Houdini plugin

[Milan Kolar]

Hi everyone.

I'm currently in discussions about committing 2 separate tv show productions (52 and 13 episodes) to ftrack for the production tracking. 2 is most likely going to be done in nuke so that's a no brainer, however it looks like all 3d work will be done in Houdini. I can't say that we necessarily need a full on integration with all the little treats, however I'm wondering how much work would it be to implement at least a simple very basic integration. I should have time to contribute to the Coe during pre-production, potentially even write the whole thing, but coming from shotgun ecosystem I didn't have time to read through all the documentation on ftrack just yet.

So the real question is. Is Houdini on the roadmap within reasonable timeframe? ( both productions will be starting in about 8-9 months time, but preparations are running now). And if not, can you estimate how much work would it take to built custom integration in house (I'm absolutely willing to contribute back if that was the case, provided we'd at least get som good guidance).

Cheers

Milan

[jonathan-v]

Hello Milan,

 

We do all of our FX in Houdini and wanted to integrate ftrack as well.  We used the Maya and Nuke plugins as a template but built a full Houdini integration from scratch.  The whole toolset took about 3 days to build, couple of days of test dev and into production within a week. This includes an importer, asset manager, and custom pane that connects directly to the web interface.  This dashboard allows users to quickly access information of an asset/task directly inside of Houdini.  We found it to be more stable than the QT webview. 

In addition we made custom import nodes that were tagged manageable via the assetManager, and output rops to publish assets.  We found no hangups/restrictions with the API, and actually feel setting applications up with ftrack is quite straight forward and painless. 

 

Not very helpful, but thought I would share our experience.

 

JV

[Milan Kolar]

Thank you Jonathan, that is helpful indeed.

 

I presume you had full time dev staff at your disposal, which probably won't be our case, So I'll have to get my hands dirty, but it at least,it gives me confidence that when I dig into API, it shouldn't take long to built it (famous last words, perhaps?). 

 

What caught my interest more though are the custom nodes. Any chance I could sometime pick your brain about those? 

 

Cheers

[Mattias Seebergs]

Hi,

 

> Is Houdini on the roadmap within reasonable timeframe?

 

Houdini is on the roadmap but we do not have a timeframe yet. Should be this year but that may change depending on interest and maybe also how we can collaborate on the development.

 

> can you estimate how much work would it take to built custom integration in house

 

It should not be that difficult so you should have a simple integration up and running in quite a short time (as shared in previous reply, thanks Jonathan!). If you have any questions when developing with the API we are here to help you.

 

Let me know if you have any further questions.

[colorbleed]

On 3/4/2014 at 8:07 PM, jonathan-v said:

We do all of our FX in Houdini and wanted to integrate ftrack as well.  We used the Maya and Nuke plugins as a template but built a full Houdini integration from scratch.  The whole toolset took about 3 days to build, couple of days of test dev and into production within a week. This includes an importer, asset manager, and custom pane that connects directly to the web interface.  This dashboard allows users to quickly access information of an asset/task directly inside of Houdini.  We found it to be more stable than the QT webview. 

In addition we made custom import nodes that were tagged manageable via the assetManager, and output rops to publish assets.  We found no hangups/restrictions with the API, and actually feel setting applications up with ftrack is quite straight forward and painless. 

That sounds very promising. I haven't had much luck cherry-picking the ftrack connect widgets and use it in my own custom GUIs and alike. Would you be able to provide some more insight into how your setup works?

[Jason.Feng]

Hi guys, 

Any news on the Houdini integration? Our workflow is  working with 3ds Max and Houdini.

[Mattias Lagergren]

3 hours ago, fancyvfx said:

Hi guys, 

Any news on the Houdini integration? Our workflow is  working with 3ds Max and Houdini.

No news at the moment but we have it on our radar. We've created a public roadmap where you can vote up items that you're interested in. Here is a direct link to Houdini: https://trello.com/c/qFM5LLEN/29-houdini-integration

[varomix]

This is a must please add Houdini integration

 

thank you

[mikedatsik]

Hi guys, 

We use Ftrack in studio and love it, but our main package is Houdini. Now we use a very simple integration with Houdini software without assetManagment and I need a standard plugin integration as Maya and Nuke has.

I'm not a professional programmer, but have some TD experience with main VFX programs. I start my own Houdini integration as branch of ftrack nuke and maya plugin.

For now it has basic functionality and can publish and import limited data, but I'm working on it. Installing and developing simply the same as ftrack team maya and nuke open source packages. 

It open for everyone and if somebody want to help, please welcome!

If Ftrack Team have some throats, or even working prototype, it will be cool to be a part.

Repository: https://bitbucket.org/postmodern_dev/ftrack-connect-houdini

Help: http://ftrack-connect-houdini.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

P.s. I hope, I don't violate any rights.

Thanks!

[lorenzo.angeli]

Hi Thanks for this.

code wise is looking good, a nice port of the ftrack's connector concept

still having some issues due to qt/pyside, is it ok if I fork and have a look at potential fixes / improvements ?
(in case you'll have to change the permission for forking in the project )

Cheers.

