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Calibrator Toolkit for Houdini Indie

Calibrator Toolkit for Houdini Indie

Make every shot lighter, cleaner, and render‑ready.
 
Calibrate particles and volumes, cull heavy sims outside your camera frustum, and generate render‑perfect particle simulations with black‑boxed HDAs built for speed, simplicity, and production.
 
🎯 Why this toolkit:
Particles/dust invading the camera? Clip or attenuate them by distance.Calibrator HDA
Every tool is camera‑aware, updates per‑frame, and keeps your scene lean in viewport and render.
 
🔧 What’s inside: Calibrator HDA
Camera‑driven attribute control for particles & volumes
 
  • Dynamic controls – remap, ramp, or clamp any attribute/field by camera distance (e.g., pscale, density, emit, opacity).
  • Camera‑based clipping – set near/far clip bands per‑input or globally to fade, kill, or isolate content.
  • Works with animated cameras – evaluates per‑frame for robust results in moving shots.
  • Per‑input overrides – choose global settings or custom clips per stream/VDB.
  • Friendly previews – in‑viewport guides for quick dialing.
 
Use cases: fade dust near lens, thin out particle counts close to camera, reduce VDB density at distance, isolate hero volumes inside a focus band.

  • 🚀 Key benefits

    • Save render time – remove particles/geo/grids you’ll never see.

    • Boost performance – lighter caches and faster collisions.

    • Production‑ready – tested with Houdini 21.0; camera‑aware by default.

  • ✅ Compatibility & requirements

    • Houdini: 21.0 (Indie/Apprentice).

    • Renderers: Karma & Mantra supported out of the box.

    • OS: Windows & Linux (tested); macOS not officially supported.

    • Black‑boxed: HDAs are locked for stability.

    FX/Studio users: Need a commercial license? Email support@chakshuvfx.com.

  • 📦 What you get

    • 1 HDAs: Calibrator (black‑boxed)

    • Example .hip files

    • Quickstart guide (PDF)

    • Package JSON for simple install

  • 📥 Install (Packages)

    • Copy the provided .json to your $HOUDINI_USER_PREF_DIR/packages folder.

    • Restart Houdini.

    • Drop the HDAs from the tab menu and start calibrating/culling/generating.

  • 🖥️ License types

    • Houdini Indie/Apprentice: one‑time purchase.

    • Houdini FX/Studio: contact support@chakshuvfx.com for studio pricing.

  • ❓ FAQ

    Does it work with animated cameras?
    Yes. All tools evaluate every frame and react to camera motion.

    Can I dive inside the nodes?
    No. The HDAs are black‑boxed to keep them stable and easy to update.

    Will it break my sim/rig scale?
    Tools are scale‑aware; add padding where needed and preview with guides.

    Can I use the culling outputs for collisions?
    Yes. The Set Culling HDA can emit VDB SDFs for collisions/lookdev.

    Does the ocean plane include shading?
    It outputs a well‑sized surface; plug your preferred ocean shader/displacement.

    Which attributes can the Calibrator control?
    Any numeric attribute or volume field (common: pscale, density, emit, custom masks).

  • 🧪 Best‑practice tips

    • Add a small frustum padding for fast camera moves.

    • Preview with low res first; crank resolution once framing is locked.

    • Use per‑input overrides in Calibrator for hero vs background streams.

    • Cache culled/converted outputs to keep scenes lightweight.

  • 📣 Changelog

    Initial Indie/Apprentice release for Houdini 21.0.

  • 🛠 Support

    Questions or studio licensing: support@chakshuvfx.com

$10.00Price
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