Moin,

I just ran through a quick auto-rig test in H15-607 and got no error.
However, if I do not follow the documentation - i.e. set up the character's otls directory correctly - I do get an error like the one you displayed.

Have you made sure you followed the docs?

Marc

Part 3 is online:



Not 100% sure which area to target next, I have a few ideas - but since I started an animation project anyway, I guess I'll concentrate on that nebulously …

Marc

Hi,

> the point node allows us to override point properties, is that how to look at it?

… I'd say: Yes - and then I'd add “only that it's attributes, not properties, since the later could only be added by the Houdini devs” :-)

But, yes, I think you're on the right track.

Marc

Moin,

I hope that these thoughts are of some help:

Houdini differentiates between points and vertices. The later are properties of polygons (in Houdini polygons are the simplest form of “primitives” and therefor called primitives) and have no “global meaning” all by themselves. Points however are what you would know from any 3d tool out there: “Points in space” - their main property is a position.

If you want to deform a mesh but keep its overall topology intact, meaning: each polygon keeps its vertices and their order, you just want to change the positions of the points making up the polygons (and this the shape of the mesh), you need to edit the positions of the points.

Positions are attributes of points.

To edit positions of points (and by that changing the shape of polygons) you use the point node, which allows you to change any attribute on a point group piped in.

Another use case would be to change the way UVs are laid out on a mesh. Imagine you have a few frames of an animation stitched together on a single texture file and want to project the animation running onto some surface. Then what you can do is have the surface point-dependent UVs and, over time, change the UV values of the surface's points to “jump” from frame to frame on the single texture.

In quintessence, the point node allows you to do things to the “basic construction entities of geometry in Houdini space, called points”

Does that make sense - maybe even more sense than what you already read?

Marc

Part 2 is online:



Part 3 should be online as well this week, I had to split this part into two …

Marc

Moin,

I am sorry if I misunderstand what you are trying to achieve. Since I am not a fully grown Houdini user yet, I can only try to help with some pointers:

If you are using Bullet physics for the simulation and have given the blades of the propeller some weight, they need to be (pin-)constrained to the axis. Since you are probably not intending to have them fly away in one piece, you need to pre-shatter the blade(s) that you want to destroy and “glue” together the parts with enough force to counter-act the “centrifugal” force created by the rotation.

I can give it a try if this doesn't make any sense to you, but maybe it is of help?

Marc

Moin,

are you, maybe, using Houdini Indie? In that case you could not open (as far as I know) an Aprentice file (“hipnc” = “non commercial”, i.e. “Aprentice”). You'd need to convert the nc file to an Indie file (e.g. here: https://www.orbolt.com/upgrade-houdini-files [orbolt.com] )

I hope this helps!

Marc

Moin,

as far as I understand the original post, the goal is not to have the camera move along the path, but to pull the focus, so that the focus follows the “action” (the currently falling dominoe piece). So what you could do is take the path-example provided by Michael, but put a locator/Null on the path and link that object into the “look-at” channel/property of the camera. Then you would simply keyframe the position of the locator/Null to follow the action.

(Sorry for probably using the wrong terms, I am new to Houdini's terminology)

Marc

Thanks for the suggestion, that is definitely something to put on the todo list!

Marc

Moin,

I am new to this community and haven't found a place to properly introduce myself, so I'll make this part short: German born, Germany based and German (i.e. brick-head) minded, I come from a different background to 3d and Houdini than propably most of you (text read: I don't know what I'm talking about most of the time, but being German can camouflage this fact over with lots of words). Though most people I personally know in the 3d biz consider Houdini “offensively artists-unfriendly and user-killing complex”, I find myself playing around with a lot of fun, a few glitches (reported) and only a handful of crashes (reported).

My personal approach to learning a new tool is to create tutorials along the way. I find this very helpful to get some focus and force myself into really understanding how things work.

Surely most of you would find my experiences boring, because I am only just starting - but maybe sharing my stuff may help others to “dare to enter the pit”. So here we go, part one of the dummies' guide to Houdini:



My goal is, over the next couple of months, to create a full zero-to-hero pipline tutorial that covers everything from retopo sculpted geometry in Houdini, rigging characters, animating and preparing for external rendering and comping.
The storyboard is done, I do have some knowledge both in rigging and animation - all I need is to find the time and, very likely, some help with grasping how Houdini does it.

Marc Albrecht