THUG Meeting Reminder

Dear THUG members,

This week's meeting will be held at yet a new location. The
reservation has been made for Wednesday August 20, 2008 (tomorrow)
from 6:30pm at The Duke of Westminster. Location details are below
and can also be found at this website link:
http://www.dukewest.ca/about/about.html

The Duke of Westminster...
77 Adelaide St. W. (First Canadian Place / 1rst floor concourse level)
Toronto, ON M5X 1A6
Phone: (416) 368-2761

We also have the option of a patio there -but unfortunately during the
summer no place will actually book reservations for patios. If you
cannot find us on the patio please come look inside -we'll be there.

See you soon,
FD

Hello THUG Members and on lookers!

Our last meeting at the new location (Duke of Devon -TD tower) drew more than a dozen THUG members -Fantastic! In light of this we will have our next meeting at the same new location with the patio for the August 20th gathering.

I would still like to arrange a little challenge with the other Houdini User Groups -so please before our next meeting in August share with me any thoughts or ideas so I can try to arrange prior to the meeting.

Don't forget that if you want to bring anything to the meetings to show and tell or to discuss with your fellow members -let me know and we will arrange for a computer to be there for you.

Once the cold weather starts again (sorry I hate to mention it but it is inevitable) we can find a place (which I already have) that has a big room and a projection screen that we'll be able to screen on.

That's it for now.
Thanks,
FD

New Location for this week's THUG meeting.

Dear THUG members,

Good news! We have found a NEW LOCATION with a PATIO for this Wednesday July 23rd's Toronto Houdini User Group meeting. The reservation has been made under the name "THUG" at the DUKE OF DEVON for 6:45pm.
The Duke Of Devon is located at: Toronto Dominion Centre, TD Tower, 66 Wellington Street West.
website for further info is: www.jollygoodfun.ca
We look forward to seeing you there!
PS: The patio is at first come first serve so if we are not sitting outside in the patio area when you arrive please don't forget to check inside for your fellow THUG members.
Cheers!
FD

Dear THUG Members,

This is a reminder that our Toronto Houdini User Group meeting is this
coming Wednesday June 18th beginning at 6:30pm. We have not found
another location (with a patio) for this summers' meetings yet, but
hopefully before our next months meeting (July 23) we should be
successful!

The location for this Wednesday remains at The Overdraught Irish Pub
at 156 Front Street West.

I look forward to seeing you there!

My apologize for the late reminder.

FD

LAST NIGHT'S GATHERING

For those of you who were not able to make it to the meeting last night –here is a brief:

There were 10 of us who showed up and all and all the evening went well.

We are very sad to see Andras (Kodiak) leave Toronto so soon, but are very happy for him with his new adventure in Sydney AU. We wish our new friend all the best!

I announced some plans on moving the THUG meetings to another locations with a patio --so we can enjoy the nice weather while we can this summer.

Great suggestions have been made to increase our presence and make the THUG gatherings more interesting:

1) We should do a “show and tell” –any of you who would like to bring in some file(s) to show, tell, and discuss with the members, please email me and I will arrange for the file(s) to be brought in on a laptop at the next meeting.

2) I will need your help to think of some challenges to present to our other international Houdini User Groups –I will then coordinate to ensure that we WIN…..I mean uh, that the other Houdini User Groups participate….THIS COULD BE BOTH CHALLENGING AND FUN TO DO AS A GROUP!

If you are not on my mailing list for updates via email regarding the THUG meetings, times, location, and reminders and would like to be, please feel free to email me directly at fdaigle5@gmail.com.

Hopefully you can put down your video game for 1 night and make it to the next meeting (Jim)! :)

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thanks a bunch,

FD

THUG meeting Wednesday MAY 21, 2008

THUG meeting Wednesday MAY 21, 2008

Dear THUG members,

Come on by to see your friends and/or meet some new ones at the Toronto Houdini User Group meeting this coming Wednesday May 21, 2008.

It will be held at The OverDraught Irish Pub (www.theoverdraught.ca) at 156 Front St West. We have a reservation starting at 6:30pm in the front area of the pub.

Hope to see you there!

Raspberry Solution

Below is an image for my raspberry solution. It is not quite a raspberry, but the solution is there. Not perfect, but somewhat does what I was looking for.

Here’s a little walk though of what the VOP does:

1. fires a ray in the direction of the normal up to the distance specified by the user.
2. when a hit found in the range, get half of the distance to the hit point and insert value into Cd.
3. outside of VOP, smooth Cd values.
4. move points based on distance stored in Cd.

The idea behind this is to measure the distance to the closet object and move the points half way, assuming that the other object will move the other half, so they meet in the middle. Points that are closer to other objects, will move less then points that have bigger room to move. This of course, is not entirely accurate as I'm also smoothing the values and you can see some interpenetrations.

Amir

I couldn't resist a few minutes in Photoshop. Would almost be believable if we added a little SSS and hairs etc. Hope you don't mind Amir :)

Keith

The Raspberry Challenge

Dear THUG members,

Our next meeting is approaching and will be held at the same place (OverDraught Irish Pub) on Wednesday, March 21st, starting 7:00pm.

As mentioned before, it would be good to have an interesting technical Houdini challenge to chat about and give people enough time to experiment on their own, if they wish.

I'd like to setup the first one and people are more than welcome to think about other challenging ideas for the meetings to follow.

I'm sure there are multiple ways of (procedurally) achieving this, therefore this is a great way to challenge people to think and share their ideas.

If you have ever seen a raspberry:
(http://www.flameia.com/dtop/photos/raspberry-1600.jpg)

their individual parts (or whatever you call those things), are squashed against each other, forming the general shape.

If you were to populate a piece of geometry with another (it could be a bunch of spheres on a larger sphere or anything else), how would these squash and scale as if they're pressing on one another (as opposed to inter-penetrating)?

I've already come up with a prototype for one concept. I'd like to hear more ideas as mine is probably not the most efficient one.

Give it some thought and let's bring up ideas next week.

See you then,

Amir

THUG meeting this Wednesday February 21st

Hi Everyone,

This is to remind you all that this Wednesday, (February 21st), is the second Toronto Houdini User Group (THUG) meeting.

6:00pm at The OverDraught Irish Pub (www.theoverdraught.ca), 156 Front St West. Across the street from the SESI office. I've reserved us an area near the front door of the pub, (same as last time).

All the best, Jenny.

Hello THUG members!

Our Wednesday meeting was a great success. Here is a recap of our accomplishments:

• Drank beer.
• Talked.
• Drank more beer.
• Voted Jim Price President, (while he was out at the toilet).
• Voted Amir Shachar Vice President, (but he complained that he really wanted to be the President).
• Jim returned from the toilet, and mumbled that he didn't really want to be President, so we made Amir President. Jim took on the role of Secretary.
• Drank a few more beers.
• Voted Mario Marengo and Jim Price as the Agenda Committee.
• Jeff Higgins and Justin Ottley volunteered to present something at a SESI Technical Evenings, (and perhaps the next THUG meeting).
• Keith Acheson volunteered to create a blog/web site for our THUG discussions.
• Drank just a little bit more.
• We agreed to schedule our meeting once a month, on the 3rd Wednesday of each month.
• Jenny Blacklock agreed to book the Pub, and send out a reminder notice of the meetings.
• Went home.

Our next meeting will be February 21st. Our agenda committee will let us know what agenda to prepare for, (drinking?). I hope that our next meeting will draw in even more members, (to whom we can assign various jobs).

All the best,
Jenny