Utilizing the Auto Rig and Muscle System Tools in Houdini
Throughout these lessons, we will rig up a character from scratch using Houdini's Auto Rig and Muscle System tools. Software required: Houdini 13.
What you'll learn
Throughout these lessons, we will rig up a character from scratch using Houdini's Auto Rig and Muscle System tools. In this tutorial, we begin by importing the cage meshes and assigning materials. Then, we will create the Auto Rig system, paint influences, add facial blend shapes, and rig up parented eyeballs. By the end of this training, we will also go over a quick lighting setup and tweak materials as well. Software required: Houdini 13.
Table of contents
- Importing Meshes to Create the Base Geometry 6m
- Assigning Materials 3m
- Creating the Muscle Auto Rig Template 8m
- Positioning the Upper Body Joints 8m
- Positioning the Finger Joints 8m
- Positioning the Left Thumb, Shoulder Blade and Clavicle Bones 7m
- Creating the Animation and Deform Rigs 9m
- Creating Our Proxy Rig from Our Base Geometry 10m
- Adjusting Our Envelope Rings 7m
- Propagating the New Proxy Mesh into the Animation Rig 7m
- Setting Capture Muscle Envelopes 8m
- Adjusting Capture Muscle Envelopes for the Fingers 7m
- Adjusting Capture Muscle Envelopes for the Upper Body and Left Arm 7m
- Animating a Range of Motion 8m
- Introduction to the Paint Capture Node 6m
- Painting Weights for the Left Leg 12m
- Painting Weights for the Upper Body 10m
- Using Visibility Nodes to Paint Weights in Difficult Areas 7m
- Painting Weights for the Jaw 13m
- Using Visibility Nodes to Mask Fingers for Finger Weighting 5m
- Beginning to Paint Weights for the Fingers 9m
- Finessing Weights for the Fingers 6m
- Painting Weights for the Wrists 4m
- Investing Mirrored Weights for Asymmetry Issues 5m
- Creating a Second Paint Capture Node for Asymmetrical Fixes 9m
- Baking out the Muscle Capture and Painted Weights 5m
- Creating a Facial Blend Shape Expressing Anger 7m
- Creating a Facial Blend Shape Expressing Sadness 5m
- Creating a Facial Rig Tab for Our Blend Shapes 6m
- Blasting out the Weighted Eyeballs 2m
- Preparing New Eyeballs for Our Rig 4m
- Installing New Eyeballs into the Animation Rig 7m
- Tweaking Our Rig 8m
- Tweaking .Bgeo Weights and Prepping Our Rig for Render 8m
- Creating a Lighting Setup for Render 7m
About the author
Matt Skonicki started out as a Cinematics Artist at Netherrealm Studios working on game franchises including Blitz: The League, Ballers, and Mortal Kombat. He also worked as a Character Technical Artist for John Woo’s Stranglehold and Wheelman. In the last decade he has taught at various institutions including Columbia College and The Illinois Institute of Art. Matt is currently a full-time visual effects instructor at Tribeca Flashpoint Academy located in the heart of Chicago.