Are we going to see updates in the autorigging system in Houdini 17, Michael?

Yes, if you have specific needs/wants please let us know.

Quadruped autorig for toe tip toe
Stretchy bones -> but that is already implemented -> perhaps a seperate node for making 2 bones stretchy -> I'm lazy, I know
A bird wing rig
Something like Ik Booster in Lightwave.(Basically an FK chain with control nulls -> I believe we already have something like this in the form of the spine autorig preset.) But IK booster in Lightwave is nice for tails tentacles adjusting ragdoll animation,
The option to use nulls with falloff for rigging -> For facial animation -> lips cheek puffs eyebrows or to use as a general deformer would be nice instead of the lattice deformer.

Easier mocap retargetting -> Softimage Motor -> a table with linking and joint length compensation was nice. I also like the Modo way of doing this. Very visual, easy for non programmers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63QI_asML4A [www.youtube.com]


In Rhiggit from Lightwave you can even retarget a biped rig to parts of a quadruped.

https://youtu.be/pqqazvf1FN0?list=PLTds3QePYrWGUd7fMuNAivIsORvpnKDqX&t=336 [youtu.be]

That's about it. If we have presets, freelancers would certainly appreciate that. It would make their workflow faster.

I also hope you guys work on some sort of gpu or cpu based adaptive sampling or denoising solution for Manta.

Thanks in advance.

WOW! 16.5 seems amazing already. Im super new to VFX, but autorigging? Thats insane! Why havent I found this sooner.

The two areas that Houdini need to be more strong is a Render Engine and Character Animation.
If character rigging and animation became more friendly more user come to Houdini especially if we think the big advantage that SideFx bring to us with Houdini Indie ;-)

It is not a criticizes but I am a little tired to see FX at ever Houdini showreel all the time.
But it is my fault too :-)

Hi,

I loved the bear animation, fantastic work. The makers said the complicated simulation stuff didn't cut it. That's why I requested a null point deformer with falloff that you can use for rigging like with bones. These things can be very handy for adding cheek or lip eyebrow animation, secundairy skin movement etc… And I still have a soft spot for IK booster in Lightwave. For correcting radoll simulation or for simple animation of tails, ears, whatever.

Out of curiosity Harry, what do you see in Mantra that is a weakness?
We have full access to Arnold here and have been choosing Mantra for most projects as it is very flexible (especially with regards to it's houdini attribute intergration of course).

Rich.

harryabreu
The two areas that Houdini need to be more strong is a Render Engine and Character Animation.
If character rigging and animation became more friendly more user come to Houdini especially if we think the big advantage that SideFx bring to us with Houdini Indie ;-)

It is not a criticizes but I am a little tired to see FX at ever Houdini showreel all the time.
But it is my fault too :-)

Hi Costin.
I use Houdini like a freelancer and to be honest the most slow render in my test is Mantra.
If Houdini Indie not have third party render it will be impossible to use Houdini(my opinion).
Houdini Indie bring new life to SideFX, people like me that can buy only a single core I7 but not exactaly a renderfarm or two processor in one machine had difficult to work.
Mantra is good! Mantra is beautifull! Mantra is integrate…. I know it all.
But if I can not render my jobt in time I will not make money… but we had a talk about it in “thoughts about mantra” and SideFX probably read it a lot…
I think here is not necessary to open this speech again
Today I am focus in character rigging in Houdini like I can do in Maya.
Now I am study to teach Houdini in Brazil at São Paulo and render and rigging will be a very delicate talk with my students in the future.
Because when a lot of us started in Houdini we want an alternative to other package for character animation and if possible render too
That was only a comment only it.

It would be nice if we got something like Chronosculpt in Lightwave. I've already send an RFE over this. That would make animation easier. If we could sculpt deformations and particles cloth simulation etc… An advanced edit operator over cached particle fluid and character animation.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV6fyfJolcI [www.youtube.com]

OK it not about autorig but did you see the incredible work at FMX 2018 Electric Theater Collective did


This the Houdini that I like to see

Hi! Ah does indie not support 3rd party?

For smaller setups Redshift would definitely be the way to go for a lot of shots imho!

harryabreu
Hi Costin.
I use Houdini like a freelancer and to be honest the most slow render in my test is Mantra.
If Houdini Indie not have third party render it will be impossible to use Houdini(my opinion).
Houdini Indie bring new life to SideFX, people like me that can buy only a single core I7 but not exactaly a renderfarm or two processor in one machine had difficult to work.
Mantra is good! Mantra is beautifull! Mantra is integrate…. I know it all.
But if I can not render my jobt in time I will not make money… but we had a talk about it in “thoughts about mantra” and SideFX probably read it a lot…
I think here is not necessary to open this speech again
Today I am focus in character rigging in Houdini like I can do in Maya.
Now I am study to teach Houdini in Brazil at São Paulo and render and rigging will be a very delicate talk with my students in the future.
Because when a lot of us started in Houdini we want an alternative to other package for character animation and if possible render too
That was only a comment only it.

Richard Costin
Hi! Ah does indie not support 3rd party?

For smaller setups Redshift would definitely be the way to go for a lot of shots imho!

http://www.cgsociety.org/news/article/2320/3rd-party-rendering-coming-to-houdini-indie [www.cgsociety.org]
Available for almost two years now. Unless I understood something totally wrong.

Regarding the Autorigging, I would love to tweak a few things on the Biped (not done anything with quadrupeds yet)

- Fix hand IK/FK discrepancy, suddenly the control is left behind.
- Add a clavicle control for the arm instead of relying on positions (which by the way are not on in FK mode)
- More robust guide > rig workflow (i have had a few issues with this in 16.0 and even 16.5)
- Setup a T-Pose as zero and a Bind Pose to capture the skin, this way we will be able to transfer animations between character easily.
- Better finger rig visualization tools (isolate finger) so we can put it in posiiton more easily.
- In the future I would love to see the controllers fully separated from the bones and deformers so it is a bit more modular. This of course will force the use of more contraints but tends to be super fast thing to calculate right?

Basically the aim for me should be to have a good base rig for previz and animation, I will work on top from there.

thanks

WOW, seems you are very busy Michael… I can see some of those bugs already being fixed in the very latest build!!! Thanks and keep the good work!

Related to auto rigs, and fits into Houdini's core concept is auto/procedural walk cycles.
I'd imagine it's already very possible to setup in chops, but the request here is to have it work right off the bat with the auto rigs.
The CAT tools in 3dsmax is a decent example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skMol6-oXRk [www.youtube.com]

Facerobot ?

Qt 5.11, or something that supports UHD displays on laptops would be a most welcome feature. SESI has done a lot to improve UX in the last year. Current Qt version feels a bit dated and a flat UI would be great to work with.