H16 AutoRigging masterclass

[Jonathan Moore]

Michael Goldfarb (Senior Technical Director at SideFX) talking though the new AutoRigging tools in Houdini 16

 

https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/autorigging-masterclass/

 

I was chatting with Michael on the Discord server and he mentioned that he’s very interested in RFE’s regarding both Houdini’s enhanced rigging tools and rigging workflows in general. If anybody has any ideas about rigging improvements let me know or post the RFE directly.

 

We also discussed poly modelling in Houdini and how sometimes destructive poly modelling (regularly deleting history) is preferred as it can be a far more fluid way to initially create assets. I like to model assets destructively as a first pass and then if the asset can benefit from procedurally based variations, recreate it in Houdini in a more structured manner. Because of the improvements to the modelling tools in H15-H16 I find I’m attempting I model ‘destructively’ in Houdini too but I think Houdini could be improved to help make this workflow more fluid. Michael is also interested in RFE’s here too so if anybody has thoughts on this too, let me know.

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I posted this to the main Softimage mail list and since then Michael mentioned this to me on Discord (what a refreshing attitude):

@LateralPixels please do! 
I'm fixing some bugs in the IK/FK matching right now and adding a few little things, and then a quadruped preset. Then will come improvements to the rig itself - I'd like to add another spine style etc etc so any suggestions will be very welcome. We've tried to make sure people know that this toolset isn't just 'one and done' but will evolve over time like all the other features in Houdini.

[Andy Nicholas]

Looks good. I love that SideFX are doing all these in-depth videos, they're a great way to start understanding new features. Unfortunately there's a bug in my current version of Houdini which stops it from creating an autorig. I'm sure SideFX must have fixed this by now, so I'll download the update at some point over the next few days and give it a go.

What would be nice to see in their next video is what steps you have to go through to make your own modular rig components, and also what you need to do if you need to just go in and "hack" the rig to make adjustments to it. I'm wondering what the workflow is when you need to add a few bones manually, and then for whatever reason, you need to regenerate the character from the guide template again. Would be nice if there was a way to handle that, but I doubt it exists yet.

The thing I'd really love to have in Houdini is, like in Softimage, a way to be able to envelope to any object, not just bones. As far as I know, that limitation is still there. I don't mind admitting that it's not a particularly rational need on my part :) I just liked the way Softimage let you do it.