Rigging with Houdini 18.5 - KineFX

Create a simple rigid tentacle rig by building a one-joint skeleton, packing geometry, and rigidly attaching it to the joint, then verify the deformation using the attached geometry.

This lecture guides debugging a Houdini tentacle rig by tracing and repairing lost skinning weights, using a digital asset flow, capture layers, and data visualization to restore smooth deformation.

Explore zombie rigging using Houdini 18.5 KineFX to build flexible creature rigs and master practical rigging workflows for animated characters.

Design and build animation-ready control rigs as the rigger or technical animator, tailoring rigs to game animation needs, from simple zombies to complex characters, avoiding overkill with premade tools.

Set up a fresh Houdini project, import zombie geometry and texture maps, build a basic zombie material, and convert the rig into a digital asset for reuse.

Create a personalized rigging shelf in Houdini 18.5, add bones and parent blend tools, customize icons, and automate tasks with Python to speed up rigging and digital asset creation.

Build a digital asset called rig pin in Houdini to provide a clear, adjustable control for jaw and head rigging, with configurable length, radius, color, and rotation order.

Lock the FK control rotation and automate its connection using Python with relative references, set expressions, and channel expressions for rotate x, y, z on the RCS channel.

Continue refining earthquake control tool by cleaning up nodes, repositioning the FK control, hooking rotations for NOLs, and applying lime green collars and circular shapes while locking unused parameters.

Learn how python powers the fk control tool in houdini to color bones, create bone and control node groups, and tidy the network view with groups for easier rigging.

Plan a zombie rig in Houdini 18.5, using IK legs, a forward kinematic spine with three controls, an FK arm with hands, and a jaw control to teach rigging fundamentals.

Add twist controls to the leg rig, align naming and colors, and integrate with the rig helper to build an orthographic spine with a K control for bendy, zeroed rig.

Develop a modular arm rig in Houdini using fk bones from clavicle to elbow, add fk controls and a rec pen shoulder, and prepare an end null for the hand.

Build a hand rig in Houdini with KineFX by adding thumb and finger bones, splits, and forward kinematics controls for precise articulation.

Finish the head, neck, and jaw rig in Houdini 18.5 using bones, rec pins, and visible controls. Apply space switching with blend constraints to enable flexible head posing.

Learn to implement head space switching in Houdini 18.5 with KineFX by blending between the spine end and zombie space, allowing the head to stay oriented while the rest moves.

Duplicate the space switching from the last video, set up shoulder, right hand, and zombie spaces with a blend node, and add a right hand space switch parameter.

Learn to finalize a Houdini 18.5 rig with skinning and mirrored weights for consistent deformation. Turn the zombie asset into an animation-ready digital asset ready for game engines.