Found 531 posts.
Search results Show results as topic list.
Houdini Lounge » blending various deforms (bones, muscles, wires)
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
ah good to know, there still isn't a straitforeward way to use muscle/meta deform along with standard bone captures is there? I'm about to do the VEX
Houdini Lounge » blending various deforms (bones, muscles, wires)
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
ah, blending by point weight … that might be the ticket … I'm going to check that out. I'm still very new to VEX
Houdini Lounge » blending various deforms (bones, muscles, wires)
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
my understanding of the inflate sop is that it will acutally conform the mesh to the muscles. I simply want to deform the pre-existing mesh with the metaballs. Then blend this (as opposed to add this) with my bones capture / standard deform
Houdini Lounge » blending various deforms (bones, muscles, wires)
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
ok, no replies … are there any really non-straitforeward ways anyone knows about?
I've checked around on other forums and haven't found much. I'd hate to try and re-invent the wheel because it seems like people would have needed to do this plenty of times before
I've checked around on other forums and haven't found much. I'd hate to try and re-invent the wheel because it seems like people would have needed to do this plenty of times before
Edited by - Dec. 9, 2006 00:19:39
Houdini Lounge » blending various deforms (bones, muscles, wires)
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
Ok, there should be an obvious solution for this … I'm doing part of a rig with bones and part of the rig with muscles.
How does one blend various capture weights from different capture systems (or at least what's a very straitforeward way)?
I'm getting an additive deformation effect right now when doing a deform and a meta-ball-deform .. and the capture layer paint seems to only work on one or the other.
What's the standard bone/muscle blending workflow?
How does one blend various capture weights from different capture systems (or at least what's a very straitforeward way)?
I'm getting an additive deformation effect right now when doing a deform and a meta-ball-deform .. and the capture layer paint seems to only work on one or the other.
What's the standard bone/muscle blending workflow?
Houdini Lounge » unclear on how to reference various DOP info
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
ah, yes I knew it was something obvious like that … it would be cool to have a few more examples in the dop's expressions o well
thanks a bunch
thanks a bunch
Houdini Lounge » HLSL FX
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
thats interesting, what part of the game pipeline to you use Houdini for? I think it's kind of odd that Houdini isn't used much in games, would you say it's because of the polygon modeling and unwrapping tools in other applications or simply the price?
I have seen some maxscript procedural game generation stuff could have easily been done with switch operations and copy stamping
I have seen some maxscript procedural game generation stuff could have easily been done with switch operations and copy stamping
Houdini Lounge » unclear on how to reference various DOP info
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
well, I got it to work … I'm sure there is a way to do it as I'm still unclear on how dops info is organized. Does anyone know of a good resource as to what exactely is feilds, subdata, etc … and how it is represented in the details view.
I was making wires bound to points on other wires. I didn't want the wires to “snap” to the other wire once the simulation started, so they needed the same offset as the difference between the object and anchor points.
So, I was trying to automatically set an offset of a wire constraint, based on a point on another wire. There were a lot of these so I didn't want to waist time, but in my effort to figure it out I'm sure I blew far more, I did make a digital asset to automate most of the process though.
Do you think I would need to go into sops to make expressions for this?
I was making wires bound to points on other wires. I didn't want the wires to “snap” to the other wire once the simulation started, so they needed the same offset as the difference between the object and anchor points.
So, I was trying to automatically set an offset of a wire constraint, based on a point on another wire. There were a lot of these so I didn't want to waist time, but in my effort to figure it out I'm sure I blew far more, I did make a digital asset to automate most of the process though.
Do you think I would need to go into sops to make expressions for this?
Houdini Lounge » unclear on how to reference various DOP info
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
I'm trying to extract the point transform values of a wire object in dops, can't seem to get much of any of the dop expressions to work and the point expression doesn't seem to connect either
So, I'm very unclear on how these various dop expression functions are referencing these dops' information. Is this info in the “Geometry” a feild or subdata, … do I use “P” or a number .. and what are these “basic” and “options” about?
I'm sure there is a very clear order to all this but it hasn't clicked yet after almost 6 hours … any help would be great
So, I'm very unclear on how these various dop expression functions are referencing these dops' information. Is this info in the “Geometry” a feild or subdata, … do I use “P” or a number .. and what are these “basic” and “options” about?
I'm sure there is a very clear order to all this but it hasn't clicked yet after almost 6 hours … any help would be great
Houdini Lounge » need some help with dynamics CHOP
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
once again I'm very new to Houdini and I'm sure I'm not saying anything new here but I see a lot of potential with crowd animation and chops using chop-copy-stamping.
I recently wrote a pretty big script (maybe 8 printed pages) in 3ds max to animate a few thousand characters and add in variation etc for a commercial project.
Without knowing much about Houdini I got a more advanced version of the logic to work in around a day by copy-stamping chops, and only one expression script on the geometry level in Houdini that I later found out I didn't need.
