Houdini APEX Rig Graphs 01 | Component Scripts

The Basics of Rig Graphs, and how to write a component script.
Instagram: / bent_toenail
Artstation: www.artstation.com/maxrose

[@AndramagamA]

SideFX should give you an award for this. It's a shame how little there is about APEX. I hope that more tutorials will come out and that it can be consolidated as a rigging system in the industry. Thanks for this series.

[@maxrose8845]

I'm thinking Sidefx doesn't want to spend too much time creating info on this tool while it's still in beta, but it's already so powerful I figured I'd share what I learned as I use it. Once they fully flesh it out people won't be able to ignore it

[@sleepyblue8]

I'm diving head first into this after I graduate next month! Beautiful beautiful beautiful

[@maxrose8845]

Congrats on your graduation! Hope it helps

[@TomCushwa]

I love the wide screen recording... It looks great on my wide screen monitor!

[@Handcraftedcc]

Amazing tutorial! You make it so clear and concise!

[@maxrose8845]

😁😁😁

[@MarthinusWessels]

yessss. amped for this series.

[@maxrose8845]

[@siddarthrock]

AWESOME SERIOUSLY THANK YOU!

[@maxrose8845]

You're so very welcome!!!

[@MoonPigeonFilms]

Really nice video, very helpful. I was trying to modify the Electra rig and could not figure out how to do it without editing the entire massive end graph. This clarifies things for me. Thanks!

[@maxrose8845]

This was a huge issue for me in the beginning, so I'm glad I could help.

[@mrnitro30103]

great video but I think sidefx idea is that basically enoughs salt in the coffee and eventually you'll get accustomed to it... we need automation, presets, ease of use... not everything needs to be convoluted... I want the rig to be easy to re-rig, but the inner mechanics of everything seldomly needs to be exposed...tbh it's just a case of 'if all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail'.. (ie massively procedural engine)... applied to cg.

[@maxrose8845]

Agreed, rigging should be easy, not difficult. APEX is still in Beta, so Sidefx's purpose is to let people get a hang of it before making it more accessible. One of the greatest things about APEX is that it allows you to make rigging as simple as you want it to be - you build a tool once, and you can use it anywhere.

[@OzAdi]

Thank you so much this is really helpful!

[@maxrose8845]

of course!

[@jessesolomonscott]

This is so cool. Thanks for the tutorial.

[@maxrose8845]

Nah you're so cool!

[@erichocean8746]

Thanks for doing these, they are very useful.

[@maxrose8845]

Cool, glad you found them helpful!

[@jzbrothersurgut]

in the Luchador example & Chicken there is an interesting topic how with the help of AbstractControl it changes the position of the hands, that is, how the skeleton of the preconfigured poses of the hands is mixed

[@maxrose8845]

One of the benefits of having points doubling as skeletal joints is that you can create blendshapes on your skeleton. What Will is doing is creating various hand poses on the hand joints, and then blends between those poses using a blendshape node. The setup is a bit more complex then the standard setup I illustrated however. I'm planning on making a video on it some time in the future.

[@Deviner75]

feels really complex for what it does, but will see how it goes, thank you for the video isn't is easier to do with python at this point hah

[@maxrose8845]

Whatever floats your boat. Sidefx are still developing higher level tools, and they way they're developed is through component scripts. So if you know how these work, you can develop your own tools, or understand how the current tools function.

[@jzbrothersurgut]

A wonderful lesson can I ask you how to implement the work of capturing a curve in APEX, like there are a lot of bones around the mouth, but in order not to control each bone from the sets, I make a nurbs curve and use RIGVOP to control the entire curve around the mouth, but I have only a few control points how to transfer control to APEX I do not know or tried to do something similar with wiredeform, but I also don't know how to make friends with APEX

[@heytraile]

very niiicee!👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾

[@maxrose8845]

Thanks!!

[@vincestevenson9430]

Forgive me for thumbs up before I even watched.

[@maxrose8845]

haha awesome thanks for watching again, Vince!

[@Sintakaschannel]

my god this guy going crazy on messing with APEX even in a beta system, I’m have to catch him before he take off (😬

[@maxrose8845]

*Flying noises*