Grace VFX - Pattern Generation Tool

This is a procedural pattern generation tool inspired by Repper.app and its Metamorphosis feature. Built in Houdini's new COPs (Copernicus) context, it takes any input texture and generates a seamless, morphable pattern. The project served as my first deep dive into Copernicus, exploring node-based UV manipulation and procedural texture generation.

― Renders ―

Using generated pattern to drive different materials and displacement

Using generated pattern to punch alpha

― How it Works ―

This tool generates a patterned texture using any incoming texture. It can also "morph" the texture either by UV position or a custom mask.

Texture morphing by UV position

Texture morphing by custom mask

Texture variaty

― Development Process ―

While exploring Adobe After Effects' CC Kaleida effect, I discovered that its Starfish mode produces patterns that closely resemble those generated by Repper. Studying the relationship between CC Kaleida's parameters and the resulting patterns helped reverse engineer the pattens and reproduce it procedurally in Houdini.

This is a rough sketch of how the shapes are tiled into a pattern.

COPs node network. The setup goes through 4 steps (black boxes).

1. Generate two base triangles using SDFs and convert them into UV.

2. Transform the triangles to construct the base shape of the pattern.

3. Tile the base shape to generate the complete pattern.

4. Morph the tiled pattern using either UV position or a custom mask.

(Green box is for a debug visualizer)

Application exploration. Generated pattern can be assigned to any geometry with UV.