Houdini Engine pipeline for Unity 3D

I just started working in a new studio as a Houdini Technical Artist. I was asked to help setup the art pipeline to Unity 3D with our developers. We decided to use SideFX Houdini as our main package with Houdini Engine directly into Unity 3D.

Both of the developers understood that Houdini was a program, neither of them understood what it could do for them. I decided to give them a crash course on how valuable Houdini Engine could be in our small studio.

One thing we decided on was a Version Control software that would best fit our needs. At the current moment we are using Unity Collaborate, which happens to be working very well. We have looked into Plastic SCM and are still deciding if that is something we would want to implement.

Now, back to the topic of this post.

A few notes about the setup. The artist machine is running Houdini FX and Houdini Engine. The developer machines are running Houdini Engine. All three computers are running Unity 3D. If you buy the Houdini FX commercial because your studio makes over $100k, then you must purchase Houdini FX commercial. That means you also have to purchase Houdini Engine for the artist machine. If you purchase Houdini Indie then you do not need to purchase Houdini Engine for the artist machine. Since it comes with the Houdini Indie version.

Once this was setup, we established a project with Unity Collaborate. This is important, since I would save my Houdini Digital Asset to the project directory. My folder structure was Assets->Art->hda. The hda was saved in the folder called hda and then uploaded via Collab. The developer was then able to pick up the hda and load into his scene using the Houdini Engine menu. Then the joy of using Houdini Engine begins.

Next Post is loading a Houdini Digital Asset and teaching the developers how to use the Houdini Curve Asset in Unity.