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TOTAL DURATION: 3h 36m

Learn how to rig and animate a character in Houdini using APEX and the AutoRig Builder. This tutorial walks through a practical, artist-friendly workflow for taking an asset through rigging, animation, and final rendering while making Houdini’s new animation tools easier to understand and use.

Follow along Chapters 1 to 3, to fully rig the crab and learn about APEX Auto Rig Builder!

Jump straight into animating through Chapters 4 & 5 along with the CH4_Animation_Start_01 in the Project Files!

Finalize your shot into a cool render in the final Chapter!

Feel free to utilize the the full completed Crab Rig that is ready to animate in the Content Library.

Prerequisites:

H21 Foundations | Welcome to Houdini

H21 Foundations | Model, Render, Animate

Optional: H19.5 Foundations | Fur Dude with KineFX

CREATED BY

monstrolabs
ALEXANDER GABRIELLI

Alex is an award-winning director and VFX supervisor who recently moved to Portland to help build a filmmaking community in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. A USC MFA graduate in Film Production with a background in dance and film studies, Alex founded Monstro Labs to bridge the gap between high-end digital craft and grounded human stories. Much of his work focuses on the intersection of personal narratives, surreal worldbuilding, and creature design. A member of the local artist community “The Haven” and founder of the Portland Houdini User Group, he spends much of his time educating upcoming filmmakers and VFX artists, fostering a community where technical mastery and imaginative storytelling thrive together.

More from Alexander Gabrielli

COMMENTS

  • Beleckiy Andrey 1 week ago  | 

    Вот естественный вариант на английском, который звучит как искренний отзыв:

    I want to express my sincere gratitude to **Alexander Gabrielli** for creating an incredible series of tutorials on character rigging with Houdini APEX.

    He showed the entire workflow from start to finish, without skipping important steps. In my opinion, this is exactly how educational content should be made. If you're going to teach something, this is the standard to aim for.

    It's obvious how much effort he put into these lessons. They aren't random tips or flashy demonstrations—they are a complete, well-structured guide that explains everything step by step and shows how the whole system actually works.

    I truly hope he was paid fairly for this work, because these tutorials provide real value to the Houdini community.

    Alexander didn't try to impress anyone or show off. He simply sat down, did the work properly, and explained every stage of the process. That's exactly what people need when learning a complex subject like Houdini APEX rigging and animation.

    Honestly, I can't thank him enough. Huge thanks, Alexander! It's refreshing to see someone who genuinely understands what a proper Houdini APEX rigging and animation course should look like.

  • chf 1 week ago  | 

    how much of this workflow will change with H22 since there was a heavy focus on character, rigging, animation,... ?

    • Tom_SideFx 6 days, 13 hours ago  | 

      All of this is still relevant.

  • PWel 1 week ago  | 

    Amazing work and teaching, Alex. Thanky, guys!

  • thejedic9fe0cfbc41944bf 6 days, 16 hours ago  | 

    Such a soothing, comforting introduction, Mr Gabrielli, your video looks so so very cinematic, I wonder which high end camera you must be using. This feels truly like a much needed breath of fresh air from the very advanced character rigging in the great Houdini. Your course here seems like a complete start to finish masterpiece. One question, if you had the time, could you also cover adding blendshape to this rig? it seems thats whats constantly missing in all houdini character rigging courses. You are indeed a wonderful storyteller, and I have to call you Alexander the "Great"

  • Mirko Jankovic 4 days, 21 hours ago  | 

    Good tutorial, really covering some holes and understandable to normal people and artists and generalists not only spec riggers adn TD's. People who don't really don;t wanna dig into spaghetti of APEX graph :)
    Now do next one to more humanoid character with more focus on facial rig :)

  • LukeP 4 days, 16 hours ago  | 

    Can you update this for Houdini 22? It’s awesome! Thanks so much.!

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