S02 E09 - Understanding Houdini - Animation Basics

[Music] hi there in this video we are going to learn the basics of animation animation is the process by which you set and control the behavior of a property or parameter over time when animating a character for instance you are constantly changing the wrongs positions and rotations and setting poses for the character over time including animation is really fun and you can animate every parameter or attribute the most common ways to do animation are manually setting keyframes using expressions to drag the animation or using motion effects to drive the animation setting keyframes for the key positions is the traditional animation method you set the key positions and then the soft work generates the in-between frames using expressions to animate a parameter or attribute easy the animation process as you don't need to set keys simple expressions will save you a lot of time in the process motion effects gives you powerful tools to precisely set and control your animation it also gives you presets to quickly add animation to any parameter or attribute ok let's start with a lesson in the play bar we have the timeline and the playback controls let's click on the play button now the playhead moves extremely fast to have a proper split it's necessary to enable the real time toggle option click on the real time toggle and play again now the playhead moves correctly in the playback controls we also have the stop button to stop the animation the last frame button to go to the end of the animation the played backward button to play the animation back and the first rain button to go to the first frame of the animation in the options buttons we already see the real time toggle besides there is a button to control how to loop the animation another button for the audio panel and finally the global animation options here you can set the frame rate at which your animation will be played this value is set in frames per second for film this value is 24 and for television it can be 25 50 30 or 60 depending on the format besides the frame rate here you can also set the animation length by setting the first frame and the last frame of the animation let's leave the default values so as the animation length is 240 frames and the frame per second rate is 24 then the animation duration will be 10 seconds close the window let's create some geometry to have something to work with in the shelf dock in the create tab control click on the Platonic solids tool a titre Headroom is created in the operation controls bar change the solid type to soccer ball now we have a ball to play with to manually create a keyframe the process is simple locate the playhead at the frame you want to create the key and then hold Alt + left click on the parameter for instance at this moment the playhead is park at frame 1 now to animate the translation call Alt + left click on the translate name as translation is a vector a keyframe has been created for each of its components 2 X D Y and T C the three fields turned green to show that a key has been set for these parameters and in the timeline the key jobs are represented in green at frame 1 use ctrl Z to undo the keyframe creation let's just create a key for the vertical translation to do this place a mouse pointer over the T Y parameter hold alt + left click a keyframe has been created just for the vertical translation and in the timeline you can check that the key is located at frame 1 okay we have our first key for the vertical position at frame 1 now move the playhead to frame 24 and move the ball to a new position using the vertical handle or just type a value and tap enter the field color has changed to indicates that there are pending changes to commit the change and create a key hold alt and then left-click on the parameter now the key is created the field is green and we can check the key at frame 24 let's reframe the view to see the ball to check scrub the playhead between frames 1 and 24 and the world moves it's working now let's add another key move the playhead to frame 48 return the ball to its initial position using the vertical handle or just type in zero in the vertical field again to create a key hold Alt + left click on the parameter the key is created and we can check it in the timeline play the animation and it's working from frame 1 to 48 to zoom in in the timeline to this range type 48 in the end frame field now the 48 frames fill the entire timeline let's play again it's working we created three keys and then Houdini interpolates the movement in between the keys but how this interpolation is long and how can we edit the animation to edit the animation we have the animation editor click on the animation editor tab to see its content this tab displays animation data also known as channels for a selected node the animation editor displays the channel list and each channel represents graphically the animation data for the corresponding parameter we can see one curve because we only animated the translate white parameter we can see the three created keyframes as a small diamonds connected by curves let's cover the basics features of this editor to start to navigate in the graphic use the same options to navigate in the network editor middle mouse button and drag to pan around right mouse button and drag horizontally or vertically to zoom in and out in the corresponding direction besides at the top right side you have three useful functions vertical adapt to fit the curve vertically horizontal adapt to fit the curve horizontally and frame selected to frame the selected keyframes besides the current grab format we can also see the animation data in adopted format this is a more compact representation but here you can quickly edit individual key frames or blocks of key frames without worrying about the curves but for precise control the grab mode is a better choice in the graph view the horizontal axis represents time in frames and the vertical axis represents the value for the selected parameter if we select the first key we can see at frame 1 the value for translate Y is 0 then for the second key at frame 24 the value is 3 and for the last key at frame 48 the value is 0 you can drag the keys in the graph to modify its frame or its value the shape of the curve between two keys controls the variation of the value between the keys to modify the curves move the keyframes or just drag the handles with this curve you would expect no speed at the beginning and high speed at the top position let's check on the scene view and it works as expected although the movement is not natural let's return to the enemy editor and drag the handles to shape the curve as a perp you let's check again in the symbiote the movement is better perhaps a minor adjustment you that's better reframe the window using the spacebar and the mouse buttons now let's animate the translation in the x-direction not using keyframes but an expression how do we enter an expression to animate a parameter well quiet easy just type the expression in the parameter field but what can we type the most used variable is the time in frames and its representation is as the dollar sign and the F character let's type dollar F in the translate X field and enter to finish at the moment we see the expression but not the value to toggle to the value left click on the parameter name translate now we see T X has a value one aside and one is our current frame if we advance frame by frame we can see how the TX value matches the current frame and the ball is moving in the X direction if we play the animation the ball moves as high speed in the X direction to reduce the speed let's