group problem

[draetsch]

Hi,

i tried to import a robot character from Maya (obj). The model depends of many different objects in Maya and when I import it into Houdini (via the file SOP) I only have the file SOP with twenty groups (roundabout). For character animation I want to parent the limbs to the bones (not capturing, since there's no deformation). How can I separate the groups into single objects?

[anakin78z]

you can isolate individual groups with a delete, then object merge those into their own objects.

[draetsch]

Thanks for the quick answer anakin78z. So I have to do it manually for every primitive or is there another way to separate them automatically?

In the case there's no automatic way, is there a possibility to see which primitives are in which group?

[deecue]

anakin was basically saying to put down a delete sop for each of your groups. then in there, use each of your groups in the delete selection param and make sure you are deleting non-selected (that will get rid of everything but the selected group and thus left with that part of the model). after you do that for each section, you can add a merge to merge them all back together.

if you wanna check to see which prims are in your groups, just set the display flag to that particular group, move mouse to viewport and hit enter. your prims/points for the group will be highlighted.

[draetsch]

Thanks for the fast reply. That helps much.

Thank you guys, you are great!

[michael]

another thing you can do is, at the obj level, put down a null > then inside that, put down an object merge - in the parameters locate the delete node that you want (it would be a really great idea to name the deletes to the name of the body part) and then in the transform object parameter put " . " (a period - no quotes)

then lock the object merge

then all you have to do is make the null (rename it to something like body_part_geo) a child of the bone and away you go.

[draetsch]

Hmm,

why do use a null object for it? And what is the period for?

[tallkien]

You can use either a geometry object or a null, your choice. It just acts as a container for what you are putting inside it

The "." tells object merge to use "this" object (current) as the transform. It comes from a *nix convention for current folder ./foo - meaning current folder as opposed to ../foo - being the parent folder

So each new object merge uses the transform of its own container (Geo/null) rather than using the transform space of the object being sourced.

[draetsch]

Ok, thank you.

One related question: I tried the tutorial "Interaction with Nested Digital Assets" that ships with Houdini. I liked the Character setup very much. So, is there a tutorial for creating such a rig?

[tallkien]

you follow a character rigging tutorial and combine what you learn with a digital asset tutorial , Check out the videos section at the SESI site

[mark]

in the 3dbuzz downloads section there are some videos for rigging a character, they look really good. it teaches you the legs and the spine, and from there you should be able to work out the rest. i havent yet but working on it