Houdini Importer

Compatibility

Houdini 19.5.534 and up (Windows or macOS)

Notes:

  • Houdini versions must be Python 3.9 and up builds
  • The Importer plugin should also work in Linux, however this has not been tested and is not officially supported.

Additional Requirements:

The material library is compatible with Mantra, Karma, and Redshift 3.5.15 & newer.

This is a Step by Step Install Guide, you can access the video guide from this link.

Installation

First download the GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter zip file from this link. Note that there is a separate version of Windows and macOS.

Extract the zip file.

Inside the zip file you will see the following

  • GreyscalegorillaHoudinImporter folder
  • GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter.json
  • Install.txt file (which has a link to our support page).

Installing files on Windows

On Windows, open up an explorer window and go to your Documents folder. (this should be your User>Document folder)

Inside the Documents folder you should see a Houdini folder for each version of Houdini that you have installed. IE houdini19.5

Inside that folder look for a "packages" folder. If one doesn't exist then please create it.

Copy the extracted contents of the zip file to the packages folder.

  • Copy GreyscalegorillaHoudinImporter to:
    • Documents\houdini19.5\packages\GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter
  • Copy GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter.json to:
    • Documents\houdini19.5\packages\GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter.json

Now open up the newly copied GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter.json file in a text editor.

You can do this by right clicking on the file and choosing "Open With->Notepad".

Edit the path of the GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter to point to the full file path location of the GreyscalegorillaHoudinImporter.

Making sure to change the "YourUser" to the name of your account on your machine. If your account name is Jake, and you are using Houdini19.5, it would look like the following (see below).

Once edited make sure to Save the file and close the editor.

{
	"enable" : true,
	"env":
	[
		{"GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter": "C:/Users/Jake/Documents/Houdini19.5/packages/GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter"},
		
		{"HOUDINI_PYTHONWARNINGS": "ignore"}
	],
	"path": "$GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter"
	
}

Installing files on macOS

On the mac, using the Finder, open up your Harddrive and navigate to the following location.

"/Users/YourUser/Library/Preferences/houdini/19.5"


Side note: If you don't see the Library folder it may be because it is hidden on your machine. To show the hidden folders you can do the following from within your account folder.

  1. Press Command + Shift + . (the period key). This will show hidden files in the folder.
  2. To hide the files again, press Command + Shift + . again.

Once you are in the correct folder (IE houdini/19.5), look for a packages folder. If one does not exist then please create it.

Copy the extracted contents of the zip file to the packages folder.

  • Copy GreyscalegorillaHoudinImporter to:
    • "~/Library/Preferences/houdini/19.5/packages/GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter"
  • Copy GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter.json to:
    • "~/Library/Preferences/houdini/19.5/packages/GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter.json"


By default the json file is setup for Houdini 19.5. If you have a later version of Houdini installed then you will need to edit the GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter.json file and change the version number from 19.5 to whatever version of Houdini that you may have.

{
	"enable" : true,
	"env":
	[
		{"GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter": "~/Library/Preferences/houdini/19.5/packages/GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter"},
		
		{"HOUDINI_PYTHONWARNINGS": "ignore"}
	],
		"path": "$GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter"
	
}

Installing files on Linux

Note: The Importer plugin should work in Linux, however this has not been tested and is not officially supported.

On Linux the HOUDINI_PATH could be the ~/houdiniX.Y/ directory (based on https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/basics/config_env.html#setting-environment-variables).


Add the Greyscalegorilla Shelf

After the plugin has been installed:

  1. Run Houdini.
  2. Press the [+] button at the end of the shelves tabs.

  1. Proceed to [Shelves 🞂] on the menu.
  2. Click on the [Greyscalegorilla] item to enable it:

A [Greyscalegorilla] shelf tab will appear right before the [+] button.

Usage

Press the "Import Material" button on the "Greyscalegorilla" shelf.

In the dialog that appears you can select a folder containing the unzipped contents of the zip file that was downloaded from the Product Catalog.

Note: When unzipping the files you should ensure it is unzipped into a folder, preferably using the same name as the zip file itself.


You will then be presented with a list of GSG materials found in the folder and all of its subfolders.

Check one, or more, of the materials that you wish to import.

Select the Renderer that you would like to use (Redshift, Karma or Mantra).

Now press the Import button.

Materials will be imported into Network Editor > Material Context.

/mat

Now you can select the imported GSG material to assign to any object in your scene and render.

Redshift Installation for Houdini

Follow the official instructions.

We are sharing Redshift sample config for .json file below. All you need to do is update it for your Houdini version number. 

{
    "enable" : true,
    "env": 
    [
        {"REDSHIFT_AUTOSPAREPARAMS" : "1"},
        {"REDSHIFT_RV_ALWAYSONTOP"  : "0"},
        {"REDSHIFT_RV_OPEN_ONLY"    : "1"},
        {"REDSHIFT_CPUAFFINITY"     : "10"},
        {
            "REDSHIFT_COREDATAPATH":
            {
                "value" : "C:/ProgramData/Redshift"
            },
            "REDSHIFT_LICENSEPATH" :
            [
                { "houdini_version >= '19.5.534'" : "$REDSHIFT_COREDATAPATH" },
            ], 
            
            "HOUDINI_PATH" :
            [
                { "houdini_version >= '19.5.534'" : "$REDSHIFT_COREDATAPATH/Plugins/Houdini/19.5.534" },
            ], 
            "PATH" :
            [
                { "houdini_version >= '19.5.534'" : "$REDSHIFT_COREDATAPATH/bin" },
            ],
            "PXR_PLUGINPATH_NAME" :
            [
                { "houdini_version >= '19.5.534'" : "$REDSHIFT_COREDATAPATH/Plugins/Solaris/19.5.534" },
            ], 
        }
    ]
}

Updating the Importer


When a new update for the Importer is released you will first need to remove the existing

"GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter" folder from the installation path. (keep the .json file)

After removing the previous version you can now follow the Installation steps again to install the new one. (just copy the "GreyscalegorillaHoudiniImporter" folder this time)

After installing you can run Houdini and use the new importer immediately.

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