I had the pleasure of working with the best Houdini HDA for fabric and knitted assets. With a small team of super talented people, we created this BB8 Fan Art.

Creative projects like this are extremely rewarding for me. It's fun to step outside your comfort zone and learn things. I was doing the environments, fx, lookdev (on the saber) and lighting and comp. Lighting is my bread and butter - learning how to bring it all together is a challenge and super fun.

That is art - that's why I click and not type.

Thanks to everyone involved in this project!

Thanks Fibric for that awesome hda

Hi !
I need to create a wavy haircut in Houdini, but I can't seem to get that wavy effect that follows the shape of the skull. I started by placing my guides one by one (with waves), but it was tedious (picture 4), and when I generated the hair, it didn't work very well...I can't seem to get “clean” waves on the scalp.
I painted a Paint attribute that matches the movement I’m trying to achieve. I’m sure this is the right solution, but I don’t know what to do next.
I need to style my hair so it's not too curly.

I've already watched some hairstyling videos and looked at a lot of examples for understand the hairstyle.
I’ve been trying to create this hairstyle for over a week now...

Hi everyone,

I want to create a good-quality Houdini FX showreel for junior FX Artist job applications.

My laptop specs are:

CPU: Intel Core i5 11th Gen

GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3050 4GB VRAM

RAM: 32GB

Storage: 512GB SSD + 500GB SSD

I want to create FX simulations like destruction (RBD), pyro, particles, and other effects suitable for a junior-level showreel.

My questions:

Can I create a good-quality, professional-looking showreel with these specs?

What types of simulations would be realistic to achieve with this hardware?

Can I produce impressive shots by optimizing simulation settings and rendering at a reasonable resolution?

I'd appreciate honest and realistic advice from experienced FX artists. Thanks!

Fun with some curl noise.

Hey everyone, I’m the creator of Eclipse Render Manager, and I’m excited to share it.

Here’s a quick look at it distributing render jobs across my own machines, including Houdini and Solaris workflows.

This is just a quick introduction. There’s more to explore on the site, including features, full DCC and renderer compatibility, supported platforms, and step-by-step tutorials.

Try the beta for free at eclipserender.com.

Happy to answer questions here.

reaction-diffusion setup in COPs that starts from a single point and spreads across the surface. I feed that pattern into Vellum to drive rest length and pressure, so wherever it reaches, the cloth wants to grow. It can’t grow outward freely, so it folds in on itself, and you get this brain-like look.

I'm finishing the solver and soon I will announce beta testing.
Are you guys intrested is something like this?

💎 More works:
→ Instagram
→ LinkedIn

Hello ! I'm learning solaris and in tuts some are using layout to put objects in scene with brushes , was it taken off by sidefx ?

KineFX often whinges when skeletons are cyclic (Hierarchy traversal failed: computeHierarchyResult.FoundCycle).

There's a good section on CGWiki to fix this, but it only works if there truly aren't cycles.

If the skeleton actually has cycles, you need to detect and repair them. I made a HDA for this purpose.

It can mark, split or remove cycles. Marking cycles can help for other graph traversal problems too.

Free download below:

https://github.com/MysteryPancake/Houdini-Fun/tree/main?tab=readme-ov-file#-hda-repair-cycles

https://www.orbolt.com/asset/MysteryPancake::repair_cycles::1.0

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on a project called Houdini Oversimplified for a while, but I realized I never actually introduced it here.

The idea behind HOS is pretty simple: breaking down Houdini topics in a way that feels easier to follow and less intimidating. Everything in the project is free to access.

Here’s the project so far:

https://volcano-jar-f61.notion.site/HOUDINI-OVER-SIMPLIFIED-HOS-3ad392019a5e80a48678e81cb47dfbd3

I thought I’d share it here in case it’s useful to anyone. Thanks for taking a look.

From vehicle movement to rocket thrust, everything is driven by simulation in Houdini.
Early WIP — more to come.

#TeslaRoadster #TeslaRoadster2026 #HoudiniFX #SideFXHoudini #VFX #CGI #PhysicsSimulation #ProceduralAnimation #NoKeyframes #3DArtist

This is a triangulated mesh, and a subset of those edges from ConvertLine

Are you aware of some function, or node combo that could be abused to detect if a Poly has a cycle somewhere ? Without going full VEX

I'm trying to see if I can use this for a cheap Kruskal minimum spanning tree implementation without having to reimplement the data structures and algorithms that are needed to compute a MST efficiently

Maybe this is computed as a side effect of another function / op.

