I'm just starting experimenting and since my experience with rigging is pretty low, I would like to make this project as public as possible. So anyone who likes to participate, welcome on board.
I guess the most difficult part is probably the wing, apart from achieving a rig which is convenient to animate.
Right now I stumble across two things mainly.
a) My current dummy feathers use curve points as origins. The curve is “attached” to the bones in a rather clumsy way. As soon as a bone changes its geometry there'll be errors since I import the bones by an OBJECT_MERGE and delete all points except the one I would like to constrain the curve to.
Is there an easier way to do this? In SI I would have thrown all the bones into a group and the get all position values and bone length values in the group to calculate the root and tip positions. Is there a way to do this in H? Or how would you constrain a curve to bones? If the curve consists just out of a few points it can be done manually, but if the curve got loads of points my method is definitely not convenient.
B) I checked a video in which somebody demonstrates a bird wing. It seems that the elbow joint doesn't work like in my rigging example (rotating in just one plane), but the the ulna/radius rotate around their length at around 90° if the elbow is rotated by 180°. Imagine a door fully opened (180° till it's closed) with just one joint in the middle. If you close the door it starts to rotate also around the joint in such a fashion that the door is in the same plane as the ground when it's totally closed.
Do I need to add another bone on top of the ulna/radius which rotates around this axis or can I rotate the bone by itself? Since it's an IK chain the manually entered rotation values don't have an effect (How can I display the rotation values of the bones? In their node panel there doesn't seem to be a settings which displays it).
Next steps would be to come up with a tendon which connects the wrist and shoulder, find the correct way to apply the feathers (does one need bones?) and shape the primary and secondary feather according to the wing shape.
So any help and participation is welcome.
Cheers
Tom
P.S.: Boneangle() works great to get the angle between two bones. Isn't there a Boneposition(), Bonerotation() and Bonelength() syntax???
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Technical Discussion » Bird rig
- TomMan
- 15 posts
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Technical Discussion » Laggy UI?
- TomMan
- 15 posts
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Since my experience with H16 so far is horrible in terms of usability (lags), I'd like to get some input on how to solve these issues. Starting H16 and trying to use the top menu already gives me the impression, that something is totally wrong. The menus don't highlight immediately, nor do the “realize” that the cursor is already above another menu.
The lagginess is although present in the node editor. Trying to choose a node or even get the node menu (tab) takes extra time.
I'm running windows 7, no PC is connected to the web. GPU drivers are up to date. In case I need any additional tools, please tell me which and where I find them.
P.S.: What is the Qt4 version for of H16? Is this the one to prefer? Or the one without the Qt4 support?
Cheers
Tom
The lagginess is although present in the node editor. Trying to choose a node or even get the node menu (tab) takes extra time.
I'm running windows 7, no PC is connected to the web. GPU drivers are up to date. In case I need any additional tools, please tell me which and where I find them.
P.S.: What is the Qt4 version for of H16? Is this the one to prefer? Or the one without the Qt4 support?
Cheers
Tom
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Creating flag
- TomMan
- 15 posts
- Offline
This thread is about two years old. “unfortunately” I need to create a flag on my own. I just did the Maya tutorial and I love the results. Since I don't want to use Maya and stick with Houdini's procedural approach, how can this be done?
I looked at the examples here, but can't say that I'm impressed. I played for about 3-4h with the cloth solver in H. It's simply a pain and looks horrible.
Some guys add odforum gave me some tips to use grain sheets, but now my flag just bounces like a piece of rubber, even worse than before. O.k.; I'm new to H, but well used to use ICE. So I guess there seems to be some mystery.
I attached both my scenes. But getting close to the Maya example, impossible. Maya simulates with around 8fps, H with 0.5-1.0fps. That's painful. Can't believe that this is still tricky to do, since the results look like the one's I got from Lightwave a decade before.
Any help is welcome!
Cheers
Tom
I looked at the examples here, but can't say that I'm impressed. I played for about 3-4h with the cloth solver in H. It's simply a pain and looks horrible.
Some guys add odforum gave me some tips to use grain sheets, but now my flag just bounces like a piece of rubber, even worse than before. O.k.; I'm new to H, but well used to use ICE. So I guess there seems to be some mystery.
I attached both my scenes. But getting close to the Maya example, impossible. Maya simulates with around 8fps, H with 0.5-1.0fps. That's painful. Can't believe that this is still tricky to do, since the results look like the one's I got from Lightwave a decade before.
Any help is welcome!
