What would be a good method for “auto aligning” 2 meshes? For instance, 2 hands meshes (with different polygon counts & vertices) but they still essentially look the same. Like the Hulk, Bruce Banner hand (or whatever) then morph into the Hulk's hand (more definition).

How can I pull this off, with a smooth alignment morph?

Thanks.

Quite a few different ways but the best way is to do a proper “hand-off” at a mid-way point of the blend.

Here's a rough workup. Nodes commented.

I'm assuming this would work with any like shaped mesh, but how similar do the 2 meshes have to be before it wouldn't work? Or does houdini just do its best to merge the 2?

(Bare with me. I'm new to houdini, I'm just getting started with the terminology). :?

ps.

Oh yeah. I'm hoping that this method only moves the vertices around and doesn't delete or remove them. Thoughts?

Thx

The closer the shapes are, the better the transfer will be. I built a pretty bad case with one hand being much higher res than the other. The closer the two hands are in terms of polygon size the better.

If you build a quick network like I did (just copy - paste the network I built from one hip file to another) then you can model away and instantly see how successful the transfer is. Once it is close enough, stop and move on.

The distance parameter is important to tweak.

The problem with geometry like hands is that the fingers pretty much have to travel through each other in order to work.

With heads the ears are tricky (if you care). Feet - toes. You get the idea. Just make sure the main features are close enough to work.

Thanks for that quick reply.

I am also considering morphing heads (and whole bodies), I'll just have to keep this in mind. For ears, would you say that smoothing (in another progam maybe), working with fewer polygons or even separating the specific areas of the ears is better to deal with?

I'm still wondering about the change in polygons (and vertices). Do I need to concern myself with this?

On another subject, how would you deal with hair (as splines) in Houdini? Is this possible?

Thoughts?

For ears, would you say that smoothing (in another progam maybe), working with fewer polygons or even separating the specific areas of the ears is better to deal with?

Yep. You obviously get it. The Attribute Transfer doesn't have to work on the actual geometry. You can distort both geometry inputs to get the best result, then use attribute copy SOPs, Point SOPs and Vertex SOPs to move the transferred attributes back on to the original geometry.

Most times close is good enough.

On a side note, Houdini has a strong sculpt SOP with a nice smooth option and Smooth SOP to work up the geometry. The Edit SOP also has a sculpt option as well.

I'm still wondering about the change in polygons (and vertices). Do I need to concern myself with this?

No. That is what Attribute Transfer is for.

On another subject, how would you deal with hair (as splines) in Houdini? Is this possible?

Houdini's fur tools work on surface attributes to build the hair either with the Fur SOP or the mantra Fur procedural. You can transfer attributes for fur the same way you transfer uv's on the skin.

You can also Attribute Transfer attributes from surfaces to curves (hair guides, whiskers, etc.). Attribute Transfer is quite forgiving.
For example you can use attribute transfer from a skin to curves to do surface detection and change the curve's behaviour and more.

Is this what you were after?

Thank you again, sir!

That pretty much answered my questions (for now anyways).

Next, I'm wondering about any of Houdini's scripting capabilities. What can you tell me about this?


:?

Lots!
There are two main languages to choose from:
Hscript
Python

Hscript is Houdini's own scripting language. It comes with the Textport. There is a command line tool called hscript that you can run in a shell and automate a lot of work such as command-line rendering.
Hscript is partnered with Expressions. Expressions are used directly in any node parameters and can be considered a part of Hscript.

Python is very well implemented in Houdini. It is Houdini's API. It also comes with it's own shell and you can run hython at the command line (just like python but automatically imports the hou module for you).

Look in the Help that comes with Houdini. Look for Hscript, Expressions and HOM. Lots of documentation and examples.

After opening the hip file shouldn't I see something?

See something? what aren't you seeing….

You should see a really crappy hand :wink: in the viewport and the sop level node network in the network viewer. If you don't then use the “g” key in the viewport to center the geometry and “h” key in the network view to home the node network.

I went to filepen to bring in the hip file and didn't see anything. Then looked at how other apps bring in stuff, then got stuck. So I looked up what a hip file was and finally found that it was a scene file that has some relationship with digital assets. Using the help system I was able see where I went wrong.

3dBuzz looks very good though.

Thanks guys.