Introduction
My name is Youmna Sahab, I'm a Game Art student at Rubika Game in France, working on my master's degree and specializing in Houdini. I was introduced to Houdini at Rubika, but I knew that mastering the software meant saving a lot of time on big productions, so I went on and did my own projects. I learned it by trial and error, reading the documentation, and finding tutorials. There are a lot of resources out there, there's even a community Discord server where you can find and give help.
介绍
我的名字是Youmna Sahab，我是法国Rubika Game的游戏艺术学生，正在攻读硕士学位，专攻Houdini。我被介绍给Rubika的Houdini，但我知道掌握软件意味着在大型制作上节省大量时间，所以我继续做自己的项目。我通过反复试验，阅读文档和查找教程来学习它。那里有很多资源，甚至还有一个社区Discord服务器，您可以在其中找到并提供帮助。

The Foliage Tool
I got the idea of this tool while watching my friend going back and forth on a high poly leaf just to bake it as a texture. He’d place his leaves one by one, then size and rotate every one of them manually, and sometimes, if the silhouette wasn’t to his desire, he’d have to change their position and rotation all over again.

I wanted to help him out while testing my capabilities too. So, the challenge was to quickly make a tool he could easily use.
植物工具
当我看着我的朋友在高聚叶上来回走动时，我得到了这个工具的想法，只是为了把它烘烤成一种质地。他会一个接一个地放置他的叶子，然后手动调整每个叶子的大小和旋转，有时，如果剪影不符合他的愿望，他必须改变它们的位置并再次旋转。

我想在测试我的能力的同时帮助他。因此，挑战在于快速制作出一个他可以轻松使用的工具。

Planning the Tool
When building a tool, you should know what it’s supposed to do and how the person using it, your client, works. I had the chance to see my friend at work but I also asked other Foliage Artists how they would create a plant. From what I understood, they usually go from a simple leaf to a more complex one and add variations in between.
规划工具
在构建工具时，您应该知道它应该做什么以及使用它的人（您的客户）如何工作。我有机会看到我的朋友在工作，但我也问其他植物艺术家他们将如何创造植物。根据我的理解，它们通常从简单的叶子变成更复杂的叶子，并在两者之间添加变化。



Asking those questions helped me learn that I would have to use inputs for the leaves and that my tool should be reusable, like the Houdini Labs' Tree/Branch tool, for example.
提出这些问题帮助我了解到我必须使用叶子的输入，并且我的工具应该是可重用的，例如Houdini Labs的树/分支工具。

更多精彩图片 请登录

Before starting a tool, you should know what your client wants to have control over. It’s important because tools can change completely depending on the accessibility and parameters.

So, I dressed a list of all the parameters the artists could want and some that I thought would make the tool more flexible. It was important to give control over the scaling and orientation, especially the randomization of it. I’m currently testing it and fixing it depending on the feedback that I get. I want the tool to be comfortable to use. I’m giving it to someone, so they need to feel at ease with it. Here are all of the parameters:
在开始使用工具之前，您应该知道客户想要控制的内容。这很重要，因为工具可以根据可访问性和参数完全改变。

因此，我列出了艺术家可能想要的所有参数，以及我认为可以使工具更加灵活的参数。重要的是要控制缩放和方向，特别是它的随机化。我目前正在测试它并根据我得到的反馈进行修复。我希望该工具使用起来很舒适。我把它交给某人，所以他们需要对此感到放心。以下是所有参数：

更多精彩图片 请登录

Then, I researched more references to see how I can build the tool. I looked up and tested some pre-existing tools and learned the theory of how a plant grows.

Tool Design
The longest part was to prepare the points and their attributes, the information they hold for the leaf meshes to be copied on, and take those attributes. I started with the stem, storing the scale variation of every leaf compared to its position on the stem: it's powered by the Curve/Ramp parameter.
然后，我研究了更多的参考资料，看看如何构建这个工具。我查找并测试了一些预先存在的工具，并学习了植物如何生长的理论。

工具设计
最长的部分是准备点及其属性，它们为要复制的叶网格而持有的信息，并获取这些属性。我从茎开始，存储每片叶子的鳞片变化与其在茎上的位置相比：它由曲线/斜坡参数驱动。

更多精彩图片 请登录

Then, I wanted to have many leaves on the same stem, so I created a circle that would control that amount with the number of sides it had. I needed a way to have a natural orientation of the leaves when they’ll be "copied to points" on that circle, I controlled it with the Normal of each point.

