HOUDINI FUNDAMENTALS

NODES, NETWORKS AND

DIGITAL ASSETS
A great way to understand Houdini’s node-based workflow is to explore it in the context of a project. It is
important to start learning how to think and work procedurally. In this lesson, you will learn how to create
your own custom brickify tool using procedural nodes and networks to define its function and interface.
Along the way you will get to use different aspects of Houdini’s workspace. Be sure to refer to the
overviews in the introduction to remind yourself of how these UI elements work together. The lessons will
then give you a chance to put your ideas into practice, which is one of the best ways to learn.

LESSON GOAL
ƒƒ To create a custom tool that turns any given 3D shape into toy bricks.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

ƒƒ How to model a plastic interlocking brick
ƒƒ How to break down a default rubber toy shape into a grid of points.
ƒƒ How to use packed primitives and instancing to speed up interaction.
ƒƒ How to use attributes to color the bricks using a texture map.
ƒƒ How to work with nodes and networks to control the flow of data
ƒƒ How to create a Digital Asset to package up and share
your solution with others.
ƒƒ How to animate the bricks appearing over time.

LESSON
COMPATIBILITY
Written for the features in Houdini 17.5.293+

The steps in this lesson can be

completed using the following
Houdini Products:

Houdini Core ✔
Houdini FX ✔
Houdini Indie ✔
Houdini Apprentice ✔
Houdini Education ✔

Document Version 1.0 | July 2019

© SideFX Software
1
 PART ONE:
Create a Single Brick
To get started, you will build a single brick model that you will later copy onto points to create the
brickified shape. You will create this shape using a combination of polygon modelling tools. Along
the way you will see how each action you take creates a node in Houdini that creates a recipe of the
steps taken to create the geometry.

01 Select File > New Project. Change the Project Name to

brickify_lesson and press Accept. This creates a project
directory with subfolders for all the files associated with this shot.
Select File > Save As... You should be looking into the new brickify_
lesson directory. Set the file name to bricks_01.hip and click Accept
to save.

02 In the viewport, press c to bring up a radial menu. From

this menu, choose Create > Geometry > Box. Your cursor
now shows the outline of a box waiting to be placed in the scene.
Press Enter to place it at the origin. In the Operation Controls bar,
set Size to 0.2, 0.2, 0.2 and Axis Divisions to 3, 2, 3.
You can see that there is a box object in the Network view. This
object level node contains the transformation information for this
shape. The Operation Controls show you parameters from another
box node one level down.

03 Click on the Select tool then Press 4 to go to primitive

selection mode. Select the top four faces on the box.
Press c to bring up a radial menu and choose Model > Polygons
> PolyExtrude. In the Network view you can see the box node
feeding into a polyextrude node.
In the Parameter pane, use the slider to set Inset to 0.04 which
creates new polygons on the top surface of the box. Each node
contains parameters relevant to the purpose of that node. These
are geometry nodes that are otherwise known as surface operators
or SOPs.

04
HOUDINI FUNDAMENTALS

Next, press the T key to call up the Move tool. This adds
an edit SOP node into the network. In the viewport
RMB-click in empty space to bring up a menu and select Make
Circle to round out the selected polygons.
This menu is associated with the edit node. Every node has its own
interface that you can access as long as a relevant tool is active. In
this case, the Move tool gives you access to the handle. In other
cases the Handle tool would be used to access the interactive
handles for a node.

2
 05 Press c to bring up a radial menu and choose Model >
Polygons > PolyExtrude. In the Scene View pane, use the
handle to drag up the polygons and set Distance to 0.05.
Tumble around and press s to go into select mode then select the
bottom four polygons of the box. Press q to repeat the PolyExtrude
tool. In the Parameter pane, use the slider to set Inset to 0.025.
Press q to repeat that tool and set a Distance of -0.175. When you
finish, tumble back to see the top of the brick.

07 Press 3 to go to edge selection and press n to select all

the Edges. In the Scene view press tab and start typing
Group... Select Group and in the Parameter pane, set the Group
Name to bevel_edges. Next, set Enable to OFF under Base Group
and then set Enable to ON in the Include by Edges section. Turn on
Min Edge Angle and set it to 89 and then turn on Max Edge Angle
and set it to 91.

