Hello patrons,
In this video we will finish this mini series about Solaris and Katana interoperability.
I'll be covering the topics that I didn't have time to cover in the first video, including.
- Manual set dressing from Solaris to Katana.
- Hero instancing from Solaris to Katana.
- background instancing and custom attributes from Solaris to Katana.
- Dummy crowds from Solaris to Katana.
- Everything using USD of course.
There are many more things that could be covered when it comes to Solaris and Katana interoperability, I'm pretty sure that I'll be covering some of them in future USD videos.
All the info on my Patreon.
Katana
Solaris Katana interoperability part 1/2 /
Hello patrons,
This is small trailer for the video Houdini Solaris / Katana interoperability part 1/2.
The full video is published only for Patrons.
The whole thing is divided in two videos, the first one is around 2.5 hours and hopefully next month I can publish the second video covering the rest of the topics.
In this first video we are covering.
- Working template in Solaris.
- Working template in Katana.
- Full assets from Solaris to Katana.
- Modifying/overriding looks in Katana.
- Geometry assets from Solaris to Katana.
- Publishing looks as KLF.
- Publishing looks as USD files.
- Full assembly USD files.
All the information on my Patreon.
Thanks!
Xuan.
Houdini Solaris and Katana. Custom attributes /
This is a quick video showcasing how to use custom attributes in Houdini Solaris for USD scattering systems. The USD layer will be exported to Katana to do procedural look-dev using the exported custom parameters.
This technique will be explored in depth in my upcoming video about Houdini Solaris and Katana interoperability.
Subscribe to my Patreon to have full access to my entire library of visual effects training.
www.patreon.com/elephantvfx
Mix 01 and mix 02 /
Hello patrons,
Today's video is not part of any series, it is just a bunch of things that I consider important or relevant for this channel. More of these videos with mixed topics will be published more frequently.
I actually recorded two videos, almost 4 hours of training, and will be available as usual in the next post, only accessible to patrons.
Today's topics are:
- New features in Katana 4.x
- Katana new render queue.
- Multiple rendering using graph state variables.
- Improvements in catalog and monitor.
- USD viewport with Hydra.
- New lighting tools.
- New network material edit.
- New lighting tools.
- Modelling desdert dunes in Houdini and Blender.
- New solaris features relevant for assets creation and set dressing.
All the info on my Patreon site.
As always, thanks a lot for your support!
Xuan.
Katana Fastrack episode 08 /
Here is the final episode for “Katana Fastrack”. Free for everyone.
This one is about sequence lighting.
Many thanks to my patrons for your support!
Xuan.
Cryptomatte in Katana and Arnold /
This post is mainly for my Patreon supporters. Some of them are having issues while setting up cryptomatte AOVs. This is how you do it.
Create a material node.
Add an AOVs shader -> cryptomatte.
If you are using the Arnold AOVs supertool, add all the cryptomatte AOVs that you need.
In the arnold global settings add the cryptomatte shader to the AOV shaders.
If you are not using the Arnold AOVs supertool.
Create an arnold output channel define node.
Set it to be crypto_material.
Type RGBA.
Add a render output define node.
Set the channel to crypto_material.
Repeat the same steps to create crypto_object and crypto_asset.
Katana Fastrack, episode 07 /
Hello patrons,
Episode 07 of Katana Fastrack is already available.
In this episode we will work on the second and latest lighting shot of this course, a live action shot where we have to integrate some CG elements, in this case our very own Ant Man falling on the ground.
We will learn a few things like:
- How to quickly capture HDRIs on-set and lighting references.
- How to technical grade footage and HDRIs to live under the same context.
- How to approach live action shots in Katana.
- How to slap comp CG renders on top of a plate for validation.
More information on my Patron site.
Thank you very much for your support!
Xuan.
Katana Fastrack episode 06 /
Episode 06 of "Katana Fastrack" is already available.
In this episode we will light the first of two shots that I've prepared for this series. A simple full CG shot that will guide you trough the lighting workflow in Katana using the lighting template that we created in the previous episode.
