Eve: Out of the box Houdini Pipeline

Introduction

"Eve" is an out of the box VFX pipeline for Houdini application on Windows OS. It is a full CG oriented pipeline which can handle small tasks with just a few shots as well as huge projects like animation feature or TV series. Eve does not provide any particular solutions for any of CG techniques like modeling, rendering etc, its just allows to structure all necessary data storage and exchange. In other words, Eve is an abstract data management tool for your Houdini projects.

No matter how you would create your model, Eve will provide tools to save the scene, share results for the next pipeline steps, version and publish working files.

How to use Eve

Install necessary components. Clone this repository to a local drive and run Project Creator tool with createProject.bat. Select directory to hold the new project under Eve control, enter project name and press "Create New Project" button to build a folder structure with necessary data.

Create assets and shots in database with Project Manager tool and you ar ready to produce the CGI magic with Houdini!

Project Manager is a system which controls your pipeline data. It serves to replicate basic Shotgun functionality.

Check Eve tutorials for quick start.

Learning database

Attempt to make first steps with Houdini, Programming or Math? In addition to Eve specific materials, we have plenty of Houdini tutorials!

The best places to start with VEX and Python:

• VEX for artists
• Python for artists

Don't miss Programming basics if you don't have programming experience!

Applied Python in Houdini: Python snippets
Applied VEX: VEX snippets
Small solutions as a HIP files: HIP Examples

Current state

Supported OS: Windows

Working Tools:

• Create project: Build a folder structure for the new project with pipeline data and tools
• Save next version: Incremental save current scene
• Project Manager: "Shotgun" for free, assets and shots management tool.
• Create flipbook: Make a hardware render of shot camera and place it to a proper location with version control
• Render Farm: Render list of HIP files

History

"Eve" is an evolution of my VFX pipeline Animation DNA used to create our first Ukrainian 3D Animation film. The core logic remains the same, I just switch from Maya to Houdini. The developing was done during personal project creation, The Beauty music video: