I've got some Mocap data that I would like to use in Houdini. Some of the files are binary .bip files, which I believe came from 3DS Max, some are ascii .csm files which came from ???

Can I use either of these with Houdini? If so, can someone point me in the right direction for getting this data into Houdini?

I recall seeing docs on this but it likely didn't survive the Great Xml Conversion. Anyhow, the best way is probably to find a way to convert your files into .bvh. It's a very common motion capture format. Once you have that:

1. Run from the command line tools: mcbiovision filename.bvh
This should produce 2 files: filename.cmd (hscript) and filename.bclip (CHOPs data) in the same directory.

2. Run: houdini filename.cmd
This starts houdini with generated hscript file that will recreate the skeleton from the .bvh file as well as appropriate File CHOP that reads the filename.bclip file.

3. You can lock your File CHOPs first if you won't want to be dependent on any external files and then save a new .hip file.

.csm is from Character Studio…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_and_gesture_file_format [en.wikipedia.org]

also look into the FBX converters offered by Autodesk…

Thanks guys. the mcbiovision thing works great - with exception to the fact that if the input file has a ‘-’, it tries to create sops and channels with a ‘-’ which houdini turns into ‘_’ which makes all references broken. It's a simple fix to the cmd file - but slightly annoying.

Now where's that rigging tutorial?