Houdini for mocap game animation?

#1

I’m doing some research into the idea of using Houdini for mocap cleanup and/or animation blending, ultimately to be exported to Unreal. Our main concern is if Houdini could loop our mocap to be used in the game. My concern is exporting the final animation to Unreal (via Maya or 3Ds MAX if need be). What are some opinions here in CG Talk? Any Houdini users who could give me some good insights into if Houdini is a time-worthy investment? (our budget has room for it, it’s time we’re more concerned about).

I hear great things about this forum (yup, this is my first time posting :slight_smile: I look forward to hearing what you guys think.

Thanks in advance,
SR

#2

Hmm, I can’t think of any game developers who are using it. I think of Houdini as being geared more towards the film and TV effects pipeline. But its customizability could make it a good authoring tool I guess.

CAT is a really popular solution.
http://www.catoolkit.com/products/CAT/default.asp

There’s a lot of buzz these days around Endorphin. Not really a mocap tool, but interesting nonetheless.
http://www.naturalmotion.com/pages/products.htm

I don’t know if this helps any. I’m not a Houdini user.

#3

CHOPs (Channel Operators) sounds like what you need.

Several resources:[ul]
[li]The accompanied Houdini PDF-manual pages
[/li][li]The Houdini Apprentice video tutorials (by SESI)
[/li][li]The od[force] tutorial section and the od[forum]
[/li][li]El Kabong’s Live 3D Techniques
[/li][/ul]

ultimately to be exported to Unreal.

This will probably be the trickiest part, you could try: 1) Transfering the channel data or 2) Writing your own exporter (for the Unreal file format of preference) - the Houdini HDK is even delevered with Houdini Apprentice these days, if you had something like this in mind, take a look at it I’d say.

Our main concern is if Houdini could loop our mocap to be used in the game. My concern is exporting the final animation to Unreal (via Maya or 3Ds MAX if need be).

Transfering channel data to Maya is very possible, take a look at this tutorial. (There are various tutorials at SCAD aswell on this subject).

What are some opinions here in CG Talk? Any Houdini users who could give me some good insights into if Houdini is a time-worthy investment? (our budget has room for it, it’s time we’re more concerned about).

Hard for me to say - as a Houdini user myself - but I absolutely love it. It’s all very tightly integrated, fast, flexible and not to mention procedural. Something that a lot of people (around me) don’t like about Houdini is the learning curve and that it isn’t so “out of the box”, a lot you must create yourself - some people say it’s too much.

[i]I hear great things about this forum (yup, this is my first time posting :slight_smile: I look forward to hearing what you guys think.

Thanks in advance,
SR[/i]

Welcome and don’t forget to take a look in the CGTalk - Houdini forum!

#4

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.