LogInTravis Saul is making progress toward recreating the entire human skeleton with APEX graphs.
Multidisciplinary Digital Artist and Technical Director Travis Saul continues to recreate anatomically accurate parts of a human skeleton in 3D, this time showcasing an impressive rib cage rig that can slightly expand and contract, thus allowing the creator to set up lifelike breathing animations for humanoid character models.
According to Travis, the setup provides independent control over each side of the rib cage and the sternum – the long, flat bone at the center of the rib cage – and includes a dedicated control for adding secondary breathing motion. To create the rig, the artist utilized Houdini's APEX, a new graph evaluation framework that can be used to represent the rig logic within KineFX, first introduced a year ago with the release of Houdini 20.
"Deep breaths... I had no idea how much our ribs move and are not rigidly fixed to our spine. Rigging the rib cage was much harder than I initially thought but I'm liking where it has landed," commented Travis.
Previously, the creator also demonstrated APEX-powered spine and skull rigs:
Don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.