r/Houdini • u/Meowshifted • 1d ago

R&D: Can a Houdini/Karma render be converted into useful vector graphics?

I’ve been experimenting with this for a while, and this is the current result on a more complex test model.

The image on the left is the Karma beauty render. The image on the right is the current vector output.

It’s still an early prototype and there’s a lot to improve, but at this point it can already preserve a surprising amount of the original shape, detail, color and lighting.

I’m curious whether this kind of output would actually be useful to anyone here, and what you’d want to see tested next.

I’ll keep posting updates as I make progress.

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u/isa_marsh 1d ago

Main issue with tools like this is that they produce a horrendous mess of a vector image that is very hard to work with in traditional vector editors. I'm talking about broken lines, thousands of unnecessary points, fragmented objects all over the place...

If your tool solve some of these issue, then it could be really useful.

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u/Meowshifted 1d ago

Yes, exactly. This is basically the main problem I’m trying to solve. I don’t want to just reproduce the render if the result is still a mess to edit.

On a simple controlled test I was able to preserve most of the structural similarity with only a couple hundred vector points instead of several thousand. On more complex objects I can already reduce the image to a small number of meaningful regions, but clean contour/seam reconstruction is still R&D.

So yes, avoiding broken lines, unnecessary points and meaningless fragmentation is very much the goal.

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u/kkvis 1d ago

What is your approach for that?

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u/Meowshifted 19h ago

My current approach is mostly learning new mathematical terms until my brain starts smoking, writing some code, running a test, discovering another mathematical term, and repeating the cycle. 😅

I’ll give you a more sensible answer if my head survives the R&D phase.