Houdini 21.0 Nodes Geometry nodes

Test Geometry: Otto geometry node

Creates Otto, a production quality test character.

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Since 21.0

This node provides Otto, a realistic, production quality male character complete with a biped rig and anatomically-correct muscle and bone geometry. You can use him as a starting point for creating your own human-like creatures and bipeds, and adding muscles and bones to your bipedal characters.

You can use a Topo Transfer SOP and the Test Geometry: Otto Muscle Transfer recipe to transfer Otto’s muscles and bones to your own bipedal characters.

The Test Geometry: Otto Muscle and Tissue Simulation recipe provides a custom muscle and tissue simulation setup which you can use on Otto or on any character whose muscles have been transferred from Otto.

An ML model trained on muscle and tissue quasi-static Otis simulation data is available to deform Otto’s skin.

Otto ships with high quality diffuse, roughness, SSS, bump, and displacement texture maps.

Note

The Otto geometry, textures, and ML model are loaded into this node from your SHFS folder, which is new with Houdini 21. For more information and troubleshooting, see SHFS.

Parameters

Rotate

Rotation of the geometry about its center.

Translate

Position of the center of the feet.

Uniform Scale

Uniform scaling.

Output

Geometry style for the first output.

Skin Surface

Externally visible geometry of the character such as skin, eyes, teeth, nails.

All Geometry

Output all geometry available for the character including both externally visible geometry and muscles, skeleton, and organs. The exact geometry to be output can be specified using the toggles that appear when in this mode.

APEX Scene

APEX scene containing the full character that can immediately be animated using an APEX Scene Animate SOP. With the Otto test geometry node selected and displayed, click Animate on the left toolbar. An APEX Scene Animate SOP is automatically placed in the network editor, and the animate state is entered into.

APEX Character

Full character with rig. To animate this character output, the character must first be added to an APEX scene using an APEX Scene Add Character SOP, which gives the character a name. After that, the scene must be piped into an APEX Scene Animate SOP, where animation can be performed in the animate state. See setting up for the animate state for more information.

Character Name

The name of the new packed folder that is created for the APEX Scene Output. The character elements from the Otto geometry are packed into this new folder.

Note

A .char extension is automatically added to the name of the new packed folder if none is specified in this parameter.

Level of Detail

The resolution of the output Skin Surface geometry.

Render

High resolution, render quality geometry.

Proxy

Lower resolution geometry, best for uses that require fast processing.

Add Material

When turned on, assigns the default MaterialX material with embedded texture maps.

Add Shorts

Output Otto’s shorts geometry with the Skin Surface.

Add Bone Capture Attribute

Outputs the boneCapture point deform on the geometry to allow for KineFX joint deformation. This attribute is automatically applied to APEX outputs.

Unpack

Unpack the geometry when the Output is All Geometry.

Packed Folder Contents

Allows you to choose which geometry you want output into packed folders for APEX Scene or APEX Character outputs.

Level of Detail

The resolution of the output APEX geometry for all non-simulation geometries.

Render

High resolution, render quality geometry.

Proxy

Lower resolution geometry, best for animating.

Note

Currently ML Deformation is only available on the Render LOD.

Skin Mesh

Output the externally visible geometry of the character such as skin, eyes, teeth, nails. This is packed into the Base.shp subfolder of the character folder. The resolution is determined by the Level of Detail.

Shorts Mesh

Outputs Otto’s shorts. This is packed into the Base.shp subfolder of the character folder. The resolution is determined by the Level of Detail.

Skeleton Mesh

Outputs Otto’s skeletal bone meshes. This is packed into the Base.shp subfolder of the character folder. The resolution is determined by the Level of Detail.

Organ Mesh

Outputs Otto’s organ geometry. This is packed into the Base.shp subfolder of the character folder. The resolution is determined by the Level of Detail.

Muscle Simulation Primitives

Outputs Otto’s muscle, skeleton, organs, and skin simulation meshes. These are packed into the SimMuscles.shp, SimSkeleton.shp, SimOrgans.shp and SimSkin.shp subfolders of the character folder, respectively. The resolution is predetermined and is not affected by the Level of Detail. The muscles come with a customised axialramp attribute which allow for accurate tendons, muscle ends, and muscle fiber direction initialization. This attribute is visible once the SimMuscles.shp subfolder is unpacked.

