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Cameras - Arnold for Houdini

Further Reading
See also Cameras in the Arnold User Guide

Cameras used for HtoA are regular Houdini cameras with Arnold properties attached. Arnold properties can be added by selecting the camera and clicking Add Arnold Properties in the toolbar or Tab > Arnold > Add Arnold Properties in the network editor. The properties added are regular Houdini spare parameters and any that are Arnold specific are prefixed with ar_.

Arnold provides the following camera types:

  • Perspective
  • Orthographic
  • Spherical
  • Cylindrical
  • Fisheye
  • VR Camera

Most of the Houdini parameters are supported except for the ones listed below. Some of the Arnold Properties are only activated depending on Houdini Properties in the View tab. See the specific camera pages for more information.

View

For more information about these parameters see the Houdini documentation.

Background Image, Windows Mask and Crop Mask are not currently supported.

Sampling

Focus Distance is a channel referenced to Focus Distance in the Depth Of Field tab in the Arnold Camera properties.

Shutter Time is linked to Shutter Length in the Motion Blur tab of the Arnold ROP.

Bokeh controls are not used.

Camera Shader

Connect camera shaders such as custom cameras, ray distortion maps, or vignetting maps.

  • Install your custom camera shader
  • Create an Arnold Shader Network, and there, connect the camera shader to the Camera Output.

  • In the Camera Shader box, select the custom camera SHOP node.

Perspective

To use this camera set the 'Projection' to Perspective (default camera type). This camera node provides a perspective view, like a regular camera. This is the 'standard' camera type that you will probably use most often.

Orthographic

This camera node provides an orthographic view (no perspective, so objects do not decrease in size if they are further from the camera). To use this camera set 'Projection' to Orthographic.

Note:

You can see more information about cameras on the Camera Properties pages.

Spherical

This is a spherical camera which means that the camera lens has a spherical appearance. A common use of this camera projection is to allow the creation of environment maps (in spherical map format) for later use as reflection maps or for environment lighting.

To use this camera set the projection to Polar (panoramic)

Cylindrical

This camera node provides a cylindrical view, useful for creating panoramic views or 'lat-long' environment maps for later use as reflection maps or for environment lighting. To use this camera set the projection to Cylindrical (panoramic).

Fisheye

This camera node provides a fish-eye lens type view. The depth of field and aperture controls are similar to the standard perspective camera, but the fisheye camera also provides control over the field of view.

To use this camera, set the projection to Perspective and check Fisheye in the Arnold Tab

Fisheye Autocrop is activated when the camera Projection (In the View tab) is set to Perspective and Fisheye camera is enabled

VR Camera

The Houdini VR camera is translated to the native Arnold 5 vr_camera. An input is provided on the Camera Output VOP to optionally connect a merge shader.

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