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NOTE: There is an updated version of this lesson for Houdini 19.5 available HERE

In this lesson, you will rig, animate and add fur to a two legged character named Fur Dude. Starting with existing geometry, you will draw the skeleton, capture the geometry then build rig controls for an animation rig. You will then keyframe a run cycle and add fur to the surface of the creature.

This lesson uses KineFX, Houdini’s new SOP-based procedural rigging tools. While these tools are used primarily for retargeting workflows they also include tools for rigging characters and creatures. These tools are still evolving and this lesson offers a taste of what will be currently possible. In future releases, you will see the KineFX and animation workflows expanded and refined.

Research for this lesson by Marcia Utama. She developed a version of Fur Dude available in the Content Library which was rigged at the Object level. Also thanks to Keith Acheson for creating the original Fur Dude animation.

CREATED BY

rmagee
ROBERT MAGEE

Robert Magee is a Senior Product Marketing Manager at SideFX who has been working with Houdini for 20 years. He has created lots of learning material and demos designed to help artists understand how going procedural with Houdini can benefit their work.

More from Robert Magee

COMMENTS

  • harryabreu 2 years, 10 months ago  | 

    Mr Robert your attention in any tutorial or explanation is very appreciated.
    In my opinion if Houdini become better to character animation MOCAP(motion capture) and animation by hand a lot and a lot of studios and professional will turn their heads to SideFX.
    Today we have only one big software for character animation and have a big guy like Houdini on the competition would be very interesting.
    I live in Brazil and SideFx give to us a great gift because I can buy Houdini Indie from Steam Store with a good price but I want to tell histories and I need some tool to show my vision to the world.
    I like the Houdini logic and the power... but when I think about character animation well...the true is right now I can't use Houdini
    Often I come here to the SideFx site to see any news about this topic.
    I became more happy with this tutorial.
    Any way thanks a lot.
    PS: I think so you and SideFx know about what I tried to tell here...but is good to remember :P from the point of user view.
    It is not a secret I love Houdini :)
    Let's go procedural, Yes... but character animation is good too :)

    • rmagee 2 years, 10 months ago  | 

      Glad to hear you are having fun with KineFX - it is the beginning of the journey and there will be lots of enhancements and improvements going forward - This tutorial will hopefully help get people started.

  • BanksRick 2 years, 10 months ago  | 

    Thank you so much for these Robert, an amazing series. KineFX is such a radical departure from the old-school rigging approach in Houdini it is frying my brain a bit. The deleting and blending of sections of the rig seems cumbersome and unintuitive to me at the moment - and I struggle with what / when / which bit to blend at any one time.

    I miss the Bones tool and a simple Add Kinematics button!

    Do you have any news on specific character rigging nodes upcoming you can share?

    In addition, as someone who teaches a character rigging module in Houdini would you recommend I move to teach KineFX rather than Bones or wait for future toolset updates?

    Thanks again, really enjoyed working thru this.

    • rmagee 2 years, 10 months ago  | 

      As mentioned at the beginning of the lesson, KineFX is currently focused on motion editing and retargeting and the rigging workflows are still being developed. They will become more intuitive as these workflows are developed. The reason for this lesson was to dive in and see what workflows are there now - understanding where things stand today will help when the higher level tools are introduced later.

      Which tools are coming will be announced when the time is right ;-)

      It would probably make sense to Teach the Bones method and how to import those rigs into KineFX for retargeting - but still introduce KineFX rigging as the future.

  • niczoom 2 years, 10 months ago  | 

    Really well explained. I began to better understand the deleting and blending the more you went over & over the same methods. Looking forward, as you mentioned above, to seeing new KineFX tools in Houdini 19 at some point.

  • PolyMarvels 2 years, 10 months ago  | 

    Thanks for the tutorial, really cool little project. :)

  • GreggoryAddison 2 years, 9 months ago  | 

    Hello! Loving the tutorial series so far, running into an issue when I click on my "OpDef" folder there are no directories in it. So I wasnt able to follow the step where you loaded the geo inside of the HDA into the file nodes. How can I fix this?

    • remlore 2 years, 8 months ago  | 

      Hello Groggory! I'm having the same problem... the OpDef folder is empty when I try to reference in the files that would be in the sop folder. Did you find a solution as to what the problem was?

