Houdini 20.5 Nodes Object nodes

Simple Biped object node

A simple and efficient animation rig with full controls.

Since 14.0

The Simple Biped is an efficient animation rig with full controls. It has been optimized for quick playback performance in the scene with multiple characters.

Parameters

Master Controls

Modifies transformation, rotation, and scale for the characters.

Custom Space

Object field that can be used as a custom parent for the character.

Custom Space Blend

Controls influence of the custom space object.

Enable Squash and Stretch

Turning this on will allow you to squash and stretch the limbs of the character.

Spine

The controls on this tab are for animation of the spine.

Head World Space Blend

Controls whether the head will be following spine rotations or maintain rotations in world space.

Eyes Lookat Translate

Controls for animating the direction where the eyes are looking at.

Eyelid Rotate

Rotates the eyelid geometry.

Eyes Lookat Custom

Object field that will act as a target for the eyes to look at. For example, if the character is in a car chase, he could always be looking at the car in front of him.

Custom Space Blend

Controls the influence of the custom eye look at object.

Left/Right Arm

The controls on these tabs are for animating the arms of the character.

FKIK Blend

Controls if the arms are animated with the IK controls or FK ones.

Local-World Blend

Controls if the wrists follow the spine rotations or are stay in place in world space.

Custom Space

Object field for a parent object for the wrists. For example, a steering wheel if the character is driving.

Custom Space Blend

Controls the influence of the custom parent object.

Left/Right Leg

The controls on these tabs are for animating the legs of the character.

FKIK Blend

Controls if the legs are animated with the IK controls or FK ones.

IK Twist Hip Foot Blend

Controls the IK twist target to be following foot controls or stay in world space

Custom Space

Object field for a parent object for the foot. For example, a gas pedal if the character is driving.

Custom Space Blend

Controls the influence of the custom parent object for the foot.

Display

Show Bones

Display or hide the bones of the rig.

Show Controls

Display or hide the controls of the rig.

Show Detail Controls

Display or hide extra controls for hips and shoulders.

Show Geometry

Display or hide the entire rig.

Onion Skinning

Draw this geometry with multiple skins, at different frames in the future and/or past. The number of skins before and after the current frame, the frame increment between them, their opacity and color tinting can be configured in the 3D Display Options.

Off

Turn off onion skinning.

Transform only

Only show the effects of the object transform. This will not recook the actual geometry if it is changing over time, making it faster than Deformation.

Deformation

Show the skins with both object transforms and geometry deformation. This will cause cooking of geometry at the SOP level, if animated.

Polygons as subdivision (Mantra)

Houdini render property
vm_rendersubd
IFD property
object:rendersubd

Render polygons as a subdivision surface. The creaseweight attribute is used to perform linear creasing. This attribute may appear on points, vertices or primitives.

When rendering using OpenSubdiv, in addition to the creaseweight, cornerwieght attributes and the subdivision_hole group, additional attributes are scanned to control the behaviour of refinement. These override any other settings:

  • int osd_scheme, string osd_scheme: Specifies the scheme for OSD subdivision (0 or “catmull-clark”; 1 or “loop”; 2 or “bilinear”). Note that for Loop subdivision, the geometry can only contain triangles.

  • int osd_vtxboundaryinterpolation: The Vertex Boundary Interpolation method (see vm_osd_vtxinterp for further details)

  • int osd_fvarlinearinterpolation: The Face-Varying Linear Interpolation method (see vm_osd_fvarinterp for further details)

  • int osd_creasingmethod: Specify the creasing method, 0 for Catmull-Clark, 1 for Chaikin

  • int osd_trianglesubdiv: Specifies the triangle weighting algorithm, 0 for Catmull-Clark weights, 1 for “smooth triangle” weights.

Object nodes

  • Agent Cam

    Create and attach camera to a crowd agent.

  • Alembic Archive

    Loads the objects from an Alembic scene archive (.abc) file into the object level.

  • Alembic Xform

    Loads only the transform from an object or objects in an Alembic scene archive (.abc).

  • Ambient Light

    Adds a constant level of light to every surface in the scene (or in the light’s mask), coming from no specific direction.

  • Auto Bone Chain Interface

    The Auto Bone Chain Interface is created by the IK from Objects and IK from Bones tools on the Rigging shelf.

