HOUDINI FOUNDATIONS

MODEL, RENDER, ANIMATE

Welcome to Houdini. In this lesson you will start from scratch to model, render, animate, and simulate
a soccer ball (also known as a football in many parts of the world). You will create a classic bouncing ball
animation using the principles of squash and stretch, apply textures and materials, add lights and cameras, and
explore the use of dynamics to simulate a group of soccer balls.
These tasks will introduce you to many different parts of Houdini as you create your first Houdini scene,
explore the interface and discover some of its most important tools. You will learn how to work interactively
in the Scene View and how to use the Network View to manage your nodes as you refine your model
and build your animation rig. You will also set up materials and textures on the Solaris Stage then you will
render using Houdini’s built-in renderer Karma, and finally create a Rigid Body Simulation.

LESSON GOAL
Model, Render, Animate and Simulate a soccer ball using Houdini’s procedural node-based workflow

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

ƒ How to work with the View Tools
ƒ How to use Shelves, Radial Menus and the Tab key
ƒ How to create Geometry
ƒ How to work with Nodes and Networks
ƒ How to set up Custom Attributes and a For-Each Loop
ƒ How to set up Materials and Texture UVs
ƒ How to Layout a shot and render with Karma
ƒ How to Set Keyframes and add Motion FX
ƒ How to use Rigid Body Dynamics

LESSON
COMPATIBILITY
Written for the features in Houdini 19.0+

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 3.0 | Oct 2021

© SideFX Software
1
 PART ONE: PROJECT FILES
Explore the Houdini UI Go to the soccerball tutorial page on
SideFX.com, where you likely got this
To get started, it is important to learn how to work with the Houdini work- document, to download the intro_lesson
space and the three panes you will use the most. The Viewport lets you cre- directory. Put it into the Houdini Projects
ate objects interactively, the Parameter Pane lets you edit node properties directory which you can find in either the
and the Network Editor lets you work directly with the node networks. home directory or the documents directory.

01 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.
This creates a box in the Scene view, adds a node in the Network
editor and shows the object parameters in the Parameter pane.
As you work through this project, you will touch on all of these
interface elements.

02 You can now explore the View tool in Houdini. Press the
following hotkeys:
ƒ Tumble Spacebar or Alt[Opt] - LMB click-drag
ƒ Pan Spacebar or Alt[Opt] - MMB click-drag
ƒ Dolly Spacebar or Alt[Opt] - RMB click-drag
In some cases, you will want to home in to get your bearings.
There are some hotkeys for that as well:
ƒ Home Grid Spacebar -H
ƒ Home All Spacebar - A
ƒ Home Selected Spacebar - G

03 With the object selected, press i to go to its geometry

level. Use the Shift key to drag on handles to make it
longer along z axis around the origin.
When an object is created in Houdini, there is an Object level
which is where you manage the transformations of the object and a
Geometry level where you define its shape. Pressing i brought you
down into the geometry level of this object. You can also get there
by double-clicking on the object node in the Network editor. Later,
to get back to the Object level, you will press U.
HOUDINI FOUNDATIONS

RADIAL MENUS
One way to access tools in Houdini is radial menus which you can
access using the X, C and V hotkeys. Each of these brings up a radial
menu with lots of options for you to choose from. The main focus
of each menu is as follows:
ƒ Snapping X
ƒ Main (or Custom) C
ƒ View V

2
SELECTION HOTKEYS
RMB-click to access menu
If you are using the Select, Move, Rotate, Scale or Handles tools,
the following hotkeys will determine your selection mode as well as
which level you will be working at.
ƒ Objects Object Level 1
ƒ Points Geometry Level 2
ƒ Edges Geometry Level 3
ƒ Primitives/Faces Geometry Level 4
ƒ Vertices Geometry Level 5

04 Press S to go to the Select tool then 4 to access Primitive

selection. Press n to select all then press c to bring up the
radial menu and choose Model > Polygons > Poly Extrude.
In the either the Operation Control Bar at the top of the Scene
view or the Parameters pane, set Divide Into to Individual
Elements and use the handle to set the Distance to around 0.4.
This extrudes the faces along the normals of each primitive.
You can see that there are now two nodes in the Network view.
Each step you take in Houdini creates a node that you can work
with to refine your scene.

05 Press n to select all of the new faces and press Tab and
begin typing sub… then select Subdivide from the list.
The Tab key is another way to access tools in Houdini. Typing the
tool name lets you focus the list making it easier to find what you
want without navigating the submenus.
In the Parameter pane, set Depth to 2. This subdivides the
geometry to create more polygons. Houdini also has a subdivision
display option at the Object level which you can use to see
subdivisions without actually adding any geometry, but in this case
you do want to create more polygons.

06 Select the different nodes in the chain. The handles for

each of the nodes appear as you select them but the
display remains on the final shape. Set the Display Flag on each of
the nodes to change which node is the display node. You can also
try some of the other flags such as Bypass or Template. Wiggle the
polyextrude node out of the network then drop it back in.
At the end, return everything to normal and set the Display flag
on the subdivide node. This is very important. The Display flag
determines what you will see at the object level. Always check to PART ONE: Explore the Houdini UI
make sure you have the right display flag set!

07 Select File > Set Project. Find the intro_lesson directory

that you downloaded earlier and press Accept. This
makes this project directory and its sub folders the place for all the
files associated with this shot.
Select File > Save As... You should be looking into the new
intro_lesson directory. Set the file name to soccerball_01.hip (or
football_01.hip if you would prefer) and click Accept to save.

3
 PART TWO:
Adding the Soccerball Geometry
You are now going to replace the box with a soccerball shaped platonic shape. Using Houdini’s procedural approach, you
can replace the box node with a platonic solid node. From there you will adjust the other nodes to make it look like a simple
soccerball. This ability to swap out input nodes lets you prototype networks with simple geometry for added flexibility.

