Get Procedural Anatomy for Houdini free in open beta
Djangotron Studios has released Procedural Anatomy, its promising Houdini tool for generating muscle, tissue and skeletal geometry for CG characters, in free open beta.
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.
The open beta launched yesterday, and will remain open until 27 July 2024, with users able to continue to use the software for free until 6 August.
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 works with Houdini Indie as well as Houdini Core and Houdini FX. It requires at least 16GB RAM.
The software is available free in beta until 27 July 2024, and the beta will remain usable until 6 August 2024. Djangotron hasn’t announced the final pricing or release date.
The beta can be used on commercial projects: you can find the EULA here.
Read more about Procedural Anatomy for Houdini on the product website
Find technical details in the Procedural Anatomy documentation
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