Houdini 21.0 Character KineFX

Bone Deform

Adds bone deformation functionality to an APEX rig.

Since 20.0

This component adds a sop::bonedeform node to an APEX rig. See rigging a simple geometry and rigging a character for example uses of this component.

Parameters

Prefix

The prefix to add to the name of the sop::bonedeform node.

Name

The name of the sop::bonedeform node.

Settings

Method

Specifies the deformation method.

Linear

The standard and fastest method. However, artifacts can occur for twisting geometry between two bones, producing volume loss. To fix these artifacts, introduce additional bones to even out the deformation.

Dual Quaternion

Dual quaternion skinning is an alternate way of computing the deformation from bones. This method is better than the traditional Linear skinning for deforming twisting geometry and preventing volume loss. This is often used for body parts, such as a character’s shoulders.

Blend Dual Quaternion and Linear

Blends the deformation computed using the Linear and Dual Quaternion methods based on the point attribute specified in Blend Attribute. A blend attribute value of 0.0 uses the Linear skinning solution, a blend value of 1.0 uses the Dual Quaternion solution, and a blend value of 0.5 evenly mixes the two solutions.

From Input Geometry

The deformSkinMethod global attribute provides the skinning method, where the string value linear specifies Linear skinning, dualquat specifies Dual Quaternion skinning, and blenddualquat specifies Blend Dual Quaternion and Linear skinning. The deformDualQuaternionBlendAttrib global attribute also provides the Blend Attribute name.

Animated Skeleton

The skeleton that is deformed using a skel::SetPointTransforms node. This parameter is composed of the skel::SetPointTransforms node name and the skel::SetPointTransforms port that connects to the sop::bonedeform node, for example, pointtransform.geo. This parameter also accepts the APEX path pattern port syntax, for example, pointtransform:geo and pointtransform:geo[out]. If the [out] port is not specified, the first port is used.

Rest Skeleton

The name of the skeleton used to deform the geometry with the capture weights.

Promote Rest Skeleton

When turned on, promotes Rest Skeleton to the graph input node.

Rest Geo

The name of the geometry (with the capture weights) to deform (the capture mesh).

Promote Rest Geo

When turned on, promotes Rest Geo to the graph input node.

Output Geo

The name of the output geometry to display. This is usually the same as Rest Geo.

Promote Output Geo

When turned on, promotes Output Geo to the graph output node.

Delete Capture Attributes

When turned on, deletes the capture attributes on the geometry. The capture attributes are boneCapture, pCaptFrame, and pCaptSkelRoot. See skin capture for more information.

Use OpenCL

When turned on, enables GPU acceleration using OpenCL. When turned off, the CPU path is used.

See also

KineFX

Overview

Preparing character elements

Rigging with APEX graphs

Building rig graphs with APEX Script

Rigging with rig components

Animating in the viewport

SOP-based animation

Deformation

Animation retargeting

Pre-H20

Panes

Appendix