Camera Proximity Toolkit for Houdini Indie

Make every shot lighter, cleaner, and render‑ready.

Calibrate particles and volumes, cull heavy geometry outside your camera frustum, and generate render‑perfect ocean grids — with three black‑boxed HDAs built for speed, simplicity, and production.

🎯 Why this toolkit

• Particles/dust invading the camera? Clip or attenuate them by distance.
• Slow sims from huge environments? Cull out‑of‑view geo and switch to VDB proxies.
• Wasting time with oversized ocean planes? Auto‑size grids to exactly what the camera sees.

Every tool is camera‑aware, updates per‑frame, and keeps your scene lean in viewport and render.

🔧 What’s inside

1) Calibrator HDA

Camera‑driven attribute control for particles & volumes

• Dynamic controls – remap, ramp, or clamp any attribute/field by camera distance (e.g., pscale, density, emit, opacity).
• Camera‑based clipping – set near/far clip bands per‑input or globally to fade, kill, or isolate content.
• Works with animated cameras – evaluates per‑frame for robust results in moving shots.
• Per‑input overrides – choose global settings or custom clips per stream/VDB.
• Friendly previews – in‑viewport guides for quick dialing.

Use cases: fade dust near lens, thin out particle counts close to camera, reduce VDB density at distance, isolate hero volumes inside a focus band.

2) Set Culling

Cull out‑of‑frustum geometry & make fast collision proxies

• Frustum culling – keep only what’s in frame; optional margin/padding.
• Auto VDB conversion – generate lightweight SDF proxies for collisions and lookdev.
• Scene trimming – instantly reduce massive environments without sacrificing in‑frame detail.
• Collision‑ready – export proxies for faster sims.

Use cases: trim city/forest sets to camera view, convert high‑poly assets to VDB for collisions, accelerate layout & FX iteration.

3) Ocean Plane Generator

Camera‑sized ocean surfaces that render fast

• Frustum‑aligned grid – covers only what the camera sees (with padding controls).
• Adaptive resolution – match grid density to shot scale and camera distance.
• Render‑friendly – no infinite planes, fewer subdivisions, cleaner bounds.
• Works in Karma & Mantra – plug into your existing shading/FX workflow.

Use cases: hero‑frame ocean surface for plates or full‑CG, tight turnarounds where layout must be camera‑accurate.

🚀 Key benefits

• Save render time – remove particles/geo/grids you’ll never see.
• Boost performance – lighter caches and faster collisions.
• Production‑ready – tested with Houdini 21.0; camera‑aware by default.

✅ Compatibility & requirements

• Houdini: 21.0 (Indie/Apprentice).
• Renderers: Karma & Mantra supported out of the box.
• OS: Windows & Linux (tested); macOS not officially supported.
• Black‑boxed: HDAs are locked for stability.

FX/Studio users: Need a commercial license? Email support@chakshuvfx.com.

📦 What you get

• 3 HDAs: Calibrator, Set Culling, Ocean Plane Generator (black‑boxed)
• Example .hip files
• Quickstart guide (PDF)
• Package JSON for simple install

📥 Install (Packages)

1. Copy the provided .json to your $HOUDINI_USER_PREF_DIR/packages folder.
2. Restart Houdini.
3. Drop the HDAs from the tab menu and start calibrating/culling/generating.

🖥️ License types

• Houdini Indie/Apprentice: one‑time purchase.
• Houdini FX/Studio: contact support@chakshuvfx.com for studio pricing.

❓ FAQ

Does it work with animated cameras?
Yes. All tools evaluate every frame and react to camera motion.

Can I dive inside the nodes?
No. The HDAs are black‑boxed to keep them stable and easy to update.

Will it break my sim/rig scale?
Tools are scale‑aware; add padding where needed and preview with guides.

Can I use the culling outputs for collisions?
Yes. The Set Culling HDA can emit VDB SDFs for collisions/lookdev.

Does the ocean plane include shading?
It outputs a well‑sized surface; plug your preferred ocean shader/displacement.

Which attributes can the Calibrator control?
Any numeric attribute or volume field (common: pscale, density, emit, custom masks).

🧪 Best‑practice tips

• Add a small frustum padding for fast camera moves.
• Preview with low res first; crank resolution once framing is locked.
• Use per‑input overrides in Calibrator for hero vs background streams.
• Cache culled/converted outputs to keep scenes lightweight.

📣 Changelog

• Initial Indie/Apprentice release for Houdini 21.0.

🛠 Support

Questions or studio licensing: support@chakshuvfx.com