It happened again. For the n-th time in recent history a new user was (understandably) confused by the naming of viewports in Houdini and mistakenly considered the Channel Editor as being the viewport for CHOPs.

Of course any sane individual will think that since CHOPs are Channel Operators, then their visual editor is the Channel Editor. Seems logic and intuitive.
Also, any Houdini user with a little bit of experience knows that CHOPs are generic data manipulators, so they are frequently used as audio manipulators, geometry manipulators, as IK solvers, constraints, relationship builders, visual expression language and so on. So CHOPs are not (only) motion editors, that could be visually edited in something called (guess what) Motion View.
Maybe I'm missing something, but what's the logic behind this naming which sometimes seems designed to confuse people on purpose?

Dragos

It's still pretty cool that new users are exploring CHOPs, and I like the fact that the channel editor can now be “docked” in H9, it was kind of a weird inconsistency previously.

I wonder what would be a better way to show the difference there?

andrewlowell
I wonder what would be a better way to show the difference there?

Well, the first source of confusion might be the fact that in Houdini both keyframing data and sampled data are called channels. I have no problem with that, but if I'd be a new user coming from another package I'd probably expect to see the “keyframe” or “animation” word somewhere. So maybe the Channel Editor would be better named Keyframe Editor, for example. This might be debatable, because technically the sharing of name is correct as both keyframes and CHOPs represent channels of data, only the means of representation differ.
However, I think the “Motion View” is completely inadequate. This is completely misleading (CHOPs are not a motion editor but a general channel manipulation module) and confusing (people might very well think that this would be the keyframe editor, since is called “Motion…”).
“CHOP viewer” was very good and clear.

Dragos

digitallysane
It happened again. For the n-th time in recent history a new user was (understandably) confused by the naming of viewports in Houdini and mistakenly considered the Channel Editor as being the viewport for CHOPs.

a 30-second explanation should clear things up for them.

So maybe the Channel Editor would be better named Keyframe Editor, for example.
What if I put an expression instead of a keyframe? Should it be called Keyframe Editor or Expression Editor in this case? Yes I know that Expression Editor is something where “we write letters” but this is a good philosophical question. Because all of those editors and viewers do the same job in different ways - work on some data I would like to see them merged into one universal Channel Editor where you working on keyframes and CHOPs at the same time. Not sure how to do it in the best way.

hoknamahn
I would like to see them merged into one universal Channel Editor where you working on keyframes and CHOPs at the same time. Not sure how to do it in the best way.

Yes, I'm hoping for that too, for a long time.

Maybe I didn't made my point clear: I don't have such a big problem with the Channel Editor, but with the Motion Viewer, whose name does not reflect its purpose in the bigger scheme of things.
This can be argued and debated to no end, but the fact remains that users find the naming confusing.

Dragos

maybe vector graph editor and sample graph editor? Yeah it would be cool to have them as one viewer, also to have a keyframe CHOP so you don't have to do a spare parameter just to animate and fetch it into the same network

andrewlowell
Yeah it would be cool to have them as one viewer, also to have a keyframe CHOP so you don't have to do a spare parameter just to animate and fetch it into the same network

Well, in H9 our prayers were answered. Check the new Channel CHOP.
http://forums.odforce.net/index.php?showtopic=5587&st=36&start=36 [forums.odforce.net]

Wow thats AMAZING!!!!!!

ok, now we need an edit CHOP with soft selection

edit: actually I guess “cubic” does most of that