KineFX - Rigging | Esther Trilsch | H20 HIVE

Learn how to set up characters for the new animation state in Houdini 20. Learn the basics of organizing character elements in geometry folders; using and creating reusable rig components as well as assembling animator-friendly scenes. Learn how to combine this new animation workflow with classic KineFX workflows. Then take a quick look at how you can create tools for animators.
Esther Trilsch is a Senior Character TD at SideFX. She started her career as a character TD apprentice at Walt Disney Animation Studios working on Zootopia, and worked at RiseFX as a Character Supervisor and Pipeline TD. Combining her focus for both the creative side of anatomy and deformation, as well as the technical side of RnD, she found her sweet spot in the building of innovative structures and tools for character workflows.

[@erichocean8746]

It would be very helpful to do a Master Class covering SideFX's vision for animation going forward, and why APEX, packed folders, etc. was the technology choice that enabled that vision. What's been shown/developed so far looks very promising, but something new like this really deserves a higher-level talk about what is being attempted, why, where things are going, and how you SideFX expects to get there. Ideally with a long Q&A period at the end.

[@EstherTrilsch]

We are already working on a Masterclass for the Chicken and the Luchador :)

[@maxrose8845]

Can’t wait for that @@EstherTrilsch

[@junechevalier]

@@EstherTrilschWill be looking out for that!

[@andregama8068]

I don't understand nothing, but looks great😂😂😂

[@DevGods]

Patiently waiting for the Fur Dude update for this new rigging system. I feel like I can figure it out myself but it would put my mind at ease to have a baseline of best practices and build up from there.

[@Terry_Williams]

I feel like my brain has been put on a blender.

[@Derabooo]

Great presentation. I am already super excited to play with this!

[@heytraile]

Thanks Esther, looking forward to more videos on APEX and rigging. Hopefully much sooner than later.

[@sridharan5172]

Thanks for the explanation @EstherTrilsch 😍😍

[@maxrose8845]

This is the biggest leap in rigging I’ve seen in a long time, and the possibilities for where this could go seem endless. Are there plans for using channel packed primitives in the viewport, I.e editable motion trails? Also, will there be a way to have an animation drive the rig, but still leave the control’s channels blank (a Houdini version of animation layers)?

[@krylonpoet]

Are there any plans to add your modular twist component to the content library? I think it would be a helpful asset for some of the more basic concepts, whereas the luchador/chicken is rather advanced.

[@xxh5510]

Thanks Esther, The rotation controller must select xyz. Can't you click on any position on the spherical surface to adjust it, just like Maya?Has kinefx added pose-space-deform?

[@EstherTrilsch]

ah you mean the handle? in the xform mode you currently do not have the rotation ball behavior you are describing but if you simply hit r in the viewport you switch to the pure rotate handle and then you get it as well:) we do have initial nodes for pose space deformation for the APEX graph but no convenience tools built around it

[@simonvandenbroek6384]

Are rig vops and wrangles useable anywhere within this APEX pipeline, like python nodes are being used? or are rig vops and wrangles now purely for skeleton creation?

[@EstherTrilsch]

it depends a bit on what you want to do: You can theoretically have wrangles in an apex graph directly but i would not recommend going for that. you will easily loose performance if you are not watching out. Especially for simple numerical operations the apex nodes are the better way of working. The only case where it might make sense is if you go apply the wrangle to a geometry with a high point count and you apply it to the points directly, so something like a vex deformer. When it comes to manipulating the rig graph geometry i would rather go for python or apex graphs like the shown component scripts.

[@simonvandenbroek6384]

@@EstherTrilsch is that scene that you showed, where the python scripts are being used, available somewhere to take a look at? I'm starting to really get into it lately and would like to learn more about this.

[@jzbrothersurgut]

please do the simplest lesson on BlendShape in Apex, from the very beginning and not already on the finished scene, just take a ball and change its geometry by moving the control point, what is so difficult?

[@fastlearner292]

Sidefx definately is very slow in releasing videos for new tools. Unfortunate, but you can check out Max Rose's Apex tutorials. He recently released a series for making custom Apex component scripts and subgraphs where he went into creating blendshapes too. However, if you don't know how Apex works, I would highly suggest doing his basic APEX and robot rig tutorial series first. It's a bit hard to understand at first but it slowly starts to make sense.

[@siddarthrock]

super hard when trying to understand just by waching but when you try it out not so much.

[@rendermanpro]

Very cool, but nobody know how to use 🤣 You need to create VERY BASIC tutorials... It's like bought a Ferrari and lock it in the garage.

[@SajanSingh-mj8eh]

The problem with Houdini is that everything is too much exposed. I don't see how it can override the maya rigging and animation features. That are easier for the end-users for both rigging and animation.

[@i20010]

Yes, this is for Phd rocket science people.

[@fastlearner292]

This is barebones release, with some more documentation and some extra higher level tools (mostly rig scripts) by SideFX and the community it will easily replace Maya. It only looks complicated at first but after using it for a while I have never been happier making a rig (although it is simple rn) than ever before in Maya. SESI made this thing look more complex than it is though, probably so that the more experienced users know what it is. This thing is extremely fast and already beats Maya, just need some time to mature. Quite a few other tools also had this kind of janky release bdw, but eventually they ended up being one of the best

[@SajanSingh-mj8eh]

@@fastlearner292 So you believe it can should be used for rigging and animation pipelines for animation production? We are in pre-production for a 12 episode series right now. If it's really more convenient from small-studio production then we might give it a go for this series.

[@fastlearner292]

​​​​@@SajanSingh-mj8ehfor some reason youtube didn't notify me for this. But to answer your question, no, don't use it for production yet. It's in beta and while it's still usable enough, I don't think using this in production is a good idea, especially since it has no documentation and things feel barebones. Imo it WILL become better than Maya, but the tooling isn't there yet and you have to do a whole lot of tinkering yourself to do stuff. I suggest waiting till 20.5 release atleast, by that time I expect it to be stable enough. I know that's a lot of time to wait but APEX pretty much was a premature release because they didn't have enough time till H20. Unless your current tools are useless and too much of a pain to deal with, that should be enough, otherwise contacting SideFX and exchanging info won't hurt.

[@wallacesousuke1433]

@@fastlearner292 "it will easily replace Maya" hahaha are you serious? Maya + UE5 > this awful software

[@haydclay]

This seems super powerful but extremely unintuitive

[@JDudeChannel]

I know that Houdini people are not a 100% pure artist, but "Everythin-g" on 0:40 is illegal. PLEASE.

[@vincestevenson9430]

Ik / fk. Ik / fk.

[@ViralKiller]

So insanely complicated...It must be nice showing off, but if you want animators to take Houdini seriously, u need to fix this massive UI/UX issue...way too complex...at least have some tutorials that will lead you up to this crazy level

[@Deviner75]

Too much novelty for one video 😭