KINEFX RIGGING
The rigging tools in KineFX enable artists to build flexible, procedural character rigs that adapt easily to different animation needs. They provide powerful controls for deformation, constraints, and custom behaviors, allowing rigs to be highly responsive and animator-friendly. Under the hood, APEX creates high-quality, reusable rigs for complex characters.
Autorig Builder
The Autorig builder offers a fast interactive workflow for setting up quality character rigs. Drag the autorig components onto the skeleton to define how each body part needs to be set up. The builder lets you add controls and switches to create an animation-ready setup.
Add Kinematics
Riggers can quickly assemble, configure, and customize rigs by dragging components onto guides, with automatic joint mapping, live updates, and flexible viewport controls for a fast, efficient workflow.
Rig Transfer
Using a master rig template and tag-based hierarchy analysis, riggers can efficiently transfer rigs between characters of different sizes, orientations, and structures while maintaining full functionality and flexibility.
Create Bones & Controls
The Autorig builder also lets riggers quickly generate full character rigs from just a model by automatically creating, parenting, and updating body components, enabling fast setup to meet tight deadlines.
Custom Rig Component
The fuse graph workflow lets riggers quickly turn custom prototypes into reusable rig components without coding. Build complex setups like mechanical wings, save them to a component library, and then apply them to multiple characters.
Rig Templates
Templates allow riggers to quickly create and customize character rigs by starting with a fully rigged, production-ready asset that serves as a flexible foundation. They make it easy to adjust proportions, transfer rigs to new characters, and adapt setups to fit different workflows and needs. With built-in features like IK/FK blending, stretch behaviors, and advanced controls, rig templates provide a fast and efficient way to build high-quality rigs.
Otto
Otto is a fully rigged, production-ready character asset that serves as a starting point for rigging workflows, providing customizable rig templates, prebuilt components, and advanced features like IK/FK blending, stretch behaviors, and configuration controls for efficient character setup.
Anatomical
The rigging tools let you create anatomical skeleton components like autoclavicles, scapulas, and patellas, along with ML-driven corrective joint workflows that enable precise, realistic motion and adaptable setups for complex character deformations.
Controls
Controls are essential for creating clean, efficient rigs by linking directly to specific geometry and reducing visual clutter, making character setups easier to manage. With advanced features like control triggers, riggers can turn controls into interactive buttons, enabling automated tasks or custom pipeline actions to improve animator workflows..
Controls
Customizable UI widgets, help riggers create intuitive, decluttered, and interactive interfaces that improve animator workflows and collaboration.
Curve Control
APEX lets you create robust spline system that simplify complex setups like ropes, tentacles, and facial rigs by offering pin controls, stretch behaviors, twist handling, and grab-and-release controls.
Facial Controls
Simplify blend shape setups by generating intuitive UV slider controls directly on the surface, providing a responsive, haptic feel while also offering a side-panel interface for flexible, animator-friendly control options.
Custom Facial
Advanced facial deformation setups which combine blend shapes, lattice deformers, and custom rivet solutions, empower riggers to create high-quality, appealing facial rigs with powerful and flexible control.
Rigs
To help you get started, Houdini comes with a few default rigs along with the ability to import Metahuman characters using an Epic developed plug-in. You can learn from these setups and apply them directly to your own work.
Default Rigs
Riggers will have access to all of these characters including Electra, Otto, the Pirate and Harry the Robot. From more realistic to cartoony, these will either be available with Houdini or in the content library. Dive into these setups to help you learn how to create your own rigs in Houdini 21.
Metahuman
Now Available! | A new Metahuman plugin, developed by Epic Games, allows riggers to import characters with built-in facial and body rig logic, enabling seamless animation transfer and providing ready-to-use, highly realistic rigs for further customization and production.