My favorite thing in Houdini is to trick the computer: You don't need a master’s in programming for things to work well. I used an “Attribute Copy” to copy the normal of a cone-like object to my circle's points. Here's a small demonstration, I’ll use small cones to simulate the leaves so that the orientation is clear:
然后，我想在同一个茎上有很多叶子，所以我创建了一个圆圈，用它拥有的边的数量来控制这个数量。我需要一种方法来使叶子有一个自然的方向，当它们被“复制到那个圆圈上的点”时，我用每个点的法线来控制它。

在Houdini中，我最喜欢的事情是欺骗计算机：你不需要编程大师就能很好地工作。我使用“属性复制”将圆锥形对象的法线复制到我的圆圈点。这是一个小演示，我将使用小圆锥来模拟叶子，以便方向清晰：

更多精彩图片 请登录

Those circles were then copied to the stem line generated before. Then I added a bit of randomization with Attribute Randomize, in the scale and orientation of each point and exposed the parameters. The scale and orientation are given to whatever object is copied upon the points.
然后将这些圆圈复制到之前生成的干线。然后，我使用属性随机化在每个点的比例和方向中添加了一些随机化，并公开了参数。比例和方向被赋予在点上复制的任何对象。

更多精彩图片 请登录

To add more variety, I grouped my points to be able to use two different input meshes on the same stem and control them independently. To bend the leaves, I chose to do it on the leaf mesh before copying it and adding some randomness to the angle.

I recently added a feature to bend the leaves from an input curve using the Path Deform node and I want to work the tool a bit more with the feedback from the artists using it.
为了添加更多的多样性，我对我的点进行了分组，以便能够在同一个词干上使用两个不同的输入网格并独立控制它们。为了弯曲叶子，我选择在叶子网格上做，然后再复制它并为角度添加一些随机性。

我最近添加了一个功能，使用“路径变形”节点从输入曲线弯曲叶子，并且我想根据使用它的艺术家的反馈来更多地使用该工具。

更多精彩图片 请登录

更多精彩图片 请登录

Tips and Tricks
Houdini is renowned for being difficult to master but that doesn’t mean you have to be specialized in every aspect of the software, just choose what interests you and start with that.

Be curious and patient, it’s probably cliché to say but you can’t see progress in a week. Personally, I feel that this is true in any profession, we shouldn’t expect ourselves nor others to be professionals from the get-go. And anyway, if you’re stuck, the documentation is there for you and it’s pleasant to read. Plus, don’t hesitate to ask the community for help. If you’re open to learning, people will be open to teaching.
提示和技巧
Houdini以难以掌握而闻名，但这并不意味着您必须专注于软件的各个方面，只需选择您感兴趣的内容并从中开始即可。

保持好奇心和耐心，这可能是陈词滥调，但你无法在一周内看到进展。就个人而言，我觉得在任何职业中都是如此，我们不应该期望自己或其他人从一开始就成为专业人士。无论如何，如果您遇到困难，文档就在那里为您服务，阅读起来很愉快。另外，不要犹豫，向社区寻求帮助。如果你对学习持开放态度，人们就会对教学持开放态度。

Start small, a beginner mistake I made was working on a huge project for a long time. Working on small projects helps you learn how to work efficiently, how to concentrate your efforts on what’s important, and will make you face a variety of small problems you will learn to fix. If you do want to work on a big project though, know that you’ll probably finish it and want to start it over again because you’d have learned a lot along the way.

Comment and legend your tool, with colors/post its/groups/renaming, so when you come back on your tool a month from now you can still remember what you did, but also for other people to understand your train of thought if you ever share the file.
从小事做起，我犯的一个初学者错误是花了很长时间在一个巨大的项目上。从事小项目可以帮助你学习如何有效地工作，如何将精力集中在重要的事情上，并会让你面对各种小问题，你将学会解决。如果你确实想做一个大项目，要知道你可能会完成它，并希望重新开始，因为你会在这个过程中学到很多东西。

