hello. I am new to Houdini. I want to switch to a non-Autodesk software. I am currently considering Lightwave CORE and Houdini.

I would like to know if it is possible to create procedural character animations inside Houdini using nodes and possibly not scripting. I desperately need an auto-walker like the one in Poser, because my character animation skill is weak. And if it is possible, then is it also possible to include some behaviour-driven animation as in Endorphin?

thanks

I love how you stated that non-Autodesk, that gets rid of more than half of 3d apps.

Now to your question, of course you can, you can use CHOPS for that, you can control that with your mouse, keyboard, midi keyboard, audio file, there's tons of options you could do it and they don't require scripting, maybe just clever thinking and setup.

check this example
http://www.sidefx.com/forum_index.php?page=viewtopic&p=36510&sid=da936f9b8c6829e31fd0c098e1e76ceb [sidefx.com]

I watched a video about making ball bouncing animations with CHOPS, but I didn't understand what CHOPS is and where it is used. I believe it is some kind of procedural animation nodes .

anyway, at least I know it is possible. a newbie question: do I have to learn all of Houdini in order to use CHOPS or can I start with it directly, and secondly, are there any videos, tutorials about it?

varomix
Now to your question, of course you can, you can use CHOPS for that, you can control that with your mouse, keyboard, midi keyboard, audio file, there's tons of options you could do it and they don't require scripting, maybe just clever thinking and setup.

As far as I'm aware midi doesn't work anymore. It only allows you to read a file. It doesn't deal with midi devices anymore.