Tutorial
 
For many of you, the most difficult aspect of using Renderman with Houdini will be setting up both packages to properly. Those of you who have read the help files in Houdini, by now know that they are less than helpful. Lucky for you, the techniques that will follow are not only easy to understand, but are also much more efficient. I would like to express special thanks to Mathew Parrot and the rest of the gang for all of their patient assistance as I have been teaching myself the techniques presented in these pages.

 

Step 1

Install Cutter. Cutter is a freeware RML editor written by Malcolm Kesson. Not only is it very efficient, but it is also updated regularly. SCAD provides Professor Kesson with plenty of beta testers. Cutter and it's installation instruction can be found here.

 

Step 2

Once you have installed Cutter you will need to change a few settings. First you will need your Cutter .ini to point to the proper Houdini directories. First you will need to create a SHOP directory to store your stuff. Next place the directory location in the SHOP dir box. You can find this on the VFL tab in languages. Next you will need to input the VEX Docs Dir box and the Houdini bin box. These locations will vary from machine to machine, but will look something like this:

C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 7.0.231\houdini\vex\html

C:/Program Files/Side Effects Software/Houdini 7.0.231/bin

After you have all your settings in place, don't for get to hit the save VFL button

 

Step 3

The last step is to create a Houdini.bat file. This script is actully provided in Cutter. Click on templates, select .bat, and then click on setup_houdini_pathes.bat. Make sure the adresses listed match what you have and save the file. Use of this file will be discussed in Converting .slo to .otl.