Entagma | Advanced CG Resources

Implementing A Position Based Cloth Solver From Scratch

10.12.2018

by Manuel

Position Based Dynamic effects are quite popular today as these provide us with fast, predictable and stable simulations. Houdini comes with PBDs packaged inside of the “Grains” node and with H17 with XPBD inside of the vellum solver. This video shows how to implement one of the ancestors of the PBD technique. The idea comes from an aritcle on gamasutra called Advanced Character Physics
By implementing this Verlet based cloth solver we gain quite some insight in the principles behind Position Based Dynamics.

Nerd Rant: DOPs

03.12.2018

by Moritz

comments 8

Nerd Rant

Recorded back in October when Mo was cranky due to reasons, Manu decided to discuss his (then) favorite topic when it comes to Houdini: DOPs. Turns out it is not so much Mo’s favorite topic. Watch this nerd rant to see us being cranky and stupid about dynamics in Houdini.
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VOPs Quicktip: Shaping Displacement Using Modulo & Noise

19.11.2018

by Moritz

comments 11

Tutorials

M y grudge with social media is that it is virtually impossible to find posts after a few weeks. I saw this effect on twitter in some real time engine. Unity or Unreal. I’d love to give credit to whoever cooked it up, but I’m unable to find that !”§$%& post again. So if you know who/what I’m talking about => comments plz!
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Houdini 17 Quicktip: Setting Up Colored Smoke

05.11.2018

by Moritz

comments 3

Tutorials

S moke and mirrors! Well Smoke mainly in this quicktip. We’ll look at a few of Houdini 17’s new pyro features – namely the new sourcing workflow and the ability to (easily) color your smoke simulation using a mesh’s colors.
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Houdini 17 Quicktip: Packing Geometry Using the UV-Layout SOP

22.10.2018

by Moritz

comments 9

Tutorials

W ith the Houdini 17 party still going, let’s have a look at a somewhat hidden gem in H17’s tools: The UV-Layout SOP. “Wait! I don’t care about ’em UVs!” you might say. We hear you, but they are not really the focus of this tutorial. The very same tech underpinning decent UV layouts can be hijacked and used to pack something other than UV Islands. That’s right, we’re talking geometry packing!
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Houdini 17 Is Here – A Quickstart to Vellum

10.10.2018

by Moritz

comments 16

Tutorials

One of the most exciting features that Houdini 17 introduces is Vellum: A new simulation framework based on XPBD. (Extended Postion Based Dynamics – In essence grains on steroids.) That means stable and fast simulation of (almost) everything softbody: Cloth, Wires and well – softbodies. In this quickstart series we’ll take you through the bare basics of how to get started using Vellum.
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Create and Simulate a Procedural Rope

08.10.2018

by Manuel

comments 5

Tutorials

Today we’ll create a procedural rope and simulate it using the grain solver. There are always many different ways to achieve stuff in Houdini. In this tutorial I chose the VEX route to generate the rope. This gives a nice self-contained node that can easily be turned into a digital asset. The procedural rope is then deformed to a simulated wire using wire deform.

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Crochet – Blending between Delaunay and Voronoi

24.09.2018

by Manuel

comments 6

Tutorials

Here at Entagma we love to deal with yarns. This video extends the “yarn-effects” with a crochet approach. Using the delaunay triangulation of an input mesh and its dual diagram, the voronoi mesh, we build a procedural model that uses point color to blend smoothly between the two. That gives an intricate pattern, especially in the blending regions. As a bonus we animate the effect.

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Nerd Rant: Render Engines

17.09.2018

by Manuel

comments 13

Nerd Rant

There are many render engines out there nowadays and it’s not easy to choose the right one. CPU or GPU, biased or unbiased. In this video we discuss the pros and cons of different render engines from our humble point of view. As a bonus we talk about LUTs and view transforms.

Houdini Game Tools: Assembling a 3D Scan Of The Earth

10.09.2018

by Moritz

comments 9

Tutorials

Although they are technically called “Game Tools” there are quite a few cases in which you might want to use these assets built by the talented folks at SideFX. For example when you’re gonna do geodata visualisation.
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