Introduction to Materials in Houdini
In this series of tutorials, we'll take an introductory look at materials in Houdini. Software required: Houdini 14.
What you'll learn
In this series of tutorials, we'll take an introductory look at materials in Houdini. We'll start by setting up our Houdini session for a proper shading workflow. We'll learn about the Render View, the Material Palette, basic environment lights, and the Mantra render node. We'll learn how to apply materials from the Material Palette to various types of geometry. We'll explore the general materials starting with the Clay shader; taking time to understand the fundamental parameters that control color and alpha. Next, we'll move to the more complex and highly functional Mantra Surface Shader to create a realistic car paint surface. Finally, we'll create an Alien Skin shader using displacement and subsurface scattering. This course is designed to be an introductory course covering the basic principles and techniques for working with materials in Houdini and was developed for an artist with a basic understanding of Houdini's general terminology, user interface, and controls. Software required: Houdini 14.
Table of contents
- Setting up Your Workspace 8m
- The Render View Pane 9m
- Material Application 9m
- Multiple Shaders and the Material Node 8m
- The Clay Shader 7m
- Understanding the Diffuse Property 9m
- Adding a Color Map 5m
- The Mantra Surface Shader 7m
- Understanding Reflectivity 9m
- Using Base and Coat Reflections 7m
- Color Math and Coat Reflections 8m
- Creating Alien Skin 8m
- Subsurface Scattering and Displacement 10m
- Extra Image Planes (Render Passes) and Exr Files 6m