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I stopped making files and started making systems.
One Houdini scene, one switch: floral, stone, dragon. Every product drops into the same room, the same camera, the same light. The only thing that changes is where the switch points.
How do you handle variations, one scene or one file per product?
https://contra.com/p/cvXglUcM-product-film-retractable-shelving?r=oscar_romero_0l59be1e
These are amazing!
thanks Bella 🙌
The one-scene switch is such a smart way to keep the art direction consistent while letting each product feel distinct. Love how the shared camera and light turn variation into a system rather than a reset.
thanks Rohan, that's exactly the idea
the purple light looks so cool
thanks Benjamin, that one's actually my favorite too
One parametric system almost always wins long term even though the setup takes longer upfront. A file per product turns into duplicated work the moment a client wants a small tweak across the whole line. Did the retractable shelving need any custom rigging outside the base setup, or did one scene hold for all three materials?
one scene held for all three. the shelving only needed a very simple rig, one control that opens and closes it from the bottom, and every variation is parented to it
amazing
thanks!
One parametric scene wins every time once a client asks for a fourth variant, that's usually the moment a per-product file approach starts costing real hours. Does the switch just swap materials and geometry, or does lighting need any tweaking too when you flip between floral, stone and dragon?
the switch swaps the geometry, and it also flips the light preset. same light rig, but each variation has its own setup that switches with it, since every piece needs its own lighting to really stand out
Flipping the light preset along with the geometry is the detail that makes it feel like a real system instead of a reused base mesh. Did building it this way take longer upfront than just modeling each variant separately, or did it pay for itself by the second or third piece?
yes, the first one took longer. it came from a blender scene, so i rebuilt the materials in solaris/karma and the rig in houdini, a lot doesn't carry over cleanly. but once the floral one was set, stone and dragon were just caching the variant and pointing the switch, that's where it paid for itself
Having the light preset switch with the geometry is a nice detail. Reusable setup, but each material still gets its own lighting.
exactly, that's the point. the rig stays, the light adapts to each piece
one scene, one switch. that's the dream
right, that's the dream 🙌
Super cool work Ricardo, crazy visuals! 🙌
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