Similar workflows are possible with the Arnold and RenderMan renderers, both of which are already available as Hydra render delegates for Solaris. Tangent’s integration also makes it possible to author Cycles material networks directly within Houdini, enabling users to edit existing Cycles materials during look development, or to create new ones. That means that a studio could create 3D assets in Blender, assemble them into a scene within Houdini, then export that scene back to Blender for rendering, ensuring that the assets display consistently throughout.Īccording to Skinner, it is currently possible to transfer meshes, lights, curves, materials and cameras. Support for Universal Scene Description is a current development focus in Blender itself, with USD export introduced in Blender 2.82 earlier this year.Īuthor Cycles materials directly within Houdini The implementation makes Cycles a render delegate within Hydra, the imaging framework in USD (Universal Scene Description), Pixar’s open-source scene-exchange format, on which Solaris is based. The work previewed by Skinner should help firms like Tangent that use both Blender and Houdini in their pipelines, making it possible to use Cycles as a viewport renderer within Solaris, Houdini’s look dev toolset.

Tangent Animation is one of the highest-profile studios using Blender in production, having used the open-source 3D software on projects like Annie Award-nominated Netflix animated feature Next Gen.

Working towards a unified Blender-Houdini production pipeline The integration work, which has not yet been released publicly, should also enable Cycles to run within the viewport of any other DCC application that supports Hydra render delegates. The work looks set to improve interoperability between the two applications, helping studios to create assets within Blender, then use Houdini’s Solaris look dev toolset to assemble them into production scenes. Tangent Animation technical director Ben Skinner has posted fascinating preview images of Blender’s Cycles renderer running as a Hydra render delegate within the Houdini viewport. Updated 25 August 2020: Tangent Animation has now released its hdCycles plugin.

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