01 In the Network editor, use the Tab key to add a Platonic

Solids node to the network. Click to place it down near
the top of the chain. Wire the platonic node into the polyextrude
node. In the parameter pane, set Solid Type to Soccer Ball. Select
and delete the box node.
Because of Houdini’s procedural nature, it is often possible to
replace an input node and have the whole network function
properly. This gives you flexibility as you work and if you don’t like
the results after the change then you can always wire back the
original shape.

02 Select the polyextrude node. Make sure the Handle

tool is active then use the handle in the viewport to
set a smaller Distance. You can also set the parameter value in
the Parameter pane. This creates a better look for the soccerball.
Remember that even though you are viewing the subdivide node,
selecting the polyextrude node gives you access to its handles and
parameters.
You might think that with this primitive type you are all set but it is
really just a truncated icosahedron with flat faces. You need a round
soccerball so you will have to put a little more work into it.

03 Press V in the viewport and from the Radial Menu, select

Shading > Smooth Shaded. You can also use the menu in
the top right of the viewport to change your shading.
This soccerball looks like a cheap plastic ball rather than a proper
leathery soccerball. You are now going to branch off and add more
nodes to get a better look.
After analyzing it, set the shading back to Smooth Wire Shaded.
HOUDINI FOUNDATIONS

SHADING OPTIONS
Disable Lighting
There are a number of Shading Options available from either the
Headlight Only
View radial menu or the Shading menu in the top right of the Viewport.
Normal Lighting
For the shading of your objects, the lighting is determined by the
Display Options on the right edge of the Viewport. You can choose High Quality Lighting

from a headlight, normal lighting or high quality lighting with shadows. High Quality with Shadows

To quickly toggle from your shaded view to wireframe press the W key.

4
PART THREE:
Create a Realistic Soccerball
There are many ways to create geometry using Houdini’s nodes and networks. In some cases, you may want to swap the order
of two nodes or rewire a network to try something different. You are now going to add more detail to your soccerball by creat-
ing a different network that subdivides before extruding.

01 In the Network view, press Y and drag across the line

connecting the subdivide node and the polyextrude node
to break the connection. You are now going to move the subdivide
in between the other two nodes so that you get a rounder
soccerball.

02 Drag the subdivide node in between the platonic solid

node and the polyextrude node. You can drop it on the
connecting wire and it will insert itself in automatically. If not then
jiggle it a little until it finds the connection. This will give more detail
to the sphere before it is extruded.
If you set the display on the polyextrude node you will see that it
doesn’t look right because you have lots of small polygons being
extruded but you will fix that in the following steps.

03 Use the tab key in the network editor to add a Ray node
and wire it in after the subdivide. Now add a sphere node
to the network and set its Radius to 1, 1, 1 and the Primitive Type
to Primitive. Now wire the sphere into the second input on the ray

PART THREE: Create a Realistic Soccerball

node. This will project the subdivided ball onto a perfect sphere.
This is a very powerful node in Houdini that lets you project points
from one piece of geometry onto another. It is the perfect solution
to our problem of a subdivided soccer ball that wasn’t truly round.

THE RAY NODE

The ray node is a tool that projects points out to another piece of geometry. This is
similar to the pinboard toy you played with as a kid. In fact, this is the node you would
use to set up a pinboard in Houdini.
GETTING HELP | To learn more about each node, you can click on the help button
in the top right of the Parameter pane to open up the node’s online documentation.
You can also hover over the tool in the shelf and press F1. In many cases, there are
sample files that you can open in Houdini to learn what the node can do.

5
 WORKING WITH ATTRIBUTES
Attributes can be assigned to Points, Primitives or Vertices. Some
typical types of attributes include color (Cd) or UVs. You can see
the attributes at any point in your chain by mousing over a node and
choosing the i from the radial menu. You can also review the attribute
values in the Geometry Spreadsheet panel.
In this lesson, you will be creating a custom attribute called patches
which will help you later on in the network.

04 Set the Display flag on the polyextrude node. With Divide

Into set to Individual Elements all the small polygons are
extruded but you don’t want that. Set it to Connected Components
then all the polygons are extruded.
You need a way for this network to extrude the original patches of
the soccer ball but after the ball has been subdivided. You can do
this using the primitive numbers on the original geometry.

05 Add an AttributeCreate node after the platonic node. –

Set its Name to patches and its Class to Primitive. Now
set the first of the Value fields to @primnum. This expression takes
the primitive number attribute and turns it into a new attribute
called patches.
With the attributecreate node selected, click on the Geometry
Spreadsheet tab next to the main viewport. Click on the Primitive
button and you can see the primitive numbers on the left, three
color attributes which show the color of the patches and the
patches attribute which matches the primitive numbers.

06 Now click on the ray node. This attribute will be carried

forward when the shape is subdivided. You can now see
there are a lot more primitives but the patches attribute only goes
as high as 31 and then it goes back to 0.
Go back to the Scene View tab, RMB-click on the Visualizer
display button on the Display Options bar and click on the + Plus
sign next to Scene and choose Marker. In the Edit Visualizer panel,
set Name and Label to Patch_Numbers, set Type to Marker, Class to
Primitive and Attribute to patches.

07 Now make sure the Visualizer display button is on

HOUDINI FOUNDATIONS

and you will see the patch values on the soccerball in

the viewport. You can see that the prim number from the original
platonic solid have been transferred to the subdivided faces.
Change the display flag to different nodes to see the relationship.
This information will be used to polyextrude the patches properly
using a for-each loop.
Turn OFF the Visualizer display and save your work. These steps
have been a bit abstract and probably feel a bit too technical, but
attributecreate node ray node don’t worry the payoff is coming.

6
PART FOUR:
The For-Each Node
Now you get to see the magic, as the attributes you just created in the last part are fed into a for-each loop where the original
patches are extruded even though each contains many polygons. This will provide a more leathery look for the soccerball once
you subdivide it once more time after the poly extrudes.

01 In the Network editor, press tab and start typing For-

each Named Primitive to access two nodes that you can
then place into the scene. Wire the foreach_begin between the ray
node and the polyextrude node and then the foreach_end after the
polyextrude node. Select the foreach_end node and in the parameter
pane leave Piece Elements set to Primitives and set Piece Attribute
to patches. Set display on the foreach_end node.
You should now see the original patches being extruded together
based on the patches attribute. If they are not make sure Divide to
is set to Connected Components on the polyextrude node.