评论和图例你的工具，用颜色/发布它/组/重命名，所以当你一个月后回到你的工具上时，你仍然可以记住你做了什么，但也让其他人了解你的思路，如果你曾经分享过文件。

Introduction
My name is Youmna Sahab, I'm a Game Art student at Rubika Game in France, working on my master's degree and specializing in Houdini. I was introduced to Houdini at Rubika, but I knew that mastering the software meant saving a lot of time on big productions, so I went on and did my own projects. I learned it by trial and error, reading the documentation, and finding tutorials. There are a lot of resources out there, there's even a community Discord server where you can find and give help.
介绍
我的名字是Youmna Sahab，我是法国Rubika Game的游戏艺术学生，正在攻读硕士学位，专攻Houdini。我被介绍给Rubika的Houdini，但我知道掌握软件意味着在大型制作上节省大量时间，所以我继续做自己的项目。我通过反复试验，阅读文档和查找教程来学习它。那里有很多资源，甚至还有一个社区Discord服务器，您可以在其中找到并提供帮助。

The Foliage Tool
I got the idea of this tool while watching my friend going back and forth on a high poly leaf just to bake it as a texture. He’d place his leaves one by one, then size and rotate every one of them manually, and sometimes, if the silhouette wasn’t to his desire, he’d have to change their position and rotation all over again.

I wanted to help him out while testing my capabilities too. So, the challenge was to quickly make a tool he could easily use.
植物工具
当我看着我的朋友在高聚叶上来回走动时，我得到了这个工具的想法，只是为了把它烘烤成一种质地。他会一个接一个地放置他的叶子，然后手动调整每个叶子的大小和旋转，有时，如果剪影不符合他的愿望，他必须改变它们的位置并再次旋转。

我想在测试我的能力的同时帮助他。因此，挑战在于快速制作出一个他可以轻松使用的工具。

Planning the Tool
When building a tool, you should know what it’s supposed to do and how the person using it, your client, works. I had the chance to see my friend at work but I also asked other Foliage Artists how they would create a plant. From what I understood, they usually go from a simple leaf to a more complex one and add variations in between.
规划工具
在构建工具时，您应该知道它应该做什么以及使用它的人（您的客户）如何工作。我有机会看到我的朋友在工作，但我也问其他植物艺术家他们将如何创造植物。根据我的理解，它们通常从简单的叶子变成更复杂的叶子，并在两者之间添加变化。



Asking those questions helped me learn that I would have to use inputs for the leaves and that my tool should be reusable, like the Houdini Labs' Tree/Branch tool, for example.
提出这些问题帮助我了解到我必须使用叶子的输入，并且我的工具应该是可重用的，例如Houdini Labs的树/分支工具。

更多精彩图片 请登录

Before starting a tool, you should know what your client wants to have control over. It’s important because tools can change completely depending on the accessibility and parameters.

So, I dressed a list of all the parameters the artists could want and some that I thought would make the tool more flexible. It was important to give control over the scaling and orientation, especially the randomization of it. I’m currently testing it and fixing it depending on the feedback that I get. I want the tool to be comfortable to use. I’m giving it to someone, so they need to feel at ease with it. Here are all of the parameters:
在开始使用工具之前，您应该知道客户想要控制的内容。这很重要，因为工具可以根据可访问性和参数完全改变。

因此，我列出了艺术家可能想要的所有参数，以及我认为可以使工具更加灵活的参数。重要的是要控制缩放和方向，特别是它的随机化。我目前正在测试它并根据我得到的反馈进行修复。我希望该工具使用起来很舒适。我把它交给某人，所以他们需要对此感到放心。以下是所有参数：

更多精彩图片 请登录

Then, I researched more references to see how I can build the tool. I looked up and tested some pre-existing tools and learned the theory of how a plant grows.

Tool Design
The longest part was to prepare the points and their attributes, the information they hold for the leaf meshes to be copied on, and take those attributes. I started with the stem, storing the scale variation of every leaf compared to its position on the stem: it's powered by the Curve/Ramp parameter.
然后，我研究了更多的参考资料，看看如何构建这个工具。我查找并测试了一些预先存在的工具，并学习了植物如何生长的理论。

工具设计
最长的部分是准备点及其属性，它们为要复制的叶网格而持有的信息，并获取这些属性。我从茎开始，存储每片叶子的鳞片变化与其在茎上的位置相比：它由曲线/斜坡参数驱动。

更多精彩图片 请登录

Then, I wanted to have many leaves on the same stem, so I created a circle that would control that amount with the number of sides it had. I needed a way to have a natural orientation of the leaves when they’ll be "copied to points" on that circle, I controlled it with the Normal of each point.

