3 years into the Houdini journey I realise I know zero about rigging in Houdini. I knew enough basics in XSI to rig some simple bits, mechanical bits as well as a basic rig in a character. Question is where do I start with Houdini now that KineFX is on the scene? Do I need to learn old style rigging first and then add KineFX to the mix? KineFX isn't yet a total replacement for old style rigging or am I incorrect?




cheers,

Andi.

Heads up, I am an absolute beginner with Houdini. I just started trying to understand the basics of rigging in Houdini this week.

Advantages of kinefx skeletons over object-level skeletons are discussed at the beginning of this article: https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/character/kinefx/skeletons.html [www.sidefx.com]


Most helpful and simple tutorial I have found so far is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm8Mnk3nQyU&ab_channel=Brundlethwaite [www.youtube.com]

Just a heads up, I am working in Houdini 19 and some SOPs used in the tutorial have changed:

- The Re-Orient Joints SOP doesn't seem to exist any more and has been replaced by Orient Joints : https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/sop/kinefx--orientjoints.html [www.sidefx.com]

- The Attach Control Geometry SOP node has been replaced by the Attach Joint Geometry SOP node : https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/sop/kinefx--attachjointgeo.html [www.sidefx.com]

- The Reparent Joints SOP has been renamed Parent Joints : https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/sop/kinefx--attachjointgeo.html [www.sidefx.com]

Have you looked at https://www.sidefx.com/learn/collections/rigging-series/ [www.sidefx.com] ?

Island
Have you looked at https://www.sidefx.com/learn/collections/rigging-series/ [www.sidefx.com] ?

It seems to use the old obj level rigging tho. Not KineFx.

More here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyyag6ACaTjcZrdHzfl-q4g/videos [www.youtube.com]

Thanks for the info everyone, I've started to go through the rigging series to get familiar with the old way of doing stuff before adding kineFX.


cheers,

A>

To be honest, I would skip the old way all together. KineFX is more powerful and the way forward in Houdini. The OBJ level rigging might have some uses in mechanical rigging perhaps, but for character related work I would not spend time on it.

I recommend the newer tutorial that sideFX released that goes in-depth on rigging using KineFX
https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/kinefx-rigging-fur-dude/ [www.sidefx.com]