Cheers
Tom
Technical Discussion » .hip * files are grayed out in "open file" dialog
- TomMan
- 15 posts
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I can still type in the file names manually and load them, but hey, that's not like it is supposed to be.
Technical Discussion » .hip * files are grayed out in "open file" dialog
- TomMan
- 15 posts
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Did you find a solution? Same problem here. Can't load images or objects or even my Houdini files. With them there is a small trick. Enable “show sequence as one entry” and alter the name manually to the one of your file. This works with incremental files.
So, this is more than a problem.
So, this is more than a problem.
Work in Progress » Ice Cream | Viscosity WIP
- TomMan
- 15 posts
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Last update for today. Overall look is quite o.k., though the surface tension still affects the frozen particles and probably causes jitter in the melted particles. Apply particle separation is enabled this time.
https://vimeo.com/134353442 [vimeo.com]
https://vimeo.com/134353442 [vimeo.com]
Technical Discussion » Melt some ice cream
- TomMan
- 15 posts
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So, I got further. The simulation seems to get more “stable”. At least it looks more and more like something I would expect.
One point needs to be solved though. I'm using the gas tension in my flip solver. Seems that I'm close to a value that feels alright. One major issue: The surface tension seems to “override” the viscosity. The frozen parts start to form the same liquid/drop patterns like the areas of the ice which already have melted. So I need to combine the surface tension with the viscosity. How would I do this?
The viscosity was applied in my iceCream_particle object in a attribute vop. Since the visosity will be changing later on (via temperature) how do I apply the surface tension to the particles in the AutoDopNewtwork during the simulation? Practically?
One point needs to be solved though. I'm using the gas tension in my flip solver. Seems that I'm close to a value that feels alright. One major issue: The surface tension seems to “override” the viscosity. The frozen parts start to form the same liquid/drop patterns like the areas of the ice which already have melted. So I need to combine the surface tension with the viscosity. How would I do this?
The viscosity was applied in my iceCream_particle object in a attribute vop. Since the visosity will be changing later on (via temperature) how do I apply the surface tension to the particles in the AutoDopNewtwork during the simulation? Practically?
Technical Discussion » Melt some ice cream
- TomMan
- 15 posts
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Technical Discussion » Melt some ice cream
- TomMan
- 15 posts
- Offline
O.k., in another attempt I set the friction of the ground plane to .1 (before 1). The sim still looks the same. Initially the partciles which flow come to a sudden stop (on the ground plane) and approx. 100 frames later they start flowing away from the ice cream scoop.
It somehow feels like something related to friction or stickyness, but no idea where to change anything to alter this behaviour.
It somehow feels like something related to friction or stickyness, but no idea where to change anything to alter this behaviour.
Technical Discussion » Melt some ice cream
- TomMan
- 15 posts
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Mmmmh. My iceCream_partciles consists out of approx. 64.000 particles. The DOP import in iceCream_meshed tells me something about 360.000 particles (frame 5). At frame 10 it's 400.000. Where do all these extra points come from?
Can't figure out how to get the amount of particles in the AutoDopNetwork. Middle klicking doesn't give me any particle statistics, neither on the network itself, nor on any of the nodes inside.
I added $SF == 1 for creation frame in the flipfluidobject1. Didn't make a diverence.
Can't figure out how to get the amount of particles in the AutoDopNetwork. Middle klicking doesn't give me any particle statistics, neither on the network itself, nor on any of the nodes inside.
I added $SF == 1 for creation frame in the flipfluidobject1. Didn't make a diverence.
Technical Discussion » Melt some ice cream
- TomMan
- 15 posts
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So, here are the next tests. I thought that strange stop and go behaviour might be related to the friction and/or dynamic friction scale.
In both tests it seems that this is not the cause for this problem. It looks like some values are changing, but I couldn't find any.
Some help is more than welcome!!! Got stuck.
https://vimeo.com/134296167 [vimeo.com]
https://vimeo.com/134296168 [vimeo.com]
In both tests it seems that this is not the cause for this problem. It looks like some values are changing, but I couldn't find any.
Some help is more than welcome!!! Got stuck.
https://vimeo.com/134296167 [vimeo.com]
https://vimeo.com/134296168 [vimeo.com]
Technical Discussion » Melt some ice cream
- TomMan
- 15 posts
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Hi there,
this is my first flip simulation in Houdini, so I guess there are a lot of things which I might handled wrong, but there is still “some” space to improve the sim and my knowledge.
First of all, I want to melt some icecream. Right now I do have two different viscosity values applied to the sphere particles. This will be simulated later on, but for now it's fine with me for this test.