I just downloaded it and this is what I’m seeing. I tried deleting and reinstalling it, but that didn’t work. Does anyone know what this is? Thanks.

I am watching this tutorial https://youtu.be/J4xHdSZ-YbQ and at 6:10 he shows what the extendcurve vop does, its basically extending the lines on the frames that we have set earlier and saved as @ normalisedage attribute

I've tried to achieve this through scatter + vdb + convert + mountain as well as adding noise to the displacement, and so far it looks very far from this. Is simulation the only way to achieve something like this?

Those 2 primitives are fighting polyexpand really hard.

The template lines are the polyexpand result, and you can see that there is an extra segment, and they didn't fuse together as one prim as it should. Instead they just collide and it's breaking everything downstream.

I've tried too much tricks already to try and fix this with no success.

Also, this is the root cause of a larger problem, those are just 2 prims that I managed to identify from a larger set. I need something to find them and fix them..

Partial solution so far:

Weirdly enough, if I Reverse SOP, Prim 0 OR BOTH, it produces a correct input for polyexpand

But not if I reverse Prim 1 ....

I've uploade a MWE here:

Prims 0 and 2 from this subset:

https://github.com/alecail/houdini/blob/main/subset.bgeo

Download Raw file a on the right,

Load in Stash SOP

Polyexpand in Output: Offset Curves

Offset Value = 11

Facet Unique points / Exploded View to reveal the problem

Solution so far:

A single Reverse SOP in Reverse mode before the polyexpand

Why it works doesn't make sense to me, because if this was an orientation problem, whatever problem existed before the Reverse would , should still be there after the reverse, because I doubt the algorithms have a preference for a certain winding

Lastly, I checked this theory by Mirroring the geometry, and it's also fixing the problem for Polyexpand.

Again , it' s nonsensical. Unless it's a bug in Polyexpand SOP, found by fuzzing.

Here is the absolute minimum geo that I could produce that make polyexpand fail :

This in pointWrangle

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(73, 0, 68)),addpoint(0, set(-68, 0, 73)),addpoint(0, set(-73, 0, -68)),addpoint(0, set(68, 0, -73))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(436, 0, 8)),addpoint(0, set(280, 0, 115)),addpoint(0, set(128, 0, 2)),addpoint(0, set(284, 0, -105))));

To PolyExpand in Offset Curves, offset=40

Polypath won't fix it

One Reverse SOP fixes it.

My guess is that there is a bug in Polyexpand that has to deal with the last segment of the polygon, going from the last point to the first, as it always seems to be around that segment

This would explain why sometimes Reverse seems to fix the problem, or PolyPath, or something else, because it's somehow changing the order of the points enough for Polyexpand not to fall in that case. Just my opinion as a developer (not real estate developer, the other one).

Houdini already uses Qt for drawing UI overlays, but nor (yet) for compositional guides so I built a small Python tool that calculates the guides mathematically and uses Qt Painter to draw them directly over the viewport while respecting the camera framing and aspect ratio and packaged it into a shelftool for houdini called PhiAxis.

The idea is very simple: open it, choose your guide, check the composition, keep building your scene and move to the next stages of production. (It's not a guarantee for a great shot it's just a helper guide you maybe even want to intentionally BREAK these guides/rules for more interesting storytelling)
I also tested it against frames from films and games that clearly use these composition rules to make sure everything lines up properly.

i know there's a similar bigger tools for this but as far as i know they are paid and more complex than this one

so it's a simple/FREE/lightweight solution
It’s now available on GitHub a simple double-click installer.
Tested on Houdini 20.5 through 22.

https://github.com/abdulkarimnoah01/PhiAxis
https://github.com/abdulkarimnoah01/PhiAxis/releases/tag/v0.8.1 [PhiAxis-0.8.1.zip]

Custom central stone geometries share procedural rules, spacing, and distribution with the different style outer pave rows.

Say you have this set of buildings.

I'm looking for a way to make reasonable set of roads to connect all the buildings.

This is more or less a minimum spanning tree with a few additional (secondary) roads, but on which graph ?

The roads should probably to around the buildings somehow, but not through. At this point those are not city blocks.