On top of that, we also cover the look-dev of the environment used in this shot.
We'll take a look at how to implement delivery requirements in our lighting template, such as specific resolutions based on production decisions.
We also will take a look and how to create and use interactive render filters, a very powerful feature in Katana. And finally, we will do the lighting and slapcomp of the first shot of this course.
All the info on my Patreon feed.
Katana Fastrack episode 05 /
Episode 05 of Katana Fastrack is already published. In this episode we are going to take a look at the lighting pipeline that we could find in any visual effects studio.
First, I will explain quickly what is the most common workflow when starting a vfx production, from the lighting point of view.
Then, I will explain the recipe that we are going to cook in Katana for lighting shots. And finally, we will jump into Katana to build our lighting template, a tool that we are going to be able to use on many shots and sequences in the future.
Before finishing this episode, we will try our lighting template with very simple assets, testing features like importing look files, shading override, shading edits, geometry edits, etc.
All the info on my Patreon feed.
Katana Fastrack episode 04 /
Katana Fastrack episode 04 is already available.
In this episode, we will finish the Ant-Man lookDev by tweaking all the shaders and texture maps created in Mari.
Then we will do a very quick slapcomp in Katana and Nuke to check that everything works as expected and looks good. We will do this by render a full motion range of Ant-Man walk cycle. And finally, we will write a Katana look file to be used by the lighters in their shots.
Check it out on my Patreon feed.
Katana Fastrack episode 03 /
Episode 03 of my Katana series is out. We are going to be talking about expressions, macros and tools to take our look-dev template to the next level. Right after that, we will take a look at the texture channels that I painted in Mari for this character and then we will start the look-dev of Ant-Man.
We divide the look-dev in different stages, the first on is blocking, and we are going to spend quite a few time working on this today.
All the info on my Patreon feed.
Katana Fastrack episode 02 /
Katana Fastrack episode 02 is now available for all my patrons. I cover how to create a proper look-dev template to be used in visual effects. Everything will be setup from scratch and at the end of this lesson we will have a Katana script ready to be used. In lesson 03 we'll be using this script to do all the look-dev for Ant-Man.
In Katana Fastrack episode 02 you will learn:
- How to create master look files
- How to use live groups to create light rigs
- How to create a look-dev template for production
All the info on my Patreon feed.
Katana Fastrack episode 01 /
Here it is, the very first episode of my series "Katana Fastrack", available to all my exclusive patrons.
This is an introductory video where I'm going to give you an overview of what this course is all about. I hope you like it, it is going to be a lof of fun!
You will learn:
- Where Katana fits in the pipeline
- The most important concepts of Katana's workflow
- How to prepare assets for Katana
- The importance of look-dev recipes
- How to create a very basic recipe
Check it out on my Patreon feed.
Katana, constraint lights to an alembic geometry /
One of the most common situations while lighting a shot is attaching a CG light in your scene assembler to an alemic cache exported from Maya. This is very simple to do in Katana, let’s have a look at it.
I’m using this simple animation of a car spining around.
In most cases you need an object within the alembic cache that has the animation baked into it. The usual approach is to use a locator. To do so, snap it onto one of the lights geometry of the car and parent constrain it to the master control of the car. Then bake the animation of the locator and export it with the rest of the alembic cache to Katana.
In Katana, create a gafferThree node but do not place any lights yet. It is better to do the constraints first, if not you might have to deal with offset issues later on.
Use a parentChildConstraint node indicating the gaffer node in the basePath and the locator of the car in the target.
Now place both headlights according with the model of the car. If you press play they should follow the animation of the car perfectly.
In case you forget to do the parentConstraint before adding lights to the gaffer, you might have to control the offset and compensate for it. To actually see the values you can add constraintResolve and a transformEdit to check the transformations.
Katana fastrack promo 01 /
I’m working on a new training series called “Katana fastrack”. Here is the first promotional video.
Stay tuned it will be available later this year.