captainbuckfish

Hi, following the Kamil Hepner tutorial on rigging with KineFx and seems the new skeleton blend in 19.5 doesn’t work like before. I isolate bones for controls, add control geo and use a rig pose to move them but the skeleton blend doesn’t seem to work. In previous versions this works fine so not sure what has changed. Anyone have any ideas?

Hi, Trying to set up a reverse foot similar to how I learnt to do in Maya but running into some issues. The main issue is parenting and sorting the rig so it works as it should. In Maya I would parent a joint to get its orientation, clean transforms and parent in the hierarchy but KineFX is very different. I am not used to the workflow yet but wont to understand it more. I have attached the hip file of where I am at present. If anyone could advise it would be much appreciated. Kind Regards, Duncan RigIssues.hiplc

Been trying to rig in Houdini, went through the rigging series which was decent but the script for Matching FKIK comes up with an error when I execute it. If you didn't see the video series. This is on the last video. Inside the HDA there is a parameter button created with the callback script hou.pwd().hdaModule().matchIK(kwargs,"arm") This is the code def matchIK(kwargs,type): if kwargs["script_parm"][0] == "L": side = "L" else: side = "R" prefix = side + "_" + type asset = kwargs["node"] bone1 = hou.node(asset.path() + "/" + prefix + "bone_1") bone2 = hou.node(asset.path() + "/" + prefix + "bone_2") fkcontrol1 = hou.node(asset.path() + "/" + prefix + "_bone_1_ctrl") fkcontrol2 = hou.node(asset.path() + "/" + prefix + "_bone_2_ctrl") fkcontrols = [fkcontrol1, fkcontrol2] bones = [bone1, bone2] if type == "leg" prefix = side + "_" + "foot" bone3 = hou.node(asset.path() + "/" + prefix + "_bone_1") bone4 = hou.node(asset.path() + "/" + prefix + "_bone_2") fkcontrol3 = hou.node(asset.path() + "/" + prefix + "_bone_1_ctrl") fkcontrol4 = hou.node(asset.path() + "/" + prefix + "_bone_2_ctrl") bones.append(bone3) bones.append(bone4) fkcontrols.append(fkcontrol3) fkcontrols.append(fkcontrol4) for i, fkcontrol in enumerate(fkcontrols): curbone = bones bonepath = "/".join(curbone.path().split('/')[2:]) iksolver = curbone.node(curbone.parm("solver").eval()) chopstring = 'chop("' + iksolver.path() + '/' + bonepath chans = ["rx", "ry", "rz"] for chan in chans: if abs(hou.hscriptExpression(chopstring + ':' + chan + '")')) < 0.0001: rot = 0.0 else: rot = hou.hscriptExpression(chopstring + ':' + chan + '")') if not fkcontrol.parm(chan).islocked(): fkcontrol.parm(chan).setPending(rot) Error says line 16, in matchIK AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'path' Im fairly clueless when it comes to scripting just wanted to be able to match IK Fk. Help would be appreciated as would any advice on places to start with python scripting. Many thanks, Duncan

oooooo thats interesting. So simple a technique but very useful. Thank you for yu help will get onto this

Hi, Need some help with this one. Making brick walls is one thing as its just one plane but when faced with a more complex object I am at a loss. This tube is supposed to be made of bricks. Is there a way to filter through the edges and delete out a pattern similar to the picture. THis would create a brick pattern and then I could extrude the mesh. I have seen it done to points using a delete SOP and Delete by range but can this be applied to edges? Kind Regards, Duncan

Thank you for the reply. Still trying to understand this, these rigging tutorials are like being dropped into the deep end with no building blocks for the basics. So to add to the startBone ptg = startBone.parmTemplateGroup() stretchRatioParm = hou.FloatParmTemplate("stretchRatio", "Stretch Ratio", 1) ptg.addParmTemplate(stretchRatioParm) startBone.setParmTemplateGroup(ptg) Sorry, like I said new to python

