There are three rigs available in the Content library with the networks annotated to help you explore the APEX workflow.

Electra Rig [www.sidefx.com]

Learn how the Electra character was set up using the APEX rigging tools. This scene file shows you the basics of organizing character elements, using and creating reusable rig components and assembling animator-friendly scenes. There are also nodes for creating Locators and a Reverse Foot Setup.

Esther's HIVE presentation will provide an overview of these concepts. You can watch it LIVE [www.sidefx.com] tomorrow at 12:04 PM EST or via the posted video on Friday.

Luchador & Chicken [www.sidefx.com]

The Luchador and the Chicken were created by Od Studios in cooperation with SideFX. These files are designed to demonstrate the process of character rigging using the new APEX system - from setting up the foundation and working with autorig components to mastering procedural skinning.

Hello,
I've got project downloaded, loading anim_scene_example and it shows me only chicken and no animation at all. Am I missing something?

Mirko Jankovic
Hello,
I've got project downloaded, loading anim_scene_example and it shows me only chicken and no animation at all. Am I missing something?

I reported the issues a few day ago, they reuploaded a fixed version of the scene yesterday which work.

I\ve downloaded again, I do see Lucha as well now but nothing is animated, seems like animation graphs are not loaded?
Are they animated in this example at all or just setup for animation?

Mirko Jankovic
I\ve downloaded again, I do see Lucha as well now but nothing is animated, seems like animation graphs are not loaded?
Are they animated in this example at all or just setup for animation?

They said the scene do not actually containt any animation

AAAh ok, at least I know it is not me doing something silly stupid
Guess it is time to put some anim there then

I have also looked at this and it looks amazing there are a few things that are baffling me tho.

1. What is the red "load tools" python node near the top of the rigging stack doing?
2. In the rigging section, were is the raw data for all the stash nodes that are driving the functionality of most of the rig past the fkrig setup component
3. Why doesn't the geom deform with the scene animate at the end of the rigging stage, but deforms in the animation stage, when both are using a scene animate and invoke node.

Sorry if these are obvious, but i am coming from rigging in maya so it'll take some time to get used to the whole deferred calculation paradigm.

This system is both exciting, confusing, and terrifying all at the same time. lol

I look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers,
B

bryanebentleycgs
1. What is the red "load tools" python node near the top of the rigging stack doing?
2. In the rigging section, were is the raw data for all the stash nodes that are driving the functionality of most of the rig past the fkrig setup component
3. Why doesn't the geom deform with the scene animate at the end of the rigging stage, but deforms in the animation stage, when both are using a scene animate and invoke node.

1) If you go into the lucka & chicken folder, you can see an apexgraph folder, this is the library of apex subnetwork (kinda like an hda) that the lucha rig make use of, however, when you open the scene with houdini, this folder is not loaded by houdini automatically (it not part of any package or plugin that was loaded on startup), the red python node simply trigger the houdini reload function and will load the content of the apexgraph folder of the scene.

2) if you're talking about the stash node used by some of the apex rigscript component : the stash node IS the raw data, when you build an apex graph from scratch, you can use a stash node as the 'memory'. for exemple the "2_joint_twist" stash node containt the apex logic on how to build the section of the rig that involve .. well a 2 joint twist.
if you're talking about rigscript component that do not have a inputed stash node, the logic come from sidefx's shipped .bgeo file, it a predetermined list of common rig functionnality.

3) Unsure what you're talking about, the scene animate whitin the lucha_rig or chicken_rig do deform the character, as well as the invoke that follow it. maybe you got a bug on your side ?

bryanebentleycgs
I have also looked at this and it looks amazing there are a few things that are baffling me tho.

1. What is the red "load tools" python node near the top of the rigging stack doing?
2. In the rigging section, were is the raw data for all the stash nodes that are driving the functionality of most of the rig past the fkrig setup component
3. Why doesn't the geom deform with the scene animate at the end of the rigging stage, but deforms in the animation stage, when both are using a scene animate and invoke node.

Sorry if these are obvious, but i am coming from rigging in maya so it'll take some time to get used to the whole deferred calculation paradigm.

This system is both exciting, confusing, and terrifying all at the same time. lol

I look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers,
B

1) The Lucha rig has a couple of Subgraphs/Apex_hda's that I set up for this project to keep the network clean. The Python node will load the subgraphs that are in the apexgraph folder in your $home or $hip dir.

2) select the stash and then open a apex network view pane. That is how you edit the contents of the stash, and how I made these components.

3)on the scene animate in the rigging stage its just in rest pose, In the animation section I set up a simple pose, you can reset the pose on the scene animate using reset all. If this is what you mean?

Jacquesf

Mirko Jankovic
I\ve downloaded again, I do see Lucha as well now but nothing is animated, seems like animation graphs are not loaded?
Are they animated in this example at all or just setup for animation?

They said the scene do not actually containt any animation

I so sorry if that was misleading, It was set up this way to show what a more complex rigging env looks like vs a clean animation env.

No problem at all, I was mostly hoping to check out scene with two animated characters for view port and playback speed. Electra is rather simple so expect fast performance, was looking forward for something with more deformers to see how it behave performance wise.