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The ObjectChain CHOP takes a chain of objects and returns information on their transforms.
Tip
This node is especially useful for generating transforms for the IKSolver CHOP.
Parameters
Object Chain
Start Object
The start object of the chain to obtain transforms from. This object must be an input ancestor of the End Object.
End Object
The end object of the chain to obtain transforms from. This object must be an output descendent of the Start Object.
Pre-transform Name
If enabled, pre-transforms from the objects are generated as separate tranforms. The text specified here is used as part of the generated channel name to differentiate it from the regular transform channels.
Fetch Bone Rest Channels
Fetch Bone Constraint Channels
Fetch Local Transforms
If enabled, this will generate local transforms for each of the objects in the specified chain. If disabled, full world transforms will be generated instead.
Channel
Channel Names
Sets how the output channels are named.
Channel Name
Only use the name of the channel.
OP and Channel Name
Include the name of the object with the channel name, separated by a colon (:).
Full Path and Channel Name
Include the full path of the object with the channel name, separated by a colon (:).
Channel Range
Indicates how much of the channel to fetch.
Use Full Animation Range
All of the current global animation range.
Use Current Frame
Only the sample at the current frame.
Use Start/End
Specify the range.
Start
The start time of the desired interval of the object path.
Note
The value of this parameter is interpreted using the Units parameter on the Common parameters tab.
End
The end time of the desired interval of the object path.
Note
The value of this parameter is interpreted using the Units parameter on the Common parameters tab.
Sample Rate
The sampling rate of the channel in frames per second (Hz).
Extend Left
The left extend conditions.
Extend Right
The right extend conditions.
Default Value
The default value for extend conditions.
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.
Examples
The following examples include this node.
SimpleIKSolver Example for IKSolver channel node
SimpleTransformChain Example for TransformChain channel node
See also |