Easing animations via code?

[aoakenfo]

Over the years, I've used tweening libraries on various platforms. For example:

Tween.addTween(someObject, {x:10, time:1, transition:"bounce"});

Would move someObject 10 units along the x-axis over 1-second and would bounce into place. With this you could achieve effects like the one in the attached gif.

I'm new to Houdini and was wondering how I could do something similar?

Edited April 7, 2017 by aoakenfo

[Atom]

Easing can be found inside the Animation Editor. Select some keyframes then choose what type of easing you want from the drop down list in the lower right hand corner of the Animation Editor. You can also tweak curves after selecting a function type preset.

ap_ease_types.hiplc

Edited April 7, 2017 by Atom

[aoakenfo]

Thanks, but I'm looking for a more procedural approach for adding anims.

I went down a CHOPs rabbit hole earlier and it might still be an option, not sure. I circled back and did a simple Point VOP test.

 

simple_no_chop.hipnc

Edited April 7, 2017 by aoakenfo

[Guest tar]

in general those are very simple high level animations - meaning a total lack of effective control. Something that Apple would make for FCPX. I've never heard of anyone using Houdini for such tasks.

[aoakenfo]

6 minutes ago, marty said:

I've never heard of anyone using Houdini for such tasks.

Which is fine. I'm new to Houdini and not sure what's possible.

After watching Rohan's videos on porting C4D effects over to Houdini, I thought some type of procedural easing might be a great addition for doing motion graphics work.

[Guest tar]

Does it help in C4D? These types of effects have a market but not sure it's one of the many tenticles that SideFx should pursue. Most people migrate totally from C4D once they get familiar with it. A lot of hangover happens at the start it appears

[edward]

In Houdini, the segments between keys contain expressions that are evaluated. When you enter expressions in Houdini parameters, a key is created to contain the expression for evaluation. For bezier() keys, the bezier() expression just takes the values/slopes/accels of the adjacent keys and gives you the result of a bezier interpolation. See this post for a sample expression for linear(): https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/13381/?page=1#post-63380

So for something like your tween function, it would just live on the segment and know exactly the time range it needs. Maybe it just needs to passed "bounce", but then maybe you should have a class of tween functions like bounce(), etc.

7 hours ago, aoakenfo said:

Over the years, I've used tweening libraries on various platforms.

 

[aoakenfo]

Simple tween from attribute wrangle.

simple_tween.hipnc

[LaidlawFX]

On 4/7/2017 at 4:48 PM, marty said:

in general those are very simple high level animations - meaning a total lack of effective control. Something that Apple would make for FCPX. I've never heard of anyone using Houdini for such tasks.

I have done it a few times.  lol 

I either key frame, or do pure math on it though to do those functions. Edwards solutions work, too, albeit it is very old school.

This would be a nice HDA for orbolt, or a nice motion graphic shelf for Houdini.

[Guest tar]

@Laidlaw - yeah - I fuked that up. It's always interesting to see new users challenge what ya know. H16 definable seems to have opened the floodgates a little wider than usual. Both programmers and artists.