So, I've gotten A TON of help from SideFX Support on this project and, big shout out to them for filling in the gaps in my understanding, and sometimes, just flat-out telling me I was going about it all wrong.
What's working:
Procedural Creation of MotionClips
Measuring point distance(s) as the rig articulates. UI tools to visualize which point pair(s) are being measured.
Stretchy bones
Rigid Binding to KineFX Rig
Procedurally pack skin pieces for instancing in LOPs
Instancing skin pieces onto Joints in LOPs
What's under R&D:
Ragdoll Setup
Limb Detachment based on Forces per-Joint
Having FX apply forces to the KineFX Joints
Procedural sparks when limbs detach
Procedural cables when limbs detach
..anyway...I'll be dropping images in this thread over time as I continue on my journey.
I'm going for a additive manufacturing design for the endoskeleton, I love how it has this organic feel to it while maintaining the same strength/tolerances of a normal solid product
Thanks to the community, I re-organized how this is done so its all in LOPs - and I think I really like it. It was a nice way to stay in LOPs and have everything organized.
After winning and losing some arguments with SideFX Support around the Instancer LOP (mostly of which I lost, but I do take solace in that they admitted to a Bug), I'm on a great path of a clean workflow approach to this rigid rigged KineFX Agents.
So, now I gotta do one final pass of over my packed primitives to rename them so they match up to the Joint Names and then this week I can start on the RBD Collision shapes and Detaching Limbs.
This seems like a great diversion into MaterialX possibilities, as I need to determine how I'm gonna shade the monitor so that it has at least eyebrows and eyes to convey facial expressions. Textures eat up VRAM, which is precious, since Karma doesnt have OOC yet.
I thought about subdividing to have enough Geo to do something like maybe an attribute transfer, but I think I'm going to try and avoid that and use it as a last resort.
Edit: NOPE!, no Vex support in MtlX yet, so that's a dead end. I'm gonna retopo so I can do a pixelated effect in Vex driving Cd.
Got the original Geo blasted out (literally) and replaced with some Grids with nice uniform Prims - can do attribute transfer or VEX to value Cd on them to draw the eyeballs/eyebrows, etc.
When creating SubSets for the Chest, it looked like a great spot to put the Houdini Logo. It may be a great story tool later on...like..."Houdini Powerup"....or..."Houdini Bat Signal using Atmospherics".
Took me a really long time to figure out how to setup the rest pose. But, I'm also really enjoying my KineFX journey - really wish I could do this type of stuff for a living - it vibes with my train of thought very well. Every time I "want" to do something, there's seems to already be a road laid down by the KineFX team to achieve it - so its been a pleasurable experience - but since I can only work a few hours a week as my hobby, it probably takes me alot longer to produce than someone who does this stuff full time.
Looks like a really fun project, well done. I was wondering as you have probably more experience with KiniFX, would it be possible to rigg that little robot with KiniFX in full and without VEX?
SIgor420 I was wondering as you have probably more experience with KineFX, would it be possible to rigg that little robot with KiniFX in full and without VEX?
Hi, thanks for your question. The Robot is actually already rigged. What I'm doing in my latest post is creating a Rest Pose - the Rest Pose, at least my understanding of it, is so you can clearly see all of the mesh components versus when the Model is in a Pose than can obscure parts of it - for example, the Pose can have the hands closed, making it difficult to see all the fingers.
Various tools in Houdini have an option to put the model in its "Rest Pose". So, I needed a Rest Pose, so that I can create the Ragdoll collision shapes, and be sure that the collision shapes cover the mesh accurately.
To more directly answer your question - Yes, KineFX makes is super easy to bind/skin a mesh onto a Rig.
SIgor420 I was wondering as you have probably more experience with KineFX, would it be possible to rigg that little robot with KiniFX in full and without VEX?
Hi, thanks for your question. The Robot is actually already rigged. What I'm doing in my latest post is creating a Rest Pose - the Rest Pose, at least my understanding of it, is so you can clearly see all of the mesh components versus when the Model is in a Pose than can obscure parts of it - for example, the Pose can have the hands closed, making it difficult to see all the fingers.
Various tools in Houdini have an option to put the model in its "Rest Pose". So, I needed a Rest Pose, so that I can create the Ragdoll collision shapes, and be sure that the collision shapes cover the mesh accurately.
To more directly answer your question - Yes, KineFX makes is super easy to bind/skin a mesh onto a Rig.
Thanks for the answer Daryl, much appriciated. Good luck with your project.
