Houdini

Houdini Attributes and VOPs: The Free Course Series

Attributes and VOPs are usually the part where new users of Houdini stumble. I created this updated series to help you learn this tricky (at first) topic.

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Mar 30, 2023 — 4 min read

The series is completely free, but you can support me (only if you wish to do so, everything will still work if you don't!) by buying the asset pack of all 4 Intro to Houdini series combined

The basics of VOPs and Attributes: Start Here

Lets learn what attributes are, how to get started with using geometry spreadsheet, how to do basic (but pretty cool) motion graphics, extrude by attribute, and even use attribute delete node to erase UVs!

Attribute Transfer, Blur, Promote, Visualize

How to model, create motion graphics, or any other VFX really using attribute transfer in Houdini? Let's find out!

In this video we will cover how to transfer attributes from one geometry to another, including volumes and surfaces. After that, I will show you how to visualize our attributes, how to blur our results to have smoother results. Also we will convert one type of attribute to another using the Promote node, and create procedural animation to top it off.

Displacement Along Normal, For Each Loop

We are going to create our own setup that will displace geometry along normals, and touch upon the topic of using For- loops inside of Houdini.

Integer, Vector, Float Conversion, Sine Function

More simple but effective motion graphics setups. In this video we will learn how to control our attributes selectively by converting vectors to floats and back again!

But that's not all. I will show you how to convert integers to floats to avoid wonky looking results in our sine function inside of the attribute Vops. We will procedurally animate it afterwards of course.

Attribute Ramp

We will finally control the values of our calculations using Attribute Ramp node.

We've already discussed how to perform simple calculations inside of our VOP nodes, but how do we get to direct control of the results of our attributes? In this video I will show you simple yet effective method of doing just that, and I will show you how to bind export attribute and other tips and tricks along the way.

Rotation Attribute, Randomizing Orientation

Learn how to orient copies of geometry the proper way, using both orientation and rotation.

I previously mentioned that copies are oriented along normals, if nothing else is available to Houdini by default. However, how do we actually do the proper way of rotating copies? I will be showing exactly that in this tutorial, including scattering, orientation, normals, up vector, and vector4, along with other tips and tricks.

Scatter by Density, Voronoi Fracture

In this tutorial I will show you how to scatter points by the density attribute, and create procedural futuristic city style fractures.

We already know about attribute transfer, and we will use that knowledge to create an interesting setup, involving voronoi fracture of our geometry. It is somewhat basic, but can be a foundation to something greater and more interesting. I will also show 3 ways of quickly converting the fracture result into some interesting geometry, along with other gotchas and good to know things along the way.

Adding Polygons by Attribute, Inheritance

More procedural modeling techniques using attributes and add node. I will show you how attributes are passed down the network, and how we can utilize the fact that we can write our own arbitrary attributes, which are "remembered" in copies (or anywhere else really). As per usual, we will use simple, but effective techniques to build tools that will help you achieve procedural setups (that have almost nothing to do with Mandalorian).

Procedural Alien Structures with Group by Attribute, Sin, Cos

Procedurally model alien looking structures? Or anything else really, using Group selection by attributes, and other cool techniques. In this video we will learn how we can utilize Sin and Cos functions to offset our noise, which will drive the another planet look of simple geometry. While at it, we will learn tons of new simple but effective workflows.

Holographic effect using Houdini Attributes in Unreal Engine

Let's make a relatively simple but effective geometric structure, using color attributes inside of Unreal Engine, which we write in Houdini.

We will learn how to create holographic-style effect with geometry using new Houdini nodes, using Attribute from Map, Points from Volume, and the other ones that we already know, such as attribute transfer and the likes.
This effect is static (being inanimate geometry), but we will discuss how to make such type of effect coming alive using Niagara in later videos.

What's next?

Congratulations on finishing the intro to attributes! No, really, i mean it: good job! This is not something usually discussed in detail or beginner friendly way, exactly the reason anyone just starting out with H and being confronted with the attribute structure somewhat jarring. Thankfully, Blender Geometry Nodes is somewhat close in its design, so definitely check out the series on my Platform B channel (coming soon)

I also have created videos about math for 3D artists, one of which is for Houdini users, and for blender and UE fans similar series (but more broad and detailed in scope) are coming soon.