Houdini support: same toolset, different habitat

AdonisFX 2.0 extends the framework into Houdini via SOP nodes. The port covers the same categories available in Maya: deformers, solvers, locators, sensors, and utility nodes. In practical terms, it is an attempt to stop the classic production sport of rebuilding the same character tech twice, once for animation, once for simulation.

The Houdini port includes deformers like AdnRelax and AdnPush; solvers including AdnMuscle, AdnRibbonMuscle, AdnSkin, AdnFat, AdnGlue, AdnSkinMerge, and AdnSimshape; locators and sensors for position, distance, and rotation; and utilities such as AdnRemap, AdnActivation, and AdnEdgeEvaluator. Tools such as AdnTurbo plus Importer and Exporter are also part of the Houdini toolset, alongside a per-SOP visual debugger for constraints and setup inspection.

Core simulation: anisotropy, triangle-to-triangle self-collisions, substepping

Version 2.0.0 adds anisotropy to the muscle solvers, implements triangle-to-triangle self-collisions, and introduces relaxation for points affected by those self-collisions. Substepping is implemented for AdnSimshape and the muscle solvers, and core functions are reworked to support DCC agnosticity, which is the unglamorous prerequisite for “works the same in both places”. A new AdnPush deformer is part of the 2.0.0 core feature set, and also lands in Maya.

Maya updates: collisions integrated, paint tools get visibility, topology changes get less dramatic

In Maya, anisotropy is implemented for muscle deformers, and triangle-to-triangle self-collisions are integrated into AdnGlue and AdnSkin deformers, including relaxation for collision-affected points. Substepping is implemented for AdnSimshape and muscle deformers, and an update utility supports moving setups from v1.x to v2.x.

The AdonisFX Paint Tool adds Visualisation Modes with Greyscale and Heat Map views. AdnPush and AdnRelax add an Update on Topology Change attribute. The release also modifies default attribute values across most nodes, reorders shelf and menu items, appends geometry names to custom deformer names in the creation UI, and includes a utility to reconnect currentTime to Maya’s time node, because time nodes still occasionally need adult supervision.

Maps and art direction controls: non-linear remaps and rest-geometry-driven shapes

Paintable maps add non-linear remap modes: squared, cubic, square root, cube root, and logarithmic. These modes are integrated across multiple nodes, including AdnMuscle, AdnRibbonMuscle, AdnGlue, AdnFat, AdnSkin, and AdnSimshape.

Muscle deformers also gain art-directable shapes based on a rest muscle geometry used to refresh constraint data. This is a control layer aimed at keeping constraints in sync with rest geometry changes, without turning every sculpt tweak into a full rebuild.

Houdini-specific additions: muscle fibre workflow nodes and setup utilities

Houdini gains new nodes for the muscle fibre workflow: AdnFiberProjection, AdnFiberDiffusion, and AdnFiberGroom. An experimental API is included, plus menu utilities designed to speed up common prep tasks: Make Paintable, Make Groomable, Separate Geometries, and Create Muscle PieceID.

Improvements, deprecations, and known limitations

Initialization is optimised for slide constraints in the AdnSkin solver, and for slide-on-geometry constraints in AdnMuscle and AdnRibbonMuscle. The Maya Mirror Tool improves support for left and right tokens in the middle of names (for example, L and R). The Maya Connection Editor restricts connections to AdonisFX locators (source) and AdonisFX muscles (destination). Maya also supports multiple AdnRelax and AdnPush nodes on the same geometry. AdnSkinMerge adds a currentTime attribute for correct dependency graph evaluation.

Deprecated items include removal of the Concrete material from all solvers and removal of AdnWeightsDisplayNode (deprecated since 1.4.0).

Pricing and availability

Inbibo lists AdonisFX 2.0 as available now. Pro licenses start at £110 per month (node-locked) or £150 per month (floating). Indie pricing is listed as £250 per year for individuals and studios under £100k annual revenue, and a 30-day free trial of Pro is available via download and install.

https://inbibo.co.uk/news/adonisfx-2-0-release


https://inbibo.co.uk/adonisfx/downloads

The post AdonisFX 2.0 brings Houdini support, anisotropic muscles, and triangle-level self-collisions first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.