      Thanks!

  • rmagee 2 years, 9 months ago  | 

    I encountered that one time testing out the lesson - Not sure why it happens. To get around the issue, just enter the expression directly:

    opdef:/Sop/fur_dude_capture_rig?furdude_capt.bgeo.sc

  • SWest 2 years, 9 months ago  | 

    Keeping each step short as well as supplying the additional document really works for me. Your approach with many shorter steps make it easier to find time to finish yet another part, as well as for short breaks, and the supplemental text is useful for recalling what has been done. Thanks for a well organized tutorial.

    • rmagee 2 years, 9 months ago  | 

      Glad to hear this was helpful for you - the combination of video and PDF is a bit more work but hopefully it is worth it.

      • GOgraphR 2 years, 6 months ago  | 

        ABSOLUTELY!!
        Being raised with books, I am more comfortable with "book"-like tutorials than with videos.

        So, this "double effort" is not only appreciated, but also highly valued by me.
        Thanks a lot!
        PS: for video only, I'd have to {t|m}ake my own notes, which sometimes after some time passing by start to no longer complement memory. So I miss some steps... (*sigh* Getting older that is... :-( )

  • JonBierman 2 years, 9 months ago  | 

    I also had the same problem...

  • JonBierman 2 years, 9 months ago  | 

    Unfortunately my reverse foot setup failed when rotating the ball joint, the foot mesh distorts and the joint remains in place instead of rising upwards as the ball rotates... I was very careful to follow the directions precisely, is it a possible bug?

  • Zhendong Xiao 2 years, 8 months ago  | 

    Thank you very much for your tutorial, I completed it in three days, and it has been very rewarding. Whether it is kinefx, workflow and specifications, HDA production, these are closely arranged in the tutorial. You are very clever to use simple roles to demonstrate teaching, so that students can quickly get motivated in learning. I think if you use a human model to demonstrate, I may find it difficult to stick to it when hand binding. This lovely fur dude is not as complicated as human beings, but contains almost all binding methods about humans, IK, fk, lookat constraints, and skeletal symmetry. I was a little excited, I said too much, thank you for the excellent tutorial you brought us. I'm from China。I love Houdini, he has endless possibilities.

    • rmagee 2 years, 8 months ago  | 

      I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed the lesson. It is certainly meant to be a "quickstart" that avoids some of the more time consuming aspects of rigging. The biharmonic capturing does do a nice job of fingers though so it isn't too difficult with Houdini.

  • benwil1785 2 years, 5 months ago  | 

    Hi Robert thanks for the tutorial lessons. I'm having a problem with capture layer paint. When you pose the character with the rig pose node and then click on paint weights your character stays in the rig pose and you are able to paint weights on that pose. For me the paint weights node shows only the original tpose and so I am unable to open the mouth and paint inside the mouth. How can I paint the weights on the posed character?

    Many thanks and best wishes.
    Ben.

  • norv2001 2 years, 4 months ago  | 

    Hi Robert, and thanks for the tutorial presentation and PDF. Very clear and concise.
    I have been trying to get past Lesson 10 for a few days, and always end up with a crash and joints that won't move the geo.
    I started on 19.0.385? and yesterday I updated to 19.0.455 Production Build.
    But I'm still stuck.
    By a process of elimination I may have nailed the problem down to the new Parent Joints node ( formerly Reparent Joints.)
    Incidentally a couple of other nodes that have changed since you made the tutorial are Re-orient Joints > Orient Joints
    and especially Attach Control Geo > Attach Joint Geo.
    I'm a Houdini newbie, I've done enough to get some nice waves in FLIP and basic modelling and Redshift renders.
    But I'm a convert, that's for sure.
    Best, Norv

  • dosyanich 2 years, 4 months ago  | 

    I'm not sure is there particular place in tutorial where you highlight this moment:
    just a note for another guys,
    to ENABLE RIG POSE STATE in asset to keep controllers working into ready-asset:
    edit in asset «Type Properties» → Node tab → Default State → set this string:
    kinefx__rigpose

    • dosyanich 2 years, 4 months ago  | 

      also Houdini 19 - for me not working geo controllers that are not set to Polygon shape type right in the shape creation node.
      NURBS are showing but not selecting. Select working only with Polygon, but I think it will be fixed in some future.

