I am trying to follow the autorig tutorial that does the quadraped example. I am doing it with my own model and trying to adapt what he is saying to what I am doing.

I am on the video called quadraped_03.mov. It is the one where you create the helldog_tutorial_animation_rig and helldog_tutorial_deform_rig object.

So he just had me right click on the helldog_tutorial_animation_rig and choose to Type Properties and then on the small gearbox and refresh imports. I do this and hit accept as in the video.

Now I have parameters in the animation rig. So far so good.

He then says now we can modify the parameters. He then right clicks on the animation rig node and says that he is going to synchronize the definition. Well, I don't see any option to syncrhronize the definition. does he mean to match current definition?

If so then I don't understand how he does what he does next. The node turns blue. He then proceeds to click on things in the perspective window like the COG and move the rig around and it moves the whole model. I can't do this. If I click on any of the controls I don't get any handles.

If I right click the animation rig node and say to allow edits then I can click on and move them, but only the rig moves. The model mesh doesn't.

I am lost now. I was doing so well and getting so close. Help….

Yes, Match Current Definition is what he is referring to when he says he is synchronizing the definition. Basically when the asset isn't blue, it is unlocked and possibly has local changes. Synchronizing it makes it take on the state as currently defined by the definition on disk.

As for manipulating controls in the viewport, the process of refreshing the imports is used to promote all the control parameters from inside to the parent asset. This is necessary because as you have encountered, if the asset is locked, aka matched to the current definition, you can't manipulate objects inside it. It sounds to me like you didn't hit the Apply or Accept button at the bottom of the Operator Type Properties dialog. The dialog that pops up after importing is more of a status dialog and in order to add the parameters to the actual node/definition you need to hit either Apply or Accept on the main window. This should cause all the parameters to actually appear on the node in the Parameter pane and you should then be good to go.

Actually I did hit accept on the properites dialog AND all of the properties do show up on the different panels.

It is almost as if the rig is just not “connected” to the mesh. What else could be wrong?

I figured it out! Guess I just need to play around with things long enough and eventually I will get it.

In this case I had not Saved Geometry or set the otls path and hit the Create/Modify Rig button.

I did that and everything is working now.

I also discovered that it is important to have the Proxy set to Proxy Group WHEN you hit the Save Geomeotry button or you just end up with the bounding Geometry instead. I am finally starting to “get” some of this stuff.

I am still having a little trouble with terms. It could be this tutorial was made with 9.5 and not 10.

In the 04c part of the video series at about 8:48 he says that we will now save and lock the asset.

From another post I thought that was picking Match Current Definition. Choosing that option also turns the asset blue instead of red.

The problem is that when I do that all of the changes that I just made in the asset go back to before I made them.

So how do I “lock” the asset (make it turn blue) while also saving the changed I made to it?

To save the asset, Right click on the asset node and choose “Save Operator Type”. This will take the node on which you clicked and use it as a “template” for the asset definition.

To clarify the terms, the Operator Type (or node type) is the asset definition. And the node you are seeing in the network editor (network pane) is an instance of that operator type.

Locking, matching the definition, or synchronizing are all synonymous terms and you can do that with Right Click on the node > Match Current Definition. Note, though that this does not save any changes or edits that you made to the unlocked node. Quite the contrary, all edit changes will be discarded.

Unlocking, means to decouple the node from its definition, and to allow diving into the node contents and to allow making changes (rewiring, changing parameter values, channel references, and parameter expressions, etc). When you start editing, the node will start deviating from its definition (ie, operator type). To unlock a Houdini Digital Asset node, Right Click > Allow Editing of Contents.

After some editing, if you want these edits to be the new definition of the asset (operator type), you just need to save the changes by Right Click > Save Operator Type. Now the new definition will reflect the edited node, and all other synchronized (locked) nodes will contain your edits. As mentioned above, to discard the edits you can Right Click > Match Current Definition.

This has been such a big confusion point for me. Thank you so much for explaining.

To recap (and make sure I have it right). I would do this:

Right click, allow edits
Make changes
Right click, save property type
right click, match current def

right?

You are awesome!

Hey i'v got the same issue as listed in the first post, where after I have matched the definition, all controls on the animation rig become unable to move .. in fact even if I change the values within the animation data properties that get shown via the refresh import .. however I have control of the points BEFORE i match the definition.. i can rotate them and move them, as soon as i get the node to go from red-> blue it all stops working…

I confirmed I have a library path set, I exported the proxy geometry.. not sure what's wrong .. any ideas?

Edit:
I managed to get the animation rig to turn green and KEEP the controls by doing this:
-created the animation rig (via button)
-refreshed the imports
-confirmed I could control the points
-then I went back to the auto rig, and chose “modify rig” and hit the button, this turned the animation rig to green, and kept the controls

I'm not sure why this even worked, but I'm also unsure why I lose control if I do it the way suggested in the quad auto rig tutorial ..