Houdini 20.5 Character KineFX

spine

Sets up a spine for a character.

Since 20.0
This feature is still under development. The current functionality is unfinished and subject to change, and may have thin or no documentation. Please bear this in mind when using it.

In this component, all the driven and driver controls are manually defined for the spine of a character. This can also be used for other spline related tasks.

Parameters

prefix

The prefix that is added to the node created by this component.

guidesource

The guide skeleton that is used as a reference for creating controls.

Settings

keepoffsets

When turned on, applies an offset needed to keep the driven joints in the capture position.

locksplineends

When turned on, locks the spline ends to the orientation of the end controls.

curveorder

The number of controls that are used to solve each segment of the curve. The curve order is the number of CVs (control vertices) minus 1. The default curve order is set to 2, which works in most cases.

tangents

The direction down the chain of the spine. By default, it is set to the -Z axis.

tags

The tags that are added on all the nodes that are created by this spine component.

Driven

drivens

The nodes that are driven by the spline. The hierarchical order of the list of transform parameters is important. The root is at the top, and the tip is at the bottom.

transform

A node that is driven by the spline.

Controls

driverparent

The main parent for all the controls.

controlhierarchy

Defines the hierarchy of the control structure.

  • fk - Reflects the hierarchy of the spine itself.

  • flat - None of the controls are parented to each other.

  • tangent - Common setup for splines, with two main controls and their tangent drivers. When using tangent, you can only use 4 drivers.

controls

The controls in the spine.

driver

Controls that drive the joints specified in the transform parameters.

driverparentoverride

Sets the parent for the driver control. When using a controlhierarchy set to flat, driverparentoverride can be used to define your own hierarchy.

makecontrol

When turned on, creates a new TransformObject node in the rig.

promotet

Promotes the transform component. In order to see the control in the animate state, at least one of the transforms on the TransformObject node has to be promoted.

promoter

Promotes the rotate component. In order to see the control in the animate state, at least one of the transforms on the TransformObject node has to be promoted.

promotes

Promotes the scale component. In order to see the control in the animate state, at least one of the transforms on the TransformObject node has to be promoted.

See also

KineFX

Preparing character inputs

Rigging with rig components

Rigging with APEX graphs

Building graphs with APEX Script

Animating in the viewport

Technical Animation

Deformation

Animation Retargeting

Pre-H20

Panes

Appendix