| On this page |
Starting a new Pose Library setup
| To... | Do this |
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Create a new setup |
Add a character rig to the scene by selecting that character with |
Add a new pose tab |
A default pose tab is created automatically by the pose library. Additional tabs can be created via Tab ▸ Add Tab when Edit is turned on. When poses are captured they will be placed in whichever pose tab is currently selected. |
Delete a pose tab |
A pose tab can be deleted by clicking the close button on the tab when Edit is turned on. Deleting a tab will delete all poses and clips stored on that tab. Deleting a tab will provide the opportunity to save any unsaved changes before the tab is removed. You can alternatively delete the current tab via Tab ▸ Remove Tab. |
Delete all pose tabs |
Select Tab ▸ Remove All Tabs. This will delete all poses and clips in the current setup. Deleting all tabs will provide the opportunity to save any unsaved changes before all the tabs are removed. |
Rename a tab |
Click |
. Alternatively, the node name can be typed into the character text field, or dragged in from the Network Editor. A history of the selected characters is maintained in the drop down menu next to the character text field.Capturing Poses and Clips
| To... | Do this |
|---|---|
Capture a single pose |
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Capture a sequence of frames |
Note If the frame values are the same, a single-frame pose will be captured. |
Create a thumbnail for your captured pose or clip |
Make sure the Create Thumbnail checkbox is turned on in the By default, the thumbnails will only show the selected character. You can optionally create thumbnails that show all objects visible in the viewport by turning on the Include All Objects in Thumbnail checkbox before capturing the pose or clip. Tip You can optionally store an animated thumbnail with the captured clip by turning on the Animate Thumbnail checkbox. The animated thumbnail will play back the clip when the mouse is hovered over it. Otherwise, a still image will be used. |
Bake keyframes |
Turn on the Bake Clip checkbox in the You can also enter a Sample Rate to determine how often a keyframe is created. A value of 1.0 will bake a keyframe every frame, whereas a value of 2.0 will bake a keyframe every other frame. |
in the bottom right corner of the playbar.
gear menu beside the Capture Pose/Capture Clip button before capturing.Note
If the animation is driven by CHOPs, set the Channel > Channel Range parameter to Use Full Animation Range for each node in the CHOP network. This will guarantee that the full animation is captured. Only a single frame may be captured if the parameter is set to Use Current Frame.
Not all CHOP nodes have the Channel Range parameter.
When capturing, the pose library will first check the selected character for scoped parameters. If any are found the captured pose will only contain values for the scoped parameters within the specified frame range. If no parameters are scoped all of the auto-scoped parameters will be captured instead.
For a single-frame pose, the pose library will check for keyframe definitions at the current frame. If a parameter does not have a keyframe, the parameter is evaluated at the frame and the floating point result is stored as part of the pose. If a keyframe is found for a given parameter, the entire keyframe is stored in the pose.
For multi-frame clips, the pose library performs the single-frame process at both the start frame and end frame values. Additionally, any keyframes that lie between the start and end frame values are also included in the clip.
Tip
If the Pose Name field is set to the <default_name> placeholder, a unique name will be generated for the captured pose or clip.
Editing and Deleting Poses and Clips
| To... | Do this |
|---|---|
Rename a pose |
Click |
Reorder the poses |
Drag and drop poses within a tab when Edit is turned on. There is currently no mechanism for moving a pose from one tab to another. |
Delete a pose |
Click |
Copy a pose |
Click |
Change the pose thumbnail with an image file |
Click Supported image file formats:
Note The image file resolution should be 250×250. If it is not, the image will be scaled to 250×250. Also, if the image doesn’t have a square resolution, the image will be cropped from the center. |
Change the pose thumbnail with an image file |
Tip By default, the new thumbnail will only show the selected character. You can optionally create a thumbnail that shows all objects visible in the viewport by turning on the Include All Objects in Thumbnail checkbox before capturing the viewport. |
in the top right corner of the pose or clip you want to delete when Edit is turned on. You can alternatively click Applying a Pose
When Edit is turned off, click a pose to apply it to the selected character. If the pose is a single-frame pose, the parameters in the character rig will be set to match the stored values in the pose at the current playbar frame. If the pose is a multi-frame clip, it will be applied starting at the current frame and ending at current + (clip_end - clip_start). Pressing ⌃ Ctrl + Z after applying a pose will undo the pose.
