in order to make the digital asset more robust.
 
Creating the digital asset
Finally putting everything into a digital asset and with it extending the powerful toolset you have to your disposal. We’ll cover in great detail on how to properly create a library of tools, using various input ports of the nodes and making it so that the nodes can determine automatically which functionality to use depending on the number of connected nodes. Now that we have group names in the road profile we show you how to transfer those names using expressions and group nodes to the final geometry.
 
Creating a basic interface
What is a digital asset without an interface? That’s right, A Ferrari without a steering wheel! Here we see how we can start creating interfaces in Houdini and connecting its parameters with the functions inside the digital asset. We’ll cover in this chapter how to make a drop down menu that allows creating different segment names by using switch nodes, new expressions and the expressions you have learned in previous parts. Are there too many buttons on the interface that are occasionally useful? You will learn how to make a cleaner interface by graying out elements that depending on the settings.
 
Making the digital asset fully independent
Sharing the tools you have created amongst your colleagues is one of the noblest acts of charity in life! They will worship you for saving their weekends. Learn how to make your digital assets completely independent by encapsulating all the relevant data. We’ll show methods on how to copy whole parts of interfaces and how to bring their functionality to a higher level of control. You will learn how to organize your digital asset in the tab-menu and how to create reference nodes.
 
Finalizing the digital asset
The whole graph inside the digital asset is becoming really big now, learn methods and strategies how to keep an overview so that you are able to handle the most complex graphs. They will also help you colleagues if they need to quickly understand the graphs you are building. We’ve solved UV seams previously, but solving those for enclosed paths is a whole different ballgame. See how you can solve these problems by thinking out of the box. 
 
This video is available today at the cmiVFX store. cmiVFX Video Player Online Store http://cmivfx.com/store/Browse.aspx?Category=11 [cmivfx.com]
 
About the Author:
Kim Goossens is a 38 years old belgian CG-artist who is working as a freelancer and CG-instructor with a long history in CG-graphics starting back at 1989 He became quite known for his creation of the GIRL later adopted by DAZ3D. He is currently teaching Houdini procedural modeling for games at the IGAD program at the NHTV University of Applied Sciences. While working on various game projects and commercials both as Art-director and technical artist, he gained a profound knowledge of tools such as Maya, Max, Zbrush, Modo, shake and Houdini. His biggest passion has always been to research strategies to increase production and quality, which has led him to research procedural modeling and naturally, be hired by cmiVFX. 
 
About cmiVFX
cmiVFX is the leader in High Definition Video Training for the Visual Effects Community. To test drive the new cmiVFX TVOD © system, visit http://www.cmivfx.com/cmi_vod.html [cmivfx.com] For additional information about cmiVFX, visit www.cmivfx.com.
© 2009 cmiVFX | cmiStudios.  All rights reserved.

cmiVFX Launches a New Houdini Training Video for the new cmiDirect short video initiative
Watch High Definition Training Videos For The Visual Effects Industry Instantly From Anywhere In The World.

Curitiba, PR, Brazil August 27th, 2009 — cmiVFX | cmiStudios launches a brand new video for SideFX Houdini application. This new videos belong to cmiDirect. Why “direct”? The videos are DIRECT to the point and focus on one topic at the time. This will enable artists all over the world to have access to the information they need immediately without sorting through longer feature length videos. These videos explain all the information you need in depth and to the topics extent. We will also be including discount bundles of our videos in the future to help save additional money. When it comes to high end CG and VFX training, there is only once choice… cmiVFX!

SideFX Houdini - Refractive Materials and Caustics
http://cmivfx.com/SideFX_Houdini_Training/Ref_And_Caustics/default.aspx [cmivfx.com]


SETTING UP
Knowing how to setup the scene is a very critical step to get good refractions and reflections, then after that caustics, so first you will learn how and why to setup the scene the way it is, and how to define the interior and exterior of your surfaces.

MATERIALS
Understanding the creation of refractive materials for the water and the glass objects are the soul of a proper caustic effect, so you`ll learn it and assign them to their corresponding objects.

PHOTONS
Photons in real life are the main actor behind all the lights we see and interact with. To be able to create caustics first of all, photons have to be shot into the scene. here you will learn how to shoot the photons into the scene and how to visualize them.

OPTIMIZATIONS
Now that the photons are in the scene, in this part other textures and materials will be assigned, then those photons will be used to create caustics either by using the Micropolygon, raytracing or the PBR engine. then optimization and improvements techniques will be discussed.

This video is available today at the cmiVFX store. cmiVFX Video Player Online Store
http://cmivfx.com/store/Browse.aspx?Category=11 [cmivfx.com]

About the Author:
Georges Nakhle is 25 years old, lebanese, and has a masters degree in mechanical engineering. he has a wide artistic and scientific knowledge, he began his art steps with traditional painting and sculpting then gained a diploma in dramatic monologue (acting -singing), he has worked as a writer and perfomer in radio and TV. combining arts and science led him to CG, so he mastered many tools including Maya and Houdini among others, he's also a programmer so he's currently working for Dassault Systemes in Paris-France and he had also worked in combination between Dassault-Systemes and Mental Images the makers of mental-ray. He is very picky about the details and he believes that every small detail contributes to the finished product.

