USD Character (Houdini) rendering as T-pose

[frame48]

When exporting an agent from Houdini as USD and loading into Maya 2023.3 via USD plugin version 22 viewport displays the correct animated character but when rendering the character seems to be unbound from its skeleton. Attaching a sample file and some pics. Rendering with V-Ray 6 for Maya, hotfix 1

(v6.00.03 from Dec 6 2022)

[viktor_angelov]

Both Houdini and Maya process the USD differently and it is possible to have mismatches in the final outcome.

This has been logged into our system (VMAYA-1196 and escalated to the Development team for further inspection and resolution.

We advice you to use Create SkelRoots for your projects at the moment.

[viktor_angelov]

Hello frame48

The issue does reproduce in the scene you provided us with.

As you can see in the attached image, the plane to character ratio is different in the render compared to the viewport. My guess is that you have a Transform node that is not being transferred, too.

Please, send us the Houdini Scene to investigate further.

[frame48]

I can supply a scene later today, but the issue is easily reproducible exporting any agent driven by a skeleton (fbx from mixamo for example) from houdini. The issue seems to be Vray not being able to read the packed USDSkel. Unpacking the character fixes the issue, but is not a viable solution when working with big amounts of characters.

[viktor_angelov]

Hello frame48,

I went through with the workflow and it rendered just fine for me doing it from scratch as you can see in the image.

Please, upload the Houdini scene so we can observe your set-up.

[frame48]

Are you using the agent create Skelroots before your USD export? Because that works, it's just when using any of the instanced data options that it doesn't work.

[viktor_angelov]

Thank you for the scene!

Please, do share why you would rather not use Create SkelRoots? All the features seem to be working for me.

Could you please let us know the exact V-Ray for Houdini version you are using? Also, the exact Maya and Houdini versions?

[frame48]

Using Houdini 19.5 and both Maya 2022.3 and Maya 2023.3. It's not that I don't want to use Create SkelRoots, but rather I am curious why the Create Instanced SkelRoots does not work when rendering. Is that supposed to be only a native Houdini thing. Wouldn't the instanced skelroots be more memory and disk space efficient when having thousands of agents.

[viktor_angelov]

Both Houdini and Maya process the USD differently and it is possible to have mismatches in the final outcome.

This has been logged into our system (VMAYA-1196 and escalated to the Development team for further inspection and resolution.

We advice you to use Create SkelRoots for your projects at the moment.