Model a bridge in Houdini || Beginner Tutorial

This video will show a basic approach on how to make a procedural bridge.
It will introduce you to the basics of Houdini and the procedural approaches it has.
Starting from a line (or any curve you have) it will create a bridge.
First thing to do is control the bridge shape by a ramp. This makes it easier for controlling and art directing the shape.
Next steps involve procedural modelling. Like using a sweep node so give the input curve basic geometry. From that geometry it can be extruded and then beveled to create planks or stone borders.
Also let's give the bridge some color by the Labs gradient node, it will look better and it is also nicer to work with.
A small finishing touch here is adding a basic support system. There are multiple approaches of doing this and here I took a simple approach so everyone can understand it.
Let me if this modelling is interested and I'm looking forward to make a couple more!
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:06 Curve and ramp control
01:04 Base sweeps
01:38 Create Border
03:29 Create Planks
04:01 Add colors
05:00 Side rail
06:12 Ramps control Demo
06:47 Add Support
09:19 Improve support
09:57 Chain node
10:31 Outro

[@Nabuuug]

For beginners, this thing is a mind-blown every 30 seconds

[@_kurohana]

Minor things not mentioned in the video: - If your line is not highlighted in red when creating the mask with the DistanceAlongGeometry node (0:30), you have to activate the "Show Handle" option in the scene view (hotkey: Enter) and select the node. - Use W in the Scene View to toggle the wireframe mode (like at 1:50) - Use SHIFT+S in the Network View to change the wiring style rounded/straight lines (see the difference in the video at 9:55 and 9:57)

[@saebr]

Thanks a lot Simon.... And yes please, definitely more of these tutorials. Highly appreciated.

[@DeekerActual]

More of these style video would be awesome thnx Simon!

[@andvfx]

Thats an awesome way to discover different modifiers without needing to go in to complicated vex. Very nice example and tutorial, thanks!

[@gabrielepardi5178]

Great introduction to houdini: straight to the point. Thanks

[@zgmg9263]

This was such a great introduction to Houdini. I'd love to see more of these starter videos, 10-20 minutes in length focusing building one world-building object at a time.

[@herbertengels2112]

Hope u make more procedural modelling tutorials :)

[@engiongames8749]

I love your tutorials, Simon!

[@JeremySeiner]

This was wonderful! Thank you Simon and yes I'd really enjoy seeing more of these tutorials!

[@KarelChytilArt]

Easy, simple and nice.

[@noskov5]

awesome, clean, and simple.Thank You, Simon!

[@starwarz8479]

Thanks Simon This is a great intro to procedural modeling!

[@jordanhwang]

Thank you for tutorial! I’m following along and I’d love to see more of these beginner tutorials

[@magneticanimalism7419]

Wow, thank you so much Simon, this is exactly the kind of modeling I am interested in learning. Completely awesome.

[@todayssteve]

This was really helpful thank you! I love to see more of these videos!! Keep up the content!!!

[@oLucasX]

Great video! Thanks for sharing!

[@heitoor]

Great tutorial, thank you!

[@veithnurtsch1069]

Thanks for this awesome Video!!! Wow!!!

[@koltscats]

informative, easy to follow, an all around great tutorial for beginner and advanced users. Thank you!

[@xxargunxx]

Thank you Simon, I'm really intimidated to learn Houdini and your lessons help me a lot.

[@dongxinjiang1770]

amazing tutorial！

[@AD-uf7cy]

Thank you very much for tutorials , I tried if we can use @scale = set(1, @mask, 1) in AttribWrangle2, and yes we can.

[@mrwhateverism]

I'm new to Houdini, but coming from Cinema4D. This is like a super concentrated knowledge bomb, thank you so much for putting this together and sharing your wisdom!

[@CGImagine]

Great work Simon!

[@RunTheTape]

You're an absolute master

[@antonypetrenko4458]

Thanks a lot Simon!

[@artadecram_9624]

remap in wrangle doesn't work in new version of houdini

[@weslley3dezao]

Maravilhoso, amei.

