From Volumetric Capture to Game-ready Joint Skin | Grant Lee | SIGGRAPH HIVE 2023

Volumetric captured scanned data cannot be used as is to create game assets. Houdini provides a topo-transfer node to easily transfer the scanned mesh into a pre-made mesh with clean topology. In this presentation, Grant describes how to utilize Houdini to automate procedural topo-transfer not only on a static mesh, but also on the whole animated sequence of scanned data. In addition, the topo-transferred mesh sequences are procedurally turned into a joint-skinned mesh using Houdini Engine inside Maya to become game-ready assets.

00:00 Presentation
00:42 EVR STUDIO Intro
04:36 Automated Topo-Transfer
05:05 In-house Developed Volumetric Capture
05:31 Raw Scan Data
05:59 Conventional Methods
07:14 Procedural Land Mark Generation
08:05 Primary Land Mark
08:17 Existing Scan Data
08:43 Primary Land Mark Scanned in Houdini
10:15 Detail Land Mark – Mouth
11:49 Detail Land Mark – Eyes
12:37 Primary & Detail Landmarks
13:14 Secondary detail Land Marks
13:48 Subdivision – Maps Baker
14:09 Topo Sequence Demo
14:41 Post Transfer
15:26 Stabilized
15:52 Joint Skin Generator (HDA in Maya)
16:34 Joint Grouping
16:56 Joint Area Density Adjustment
17:14 Remesh
17:49 PolyReduce
21:32 Maya Joint Conversion Preparation
22:29 HDA in Maya
22:48 Set target anim mesh
23:50 Real-time joint count feedback
24:17 Real-time joint influence feedback
24:42 Joint Proxy Mesh (Custom Joint Edit Mode)
25:52 Joint Count Comparison
27:47 Q&A

Grant Lee is a Technical Director at EVR Studio with a diverse background in computer science and art. He began his career as a software engineer, leveraging his computer science education to develop various games. However, during his tenure at a major game studio, he felt a strong desire to pursue his childhood dream of becoming an artist. Motivated by his passion for art, Grant made a career transition and became a full-time 3D artist. As he immersed himself in the world of art, he quickly recognized the value of his programming skills in enhancing the creative process. This realization naturally led him to transition into a technical art position, where he could leverage his expertise in both programming and aesthetics. Grant specializes proceduralizing everything using Houdini as well as programming art tools for Maya and other Digital Content Creation (DCC) software.