modify the expression let's divide dollar F by 10 to make the speed 10 times slower play the animation perhaps too fast let's divide it by 15 play the animation now perhaps too slow let's abide it by 12 better reframe the window using the spacebar and the mouse buttons and extend the visible animation length to the original value 240 play the animation well we just have one cycle to extend the animation we could start creating more keys but this way is boring and takes time and in the animation editor there are functions to extend or extrapolate our current animation let's go back to the animation editor by the way besides our green curve that represents the white translation now we have a red Esther step graphic that represents the X translation as the X channel is driven by an expression we have no handles and we cannot edit the graphic okay back to our task how to cycle our animation first click the right mouse button and drag horizontally to zoom out the view also use the middle mouse button to pan the view now go to the translate X channel and right-click go to channels then to extrapolation and finally select cycle done our animation has been extrapolated let's check in the scene view play the animation and it works fine go back to the first frame now if I would like to animate the rotation for the wall around the x axis or the z axis we simply write an expression on each field type dollar f / - in the rotate X and the C fields play the animation now the ball spins around the x and c axis okay let's try a final task first delete the animation in all the channels but the translate Y and also set their values to 0 to delete an animation channel right click on the parameter and select delete channel let's do this for the channels rotate X rotate C and translate X play the animation now we have our bouncing ball at the center of the scene reframe the window using the spacebar and the mouse buttons I was like the ball while still bouncing to rotate around the center of the scene let's move the ball five units in the X Direction now if we rotate around the y axis the ball rotates but around its axis to rotate around the center of the scene we have to move back the people to translate x five units okay the pivot is now at the center of the scene and if we rotate the ball it now rotates around the center so let's animate it by typing dollar F in the rotate x field it works as we don't have enough frames in the timeline we could not complete the full circle let's add more frames but how many to find out let's go to the animation editor here you can check that our original animation is 48 frames long to loop animation you use the original frame length - 147 for this example if we need nine additional cycles then we need nine times 47 which equals 423 frames then 48 frames from the original cycle plus 423 frames from the night additional cycles gives us a total of 471 frames if I type 471 in the end frame nothing changes I have to change it in the global animation options window open the global animation options and change the end to 471 apply and close the window zoom out and pan debut to fit the 471 frames you can see the end of the cycle corresponds exactly with the end of the animation the translate Y or bouncing movement is correctly cycle let's go back to the scene view what about the rotation white movement the unit for rotation is in degrees and we know a full circle has 360 degrees our animation length is 471 he we leave the expression for the Y rotation $2 F it means that for the end of the animation the ball will rotate 471 degrees right but we need not 471 degrees but 360 degrees basic math can help us here and specifically the rule of three we just need to divide dollar F by 471 and then multiply by 360 and we are done with maths lady animation you and it works as expected fine we have covered the basics of key framing and expressions to end this video let's also cover the basics of motion effects driven animations let's delete the animation channels and set the exposition and people to zero open the hidden terview on the left we can see our platonic object one and inside this container we have the Platonic one geometry to animate the why translation using motion effects presets right-click on the parameter and then go to motion effects in the bottom part we have some presets to be applied to any channel select wave a panel opens with the way parameters at the top and the motion effects view at the bottom let's place a panel to the right play the animation the ball moves vertically following the weight pattern in the motion effects view in the way parameters we can change the values and visually see the effect on the graph changing the period changes the frequency of the wave changing the amplitude modifies the height of the wave let's play the animation to see the effect you change the decay rate the graphic shows that the wave height or amplitude will decrease over time let's play to check yes it works as expected you close the panel and let's figure out how it works at the moment we are inside a motion effects Network go to the object level and next to our platonic object a motion effects network has been created in the Trib you we can see the notes it contains remember we apply the motion effect to the y translation of the platonic object dive inside the network the first note brings or imports the white translation T Y so the Y translation is affected to test changed ey 40x and play the animation now the movement is along the x-axis change TX for TC and play the animation now the movement is along the c-axis type the original value of T y and play the animation to check in summary this note said what parameter or channel is going to be affected the wave node sets a wave oscillation movement and the last node is a math node it just adds the wave movement to the important parameter and also sent back this information to the white translation parameter of the Platonic object let's go back to the object level in the white translate field we can see an orange bar and the indication that this parameter is overridden by the wave half node select motion effects node and delete it now select the Platonic object the orange bar has disappeared from the white translation field and this parameter is no longer driven by any motion FX network let's try another preset right click on the parameter then motion effects and this time select noise our panel opens with the noise parameters at the top and the motion effects view at the bottom play the animation to see how the particle movement for the wall corresponds to the motion effects graph here you can also change rameters and see the graphic results in the motion effects view let's change the period and the amplitude play again the animation you okay close the panel in the network editor we have the first node to import the parameter to be affected T Y in this case the second node provides a noise function and the third node add the noise to the affected parameter and export the result back to the affected parameter at the object level we can see the white translate parameter is overridden by the noise earth node okay we have covered the basics of animation in Houdini thank you for watching this video and see you soon in the next one [Music]

Channel: Lux Mater Studios

Views: 3,701

Rating: 4.9452057 out of 5

Keywords: 3D, CGI, Computer Graphics, Modeling, Animation, Postproduction, VFX, Visual Effects, Composite, Houdini, SideFX, Tutorials, Free, Learning, Artist, Modelado, Animación, Postproducción, Efectos Visuales, Composición

Id: 8OJ5UXTx0ao

Length: 25min 44sec (1544 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 13 2019