L.

[mikedatsik]

Yes, sure!

I'm changed permissions and you can create new fork!

[lorenzo.angeli]

Thanks man !

testing it now

[Mattias Lagergren]

Good stuff postmodern! Really exciting to see this! :-)

We may contact you separately through email about the possibility to promote this integration.

Again, excellent to see this and that you're willing to share it in the open!

[Jason.Feng]

C:\Program Files\ftrack-connect-package\common.zip\requests\packages\urllib3\util\ssl_.py:318: SNIMissingWarning: An HTTPS request has been made, but the SNI (Subject Name Indication) extension to TLS is not available on this platform. This may cause the server to present an incorrect TLS certificate, which can cause validation failures. You can upgrade to a newer version of Python to solve this. For more information, see https://urllib3.readthedocs.io/en/latest/security.html#snimissingwarning.
C:\Program Files\ftrack-connect-package\common.zip\requests\packages\urllib3\util\ssl_.py:122: InsecurePlatformWarning: A true SSLContext object is not available. This prevents urllib3 from configuring SSL appropriately and may cause certain SSL connections to fail. You can upgrade to a newer version of Python to solve this. For more information, see https://urllib3.readthedocs.io/en/latest/security.html#insecureplatformwarning.
C:\Program Files\ftrack-connect-package\common.zip\requests\packages\urllib3\connectionpool.py:838: InsecureRequestWarning: Unverified HTTPS request is being made. Adding certificate verification is strongly advised. See: https://urllib3.readthedocs.io/en/latest/security.html
Error running pythonrc.py:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:/Program Files/ftrack-connect-package/resource/ftrack_connect_houdini/houdini_path/python2.7libs/pythonrc.py", line 56, in <module>
    setFrameRangeData()
  File "C:/Program Files/ftrack-connect-package/resource/ftrack_connect_houdini/houdini_path/python2.7libs/pythonrc.py", line 35, in setFrameRangeData
    handles = float(shot.get('handles'))
  File "C:\Program Files\ftrack-connect-package\common.zip\FTrackCore\api\ftobject.py", line 100, in get
    return self._getAttributeValue(key)
  File "C:\Program Files\ftrack-connect-package\common.zip\FTrackCore\api\ftobject.py", line 138, in _getAttributeValue
    raise FTrackError("Value ("+key+") not found on this object")
FTrackError: Value (handles) not found on this object

@ postmodern 

very thx!
I have some issus, but I don't know how to solve it.

[mikedatsik]

Hi fancyvfx!

The solution still in development. Thanks for your feedback. I think it will be beta version in coupe weeks. Anyway your error is because you don't have handles field(additional frames on start and end) on your shot. I fixed it, and now it's must working. Try download source code again and reinstall.
Cheers!

[Jason.Feng]

On 2016/11/27 at 7:20 AM, postmodern said:

Hi fancyvfx!

The solution still in development. Thanks for your feedback. I think it will be beta version in coupe weeks. Anyway your error is because you don't have handles field(additional frames on start and end) on your shot. I fixed it, and now it's must working. Try download source code again and reinstall.
Cheers!

thx!

[mikedatsik]

Hello, All!

I finished Base ftrack-connect-houdini plugin functions.

Now Houdini can work with Scene, Geometry, Camera Assets (Publish, Import, Management).

Feedback it please!

Repository: https://bitbucket.org/postmodern_dev/ftrack-connect-houdini
Help: http://ftrack-connect-houdini.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
Release Notes: http://ftrack-connect-houdini.readthedocs.io/en/latest/release/release_notes.html

Video:

https://vimeo.com/194510458

Thanks!

[tokejepsen]

Amazing stuff @postmodern! Will give it a test soon.

[WangHuan]

So Cool! @postmodern Will give it a test soon.

And wish to add HDA function(Publish, Import, Management).

[mikedatsik]

Hi, WangHuan!

HDA support is in my roadmap, thanks for interesting. 

[WangHuan]

Hi postmodern,

Glad to hear that,looking forward to hearing the good news!

Cheers!

[iwootten]

Hey - so postmodern's project no longer appears to be available on bitbucket. Is there any movement on ftrack planning on releasing an official houdini integration? It's the most upvoted idea on your roadmap and has been what - 3 and a half years now?

[lorenzo.angeli]

Hi guys, being a code hoarder as I am, I've been forking the project: 
https://bitbucket.org/efestolab/ftrack-connect-houdini

Note, for what I've seen this project requires some love, and might be breaking.
If you do fix stuff, please open PR and I'll be happy to review and merge them.
Cheers.
L.

P.s 

the original project seems still accessible at :
 https://bitbucket.org/mikedatsik_dev/ftrack-connect-houdini

[iwootten]

Ah, that's great - thanks lorenzo.

Is there any reason not to contribute back to the original developers project?

[mikedatsik]

Hi guys!

The project is not dead! The last half of the year there was a overloaded at work and there was no time for project. But I plan to continue, so I'm ready for any help.