Deform surface node

Uses capture attributes created by Capture or Capture Proximity to deform outer geometry according to the movement of capture regions.

All Parameters Example files

See also: Capture, Capture Region, Capture Proximity

Tip

This node supports the character muscle/joint/etc. deformation workflow. To do a cage deformation of geometry, use the Lattice node.

Deform works in conjunction with a Capture or Capture Proximity operation and multiple Capture Regions. The Capture[Proximity] operation assigns capture weights to points on a geometry. Each of these weights refer to a Capture Region operation. As the Capture Region moves, Deform displaces the points on the geometry according to the point weights.

Typically one or more Capture Regions are placed in an object (usually a bone) and named “capture_region”. The object is then read into a Capture operation through the object’s hierarchy. The object is moved to deform the Capture operation’s geometry with a Deform operation.

Parameters

Group

Optional point and/or primitive groups to limit the points which are deformed.

Skeleton Path Root

Specifies the parent path to which all the capture regions embedded in the capture attributes are relative to. The pCaptSkelRoot detail attribute is used by default when this parameter is empty. If this parameter is non-empty, it overrides the pCaptSkelRoot detail attribute in the input geometry.

Delete Capture Attributes

Delete point capture attributes to lighten the geometry data.

Delete Point Colors

Delete point color attribute to lighten the geometry data.

Deform Normals

Deforms the point normals to match the deformation of the points.

Normalize Weights

Normalizes the weights for each capture point so that they sum to 1 for deformation.

Fast Deform

This accelerates the deformation speed when the input geometry is not animated by using cached values for the capture attributes and undeformed point positions.

Assume Only Coordinate Changes In Input

Modifies the fast deform algorithm to assume that only point positions need to be re-cached when the input geometry has changed. Unpredictable results will occur with this enabled if attributes or topology changes.

Deform Vector Attributes

Deforms the vector attributes to match the deformation of the points.

Vector Attributes

Vector attributes to deform.

Deform Quaternion Attributes

Deforms the quaternion attributes to match the deformation of the points.

Quaternion Attributes

Quaternion (Float[4]) attributes to deform.

Example files

PythonExpressionSopDeformer

$HFS/houdini/help/examples/nodes/sop/deform/PythonExpressionSopDeformer.otl

Load | Launch

This example shows how to use a simple python expression inside a SOP node to deform a grid. The expression imports a python math library and uses noise to deform the points of a grid.

Usages in other examples

Example name Example for