This CHOP performs a weighted sum of channels coming from Channel CHOPs. The Animation Layer Editor offers an easy way to create Animation Layer setups without having to dive into CHOP networks.
The CHOP setup consists of a Layer CHOP referred to as the Layer Mixer, a Channel CHOP referred to as the Base Layer, and zero or more Channel CHOPs referred to as Animation Layers. The Base Layer contains absolute values for translate, scale, and rotation which is stored in a Channel CHOP. The weight for the base layer should always be set to 1. Then the animation layers contain relative values for translate, scale, and rotations. The relative values are simply added to the base layer values. This makes it possible to have multiple layers of keyframed animation contributing to the same channel. The Active Layer affects which channels the Animation Editor UI displays and also under which layer the new keyframes will go.
For more information, see the Animation Layer Mixer help.
Parameters
Layers
Active Layer
The active layer is used by animation commands to tell on which animation layer new keyframes will go. It’s an index that matches the order of the inputs.
Layer Name
Names of individual layers for display purpose in the Animation Layer Editor.
Layer Weight
Weight values normally from 0.0 to 1.0 representing the contribution of each layer.
Layer Mute
Sets the layer contribution to 0.0 without having to modify the weight. It’s linked to a button in a Animation Layer Editor, and it makes it easier to toggle an animation layer on and off to see its effect on the animation.
Layer Solo
Sets all the other layers contributions to zero to see only the effect of the given layer.
Common
Some of these parameters may not be available on all CHOP nodes.
Scope
To determine which channels get affected, some CHOPs have a scope string. Patterns can be used in the scope, for example *
(match all), and ?
(match single character).
The following are examples of possible channel name matching options:
chan2
Matches a single channel name.
chan3 tx ty tz
Matches four channel names, separated by spaces.
chan*
Matches each channel that starts with chan
.
*foot*
Matches each channel that has foot
in it.
t?
The ?
matches a single character. t?
matches two-character channels starting with t.
r[xyz]
Matches channels rx
, ry
and rz
.
blend[3-7:2]
Matches number ranges giving blend3
, blend5
, and blend7
.
blend[2-3,5,13]
Matches channels blend2
, blend3
, blend5
, blend13
.
t[xyz]
[xyz]
matches three characters, giving channels tx
, ty
and tz
.
Sample Rate Match
The Sample Rate Match Options handle cases where multiple input CHOPs’ sample rates are different.
Resample At First Input’s Rate
Use rate of first input to resample others.
Resample At Maximum Rate
Resample to highest sample rate.
Resample At Minimum Rate
Resample to the lowest sample rate.
Error if Rates Differ
Does not accept conflicting sample rates.
Units
The units for which time parameters are specified.
For example, you can specify the amount of time a lag should last for in seconds (default), frames (at the Houdini FPS), or samples (in the CHOP’s sample rate).
Note
When you change the Units parameter, it does not convert the existing parameters to the new units.
Time Slice
Time Slicing is a feature which boosts cooking performance and reduces memory usage. Traditionally, CHOPs calculate the channel over its entire frame range. If the channel does need to be evaluated every frame, then cooking the entire range of the channel is unnecessary. It is more efficient to calculate only the fraction of the channel that is needed. This fraction is known as a Time Slice.
Unload
Causes the memory consumed by a CHOP to be released after it is cooked and the data passed to the next CHOP.
Export Prefix
The Export prefix is prepended to CHOP channel names to determine where to export to.
For example, if the CHOP channel was named geo1:tx
, and the prefix was /obj
, the channel would be exported to /obj/geo1/tx
.
Note
You can leave the Export Prefix blank, but then your CHOP track names need to be absolute paths, such as obj:geo1:tx
.
Graph Color
Every CHOP has this option. Each CHOP gets a default color assigned for display in the Graph port, but you can override the color in the Common page under Graph Color. There are 36 RGB color combinations in the Palette.
Graph Color Step
When the graph displays the animation curves and a CHOP has two or more channels, this defines the difference in color from one channel to the next, giving a rainbow spectrum of colors.
See also |