About cmiVFX
cmiVFX is the leader in High Definition Video Training for the Visual Effects Community. To test drive the new cmiVFX TVOD © system, visit http://www.cmivfx.com/cmi_vod.html [cmivfx.com] For additional information about cmiVFX, visit www.cmivfx.com.
© 2009 cmiVFX | cmiStudios.  All rights reserved.

cmiVFX Launches Houdini Shading And Rendering Video
Watch High Definition Training Videos For The Visual Effects Industry Instantly From Anywhere In The World.

Princeton, NJ., July 16th, 2009 — cmiVFX | cmiStudios launches a brand new video for the Side FX Houdini Software application. The most frequent request from our customers was involving rendering and shading issues with the Houdini package itself.. We assembled a list of the most frequently asked questions and compiled a video knowledge base in this 4 hour Hi-Definition feature. Online documentation for this subject is nearly non-existant. We have successfully filled the void with an intense, fast paced video. There is so much information in this video, that artists will certainly have every tool necessary to complete any render task. Additional topics such as lighting and materials are covered in great depth. When it comes to high end CG and VFX training, there is only once choice… cmiVFX. This video is available today at the cmiVFX store. cmiVFX Video Player Online Store http://cmivfx.com/store/Browse.aspx?Category=11 [cmivfx.com]

Product Announcements — Houdini “Shading and Rendering”
http://www.cmivfx.com/SideFX_Houdini_Training/Houdini_shading_and_rendering/default.aspx [cmivfx.com]

Introduction to Materials:
A very important step prior to the rendering process is defining the aspects of the surface of your objects. This action is achieved in a wide variety of ways in Houdini and is crucial to start somewhere neutral. Learn how you can create materials and how you can assign them to your objects as well as components.

Materials in Depth:
To have a deep understanding of what makes a material believable, it is important to understand the materials pipeline. Houdini extends its procedural workflow into all aspects of the application including shading networks. It is important to know the many ways of application to surfaces. In addition to that, Houdini lets you compile the shaders inside of it in a unique way. It lets you not only write shaders with code but with visual blocks called VOPs as well. Knowing that, the artist will have many options, so we will go through these options on how to create better, proper materials for your objects.

Rendering Tools:
Houdini has a lot of rendering tools that can benefit its users when working. We explore different tools like the render region tool, render view, MPlay, render nodes or output drivers, comparison tools and more. This will allow the artist’s workflow to be optimized for speed. Waste less time performing long test renders and spend more time tuning the look of your render.

Project Start:
We create real projects at cmiVFX and we are happy to delve deep into a project that utilizes a big part of the rendering technologies available in Houdini. In this section, the project is introduced. The final result of this project is discussed as well as its modeling and UV sets used in the scene.

Direct and Indirect Lighting:
The rendering process as a whole, is about calculating the interaction of the lighting in the scene and outputting the result. Knowing about light and its physical properties is a very important step to understanding how to work out lighting inside any software. Understanding direct and indirect light is discussed in length with graphs and tests.

Translucent Materials:
In order to get to the next level of lighting calculations comprehension, We will show the methods of normal propagation for surface shading using the information gathered earlier. This resulting data helps create a translucent material inside Houdini.

Global Illumination:
With the information gathered so far about the importance of the indirect illumination we will go through different ways to create indirect illumination inside Houdini, like the VEX global illumination light shader, PBR, photon mapping … etc, and we will also talk about one of the methods with which you can have indirect illumination on a per object basis. Let us investigate Image Based Lighting and how you can convert an image to the .rat format preferred by Mantra, then talk about light linking in Houdini.

Simple Materials Application:
This section is geared towards creating and applying materials inside the main project; finishing the lamps surface shaders, then working on the materials that do not need texturing for other objects in the scene.

Textures:
Once you have created UVs for geometry you can assign procedural or image based textures to surfaces. This task and others, like creating the corresponding materials for our objects and texturing them will be covered in a step by step method. Creating and working with a COP network to modify an image then use the output as a texture for one of the materials is also discussed in this portion of the video.

Displacement:
Displacement mapping is a very important way to add details to your objects without high resolution modeling. Having a good grip on how to create some displacement shaders for materials is essential. Use the shader view and learn about important parameters like the displacement bound and true displacements.

Sampling in Mantra:
Fine tuning and looking good. That is what this chapter is all about. What makes a shader and light good and final? Working on finishing touches, like adding some objects to reflect in our render, adding some lights, making some reflections and light linking and many other subjects compose the final touches of our project. Mantra is a powerful rendering engine, one of the best in the industry, but as any other beasts it needs to be mastered. Knowing how to manage samples from the inside out is phenomenal for fine tuning your scenes. We are going to look deep into how Mantra manages samples; also as an additional bonus we will have an overview on how to apply Depth of Field to achieve our final result.

About the Author:
Georges NAKHLE is 25 years old, Lebanese, and has a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. He has a wide artistic and scientific knowledge, he began his art steps with traditional painting and sculpting then gained a diploma in dramatic monologue (acting -singing), he has worked as a writer and performer in radio and TV. Combining arts and science led him to CG, so he mastered many tools including Maya and Houdini among others, he's also a programmer so he's currently working for Dassault Systemes in Paris-France and he had also worked in combination between Dassault-Systemes and Mental Images the makers of mental-ray. He is very picky about the details and he believes that every small detail contributes to the finished product.

About cmiVFX
cmiVFX is the leader in High Definition Video Training for the Visual Effects Community. To test drive the new cmiVFX TVOD © system, visit http://www.cmivfx.com/cmi_vod.html [cmivfx.com] For additional information about cmiVFX, visit www.cmivfx.com.
© 2009 cmiVFX | cmiStudios.  All rights reserved.