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The promise of procedural thinking: model the character so that the modelling process brings the APEX rig along with it. Clothing and capture weights can emerge almost as by-products. Animation continues to work when the mesh changes, while textures are generated procedurally from the mesh and passed straight to the renderer, live.
The multi-part DRACARD workshop from SideFX walks through the process, turning a handful of curves into a fully animated and rendered dragon, all without ever leaving Houdini. For more on APEX, take a look at our APEX rigging article.
Intro
The introduction sets out the rig-first route through modelling, clothing, deformation and the final look. Read it as a map of the asset’s dependencies: which decisions define the character, and which should remain adjustable? The production question is how much of the setup can be reused when the design changes. A dragon with a plan has a head start.
Project overview
The overview connects reference, geometry, joints and capture through shared guides. In KineFX, a skeleton is represented by points joined with polygon lines, so ordinary geometry operations can also help construct character data. That shared representation is the reason to pay attention here: decide which guides should remain authoritative before building separate solutions around them.
Body
Sweep, sculpting and masks establish the torso, limbs and tail. The broader modelling principle is to separate the structure that generates a form from the adjustments that refine its silhouette. When evaluating the setup, try a different limb length or body proportion and inspect the result downstream. A proportion change need not cost an arm and a leg.
Head
Sculpting, VDBs and Quad Remesher establish the facial forms. VDB conversion represents polygonal surfaces as volume fields, including signed distance fields, giving artists another representation for shaping geometry. Keep the distinction between designing a convincing face and preparing its final surface clear: a handsome silhouette alone cannot settle questions about deformation. This chapter puts a different face on the problem.
Wings and details
Skeleton-driven wing membranes and procedurally distributed dorsal plates extend the character’s construction. For a reusable asset, the useful design question is where those elements get their positions and dimensions. Test a changed body proportion before committing to detail, and inspect attachment regions and spacing. The value of a dependency is easiest to judge when you deliberately disturb its input.
Clothing
Clothing begins with a body-derived jacket, then develops collars, sleeves and cuffs alongside a procedurally placed hat. Consider which features should follow the body and which need their own artistic controls: a fitted surface, a loose sleeve and an exaggerated collar are different design decisions. This is the chapter to study for the Houdini clothing argument. Finally, a workflow with something up its sleeve. And we are not commenting on all animated characters running around pants-less.
Assembly and retopology
Assembly and retopology bring the parts together, resolve intersections and prepare deformable geometry. Treat this as a chance to inspect the whole character rather than approve each component in isolation. Check where surfaces meet, where silhouettes change and which regions must bend in later poses. A clean-looking rest pose is only the opening argument. Now it’s time to get the mesh into shape.
Blendshapes
The blendshape chapter sculpts, mirrors and organises expressions, then tests facial APEX controls. Houdini’s character blendshape workflow associates a source shape with target shapes and blends their contributions through weights. For an animator-facing setup, evaluate both the individual expression and how its control behaves alongside the others. A tidy shape collection still needs a useful interface.
Textures
UVs, attribute masks and Copernicus connect the model to surface detail and pinstripes. Copernicus can rasterise polygon geometry and its attributes into image layers; Rasterize Setup can prepare geometry in UV space. That provides a technical bridge between geometric information and texture generation. Inspect the UV layout and seams alongside the pattern rather than judging the colour alone. The jacket earns its stripes procedurally.
Skeleton and skinning
Existing guides feed the skeleton, capture techniques and accessory weight transfers. Capture weights define how geometry responds when its joints move, so inspect the relationship between the skeleton and the surface rather than treating skinning as a finishing checkbox. Try poses that expose the transitions between neighbouring influences and rigid attachments. This is where the character shows whether it has been well jointed.
Auto Rig Builder
Auto Rig Builder assembles APEX components, controls and expressions for posing. The tool separates a configurable guide from a test rig, allowing artists to update and try the resulting behaviour. Its viewport workflow exposes a limited set of component parameters, while the parameter editor provides further controls. Use the test rig to assess the animator’s interaction as well as the resulting deformation.
Final look
Solaris, MaterialX and Karma XPU turn the character into a finished studio presentation. MaterialX supplies shading networks that Solaris represents through USD, while Karma XPU can use CPU and compatible GPU resources. For the final inspection, judge the silhouette, material response and visible surface detail together. Lighting can reveal decisions that were less obvious during modelling. The dragon gets its moment in the limelight.
The lessons are publicly viewable on SideFX, with project files linked from the course page. Start with the overview to understand the dependencies, then use the chapter map to reach the relevant task. If the real problem is keeping a character editable, the wider workflow deserves attention. Otherwise, a dozen chapters can leave you drag-on your feet before you have even fitted a sleeve.
| Series | DRACARD | Character Creation |
| Tutor | Roy Ranheim Kristoffersen |
| Host | Houdini 22 |
| Level | Beginner, as labelled by SideFX |
| Access | Public lessons and linked project files |
About the author
Manuel Kotulla works as a freelance Creative Director, Motion Designer, and 3D / VFX Artist in Hamburg. Previously, he spent many years as Creative Director for Animation & VFX at the Serviceplan Group. He has a passion for Houdini, cinematic lighting, and his Fuji camera.
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Article details
- Published
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- Manuel Kotulla
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- About 5 min
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- 916