Houdini 20.5 Nodes Geometry nodes

USD Character Import geometry node

Imports the rest geometry, skeleton, and animation from a UsdSkel character.

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Since 18.5

This SOP is a convenient wrapper around USD Skin Import and USD Animation Import that provides the standard three outputs for a SOP rig.

The character is imported from the Skeleton and any skinned primitives underneath a USD SkelRoot primitive.

Parameters

Import

Source

Specifies whether the source USD stage is from a LOP node or USD file on disk.

LOP Path

Specifies the path to a LOP node. The geometry will be imported from the USD stage output by this node.

USD File

The path to a USD file on disk.

SkelRoot Primitive Path

The path of a SkelRoot primitive in the USD stage. If the path is empty, the first SkelRoot prim in the stage will be used.

Purpose

Sections of a USD hierarchy can be marked to be used for a specific purpose. Only sections marked as the default purpose or one of the specified purposes are traversed when unpacking the USD packed primitives.

Clip Name

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

Rig Color

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

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.

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