08 Press s to go to the Select tool. Press 9 to turn on the

“Select Groups” option. In the popup window, click on
the bevel_edges group.
In the viewport, press c to bring up a radial menu. From this menu,
choose Model > Polygons > PolyBevel. This adds a polybevel node
and automatically fills in the Group field with bevel_edges.
Now set the bevel Offset to 0.006. Under Fillet, set Shape to
Round and Divisions to 3.

09 Go to the object level and in the Network view, rename

the object to single_brick. With the brick selected,
press Shift + to turn on subdivision surface display for this shape.
Deselect the brick to see the model subdivided. If you see wire lines
on your object, press v and from the radial menu, choose Shading >
Smooth Shading to hide them.
You are now going to create some points to copy the bricks to.
Mouse over the node in the Network view and choose the Display
flag to hide the brick for now. PART ONE: Create a Single Brick
Save your work.

SUBDIVISION DISPLAY
You can use Shift + and Shift - to turn subdivision display on and
off on selected polygonal objects. This creates a viewport subdi-
vide that lets you see what the shape would look like subdivided.
These hotkeys set the Display As parameter which can be found
at the object level on the object’s Render tab.
Your object will not render with subdivisions unless you turn on
Render Polygons As Subdivision Surfaces on the same tab.

3
 PART TWO:
Copy Bricks to a Point Cloud
You are now going to create a cloud of points that match the shape of a particular piece of
geometry. You are then going to instance the bricks to the 3D grid to create a brickified version. The
instancing is generated by packing the brick geometry then instancing them to the points.

01 In the Scene View, press tab and start typing Test

Geometry... then choose Test Geometry: Rubber Toy.
Press Enter to place it at the origin.
Press spacebar b to bring up four views. Use spacebar h to home
the orthographic views so you can see the rubber toy in all of them.
Press i to dive into the test geometry object. Set the following:
ƒƒ Uniform Scale to 3
ƒƒ Translate Y to 1.5
This raises the toy up so that it sits higner on the ground. Use
spacebar-h to again home the views.

02 In the Network editor, RMB-click on the output of the

rubbertoy node and type Points from Volume... Select the
Points from Volumes and place it’s node in the network. Now set
its display flag to focus on the output of this new node.
Mouse over the view and press spacebar b to expand this view.
Press s to go to the select tool and press 2 to get point selection
and then press n to select all the points which will highlight in
yellow. You will copy the bricks to these points.

03 Press u to go back to the Object level and shorten the

name of the rubber toy to rubbertoy. In the Network
view, display the single_brick object then press the shift key and
click on the rubber toy and then the single_brick.
From the Modify tab, select Combine to bring these objects
together. You are taken to the geometry level and the nodes are
feeding into a merge node.

04
HOUDINI FUNDAMENTALS

In the Network view, select the display_merge node and

press the delete key. Now the polybevel node chain is
displayed and the other chain is not. Houdini lets you choose which
node you want to display which would be the node that will be
visible when you go back to the object level.

4
 05 RMB-click on the output of the polybevel nod, start
typing copy to points... and select Copy to Points node.
Click to place the node below the two chains and set its Display
Flag.
Turn on the Pack and Instance option. This is important because it
will display the copied bricks much faster than if this option is off.
At this point there is an error on the node because we haven’t
connected the second input.

06 Click on the dot under the pointsfromvolume node then

connect it to the second input on the copytopoints node.
The bricks appear to be overlapping. Go back to the
pointsfromvolume node and set Point Separation to 0.2.
Now you are copying bricks to the points of the grid.

07 Click on the copytopoints node. Some of the bricks may

appear dark grey and don’t display the proper brick. This
is because of geometry culling in the viewport. You can fix this with
a display setting. In the Scene View, press spacebar-d to bring
up the Display Options. Click on the Optimize tab and either set
Scene Polygon Limit to 50 million or set Distance-based Packed
Geometry Culling to OFF.
Now you can see all of the bricks being copied to the points as
Packed Instances.

08 Before saving your work, let’s Organize the network.

Select the nodes that make up the single brick and press
Shift-O to create a network box around them. Click on the title bar
of the box and enter single brick. You can then collapse the box and

PART TWO: Copy Bricks to a Point Cloud

move it down to de clutter the network a bit.
Save your work so far.

