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Learn how to generate VAT Characters where you define the character motion without using bones and skeleton meshes. The animation comes from textures, using the vertex animation textures method. Then learn how to add variation to your characters when they are placed in the level.

Project Titan is an in-house tech demo designed to production test Houdini's procedural workflows while creating a 3D environment that leverages the latest technologies in Unreal. Click Here to learn more.

PROJECT FILES
Overview
A quick overview of all the different parts of the VAT Characters lesson. Take a look at where you are headed with this lesson.
1 | Setup Characters in Houdini
Learn how to set up the characters in Houdini and prepare for the vertex animation textures. For this lesson, it is recommended that you have a character with animation on it. A Mixamo character can be useful here. Multiple animations will be imported and exported to VAT for the next part.
2 | Assemble in Unreal Engine
Learn how to use all the exported files in Unreal Engine. You will use the SideFX Labs VAT Shaders to place the animation on the characters using the textures. The character will have one mesh and based on the textures, it will be animated.
3 | Add Variation
Learn how to add variation to the characters. In project Titan a couple tricks were used to add more variation between characters. Characters with the same animation textures can now have different colors in clothing and even different outfits. Based on the position data of the mesh it will change and add variation.

CREATED BY

Simon_V
SIMON VERSTRAETE

Simon is a tech Artist that loves building procedural tools and assets. By adding more and more procedural approaches to his workflow, he is able to build 3D models with speed and flexibility. During his studies at Digital Arts and Entertainment, he taught himself how to work with Houdini. After his studies, he started working on Ary and the Secret of Seasons at eXiin. Currently he is a Houdini freelancer and focuses on creating procedural content.

More from Simon Verstraete

コメント

  • kyanhudson 2 年, 10 ヶ月 前  | 

    ive been looking forward to this one the most. thank you (:

    • vyudin 2 年, 10 ヶ月 前  | 

      I would suggest to use not Random from Pos, but instanced mesh with Random Per Instance. This will let you to keep the same character look when it's move.
      Also please be aware you can have a problems with the float point precision in vertex/pixes interpolation. So it's better to separate by UV tiling instead of the bitmask.
      We had a pretty similar tech here, with 10K crowd and different weapons: https://youtu.be/4NEUPQzH0D0

      • alexmont 2 年, 10 ヶ月 前  | 

        How come I dont get that information when I hook up a null to my fbximport. Around time 8:00 min?

        • hadia.luqmaan786 2 年, 10 ヶ月 前  | 

          This is great

          • alexmont 2 年, 9 ヶ月 前  | 

            how do you get the textures map to come over with a character. In my example my character has uv and textures that look great in Houdini but inside UE5 the textures dont look correct. Like the UV are screwed up. The animations are fine but its the textures that are not correct.

            • harayoki 2 年, 8 ヶ月 前  | 

              Very interesting. I love this kind of article.

              I have three questions.

              1. Making character variation by shader trick can be achieved with regular bone animation model too.
              What is benefit of using VAT animation in this case. e.g. Low cpu usage?

              2. Can these vat characters be instanced in UE scene?

              3. Did you use any tools or techniques for making the multi parts character model? It seem to be a little difficult for non technical artist.

              • gaoshang1244 2 年, 6 ヶ月 前  | 

                It doesn't have download it

                • ieracimarcodop 1 年, 11 ヶ月 前  | 

                  Hi! the project files are down :( other titan projects are up to download but this VAT project file link is down

                  • anatolij.zykov 1 ヶ月, 3 週間 前  | 

                    Why VAT tools isn't working with PCG and Niagara?
                    It kind work with Niagara, but only on straight surface. When I scatter characters over spline in PCG and move points vertically characters became broken.

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