first I'd like to say how great the new OTL video's are…they've really cleared up a lot of things that were a little vague for me

one thing I think would be a good addition would be in the “Refresh Operator Type Libraries” thingamajig…I can see circumstances where I'd like to have control over which OTLs are updated for a current session rather than all at once….so maybe another menu item in the file dialog called “Refresh Selected OTL”…?…
it might seem best to always use the latest, most up to date OTL…but production realities almost never have anything to do with ‘what’s best'

This would be extremely dangerous plus highly confusing and this danger can be easily demonstrated by running two or more houdini's and edit all the otl's simultaneously. Now which one is which and what exactly is saved to disk?

This just happened to me today and thank god for the backup otl's in the backup directory.

hmm…yeah, I can see where this might get tricky….
I was just thinking about having more than one OTL in a ‘test/development’ file and updating/changing more than one…then wanting to save the changes of one OTL but not the others…
ideally each OTL would be built/edited in one file so saving the changes would be fine…

workflow wise I keep comparing OTLs to maya's referencing, but I guess it's not a fair comparison. I'm not sure, at this point, how OTLs could be used the way I've used referencing in maya…
for instance: in maya I can build a character(model/rig/textures etc) and reference that file into a scene…but then later, replace the reference with an updated file or a totally different file…and provided I've been smart about naming things etc the new file will slide right in and use all the animation in the scene that was originally on the first referenced file.
If I build a character and export it as an OTL, then hand that character off to an animator, how would I get the kind of incremental control that I have with referenceing in maya.

I'm probably missing something here. My understanding is that the “Update All” button is mainly a convenience. That button did not use to exist when OTL's were first implemented. When you load the hip file, simply hit ignore. The Operator Type Manager has more options to govern whether that dialog pops up or not. If you ignore the dialog, then you can selectively right-click on each custom operator type instance and choose “Match Current Definition” to only update that operator. I haven't this before but I think the Operator Type Manager shows all this info and may also let you update from there by right-clicking on the item.

for instance: in maya I can build a character(model/rig/textures etc) and reference that file into a scene…but then later, replace the reference with an updated file or a totally different file…and provided I've been smart about naming things etc the new file will slide right in and use all the animation in the scene that was originally on the first referenced file.
If I build a character and export it as an OTL, then hand that character off to an animator, how would I get the kind of incremental control that I have with referenceing in maya.

You can do it the “maya” way, or with a less hands-on approach - whichever you choose. It's actually more flexible in Houdini. The maya way, as you mention, you attach a reference in a given animation file to a particular thing, an it scoops it up. Obviously, this requires some outside management to control what that file is - either a naming structure, or links, or whatever. You could do the same thing with OTLs if you choose - call a file foo_21.otl and reference that in your hip - and that will always load. Later on, you could change it to foo_23.otl, and that will load and maintain your animation. Alternatively, you could always reference foo_CURRENT.otl and that's a link always being updated tot he latest. This is the same as Maya.
OTLs also let you manage things other ways, too. For instance, you could always be loading “foo.otl” no matter what, and it may or may not be constantly updated, or a link pointing the the latest. If you're set to load the most recent based on datestamp, it will either use the last data saved in your hip, or the one on disk if it has changed - this could be automagic. No managing of file names and what points to what. On top of that, you have total control over the process - if the TD has screwed up and the changes they've made to the OTL breaks your hip(for example, renamed the channel names so your existing animation is broken), you can optionally stick with the one in your hip, on the fly, and keep working until the TD removes their foot from their mouth.


OTLs are really wonderful….

Cheers,

J.C.

“ When you load the hip file, simply hit ignore. ”
what I was refering to was updating the development of an OTL, rather than a hip that is using one.

Later on, you could change it to foo_23.otl, and that will load and maintain your animation.

Thanks John, this is what I'm wondering…I haven't really figured out how I would do this yet…but yes OTLs are really cool