Forums Technical Discussion pulsating heartbeat action

pulsating heartbeat action

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profcondor
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Hi,

I'm looking into making an object expand and contract back to its original state as a heart would act when beating. The trick is that I want separate areas to expand and contract at slightly different times, and eventually be able to have control over the irregularity of the beat. Any ideas regarding this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks ladies and gents.

Cheers,

srgb
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goldfarb
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use bones…
or try the inflate SOP
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DrMuerte22
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you should try grouping the points for each part and just scaling them up and down for the pulse. you could key the scales using a keyed spare channel, which would also make it easier to manipulate.
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jjstanley
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I would use either an Edit or Inflate SOP to make both inflated and defalted shapes for each part and then the sequence blend to make it pulsate.
I have attached a sample file.

Attachments:
SB.hipnc (56.2 KB)

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profcondor
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Thanks for the help everyone, much appreciated! Thanks for the example file jjstanley, it looks like a great way to approach my task .
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jjstanley
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No problem. Depending on how you what you are needing in your animation you may want to look at using CHOPs as well. The attached file has no keyframes.

Attachments:
SB.hipnc (69.5 KB)

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profcondor
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Thanks jjstanley, I was going to start looking into using CHOPs tomorrow by going through Old School's blog tutorials (someone on odforce mentioned using CHOPs too), so you're example is perfectly timed . I had a quick scan through your example and it seems to be exactly what I am looking to use. I was wondering what format the audio files that one brings into CHOPs have to be in so that they can be used as you have used the default wave forms in your example. I have a .wav heartbeat that I want to test out with the blendshapes method you showed me, but when I plugged it in it didn't work. I'm guessing I have to convert it somehow?

Thanks for the help,

srgb
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jjstanley
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I have attached a file that is driven by an audio fiile. You will just need to relink the file in the File CHOP to your own file. I think pretty much any .wav file will work. You will need to tweak the nodes a bit as the type of sound and recording level will affect the outcome.

Attachments:
SB.hipnc (78.4 KB)

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profcondor
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howdy

So, with jjstanley's excellent help I've managed to put together a very simple ‘heart’ section with a pulsating movement that is driven by an actual heartbeat audio file.

I have a question regarding the audio: I have manipulated the audio wave within CHOPs, but I have no idea how to export it out as a new audio file so that I may be able to use it with the final rendered images. Any ideas?

I've attached the hip file for you to have a look if you want.
The .wav file can be obtained here: http://www.zshare.net/audio/2743575d30e13a/ [zshare.net]

Thanks all.

srgb

Attachments:
hbeat_test.hip (229.1 KB)

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old_school
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RMB on the CHOP that you want to write out the audio file from and choose the option “Save Data Channels”. Note that the CHOP should just have either a single mono channel or a pair of channels (stereo).

Just put a .wav extension (available as a default on the right hand down arrow menu) on the end to save a wave file in the pop-up or an .aiff audio if you wish.
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profcondor
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Thanks Jeff,

I am having some problems doing what you said on a linux (running 8.2.13). It didn't work for some reason. I've subsequently tried it on a friends machine (windows) running version 8.1 build 704.. and it worked.

The one thing I did notice when checking the outputted audio file (from the windows machine) was that it sounded horridly scratchy when played with windows media player, even though it sounds fine when playing in Houdini. Any idea why this might be happening?

Thanks,

srgb
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old_school
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This is an existing issue with saving .wav files out of Houdini.
The audio file suffers from aliasing issues. Loading back the saved .wav file in to CHOPs then compare to the original file will reveal the changes. The problem does not happen if you save out a .clip file but then only Houdini apps can play back the file.
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profcondor
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Ok, thanks for clearing that up.

I'm not sure if its a bug or not, but Houdini Master 8.2.13 on linux (ubuntu) doesn't give the .wav or .aiff options in the ‘Save Data Channels’ extension dropdown menu, Whereas on the windows run 8.1.704 it does. I'll post it in the ‘bugs’ related section to see what they say.

Thanks for the help ,

srgb
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old_school
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I already added a reference to this thread to the existing bug.
ID=24972
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profcondor
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Thanks jeff.
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