mihai architect Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 I'm having some questions about muscles. 1. Is there any way to change how many cross section handles I want to have for more control of the deformation. The default and the fixed way is 5 handles. There are muscles where it seems not enough. I tried entering the muscle and I can't. Houdini won't let me. I thought maybe I could change something within the muscle and add more handles, but no chance... 2. is there any other way to make a custom muscle that behaves more like what I'm looking for. something like creating my own geometry for the muscle and so on... if anyone have some suggestions I'd be glad. thank you ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 you can add more handles...you just don't get the detailed controls... and you can build your own muscles - it's all about the attibutes....I had a file around here somewhere -I'll try to find it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mihai architect Posted August 29, 2008 Author Share Posted August 29, 2008 so how can i add more handles...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 just add them...wire them into the muscle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mihai architect Posted August 29, 2008 Author Share Posted August 29, 2008 I don't think I get it...please explain in more detail....what do I have to wire into the muscle to get more handles ? ( the handles I want are something similar to those that come with the muscle by default...I'm referiing to those 5 cross-sections that can deform the muscle)...that's what I want. More of these....Thank you ! Sorry for not knowing ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mihai architect Posted August 29, 2008 Author Share Posted August 29, 2008 Another thing that I would find useful and I didn't find how to do it : How can I deform the muscle when rigging a character. The metaballs whitch form the muscle are aligned in a straight line between the nulls. I would find usefull to have them aligned on a curve with control points for better control of the streching and inflating while rigging over a real skeleton (the cross section handes mentioned above cannot be moved, but only slided )Is there a way to control a muscle witch something such as a curve ? thank you. Hope there are skilled people who can help. I'm just started building a rig and I ran into those issues...and i don't know how to solve them or find an alternative for what I'm looking for. Thank you again ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mangi Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 sorry to but in but, I think michael means this. not ot sure You can only go into the point muscle, allow edit contents then just wire them in , i think there is a litlle breaking going on. mangi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mangi Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 (edited) This topic was here last week I think. I did ask for a basic scene so we could all have a look at this. It is okay to explain, but a hip is worth millions of word some times. muscles odforce cheers mangi Edited August 29, 2008 by mangi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 I can't load hip file to od[force] because we use a crappy browser at work...sorry... but try this: 1 - in the network put down a muscle 2 - in the network put down a null 3 - in the tx parameter of the null put this : opdigits(".")-1 4 - copy+paste the null 15 times 5 - select ALL the nulls 6 - wire the output of one one the nulls into the input of the muscle HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mihai architect Posted August 29, 2008 Author Share Posted August 29, 2008 so from what I found out the "Muscle" is somehow a simplified version of the "Point Muscles"...I mean when putting down "Muscle" form the shelf it asks for 2 parent ojbects (nulls) but this kind of muscle is very primitive. it doesn;t allow editing of contents (search an see this option is not available) and in the parameters it does not have the same options as the Point muscle have. I don't even know for what "muscle" muscle is good for instead of "point muscle" in this case. Very ambiguous I think... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 the two point muscle, three point muscle and the four point muscle are just little helpers to make adding muscles easier/faster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mangi Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 First of all, hello again and thanks for the nice topic. Here is the basic hip and an an image with the muscles and point muscles , it looks like to me that these are the same muscles "metaballs". Anyway thanks michael and for your wise explanations. and mihai architect for asking really cool and interesting. good practice incredible system mangi muscles.hipnc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mihai architect Posted August 29, 2008 Author Share Posted August 29, 2008 michael thanks for the tip, I did everything like you said, and indeed a long muscle is created between the nulls but the parenting is all messed up...I mean the edges of the muslce are parented to the first two null at one end. I don;t know what that expression does, I searched the help but didn't understand what it does, so I used it as you typed .I noticed it constrains the x movement but that's because the expression right? Can you explain me why this happens and why that expression was supposed to do, please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 opdigits will return the digit in the name of the node ...so null1 will return 1 null18 will return 18 so by putting opdigits(".")-1 each null is translated in x by an amount equal to the digit in it's name it's just a quick way to move all the null apart...nothing to do with the muscles... if yours is messed up, it could be the order of the wires... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mihai architect Posted August 29, 2008 Author Share Posted August 29, 2008 I forgot to mention that I used "muscle" not "point muscle", as you said. Anyway for me is very confusing having muscle and point muscles...don;t quite get it why is the difference and the usage...having all these... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mihai architect Posted August 29, 2008 Author Share Posted August 29, 2008 ok I''l try again now....hope i get it right... one more question....does the number of nulls matters? I mean you said 15 it has to do with the 5 handles so 15 must be a multiple of 5 for the handes to evenly space out between each 3 nulls? Or I'm thinking wrong? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mangi Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 (edited) sorry my friends , here is and easy way that you can do this. Make the amout of controllers you wish. Select them and press the muscle icon on the shelf and directly it will make you the setup . the nulls act as controlers Cheers mangi PS just with a little intuition, first time doing it. muscles_easyway.hipnc Edited August 29, 2008 by mangi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mihai architect Posted August 29, 2008 Author Share Posted August 29, 2008 That is so cool....if I'd known that till now. But it was today that I asked myself these question about muscles when a friend at work did some stuff with Maya Muscle System and he was able to reshape a geometry to match the shape he wanted, and then he could just simply tell Maya that he wanted that geometry to be a muscle. And I got very frustrated not being able to do that in houdini, but now I'm enlightened. The posibilities are endless now, with all the handles and nulls, and the meta type of muscle blows maya out of the water. Thank you all guys ! In an hour and a half this thread was full of answers. Awesome community ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mangi Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 see you are still around , here you have a a small hip for joining up the muscles , I was playing around A bit with your idea , just incase you would like to take a look at it it is simple I guess I am just doing practices with houdini cheers mangi muscles_easywaymerge.hipnc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mihai architect Posted August 29, 2008 Author Share Posted August 29, 2008 just today I was experimenting with meta objects, liked how they fusion when reaching a proximity... very cool example...I could find this useful since lately I was very into anatomy and stuff, and for a smooth muscle flow under skin this would work like a charm...especiali when real muscles don;t leave gaps between them....awesome dude...clever. Thanks ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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