02 Click the checkbox next to Single Pass to explore what

is happening. Drag on the slider to watch as each of the
patches is polyextruded individually. You can also set values higher
than 10 to see more of the patches.
Turn off Single Pass to see the full shape. The for-each nodes create
all of the patches then return the final geometry. The for-each loop
is a powerful set of nodes that you will use often with Houdini.

03 Add a Fuse node after the foreach_end node and set

its Display flag. This connects the pieces into a single
topology. The for-each nodes broke them into the different patches
but didn’t fuse them back together.
Add a Subdivide node after the Fuse. Set the depth to 2. This will
give you more detail in the viewport that you can use to evaluate
your model. This adds more polygons but will not yet render as
a true subdivision surface. Houdini also lets you set Subdivision
display in the viewport without adding geometry but this Subdivide PART FOUR: The For-Each Node
node is needed for later in the lesson.

04 Play with polyextrude values to get a nice leathery soccer

ball. Here you set a Distance of 0.1 and an Inset of -0.02.
This gives nice rounded patches that look much better.
Go to the Object level and rename the object soccerball_geo in the
Parameter pane. Either select the node and press F2 or double click
on the name. Click on the Render tab and turn on Render Polygons
as Subdivisions (Mantra) to set up true subdivisions at render time.
Select the Render Region tool, then draw a box around the
soccer ball in the viewport create a preview rendering. To cancel,
click on the x button in the top right of the region.

7
 PART FIVE:
Setting up UVs
In order to set up materials and textures, it is important to make sure that there are proper UVs set up on your object.
Geometry in Houdini does not come with UVs, therefore you must create them yourself. This means adding extra nodes
to the network, which in this case means adding UV Quickshade and UV Flatten nodes.

View Menu Viewport Layout Menu

01 In the top right of the Scene View, use the Viewport
Layout menu to choose the Two Views Side by Side
option. You could also us the hotkeys Ctrl - 2 to get these views.
In the left panel, click the View menu and choose Set View >
UV Viewport to change this panel to a UV view. You can also hover
your mouse over the panel and press spacebar-5.

02 To set up UVs for the soccerball, you can choose from a

number of different techniques. To display a texture map
to work with, place a UV Quickshade node into the soccerball chain
right after the foreach_end node.
Note: Setting up UVs to match an existing texture is not the normal
order of operations. In practice, the UVs are generated then passed on
to a texture artist who builds the texture. We are taking the opposite
approach so that you don’t need to paint a texture yourself.

03 Click on the File Selector button next to Texture Map.

Navigate into the /tex folder and select the soccerball_
color.rat image file. Now you can see this texture map on your
geometry but everything seems stretched because the UVS were
created using a projection method.
In the UV view, click on the UV menu in the top right and choose
Background > soccerball_color.rat. Now you can see this texture in
the background of the UV panel. This texture has a team insignia
at the center of the image and a darker area at the top for the dark
patches.

04 Add a UV Flatten node after the quickshade node but

HOUDINI FOUNDATIONS

before the Fuse node. In the Group field, enter the

expression @patches>19. This will flatten the dark patches on the
soccerball geometry using the patch boundaries to lay out the UVs.
RMB-click on the Handle tool and turn on the Min: handle. Use the
arrow handle at the bottom and pull it up until all the patches are
inside the dark area at the top of the texture map.
If we had placed this node after the fuse or subdivide then there
wouldn’t have been any boundaries. Houdini’s ability to let you set
up UVs in the middle of the network offers a lot of flexibility.

8
 05 Add another UV Flatten node after the first uvflatten
node and before the Fuse node. In the Group field, enter
the expression @patches<20. This will flatten the light patches.
RMB-click on the Handle tool and turn on the Min: handle. Use the
arrow handle at the top and pull it down until all the patches are
inside the light area at the bottom of the texture map.
When you finish you can RMB-click on the Handle tool and turn off
the Min: handle.

06 Select the uvflatten node and click on the Handle tool.

Mouse over the geometry you can see the patches
highlight. Click on the Pin Vertices button in the Operation
Controls bar at the top of the viewport.
Mouse over the patch shown in this image and in the 3D view,
Shift-click on the center vertex of the desired patch to select it. This
adds a pin in the UV view and a handle to work with.

Shift-Click

07 Go to the UV view and move the pin and the patch so

that it is centered on the logo. Press Y to get a rotate
handle and rotate the patch until you line up the logo.
By pinning vertices on patches in the UV view, you can lock down
their position. At first there is some overlap of the neighboring
patches but you can easily fix this by repacking.

08 Click on the Repack button in the Operation Controls

bar to reorganize the other patches around the new one.
You can continue moving the patch around using the pin but will
need another Repack to avoid overlapping UVs.

09
PART FIVE: Setting up UVs

Set the quickshade node to Bypass to hide the

assignment of the texture map. This node was only
needed when you were setting up the UVs. You now see a UV grid
on the soccerball.
To hide the UV display in the perspective view, got to the Display
Options bar and turn Off the Show UV Texture when UV’s Present
button.
Save your work.
Show UV Texture

9
 PART SIX:
Layout: Cameras and Lights
To create a scene for rendering, you are going to bring the geometry into the Solaris or LOPS context of Houdini. This is an
environment dedicated to lookdev, layout and lighting and is built on the foundation of USD (Universal Scene Description).
This will allow you to render to the Karma renderer which works right in the Scene View as part of the Solaris workflow.

01 Mouse over the perspective view and press Spacebar-b

to expand that view to just show the soccerball.
In the Network view, RMB-click on the subdivide node’s output and
type Match Size then press Enter to place the node. Set its Display
Flag. Set Justify Y to Min which will raise the ball up to sit on the
ground.
Add a Null node to the end of the chain and call it GEOMETRY_
OUT. It is a good idea to have this kind of node to define the end of
the network chain.