[@Eddy_Del_Lobo]

I followed this entire video as my intro to Houdini it took me 5 hours of pausing and unpausing, I'm not sure how to make the bridge into a game ready asset but I'd love to learn more!

[@JoaquinPeMM]

you are awesome dude, well explained tutorial!

[@sams_3d_stuff]

Thank you!

[@user-xe7hx7em1f]

It's awesome.

[@alexmouthon6806]

thanks for this tutorial bro

[@awesomedata8973]

This is good stuff! :) Maybe more about using grids and voxel cubes / faces / corners / instancing? -- Perhaps something akin to that Corridor level editor, but with multiple floors?

[@KaynCromnispher]

I'm wondering, is there a way to have a dynamic mask, that would read the height of a map and adjust the line accordingly?

[@NewOnTheSeen]

At the end of this you need to add a polysoup otherwise your generating meshes into Unreal that have split normals.

[@Cazaq]

A divide node also helps

[@NewOnTheSeen]

@@Cazaq divide won't actually fix the inherent issue that Houdini splits the normal up and exports that way. The polysoup basically deletes all that data and combines it

[@3D_Sven]

Since the color gradient dosen't seem to be supported anymore, what would you use instead?

[@PedroHenrique-mv6uu]

valeu simon, te amo

[@ArtVandelayInc]

We would love to see these procedural modelling videos for sure. You're doing a great job with your content to encourage us to learn Houdini. And Houdini always fascinates me. I got a question though. What do you think about Houdini's documentation? For example I'm not a fan of Unreal's docs. There are some areas that you simply can not find any information about. Like you spend hours and hours searching for any valuable information or all you do is trial and error blindly. I assume you would have a decent experience with Houdini's docs and tell us about it. Did you encounter any blind spots or found that the explanation about things are not helpful at all and whatnot? Because I think it's so helpful to have a go-to resource and learn things properly when you learning new things.

[@simonhoudini5074]

Thanks! For the docs I personally don’t use it that much, when I use the docs it is more for VEX or Python stuff to know what certain functions are doing. Which have been valuable. In general I Google most stuff and look on the forums like odforce or SideFX

[@Cazaq]

You should be presenting these tutorials smooth shaded (not flat shaded like here), as that is the way in which they will be seen by beginners in UE4/5, Blender, etc.

[@Oknto]

so.... Thanks,

[@magneticanimalism7419]

Is there a simple way to prevent the overlapping geometry at the ends after the polyextrude @2:18?

[@simonhoudini5074]

There are a couple ways , overall I recommend using the chain node I show at the end since that will give you more control and variation.

[@TheDeathoxide95]

so now if I want to curve this bridge along the z axis what would I do would I just input a curve modifier because that is not working, I added a draw curve modifier but its not what I wanted can someone help

[@djpowerwashing2964]

Nice, a bit too fast for me, but I will do my best to follow. Lol. As a suggestion: It would be good to get past just modeling but into exporting or even doing a simple render with each project. Thanks again.

[@zgmg9263]

I agree -- exports would be appreciated. Lighting might be a lot to ask but I think exports in the least are worth a few extra minutes.

[@spawn1411]

I don't know why so few people study Houdini in Russia, but it's very difficult to find friends with whom to share the experience. If you, like me, have just begun to study Houdini, then I will be very happy to join forces and together reach the top of the knowledge of this 3D software.

[@poladsaherart8355]

But color gradient node doesn't exist anymore... what do I do? HELP

[@jostimantatarigan7657]

how did you add the noise bevel since each border is 1 piece?

[@simonhoudini5074]

The trick is shown in another video. Look for “random bevel in Houdini”. It basically using attributes to set the bevel amount

[@christopher8116]

Is there not another way then using distanceAlongGeometry SOP ?

[@Al1987ac]

You can use a @P.y ramp in VEX or just lift the center point with Soft Transform.

[@arcase6]

pace is too fast. "First place a node then set the settings." No explanation as to which nodes, what settings and no pausing.

[@user-lo6nx6fo7i]

wasnt a Beginner ...