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Shortest line between objects (Patreon)

Published:
2018-10-29 16:49:43
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Just a simple setup for creating a line between the two closest points on two input objects. Special thanks to David Kahl - davidkahl-vfx.com - for some help getting the VEX correct. :D

Scene file: www.bit.ly/ff_shortest_line

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Houdini - Shortest line between objects (scene file)

Just a simple setup for creating a line between the two closest points on two input objects. Special thanks to David Kahl - www.davidkahl-vfx.com - for some help getting the VEX correct. :D Scene file: www.patreon.com/posts/22372315 (open for non-patrons) * Support me on www.patreon.com/Farmfield for early access to these clips & scene files :) * Follow me on www.twitter.com/Farmfield for updates!

Comments

Anonymous

I originally thought about this for a "electric discharge between two objects" effect (which would have to be limited to or biased towards sharp edges for at least physically plausible results), so if someone is good enough to use it for something like this (or completely different), I'm really really interested in seeing what you come up with :) I'm still in SOP (and a bit of POP) world on my learning curve right now.

Anonymous
>>16722642

Actually, my plan was to use something like the gamedev measure curvature SOP or other means of using the mesh curvature to get those areas/points :) But nice idea, thanks :)

Farmfield
>>16722642

Yeah, in this case (for the original fracture I got and based the solution on) it felt like I wanted to simplify the shapes, then measure them - and it works great.

Anonymous

Any idea of how to make it not jump and blend smoothly? :)

Farmfield
>>17284286

Well, you could either scatter a shitload of points on the surface and connect those points or you could do a POP sim with a setup with two particles that has the chosen end points as goals, then just keep them on the surface with minpos().

Anonymous
>>17284286

Hmm, both options would still snap over the "caves" in concave objects. I believe some position smoothing would be needed. I've no idea how to approach it though. No idea YET:)