Exporting Handles To Op Type

[djpeanut]

Hi,

I'm creating a HDA from my character rig. I'm at the stage of exporting the handles that control the rig to the type properties so that the thing can be animated at the top level. Currently I'm exporting a handle and it's creating all of the parameters. Then I'm deleting the unwanted ones and locking the ones that I had originally locked in the rig. Is there a quicker and better way of doing this?

My other question is whether it's unavoidable to have every single handle displayed in the viewport when the HDA is selected?

Thanks

[edward]

Locking should be unnecessary because when you create a new instance of your character rig, it won't have "Allow Editing of Contents" turned on and so the animator won't be able to change it anyhow. (Unless of couse they explicitly turn it on, in which case it's their own fault.

You don't need to export the handles per se to your top level character rig although you do need to export the parameters. The animator should then use the Pose tool to pick your controllers with the "Select Entire Subnet" button turned off in the viewer's left vertical selection toolbar. The Pose tool will automatically follow channel references and only modify the parameters at the top level of your rig.

If you controllers are HDA's themselves with their own special handles, then it's slightly more complicated. You need to make sure that the objects within are not selectable (ie. their brown flag is turned off). Then when we use the Pose tool to control the controller hda, it will now to use the controller's handles instead of the objects within it.

You should take a look at the Beatrice rig that comes with the Houdini help in case you haven't. Notice that the top level character subnet doesn't have any handles promoted.

PS. Please update the odforce wiki as you go if you can as you're asking good questions.

[djpeanut]

Thanks edward. I'm going to try this now. As for the wiki I've got a lot of deadlines but I'll add what I've learnt when they're met. I've also been creating tutorials for the stuff I've been making, currently about 100 pages worth in LaTeX format so I'll post them somewhere for other Houdini noobs to use.

EDIT: Select entire subnet, of course!! Works a treat now - thanks.

PS. Does anyone know why my character goes loopy when I try to transform it in object space? The whole thing just turns into a huge mess of deformations gone wrong...