General Tips & Tricks for Houdini
- Sammy Lyu
- Jul 28, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 28, 2025
This section contains a collection of general tips and tricks for Houdini users, similar to a video game loading screen, you can use the search bar above to look for your specific topic
As of writing, my Houdini version is 20.5.614
Reference images for live action FX
When working with effects for a live action scene or object, get as many reference images from as many different angles as possible. This is so that you can use those references to create the most accurate 3D collision object for your effect. A good website that uses AI to create 3D objects from images is "Meshy.ai"
Using the viewport "PIN" function You can use the "PIN" at the top right of your viewport to make sure that it locks the current display to whatever level you are at. This is useful for example, when you want to view geometry node changes at the /obj level
Using Blur when transferring colour to create soft edges When transferring colour attributes between geometries, you can use ATTRIBUTE BLUR to create a softer falloff between the colours and migitate rough or sharp edges. This method will also work on points.
Clip or blast half the geometry during lookdev When dialling in the minor details in your FLIP or RBD simulations, there is no need to work on the entire geometry. To save time and PC performance, clip or blast away half the geometry and refine just half the simulation first to reduce cook time. Restore the other half when you have locked in a final look and want to cook the entire geometry.
Always double check values for POINTS and PRIMITIVES
Always check that youa re correctly running your values over points or primitives, this simple error can cause issues for your simulation because not every tool or function can work with points if it was designed for primitives.
A simple example is the GROUP sop, if the type is selected as primitive, a group cannot be created if the geometry is just a bunch of points, it has to also be a primitive.
Transferring LINE point velocity onto a geometry
Instead of adding velocity directly onto a geometry, you can use ATTRIBUTE TRANSFER to take the velocity from the points of a LINE sop and put it on a geometry.
This method allows us to control the direction of the velocity directly by transforming the coordinates of the LINE geometry itself.
Utilising attribute delete to clean up attributes after a simulation
NOTE: This is a repeat of #10 in the SOP guide, I believe it applies as a general tip too.
It is good practice after a simulation to do an ATTRIBUTE DELETE to make sure that things like the active attribute or velocity do not affect the latter stages of the simulation.
This is especially true for geometry to be used as COLLISION OBJECTS or geometry coming out of a DOPNET simulation.
Using $HIPNAME to reference caches and renders
You should always have a $HIPNAME reference when using file cache or rendering, either on the file name or as a $HIPNAME folder, to allow you to reference back to the file or version that you used.
Clamping the range of the FILE CACHE to avoid errors
When caching something that is not within the frame range of your project, you can set the option “NO GEOMETRY” for frames that were not cached on the file cache to avoid errors.
Similarly this can be done for the time shift sop.
Shortcut to clear errors on Houdini nodes (CTRL + C ) When there is a red alert or error on a node, you can press CTRL + C to clear the error without needing to re-simulate a network or solver.
Opening multiple ACTIVE flipbooks with sessions
The "FLIPBOOK SESSION LABEL" value can be changed to allow multiple active flipbooks to be opened, referenced and re-simulated as needed. It works in the same way as a name or path attribute.
Unlocking and editing node subnetworks
If you right-click and select “allow editing of contents” on a node, you can dive in and look at how the nodes were created and make edits accordingly.
Using STASH to embed assets to the HIP file
The STASH SOP can collect all data and compile it into the project file. Allowing you to send a single project file with embedded assets.
This only works with NON-ANIMATED data, as the stash SOP is designed to store data from a "single frame"
Using SWITCHER to switch cameras according to the frame sequence
Similar to how the switch sop works, the switcher takes inputs from multiple cameras and switch them according to the specified frame for each input.
Useful for rendering out one sequence of multiple cameras.
ALEMBIC SOP TO LOAD 3D ASSETS
Instead of importing an alembic archive, you can just use an alembic sop to load the file. This gives more control to what you are able to do with the asset.
Similarly, a FILE SOP, works just as well.
ANIMATING CAMERAS WITH A PARENT NULL
When you need to animate cameras, it is recommended to parent the camera to a null, transform that camera through world space using the NULL and do simple rotations on the camera itself. This is to seperate the translation and rotation of the camera and give the artist more control.
This concept is similar to transforming within the geometry node rather than on the /obj level.
Fixing LEAKS in COLLISION GEOMETRY with VDBs
When converting a polygon-based geometry into VDBs, you can sometimes get LEAKS that your simulation can fall through. This can be fixed using the double convert VDB trick:
Convert your initial polygon geometry into a VDB
Convert the VDB back into polygons
Convert the newly generated polygon back into VDBs
This should allow your geometry VDB to fuse into one piece and fix and crossovers or leaks you may have.
"ADAPTIVITY" setting when converting a VDB to polygons
To make a geometry more "efficient" when converting from VDB to polygons, you can turn up the adaptivity setting to reduce polygons in flat areas to reduce computational intensity in simulations. This is useful, for example, when you need to use a geometry as a collision in a heavy simulation and need as much free computational power as possible.
Shortcut to split pane between top and bottom
You can use CTRL + ] / CTRL + [ to split window panes either "top / bottom" or "left / right". This can be useful if you wanted two scene views open, or want both a scene view and geometry spreadsheet open at the same time. CTRL + ] = TOP / BOTTOM
CTRL + [ = LEFT / RIGHT