PACKED INSTANCES
If you leave Pack and Instance setting OFF on the copy to points
node then you will end up with a large model with over a million
points and primitives. This would make it very slow to manipulate PACK AND INSTANCE | OFF
in the Viewport because instancing is not being used.
If you turn it ON then the 338 points on the brick model are
packed up and instanced which leaves a much more efficient
point count for the copy to points node. PACK AND INSTANCE | ON

5
 PART THREE:
Add Color
You are now going to add color to the points which will then be picked up by the instanced bricks.
At first this transfer of color only applies in the viewport but by setting up a proper material which
has a Use Packed Color option, you can set up the point colors for rendering the bricks.

01 Add a color node between the pointsfromvolume node

and the copytopoints node. This will add color to the
points which will get copied to the bricks. Change the color to red
to help the bricks stand out against the background.
Click on the Render Region tool and drag a bounding box over the
rubber toy. This kicks off a test Render and you can see that the
bricks are not rendering as red. You need a material assigned that
picks up the color.

02 Press tab in the Network view and type Material

Network... Choose the Material Network tool and click
to place the node down in the network.
Go to the Material Palette and close /mat and open up /matnet.
Drag a principled shader down into the matnet. Name it brick_
material.

03 Go back to the geometry network using the back button

in the Network view. RMB-click on the output of the
copytopoints node and type Material... Select material and place it’s
node in the network and set its display flag.
Click on the Operator Chooser button on the far right of the
Material parameter. From the pop-up window, navigate to and
highlight brick-material. Turn on the Export Relative Path Option
and click Accept.
The material is assigned but the bricks still don’t render.

04
HOUDINI FUNDAMENTALS

Go back to the Material Palette and select the brick_

material. Click on the Surface tab then set the Base Color
to 0.5, 0.5, 0.5 and turn ON the Use Packed Color option. The
rendered bricks should now be red.
If not then click Render in the top bar of the Scene view just to
make sure the changes have been applied. Now the bricks are
rendering red to match the colors assigned to the points.
Save your work so far. Click the x button in the top right of the
render region to close it.

6
PART FOUR:
Switch over to a Teapot
You are now going to add a switch node that switches between the Rubber Toy and a Teapot. This
will show you how the network of nodes can handle different shapes and still give us the desired
result. This shows that this network’s procedural “recipe” is doing its job.

01 Press s to go to the select tool. In the Network view,

press tab and type the word Switch then from the
Sourcing folder drag it into the Network view. Next, drag it over the
line connecting the rubbertoy node to the pointsfromvolume node.
This inserts it into the network between the two nodes.
This node will make it easier to switch between different incoming
shapes.

02 In the tool shelf, go to the Create menu and drag the

Platonic tool down to the network view. This places
a platonic node at the geometry level. Tools can be dragged into
the network view as long as the node type makes sense for your
current network level.
Set the platonic node’s Solid Type to Utah Teapot. Set Radius to 4
and Position Y to 1.9. The volume from points node updates the
points to match the volume and we have a new configuration of
bricks.

03 Connect the output of the platonic node to the input of

the switch node. Now you can select the switch node and
change its Select Input to 1. The platonic shape has been cubified
using the same setup as the rubber toy.
This is one of the big benefits of a procedural system. Later you will
package up this network into a custom tool called a digital asset.

PART FOUR: Switch over to a Teapot

As a digital asset, it will be easier to share the network with others
and to manage the tool as it gets deployed in a studio environment
where changes and updates are inevitable as the tool evolves.

04 Use the switch node and set the Select Input to 0 to go

back to the rubbertoy. You can now go back and forth
between these two shapes and even add more shapes to see them
brickified.
Save your work.

7
 PART FIVE:
Color the Points using a Texture
Earlier you added a color attribute to the points which affects the coloring of the bricks instances.
Instead of using a single color, you are now going to use a texture map to create a more interesting
look for the bricks. This will involve some special nodes to turn the texture into point colors.

01 Turn on the Display Flag on the testgeometry_rubbertoy.

Select the rubbertoy node and in the Parameter pane turn
Off the Add Shader parmameter.
You will bring back the color on the bricks using a different method
that involves adding color to the bricks by pulling the color from a
Texture Map on disk.

