1.
Installing an OTL
Click the following to install
an OTL (Operator Type Library) into your current scene. This will
make a tool called Primitives available for you to work with. Normally
you would install an OTL by selecting
File > Install Operator Type Library.
2.
Use the Primitives Tool
In the Viewer
pane, press tab > primitives
then RMB-click
to accept. This places a Sphere in your scene. From the Operations
Control Bar, change the Shape
to Plane.Now
click-drag on the object's Length
and Width HUD
sliders to resize the plane.
A Digital Asset
can have controls such as the Shape menu and the HUD sliders set
up to simplify control at the Object level.
3.
Create another Primitive
Press q
to repeat the last operation. Another Primitive object is created.
Go to the object's Control
tab. This contains two new tabs named Shape and
Shading. Change the Shape
to Cone and
the Color to
Red.
4.
Go into the Operator
In the Network
pane, select the Primitives operation and press
i to go into
it. Here you find that you are in a subnetwork which contains a
shapes object and a shopnet. Select the shapes
object and go into it. Now you see the network that defines the
switching of the primitives.
In the Parameter
pane, the various parameters are grayed out. These parameters are
part of the operators network that were published up to the object
level by the asset's author. They are locked by default making it
easier to prevent artists from tinkering with the setup. In the
next lesson, you will learn how to access these parameters when
you need to update a custom operation.
Press the u
key until you go back up to the top of the network. You can now
build a scene with a few Primitive objects each with their own shape
and color.
5.
Get Help
In the Parameter
pane, you click on the question mark
[?] to call up the help for this operator. In
this case a fictitious Houdini Animation Company has created
a custom help panel with all parameters documented and even a custom
color. Information about the version number and date of the particular
tool are also posted to help communicate with team members.
This help is
created using html and, in this case, is a derivative of the code
used to build Houdini's own operator help pages. Later when you
create your own custom operation you will learn how to create help.
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