My favorite thing in Houdini is to trick the computer: You don't need a master’s in programming for things to work well. I used an “Attribute Copy” to copy the normal of a cone-like object to my circle's points. Here's a small demonstration, I’ll use small cones to simulate the leaves so that the orientation is clear:
然后，我想在同一个茎上有很多叶子，所以我创建了一个圆圈，用它拥有的边的数量来控制这个数量。我需要一种方法来使叶子有一个自然的方向，当它们被“复制到那个圆圈上的点”时，我用每个点的法线来控制它。

在Houdini中，我最喜欢的事情是欺骗计算机：你不需要编程大师就能很好地工作。我使用“属性复制”将圆锥形对象的法线复制到我的圆圈点。这是一个小演示，我将使用小圆锥来模拟叶子，以便方向清晰：

更多精彩图片 请登录

Those circles were then copied to the stem line generated before. Then I added a bit of randomization with Attribute Randomize, in the scale and orientation of each point and exposed the parameters. The scale and orientation are given to whatever object is copied upon the points.
然后将这些圆圈复制到之前生成的干线。然后，我使用属性随机化在每个点的比例和方向中添加了一些随机化，并公开了参数。比例和方向被赋予在点上复制的任何对象。

更多精彩图片 请登录

To add more variety, I grouped my points to be able to use two different input meshes on the same stem and control them independently. To bend the leaves, I chose to do it on the leaf mesh before copying it and adding some randomness to the angle.

I recently added a feature to bend the leaves from an input curve using the Path Deform node and I want to work the tool a bit more with the feedback from the artists using it.
为了添加更多的多样性，我对我的点进行了分组，以便能够在同一个词干上使用两个不同的输入网格并独立控制它们。为了弯曲叶子，我选择在叶子网格上做，然后再复制它并为角度添加一些随机性。

我最近添加了一个功能，使用“路径变形”节点从输入曲线弯曲叶子，并且我想根据使用它的艺术家的反馈来更多地使用该工具。

更多精彩图片 请登录

更多精彩图片 请登录

Tips and Tricks
Houdini is renowned for being difficult to master but that doesn’t mean you have to be specialized in every aspect of the software, just choose what interests you and start with that.

Be curious and patient, it’s probably cliché to say but you can’t see progress in a week. Personally, I feel that this is true in any profession, we shouldn’t expect ourselves nor others to be professionals from the get-go. And anyway, if you’re stuck, the documentation is there for you and it’s pleasant to read. Plus, don’t hesitate to ask the community for help. If you’re open to learning, people will be open to teaching.
提示和技巧
Houdini以难以掌握而闻名，但这并不意味着您必须专注于软件的各个方面，只需选择您感兴趣的内容并从中开始即可。

保持好奇心和耐心，这可能是陈词滥调，但你无法在一周内看到进展。就个人而言，我觉得在任何职业中都是如此，我们不应该期望自己或其他人从一开始就成为专业人士。无论如何，如果您遇到困难，文档就在那里为您服务，阅读起来很愉快。另外，不要犹豫，向社区寻求帮助。如果你对学习持开放态度，人们就会对教学持开放态度。

Start small, a beginner mistake I made was working on a huge project for a long time. Working on small projects helps you learn how to work efficiently, how to concentrate your efforts on what’s important, and will make you face a variety of small problems you will learn to fix. If you do want to work on a big project though, know that you’ll probably finish it and want to start it over again because you’d have learned a lot along the way.

Comment and legend your tool, with colors/post its/groups/renaming, so when you come back on your tool a month from now you can still remember what you did, but also for other people to understand your train of thought if you ever share the file.
从小事做起，我犯的一个初学者错误是花了很长时间在一个巨大的项目上。从事小项目可以帮助你学习如何有效地工作，如何将精力集中在重要的事情上，并会让你面对各种小问题，你将学会解决。如果你确实想做一个大项目，要知道你可能会完成它，并希望重新开始，因为你会在这个过程中学到很多东西。

评论和图例你的工具，用颜色/发布它/组/重命名，所以当你一个月后回到你的工具上时，你仍然可以记住你做了什么，但也让其他人了解你的思路，如果你曾经分享过文件。