Houdini - Material Wizard

Menu controlled shelf tool to import, build, arrange and setup materials in Houdini. Focused in ease of use and reusability across sessions (can always be edited).

Capacities

• Add/remove texture nodes for the most common texture types, while retaining the capacity to dynamically update their texture file
• Automatically connect the textures to the shader node, or correction node if present
• Add/remove the most common correction node for the particular type of texture (color correction or remap). Normal map node (“mtlxnormalmap”) comes by default
• Automatic dynamic conscious rearranging of the nodes in material network
• Apply the correct color space interpretation for the type of texture in a typical ACES configuration
• Apply the correct signature (float, color, vector3) for each texture
• Change the name of both the tool and the material subnet

Ease of use

• Dynamic rearranging of nodes. As they’re added or removed, they automatically adjust to have the shader node as their vertical axis
• Dynamic indentation of nodes. If the nodes are of the same class of texture (Coat, Coat color, Coat roughness) they’re grouped in a different horizontal level to either the texture node above or below
• Persistent usage beyond a session. You can open up a saved .hip with an active tool in it, and it will remain functional, as well as transferred to the next .hip you save it as
• Two ways of deleting the tool: either delete the tool using the built-in “delete” button, where all created nodes get erased, or manually delete the control node and keep all created nodes
• Change the name of both the material subnet and the control node through a built-in name text input
• Customize the default textures to be created whenever a new iteration of the tool is created
• Detailed documentation, help commentary on parameters and easy setup
• Works on both Karma Material Builder and generic USD Material X Builder
• Any supplementary correction node gets deleted when its input texture node does so

EXAMPLES IN GALLERY