What I'm very impressed with is how Houdini doesn't differenciate between a motion curve and other types of values like impacts, sound waves, midi triggers, geometry deformations etc. I guess chops are kind of like a photoshop “rasterizing / sampling” for motion.
Everything I've read and heard so far does suggest that they are very misunderstood and underused compaired to other parts of the program such as procedural modeling and particle logic.
I recently wrote a pretty big script (maybe 8 printed pages) in 3ds max to animate a few thousand characters and add in variation etc for a commercial project.
Without knowing much about Houdini I got a more advanced version of the logic to work in around a day by copy-stamping chops, and only one expression script on the geometry level in Houdini that I later found out I didn't need.
What I'm very impressed with is how Houdini doesn't differenciate between a motion curve and other types of values like impacts, sound waves, midi triggers, geometry deformations etc. I guess chops are kind of like a photoshop “rasterizing / sampling” for motion.
Everything I've read and heard so far does suggest that they are very misunderstood and underused compaired to other parts of the program such as procedural modeling and particle logic.
Houdini Lounge » Real-time sound variation
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
I'm guessing that the audio preview seems to do some internal caching before it sends it to the sound card etc.
The mouse definately effects the pitch, and I can hear the starting frequency, but the pitch doesn't change once it starts playing, the sound wav doesn't change either on the little wave form on the time line.
The most I got it to do was spit out the current loop when the chop is set to “on” which only updates on the change, here it is though
The mouse definately effects the pitch, and I can hear the starting frequency, but the pitch doesn't change once it starts playing, the sound wav doesn't change either on the little wave form on the time line.
The most I got it to do was spit out the current loop when the chop is set to “on” which only updates on the change, here it is though
Houdini Lounge » need some help with dynamics CHOP
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
being a former / or at least non-income dependent audio engineer/beat maker I find chops the most fascinating part of Houdini. With the dynamics chop I got a torus to bounce across the ground and generate random sounds which were recieved by a stereo pair of Houdini microphones.
O well, at least after learning Houdini for a little over a month I've gotten into a part of the program most people haven't. What prompted my interest in Houdini was the fact that I tried for a few months with 3d studio max to develop a midi-java-3dsmax plugin to take in MIDI data, only to run into constant brick-wall compatibility issues. Houdini has this ability nativly which I think is great.
personally, I don't mind if they don't update these features, they are still 10 years ahead of their time … JUST PLEASE DON'T TAKE THEM AWAY!!!
O well, at least after learning Houdini for a little over a month I've gotten into a part of the program most people haven't. What prompted my interest in Houdini was the fact that I tried for a few months with 3d studio max to develop a midi-java-3dsmax plugin to take in MIDI data, only to run into constant brick-wall compatibility issues. Houdini has this ability nativly which I think is great.
personally, I don't mind if they don't update these features, they are still 10 years ahead of their time … JUST PLEASE DON'T TAKE THEM AWAY!!!
Houdini Lounge » need some help with dynamics CHOP
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
well, impacts are explained but not the dynamics chop, or much of any chops for that matter … it seems to be the least documented area of the program (unfortunately the one I'm most interested in)
I'm currently going through lots of chop examples with music synthesis etc, a bit of a brain-stretch but it's going good I think. Does anyone have any examples or tutorials on CHOPS in general I'd like some more links
I'm currently going through lots of chop examples with music synthesis etc, a bit of a brain-stretch but it's going good I think. Does anyone have any examples or tutorials on CHOPS in general I'd like some more links
Houdini Lounge » which is the best
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
Well, I'm for Saint Louis Style pizza !!! I can't find any in LA
even if NL-Animation editors aren't used by everyone I suspect it is “a” direction that animation is going, not the only one, but not just a trend either. I'm mainly interested in Houdini for crowds and particles .. this would be a cool way to deal with crowd logic
PS cracker style crunchy is referred to as Saint Louis (MO) style pizza very thin, uses provolone instead of mozerrella, piled with veggis and normally cut into squares … the closest thing I've had to it apart from Saint Louis was in Budapest
even if NL-Animation editors aren't used by everyone I suspect it is “a” direction that animation is going, not the only one, but not just a trend either. I'm mainly interested in Houdini for crowds and particles .. this would be a cool way to deal with crowd logic
PS cracker style crunchy is referred to as Saint Louis (MO) style pizza very thin, uses provolone instead of mozerrella, piled with veggis and normally cut into squares … the closest thing I've had to it apart from Saint Louis was in Budapest
Houdini Lounge » which is the best
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
I'm not a character animator and only took a few classes with motion builder at siggraph, but that isn't an opinion I've heard very much. I was very impressed with it with the little I've done with it … what type of software do you think is extremely good an efficient with character animation? I was compairing motion builder to 3ds's biped which I quite frankly have never understood (believe me I've tried)
*PS 3ds max has had full motion clip editing and motion retargeting since version 8
*PS 3ds max has had full motion clip editing and motion retargeting since version 8
Houdini Lounge » which is the best
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
I'm on the autodesk threads a lot and there are quite a few maya/max wars that pop up from time to time. I think anyone that gets too emotional about it doesn't quite understand that all 3d programs eventually go back to geometry class in high-school (actually I didn't do too well in those as I recall).