Here are the buildings so that everybody can work on the same set:

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-102, 0, 438)),addpoint(0, set(-115, 0, 412)),addpoint(0, set(-46, 0, 377)),addpoint(0, set(-33, 0, 404))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-774, 0, 431)),addpoint(0, set(-758, 0, 457)),addpoint(0, set(-825, 0, 496)),addpoint(0, set(-840, 0, 470))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-503, 0, -512)),addpoint(0, set(-475, 0, -534)),addpoint(0, set(-453, 0, -513)),addpoint(0, set(-507, 0, -458)),addpoint(0, set(-545, 0, -441)),addpoint(0, set(-564, 0, -464))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(311, 0, -365)),addpoint(0, set(241, 0, -332)),addpoint(0, set(228, 0, -359)),addpoint(0, set(223, 0, -390)),addpoint(0, set(295, 0, -418)),addpoint(0, set(305, 0, -390))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(243, 0, -213)),addpoint(0, set(209, 0, -281)),addpoint(0, set(235, 0, -295)),addpoint(0, set(270, 0, -226))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-233, 0, -140)),addpoint(0, set(-222, 0, -62)),addpoint(0, set(-240, 0, -38)),addpoint(0, set(-309, 0, -83)),addpoint(0, set(-312, 0, -114)),addpoint(0, set(-252, 0, -163))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(464, 0, -492)),addpoint(0, set(459, 0, -462)),addpoint(0, set(383, 0, -474)),addpoint(0, set(388, 0, -504))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-541, 0, -158)),addpoint(0, set(-543, 0, -188)),addpoint(0, set(-466, 0, -191)),addpoint(0, set(-465, 0, -161))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-24, 0, -361)),addpoint(0, set(-6, 0, -386)),addpoint(0, set(28, 0, -372)),addpoint(0, set(51, 0, -353)),addpoint(0, set(56, 0, -341)),addpoint(0, set(31, 0, -267)),addpoint(0, set(2, 0, -260)),addpoint(0, set(-20, 0, -312))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-250, 0, -355)),addpoint(0, set(-239, 0, -383)),addpoint(0, set(-167, 0, -354)),addpoint(0, set(-114, 0, -286)),addpoint(0, set(-135, 0, -265))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-434, 0, 29)),addpoint(0, set(-462, 0, 101)),addpoint(0, set(-490, 0, 90)),addpoint(0, set(-462, 0, 18))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(32, 0, 407)),addpoint(0, set(66, 0, 319)),addpoint(0, set(95, 0, 311)),addpoint(0, set(116, 0, 386)),addpoint(0, set(55, 0, 426))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-307, 0, -216)),addpoint(0, set(-376, 0, -181)),addpoint(0, set(-389, 0, -208)),addpoint(0, set(-321, 0, -243))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(390, 0, 431)),addpoint(0, set(364, 0, 376)),addpoint(0, set(310, 0, 253)),addpoint(0, set(331, 0, 232)),addpoint(0, set(386, 0, 286)),addpoint(0, set(414, 0, 352)),addpoint(0, set(420, 0, 428))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-410, 0, -267)),addpoint(0, set(-468, 0, -213)),addpoint(0, set(-498, 0, -215)),addpoint(0, set(-498, 0, -264)),addpoint(0, set(-494, 0, -292)),addpoint(0, set(-484, 0, -303)),addpoint(0, set(-462, 0, -324)),addpoint(0, set(-448, 0, -322)),addpoint(0, set(-425, 0, -302))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-566, 0, 330)),addpoint(0, set(-494, 0, 359)),addpoint(0, set(-506, 0, 387)),addpoint(0, set(-577, 0, 358))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(66, 0, -83)),addpoint(0, set(58, 0, 13)),addpoint(0, set(29, 0, 21)),addpoint(0, set(18, 0, -17)),addpoint(0, set(8, 0, -53)),addpoint(0, set(37, 0, -91))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-100, 0, 507)),addpoint(0, set(-121, 0, 528)),addpoint(0, set(-176, 0, 473)),addpoint(0, set(-154, 0, 452))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(470, 0, -288)),addpoint(0, set(496, 0, -272)),addpoint(0, set(454, 0, -208)),addpoint(0, set(429, 0, -224))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(428, 0, -10)),addpoint(0, set(477, 0, -68)),addpoint(0, set(499, 