Houdini - ShotGrid - Other pipeline tools

Houdini in our ShotGrid pipeline has two other nice features that you should be aware of. 

 Task templates 

 It's possible to create a Houdini file that will be loaded by default when an artist creates a new file in a given pipeline step. E.g. a clothing FX template gets automatically loaded in when you create your first file on a clothing FX task. Setting this up is easy, browse to your ShotGrid project on the Storage server and go to 00_pipeline -> houdini -> templates . Here you can add .hipnc files, they should have the same name as the pipeline step for which they should be automatically loaded, like this: 

 

 Pipeline step names can be found on the ShotGrid site. Be sure to replace a space with an underscore in the .hipnc file. 

 

 Project-specific HDAs 

 It's nice to have some custom HDAs that are automatically loaded for the project you're working on. To add an HDA to a project, browse to your ShotGrid project on the Storage server and go to 00_pipeline -> houdini -> otls . Here you can add your .hda files, like this: 

 

 OTL ( Operator Type Library) is  Houdini's technical term for its internal representation of a digital asset.