02 From the Asset menu, choose Edit Asset Properties >

Rubber Toy. In the Properties window, click on the Extra
Files tab and select toylowres.jpg.
Click the Save as File button and save it into the tex folder. The
texture was stored in the digital asset so that it could be shared
along with the asset. You will use the texture on disk to add color to
the bricks.

03 In the Network view, press tab and start typing

Attribute... Select the Attribute VOP node and place it
into the network beside the pointsfromvolume node.
Feed the output of the switch node into the first input of the
attributevop node. Set the Display Flag on this new node.
In the Parameter pane, set Run Over to vertices.

04
HOUDINI FUNDAMENTALS

Double-click on the attributevop node to dive down and

use the tab key to add a Texture VOP. Feed it into the Cd
input of the geometryvopoutput node.
Add a UV coordinate node and feed it into the UV input on the
texture node.

8
 05 Select the Texture node. Click on the Gear icon on
the far right of the Texture Map parameter and from the
menu, select Promote Parameter. This will add this parameter to
the upper level of this node.
Click on the little knob that appears next to map. In the parameter
pane, change the Label to Texture Map.

06 Press u to go up one level. You can see the Texture Map

parameter. Leave it set to the default Mandril.pic texture
for now. You will add the toylowres texture map at the end.
Add an Attribute Promote to the end of this chain. Set Original
Name to Cd and Original Class to vertex. Leave New class set to
Point.

07 Add an Attribute Transfer node. Wire the

pointsfromvolume into the first input and attribpromote
into the second. In the Attributes tab click on arrow on the right
side of the Points field and choose Cd.
Add a switch node after the color node and wire the attribtransfer
node into the switch. Rename this node texture_switch.
Set the Switch to 1. Set the Display Flag on the copytopoints node.
Now you can see the colors from the texture map being transferred
to the copied points and therefore to the copied bricks.

08 Select the attribvop node and click on the file button on

the far right of the Texture Map parameter and navigate

PART FIVE: Color the Points using a Texture

to the toylowres.jpg texture and click Accept. You can see that the
texture map colors are now being assigned to the vertices.
Save your work.

ATTRIBUTE TRANSFER
ld
When you want to get attributes from one piece of geometry to another, es
ho
hr
you can use Attribute Transfer which uses a Distance Threshold along with nc
eT
sta
other parameters to get the attributes copied over. Di

In the case of the rubber toy, you are transferring the Cd attribute from the
points on the geometry to the point cloud that is used to copy the bricks.
You could also copy attributes such as UVs or Capture Weights.

9
 PART SIX:
Create a Brickify Digital Asset
Now that the brickify recipe is working and the nodes are wired together properly, you are going to wrap up some of the nodes
to create a single Houdini Digital Asset [HDA] node. Now you can share the network with parameters from inside the asset
promoted to the top level to create an interface that can generate unique results each time the asset is used.

01 In the Network view, drag the platonic node off to the

side. Select all the other nodes in the network and from
the Assets menu, select New Digital Asset From Selection.... This
will collapse them into a single node.
Set the Operator Name to brickify which in turn changes the
Operator Label to Brickify. Click on the button on the far right
of Save to Library. Select $HIP in the Location sidebar and then
double click on the HDA directory. Press Accept then click Accept
again in the Create New Digital Asset dialog.

02 This brings up the Type Properties window and make

sure the Basic tab is visible. Set Minimum Input to 0
so that you don’t “require” an input for the asset to work. The
Maximum Inputs parameter is set to 1 which defines how many
inputs nodes you will allow.
This is the input that is currently connected to the platonic node.
When you use this digital asset later, you will use this input to point
it to a different shape.
Press Apply. DON’T press Accept because it will close the window.

03 In the Network view, rename the new asset node

brickify_asset and double-click to dive into it. Click on the
switch node that is switching between the testgeometry_rubbertoy
and the Subnetwork Input node. The input node is bringing in the
platonic teapot shape from the level above.
In the Type Properties window, click on the Parameters tab.
Click on the Select Input parameter name and LMB-drag it to the
Existing Parameters list in the Type Properties window. Drop it on
the root to add it to the UI. Click Apply which adds the parameter
but doesn’t close the Type Properties window.
HOUDINI FUNDAMENTALS

WHAT IS AN .HDA FILE?

