blender 2,57b and houdini

#1

is those 2 a good combo blender for modeling and textures and Houdini for vfx and animation and rendering

#2

As you already know it’s much better to do everything in the same program.
I’m not saying that Blender and Houdini doesn’t work together but you’ll work faster with one program, the one you know best.

#3

Yes those two programs will work fine together, Houdini is better at dynamics/ rendering than Blender, I’m not sure about animation, Blender has some very nice animation capabilities, but if you’re rendering, and/ or doing dynamics in Houdini then it’ll be better to animate in that program to, less hassle transferring animation.

Models, and textures are easy to transfer across.

#4

thanks :slight_smile: and i can just export fbx from blender to houdini hd

#5

new question, i really like blender as modeling tool and texture.
But have run into a new question?
Is it possible to UV map a thing, and texture paint it.
And export the UV and the texture to Houdini v11 hd apprentice.

#6

Shure, you could export with Wavefront .obj.
Included are diffuse, spec and bump maps.

Cheers, mib.

#7

Hi,
There are a few tutorials around on the web that could run you through the steps, but you might find this tutorial most useful:
http://www.blendercookie.com/2011/04/11/texture-painting-in-glsl-shading-mode/

This covers both the basics but also some of the more advanced UV painting setups.

#8

is beginning to like blender a lot
and thanks for the texture tutorial

#9

I am using latest blender as of today, and Im unable to export a common rig called ludwig.blend

Any hints on how to do this, or is the type of rig blender now uses no longer compatible with houdini .Maybe there is a setting I need to check on either end ? When I import the fdx rig, the components are spread out everywhere in no assemblance at all.

Thanks
nl

#10

if i wanna do compositing should i use blenders or houdini is looking into doing that kind of work
using blender for most and houdini for animation and fx

#11

Hm, Blender and VFX this is an unknown matter. There is not any bigger realism (!) FX reference Film which uses Blender for seamless CG integration.

I don’t know if it is not yet possible in Blender - but all i see with Blender and Live action integration of CG Elements - i wouldn’t it call cinema realistic …

#12

Blender + Live Action = Tomato!

http://vimeo.com/26439952

Other new branches from GSOC 2011 here: http://code.blender.org/index.php/2011/07/google-summer-of-code-midterm-videos/

#13

I don’t mean tracking :curious: Realistic Texturing, Shading, environment Light, CG interacting with Live action Scene and Rendering. I found no cinema realistic Live Action film project where the CG was done in Blender.

#14

Blenders rendering engine lacks a little in the level of realism it can put out.

Of course given a talented enough artist, or group of artists it ‘could’ put out feature length quality work, of course you would need other applications to aid in the effects, like any other application out there it can’t do it all on it’s own.

The best way to set-up a workflow like this, with multiple applications, is to use each application in the pipeline for parts where it excels.

In my opinion it would be something like this (this is based purely on a simple Blender + Houdini set-up).

Blender
Modelling, texturing, basic camera tracking (2D & 3D), compositing, video sequencing and layout.

Houdini
Rigging, animating, dynamic simulations, procedural material creation, rendering & FX.

The above set-up would work fine for fairly simple projects, but once you start getting complex projects going you need lots of other software involved, or at the bare minimum custom scripts for certain jobs. Not to mention all of the asset management and specialist software for things like audio and the correct grading of footage etcetera.

But yes, Blender & Houdini are more than capable for whatever you may want to throw at it.

By the way there was a 35mm feature length film that made use of Blender 2.4x (the old version) for all of it’s CGI elements.

EDIT: It was rendered in Pixie, and open-source REYES compliant rendering engine via a python exporter. But considering the vast majority of films are rendered on REYES architecture then I don’t see that as meaning Blender can’t do it.

Friday or another day

IMDB page
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0429216/

SFX page
http://www.softanim.com/vendredi/fx1.html

Also keep in mind these effects are from 2005.

#15

Daniel why houdini for animation / rigging ? I’m approaching a Houdini / Blender pipeline myself
and was inclined to use blender for character animation… Have you compared the toolkits ?

#16

I have a pretty good understanding of Blender rigging & animation tools and they are very, very good.

I don’t know about Houdini’s animation capabilities, but since it’s used in the industry quite a lot I suspect that is more than capable.

I suggest doing those tasks in Houdini as it can sometimes be quite tedious and frustrating getting animations from one package to another with out small glitches or issues arising.

Of course if you prefer Blenders tools you could test out the collada exporting and see what it can carry across.

I just suggested the rigging & animation in Houdini as an example of what ‘could’ work.

#17

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