I managed to melt the sphere in some way, though it looks wrong over time. Sometimes the particles hardly move at all, then they seem to float away, though I can't recall to have changed any settings via keyframes. Also with tension applied the particles start to roll in a wheel like manner.
Since the outer particles “swim away”, these particles will cause meshing problems, since they are too far apart from each other.
In order to to force the flowing fluid to build drops and “real” shapes, I added surface tension, though this still seems to not solve the problems. Still particles are apart from the main mass and the strange behaviour (stop and go) continues.
Since I want to simulate everything in real life scale the diameter of the sphere is about 0.05. I changed all corresponding parameters to my best knowledge, but am not sure if I did everything in the right way.
The two videos demonstrate the current behaviour. The only difference is the enabled/disabled surface tension in the fluid emitter.
What I need to do (no idea how yet) is to apply the tension only to the low viscosity particles. Probably with an attribute VOP?
Any help is very much appreciated. Coming from SI ICE some things seem straight forward, but others impossible to solve.
Best wishes and thanks for any input
Tom
https://vimeo.com/134251136 [vimeo.com]
https://vimeo.com/134251135 [vimeo.com]
this is my first flip simulation in Houdini, so I guess there are a lot of things which I might handled wrong, but there is still “some” space to improve the sim and my knowledge.
First of all, I want to melt some icecream. Right now I do have two different viscosity values applied to the sphere particles. This will be simulated later on, but for now it's fine with me for this test.
I managed to melt the sphere in some way, though it looks wrong over time. Sometimes the particles hardly move at all, then they seem to float away, though I can't recall to have changed any settings via keyframes. Also with tension applied the particles start to roll in a wheel like manner.
Since the outer particles “swim away”, these particles will cause meshing problems, since they are too far apart from each other.
In order to to force the flowing fluid to build drops and “real” shapes, I added surface tension, though this still seems to not solve the problems. Still particles are apart from the main mass and the strange behaviour (stop and go) continues.
Since I want to simulate everything in real life scale the diameter of the sphere is about 0.05. I changed all corresponding parameters to my best knowledge, but am not sure if I did everything in the right way.
The two videos demonstrate the current behaviour. The only difference is the enabled/disabled surface tension in the fluid emitter.
What I need to do (no idea how yet) is to apply the tension only to the low viscosity particles. Probably with an attribute VOP?
Any help is very much appreciated. Coming from SI ICE some things seem straight forward, but others impossible to solve.
Best wishes and thanks for any input
Tom
https://vimeo.com/134251136 [vimeo.com]
https://vimeo.com/134251135 [vimeo.com]
Work in Progress » Ice Cream | Viscosity WIP
- TomMan
- 15 posts
- Offline
Hi,
tried to make some sense of the scene, but unfortunately it doesn't work in H14. Already exchanged some of the custom compounds which imported empty, like the custom scatter one, but still I don't see any particles in the flip sim.
Can anybody help me, since I'm still 98% an SI ICE guy, who still don't get everything in Houdini 100%?
Any help is much appreciated!
Cheers
Tom
tried to make some sense of the scene, but unfortunately it doesn't work in H14. Already exchanged some of the custom compounds which imported empty, like the custom scatter one, but still I don't see any particles in the flip sim.
Can anybody help me, since I'm still 98% an SI ICE guy, who still don't get everything in Houdini 100%?
Any help is much appreciated!
Cheers
Tom
Houdini Learning Materials » Newbie just arriving
- TomMan
- 15 posts
- Offline
Houdini Learning Materials » Newbie just arriving
- TomMan
- 15 posts
- Offline
Hi there,
I'm just another shipwrecked Softimage user seeking shelter and a warm meal. But first of all I would like to find out where all those interesting sample scenes are hidden which I would like to study.
With Modo came a 2GB asset file, Softimage got a lot of sample scenes and I'm sure Houdini welcomes all indies with something similar. Probably my lungs are still full of water and my head a bit dizzy, so any clue or hint where I can find these scenes would be more than welcome.
Cherrio!
Tom
I'm just another shipwrecked Softimage user seeking shelter and a warm meal. But first of all I would like to find out where all those interesting sample scenes are hidden which I would like to study.
With Modo came a 2GB asset file, Softimage got a lot of sample scenes and I'm sure Houdini welcomes all indies with something similar. Probably my lungs are still full of water and my head a bit dizzy, so any clue or hint where I can find these scenes would be more than welcome.
Cherrio!
Tom
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