wbwj520 / houdini-pipeline

A collection of scripts for 3D and Houdini projects

Houdini Pipeline Tools

A collection of scripts for 3D and Houdini projects

Clip Browser

This tool creates a UI to view agent animations and import Agents with the selected clip.

On the first go, it renders the animation from every .fbx using OpenGL and creates gifs using ffmpeg. From then on, the tool consists of a pseudo-file-explorer that plays the animation of a clip when hovered over.

When a clip is selected, the program looks for the agent in the scene (or imports and sets up the agent if it is missing) and adds the clip.

The tool allows for filtering by agent and text searching (e.g.: "Run"). It also adapts to resizing and stays always on top.

Requirements

To use this tool, ffmpeg and ffmpeg-python are needed. Also, you should edit the RootPath variable with the path to your root.

The file system should look something like this, starting from the RootPath:

Naming convention on the clips is free, but spaces are not welcome😉.

Variantinator (USD)

This script is used to tidy things up, specially legacy models. If you have a bunch of models with the same theme, let's say Trees or Robots, and you want them to be in the same file, variants are your friend.

Models by YuryTheCreator on Sketchfab

Variantinator accepts file drag and drop in the left panel and automatically fills up the 'variant names' list. You then select a file path and variantinator creates a file containing all the files as variants.

There 2 options to Build the new file:

• Build File, which imports the files as references.
• Build Flattened File, to include all the files inside the new one, so you can take it anywhere and everything is still in.

Load/Save file with Version

This pair of scripts lets the user save comments for the automatic versions.

Comments are stored and read from a .json file in the same folder as the version files.

Recommended use

Since it expands upon the Open and Save, I personally like them in the menu bar.

To create a menu bar submenu with these scripts, modify the $HH/MainMenuCommon.xml file to add this subMenu node:

(If you can't find it, in my case, it's under C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.5.368\houdini\MainMenuCommon.xml)

      ...
      <actionItem id="h.version">
      <!-- TODO: bring up the splash screen in window with [OK] buton -->
        <label>About Houdini</label>
      </actionItem>
    </subMenu>
    
    <!--THIS IS WHERE THE NODE BEGINS-->
    <subMenu id = "load_save_menu">
      <label>Load/Save</label>
      <scriptItem id="h.python_open_file">
          <label>Open File With Version</label>
          <scriptPath>$HOME/houdini19.5/houdini-pipeline/load_file_with_version.py</scriptPath>
      </scriptItem>
      <scriptItem id="h.python_save_file">
          <label>Save File With Version</label>
          <scriptPath>$HOME/houdini19.5/houdini-pipeline/save_file_with_version.py</scriptPath>
      </scriptItem>
    </subMenu>
    <!--THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS-->    

  </menuBar>
</mainMenu>

Use the scriptPath text to specify the path the file in your computer.

Environment Optimizer

This is a handy tool to optimize files that are to big to even open, or that make the viewport too laggy.

It uses the hou module to reduce to a percentage the number of polygons shown without the need to open Houdini.

To use this tool, open the terminal and run the script with a python version that has the hou module. I prefer to run it with the hyton that comes with Houdini:

c:/Path/To/hython3.9.exe c:/Path/To/environment_optimizer.py C:/Path/To/HipFile.hip 20

The first parameter indicates the path to the hip file, the second specifies the percentage the polygons will drop to (if left blank it will apply a reduction to 20 by default).