When you saved your asset, it creates a .hda file on disk. HDA stands for
Houdini Digital Asset and the asset definition is stored in this file then ref-
erenced into your scene. This file contains information about the nodes, the
promoted parameters, UI elements and more. This file can be referenced by
multiple people into different shots for a shared experience.
The assets being referenced into your scene can be managed by going to the
Assets menu, selecting Asset Manager... and opening Current HIP File .

10
 04 RMB-click on brickify_asset in the Network View’s path
bar and choose Parameter and Channels > Parameters.
Now you have a floating Parameter window with the two brickify
asset parameters. These are the parameters that will be available to
anyone who uses this asset. Let’s add some more.
The brickify node has a new parameter. Change its value from 0
to 1 and back to see how it affects your scene. The problem is the
name isn’t very appropriate and a menu would work much better
RMB-Click than a slider in this case, so you are going to refine the UI using the
Type Properties.

05 In the parameter list, click on the Select Input parameter.

To the left are options for refining how people see it.
Change its Name to shape and its Label to Shape.
Now click on the Menu tab and turn on Use Menu. Now under
menu items, type 0 under Token and Rubber Toy under Label then
press enter. Next type 1 under Token and Custom Shape under
Label. Press Apply.
Now in the floating parameter pane, you see a Shape parameter
with a menu. Try it out to see how it works.

06 Select the second switch node that sits just under the
color and attributetransfer nodes and promote the Select
Input parameter to the parameter list. Change its Name to look and
its Label to Look.
Now click on the Menu tab and turn on Use Menu. Now under
menu items, type 0 under Token and Color under Label then press
enter. Next type 1 under Token and Texture Map under Label. Press
Apply.

07 Now select the color node in the network and promote

the Color parameter to the parameter list. This brings
over the color widget and the color wheel as well as the RGB fields.
Press Apply in the Type Properties window to see what this

PART SIX: Create a Brickify Digital Asset

parameter looks like in the brickify_asset parameter interface.
Note: If you press Accept by mistake the new parameter is saved
to the asset but you will need to use the Asset menu and choose
Open Edit Asset Properties... > brickify to reopen it.

08 Now select the attributevop node and promote the

Texture Map parameter to the parameter list.
In the Parameter description section, click on the Channels tab and
change the default value to Mandril.pic. This is a default texture
map that doesn’t require a path to load and is a more reliable
default. Later you will reload the toylowres.jpg texture map.
Press Apply in the Type Properties window and you will see this
parameter in the brickify_asset parameter interface and the Mandril
texture map is now coloring the bricks.

11
 09 To make it clear which parameters are associated with
which shape, you can disable and enable them based on
the menu choice. Click on the Color parameter and in the Disable
When field, enter { look != 0 }.
This tells this parameter to disable whenever Color has not been
chosen in the Look menu. Next, click on Texture Map and in the
Disable When field enter { look != 1 }.
Press Apply and test the results using the Shape menu. You can see
the parameters disabling when they are not needed. You could also
hide them with the Hide When option but disabling is fine for now.

10 The brickify_asset texture map parameter now defaults

to Mandril.pic which is a more versatile default because
it is a texture map that will always be available. To go back to the
toy map, you can click on the file selector next to Texture Map and
again click on $HIP then dive into the tex directory and select the
toylowres.jpg file.
The asset is now using this texture map while Mandril.pic is still the
default. You can tell it isn’t the default because the text is bolded.
The Mandril is still the default but now you are using a different
map for this instance of the asset.

11 Now press Accept to save the changes to your asset and

close the Type Properties panel.
In the Network view, press u to go back up one level. With the
brickify_asset node selected, choose Assets > Lock Asset > Brickify
from the main menu. Press Save Changes if prompted.
If you double-click on the brickify_asset node to dive down, you can
see that the network is greyed out and these nodes are protected.
You can only manipulate this asset using its parameters. You will
have to unlock the asset to make changes to its inner workings.