02 Change the desktop to Solaris. Make sure you are

looking at the Stage in the path bar.
In the Network view, press tab > Scene Import and click to place
the node down. Next to the Force Objects field, click on the node
selector button and from the pop up window, select the soccerball_
geo object then click Accept Pattern.
In the Scene View, use your view tools such as spacebar-h for
homing the view to get a better look at the soccerball.
Note: Force Objects is used instead of the Objects field because it will
bring the object into LOPS even if the object’s display flag is off.

03 In the Network view, press tab and type out Grid. Click
to place down the node and rename it backdrop. Double-
click on the backdrop node to dive down to the geometry level.
Select the grid node and set the size to 80, 80 and the Center to
0, 0, -20. RMB-click on the grid node’s output and type Bend. Click
to place the node then set its Display Flag and set: Bend to 75.
In the Capture section, set Capture Origin to 0, 0, -30, Capture
Direction to 0, 0, -1, and Capture Length to 5.
RMB-click on the grid node’s output and type Subdivide. Set its
Display Flag then set Depth to 2.

04 Go back to the Stage level. Wire the backdrop node

HOUDINI FOUNDATIONS

into the sceneimport node. RMB-click on the output of

sceneimport and type out Camera. Press Enter to place the node
then set its Display Flag.
In the Scene View, you will see camera handles at the origin. Zoom
out and look down at the scene then adjust the handles so the
camera is looking at the soccerball from the left. You may want
to activate the Construction plane so that you move the handles
along the ground. You can also use the axis handles to control the
direction and lift the camera up from the ground.

10
 05 In the top right of the Scene View, click on the No cam
menu and choose camera1. Now you are looking through
the camera and can adjust how it looks.
This is probably not the view you are looking for therefore some
view changes are needed. On the right side of the Scene View,
click on the Lock camera to view button. Now use the View
tools [Spacebar-LMB/MMB/RMB] to reposition the camera.
IMPORTANT: When you finish, toggle off the Lock Camera button.

06 From the LOP Lights and Camera shelf, click on the

Environment Light tool then press Enter to place it at the
origin. Set the Intensity to 0.5 to tone it down a bit.
Now click on the menu just to the left of the camera menu, and set
it to Karma. Now you are using the Karma renderer in the viewport.
Denoise
If you have an Nvidia graphics card and have the latest drivers
installed, you can turn on the Optix Denoiser to resolve the image
more quickly. Turn it on in the Display Options bar or press d and
setting Enable Denoising in the Render Display Options.

07 From the LOP Lights and Camera shelf, click on the

Point Light tool then press Enter to place it at the origin.
You are looking through the light. Set the camera back to camera1.
With the node active, press Shift-F to turn on the Shadow mode.
You can also click on it in the Operation Control bar. Now click
on the top of the soccerball to set a pivot point then Shift-click to
place a target on the ground. Ctrl-Drag to set the light distance.
Now you can use Ctrl-Shift-drag to change the intensity of the
light. You may need to set it quite high go see some impact on the
look of the soccerball.

08 In the Network view, RMB-click on the pointlights node’s

output and type Light then press Enter to place the node
and set its Display Flag.
With the node active, press Shift-S to turn on the Specular mode.
Now click on the right side of the soccerball to define a specular
area of focus.

PART SIX: Layout: Cameras and Lights

Now you can use Ctrl-drag to move the light away from the soccer
ball and Ctrl-Shift-drag to change the intensity of the light.

09 In the Network view, RMB-click on the lights node’s

output and type Light Mixer then press Enter to place
the node and set its Display Flag. This will create a special panel in
Solo
the Parameter pane which has a list of lights on the left side.
Drag the three lights from the list to the area on the right. Click on
the Star icon to Solo each light to determine its contribution then
tweak Exposure to adjust the lighting. Since the intensities are so
high you can click on the icon above the intensity bar and from the
pop-up set a Max value that works for your shot. When you are
finished be sure to turn off the Solo button to see all the lights.

11
 PART SEVEN:
Lookdev: Materials
Materials and shaders can also be created within the LOPS/Solaris context. This involves adding the materials to the Scene
Graph then assigning them to the geometry. The Materials are created inside a Material Library node then assigned at the
LOPS/Solaris level. To add textures to the backdrop, UVs will have to be created to position the maps properly.

01 In the Network view, press tab > Material Library and

place the node just above existing network of nodes
then wire it into the backdrop node. Double click on the node to go
down to the VEX Builder level.
Press tab > Principled Shader and place the node down. Rename it
soccerball_mat. Change its Base Color to white (1, 1, 1).
Alt-drag on this node to create a second principled Shader and
rename this one backdrop_mat. Change its Base Color to a dark
green.

02 Go back to the Stage level then press tab > Assign

Material and place the node in between the sceneimport
and the camera nodes.
In the Parameter pane, next to Primitives, click on the arrow button
and in the viewport select the soccerball geometry. Press Enter to
add its path to the Primitives field. Now click on the arrow next
to Material Path and from the pop-up window, select materials >
soccerball_mat and click OK.
Click on the + button then repeat these steps for the backdrop and
the backdrop_mat.

03 Double-click on the materiallibrary node to dive into it

and select the soccerball_mat node. Click on the Textures
tab and under Base Color click on Use Texture then use the button
next to Texture to call up the file window. Click on $HIP in the side
list then click on the tex folder to open it and then click once on
soccerball_color.rat to select it. Click Accept to assign the texture to
the material.
The $HIP reference makes sure that the reference is relative to the
location of your scene file. That way if you were to move your project
directories to another computer the reference will still work.

04 Under the Textures tab and use the technique you

HOUDINI FOUNDATIONS

learned in the last step to assign textures to Roughness

and Reflectivity. You will find the appropriate textures in the tex
folder.
Go to the Bumps & Normals tab on the material and click the
Enable button. Click on the arrow next to Texture Path and from
the tex directory choose the soccerball_normal.rat file. Set the Effect
Scale to around 0.5 and see how it looks.

