Houdini 19.5, UE5 - Procedural Stylized Pencil Case(s) + RBD

Name: Houdini 19.5, UE5 - Procedural Stylized Pencil Case(s) + RBD
Rating: 4.2 (2 reviews)

In this project-based Houdini & UE5 course we'll create 4 HDAs and go over common procedural modeling approaches.

Created byDmitriy Zub

Last updated 8/2023

English

What you'll learn

Better understand procedural modeling in Houdini with provided examples.
Increase understanding of Houdini.
Houdini's For Each Loop.
How to randomize shape, colors, etc.
How to create Houdini Digital Asset specifically for Unreal Engine 5.
How to add Rigid Body Simulation to pencils per case.
How to create Unreal Engine 5 specific attributes (Nanite, LOD screen size).
How to create Unreal Engine 5 collision and LODs groups.
How to add vertex colors to procedural model(s).
How to create procedural pencil.
How to scatter pencils within pencil case.
How to create procedural pencil case.
How to scatter pencil cases within area bounds and randomize each case/pencil.

Course content

3 sections • 68 lectures • 4h 15m total length

Creating base shape1:24
Creating wood and tip3:02
Closing bottom hole, modifying base shape0:42
Creating groups4:15
Here we will be creating groups that will be used down stream in the node graph, especially in the coloring phase.
Adding shaving effect4:41
Resample node is used to create more points on the surface which is needed for the Mountain node to distort its shape.

In other words, the more points will be, the more points will the Mountain node have to distort (create different shapes).

With 6 points, it's not possible. Try to turn off resample node and see the difference after the Boolean node.
Polishing shaving effect2:34
Finishing tip3:44
Adding bottom circle (pencil lead part)1:55
Fixing bottom circle open hole1:30
Polish base shape (get rid of harsh edges)2:08
Organizing node graph1:33
Adding vertex color3:12
Rigid Body: preparation1:13
Rigid Body preparation: making pencil as a single mesh7:12
Creating Rigid Body Simulation5:52
Rigid body: dynamically place pencil on top of any input geometry3:38
Finalize: creating normals1:19
Finalize: additional cleaning0:38
Finalize: creating collision group0:18
Finalize: creating Nanite attribute0:44
Finalize: creating LODs2:10
Finalize: creating LOD Screen Size3:16
Finalize: organize graph1:04
HDA: Creating HDA0:14
HDA: creating shape parameters8:31
HDA: controlling parameter(s) visibility with "hide when" parameter option2:29
HDA: creating color parameters1:47
HDA: creating nanite parameter0:36
HDA: adding simulation parameters5:39
Unreal Engine: creating project0:58
Unreal Engine: testing HDA4:17
Unreal Engine: enabling Nanite and LODs3:25
End of the Section0:12

Creating Pencil Case Part 12:49
Creating Pencil Case Part 24:45
Adding Vertex Colors, Unreal Attributes, Collision Group, Low Poly11:42
Creating Case HDA0:41
Case HDA - part 117:19
Case HDA - creating parameters - part 21:15
Case HDA - creating parameters - part 3 (controlling UI with toggles)4:54
Preparation for scattering pencils within the case bounds6:36
Creating For Each Loop with For Each Metadata node0:22
Copying (scattering) pencils inside case shape1:59
Creating randomization controller (Null node)3:49
Randomizing pencils/case colors/etc16:47
Adding RBD and fixing attributes mismatch on Merge9:25
Sped up RBD simulation0:36
Clean up, normals and collision group2:15
Creating group LODs and lodx_screensize attributes2:52
Organizing node graph0:48
Pencil case HDA - creating parameters - part 16:36
Pencil case HDA - creating parameters and testing - part 29:01
Testing Pencil Case HDA in Unreal Engine 5 and creating two variations3:46

Preparation: creating scatter area bounds2:15
Creating For Each Loop1:23
Creating Debug Plane2:32
Creating randomization controller (Null node)4:53
For each loop: randomizing pencils (shape, shaving, etc.)8:01
For each loop: randomizing case shape (height, radius)2:05
For each loop: randomizing case channel ramp shape5:05
For each loop: randomizing colors (pencils and cases)2:32
Creating Rigid Body simulation2:58
RBD: troubleshooting (when object passing through geometry)3:15
Cleaning attributes, etc0:54
Creating LODs1:52
Creating HDA parameters18:52
Testing inside Unreal Engine3:45
Creating a scene for renders (timelapse)0:30

Requirements

A basic knowledge of Houdini interface.
A basic understanding of Houdini channel (parameter) reference.
A basic understanding of what attributes in Houdini is.
A basic understanding of Houdini For Each Loops (nothing crazy).
Created at least few basic Houdini models (procedural or in traditional way). Optional.
A basic knowledge of Unreal Engine 5.
Unreal Engine 5 and Houdini Engine plugin installed.

Description

Grateful for you taking a look.

To adjust your expectations, I won't be sharing source files (HDA and HIP). This is done on purpose so you can practice and get a better feel using Houdini.

My personal mission is to do my best to help people actually get a feel of Houdini and use its power. There's no shortcut to understand something without practice.

The course is fully narrated. The only very last video is a timelapse.

Houdini is all about efficiency. You create a tool once, use it on multiple projects, and polish it to suit different tasks.

Even though the final models look simple, this course covers some common procedural modeling approaches such as randomization, for each loops, and other faced things when making procedural models. Understanding similar techniques will help to approach any other model that you need to create.

This course starts from the upper beginner level and "climbs" to the intermediate-advanced level. The course is split into small parts so it doesn't feel overwhelming.

This course is aimed to:
- provide examples that might be used in a real-world scenario rather than creating an abstract model.
- increase your understanding of Houdini and how certain things work.
- increase your understanding of uses cases of Houdini Engine for Unreal Engine 5.

This is a project-based course where we'll create 4 Houdini Digital Assets (HDA) that you can reuse in different projects:

1. Pencil HDA.
2. Case HDA.
3. Case + Pencil HDA (scatter pencils within the case).

4. Scatter cases with pencils within area bounds HDA.

All HDAs expect "Case HDA" will have support for Rigid Body Simulation, in other words, pencils will interact with collision geometry. I've created this model for my own environment project and thus decided to share my approach to creating it.

The course has 3 sections:

1. Pencil HDA creation + RBD.
2. Pencil case HDA + scattering pencil HDA within that case and randomizing pencils + RBD.
3. Scatter pencil cases, randomizing cases/pencils RBD.

Some of the lectures contain additional description with the information I missed explaining. Such as what's the purpose of certain node(s).

Who this course is for:

Environment artists who want to speed up/automate their workflow.
Indie developers.
3D modelers from other software (Blender, C4D, 3DS Max, Maya, Modo).
Beginner Houdini users.

Houdini 19.5, UE5 - Procedural Stylized Pencil Case(s) + RBD

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Creating procedural pencil with RBD support33 lectures • 1hr 26min

Creating pencil case and adding RBD simulation to pencils20 lectures • 1hr 48min

Scattering pencils cases with pencils RBD simulation15 lectures • 1hr 1min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: