Houdini 21.0 Nodes Geometry nodes

APEX Configure Character geometry node

Configures the character-level properties of an APEX character.

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Since 20.5

This node configures the properties of APEX characters. The properties are stored in the detail attribute on the character rig.

Parameters

Rig Path

The path of the rig to operate on.

Root Control

When turned on, this is an APEX path pattern that specifies the TransformObject node to tag as the root control. You should only tag a single TransformObject. This TransformObject node is used by the motion mixer and dynamic motion tool to define the root of the character. This joint is ignored when doing cycle blending.

Full Body IK

When Full Body IK is turned on, custom full body IK configuration names are added to the character rig.

Mapping Property Name

The name of the mapping property that maps joints on the skeleton to its driven controls. This property is stored in the properties dictionary on the APEX nodes in the Rig Path graph, and can be created by the APEX Map Character SOP.

Joint Configuration Name

The name of the joint configuration dictionary attribute used by the full body IK solver. This attribute is stored on the points of the skeleton geometry in Skeleton Path, and can be created by the Configure Joints SOP.

Target Configuration Name

The name of the target configuration dictionary attribute used by the full body IK solver. This attribute is stored on the points of the skeleton geometry in Skeleton Path, and can be created by the FBIK Configure Targets SOP.

Mirroring

When Mirroring is turned on, the mirror detail attributes are added to the character rig. See mirroring poses in the animate state for more information.

Rig Symmetry Plane

The plane that the rig is mirrored across. The mirroring operation in the animate state uses this to set the default mirror plane and compute the correct flipping of axes when mirroring controls.

Bind Multiple Configurations

When turned on, allows for multiple mirror patterns. When turned off, allows for only one mirror pattern.

Mirror Configurations

When Bind Multiple Configurations is turned on, this specifies the number of different mirror patterns.

Token Position

When turned on, the position in the control name to look for the patterns specified in Left Token and Right Token. The position depends on the naming scheme of the controls. For example:

  • If the control names follow a pattern like left_upperarm, set Token Position to Start.

  • If the control names follow a patterm like upperarm_left, set Token Position to End.

Left Token

The token on the left side of the rig that corresponds to the Right Token on the other side of the rig.

Right Token

The token on the right side of the rig that corresponds to the Left Token on the other side of the rig.

Motion Mixer

When Motion Mixer is turned on, tags are added to the character rig.

Controls

An APEX path pattern that specifies the TransformObject nodes to add the motionmixerctrl tag to. The motion mixer uses these TransformObject nodes for animation blending.

Cycle Controls

An APEX path pattern that specifies the TransformObject node to add the motionmixercycle tag to. You should only tag a single TransformObject node. The motionmixercyle TransformObject node is used by the motion mixer to compute the cycling offset transform.

Ragdoll

Defines a set of ragdoll configurations for a character. If this node is included in the animate state ragdoll setup, a ragdoll for the character is automatically created in the ragdoll tool.

Character Name

The name assigned to the ragdoll character.

Skeleton Path

The path to the rest skeleton geometry of the source character.

If the drop-down menu is set to Relative, the Skeleton Path is relative to the character in Rig Path. For example, if Rig Path is set to /mychar.char/Base.rig, and Skeleton Path is set to /Base.skel, the path to the rest skeleton geometry is /mychar.char/Base.skel.

If the drop-down menu is set to Absolute, the Skeleton Path is relative to the animation scene. In this case, set Skeleton Path to /mychar.char/Base.skel.

Collision Shapes Path

The path to the collision shapes geometry of the source character.

See Skeleton Path for more information about the drop-down menu options.

Skeleton Rig Output Path

The path to the skeleton output port of the rig graph in Rig Path.

The ragdoll tool in the animate state makes use of the source character’s updated skeleton, which is fetched from the character’s rig graph. For example, if Rig Path is set to /mychar.char/Base.rig, and Skeleton Rig Output Path is set to /output/Base.skel, this tells the ragdoll tool to look for the character’s updated skeleton geometry on the Base.skel port of the graph node named output in the /mychar.char/Base.rig graph.

Mapping Property Name

The name of the mapping property, defined at a previous step in the ragdoll setup using the APEX Map Character SOP. The mapping is stored in the properties dictionary on the APEX nodes in the Rig Path graph.

Limits Configuration Attribute Name

The name of the configuration point attribute, defined at a previous step in the ragdoll setup using the Configure Joint Limits SOP. The configuration attribute is stored on the points of the skeleton geometry in Skeleton Path.

Attributes

The character properties below are stored in the detail attribute on the character rig:

mirror_axis

A vector that describes the plane that the rig is mirrored across. The vector represents the normal vector of the plane. For example, if the rig is mirrored across the YZ plane, mirror_axis is set to [1,0,0].

The default axis is [1,0,0]:

"mirror_axis":[1,0,0]

mirror_pattern

A pattern that defines how the control names on the rig are mirrored. The pattern is stored in a dictionary with two keys - left_pattern and right_pattern. The default mirroring pattern is *_l and *_r:

"mirror_pattern":{
    "left_pattern":"*_l",
    "right_pattern":"*_r"
}

ragdollconfigurations

A dictionary that contains all the necessary data for creating a new ragdoll character in the animate state’s ragdoll tool. For example:

ragdollconfigurations:{
    "character_name":"Base_Ragdoll",
    "collisionshapes_path":"/RagdollCollision",
    "collisionshapes_path_is_relative":1,
    "configuration_attribute_name":"ragdoll_jointconfig",
    "mapping_property_name":"mapping",
    "skeleton_path":"/Base.skel",
    "skeleton_path_is_relative":1,
    "skeleton_rig_output_path":"/output/Base.skel"
}

fbikconfiguration

A dictionary that contains custom settings for using the animate state’s full body IK tool. For example:

fbikconfiguration:{
    "mapping_property_name":"mapping",
    "joint_config_name":"fbik_jointconfig",
    "target_config_name":"fbik_targetconfig"
}

Inputs

Scene/Character

The APEX scene or character geometry.

Outputs

Scene/Character

The APEX scene or character geometry with the updated properties.

See also

Geometry nodes