Solaris USD Assembly Kit

USD can feel overly complicated, and I know, it has discouraged many artists from diving in. But don’t worry, this kit is designed to make it simple. You’ll be able to explore real scene files that take you from asset authoring to lighting, showing just how powerful and straightforward Solaris can be.

In a nutshell, USD is a file system that allows you to save, access, and override data along the way—similar to how we work with layers in Photoshop. This is all well and good, but how do you actually build this functionality? That’s where this kit comes in handy. You can explore a practical USD build and workflow while researching the technicalities and features of this universal file system, giving you something concrete to compare and learn from.

This isn’t a deep dive into USD’s technicalities—you can find plenty of that online. Instead, it’s my personal journey of using Houdini and USD for assembly, covering look development, geometry manipulation, shading adjustments from published USD assets, scattering, and final rendering.

Perfect for Individual Freelancers and Hobbyists

This kit includes fully shaded assets and a lit scene, designed for those exploring USD workflows. It features detailed notes explaining the usage of nodes in the Solaris stage, making it easy to understand each setup. Once you know how authoring works in Houdini, you can expand the use of your asset across all other DCC packages that support USD.

What’s Included:

• USD Asset Authoring Scene – A bare-bones approach to USD authoring, covering geometry, payloads, render/proxy definitions, and materials in a single USD asset.
• Assembly & Lit Houdini Scene Files – These include embedded notes to guide you through the setup and assembly process.
• Light Setup with Textures – The lighting setup in this scene uses texture files for lights, including softboxes and fluorescent tubes, which are also included.
• Nuke Composition File – A Non-Commercial Nuke scene file to explore the composition of the final rendered image.

Source Files:

• Maya file – The organized scene where the set was put together (can be replicated in any CG package).
• Substance Painter files – Shading workflow for assets.
• ZBrush files – Source sculpt files for the alien and structure models.

Key Takeaways:

• Transforming geometry into fully functional USD assets using nodes like:
  • Primitive, Configure Primitive, setExtents, addVariant, setVariant, ConfigureLayer, Reference, LoftPayloadInfo, ExploreVariants, Collection, Instancer, Material Library, AssignMaterial, and Lights.
• Key workflow techniques for geometry manipulation and material edits post-published assets, useful during the assembly and lighting process using nodes like:
  • stageManager,Transforms, Copy and Transform, Instancer, Edit Material Network, Prune, and the lightMixer node throughout the graph for lighting manipulation.

Hands-on Learning Approach

This kit is not narrated and does not include video tutorials, but it provides detailed notes to help you explore the setups on your own. Break things, test different approaches, and refine your workflow—that’s the purpose of this product: to encourage hands-on exploration rather than just following a tutorial.

This pack is designed to give you a practical, structured way to understand USD in Solaris while keeping the process fun and creative. Whether you’re new to USD or looking for a clear, production-friendly approach, this kit will help you get started with confidence.