Acutally, even though all these programs are more to learn, I'm so glad a “photoshop” of 3D hasn't emerged yet, that would be bad. CG/Games/ArchViz are expanding too rapidly for one-size fits all solutions I think.
Anyway, Mike, have you tried motion builder for character animation? It actually is extremely procedural, and has both advanced motion clip editing, as well as (in my opinion having used biped and standard rigs) .. the most advanced FK/IK rig animation techniques. It also does data-flow similar to what I'm learning about VEX, which can handle the most complicated constrains without scripting. I think it's main professional use right now is for motion caputre of game/movie character animations, but since it's autodesk's new animation toy I expect it will grow in the industry.
Acutally, even though all these programs are more to learn, I'm so glad a “photoshop” of 3D hasn't emerged yet, that would be bad. CG/Games/ArchViz are expanding too rapidly for one-size fits all solutions I think.
Anyway, Mike, have you tried motion builder for character animation? It actually is extremely procedural, and has both advanced motion clip editing, as well as (in my opinion having used biped and standard rigs) .. the most advanced FK/IK rig animation techniques. It also does data-flow similar to what I'm learning about VEX, which can handle the most complicated constrains without scripting. I think it's main professional use right now is for motion caputre of game/movie character animations, but since it's autodesk's new animation toy I expect it will grow in the industry.
Houdini Lounge » need some help with dynamics CHOP
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
ah, thanks so much! That was really bugging me. Makes perfect sense although I wish it was in the documentation
Houdini Lounge » need some help with dynamics CHOP
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
Ok, so I've been trying get some collision info into CHOPS.
So, the documentation points to using the name “Impacts” (which causes no graph channels) in the dynamics chop instead of “Options” (which does seem to work).
There is also a cache feature on the dynamics chop, and various other things I've tried like “Impacts” in the other feild, setting numbers in the number feild etc.
There are also options on the rigid body solver to add collision data, and how to add it etc, so far no luck though.
Does anyone know how I might be able to get some collision info into CHOPS or have any example files etc?
My current file is attached.
So, the documentation points to using the name “Impacts” (which causes no graph channels) in the dynamics chop instead of “Options” (which does seem to work).
There is also a cache feature on the dynamics chop, and various other things I've tried like “Impacts” in the other feild, setting numbers in the number feild etc.
There are also options on the rigid body solver to add collision data, and how to add it etc, so far no luck though.
Does anyone know how I might be able to get some collision info into CHOPS or have any example files etc?
My current file is attached.
Houdini Lounge » which is the best
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
I haven't tried blender, but I have used Maya and Max and I switched to Max since I thought the interface was more intuitive for a generalist approach.
Max and Maya have in my opinion an advantage over softimage just because they have a larger user base, But I would think the tools for each of these apps would be pretty equal.
I think for Houdini to be practical you would need to be using it for things like effects / rigging / crowds, etc. I'm currently trying to switch to Houdini because the majority of the work I've done with Max has required extensive render-passes and scripting, and Max (and probably Maya) just aren't procedural enough.
I'm already seeing that I could have done just about everything thus far in Houdini without scripting and only with expressions. The other disadvantage of scripting as opposed to proceduralism, is that a script is very difficult to implement for things it wasn't designed for, wheras a procedure can be changed very readily.
Max and Maya have in my opinion an advantage over softimage just because they have a larger user base, But I would think the tools for each of these apps would be pretty equal.
I think for Houdini to be practical you would need to be using it for things like effects / rigging / crowds, etc. I'm currently trying to switch to Houdini because the majority of the work I've done with Max has required extensive render-passes and scripting, and Max (and probably Maya) just aren't procedural enough.
I'm already seeing that I could have done just about everything thus far in Houdini without scripting and only with expressions. The other disadvantage of scripting as opposed to proceduralism, is that a script is very difficult to implement for things it wasn't designed for, wheras a procedure can be changed very readily.
Houdini Lounge » any more docs on Houdini Spatial Audio
- andrewlowell
- 537 posts
- Offline
ok, got that working … the defaults didn't get me very far though so it would be nice if there were more docs on it .. I'd still like to know if anyone knows about more docs out there for this stuff.
Anyway, basic process is …
a. Put sound emitters in scene referencing file (audio) chops
b. Put microphone in scene
c. Put spacial audio in CHOPS, TURN OFF “use microphone filters” unless there is a microphone filter present it will go to zero I guess and you will only hear one microphone or the other. It defaults to use the mic filter which is confusing just to get the thing working. Select Mics and Sound Sources.
Anyway, basic process is …
a. Put sound emitters in scene referencing file (audio) chops
b. Put microphone in scene
c. Put spacial audio in CHOPS, TURN OFF “use microphone filters” unless there is a microphone filter present it will go to zero I guess and you will only hear one microphone or the other. It defaults to use the mic filter which is confusing just to get the thing working. Select Mics and Sound Sources.
-
- Quick Links