What happens when applying a pose depends on both the character rig and the way the pose was captured. If the captured pose defines a keyframe for a parameter, when the pose is applied that keyframe and its associated value will always be applied to the rig at the target frame. If the pose only contains a floating point value for a parameter and the character does not have any keyframes defined for the parameter, the parameter will simply be set to the floating point value. No keyframe will be created. If the pose contains a floating point parameter value and the rig does have a keyframe set on the parameter, the value will be committed to the existing keyframe.
If the captured clip data was from a CHOP network, the behavior of applying the clip depends on the Preserve CHOP Data parameter. When the parameter is checked, a new CHOP node is created to store the original CHOP sample data. The target parameter is then configured to load animation from the CHOP node. You can specify where the CHOP node is created by editing the CHOP Path parameter. If Preserve CHOP Data is unchecked, the sample data is converted into keyframes which are applied to the target parameter. If the captured clip data was not from a CHOP network, the Preserve CHOP Data parameter is ignored and the clip is loaded as keyframes.
Note
You can apply poses to characters whose node types do not match those of the character from which the poses were captured. The pose library will skip any missing or invalid parameters when applying the pose.
Blending a Pose
In addition to applying a pose, you can also blend a pose with the character rig’s current state. This is done by clicking and dragging ⌃ Ctrl + 
on a pose in the library. When the blend slider is at 0%, the character rig retains its existing pose. When the slider reaches 100%, the character rig’s pose is set to the selected pose. For any value in between, the character rig and selected pose are linearly blended. The resulting blend of poses is shown in the viewport and applied when ⌃ Ctrl + is released.
Tip
Pressing ⌃ Ctrl + Z after releasing ⌃ Ctrl + will undo the blending operation.
Note
Currently, rotation parameters in the pose are not converted to quanternions and thus are not blended with slerp(). Rotations are treated in the same way as all other floating point parameters and blended linearly based on component values. This limitation may be improved in the future.
Saving and Loading
To save the state of the pose library, use Pose ▸ Save Poses. Poses can be stored directly to .json files or as part of a Houdini Digital Asset. Both methods will preserve the state of the pose tabs, icons, and ordering. The Save menu option will save the poses to whichever file or HDA they were originally loaded from.
Like saving, poses can also be loaded from either a .json file or an HDA. There are two ways to read in existing poses: load and merge. Selecting File ▸ Load Poses will provide the opportunity to save any unsaved changes, clear the library and then populate the library with the poses stored in the chosen file or HDA. Selecting File ▸ Merge Poses will append the poses from the target file or HDA to the pose library. You can alternatively merge poses with 
on empty space in the current tab and use the Merge menu.
Exporting and Importing
To export a pose, click on the pose and use the Export menu. Like saving, individual poses can be exported to .json files or as part of a Houdini Digital Asset. Exporting a pose will provide the option to either merge the exported pose with the pose library currently stored in the file or asset, or overwrite the pose library.
To import poses into the current tab, select File ▸ Import Poses. You can alternatively on empty space in the current tab and use the Import menu. Poses can be imported from .json files or from Houdini Digital Assets.
Note
Importing poses will load poses into the current tab while merging poses will create the tabs that contain the poses if they do not exist and load the poses into those tabs.
Display Settings
The Capture Pose Controls can be shown or hidden using the 
and 
button next to the control title. By default the controls are visible.
The View menu lists options for configuring how the pose tab entries are displayed. The Zoom In, Zoom Out, and Actual Size menu items can be selected to set the zoom factor. The zoom factor is shared amongst all of the pose tabs. Thumbnail Only, Text Only, and Thumbnail and Text can be selected to configure how the pose entries are displayed. By default, pose entries will show both their icon and text.