0, -89)),addpoint(0, set(566, 0, -103)),addpoint(0, set(595, 0, -97)),addpoint(0, set(578, 0, -21)),addpoint(0, set(519, 0, 3)),addpoint(0, set(438, 0, 18))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(97, 0, 193)),addpoint(0, set(111, 0, 269)),addpoint(0, set(81, 0, 274)),addpoint(0, set(68, 0, 198))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(214, 0, 224)),addpoint(0, set(143, 0, 252)),addpoint(0, set(132, 0, 224)),addpoint(0, set(204, 0, 196))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-258, 0, 411)),addpoint(0, set(-248, 0, 439)),addpoint(0, set(-320, 0, 466)),addpoint(0, set(-330, 0, 437))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(259, 0, 266)),addpoint(0, set(283, 0, 248)),addpoint(0, set(329, 0, 309)),addpoint(0, set(305, 0, 327))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(82, 0, -346)),addpoint(0, set(108, 0, -362)),addpoint(0, set(149, 0, -297)),addpoint(0, set(124, 0, -281))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(186, 0, 334)),addpoint(0, set(160, 0, 320)),addpoint(0, set(158, 0, 290)),addpoint(0, set(169, 0, 259)),addpoint(0, set(198, 0, 253)),addpoint(0, set(235, 0, 285)),addpoint(0, set(237, 0, 315)),addpoint(0, set(215, 0, 328))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-201, 0, -291)),addpoint(0, set(-207, 0, -261)),addpoint(0, set(-283, 0, -277)),addpoint(0, set(-276, 0, -307))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-455, 0, 395)),addpoint(0, set(-435, 0, 264)),addpoint(0, set(-405, 0, 261)),addpoint(0, set(-326, 0, 344)),addpoint(0, set(-326, 0, 374)),addpoint(0, set(-429, 0, 410))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-732, 0, -125)),addpoint(0, set(-778, 0, -159)),addpoint(0, set(-745, 0, -229)),addpoint(0, set(-718, 0, -216)),addpoint(0, set(-703, 0, -203)),addpoint(0, set(-702, 0, -126))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-60, 0, 358)),addpoint(0, set(-137, 0, 367)),addpoint(0, set(-140, 0, 337)),addpoint(0, set(-64, 0, 328))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(763, 0, -104)),addpoint(0, set(746, 0, -79)),addpoint(0, set(682, 0, -121)),addpoint(0, set(699, 0, -146))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(655, 0, 253)),addpoint(0, set(642, 0, 226)),addpoint(0, set(712, 0, 194)),addpoint(0, set(725, 0, 221))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-486, 0, -8)),addpoint(0, set(-508, 0, 13)),addpoint(0, set(-561, 0, -43)),addpoint(0, set(-539, 0, -63))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(88, 0, -504)),addpoint(0, set(25, 0, -435)),addpoint(0, set(-2, 0, -421)),addpoint(0, set(-53, 0, -450)),addpoint(0, set(-49, 0, -527)),addpoint(0, set(-26, 0, -528)),addpoint(0, set(67, 0, -526))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(754, 0, 23)),addpoint(0, set(753, 0, -7)),addpoint(0, set(830, 0, -8)),addpoint(0, set(831, 0, 22))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-192, 0, 46)),addpoint(0, set(-115, 0, 37)),addpoint(0, set(-112, 0, 67)),addpoint(0, set(-109, 0, 116)),addpoint(0, set(-135, 0, 131)),addpoint(0, set(-189, 0, 76))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(526, 0, 121)),addpoint(0, set(564, 0, 54)),addpoint(0, set(590, 0, 69)),addpoint(0, set(553, 0, 136))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-545, 0, -378)),addpoint(0, set(-521, 0, -305)),addpoint(0, set(-549, 0, -296)),addpoint(0, set(-573, 0, -369))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-649, 0, -120)),addpoint(0, set(-689, 0, -186)),addpoint(0, set(-663, 0, -202)),addpoint(0, set(-623, 0, -136))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-517, 0, 163)),addpoint(0, set(-565, 0, 103)),addpoint(0, set(-541, 0, 84)),addpoint(0, set(-493, 0, 144))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(284, 0, -149)),addpoint(0, set(286, 0, -119)),addpoint(0, set(209, 0, -115)),addpoint(0, set(208, 0, -145))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-337, 