Procedural Anatomy for Houdini is out of beta
Originally posted on 4 July 2024 for the open beta, and updated for the commercial release.
Djangotron Studios has released Procedural Anatomy, its much-anticipated Houdini tool for generating muscle, tissue and skeletal geometry for CG characters.
The tool generates an animation rig compatible with Houdini’s KineFX toolset, and which can be exported to game engines or other DCC apps in FBX format.
Create KineFX-compatible muscle and skin simulation rigs in Houdini
Procedural Anatomy is intended to streamline character FX and rigging workflows for VFX, animation and game development.
It generates a muscle and skin simulation rig for humanoid characters, using Signed Distance Fields (SDFs) to represent the internal volumes of the body.
Workflow begins by importing the 3D character model to be rigged, then moving control points for Procedural Anatomy’s animation skeleton to match its proportions.
Users can then create geometry for the character’s skeleton, adjusting control parameters to control the proportions of key bones.
Procedural Anatomy then creates muscle geometry and collision shapes over the skeleton, and soft tissue geometry between the muscles and overall character volume.
The skeleton and muscle geometry and bind weight data can be exported as a single file compatible with Houdini’s new KineFX rigging and animation framework.
Users can also export the rigged character in FBX format, for use in game engines and other DCC applications.
The workflow is based on experience of real-world production: Djangotron Studios founder Chris Hogstead was previously Lead Creature TD or Lead Character TD at visual effects studios including Cinesite, Image Engine and Animal Logic.
Price, release date and system requirements
Procedural Anatomy is compatible with Houdini 20.0+. It requires at least 16GB RAM. The software is available rental-only.
Commercial licenses are compatible with Houdini Core and Houdini FX, and have a standard price of $250/month or $3,000/year.
Indie licenses are compatible with Houdini Indie only, and have a standard price of $25/month or $255/year.
Indie licenses can actually be used on commercial projects, but are restricted to users with revenue under $100,000/year, and cannot be used on the same project or pipeline as Commercial licenses.
Read more about Procedural Anatomy for Houdini on the product website
Find technical details in the Procedural Anatomy documentation
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