Houdini 20.0 Nodes Geometry nodes

Labs Skinning Converter 2.0 geometry node

Skinning Converter is a SOP that can convert any non-changing topology deforming mesh sequence into a bone based animation.

Skinning Converter is a SOP that can convert any non-changing topology deforming mesh sequence into a bone based animation. This is an important conversion if you need to bring a certain animation to a Game Engine. Game engines typically don’t support vertex based animations, and require bones instead. https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/game-tools-skinning-converter/

Parameters

Static Primitives

This can be used to specify a group that should be separated from the animated geometry conversion. This will be added back to the result as static geometry.

Direct Conversion

Convert To Bones

This button will start the skinning conversion from animated geometry to bone based animation.

Frame Range To Bake

Allows you to set the frame range which needs to be converted.

Capturing Method

This menu allow you to pick the method used for calculating the skinning attributes. Biharmonic Capture typically has better results, but takes significantly longer to calculate.

Capture Frame

This sets the capture frame used to calculate the skinning weights on.

Max Bone Influences

This controls the maximum number of bone influences a vertex can have when using Proximity Capture.

Fast Tweaking

Enabling this toggle allows for the fast tweaking of the bone placement. This does not affect the final conversion in any way.

Uniform Placement

Num Bones

This controls the number of desired bones that should get generated.

Seed

This controls the seed for the internal scatter that is used to place the bones uniformly.

Influence Radius

This sets the maximum influence radius of the generated bones.

Adaptive Placement

Analysis Method

This controls the method used to determine where the bones should be placed.

Num Primary Bones

This controls how many primary bones the tool needs to generate in the most deforming regions.

Secondary Bones Scalar

This allows you to add some secondary bones that will fill the gaps left behind from the primary bones.

Error Visualization

Converted Output

This links to the generated skinning conversion on OBJ level. (Set automatically by the tool after conversion)

Error Method

This allows you to control what method is used for the error visualization. Accumulated will calculate the sum of the error over all frames, while Max Error will show you the maximum error found.

Accumulate E Tolerance

This scalar controls how much error you deem reasonable in the visualization.

Max E Tolerance

This scalar controls how much error you deem reasonable in the visualization.

Bias

The bias allows you to offset the visualization error.

Input Bones

Use Input Bones

When this toggle is on, any points fed into the secondary input will also generate bones.

Drawn Bones

Number of Strokes

This multiparm allows you to add additional bones to the conversion manually. To use this functionality, activate the tool handle and click on the geometry.

Geometry nodes