      • norv2001 2 years, 4 months ago  | 

        Thanks dosyanich, if I set the controllers to Polygon in Lesson 10, not NURBS, I can select the joints now. But I still can't move those parented joints.
        And that Properties>Node>Default State >>kinefx__rigpose edit is mentioned in Lesson 8, Step 04 (in the PDF).

    • JunyouJiang 1 year, 11 months ago  | 

      thanks god, dosyanich you saved my life dude! thanks!

  • rmagee 2 years, 4 months ago  | 

    This lesson is for Houdini 18.5 - I will be updating it in early 2022. Things have changed enough that this will be difficult in H19

  • norv2001 2 years, 4 months ago  | 

    Thanks for the update Robert!

  • jhellebuyck 2 years, 3 months ago  | 

    Thanks for making this series Robert. Coming from Maya I was struggling trying to figure out the proper KineFX workflow for rigging and IK. The videos and accompanying PDF are just what I needed.

  • allahmohamad14 2 years, 2 months ago  | 

    thanks for this tutorial .
    can you make a tutorial for Houdini 19 ?

  • theshizon 2 years, 1 month ago  | 

    Great tutorial except the capture layer paint node has changed dramatically, it doesn't work at all like the tutorial. Is it a bug? I can select the jaw and try to paint the region of influence but the color doesnt change and the effect doesn't work. The jaw still moves the upper lip

    • rmagee 2 years, 1 month ago  | 

      The workflow is a little different in H19 - I am working through the lesson right to get an updated PDF and videos in the near future. There is a new jointcapturebiharmonic node that needs to be used instead of the older tet/biharmonic and this has three outputs that feed into the capturelayerpaint which then feeds into the bone deform. The rig pose (used for testing the rig) is on the third chain feeding into the capturelayer paint.

      • bladel.timothy 1 year, 10 months ago  | 

        Is this update coming soon. I am stuck in the Main Controls part as the Controls are not actually moving the geometry and I cannot figure out why.

        • rmagee 1 year, 10 months ago  | 

          Not yet - sorry for the delay. It is a different workflow in 19 and this lesson should be followed in 18.5

  • JunyouJiang 1 year, 12 months ago  | 

    Hi, thanks for the turorial first, when i setting up a attach joint geo, i can't select the shape geo to help select the joint, i can't find out how this happened to me

  • clem.lysergy 1 year, 9 months ago  | 

    Looking forward to seeing the 19.5 version of this!

  • Leejooyoung 1 year, 9 months ago  | 

    I'm new to KineFX, but this tutorial does not work as movie.
    struggle starts with 7th video.

    1. I set controls, but can't select.
    2. Blend Skeleton is totally different. 19.5 allow user to put rest skeleton as 1st input, and multiple inputs for blend target skeleton.

    • rmagee 1 year, 9 months ago  | 

      Yes = this tutorial is for Houdini 18.5 - I need to update it for 19.5 - It is on my list

  • Leejooyoung 1 year, 8 months ago  | 

    Update for everyone: check this page. https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/character/kinefx/controlshapes.html
    I don'k know how the document of previous version is written, but at this moment. houdini does not support NURBS for KineFX control geometry.
    so, just don't cange to circle type to nurbs curve. than it will work.

  • OneBigTree 1 year, 8 months ago  | 

    Great tut. However I have a problem getting my weights to display (visualize) in the viewport in H19.5. No matter what I try, with the biharmonics node selected, handle active, visualizers on, I only see a grey mesh in the viewport. I reset all my preferences, removed Redshift, created a simple testscene, no luck.

  • ventralstreams 1 year, 8 months ago  | 

    Hello. Thank you for the series. The only question I have, if anyone in here can help out, is, has the skeleton blend sop changed in the last versions? Because for me, it always breaks the parenting on the rest skeleton.

  • Sirvoxelot 1 year, 7 months ago  | 

    looks like the download broke

  • SWest 1 year, 7 months ago  | 

    Mr Robert Magee I would like you to know that this project is still very helpful to me.

