by Andrew
Iris Generation R&D So this is a bit of R&D i did over a weekend to help with making Eyes. Obviously the iris is a very complicated element of eyes. But i tackled making it with Hair. I still think it is a little bit away from being a full production tool. This will be part of a larger tool. A few years ago i made a full eye Asset entitled “abSimpleEye” which turned out to be not that simple […]
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by Andrew
Eyelash R&D Always looking to cut down on time spent on things that take up little space on-screen. Eyelashes have always been a bit of a pain to create. They usually need to be bespoke and and controlled, and usually you cannot transfer them from one character to another. So here is my take on it, its all procedural and has a bunch of controls from clumping to goopy mascara and/or settled snow.
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by Andrew
Quick Tip #3: Guide Width In this week’s quick tip i show you how to adjust the width of your guides and how to control it with a ramp. I forgot to mention the only downside can see with this method is you lose the ability for pre-selection highlighting. Also i as stated in the video if you are unfamiliar with creating your own Pie menus or radial menus, check out this video by Werner Ziemerink which covers the process. […]
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by Andrew
Quick Tips #2: Controlling Clumps This is probably the most in-depth Quick tip i will produce in this series. So would you like to be able to control the shape of your clumps better through out your grooms?Well in this video i provide two methods of doing so. 1. Is via Clump blending (good for combining basic levels of clumps, good for animal/creature grooms) 2 Is via a profile combination system (great for granular level of control) I hope you […]
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by Andrew
Quick Tips #1: Length Attribute I’ve wanted to do a bunch of quick tips about Groom and Houdini for a while now and so… here it is. This first one is a little simple thing that almost everywhere I’ve worked has wanted from Groom… and that is a length attribute. By default Houdini does not provide this for you. But in this short little video I show you how to create it. I’ve also provided the scene so here it […]
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by Andrew
Digi-Double Template I’ve been using Houdini for years but its only this last year I’ve been using it in Production for groom. Just like any other part of Houdini it has infinite options but working in an unorganised way can cause many problems. Not only just you trying to understand what it is you have done but others. So I have been developing this network to easily manage all aspects of a groom, troubleshoot. Along with export options, formats and […]
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by Andrew
Dynamic Parting R&D When I worked at MPC and Framestore there was a phenomenon that both studios added to their groom / cfx pipelines as seen in films like Lion King, Lady & the Tramp and on shows like His Dark Materials. Everyone has a different name for it but lets call it Dynamic Parting. This is the phenomenon of parting the hair in a unique way only when the geometry is deforming. It adds a very believable level of […]
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by Andrew
Braid / Rope R&D Here is a quick snapshot of my braid/rope workflow. I think iv’e got all the kinks worked out i just need to optimise it a bit further. It’s pretty robust, I have used this to make braids and rope on an upcoming film (delayed because of Covid). It works by creating the shape of the braid with curves then making geometry from them. Then with a width attribute via a ramp I can control the width […]
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by Andrew
Helena Disclaimer: This was personal work made in 2015. Modeled in Zbrush, retopo’d in Topogun, textures in 3DCoat. The above hair done in Houdini and Blender. Shading in Houdini/Mantra, along with eyes (procedural). Working on two costumes and more hair styles. Soon to be featured in a tutorial covering Houdini 15.5 hair features. Using the new SSS model in Houdini 15. The eye is completely procedural, both geometry and texture generation. Here is an early version of it. The body […]
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by Andrew
Hitchcock Disclaimer: This was personal work made before 2015. An old project i picked up and reworked to make somewhat decent. Modeled in Zbrush, texture 3DCoat and Bodypaint. I also tested some blendshapes on him (old shader). I really learnt a lot modelling and texturing, the breakdown on this is in my opinion more interesting HERE. (maybe because i like breakdowns). The project on the whole was a test, on skin, hair and lighting, shading in Houdini. I also wanted […]
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by Andrew
Virgil Disclaimer: This was personal work made before 2015. Created for a tutorial to show off Houdini’s hair capabilities. Modeled in Wings3d, Zbrush. Texture 100% hand painted (8 x 4k Tiles). Lighting and shading in Houdini. Learnt a lot on this one, what to do and what not to do. Eyebrow, chest and body hair was all driven by skin attributes. Head & beard was custom guides sculpted in Blender. Along with his robe. I based the character on Dante […]
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by Andrew
Helena: Breakdown Disclaimer: This was personal work made in 2015. The model was sculpted from a base mesh that was re-topologised in Topogun. And then projected back on the model. Where it was sculpted further. It was then split into two models. So i could push the poly count high on the head (around 10 million polys). Textures were done in 3D-Coat. UV’s done in UVLayout
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by Andrew
Hitchcock: Breakdown Disclaimer: This was personal work made before 2015. Modeled a base mesh in Wings3D. Then retopologized in Topogun and then sculpted further.
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