I'm trying to create a realtime puppeteering setup. I'm doing some very basic tests and running into a problem. I have a Master control object that gets moved around in realtime using the mouse device, a record node and an export node inside a Chop Network. I'm attaching target objects to the Master control object using a BlendPose node. Every time I toggle the export
flag on the Export node in my CHop net to have the mouse control the Master, I lose the relationship between Master and Targets. It's as if the BlendPose node is being bypassed. Any ideas? …or is this something that Houdini is not going to do very well (I'm trying to replace Motionbuilder, which is what I'm using now)

Attached is a very simple scene using two cubes to illustrate the point.
(move the master cube in a positive x direction to see the effect)

Thanks,
Jeff

The problem seems to be that the Fetch CHOP does some special handling for CHOP tracks so it gets fetched as geo1:tx instead of tx. I've fixed your file by using an Object CHOP instead (set to only cook at the current frame).

Thanks!
I'll check it out

FYI: The object level BlendPose tool in the Scene View pane uses Object CHOPs.

hmm… can't seem to open the scene. I keep getting a “memory allocation error probably due to insufficient memory”. No other programs open and I've restarted the machine.
Jeff

I tried downloading the attached file from the website and it opened up fine for me on Win64 10.0.249.3. The downloaded file size should be 65030 bytes, with a md5sum of 469285aec7fc9e10ee91e62085a10253.

I'll attach a .zip file. Maybe you'll have better luck with it.

still not opening.
I'm running 10.0.249.3 on XP32. It's a non-commercial version.

The file sizes match?

perfectly (65,030 bytes)

I'm not sure what the problem is then. Perhaps try downloading 10.0.249.5. I tried 10.0.249.5 on Win32 and it opened without problems too. In any case, you can just put down and Object CHOP yourself. On the Channel tab, set Channel Range to Current Frame. On the Object tab, set Target Object to /obj/Master and Compute to Position and Rotation. Now connect it to the first input of your BlendPose CHOP.

same result w/ 10.0.249.5

File won't open for some unkown reason. I can't even open my own version.
Anyway I got it working by following your instructions.
Thanks!
Jeff