    FYI I've been looking into a couple of complex topics like IK-FK transfers/migrations, and scripting of asset UI:s and have had some progress. However, these seemingly simple things have been annoying me for some time now. It is so good your tutorial is there to help.

    When it comes to the simple IK chain node your setup is the best I found so far, because it actually works. For example, when moving the COG or pelvis one will want the feet to remain stable. I struggled with that issue for too long, and the setups in a couple of other tutorials is not what I am looking for at this moment. After too much trouble (and some other tutorials), I was able to transfer your IK setup to another more complex character and for that you have my respect, because it works. For this moment I also wanted to have this to work with the simple IK chains node.

    Out of curiosity, I see that this IK setup with the feet has built in stretching of the legs (for example if I pull the COG far up). I can live with that however. Do you know any other method that will limit the stretching of the legs? Is position limits to the COG control maybe a way to go? Next I plan to see if it will be possible to recreate a similar setup like this with the FBIK node, and maybe that will provide some additional features.

  • Mike_A 1 year, 6 months ago  | 

    Mr Magee,
    I do appreciate the effort you and Sidefx are making on the tutorial and training front - I really do. But please remember that the people who are watching these are doing so because they don't know. You do. So can you please say **why** you are doing something. Just saying 'we're now going to get a xxx' and 'were going to tick xxx' and we need to connect this to input 1 and this to input 3' etc is useless to the new user unless you explain why.

  • levberry 1 year, 3 months ago  | 

    Love this series, so well explained!

    Stuck on the reverse foot setup in 19.5, any chance of an update Robert?

  • muhammad_2000 1 year, 2 months ago  | 

    Hi Mr Robert i'm really get benefit from this tutorial thanks for your explaining

  • vasylijbabich 1 year, 1 month ago  | 

    Thanks for the lesson! but inside the downloaded archive I did not find Rig, neither in the initial scene or in the hd asset. There is only geometry.

  • ice_fx 1 year, 1 month ago  | 

    hi, can anyone help. When I put in and select the skeleton node, the top bar doesn't change the context to skeleton controls. It stayed in either the select tool control or the transform tool. I tried on Houdini indie 18.5 and 19.5.

    • rmagee 1 year, 1 month ago  | 

      The Handle tool needs to be active to access the skeleton node controls.

  • rmagee 1 year, 1 month ago  | 

    Please note if you are in Houdini 19.5 - there are updated instructions in the Foundations Book PDF (FREE) on this page: https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/foundations-book/

    I am working on updating the videos - hopefully some time soon.

  • MULK 1 year ago  | 

    Hi, I am working in houdini 18.5 and I have followed along pretty well, all seems fine, but in video 9, where you plug the skeletonmirror into the rigpose, when I select the bone deform, the right leg twists over and moves to the origin. I have gone back through the previous files and everything seems ok, but I cannot get it to look as you have it in the video. I even rebuilt the setup from scratch, but it still seems to do it. I would appreciate any insights as I am unable to continue at this point.

    Great series though, I am thoroughly enjoying the tutorial. I am porting over from Maya to Houdini rigging, so really want to understand why this is happening. I am assuming it is something to do with the mirroring, but the solution is escaping me currently.

    Thanks

    • MULK 1 year ago  | 

      D'oh. What a complete noob.

      I had labelled my joints left_ and when I did the Find Tokens, I used l_ and r_ like the video has so there was a clash which made the mesh issue.

      But, at least it was something simple and only down to my input error. I looked at the warning on the rigpose node and went back over it.

      Hurrah, I can continue.

  • rmagee 1 year ago  | 

    Here are the videos for the H19.5 version of the Fur Dude KineFX lesson:
    https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/foundations-rig-fur-dude-with-kinefx/

  • Artheaduck41 1 month, 3 weeks ago  | 

    Thank you for such a detailed tutorial, it's great to find such step-by-step learning materials. Repeating an example has become a strategy for me in learning anything. I learnt this at university, I had low writing skills so I used examples on different topics like https://edubirdie.com/examples/roe-v-wade/ and eventually, I started to get good at it. The main thing is to keep learning despite your results, not all of us start with masterpieces. But this guy looks pretty funny and cute

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