Hello,

I am very new to Houdini and I am trying to figure out how to “orient constrain”, so to speak, a piece of geometry so that it doesn't just look forward. I am basically trying to add a head to a growing snake body. I have the head geometry copied to a point, and I am using a Carve node to grow a snake-like body outward along the curve. Only issue is the head orientation stays pointing one direction. How can I get the head to look down the curve? I have linked a video of the issue.

Thanks in advance!

The video is not available.

Moin,

like Konstantin states, the video is unavailable - maybe you set it to private?

In general, one “standard” way of having geometry “look ahead” on a curve is to have a second locator/null/handle move along the same curve as the geometry, but slightly ahead (if you are using a percentage value for the current position of your geometry based on the timeline, you can grab that value and just add some arbitrary small value on top).
That way you have a goal for a “look at” constraint for your geometry.

One problem with this approach is, of course, that narrow turns can create problems, if the look-at-target is coming back at the geometry, passing it by too fast. But that's a) a layout question for the curve, b) a question for fine-tuning the offset between the two components on the curve and c) shot-dependent

I hope this helps. Let me know if I should make a video …

Marc

Gleep?

I mean, people, come on - it's getting frustrating to invest time into at least *trying* to answer if you keep talking into voids. At least have the decency to tell me to shut up!

Marc