ML Deformation

Configure ML Deformation

Apply the pre-trained ML weights to either the output animation or to be used in an APEX Scene Animate SOP. Only affects the Skin Mesh.

Note

Currently ML Deformation is only available when Level of Detail is set to Render .

Configure Ragdoll

Configure Ragdoll

When Output is set to APEX Scene or APEX Character, turning on this option adds all the necessary ragdoll configurations so that the character can be used with the ragdoll tool in the animate state.

Ragdoll Character Name

When Configure Ragdoll is turned on, this is the name for the ragdoll character in the animate state ragdoll tool.

Limits Configure Attribute

The name of the configuration point attribute that stores the rotation and translation limits for the Ragdoll tool. These are calculated inside this SOP from an embedded joint limit MotionClip.

Configure FBIK

Configure FBIK

When Output is set to APEX Scene or APEX Character, turning on this option adds a full body IK configuration so that the character can be used with the full body IK tool in the animate state.

Joint Configuration Attribute

The name of the dictionary point attribute that stores the configurations for running a full-body inverse kinematics solver. These are configured inside this SOP.

Target Configuration Attribute

The name of the dictionary point attribute that stores the configurations of how the joint’s goal transform behaves in a full-body inverse kinematics solver. These are configured inside this SOP.

All Geometry Output Toggles

When Output is set to All Geometry the exact meshes to output can be set with the following toggles.

Render Geometry

Render Geometry

Allows you to quickly toggle the output of Render resolution meshes off or on.

Skin

Output the high resolution skin mesh.

Fingernails

Output the high resolution finger and toenails.

Eyes

Output the eyeballs, corneas, pupils, caruncles and tear ducts.

Mouth

Output the high resolution gums, gumline, teeth and tongue.

Skeleton

Output the high resolution, anatomically correct bones of the skeleton.

Organs

Output the high resolution internal organs, trachea and neck volume.

Shorts

Output the high resolution, double-sided shorts.

Simulation Geometry

Simulation Geometry

Allows you to quickly toggle the output of Simulation resolution meshes off or on.

Skin

Ouput the high resolution skin mesh, with the tissue group required for the Tissue Solidify Otis SOP. This group is visible once the geometry is unpacked.

Skeleton

Output the proxy bones of the skeleton, with the ribcage and spine simplified into single meshes to simplify and speed up collisions with muscles during the simulation.

Organs

Output the trachea and neck volume meshes for simulation.

Note

The neck volume intersects with muscles in the area and is not used in the Test Geometry: Otto Muscle and Tissue Simulation Recipe

Muscles

Output the simulation muscle geometry. The muscles come with a customised axialramp attribute which allow for accurate tendons, muscle ends, and muscle fiber direction initialization. This attribute is visible once the geometry is unpacked.

Proxy Geometry

Proxy Geometry

Allows you to quickly toggle the output of Proxy resolution meshes off or on.

Skin

Output the low resolution skin mesh.

Fingernails

Output the low resolution finger and toenails.

Eyes

Output the eyeballs, corneas, pupils, caruncles and tear ducts.

Mouth

Output the low resolution gums, gumline, teeth and tongue.

Skeleton

Output the low resolution, proxy bones of the skeleton, with the ribcage and spine simplified into single meshes.

Organs

Output the low resolution internal organs, trachea and neck volume.

Shorts

Output the low resolution, single-sided shorts.

Animation

Add Animation

Output animation on the third output. When Output is set to APEX Scene, the animation is applied to the first output too.

Animation

Embedded animation clip to output.

Body Builder

Otto showing off his muscles like a body builder for 170 frames.

Clip Parms

Output Motion Clip

Output a motion clip on the third output rather than a single pose.

A Motion Clip Evaluate SOP must be used to pick a specific pose for deformation; but this allows layering of the clip with other motion clip tools.

Frame

Frame to extract for the animation pose. Only valid when Output Motion Clip is disabled.

Outputs

Geometry

Otto geometry as determined by the various settings on this node. When Output is set to APEX Scene, this includes a rig that can be animated. When Output is set to APEX Character, this is a character that must first be added to a scene before it can be animated.

Capture Pose

KineFX rest skeleton.

Animated Pose

KineFX animated skeleton, provided Animation is enabled.

See also

Geometry nodes