Constrain To Surface

[Nico D.]

What is best way to constrain an ik chain goal to a surface ?... but externally, not inside its subnetwork.

I have a OTL character and dont want to add a constrain inside it because workflow problems, I would have to duplicate my charater each time I want a new constraint structure... I looking a good way to have abstraction between my character and the scene where its acting.

[edward]

I'm not sure I understand, but you can turn on Orient on Snap and snap to primitive in the snap options.

[michael]

you can stick a null to a surface with

1) a sticky (if the surface has UVs

2) a rivet

not sure what you're up to but I'd guess you're looking for dynamic parenting...character lifts object then puts down on table type stuff??

more info would help here...

[Nico D.]

you can stick a null to a surface with

1) a sticky (if the surface has UVs

2) a rivet

not sure what you're up to but I'd guess you're looking for dynamic parenting...character lifts object then puts down on table type stuff??

more info would help here...

22161[/snapback]

I have a character floating in a ocean.

I can stick a null to my ocean, no problem. But how I transfer its position to my character's hand?

I think chops is a way to do that.

Since my character is an OTL I dont want to redefine it inside adding blends or any dynamic parenting. I dont know Im going in the rigth way on this.

[michael]

is the character floating in the ocean? or is it in a boat or something?

is the null on the ocean something the character is A: controling or is it B:something that will control the character?

if it's A

then you can just make the character the child of the null

if it's B

then dynamic parenting is what you what to use...it can operate outside an OTL

again, this type of thing is best understood with more information about what you're trying to achieve...

[michael]

yay waiting for stuff to render!!!!...

anyway....

here is a quick little file...

hope it helps

unzip

put foo.otl into your $HOME/houdini8.0/otls directory

open foo.hip and hit play

if it doesn't work go to File>Install Operator Type and nav to foo.otl

ooops!!!

sorry...we use different bones at work

try the file again...

and I've added a second situation...where the character is the child of the null on the ocean

foo.zip

[Nico D.]

Aha...Thanks!!!! It is exactly I was looking for.

Now I understand how it works. I must fetch the null I want to constraint, then, apply a blend operator outside my OTL character.

[michael]

that little network with the offset nulls and the blend is all set up by the Dynamic Parenting tool....

[calin_casian]

you can also add a second imput to your asset and put the blend node inside the DA so that it blends between the DA null and whatever you have on the second imput.

If you don't want to use DA imputs you can put the fetch node inside the DA and promote the parameters related to the fetch node, I would say fetch object and fetch world transform

calin