0, -407)),addpoint(0, set(-401, 0, -450)),addpoint(0, set(-385, 0, -475)),addpoint(0, set(-321, 0, -432))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-718, 0, 412)),addpoint(0, set(-743, 0, 428)),addpoint(0, set(-785, 0, 364)),addpoint(0, set(-756, 0, 337)),addpoint(0, set(-679, 0, 343)),addpoint(0, set(-681, 0, 373))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(106, 0, -244)),addpoint(0, set(114, 0, -216)),addpoint(0, set(41, 0, -193)),addpoint(0, set(32, 0, -222))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-16, 0, -103)),addpoint(0, set(36, 0, -161)),addpoint(0, set(58, 0, -141)),addpoint(0, set(7, 0, -83))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-138, 0, -231)),addpoint(0, set(-139, 0, -201)),addpoint(0, set(-216, 0, -203)),addpoint(0, set(-215, 0, -233))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-728, 0, 199)),addpoint(0, set(-739, 0, 227)),addpoint(0, set(-811, 0, 198)),addpoint(0, set(-799, 0, 170))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(171, 0, 383)),addpoint(0, set(201, 0, 386)),addpoint(0, set(195, 0, 462)),addpoint(0, set(165, 0, 460))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-331, 0, 504)),addpoint(0, set(-338, 0, 475)),addpoint(0, set(-262, 0, 459)),addpoint(0, set(-256, 0, 488))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-274, 0, -416)),addpoint(0, set(-330, 0, -313)),addpoint(0, set(-360, 0, -315)),addpoint(0, set(-353, 0, -392)),addpoint(0, set(-299, 0, -432))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-525, 0, -246)),addpoint(0, set(-585, 0, -198)),addpoint(0, set(-604, 0, -222)),addpoint(0, set(-543, 0, -269))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(14, 0, -389)),addpoint(0, set(28, 0, -416)),addpoint(0, set(96, 0, -380)),addpoint(0, set(82, 0, -353))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(563, 0, -403)),addpoint(0, set(533, 0, -403)),addpoint(0, set(532, 0, -480)),addpoint(0, set(562, 0, -480))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(768, 0, 271)),addpoint(0, set(755, 0, 298)),addpoint(0, set(686, 0, 264)),addpoint(0, set(699, 0, 237))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-482, 0, 498)),addpoint(0, set(-516, 0, 429)),addpoint(0, set(-489, 0, 416)),addpoint(0, set(-455, 0, 485))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(554, 0, 427)),addpoint(0, set(478, 0, 417)),addpoint(0, set(423, 0, 352)),addpoint(0, set(442, 0, 328)),addpoint(0, set(566, 0, 366))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-613, 0, 59)),addpoint(0, set(-594, 0, 82)),addpoint(0, set(-654, 0, 131)),addpoint(0, set(-673, 0, 108))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-323, 0, 261)),addpoint(0, set(-286, 0, 193)),addpoint(0, set(-260, 0, 208)),addpoint(0, set(-296, 0, 275))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(815, 0, 289)),addpoint(0, set(786, 0, 296)),addpoint(0, set(766, 0, 222)),addpoint(0, set(795, 0, 214))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(394, 0, 485)),addpoint(0, set(325, 0, 451)),addpoint(0, set(338, 0, 424)),addpoint(0, set(407, 0, 458))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(155, 0, -393)),addpoint(0, set(148, 0, -422)),addpoint(0, set(223, 0, -441)),addpoint(0, set(230, 0, -412))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-404, 0, -424)),addpoint(0, set(-377, 0, -410)),addpoint(0, set(-413, 0, -342)),addpoint(0, set(-440, 0, -356))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(693, 0, 84)),addpoint(0, set(719, 0, 99)),addpoint(0, set(679, 0, 165)),addpoint(0, set(653, 0, 150))));

addprim(0,"poly",array(addpoint(0, set(-187, 0, -160)),addpoint(0, set(-263, 0, -167)),addpoint(0, set(-260, 0, -197)),addpoint(0, set(-184, 0, -189))));

Hi everyone! I’d like to share a short preview of my showreel. You can watch the full reel on YouTube https://youtu.be/ifS32_6vaJU?si=QohLAwvANBQke0KB