Good evening, New to python and wanted to get to grips with rigging in Houdini. Been working though the 3DBuzz Technical rigging series and been tripping up over all manner of stuff. On the stretchy spline section of the tuts there is a section that errors out and I am not sure why. The code is stretchRatioParm = hou.FloatParmTemplate("stretchRatio", "Stretch Ratio", 1) startBone.addSpareParmTuple(stretchRatioParm, (“Stretchy IK”, )) Error message reads Traceback (most recent call last): File “stretchyIK”, line 85, in <module> File “stretchyIK”, line 14, in techrig_stretchyIK_Tool File “stretchyIK”, line 54, in techrig_stretchyIK File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.671/houdini/python2.7libs\houpythonportion.py”, line 44, in addSpareParmTuple _addParmTuple(self, parm_template, in_folder, create_missing_folders) File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.671/houdini/python2.7libs\houpythonportion.py”, line 71, in _addParmTuple parm_template_group, in_folder, create_missing_folders) File “CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/HOUDIN~1.671/houdini/python2.7libs\houpythonportion.py”, line 93, in _ensureFolderExists “Invalid containing folder name(s)”) OperationFailed: The attempted operation failed. Invalid containing folder name(s) Would love if somebody could explain this? I know the tutorials were made in Houdini 9 have there been changes that would make this not work now? Many thanks, Duncan

Character animation, tradition and procedural.

Some advice on best Houdini tutorials for animation. Procedural and traditional. Would like to use Houdini more for animation instead of jumping about to other programs. CmiVfx have Procedural Animation Techniques but that was made in 2010 so not sure if the content is relevant anymore? Can anybody advise? Thank you, Duncan

Hmmm... guessing its not something people do considering the response. Frustrating trying to piece things together with limited knowledge. Tried many different ways and came up with a hack of doing what I wanted. Just want to be able to fracture pieces but sim them as solid units instead of many individual ones. Trying to understand how the name attribute changes packed prim results and moving promoting attributes about. Kinda messy so if somebody can advise a cleaner method then I would be grateful. Supplied the hip file and the mesh I am working with. Its the head of the rhino from Disneys Robin Hood. Feel free to smash it up yourself. All the best, Duncan BOOLEAN FRAC.rar

Good Evening, Im trying to improve the look of my fracture setup using booleans. The pieces look great but due to the boolean cutters the pieces dont read so well in DOPS. I decided to measure the chunks and shatter only the larger pieces in a bid to improve the collision geometry. I want to use a forEach loop for each large chunk, shatter it and then assign it to a group or assign an attribute so that I can use them later in the constraints network. Those chunks will have glue constraints set to -1 so they dont break basically meaning they are the same as the original piece but will read in DOPs better for collision geometry. I dont want the subfractured individual piece info just the original whole piece. Is there a way to create a group for each loop of the forEach. Then I would have groups like unbreakable_01, unbreakable_02? Would appreciate some pointers before I go insane haha hip attached. Thanks, Duncan forEachLoop.hiplc

Cheers will see if that improves the results thank you

I went with the point deform setup for this job. These unicorns fell from the sky and did weird jiggle dances at the clients request. I have attached the .hip with the model so people can check it out and advise better ways to work with this. First time to get FEM working on a project and was happy with the results need to do more tests and understand its workflow. FEMM HORSE.rar

Hi, Struggling with materials (as always) in Houdini. I am using attributes to overide material values which works fine for roughness etc but bump values I dont understand. I want to use the principled shader but is there a way to take cd values from the mesh and assign as a bump using the principled shader? I used the material Builder to get some displacement onto the mesh but dont understand the correct workflow for this. So many options and nodes related to Bump/Normal/Displacement. Also transform space from object to camera etc and displacement bounds... So much to learn and figure out so currently watching the custom shading masterclass but if I cant figure out the basics its hard to get to the advanced level. I have attached a .hip with the issue I have. Can somebody give so advice on the most common and reliable method of assigning bump/displacement in shaders from attributes. Many Thanks, Duncan bumpTex.hiplc

Hi, Trying out the new nodes in Flip fluids and starting to get some small understanding. One thing that got me was setting gravity on say objects that are floating mid air. So I used the popforce node using Ben Watts tutorial for setting force where temp is present but is there another way to do this? Hip attached. Any help much appreciated. want to try and bring temperature in different ways next maybe sourcing from a pyro sim or something like that. Melt_test.hiplc