12
MATERIALS IN HOUDINI
Materials in Houdini live in the VEX Builder context which in this case
is nested inside the Material Library node. A material is made up of
VOP nodes that define all of its material qualities.
The Principled Shader is an uber material that can be used on its own
to assign texture maps and achieve a large variety of looks. You can
also build your own shaders and materials for more advanced looks.

05 In the Scene view, look through camera1 to see your

shot. The position of the soccerball’s logo isn’t quite right
in relation to this camera therefore you need to rotate the ball.
In the Network view, press tab > edit. Place this node between the
sceneimport and the assignmaterial nodes. With the Handle tool
active, press r to get the Rotate handle and rotate the ball until you
like the logo position.
You can do this in the Karma or Houdini GL view. If you don’t like
the edits then you can delete the node and try again. To deselect
the soccerball_geo, press Ctrl and click on it in the Scene Graph.

06 Now lets add some texture maps to the Backdrop

material. Double-click on the materiallibrary node and
select the backdrop_mat node.
Set the Base Color to 1, 1, 1 because this color will be multiplied
with the texture map. Now click on the Textures tab and under
Base Color click Use Texture. Click the File Selector button and use
$HIP to go to the /tex directory and choose backdrop_color.rat.
You can also add the backdrop_reflect.rat texture to Reflectivity.
You can see in the Scene View that UVs are not set up properly and
the texture map isn’t working properly.

07 Go back to the Stage level then double-click on the

backdrop node to go to the geometry level. Add a UV
Project node between the grid and the bend. You are putting the
nodes here so the UVs are created before the surface is bent.
On the uvproject node, click on the Initialize tab and click the
Initialize button. Go back to the Transformation tab and set V
Range to 0, -1. This will orient the UVs properly.
IMPORTANT: Set the Display Flag back to the subdivide node.
PART SEVEN: Lookdev: Materials

08 Go back to the Stage level. In the Network View, add a

Null node and call it SHOT_01.
Add a Karma node to the end of the chain. This uses its own render
settings. Go to the Sampling section and set Convergence Mode to
Path Traced. Go to the Image Output > Filters tab and set Denoiser
to nvidia Optix Denoiser to turn the denoiser back on.
Click on the Render to Mplay button at the top of the parameter
pane. This opens an Mplay window that shows the rendering as
it progresses. Once you are finished, you can choose File > Save
Frame As to save the image to disk.

13
 PART EIGHT:
Rig the Soccerball
In order to create an animation of the ball bouncing, you will start by building a simple rig that will make it easier to keyframe.
This will involve setting up null objects so that you can work interactively in the viewport and adding nodes to the soccerball
geometry network to accommodate the ball rotation along with squash and stretch.

01 Change back to the Build desktop and navigate to the

object level by clicking on one of the path bars and
choosing obj. Now in the network editor, Alt-drag on soccerball_geo
to make a copy of it. Rename this node socccerball_anim.
You will use soccer_anim to build your rig. Now turn off the Display
Flag on the soccer_geo node to hide it. You don’t want to make
changes to the original setup because that object is being used in
SHOT 1 in the Solaris context. This new soccerball will be used for an
Alt-drag animated SHOT 2.

02 On the Create shelf, click on the Null tool then press

Enter to place it at the origin. Name it soccerball_ctrl. Go
to the Misc tab and set Control Type to Circles and Orientation to
ZX Plane. Set the Display Uniform Scale to 4. This creates a handle
for the rig that is easy to select that won’t render later on.
In the network editor, connect the input of the soccerball_anim
object to the output of the soccerball_ctrl null to create a child/parent
relationship. Moving the null will move the ball. Turn off the selection
flag on the soccerball_anim so that you don’t select it by accident in
the viewport while animating. You will use soccerball_ctrl instead.

03 Select the soccerball_ctrl node. In the Parameter pane,

click on the Transform tab then RMB-click on the
Translate X parameter. Choose Copy Parameter.
Dive into the soccerball_anim object. Add a Transform node
between the subdivide and the matchsize nodes. RMB-click on
the Rotate Z and choose Paste Relative References. This places a
channel reference expression in this parameter.
ch(“../../soccerball_ctrl/tx”)
This will connect the movement of the control object to the
rotation on this node.

04 Click on the parameter to expand the channel. You

HOUDINI FOUNDATIONS

are now going to use the ball’s circumference (2πr) to

determine the ball’s rotation as it moves forward.
Edit the expression to read:
-ch(“../../soccerball_ctrl/tx”)*360/(2*$PI*1.1)
First you add a negative (-) at the front. You then multiply the position
of the ball by 360 degrees and divide by 2πr. At the object level, move
the soccerball_ctrl along the X axis. The expression will rotate the ball to
match the motion. Put it back at the origin when you are finished.

14
05 In the Viewport, create another Null object at the origin.
Call it squash_ctrl. Go to the Misc tab and set Control
Type to Box and the Display Uniform Scale to 0.2.
Move the null up just above the ball. Translate Y should be about
2.5. In the Parameter pane, choose the Modify Pre-Transforms
menu and select Clean Translates. This sets the Translate Y value
of the null to 0 even though it is above the ground. In order for this
null to drive the squash and stretch, it needs a default value of 0.

06 Parent the squash_ctrl null to the soccerball_ctrl null. This

will ensure that this secondary null moves when you
animate the control null.
RMB-click on the squash_ctrl node’s Translate Y parameter. Choose
Copy Parameter. You will use this parameter to drive the squash
and stretch of the ball. This will allow you to control the squash and
stretch from the viewport interactively.

07 Go into the soccerball_anim object. Add a Bend node

after matchsize. Turn Off the Limit Deformation to
Capture Region checkbox.
Go to a Right View then click the Set Capture Region button. Turn
on Grid Snapping and place a point at the base of the ball and
another at the top. This should set Up Vector to 0, 0, 1, Capture
Direction to 0, 1, 0 and Capture Length to 2.2.
Turn on Length Scale and Preserve Volume then RMB-click on
Length Scale and choose Paste Relative References. Add a +1 at
the end of the expression.

