That flipbook blocking looks pretty darn cool. I have some ideas for you guys to do with building on top of the tween machine concept when/if you get around to it. I will submit it as an RFE. Cheers.

Hey Ondrej,

Any workaround for when you want to create bones based on the viewing plane (to get the orientation) but need point snapping to nulls to get the position of the bones?

I use nulls to pre-define/map out where my bones will go and not having point snapping is a bit of a set back.

Since you don't use handles will placing bones, is there any persistence in a bone creation session to dive into a null to snap to the center?

Stalkerx777
Transferring keyframe animation is very easy, but requires you to write a little bit of python.
Basically you need to loop over your parameters, and if it has a keyframe, call hou.Parm.asCode() on it.

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini13.0/hom/hou/Parm#asCode [sidefx.com]

You can write more sophisticated import/export logic with this function, as it provide you a couple of handful arguments (such as function_name argument)

Thank you. It seems that writing a script to do the job is the only way. Small price to pay to be able to stay in Houdini.

Here is a continuation of this topic that might be useful for anyone else who have been wondering about handling keyframe data resulting from a CHOP network.

https://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=37887 [sidefx.com]

sorian

mwessels
problem still is I can't “copy to export” except from a channel operator which only has an output.

No, i didn't meant that botton on the channel CHOP.
look at the picture.
honestly, SESI should implement a bigger and more visible botton for such a high usage function for experienced animators.
your final output will be an optimised fcurve. if you want full frame keyframing, i think the only way currently is scripting via a python code.

it would be nice if SESI made the ‘Fit Panel’ button bigger, then do add an option there for full frame keyframing.
look at the attached file for more info.

O my word haha, that is an incredibly subtle button! Amen to all the request to make it more prominent. I'm so used to hovering with my mouse over a button and getting a tooltip, but this “Fit Panel” button gave me no tooltip so I moved on, so close… The rename node is great, another thing I would not have guessed to use.

Dude, I really appreciate your effort, sticky note annotations in the network view, the works - awesome. High fives and thank you.

sorian
http://forums.odforce.net/topic/20483-baking-expressions-to-keys-for-export/?p=122328 [forums.odforce.net]

Handy link, but the one step I'm missing in Houdini is the “adjust parms if needed then -> Copy To Export Destination to bake the keyframes”

The only place I can find “Copy to Export” is in a channel operator and that is usually further up in a network chain and not the last node that handles the export. You don't happen to know where that “Copy To Export Destination” is hiding? The search continues.

The “fetch” and “object” operator this link shows seem pretty handy. I find that you can also get a good transfer results by, instead of “making a clip” you then simply use a fetch node that pipes into an export node - problem still is I can't “copy to export” except from a channel operator which only has an output.

Thanks Sorian.

Constantin X

mwessels

Constantin X

mwessels
Hello,


I understood your post, and I'm starting to understand the Houdini thinking. But in my experience character animators like to stick with familiar things and simple quick answers since characters animation in essence is difficult enough even before you picked your software of choice. I'm exploring how much of XSI's handy animation workflows can be replicated and if not is the Houdini approach compatible with people that aren't necessarily technically driven.

I'll look for the Animation post between you and Jordi, thanks. For interest sake - you might not need to “bake” out the motion FX result … but can you?

Cheers.

I just responded to your questions and tried to help you get started(i was in the same position as you few few months ago). It's up to you to see if Houdini suits your needs or not. To me so far is perfect, although i still learn. I will include it in my workflow as my main app in 1-3 months and then will move to 90% Houdini and 10% Cinema 4d or Modo. I don't know if you can bake animations into Houdini, i just don't need to do it. I construct library of poses(both static and animated) and just re-apply them as needed. When you work with NETWORKS you don't need to freeze, delete history and bake. It's a different type of workflow…

Thanks for taking the time to help, I really appreciate it. I will try work with it as you suggest without breaking my head over baking it - the non-destructive network approach.

Man, I can only imagine what awesome rigs you could build in Houdini… and changing a rig is also a piece of cake since at it's core a rig will always be modular in Houdini.

Constantin X

mwessels
Hello,

In Softimage I could drive a rig with a clip from the mixer and later apply/bake the result onto the affected controls and remove the clip's influence if needed.

I finally figured out how to store a clip in houdini but copying the overriding keys from the CHOPS network onto the parameters of the rig it is driving is not as obvious as I hoped.

Is there any way to “plot” or “bake” a clip coming from a “math” node (I use it to add animation from the source channel operator to the destination channel operator)in the CHOPS network (that forms when you right click > motion FX > create clip)?

As i already told you you can create a pose from animated clips as well(instead of create clip, choose create pose; this will make an ANIMATED pose). From there on you can apply the pose to any identical rig. The method i showed you was in response to your question on how to TRANSFER the motion from one rig to another. Once the motion is transferred you don't need to ‘bake’ anything. Houdini is procedural, you need to adapt to this new type of thinking. You can modify everything in the source clip and it will transfer along the network. You can filter, or in any other way alter the initial clip and it will automatically transfer to the target. The best part is that you do this with nodes, but your original clip is untouched so you can alter it, or revert to it as you wish. A lot of this topics where covered in the animation section in conversations between me and Jordi(thanks Jordi) so you might want to check that topic here on Si forum.

I understood your post, and I'm starting to understand the Houdini thinking. But in my experience character animators like to stick with familiar things and simple quick answers since characters animation in essence is difficult enough even before you picked your software of choice. I'm exploring how much of XSI's handy animation workflows can be replicated and if not is the Houdini approach compatible with people that aren't necessarily technically driven.

I'll look for the Animation post between you and Jordi, thanks. For interest sake - you might not need to “bake” out the motion FX result … but can you?

Cheers.

Hello,

In Softimage I could drive a rig with a clip from the mixer and later apply/bake the result onto the affected controls and remove the clip's influence if needed.

I finally figured out how to store a clip in houdini but copying the overriding keys from the CHOPS network onto the parameters of the rig it is driving is not as obvious as I hoped.

Is there any way to “plot” or “bake” a clip coming from a “math” node (I use it to add animation from the source channel operator to the destination channel operator)in the CHOPS network (that forms when you right click > motion FX > create clip)?

Thank you Constantin X and arctor! I appreciate it. I'm constantly in the help file I probably just missed it. I get the idea Houdini is not exactly popular for its character animation side, transferring/saving animation is not obvious in the help file if you don't know to look for “motion effects”.

It is definitely not geared toward less technical minded character animators. But with python and the interface that is in QT now I'm sure people can start making sweet animator friendly tools for production.

Looking forward to exploring it.

Cheers.

-edit: Checked it out, it's actually pretty straight forward (once someone points it out), very cool and super easy. When the student is ready the master will appear

Hi,

I recently converted to Houdini, coming from Maya/XSI land.

The one thing I miss dearly is XSI's ability to save out an action clip that you can then re-apply on another character (building a general animation library of walk cycles etc.)

At the moment the only way I found of storing keyframes is by right clicking the timeline and to “store a clip” (I think there is a pose option too) which creates a CHOPS network with a channel node inside that carries x amount of channels with all the different animation parameters from the rig where I saved it from.

Re-applying it to another rig with the same control names is as easy as changing the top level object's name in the channel path address from say robot1/left_arm_control to robot2/left_arm_ctrl - problem is, I have to do this for every single control by hand… ouch.

Does anyone know of a better way to do this kind of animation saving and transfer business; Importing animation and exporting animation to disk for later use or between shots in production?

Thanks in advance.