12 Now Save your scene file to preserve the work you have
done so far. You now have the scene file and the .hda file
which is being referenced into your scene to create the asset. You
can use this library to create other instances of the asset in this
scene or to add the asset to another scene.
In the next section of this lesson, you will test out your asset and
find out if it is working properly. It is always good to have one
working asset and one for testing to make sure it is doing what you
want it to do.
HOUDINI FUNDAMENTALS

LOCKING AND UNLOCKING ASSETS

You can lock and unlock selected assets using the Assets menu. When
the asset is locked, it references the HDA file to determine how the asset
behaves. If the asset is unlocked the active definition is in your scene file.
When you lock it you will be prompted to save if there are changes.
If you RMB-click on the asset node you can Allow Editing of Contents
to unlock the asset or Match Current Definition to lock the asset but be
careful because there is no prompt to save and changes might be lost.

12
PART SEVEN:
Test the Digital Asset
A Digital Asset can be instantiated more than once in a single scene file. You are going to use this asset on a different piece of
geometry to test how it works. It is always good to have a test version available so that changes set to the first asset can be
quickly verified. The asset can also be used in other scene files once you have it working properly.

01 Go back to the object level and in the Scene View, use

the tab key to get the Squab Test Geometry. Press Enter
to place it at the origin then use the handle to move it to the side
away from the rubber toy.
Double-click on the new object node to dive down to the geometry
level. Select the node and set Scale to 3. This will make the Squab a
bit bigger than the rubber toy.

02 RMB-click on the output of the test geometry node and

start typing brickify... then select the brickify asset from
the menu. This places the asset into this new network.
Set its display flag and you will see another Rubber Toy colored by
the Mandril texture map. This is because these are the defaults for
this asset.

03 On the brickify asset node, set the Shape parameter to

Custom Shape and how the squab is being brickified. The
new shape is running through the node network inside the asset to
create a unique result.
This is how digital assets become tools that you can put into your
pipeline to package up multiple actions into a single node. This is
an approach that speeds up your workflow and helps you achieve

PART SEVEN: Test the Digital Asset

more consistent results.

04 Select the testgeometry_squab node. From the Asset

menu, choose Edit Asset Properties > Squab. In the
Properties window, click on the Extra Files tab and select squab_
diffuse.jpg.
Click the Save as File button and save it into the tex folder. The
texture was stored in the digital asset so that it could be shared
along with the asset.
Now use this texture on disk to add color to the bricks using the
brickify node’s Texture Map parameter.

13
 PART EIGHT:
Animating the Bricks
It is possible to continue adding features to the asset and you will create an automating build-up animation for the bricks. This
will involve adding more nodes to our network to make sure the asset has this new functionality. Once the results are saved
into the .hda file, the features will be available for use by anyone using this asset in their work.

01 Select the brickify_asset node and choose Assets > Unlock

Asset > Brickify from the main menu. Double-click on
brickify_asset node then RMB-click on the output of texture_switch
and type Group... then select Group by Range. Place the node and
set its display flag then set the following parameters:
ƒƒ Group Name to hide_points
ƒƒ Group Type to Points
ƒƒ Method to Start and Length
ƒƒ Length to($F-1)*20
ƒƒ Invert Range to ON
ƒƒ Under Range Filter, leave Select to 1 and Of to 1

02 RMB-click on the output of the group node and select

Polygon > Blast. Place this node down then using the
arrow next to Group, select the hide_points group. Now turn on
Delete Non Selected to delete points outside the group. Set the
display flag on the blast node.
Press play to watch as the points grow with every frame. Now set
the display flag back to the material node at the end of the chain
and watch the bricks grow over time.

03 Right now the bricks are coming in from one side instead
of from the ground. This is because the points are
appearing based on their point numbers. To control this, you need
to reorder the points to create the look you want.
RMB-click on the output of the texture_switch node and type Sort...
then select the Sort tool. Place this node down and change Point
Sort to Along Vector. With this set to 0, 1, 0, the points start at the
bottom and go up.
Playback to see this result. Test out different vectors to see how it
affects the animation.

04
HOUDINI FUNDAMENTALS

To let you choose whether you want to animate the

brickify effect, you can add another switch node. In the
Network view, Press tab and start typing Switch... Choose Switch
and place the node down. Rename it animation_switch.
Click on the output of the texture_switch node and feed it into the
input of the switch node. Repeat for the blast node. This makes the
original shape the first option and the animated effect the second
option. Changing Select Input to 1 will reveal the animated bricks
but for now keep it at 0.