08 Go to the Object level and a perspective view. RMB-click

on the Transform X and Transform Z parameters and
choose Lock Parameter to lock these parameters on squash_ctrl.
RMB-click on the Scale and Rotate parameters and choose Lock
Parameter to lock all three channels.
Select the soccerball_ctrl object. Lock all the channels except
Translate X and Translate Y. Now when you select the controls
you will only see handles for the unlocked channels. This will
make it easier to work with the rig because the animator can only PART EIGHT: Rig the Soccerball
manipulate the chosen parameters.

09 Now test out the rig by moving it around in X and Y and

using the second handle to squash and stretch it. Once
you are sure that all the parts are working, return all the values to 0
and get ready to animate.
You may want to turn off Secure Selection in the toolbar on the
left side of the Scene view. This will make it easier to select the two
control nulls while in the Move tool. If not then you will need to
press the S key every time you want to switch selections.
Save your scene file before proceeding.

15
 PART NINE:
Animate a Bouncing Ball
You can now take the soccer ball rig and use it to animate the ball bouncing. You will learn how to set keyframes, adjust anima-
tion curves and work with time-space handles in the viewport. The bouncing ball is a classic animation exercise that offers a
great opportunity to learning the basics of animating in Houdini.

01 At the bottom left edge of the Timeline, click on the

Global Animation Options button. Set the End to 120
and click Close. This will set the timeline range to 120 frames.
Make sure you are on frame 1. Click on the Pose tool on the
toolbar to your left and select the soccerball_ctrl. Move the ball to
around -15 in X and press K to keyframe it. Move the timeline to
frame 120. Move the ball to the around 15 in X and press K to set a
second keyframe.
Scrub through the timeline to make sure that the ball is animating.
It should be moving and rotating based on the rig design.

02 Move the timeline to frame 12 and press K to set an

intermediate key. Repeat at frames 36 and 60. All of
these keyframes are sitting on the ground.
Now go to frame 1 and lift the ball up in the Y direction. You don’t
need to set another key because this move simply updates the
keyframe you already set at frame 1 .
Move to frame 24 and lift up the ball in the Y direction a little less
than you did at frame 1. Press K to set a keyframe. Move to frame
48 and lift the ball up even less. Press K to set another keyframe.

03 Scrub through the timeline to see that the ball appears to

float whereas you want hard hits when the ball contacts
the ground. Click on the Animation Editor pane tab.
From the Scoped parameter list, click on the Translate Y channel.
Press H to home the view of the curve. Select the three keyframes
where the ball contacts the ground and press the Untie Handles
button on the Functions bar found just above the graph. Now click
in empty space to deselect then start tweaking the tangent handles
to create a sharp bounce at each point. You can also stretch out the
handles at the top to slow the ball down at the peak.

Select
HOUDINI FOUNDATIONS

THE POSE TOOL Secure Selection [~]

You can easily manipulate the two control objects in the soccerball rig
using the Move or Handle tool. The advantage of using the Pose tool is Move [T]
that it gives you access to the Motion Path handle and if you were working Rotate [R]
with Inverse kinematics, there are special handles that you can use to con-
trol the system. Therefore be sure to remember this tool when you start Scale [E]
setting keyframes on your rigs. The Secure Selection does not restrict the POSE [Y or Ctrl R]
Pose tool from selecting different objects.
Handle [Enter]

16
 04 Go back to the Scene view and preview the results.
You now have a sharper hit each time the ball hits the
ground. Make sure you have the Pose tool active and the
soccerball_ctrl node selected. In the top bar, turn On the Motion
Path handle. This shows a path outlined where the ball is bouncing.
Click on each keyframe marker to tweak the bounce. RMB-click on
the handle to Show tangents for more control over the curve.
Go to the soccerball_anim object’s Misc tab, set Onion Skinning to
Full Deformation. Press spacebar-d and from the Scene tab adjust
Frame increment and the Frames Before and After color.

05 To adjust the timing, you can also use the timeline. Press
Shift and drag a bounding box from frame 1 to the last
key in the timeline to select all the keys. Next, MMB drag on the
end of the box underneath the handle to scale the timing of the
bounces to speed them up. You can also select each key using MMB
and then drag with MMB to time each keyframe the way you want.
This is where you will determine the timing of the bounces. Keep
exploring until you get the look that you want. Note that there may
be some awkwardness in the bouncing because of the translate X
MMB Drag Here
values. You will fix that in the next step.

06 Click on the Animation Editor pane tab and you will see
two curves. From the Scoped Parameters list, click on
Translate X for soccerball_ctrl. Now select all the keys except for
the first and the last. Press Delete. Now use the curve handles to
go from a high slope to a low slope. This will have the ball moving
faster at the beginning and slower at the end.
Note that if you go back to tweak the points in X on the motion
path handle, you will get strange results because there are no
longer intermediate keys in that direction - only use it to tweak in Y
from this point on.

07 Go back to the Scene view. RMB-click on the Motion

Path handle and choose Persistent. This will keep it
around as a guide as you set keyframes on the squash and stretch.
Select the squash_ctrl and turn off its Motion Path. Go to the first
bounce and move back one frame. Select the squash_ctrl handle
and stretch out the ball a bit. Set a Keyframe using the K key.

PART NINE: Animate a Bouncing Ball

Now go to the bounce frame and move the handle down to create
squash. Set another key. Go one frame forward and stretch the ball
until it is round. Set another key. Repeat for all the bounces.

08 When you are finished, scrub and playback the motion to

preview the results. Make sure the peaks of the bounces
are stretched out. Make sure the Real Time Toggle is On in the
Timeline to properly evaluate the motion.
You can now use the Animation editor to make tweaks to the
squash and stretch. Make sure you keep the keyframes aligned with
the bouncing of the soccer balls.

17
 PART TEN:
Add Motion FX
In addition to keyframing everything by hand, you can also use the Motion FX menu to create procedural animation nodes that
make it easier to add detail to the motion. These nodes are Channel Operators or CHOPs and they offer a whole new way for
animators to create procedural motion. You can add effects that act on all of the motion at the same time or focus on one channel.

