Houdini 20.5 Nodes Geometry nodes

FBX Character Import geometry node

Import a skinned character from an FBX file with animation.

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Since 18.5

This is a high-level node that combines the FBX Skin Import and FBX Animation Import SOPs to provide a full geometry-based character that can then be directly deformed by a Joint Deform SOP.

Parameters

Import

FBX File

Path to the FBX file to import.

Animation FBX File

Specifies an alternative FBX file to import the animation. By default, both the skin geometry and animation are taken from FBX File.

Clip Name

The name of the non-default animation clip to import.

An FBX file may contain multiple clips, and this parameter is used to choose the particular clip to import.

New Clip Name

When turned on, sets a new name for the clip instead of using the original clip name from the FBX file (Clip Name). This name is saved to the clipinfo detail attribute.

Rig Color

The point color used for the output skeleton’s Cd point attribute.

Convert Units

When turned on, the imported scene is scaled to convert from the FBX file’s measurement unit (default centimeters) to the Houdini scene’s measurement unit, as specified in the Houdini preferences Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Hip File Options (default meters).

Import Invisible Shapes

When turned on, imports geometry from nodes that are not visible. In this case, the invisible shapes will belong to the _3d_hidden_primitives primitive group (similar to using the Visibility SOP).

Import User-Defined Attributes

When turned on, user-defined properties from the FBX File are imported and stored as fbx_custom_attributes point attributes.

Compute MikkT Tangents

When turned on, computes MikkT tangents on models with UV and normal data, and stores them as vertex attributes.

Reload

Reload from the FBX file.

Timing

Method

The time units for specifying animation parameters.

By Time

The timing parameters below will be specified in seconds.

By Frame

The timing parameters below will be specified in frames.

Time

The time (in seconds) to import the animated pose from.

Animation Start

The time at which the source animation starts, when Method is set to By Time. Earlier poses will be clamped to this value. When turned off, this value is taken from the source animation where available. If it has no range information, Houdini’s scene start ($TSTART) value will be used.

Note that no clamping is done when this is turned off.

Animation End

The time at which the source animation ends, when Method is set to By Time. Later poses will be clamped to this value. When turned off, this value is taken from the source animation where available. If it has no range information, Houdini’s scene end ($TEND) value will be used.

Note that no clamping is done when this is turned off.

Playback Start

The destination time at which the specified animation will begin to playback, when Method is set to By Time. When turned off, Houdini’s scene start ($TSTART) value is used.

Frame

The frame number to import the animated pose from.

Animation Start

The frame at which the source animation starts, when Method is set to By Frame. Earlier poses will be clamped to this value. When turned off, this value is taken from the source animation where available. If it has no range information, Houdini’s scene start ($FSTART) value will be used.

Note that no clamping is done when this is turned off.

Animation End

The frame at which the source animation ends, when Method is set to By Frame. Later poses will be clamped to this value. When turned off, this value is taken from the source animation where available. If it has no range information, Houdini’s scene end ($FEND) value will be used.

Note that no clamping is done when this is turned off.

Playback Start

The destination frame at which the specified animation will begin to playback, when Method is set to By Frame. When turned off, Houdini’s scene start ($FSTART) value is used.

Speed

Sets the speed factor for the playback of the animation. This is applied after any clamping is performed by the Animation Start and Animation End parameters.

Attributes

clipinfo

This detail attribute records the current animation range and sample rate, as well as the original animation range and sample rate of the imported animation.

name

Point attribute containing a unique name across all points used for identification. This is derived from the corresponding FBX node name. However, FBX node names may not be unique. For these cases, the names will be suffixed with 1, 2, 3, etc.

path

 point

Contains the hierarchical path to the FBX node that corresponds to the point. The ROP FBX Animation Output SOP uses this attribute when determining where to export the point’s transforms.

If the rest geometry input contains a primitive path attribute, it is also used similarly for creating the corresponding FBX node hierarchy. Furthermore, any intermediate nodes that start with LODGroup are created as an LODGroup FBX node instead of as a Null. This allows the meshes to be interpreted as LOD meshes by supporting applications like Unreal.

fbx_custom_attributes

 point

Contains a dictionary of user-defined custom properties for the FBX node that corresponds to the point. The dictionary includes both static and animated values evaluated over time. This attribute is created when the FBX Animation Import SOP or FBX Character Import SOP nodes import an FBX file.

fbx_material_name

String primitive attribute on the Rest Geometry output. It is used by the ROP FBX Character Output SOP for the name of the FBX material node.

fbx_skin

String array point attribute on the Capture Pose output denoting the skinned shape (primitive name attribute value) that the capture joint is attached to. This is only created when there is more than one skinned shape in the Rest Geometry output. It is used by the ROP FBX Character Output SOP for creating skin bind poses.

Outputs

Rest Geometry

The character’s rest geometry.

Typically, this will contain polygons with the boneCapture point capture attribute, which can be deformed using the Joint Deform SOP.

Capture Pose

The character’s capture pose.

Each joint in the skeleton is represented by a point, where the P and transform (matrix3) attributes contain the joint’s transform. The point’s name attribute contains the joint’s name, and is matched up with the capture paths in the rest geometry’s boneCapture attribute when deforming the skin. The skeleton’s hierarchy is represented by two-point polygons between the points for each child joint and its parent.

Animated Pose

The character’s animated pose, which is represented in the same manner as the Capture Pose.

See also

Geometry nodes