trying to develop a bread rendering technique (like in Pixar's Ratatouille)

[super gnu]

fantastic.. methinks ill have to investigate this workflow myself. heres hoping however that Vlado can bring some radical improvements to volumetric rendering in vray.. either a massive speedup to vraymetaballs, plus some geometry clipping /preview options, or a different tool altogether. if houdini can do it in seconds, why not vray?

anyway maybe you should offer your services to cheese designers.

[Mokiki]

Just to clarify. Do you use the digital asset from houdini to modify geometry inside max or is the base geometry you used also imported from houdini?

[jstrob]

The houdini asset has an input button (it was added by me insinde houdini). You click on it and can choose any geometry inside of max. The asset will use the geo as an input. The first limitation I'm seeing is that if you want to then add modifier to the houdini asset, you have to collapse it first. But you can modify the input as you wish and it will update by clicking on update. There is an auto-update checkbox but it doesn't work for now it seems.

you can see the input button in the command pannel in the houdini engine asset properties on my screengrab.

[Mokiki]

Thanks for the explanation! This is definitely impressive especially that it works with the houdini indi version.

[jstrob]

Yes it does and the Houdini Indi version has everything except the rendering limitations, which disappear once inside of max so that's really the deal of the year! I'm wondering if side FX will introduce other limitations or increase the price once they discover that! Seriouly those guys a true geniuses and I think they are well aware that once you integrate this workflow, you will need true houdini licenses one day or the other. For example when you start making more than 100 000$ USD a year. And then they are waiting for you with a 5000$ license and you will have to drop Autodesk and all the plugin developpers (except Chaosgroup who will make vray for Houdini) to be able to pay for this...

[super gnu]

Does it handle an animated input mesh? I'm thinking about using houdini fluids and dynamics stuff inside max now...

[jstrob]

There are auto-update and time update checkboxes but they dont seems to work. I animated my input mesh and if I click on update it updates but it doesn't update on time change so I guess it's a bug that will have to be adressed. I once tried to contact the developer of this version but I didn't get any answer.

[Neilg]

I'm wondering if side FX will introduce other limitations or increase the price once they discover that!

I'm wondering this too - $200 is a very easy sell to the higher ups and i've wanted to work with houdini for a long time, but I dont want them to realize and disable this within a few weeks.

[jstrob]

The developper Suzuki san finally answered me. And yes he still have a few bugs to address. He just told me the auto-update (which updates the changes made in houdini is not working yet. So I guess it's the same for the other stuff. I can't wait for it o work.

[japetus]

Sorry for resurrecting this thread, jstrob i love what you did with the cereal. I'm trying to do bready stuff right now too, could you shed some light or do you know a tutorial for that krakotoa/frost workflow?

[japetus]

sorry double post!

[jstrob]

Sorry for resurrecting this thread, jstrob i love what you did with the cereal. I'm trying to do bready stuff right now too, could you shed some light or do you know a tutorial for that krakotoa/frost workflow?

Just found that info on thinkbox website but not sure if it's updated.
http://www.thinkboxsoftware.com/krak...icles-using-s/


here is what I did: the top part is only for display (color by normal) the bottom magmam flow is the one that select particles via the texture and then I use a krakatoa delete modifier to delete the particles. and then use frost to mesh the result.

[AJ Jefferies]

Sorry to dig up this old thread, but I keep dipping my toes into the exact same thing Strob has been trying to achieve and I wondered if anyone has had any progress?

My current line of thinking (and I am aware this is an over-simplified approach) would be to have an object filled with numerous spheres but have the negative space/volume rendered,
ewither as a volumetric effect or an isosurface.

Is there any way between V-ray or Phoenix FD to achieve this? I realise I might have to look to Karakatoa/Frost or even Houdni as Strob has for this result, but I thought I'd check first before I make my head explode trying to to learn one of those routes

[piotrus3333]

VRayClipper?

[AJ Jefferies]

VRayClipper?

Thanks! I've never used it before, so I'll take a look.