01 Select the soccerball_ctrl null object. RMB-click on the

Translate Y and choose Motion FX > Noise. A panel pops
up with parameters that you can use to control the noise. A new
subnetwork was created with the CHOP nodes that send their
information back to the soccerball_ctrl’s Translate Y channel.
Set the Amplitude to 5 and press Play to see how this looks. This
adds dramatic up and down motion which make it feel like there is
some serious turbulence. Set the Amplitude to 1. This offers a more
subtle bump to the motion of the ball.

02 Some of this motion goes below the ground. You will

want to focus on creating bumps above the ground.
Go back to the object level. Select the soccerball_ctrl null object.
RMB-click on the Translate Y and choose Motion FX > Limit. Set
Minimum to 0 and Maximum to 6. Now the ball moves flat with
some bumps instead of going up and down the whole way.

03 There should not be any noise while the ball is

bouncing. It is only needed when the ball is rolling.
You can keyframe the Amplitude to turn the noise on and off.
In the newly created motionfx network, select the noise1 CHOP
node. Go to Frame 37 where the ball stops bouncing and starts
rolling. Alt-click on Amplitude to set a keyframe. Go to Frame
1 and set Amplitude to 0. Alt-click on Amplitude again to set
a second keyframe. Go to the Animation Editor and select the
curve. Click on the Constant button in the Functions bar. This
creates a sharp cut from no amplitude to an amplitude of 1.

04 When you are finished, close the window then RMB-

HOUDINI FOUNDATIONS

click on the Motion Path handle and turn off Persistent

so that it isn’t visible when you deselect.
In the toolbar at the left side of the Scene view, click on the
Render Flipbook button. Leave the default settings and click Start.
Wait while the sequence is captured and then you will see the
flipbook in an Mplay window. You can Play this back and scrub
through to evaluate your motion.
Save your work.

18
PART ELEVEN:
Lights, Camera, Action!
To render out the animated soccer ball, you will need to go back to the Solaris environment and set up a second shot. You will
begin by branching off new LOP nodes from backdrop geometry then adjust the lights and cameras to suit the bouncing soccer-
ball animation. You will also set up motion blur for the deforming geometry.

01 Go to the Object level. Double-click on soccerball_anim

to dive into it. Press n to select all the geometry then go
to the Modify shelf and select Extract. This takes all the motion and
bending of the ball and puts it in one network.
You can see an objectmerge node which is extracting the ball into
a new object called extract_object. RMB-click on the output and
find USD Export then click to place this node. Rename this node
to soccerball_anim. Click on the Export tab then set Valid Frame
Range to Render Frame Range and set Ouput File to $HIP/geo/
soccerball_anim.usd. Click the Save to Disk button.

02 Go back to the Solaris desktop and point it to /stage. In

the Network View, disconnect the three light nodes (not
the lightmixer) and move them above the backdrop node. This will
not change how the first shot looks, but will let you share the nodes
between the two shots.
Move the backdrop, light and materiallibrary nodes to the right.

03 Zoom in and add a Sublayer node to the right under the

light nodes. Connect the last light node to this new node
and set its Display Flag. In the Sublayer File section, click on the
File Chooser and find the soccerball_anim.usd file. Rename the node
to soccerball_anim.
Scrub in the timeline, in Houdini GL view, to see the cached

PART ELEVEN: Lights, Camera, Action!

animation which is part of the USD file.

04 Use the Select tool and click on the new animated

soccerball. In the Scene View, press tab > Transform to
add a transform node to the graph.
In the Scene view, use the Transform handle to Move the Ball to
the back of the backdrop in the middle. Scrub the timeline to watch
the ball bounce to the right. Leave it at somewhere around frame
80. Press R to get the rotate handle. Rotate to move the ball so that
it is bouncing at an angle from the backdrop. Scrub the timeline to
see if you like its direction.

19
 05 In the Network view, Select the assignmaterial node
from the SHOT 1 network then Alt-drag to create a
copy of this node. Wire the transform node into the assignmaterial
node then set its Display Flag. This will assign the material to the
backdrop but since the soccerball primitive has changed it needs to
be reassigned.
In the field next to Primitives for the soccerball_mat , change the
primitive name to /soccerball_anim to reassign the material to the
new geometry.

06 Tumble around until you see the ball animated towards

the camera from the top left to the bottom right. In the
LOP Lights and Cameras shelf, Alt-click on the Camera tool to
place a camera from the angle you are currently looking.
Press the Lock Camera/Light to View button so that view changes
can be used to reposition the camera. Now Tumble, Pan and Dolly
in the viewport to tweak the camera to get the framing that you
want for the shot. Scrub the timeline to make sure the camera
works for the whole sequence.

07 Add a Light Mixer node after the camera. On the

lightmixer node you will need to move over the lights. This
will let you use the same light handles you learned about earlier to
make lighting decisions for this shot and use the Karma display in
the viewport to verify your setup. You can also use the lightmixer
node to play with intensity and exposure for this shot.
These edits are being held in the lightmixer node and changes are
not being made to the original lights. The lightmixer lets you tweak
existing lights when working in a multi-shot setup.

08 In the Network view, Alt-drag the SHOT_01 and Karma

nodes. Wire the lightmixer node into this chain. Select the
new karma node and make sure that Camera is set to /camera2.
Be sure to set Valid Frame Range to Render Frame Range and
set the Output Picture to $HIP/render/anim/soccerball_anim_$F2.
exr. The $F2 in the name is needed to add frame numbers to the
renderings with a padding of two and the /anim/ will create a
directory to hold these frames. Click Render to Disk.
When you finish, choose Render > Mplay > Load Disk Files and
open up the rendered images to review the final sequence.
HOUDINI FOUNDATIONS

KARMA RENDERER
Karma is a physically-based HYDRA renderer built to work with USD files
in the Solaris/LOPS context. This allows it to be used in the Viewport for
interactive updates or to be rendered to disk using a Karma node.
Note: Houdini 19 includes a preview for an upcoming Karma XPU render
engine. This hybrid GPU/CPU renderer is Alpha with many features still
under development and is for testing purposes only. You can choose
XPU in the Scene view’s Display Options or in the Karma node.
Viewport Menu Display Options

20
PART TWELVE:
Set up a Rigid Body Simulation
While traditional animation is great for animating a single soccer ball, dynamics would be a better option if you want to animate
a bunch of soccer balls. Dynamics requires a simulation so that the solver can go frame by frame determining how each of the
participating objects interact with each other. You will use packed geometry to get an efficient result for this simulation.