14
 05 RMB-click on brickify_asset in the path bar and choose
Type Properties... Click on the Parameters tab then from
the Create Parameters by Type tab, add a separator just after Color.
Next, drag the switch node’s Select Input from the Parameter pane
to just under the new separator. Set its Name to animate_bricks
and its Label to Animate Bricks. Next, change its Type to Toggle
which limits to you an on[0]/off[1] setting.
In the Parameter Description section, click on the Channels tab
and set the default value to 0 [off].
Click Apply to save changes.

06 From the Create Parameters section in Type Properties,

drag an Integer parameter under the animate_bricks
parameter. Set its Name to build_speed and its Label to Build Speed.
Turn on the Range option then set the first value to 1 and the
second value to 20. Click on the lock next to 1 to make sure the
number never gets smaller than 1.
From the Create Parameters section, drag a separator to divide the
new animation parameters from the other parameters.
Press Accept to save and close the window.

07 This parameter isn’t attached to anything yet but you

will now use it to drive the grouprange node’s Length
expression. Select the new grouprange node and change the Length
expression to: ($F-1)*ch(“../build_speed”)
Now you can change the speed of the animation using this
parameter. With the brickify_asset node selected, choose Assets >
Save Asset > Brickify from the main menu. This lets you save this
expression to the .hda file without re-opening the Type Properties
window. Don’t forget this step or else the expression won’t be part
of the asset’s definition.

08 With the brickify_asset node selected, choose Assets >

Lock Asset > Brickify from the main menu. You now
have the brickify effect wrap ped up into a custom tool which can
be used on different shots by different artists.
Go to the Squab network where the new features are available on
the brickify node. Turn on the Animate Bricks toggle and set the
Build Speed which might need to be set to around 100 because of

PART EIGHT: Animating the Bricks

the large number of bricks in this shape.
Playback to see the results.

CONCLUSION
You have now created a shareable tool which was built without writing scripts using
a node-based workflow which is easily accessible to artists. By saving the HDA to
disk, it becomes an asset on disk that can be referencing into multiple shots.
Houdini Digital Assets offer a powerful way for artists to share these kinds of tools
in support of a studio-level production. These procedural assets make it easy to
automate repetitive tasks and to stay focused on the creative needs of your project.

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 HOUDINI ENGINE
Loading HDAs into other Apps
Once you have a Houdini Digital Asset [HDA] saved on disk, it is possible to load that asset into a host application using the
Houdini Engine plug-ins. These let you share assets with colleagues who can load them directly into 3D apps such as Autodesk
Maya or 3DS Max or into game editors such as Unity or Unreal Engine.

01 To use the Houdini Engine in any of these applications,

you need to first install the plug-ins using the Houdini
installer. This will make the plug-ins available but you may need
02 Once you have the plug-in installed you can load the
asset using either the Houdini Engine menu or in
UE4, the Import button. This will bring the brickify asset into
to take further steps to make the Houdini Engine available within the viewport while the asset parameters become available for
your session. manipulation.
Visit the following page for details: You can also set Shape to Custom Shape and connect the asset
SideFX.com/engine to geometry within the host application and the brickification will
be applied to that object.
Click on the Engine Plug-ins tab and then click on the desired
plug-in for more information. You can also turn on animation for Maya or 3ds Max and play it
the sequence using the timeline.

Autodesk Maya Autodesk 3ds Max

Unreal Engine Unity

HOUDINI FUNDAMENTALS

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BRICK COLORS?

You may notice that none of the brickified shapes are showing the brick colors within the various host applica-
tions. This is because the plug-ins don’t always process information the same way as Houdini would. The point
colors are still part of the asset but the host application is not receiving this information.
And while the animation works in Maya and 3ds Max, it would not make sense in Unity and Unreal Engine be-
cause Houdini assets can not become part of the runtime experience of a game therefore the built-in animation
would be ignored. It is important to tailor your assets for the capabilities of the host application. Check out the
PROCEDURAL GAME ASSETS FOR UE4 lesson to learn how to create assets specifically for that app.

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