Raspberry Solution

Below is an image for my raspberry solution. It is not quite a raspberry, but the solution is there. Not perfect, but somewhat does what I was looking for.

Here’s a little walk though of what the VOP does:

1. fires a ray in the direction of the normal up to the distance specified by the user.
2. when a hit found in the range, get half of the distance to the hit point and insert value into Cd.
3. outside of VOP, smooth Cd values.
4. move points based on distance stored in Cd.

The idea behind this is to measure the distance to the closet object and move the points half way, assuming that the other object will move the other half, so they meet in the middle. Points that are closer to other objects, will move less then points that have bigger room to move. This of course, is not entirely accurate as I'm also smoothing the values and you can see some interpenetrations.

Amir

I couldn't resist a few minutes in Photoshop. Would almost be believable if we added a little SSS and hairs etc. Hope you don't mind Amir :)

Keith

The Raspberry Challenge

Dear THUG members,

Our next meeting is approaching and will be held at the same place (OverDraught Irish Pub) on Wednesday, March 21st, starting 7:00pm.

As mentioned before, it would be good to have an interesting technical Houdini challenge to chat about and give people enough time to experiment on their own, if they wish.

I'd like to setup the first one and people are more than welcome to think about other challenging ideas for the meetings to follow.

I'm sure there are multiple ways of (procedurally) achieving this, therefore this is a great way to challenge people to think and share their ideas.

If you have ever seen a raspberry:
(http://www.flameia.com/dtop/photos/raspberry-1600.jpg)

their individual parts (or whatever you call those things), are squashed against each other, forming the general shape.

If you were to populate a piece of geometry with another (it could be a bunch of spheres on a larger sphere or anything else), how would these squash and scale as if they're pressing on one another (as opposed to inter-penetrating)?

I've already come up with a prototype for one concept. I'd like to hear more ideas as mine is probably not the most efficient one.

Give it some thought and let's bring up ideas next week.

See you then,

Amir

THUG meeting this Wednesday February 21st

Hi Everyone,

This is to remind you all that this Wednesday, (February 21st), is the second Toronto Houdini User Group (THUG) meeting.

6:00pm at The OverDraught Irish Pub (www.theoverdraught.ca), 156 Front St West. Across the street from the SESI office. I've reserved us an area near the front door of the pub, (same as last time).

All the best, Jenny.

Hello THUG members!

Our Wednesday meeting was a great success. Here is a recap of our accomplishments:

• Drank beer.
• Talked.
• Drank more beer.
• Voted Jim Price President, (while he was out at the toilet).
• Voted Amir Shachar Vice President, (but he complained that he really wanted to be the President).
• Jim returned from the toilet, and mumbled that he didn't really want to be President, so we made Amir President. Jim took on the role of Secretary.
• Drank a few more beers.
• Voted Mario Marengo and Jim Price as the Agenda Committee.
• Jeff Higgins and Justin Ottley volunteered to present something at a SESI Technical Evenings, (and perhaps the next THUG meeting).
• Keith Acheson volunteered to create a blog/web site for our THUG discussions.
• Drank just a little bit more.
• We agreed to schedule our meeting once a month, on the 3rd Wednesday of each month.
• Jenny Blacklock agreed to book the Pub, and send out a reminder notice of the meetings.
• Went home.

Our next meeting will be February 21st. Our agenda committee will let us know what agenda to prepare for, (drinking?). I hope that our next meeting will draw in even more members, (to whom we can assign various jobs).

All the best,
Jenny