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Introduction to Operators - Arnold for Houdini

This short tutorial will cover how to use the Set Parameter, Collection, and Disable operators to change the lights and self-shadowing of some teapots and alter the shading of the sphere. The scene contains two lights casting shadows on three teapots and a sphere with a simple Utility shader assigned to it.

Tip:

Use the Ignore Operators flag in Diagnostics> Feature Overrides to check what the render looks like without any Operators.

The scene file can be downloaded here.

Collection

We will use the Collection operator to reference a selection. This can be used to avoid writing a selection multiple times (optional in this case).

  • Create a Collection operator containing two teapots. Under Selection add the following (we will apply a Set Parameter that will only affect these two teapots):

/obj/teapots_operators_FBX/Teapot001* or /obj/teapots_operators_FBX/Teapot002*

Teapot Collection

Set Parameter (Disable Self Shadows on the Teapots)

  • Create a Set Parameter. Create the following expression:
self_shadows=false

#the_teapots

Disable Light

We can turn off one of the lights by using the Disable operator.

  • Create a Disable operator and under Selection enter for the following Arnold light:
/obj/arnold_light1*

ArnoldLight001 disabled

Set Parameter: Sphere Utility Shader

Now we will change the Overlay Mode for the spheres Utility shader.

  • Assign a Utility shader to the sphere and rename it to the_utility.
  • Create another Set Parameter and under Expression enter the following:
overlay_mode="wire"
  • Under Selection enter the following:
/shop/the_utility/the_utility

Utility shader altered with Set Parameter

Final Operator Graph output

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