Houdini Column Generator

Houdini Column Generator

Column generator that I have made. I wanted to make a stylised egyptian column.

The idea behind column generator node network:
1. Start with the tube and get the main height.
2. From circles extrude top and bottom part (with spline to affect shape)
3. Egyptian shape - group every other face and scale them.
4. Clip middle part on top and bottom so it does not intercect and waste uv space
5. fill any holes, define normals, clean geo
6. Creating lattice for flaring the column from a cube and deforming its centeral points (low flare and high flare)
7. Clean up the ngons.
8. Create uvs based on cylinder shape

HDA exposes several parameters to the user for affecting the column:
- Column Height. It affects both column as a single object, and position of the roof. It is connected to line along which the circle is sweeped.
- Bottom and top Part Cut Off% - affects the Y size of the bottom and top parts of the column
- Column faces - affects how round the column is
- Column Height subdivisions affect subdivs for height - connected to line for sweeping.
- Normals by angle - affects where the normals become hard on the whole object.
- Bottom part width and top part width affect how 'fat' the parts are.
- Top and bottom part subdivs and shape gradient
- Egyptian shape checkbox - try it out. It selects every other face and scales it. It works only on certain number of faces
- Flare - adds a dramatic flare to the column.