Houdini 20.0 Nodes Geometry nodes

Character Blend Shape Channels geometry node

Creates node parameters and/or detail attributes on the character’s skeleton to drive its blend shapes.

On this page
Since 19.5

The node parameters/driver detail attributes are created from the blend shapes found on the inputs as follows: If the Mesh input is connected, it will be used as a reference and one entry will be created per unique blend shape name as stored in the blendshape_channel primitive attribute. If this input is not connected, the Skeleton will be used for this same purpose.

If the Mesh input is not connected, one entry will be created per unique attribute found in the clipchannels dictionary attribute. If the Skeleton input has no clipchannels attribute, an entry will be created for every float detail attribute.

If the unique blend shape found on the Mesh input already has a driver detail attribute on the Skeleton input, or if you only have the Skeleton input connected, you have the option to set the Blend value on the created entry from this driver attribute.

Parameters

Update from Input

Create an entry for each unique blend shape from the Mesh input, if connected, or from the Skeleton input otherwise. Opens a dialog with more options:

Blend Shapes

Select which blend shapes found on the inputs you want to create entries for. You can use group syntax, like for example Erik:test* that would select all blend shapes that start with Erik:test.

Update Values

Enable this option in order to set the Blend value for the selected Blend Shapes from the Skeleton input blend shape driver detail attribute, if present, at the current frame.

Update from Frame Range

Set the Blend value for the selected Blend Shapes from the Skeleton input blend shape driver detail attribute, if present, by baking it on each frame within the specified Frame Range. Useful if the driver detail attribute from the Skeleton input is animated and you want to copy that value over to the parameter instance for further modifications.

Clip Range

Read the frame range from the clipinfo detail attribute on the input geometry, or set a custom frame range.

Frame Range

The custom frame range to use to read the attribute values from, when Update from Frame Range is enabled. When Clip Range is set to Use clipinfo Detail Attribute, this parameter is disabled. Use the action button on this parameter to populate it with values from the clipinfo detail attribute, from the scene frame range or from the playback frame range.

Toggle Entries

Select node parameter instances, that have already been created, and toggle their Enable parameter.

Create Attributes from Mesh

Create driver detail attributes from the unique blend shapes found on the Mesh input without creating any parameter instances. Useful when you want to quickly create the driver attributes on the Skeleton for exporting.

Enable

Disabling this option for a specific entry will make it so that no changes will be applied to the detail attribute that corresponds to the current entry: if the attribute does not exist it will not be created, if it does exist, its blend value will not be set. It effectively acts like a muting option. Useful for seeing the blend value from the driver detail attribute on the Skeleton input, if it has one, without overwriting it. The Toggle Entries can be used to manage this option for multiple entries at once.

Name

The name of the driver detail attribute that will get created. You can use group syntax, like for example Erik:test* that would select all blend shapes that start with Erik:test.

Blend

The blend driver value for the corresponding detail attribute. A value of 0 means that the blend shape should not take effect, a valueof 1 means that the blend shape should take full effect.

Inputs

Skeleton

The input skeleton to create the blend shape driver detail attributes.

Mesh

The mesh that contains the blend shapes you want to initialize driver detail attributes for.

Outputs

Skeleton

The input skeleton with the blend shape driver detail attributes created.

See also

Geometry nodes