Itim Kongsakulvatanasook

Week 09 - Refine Lighting | Add Sound | Rendering

Feb 24 - Mar 02, 2026

Week 9 Review

Mentors Feedback and Suggestions

  • Particles are inconsistent across shots

  • Ensure backgrounds match across shots

  • Shot 1: Add motion blur to particles

  • Shot 1: Ground could be more colorful to balance the top lighting

  • Shot 2: left side too bright

  • Shot 3: Could use moodier lighting and feels dead before particles — consider adding an extra light

  • Shot 3: Improve integration between particles and the printed texture

  • Shot 3: Boost laser sound effects

  • Shot 3: Up-res wood texture and sdd bevels and bump detail

  • Shot 4: Would benefit from three-point lighting and subtle color

  • Shot 4: Refine particle shape, smoothness, and variation

  • Shot 4: too bright

  • Shot 4: Consider whether the final painting is necessary

    • Completed

    Team Tasks

  • Shot 1: Refine particles

  • Shot 3: Fix color and density of particles

  • Shot 3: Refine wood material and painting material

  • Shot 3: Printer Laser

  • Shot 1-4: Refined overall lighting

  • Render AOVs for all shots

  • Add motion vectors for particles

  • Lighting and Color adjustment

  • Add depth of field

    • Individual Tasks

  • Shot 3: Lighting on the particles

  • Shot 3: Refine the wood board model

  • Shot 3: Trim the beginning of the shot slightly

  • Shot 4: Add colored lights

  • Refine and add sound effects

    • To-Do Lists

    Team Tasks

  • Shot 3: Refine particles

  • Render AOVs

  • Lighting adjustment

    • Individual Tasks

  • Refine sounds

    • Fix USD and Animated Lights Intensity Issue

    Problem: When writing out USD and doing command line rendering (husk command), it used information from just the first frame of the lights that have been keyframed on attribute such as intensity. This resulted in no change of the value.

    Solution: Write a python script to force single frame render to make it recalculate the light value every frame

    Credit: https://deborahrfowler.com/HoudiniResources/Overview-CommandLineRenderingKarma

    Writing out USD file

    Save this python script in project folder, rename USD file and format to match your USD file then run "python NameOfThisPythonFile.py"

    Fix USD and Animated Texture (COP Net) Issue

    Problem: When writing out USD, it used information from just the first frame of the texture sequence, causing the animated texture to stop

    Solution: Write a python script in Houdini Solaris to force the USD to resample texture map every frame

    Credit: https://deborahrfowler.com/HoudiniResources/Overview-KarmaTexAnimated

    Writing out the texture map from COP Net

    Mask output

    Import the texture sequence to file node in MaterialX.

    Write python script to force the USD to resample texture map every frame. Change the filename in texture_path variable to match the texture sequence

    Export USD file

    Output

    Refine Lighting

    Add spill lighting in shot 1 with mesh lights

    Geometry setup for mesh lights

    Mesh lights setup in Solaris - in Geometry Light node, add path to the geometry to primitives path and change API Schema to Mesh Light API

    Lights in viewport

    Output

    Refine the lighting at beginning of shot 3

    Lights setup - use light linker to light specific object without affecting others

    Output