I'm looking to brush up on animation in Houdini. I've come across very few tutorials for character animation. The best so far was on CMI vfx [vimeo.com] but I'd like to get different perspectives, especially techniques using the newer features in H15+. For Maya I find boatloads but for H it's really scarce so if anybody knows please let me know (paid and unpaid).

To expand a bit: I'm finding it confusing working with scoped channels, animation layers and takes. Also keeping controls straight and getting to the right control etc… It's a sea of madness Looking to see someone more expert and their workflow.

- Thanks

I would love it (and stay up ‘till the crazy hour required in my part of the globe) to have an animation based webinar
Your right, there are hardly any animation tutes out there, but it’s actually quite good for animation so it doesn't make sense. One thing I've found with animation is you definite;y have to make scoped parameter groups. It's a bit of an outlay at the start but worth it.
P.s. I wish they could be embedded in a HDA

That's what I was thinking. H is geared towards regular animation as well but this subject seems totally missing in the Tuts.

There's the bouncing ball thinggy but I'd like to see something that goes deeper into character work.

Right now I'm watching Maya tutorials and trying to find equivalent in H, but it's frustrating.

I've learned how to scope parameters but I can't help wondering how someone with animating experience does it.

I'm especially interested in how constant keyframes can be translated into tweens. My current workflow seems cumbersome and I have nothing to compare it to. It would really help to see different workflows.

I thought maybe someone knows of a secret stash of character animation tuts

I reckon SideFX should make an Animation/Rigging section for the forums.
I'm about to animate a whole bunch of things so I'll let you know what I uncover!

One thing that's super handy is the option to auto create a scoped parameter groups.

Firstly create your HDA and expose all of the parameters you'd like the animator (or yourself) to animate.


Then right click the HDA in tree view and choose Create nested channel groups


Now you should have some cool scoped parameter groups that you can easily key!

Select the top level and press k to key everything, or select a sub level to just key that, it's great!

Sometimes parameters don't get added to the group but, it's probably because they are set to not auto scope. Just check your HDA parameters are set to auto scope (and re-save the HDA).


P.S. you can quickly test this out with some of the inbuilt Houdini rigs.

I would think one should narrow their scope of search to rigging tuts.

Because I don't see anything that would be uniques to character animation than any other animation application in Houdini in terms of ‘tools’ used.

Tuts on using Chops might be useful for motion in addition to if available dedicated tut that explores the animation editor. But these things are not just used for character animation so experience just learning about these elements even if not in the context of character animation will still help.

Just thinking here for a moment, I remember a couple months ago working through some tuts available from pluralsight. They did have one or two tuts ( paid ) on rigging soley. I did watch them and they do have alot of detail on using the Houdini tools for that purpose. So that might be a good start.

Animation fundamentally is quite similar in Houdini to other programs but I reckon there are a tonne of things we are missing out on that someone in the know might be able to go through in a webinar quite quickly. Even just shortcuts and best practices.

I'd love to see some more tutes on Chops though, there seems to be hardly any out there.
This stretchy bone one is pretty cool… http://www.marcogiordanotd.com/blog/animation/houdini-tutorial-stretch-ik-with-chops-pt1-pt2 [marcogiordanotd.com]

BabaJ
I would think one should narrow their scope of search to rigging tuts.

I bought the rigging tuts from 3d from 3DBuzz which even though are a bit old, they are highly instructive. They have technical and character. Both give you plenty to chew on.

However, I find that even though I (somewhat) know rigging, it doesn't translate automatically into animation.

Animation is composed of 2 things (so far as I see):

1 Core animation concepts (keyframing, tweens, anticipation etc), which are taken basically from 2D animation (see The Animator's Survival Kit [amazon.com]) and then adapted for 3D.

2 Technical implementation of those concepts. Here is where we scope and do other things that make things easier. Things such as working backward from the climax frame etc… Problem is that implementation is highly dependent on the software. You need to have technical know-how of the program and experience from many hours of animation where you polish your workflow. Even so, it's good to take a look at other people because more often than not see people working with a totally different workflow (and getting great results).

It's the second part that's giving me problems. What are the best practices for scoping? How granular? What about animation? Should you work on as many layers as possible or just a few? Do takes come into play?

Here is one example of something I read in the docs but I cannot make work. It would be much easier to understand if we had a tutorial.

Maybe you can explain https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/46686/ [sidefx.com]

peteski
Animation fundamentally is quite similar in Houdini to other programs but I reckon there are a tonne of things we are missing out on that someone in the know might be able to go through in a webinar quite quickly. Even just shortcuts and best practices.

You said it.

BTW, as I noted to BabaJ, maybe you guys can help me figure this out. I posted in on the Indie side of the forum but it relates exactly to what we are talking about: https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/46686/ [sidefx.com]

The 3D Buzz tutorials are from what I know as well very good from there it's putting the pieces together and asking questions