  • Blend

    Switches or blends between the transformations of several input objects.

  • Blend Sticky

    Computes its transform by blending between the transforms of two or more sticky objects, allowing you to blend a position across a polygonal surface.

  • Bone

    The Bone Object is used to create hierarchies of limb-like objects that form part of a hierarchy …

  • Camera

    You can view your scene through a camera, and render from its point of view.

  • Common object parameters

  • Dop Network

    The DOP Network Object contains a dynamic simulation.

  • Environment Light

    Environment Lights provide background illumination from outside the scene.

  • Extract Transform

    The Extract Transform Object gets its transform by comparing the points of two pieces of geometry.

  • Fetch

    The Fetch Object gets its transform by copying the transform of another object.

  • Formation Crowd Example

    Crowd example showing a changing formation setup

  • Fuzzy Logic Obstacle Avoidance Example

  • Fuzzy Logic State Transition Example

  • Geometry

    Container for the geometry operators (SOPs) that define a modeled object.

  • Groom Merge

    Merges groom data from multiple objects into one.

  • Guide Deform

    Moves the curves of a groom with animated skin.

  • Guide Groom

    Generates guide curves from a skin geometry and does further processing on these using an editable SOP network contained within the node.

  • Guide Simulate

    Runs a physics simulation on the input guides.

  • Hair Card Generate

    Converts dense hair curves to a polygon card, keeping the style and shape of the groom.

  • Hair Card Texture Example

    An example of how to create a texture for hair cards.

  • Hair Generate

    Generates hair from a skin geometry and guide curves.

  • Handle

    The Handle Object is an IK tool for manipulating bones.

  • Indirect Light

    Indirect lights produce illumination that has reflected from other objects in the scene.

  • Instance

    Instance Objects can instance other geometry, light, or even subnetworks of objects.

  • LOP Import

    Imports transform data from a USD primitive in a LOP node.

  • LOP Import Camera

    Imports a USD camera primitive from a LOP node.

  • Labs Fire Presets

    Quickly generate and render fire simulations using presets for size varying from torch to small to 1m high and low

  • Light

    Light Objects cast light on other objects in a scene.

  • Light template

    A very limited light object without any built-in render properties. Use this only if you want to build completely custom light with your choice of properties.

  • Microphone

    The Microphone object specifies a listening point for the SpatialAudio CHOP.

  • Mocap Acclaim

    Import Acclaim motion capture.

  • Mocap Biped 1

    A male character with motion captured animations.

  • Mocap Biped 2

    A male character with motion captured animations.

  • Mocap Biped 3

    A male character with motion captured animations.

  • Null

    Serves as a place-holder in the scene, usually for parenting. this object does not render.

  • Path

    The Path object creates an oriented curve (path)

  • PathCV

    The PathCV object creates control vertices used by the Path object.

  • Python Script

    The Python Script object is a container for the geometry operators (SOPs) that define a modeled object.

  • Ragdoll Run Example

    Crowd example showing a simple ragdoll setup.

  • Reference Image

    Container for the Compositing operators (COP2) that define a picture.

  • Rivet

    Creates a rivet on an objects surface, usually for parenting.

  • Simple Biped

    A simple and efficient animation rig with full controls.

  • Simple Female

    A simple and efficient female character animation rig with full controls.

  • Simple Male

    A simple and efficient male character animation rig with full controls.

  • Sound

    The Sound object defines a sound emission point for the Spatial Audio chop.

  • Stadium Crowds Example

    Crowd example showing a stadium setup

  • Stereo Camera Rig

    Provides parameters to manipulate the interaxial lens distance as well as the zero parallax setting plane in the scene.

  • Stereo Camera Template

    Serves as a basis for constructing a more functional stereo camera rig as a digital asset.

  • Sticky

    Creates a sticky object based on the UV’s of a surface, usually for parenting.

  • Street Crowd Example

    Crowd example showing a street setup with two agent groups

  • Subnet

    Container for objects.

  • Switcher

    Acts as a camera but switches between the views from other cameras.

  • TOP Network

    The TOP Network operator contains object-level nodes for running tasks.

  • VR Camera

    Camera supporting VR image rendering.

  • Viewport Isolator

    A Python Script HDA providing per viewport isolation controls from selection.

  • glTF