revilo3d Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 OK so I started a little project which I could experiment with the nuts and bolts of Houdini. A Ball Rig. So far from what ive seen modelling is pretty straight forward and indeed powerful - but I don't want to focus so much on that right now. I have made a scene and am nicely stuck, and have a bunch of questions to boot - but ill try and make em clear and straightforward. I am a maya user and I need guidance in lines of thinking. Attached is what I have so far. A quick overview. The ball is driven with deformers and custom parameters drive the deformers at a scene level. I wanted to take this one step further by driving those deformers with the movement of a controller and thats when things got interesting. 1. Is there other forms of parent than that on the shelf - like hierachical relationships?. It seems for nodes there is but I dont know how to take scene level nodes and put them "under" other scene level nodes. Im I just too tired here and missing something obvious. 2. Why do curves render.. 0.o ...And what defines their properties?! ie thickness.? 3. How do I not make curves render? 4. What would be the best way for me to hook up the deform parameters to translate and rotate of the controller above the ball. I figure an expression is one way but don't know how to write it. Is there a drag drop method for the fields? 5. what about creating a parameter of a item to drive something of itself . eg - light intensity = light icon scale. Would I not need to know the "expressive" term for that parameter? eg in MEL . spotlight1.intensity 6. how can I create coloured groups in the netwrok view like ive seen with some networks. 7. Will expressions update if I later change the name of a node. ok that will do for starters. I got lots more but will also work away here at trying to resolve by myself. I already will be over the moon with those cleared up. Thanks in advance! oh_ballrig.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edward Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 1. Is there other forms of parent than that on the shelf - like hierachical relationships?. It seems for nodes there is but I dont know how to take scene level nodes and put them "under" other scene level nodes. Im I just too tired here and missing something obvious. Just wire them in the Network View? 2. Why do curves render.. 0.o ...And what defines their properties?! ie thickness.? It's governed by the width attribute. Try searching for this. 3. How do I not make curves render? Three different choices (perhaps more): - Put the SOPs into a Null object instead of a Geometry object. - Put an Null SOP into your object and set the render flag on it. Ctrl+click on the blue flag. - Add the renderable property from the Edit Rendering Parameters window. Now turn it off. 4. What would be the best way for me to hook up the deform parameters to translate and rotate of the controller above the ball. I figure an expression is one way but don't know how to write it. Is there a drag drop method for the fields? Yes. Drag the parameter onto another. Choose "Relative Channel Reference". 5. what about creating a parameter of a item to drive something of itself . eg - light intensity = light icon scale. Would I not need to know the "expressive" term for that parameter? eg in MEL . spotlight1.intensity You'll see if you do a Channel Reference or Relative Channel Reference. 6. how can I create coloured groups in the netwrok view like ive seen with some networks. Select the nodes and right-click in empty space. Choose Viewing Controls > Create Network Box. You can color them like nodes as well. (Hit c and pick a color for your selected item). 7. Will expressions update if I later change the name of a node. Absolutely. Try it yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revilo3d Posted February 28, 2008 Author Share Posted February 28, 2008 Awesome! Thank you. That really helps a lot I just saw the general questions forum and realise this thread might be better there... However it also is a wip. I will post an update with these new things learnt and may even ask for some suggestions what I should try next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revilo3d Posted February 29, 2008 Author Share Posted February 29, 2008 ok an update... oh_ballrig_v1.rar This is about finished for now. Im not totally happy with it but its help me learn a few things that for sure. Would be great to have suggestions on improvements or other ways of going about it - its pretty darn simple so I dunno what else one would do. I might like to consider getting some dynamics involved... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edward Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 One thought is to look up on how to create a digital asset out of your setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revilo3d Posted March 4, 2008 Author Share Posted March 4, 2008 One thought is to look up on how to create a digital asset out of your setup. Yeah thanks, I was planning on having a go at that. Just was thinking if there is something that you guys spot that i could change I would do that first Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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