joint creation workflow

[chovasie]

what is the right way to create joint chains in houdini?

in maya im able to change joint orientations after chain is created, i can go in tweak joints positions and orientations and make it perfect for my characters.

i'm not sure what is the best and right way to do it in houdini!

H orient joints when you create them depending on view that is active when you create joints, that can work when your character is in straight T pose and arms and legs are on plane with side view... but sometimes character have it's legs angled and than you are in problem.

i saw some way to turn off grid and point snap joints from perspective on null's but that does not give me enough control as i would like...

how can i tweak joint orientations after joints are created like in maya? if i cant do that, what method you use for joint creation when your character is not perfectly aligned with some of views?

thanx!

chovasie

[michael]

I usually just rough them in by hand without the grid or snapping etc...

then, still in the Bones context, you can select the tiny squares of each bone and translate them to where they need to be, then switch to rotation and change their orientation - VERY IMPORTANT - use bonealigncapture -c *names_of_bones* in the textport to realign the capture regions...

HTH

[chovasie]

thanx Michael!

V

Edited August 1, 2010 by chovasie

[edward]

1. I just rotate them in RZ.

2. You can also just use the Align Capture Pose > Capture With Animation tool on the shelf. Of course, the textport command is easier if you want to align all the bones using a pattern eg. "myCharacterBones*"

[chovasie]

1. I just rotate them in RZ.

2. You can also just use the Align Capture Pose > Capture With Animation tool on the shelf. Of course, the textport command is easier if you want to align all the bones using a pattern eg. "myCharacterBones*"

my joints usually change their orientation a bit when i put IK solver on them if i use this method... you don't have that problem?

[edward]

my joints usually change their orientation a bit when i put IK solver on them if i use this method... you don't have that problem?

For that, you can try also copy/pasting the R (otate) parameter values [first tab] into the Rest parameter [second tab].

[michael]

I usually, in pose state, right click on the bone an select Snap To > IK

[chovasie]

I usually, in pose state, right click on the bone an select Snap To > IK

thanx guys! i'll try it! transition to another app is really a pain! im pretty good with rigging in maya but i hate when some basic things like this complicate my life so much! i'm glad that you guys are around to help because H right now is all about dynamics and effects.. there is not much places where you can try to find answers and ask when it's about rigging...

i hope that i'll have my first H rig soon!

thanks guys!

[tuna]

I usually, in pose state, right click on the bone an select Snap To > IK

This is really useful, but is there any way to build in rotation orders onto bones? Right now I'd like to use bone chains themselves as FK ctrls for things, but not having a way of changing the rotation orders is forcing my hand to use null controls instead, which means the pose snap to >IK/FK probably won't be available.

[michael]

you can change the rotation order right on the bones themselves...

[tuna]

you can change the rotation order right on the bones themselves...

Urgh, thanks. The docs said something about always having bone axis locked (as opposed to joints) and the rotation order parameter was hidden by default so I presumed it was locked off somewhere.

[edit] Looks like this causes the inverseKin CHOPS to act weirdly, I guess I can skip this for now.

Edited August 26, 2010 by tuna

[tuna]

So I've been wondering and reading the docs more on this, but can't see any info. Sorry for hijacking this thread, but it falls under "joint creation workflow" still

What's the reason inverseKin CHOPS no longer work correctly on bones with non-default rotation orders? The rotation order I'm looking to use is 'Rx Rz Ry'. It's like the inverseKin solver is hard-coded to only work with one specific order, which I've never encountered anywhere else. I like to keep the ability to change rotation orders on a shot by shot basis for potential problems. I can also rotate the bone root object 90 degrees to slightly alter the rotations to be more to what I need, but that's less than ideal.

There are of course ways around this (such as using another set of controls for FK), but for efficiency and workflow sake I'd like to keep it all as one simple chain for now.

Edited August 27, 2010 by tuna