Houdini 20.5 Nodes Geometry nodes

APEX Configure Character geometry node

Configures character-level properties of an APEX character.

On this page
Since 20.5
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.

This node configures the properties of APEX characters. The properties are stored in the detail attribute on the character rig.

Parameters

Rig Path

Path to the rig to operate on.

Mirroring

Token Position

When turned on, the position in the control name to look for the patterns specified in Left Token and Right Token. The position depends on the naming scheme of the controls. For example:

  • If the control names follow a pattern like left_upperarm, set Token Position to Start.

  • If the control names follow a patterm like upperarm_left, set Token Position to End.

Left Token

The token on the left side of the rig that corresponds to the Right Token on the other side of the rig.

Right Token

The token on the right side of the rig that corresponds to the Left Token on the other side of the rig.

Rig Symmetry Plane

The plane that the rig is mirrored across. The mirroring operation in the animate state uses this to set the default mirror plane and compute the correct flipping of axes when mirroring controls.

Ragdoll

Defines a set of ragdoll configurations for a character. If this node is included in the animate state ragdoll setup, a ragdoll for the character is automatically created in the ragdoll tool. Otherwise, you will need to manually create a ragdoll in the animate state.

Character Name

The name assigned to the ragdoll character.

Skeleton Path

The path to the rest skeleton geometry of the source character.

If the drop-down menu is set to Relative, the Skeleton Path is relative to the character in Rig Path. For example, if Rig Path is set to /mychar.char/Base.rig, and Skeleton Path is set to /Base.skel, the path to the rest skeleton geometry is /mychar.char/Base.skel.

If the drop-down menu is set to Absolute, the Skeleton Path is relative to the animation scene. In this case, set Skeleton Path to /mychar.char/Base.skel.

Collision Shapes Path

The path to the collision shapes geometry of the source character.

See Skeleton Path for more information about the drop-down menu options.

Skeleton Rig Output Path

The path to the skeleton output port of the rig graph in Rig Path.

The ragdoll tool in the animate state makes use of the source character’s updated skeleton, which is fetched from the character’s rig graph. For example, if Rig Path is set to /mychar.char/Base.rig, and Skeleton Rig Output Path is set to /output/Base.skel, this tells the ragdoll tool to look for the character’s updated skeleton geometry on the Base.skel port of the graph node named output in the /mychar.char/Base.rig graph.

Mapping Property Name

The name of the mapping property, defined at a previous step in the ragdoll setup using the APEX Map Character SOP.

Note

The mapping is stored in the properties dictionary on APEX nodes from the Rig Path graph.

Limits Configuration Attribute Name

The name of the configuration point attribute, defined at a previous step in the ragdoll setup using the Configure Joint Limits SOP.

Note

The configuration attribute is stored on the points of the skeleton geometry in Skeleton Path.

Attributes

The character properties below are stored in the detail attribute on the character rig.

mirror_axis

A vector that describes the plane that the rig is mirrored across. The vector represents the normal vector of the plane. For example, if the rig is mirrored across the YZ plane, mirror_axis is set to [1,0,0].

The default axis is [1,0,0]:

"mirror_axis":[1,0,0]

mirror_pattern

A pattern that defines how the control names on the rig are mirrored. The pattern is stored in a dictionary with two keys - left_pattern and right_pattern. The default mirroring pattern is *_l and *_r:

"mirror_pattern":{
    "left_pattern":"*_l",
    "right_pattern":"*_r"
}

ragdollconfigurations

A dictionary containing all the necessary data for creating a new ragdoll character in the animate state ragdoll tool. For example:

ragdollconfigurations:{
    "character_name":"Base_Ragdoll",
    "collisionshapes_path":"/RagdollCollision",
    "collisionshapes_path_is_relative":1,
    "configuration_attribute_name":"fbik_jointconfig",
    "mapping_property_name":"mapping",
    "skeleton_path":"/Base.skel",
    "skeleton_path_is_relative":1,
    "skeleton_rig_output_path":"/output/Base.skel"
}

Inputs

Scene/Character

The APEX scene or character geometry.

Outputs

Scene/Character

The APEX scene or character geometry with the updated properties.

See also

Geometry nodes