MotionCOPs

Ready-to-use tools for Houdini Copernicus, built in daily production by Bo-Ning Li.

Recent practical features

• Batch media paste — Ctrl+V images and videos straight into COPs. Details
• LUT grading — apply .cube LUTs and adjust their intensity. Example
• 2D → 3D volumes — stack animated images into volumes, with a CPU sparse VDB option.

Houdini 21 & 22 · Install MotionCOPs · Project page

Inside: organic growth · stylization · dithering & risograph · glitch · Kubelka-Munk color · SOP ↔ image bridges · time & caching utilities

Work made with MotionCOPs

MotionCOPs is built through production. Each piece below was made primarily with tools from the library; all visual work shown is my own. The toolkit and the images evolved together across commissioned installations, large-format screen work, and self-directed studies.

_{Edge-of-Chaos Fluid — the project cover and a key production study: a reusable Copernicus fluid system developed with MotionCOPs workflows.}

23.Springs / Granite Properties — MotionCOPs-driven image processing and procedural distortion for a permanent 8K installation.

OFFF Barcelona Screen — the fluid system adapted through MotionCOPs for a large-format façade projection.

_{Field study / GitHub banner — a panoramic simulation study developed with MotionCOPs field-processing tools.}

_{Fluid-field study — a finished image from the same production-tested Copernicus workflow.}

Contour study I — feedback, edge analysis, and repeated line structures generated in MotionCOPs.

Contour study II — a second parameter state from the same procedural system.

Toolkit at a glance

Supports Houdini 21 & 22. Jump to Installation.

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Showcase

Swirl

Growth Propagation

Generate organic spreading patterns — cellular growth, lightning, cracks, veins, and DLA-style structures. Supports directional fields and attractors for precise control. Inspired by Nick Taylor's Aelib, reimagined for COPs.

Ripple

GPU-based ripple simulation for water surfaces, shockwaves, and reactive wave patterns — driven by mc Ripple Solver directly inside the Copernicus network.

Analysis

Slope, occlusion, and SDF tools treat images as fields rather than pixels — useful for terrain-style studies, directional lighting, and fractal growth structures.

Pixel Sorting

GPU-accelerated pixel sorting for glitch art, flowing textures, and stylized transitions. Mask by luminance or custom input, with built-in growth animation.

Risograph

Instant risograph print aesthetic built on Kubelka-Munk color theory — real ink mixing, not RGB filters. Three modes: organic, halftone, or digital.

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Tool Catalog

Simulation & Growth

Growth Propagation · Reactiondiffusion Presets · Copernicus Solver (SOP)

Dithering & Stylization

Risograph · Halftone Dither · Ordered Dither · Noise Dither · Dither Mono · Pixel Sorting

Analysis & SDF

Gaussian Slope · Slope Visualize · Angle Quantize · Directional Occlusion · mc SDF Smooth Union

Image Distortion & FX

mc Blackhole Distort · mc Ripple · mc Ripple Solver · mc Velocity Anti-Grid

Point ↔ Layer Bridge

mc Mono to Points · mc Point to Density · mc Point to Shape · mc Point Velocity to Layer · mc Point Advect by Layer

Time & Caching

Time Shift · Frame Blend · Cache · mc TOP Image Cache

Utility

mc UV Adjust · mc Range Visualize · mc Flow Block Begin / End

Kubelka-Munk Color Science

RGB to KM · KM to RGB · KM Converter · KM Blend

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Installation

1. Download and extract the repository to any location
2. In your Houdini home directory (e.g. C:/Users/MY_USER/Documents/houdini22.0), create a packages folder if it doesn't exist
3. Copy MotionCOPs.json into packages/
4. Edit the JSON file — set the path to your MotionCOPs directory

See the Houdini docs for more on package files.

Paste images and videos into COPs

Copy files, then Ctrl+V in a COPs network; Ctrl+Z undoes the batch. See the media paste guide for details and checks.