01 Change back to the Build desktop and navigate to the

object level. Hide all of the animation rig nodes and the
extract_object node by turning off their display flags. Turn on the
soccerball_geo display.
Select the soccerball_geo node then from the Modify shelf click
on the Extract tool. This creates a new object with the soccerball
object merged. Jump up one level and rename extract_object to
soccerball_sim. Hide the soccerball_geo object.
Dive back in to the soccerball_sim object to work with the geometry.
Add a Match Size node to center the ball around the origin.

02 In the Network view, press tab > Box then place it to the
right of the matchsize node.
Set the following on the box node:
ƒ Center to 0, 8, 0
ƒ Rotate to 45, 45, 45
ƒ Primitive Type to Polygon Mesh
ƒ Uniform Scale to 6
ƒ Axis Divisions to 3, 3, 3
This puts it in the right position for the simulation.

03 In the Network view, add a Copy to Points node just

below the other nodes. Wire the matchsize node into the
first input and the box node into the second.

PART TWELVE: Set up a Rigid Body Simulation

Turn ON the Pack and Instance option. This will create a faster
simulation because the geometry is being instanced to the points of
the cube. Set the copytopoints node’s Display Flag.
In the Network view, press tab > Mountain and place the node
between the box and the copytopoint nodes. Turn Off the Noise
Along Vector option then set Amplitude to 2 and Range Values to
Zero Centered. This will jiggle the points on the box.

04 Make sure you are on Frame 1. Add a RBD Bullet Solver

node after the copytopoints node. Click on the Solver tab
and then the Ground tab, set Add Ground Plane to Ground Plane.
Press Play to test out the simulation. The sim is cached which lets
you scrub in the timeline to review the results.
Under the Bullet Object tab, set Density to 10, Bounce to 1.1
and under the Collisions tab, set Bounce to 0.8. At the top of the
Parameter pane for this node, click the Reset Simulation button
and then press Play to resim. Scrub to evaluate.

21
 DOPS hidden inside SOPS
In Houdini, simulations are processed using the Dynamic Operators or DOPs.
With the RBD Bullet Solver node in the Geometry/SOP context, you are
working with a node that has a Dynamics network buried inside it.
This makes it easy to set up at the geometry level with all the DOP nodes are
wired up and ready to go but hidden from view. For simpler setups, working at
the geometry level will give you a proper simulation. If you need more control
over the different solvers then you would need to work directly in DOPs.

05 At the end of the chain, add a USD Export node, set its
Display flag and rename it to soccerball_sim.
Set Valid Frame Range to Render Frame Range and set the Output
File to $HIP/geo/soccerball_sim.usd.
Click on the Save to Disk button and this will save the USD file into
your geo directory. You will reference this cached asset into the
Solaris setup as a third shot.

06 Change your Desktop back to Solaris and set the path to

/stage. Make sure you are choose Houdini GL from the
persp menu.
Alt-drag the soccerball_anim Sublayer node and set its Display Flag.
Set Sublayer File to $HIP/geo/soccerball_sim.usd.
Rename this node to soccerball_sim.

07 In the Network view, Select the assignmaterial node from

the SHOT 2 network then Alt-drag to create a copy of
this node. Wire the soccerball_anim node into it the assignmaterial
node then set its Display Flag. This will assign the material to the
backdrop but since the soccerball primitive has changed it needs to
be reassigned.
In the field next to Primitives for the soccerball_mat , change the
primitive name to /soccerball_sim to reassign the material to the
new geometry.

08 Tumble around until you see the balls animated towards

HOUDINI FOUNDATIONS

the camera. In the LOP Lights and Cameras shelf, Alt-

click on the Camera tool to place a camera from the angle you are
currently looking.
Press the Lock Camera/Light to View button so that view changes
can be used to reposition the camera. Now Tumble, Pan and Dolly
in the viewport to tweak the camera to get the framing that you
want for the shot. Scrub the timeline to make sure the camera
works for the whole sequence.

22
 09 Add a Light Mixer node after the camera. On the
lightmixer node you will need to move over the lights. This
will let you use the same light handles you learned about earlier to
make lighting decisions for this shot and use the Karma display in
the viewport to verify your setup. You can also use the lightmixer
node to play with intensity and exposure for this shot.
These edits are being held in the lightmixer node and changes are
not being made to the original lights. The lightmixer lets you tweak
existing lights when working in a multi-shot setup.

10 In the Network view, Alt-drag the SHOT_02 and Karma

nodes. Wire the lightmixer node into this chain. Select
the new karma node and make sure that Camera is set to /camera3.
Otherwise it will use the old camera.

11 Be sure to set Valid Frame Range to Render Frame Range

and set the Output Picture to $HIP/render/sim/soccerball_
sim_$F.exr. The $F in the name is needed to add frame numbers to
the renderings and the /sim/ will create a directory to hold these
frames.
When you finish, choose Render > Mplay > Load Disk Files and
open up the rendered images to review the final sequence.

CONCLUSION

PART TWELVE: Set up a Rigid Body Simulation

You have now built a scene from scratch, touching on many different
aspects of Houdini. You have modeled, set up textures, animated, rendered
and simulated. Along the way you have learned about the different Houdini
contexts and how to navigate back and forth between them.
While this lesson doesn’t result in blockbuster VFX,
it introduces you to fundamental skills which
you will carry with you as you dive deeper
into Houdini and begin exploring its
comprehensive toolset.
There is a wealth of learning material
available on the SideFX website to
help you take your next steps.
Best of luck on
your journey!

23