Houdini 20.5 Nodes Geometry nodes

Scene Character Import geometry node

Creates a geometry-based character with animation from the Scene (OBJ) context.

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Since 18.5

This node imports a character from the Scene (OBJ-based) level to provide a full geometry-based character that can be then be directly deformed by a Joint Deform SOP. The primary purpose of this node is provide a bridge from traditional OBJ-based characters for processing by the KineFX motion retargeting toolset which manipulates animated geometry-based skeletons.

This node will bake the animation internally and so after the first import, its animation will not change until the Reload button is pressed.

Parameters

Import

Subnet Path

Path to the object subnetwork containing the character rig.

Traverse Outputs

When enabled, the Character Rig path is used to specify which nodes to import by traversing its outputs instead of its children.

Pattern

Pattern used to limit which nodes should be imported. Patterns using usual opglob syntax along with @‹bundle› references are accepted.

Note

Relative paths specified here are relative to this node, not to the Character Rig.

Type

Optional mask to further restrict which object node types will be imported. Disable the toggles to prevent baking particular types.

Minimal Nodes

Only import objects whose display flags are on. If you turn this off, all nodes in the character rig are imported into the animation clip.

Clip Name

Specifies a name for the animation clip. This is saved to the clipinfo detail attribute.

Rig Color

When Output is set to Skeleton or MotionClips, this is the point color to use for the skeleton joints.

Reload

Reloads the agent definition.

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.

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