Thanks so much Halfdan.

And finally the two first guides of the rigging chapter


https://www.dropbox.com/sh/22l2sx82m75buxj/H-0buUQAUP [dropbox.com]

HoudiniGuides_Chapter6_Rigging_1_Introduction.pdf
HoudiniGuides_Chapter6_Rigging_2_Transforms.pdf


I will be visiting the parenting, constraining, bones, IK and a few more things but if you feel I need to do something more please let me know.

enjoy.

Big thanks Jordi for these guides…I particularly like the focus on learning from a production standpoint. When learning Houdini in a bubble this type of training is huge.

Tristam Gieni
Embassy VFX

Thans Tristan, I never know if my approach is ok and given I am not an expert by any means the bits and bobs of good feedback is helping me grow in confidence to carry on.

After reading the second rigging chapter I find something curious regarding XSI (I will respectfully keep the X on Softimage software´s name seeing how you keep on doing so. I suspect this is intentional on your side ).

How come when you freeze the sphere transforms in XSI,the pivot goes to the world´s zero? What I would expect is exactly what Houdini does with the “Clean Transform” option, this is, keeping the pivot at the sphere center and only resetting the coord values for the sphere.
What´s to be gained with that other behaviour?

Well spotted, but it is just me being lazy. XSI is easier to type than Softimage.

:-)

Regarding the pivot in the centre of the world and the mesh somewhere else, it is a very common practice when rigging that all your meshes have the pivot in the exact same place, the centre of the world and therefore if you ever disconnect them from the envelop operator (in XSI terms) it is trivial to put them back where they were as it is not difficult to move them by mistake.

If I remember well this is also common practice from riggers coming from Maya as hierarchical scaling was never well handled so they introduced these approaches to XSI users and stuck.

Furthermore is a clean rule that forces every mesh to be enveloped and putting together your rig in a unified way, a bit slower to deform meshes than parenting, true, but maintenance of rigs is very complex and you don't want last minute issues.

Hope it helps.

Well, the first part of the Constraints guide is now ready

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/22l2sx82m75buxj/H-0buUQAUP [dropbox.com]

HoudiniGuides_Chapter6_Rigging_3_ConstraintsI.pdf


Enjoy.

I never knew about the BlendSticky!

I have now merged the two Constraint chapters I was writing into a big one (28 pages) that has a bit less fragmented feeling.

Please download again HoudiniGuides_Chapter6_Rigging_3_Constraints.pdf as it has changed A LOT.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/22l2sx82m75buxj/H-0buUQAUP [dropbox.com]

@Peter, that is quite a compliment!!! Thanks you very much.

Lots of typos fixed, thanks Katana for the tips!

You want to re-download rigging guides 2 and 3.

HoudiniGuides_Chapter6_Rigging_2_Transforms.pdf
HoudiniGuides_Chapter6_Rigging_3_Constraints.pdf

cheers.

Don't ask me what has the 4th guide to do with Softimage or Houdini as a matter of fact… it felt necessary at the time and why not show a bit of love for the complexities of mechanical engineering.

HoudiniGuides_Chapter6_Rigging_4_Mechanisms.pdf

Enjoy.

Errr…. sorry for the delay… I have been swamped… I will move again in 2 days.

Finally had a bit of time to put together this one… hope you enjoy it.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/22l2sx82m75buxj/H-0buUQAUP [dropbox.com]

HoudiniGuides_Chapter6_Rigging_5_Bones.pdf

Well, a quick Kinematics chapter on Rigging that will lead me to a full rig setup so we can all see how it can be done the Houdini way.


https://www.dropbox.com/sh/22l2sx82m75buxj/H-0buUQAUP [dropbox.com]

HoudiniGuides_Chapter6_Rigging_6_Kinematics.pdf

Enjoy

Another ‘Thaaaaaank yoooouuu’ is in order here! ;-)

Andy

aaaand its gone …

zip file worked for me

Ok, i have been fixing some typos on the Bones chapter, it is not vital to re-download as once it is all consolidated it will be fixed but for those that have not got them yet the english is better.

Also I finished the last section of Bones redux as I wanted to take a detour first so today you have 2 PDFs.

Enjoy

Same place

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/22l2sx82m75buxj/H-0buUQAUP [dropbox.com]

HoudiniGuides_Chapter6_Rigging_7_BonesRedux.pdf

PS. Don't freak out if there is some files appearing and disappearing, that will be me copying a new file in or something like that.

There comes a Message Dropbox link's are Disabled….

would be nice if sesi could update :-)

Okay, something strange… here is the new link

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/22l2sx82m75buxj/H-0buUQAUP [dropbox.com]


I have gone through every single post and updated the link but of course your replies I can't change so be aware.

hope it is ok.