I did start out with the simple toon rig and, don't get me wrong, it's a decent rig (which i learned a lot about houdini through) but it also avoids all the issues with a quality character rig by just not implementing any features that even the most basic of shots would require.
squash and stretch, hose limbs, intersection tests (self and prop), simple face shapes etc all pretty much require a skinned mesh and, coming from an xsi workflow, it's a huge step backwards to have to playblast everything on such a simple character I'm probably sounding overly negative but it's quite frustrating to be let loose with tools that are about as creative and open as anything i've ever had the pleasure to break only to be stymied by issues that shouldn't be there. it almost feels like it's bugged but it seems to be the same on prod build as it is on daily iv'e not touched the auto-rig btw (other than an initial poke around) contrary to the tone of my post, i'm actually really enjoying my time in houdini :) -- Jon Swindells jon_swinde...@fastmail.fm On Thu, Apr 24, 2014, at 04:19 PM, Jordi Bares wrote: > Well put Jon, it is true that the character rig Side Effects provide is > painfully slow when deforming but the issue is that it is trying to do > soooo much it is really sophisticated… and slow. > > I will suggest to play with a fast rig like this one to get a feel… it > won't be as fast as Maya, this is one of the few strong points of Maya > but it is good. > > http://www.orbolt.com/asset/SideFX::toonsimple > > And its a free asset so you can dig it and learn a lot from optimised > rigging in Houdini. > > > Jordi Bares > jordiba...@gmail.com > > On 24 Apr 2014, at 13:13, Jon Swindells <jon_swinde...@fastmail.fm> > wrote: > > > houdini's handling of transforms is about as good as it gets. > > > > by default, you will get a zeroed out transform on creation but this can > > be pushed back onto the stack > > as needed. > > > > you can also quite happily stack utility transforms ala xsiNulls too if > > that floats your boat. > > > > the real eye opener though, is when you realise you can pull a transform > > from anywhere, at any time, from any object > > and branch however you like. > > > > it really does make the awkward maya (and xsi to some extent) type > > workarounds painfully trivial. > > > > pre/post firing morphs are trivial, as is quat/angle based triggering of > > morphs. > > > > there are really only 2 downsides to houdini for rigging/character setup > > - > > > > deformations are painfully slow - on a production scale character, you > > will be segmenting your mesh (hello 2004) and using bog standard > > non-deforming parenting to get anything remotely approaching realtime > > feedback. > > even the dist based skin is slow as mollasses. > > > > if your animator is used to (and wants/needs) the niceties of char > > pickers or on char controls > > expect to spend lots of time with pyside/pyqt. > > > > of course, that is if you can find an animator who doesn't look at you > > like your insane for suggesting houdidni as a char anim platform. > > > > Jordi hinted at something coming down the pipe for anim/char setup so, > > there's hope for it yet. > > > > > > gimbal mode is there if you need it. > > > > -- > > Jon Swindells > > jon_swinde...@fastmail.fm > > > > On Thu, Apr 24, 2014, at 02:47 PM, David Saber wrote: > >> Cool! How about transforms on rig objects, how do you "zero out" control > >> objects? Is the object's coordinate relative to its parent, like in > >> XSI's "parent" translation mode? is there "add" mode for rotations? > >> > >> On 2014-04-24 13:23, Max Evgrafov wrote: > >>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7bRzijbsnA&feature=youtu.be > >>> completed the effect of collisions. (there are some bugs in the > >>> corners of obstacles. but I'm tired of doing this rig. :) > >>> > >>> Next step creating digital asset( I think it like model in XSI), Reach > >>> an understanding how working reference models in Houdini and then do > >>> animation. > >
