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Welcome to my Intro to Character FX Course using Houdini, Vellum, and TOPs!

This course will cover a modular approach to building a CFX SimRig for Muscles, Fat,

Skin, and Cloth.


After that we will look into how to procedurally set up our flipbooks for each pass and generate a contact sheet that can be submitted to dailies to receive notes on our first pass.

We will go over some methods to utilize TOPs, to daisy chain chain, or stack all of our simulation tasks in order utilizing the previous stage's cache as an input.

Then, we will go over Houdini Digital Asset / HDA / creation process, select some key parameters to promote so other artists utilize them for shot work.


And lastly, is going over how to utilize TOPs to generate all of our sim, renders, and contact sheet generation, by clicking 2 buttons on our HDA, to basically get a first CFX iteration without any manual work needed. Which is a great way on production to start a new shot!

1 Intro
1 Intro
2 Quick Overview of the Simulation Setup
2 Quick Overview of the Simulation Setup
3 Running the Setup
3 Running the Setup
4 Muscles Overview
4 Muscles Overview
5 Muscle Tension Lines
5 Muscle Tension Lines
6 FAT Simulation
6 FAT Simulation
7 Skin Simulation
7 Skin Simulation
8 Cloth Simulation
8 Cloth Simulation
9 Shot Finalling Setup
9 Shot Finalling Setup
10 Automate Tasks with TOPs
10 Automate Tasks with TOPs
11 Connect File Caches in TOPs
11 Connect File Caches in TOPs
12 Automate Contact Sheet for Dailies
12 Automate Contact Sheet for Dailies
13 HDA Creation
13 HDA Creation
14 HDA Testing
14 HDA Testing
15 Modify an HDA
15 Modify an HDA
16 Final Result
16 Final Result

CREATED BY

Ryan Ruiz2
RYAN RUIZ

Hello! My name is Ryan Ruiz and I'm a Senior Character FX Artist. I love creating sim setups for cloth and hair simulations for Feature Animation and VFX. Currently, I am in Los Angeles working on an indie game dev project.​ My interests/hobbies include fashion, scuba diving, and analog photography. Previous companies I have worked for include: Walt Disney Animation Studios, ILM, Blue Sky Studios, Framestore, MPC, and Mr. X. I graduated with a MFA in Visual Effects from Savannah College of Art and Design and a BFA in Animation from DePaul University. Since graduating, I've been working as an artist and lead in multiple software including: Maya, Houdini, Marvelous Designer, and proprietary applications.

More from Ryan Ruiz

COMMENTS

  • Ryan Ruiz2 1 day, 8 hours ago  | 

    HDA Download link: ryanreign.gumroad.com/l/cfx

    Download HDA, install to asset library, add to your houdini scene by clicking tab and type "cfx_capybara"

    • Ryan Ruiz2 1 day, 8 hours ago  | 

      Muscles Master Class by Liesbeth Levick is a great starting point for an introduction to the Capybara Asset and muscles in Houdini 20.5
      https://www.sidefx.com/muscles-masterclass-essentials/

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