Houdini Channel Editor: Introduction

I have decided to share with you some of my findings while learning Houdini 10. When I did my first Character Walk Animation; I did start to learn to use the Channel Editor.The above (click for larger image) image is an example from my animation; at frame 16; you will find that I have selected the spine_ctrl_cog_ty which is the translation in Y of the selected (yellow) Spine Control in the side view.

As I animated this going up and down during the walk; you will clearly see this represented by the curve in the Channel Editor. The small squares on the curve are my keyframes. These can be moved using Ctrl + LMB in the Channel Editor.

You can also go into Settings in Channel Editor and change things like Curve Quality and Auto-Smooth Slopes.

I set my Start Frame and End Frame in the top right of Channel Editor to just show the section I was interested in.

Next; I did want to animate in Linear; not splines; as I have heard this is a good approach to work in linear. I managed to change this in Animation Settings; and try this in a new animation; which worked fine.

What I want to figure out next is how to best modify my finished linear animation to bezier or similar without getting any overshoot (or what the correct name is on the curves). I heard in Maya there is a script for this; but if anyone can advice on the best way to do this in Houdini that would be much appreciated.

Ready To Partner?