Tech Art - Week13 - Final Project Description

Part I - Exceptions and JSON Input

This assignment is fairly straightforward. First, I need to map out the overall workflow (as shown in the figure), and then derive an accurate naming-format JSON from the UE5 Style Guide on GitHub. Since AI is a great tool, I just gave the link to GPT and had it compile the JSON file for me—let the AI handle the tedious grunt work to maximize efficiency. And also, to the custom rules,  It really should write back to the original JSON file, but for convenience during testing I wrote it to a new file instead. Also, since this assignment doesn't actually involve Houdini's API—it's all just Python—I wrote it directly in a PyCharm project (so the JSON file path is in the same directory as the code; I didn’t use an absolute path).

Json File

Part II. - Final Project Description

Project "What"

Integrate my self-hosted ComfyUI + Hunyuan3D into Houdini 19.5 to build a fast asset iteration pipeline: one-click generation → auto import → auto material hookup. In Houdini, a PySide2 panel lets me enter prompts or drop a reference image to remotely trigger a ComfyUI workflow that outputs GLB models and PNG textures, then automatically builds the network, creates materials, wires textures, and places the asset in the scene for concept and greybox stages. Remote invocation is supported: ComfyUI runs on a home workstation; the client pulls results over the network and adapts them in Houdini.

Project "Why"

• Faster ideation: compress idea to visual placeholder into minutes for greyboxing, previs, and style exploration.

• Less repetitive work: auto naming, auto materials, auto folder layout; no manual import or texture wiring.

• Reuse remote compute: heavy models run on a powerful home PC while the local machine handles interaction and import.

• Scalable: can extend to half-body → Z-remesh, batch placeholder props, or temporary bridges to Unreal.

Project "How"

Implement Plan

1. System Flow (high level)

1. Prepare img2img, txt2img, and text-to-3D workflows on the ComfyUI side (Hunyuan3D 2.x).

2. Submit jobs from the Houdini panel; ComfyUI queues and executes them.

3. When complete, the client downloads GLB/OBJ and textures.

4. Houdini automates: import model, create materials, wire textures, and place into the scene.

5. Save assets to the project folder.

4. Remote Networking

• Preferred: ZeroTier or Tailscale (private networking without router port-forwarding).

5. Technical Details and Challenges

• GLB texture embedding: if ComfyUI’s SaveGLB does not embed textures, either output OBJ/FBX with separate textures and rebuild materials in Houdini, or post-process glTF to reference textures.

• Scale and coordinate system: normalize units (meters/centimeters) and adjust the Up Axis during import.

• Stability: timeouts, aborted jobs, and JSON parse errors should surface in the UI with retry options.

• Version differences: support both Houdini 19.5 (PySide2 / Python 3.9) and Houdini 20.5 (PySide2 / Python 3.11).

Reference :
https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/270427440
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va8Jkc7o9d4&t=11s
https://github.com/comfyanonymous/ComfyUI/tree/master/script_examples
https://github.com/Tencent-Hunyuan/Hunyuan3D-2.1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpVsQG6-FM0&t=568s
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Ew411776J/?spm_id_from=333.1387.homepage.video_card.click&vd_source=6375d819a70068bc1dc42d8b1361e0ac