Houdini 19+ Renderman+ Aces CG
12/17/2021
Houdini + Renderman + Aces With the launch of Houdini 19 one of the first things we all ask is how to get Renderman on it, since it's free for noncommercial use it’s a must have in houdini. But it’s not as straightforward as we think , Renderman only supports a specific version of houdini 19 and it’s Python v2 , that’s it's not the latest standard . Let’s start with houdini We can’t download the default one, we need to go after the production builds.
So on the Houdini website look for the Python 2 version and look for the specific 19.0.383 , don’t be caught up in downloading 19.0.383 but using Python 3, that version won’t work with Renderman!
Install Renderman for pixar’s website
You will need to create a user if you don’t have one
Once finishing installing Houdini, and Renderman , go after the houdini.env file, it lives in C:\Users\”yourUser”\Documents\houdini19.0 Edit it in a text editor, and paste this at the end RMANTREE=C:\Program Files\Pixar\RenderManProServer-24.2 RFHTREE=C:\Program Files\Pixar\RenderManForHoudini-24.2 RMAN_PROCEDURALPATH=$RFHTREE\19.0.383\openvdb;& HOUDINI_PATH=$RFHTREE\19.0.383;& PATH=$RMANTREE\bin;& Launch houdini to see that everything is working If you have this extra section its all ready
Colour management
In order to get Aces we need to install the OCIO libs
You just need to download it and store in in an easy location for you to find like e.g
C:\OCIO
You can download the latest available from here:
https://github.com/ampas/OpenColorIO-Configs
Open Houdini.env again and add the following line with the config you used
OCIO=C:\OCIO\aces_1.1\config.ocio Your Houdini.env should look something like this
Launch houdini and check the colour settings ( Edit > colour settings)
The ocio profile should be there now.
So now in IT you should have the option to use ACEScg
Big big difference from using Srgb
Check the renderman video about Aces