Does anyone know if the Inflate SOP is the Same as the Influence Objects in Maya. Basically I want to take this NURBS or Poly and Deform this NURBS or Poly with it. In the case I its muslces and Bone Polys. If not does anyone see a problem with using POP SOPs to deform the geometry on collision to do this deformation and to allow for muscle giggle? Interesting article on this subject in the Computer Graphics World Mag for Tippett Studios Character Rig. Under the section unnatural moves.

http://cgw.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?Section=Articles&Subsection=Display&ARTICLE_ID=202740 [cgw.pennnet.com]

Cheers,
Nate Nesler

Influence in Maya I think are more like a Wrap Deformer in Maya which is more like the Lattice SOP with Points Mode in Houdini. I think it captures the geometry in some way and then deforms the captured geometry when itself is deforming.

The Inflate SOP on the other hand, deforms geometry simply based on its presence. It pushes points around it in a way that preserves the total volume. It doesn't have a capturing step at all so there's no weighting of any sort. Not entirely sure if this is functionally different though. It should also be very fast . It would be interesting if someone did some timing tests using exactly the same geometry in Houdini and Maya.

In Houdini 6.5, we introduced the Jiggle CHOP to do “fake” muscle jiggle. Try looking into that. I haven't had a chance to play with that yet. Discuss more in the Houdini 6.5 beta forum.

In the article, they mentioned that

“Every joint was supposed to twist 180 or 360 degrees at any time,” says Paul Thuriot, CG supervisor. “Computers don't like doing such things.”

I know some people at CORE Digital Productions who worked on Wes Craven's They. The creature in that movie also had IK bone chains which would bend one way and then starting bending the other way past 180 degrees as well. It also was very procedurally driven character with muscles and all that. I've never personally watched it though.