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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 10/08/2026

it's often a frustrating niche to fill, but good technical artists are so so essential in getting artists and devs to communicate and work together well. it really is a talent to be able to speak both languages.

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 23/07/2026

A new MOPs Plus release is now available! This simplifies and improves the MOPs Camera Blender interface, ports MOPsCam to Solaris, and adds Houdini 22 compatibility! Full changelog is available here: www.motionoperators.com/changelog/ Features demo: youtu.be/75iUD_9M1bk

youtu.be

MOPs Plus release 07/23/2026

YouTube video by MOPs

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 20/05/2026

The MOPs course at Houdini.School is now available to you on YouTube! This is a complete course on the open source version of MOPs, explaining how the system works, practical use cases, and the math behind it all. 1: youtu.be/g9eSle9IVjU?... 2: youtu.be/J2g0v1k6MBs?... 3: youtu.be/q_aD6sza6gA?...

youtu.be

MOPs: Motion Operators for Houdini Part 1

YouTube video by Houdini.School

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 17/04/2026

The MOPs tool for orienting curves using parallel transport is eight years old now, and mostly made obsolete by Houdini's native tool for it, but I wanted to revisit our old implementation and improve it a bit anyways. I documented how it works here: www.toadstorm.com/blog/?p=1168

toadstorm.com

Revisiting Parallel Transport – Toadstorm Nerdblog

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 25/02/2026

Matt Milstead from Mograph.com did a little interview with me yesterday where we talked about Houdini, MOPs, and motion graphics in general. Full video is online here: www.youtube.com/live/MsyvhOR...

youtube.com

LIVE: Ep 465 Special Guest Henry Foster, AKA Toadstorm!

YouTube video by Mograph

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 04/02/2026

A new stable release of MOPs is available! The Experimental build already supported Houdini 21, but this was confusing for new users, so that update (plus some others) are now merged into the main branch. Details here: github.com/toadstorm/MO...

github.com

Release MOPs v1.11 · toadstorm/MOPS

New MOPs official release! This release fully supports Houdini 21 / PySide 6. The previous Experimental release also supported Houdini 21 but was confusing for new users. This release includes all ...

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 29/01/2026

My MOPs course on Houdini.School is now free! If you want a start to finish course on how (almost) everything works, plus the math background, you can watch it all here: www.houdini.school/courses/mops...

houdini.school

MOPs: Motion Operators for Houdini

This course provides an overview of the MOPs workflow and how it integrates with the rest of Houdini, shows concrete examples of how MOPs can be used in both motion graphics and visual effects workflo...

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 27/12/2025

here's mulder and scully sharing a hammock

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 27/12/2025

we require more cat photos

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 25/11/2025

MOPs Plus for Houdini node-locked licenses are now 20% off through Monday, December 2nd. Get access to MOPs tools for typography, dynamics, cameras, and more for cheap! Use the coupon code MOPSFRIDAY2025 at checkout to apply the one-time discount. motionoperators.com/info/mopsplus/

motionoperators.com

MOPs Plus – MOPs

Want even more MOPs? MOPs Plus adds tools for typography, dynamics, cameras and more!

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 24/10/2025

A new MOPs+ release is out! This introduces the MOPs+ Camera, a fully-featured camera rig with all kinds of fun and quick controls for animating cameras easily in the viewport. Check the demo videos and the full release notes here: motionoperators.com/blog/index.p...

motionoperators.com

Introducing MOPsCam – MOPs Blog

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 25/09/2025

was waiting to see if anyone mentioned duke's Far East Suite... it is *extremely* good and rarely noticed for some reason

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 14/09/2025

Eem, Oma's Hideaway, Scotch Lodge, Apizza Scholls, Stammtisch, you could spend weeks eating your way around this city and doing nothing else. Forest Park has hundreds of miles of trails in addition to the Japanese Gardens. The Gorge is beautiful any time of year. It's a great little city.

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 04/09/2025

Good catch, I just patched this and pushed the update to the henry_dev branch. If you want a quicker fix, change line 18 of MOPs/scripts/python/mops_updater.py to: from hutil.Qt import QtWidgets

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 02/09/2025

why do GIFs not work here? 😫do I really have to embed video instead?

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 02/09/2025

Happy Labor Day! I just added Houdini 21 / Qt6 hotfixes for both MOPs and MOPs Plus, and a few cool little upgrades to MOPs... now you can easily cycle falloffs! Check the blog for details: motionoperators.com/blog/index.p...

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 26/08/2025

Clarification: Houdini 21 by default uses Qt6 and doesn't have PySide2 compatibility. This will break some tools that use a custom UI. You can get around this by installing a Qt5 build of H21. I'll add Qt6 support soon!

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 26/08/2025

Happy Houdini 21 release day! H21 is compatible with both MOPs and MOPs Plus (for Python 3.11) so you shouldn't have to worry about any upgrades. Have fun!

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 05/08/2025

I wrote a little article here for VFX artists about what environment variables are, how to manipulate them, what various .env files are actually doing, and how to roll your own pipelines to organize your projects at home. Look here: www.toadstorm.com/blog/?p=1010

toadstorm.com

A VFX Artist’s guide to the System Environment – Toadstorm Nerdblog

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 01/08/2025

The Conservatory of Flowers is one of the best indoor collections of tropical plants I've ever seen. It's a must-see if you're a plant person.

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 22/05/2025

sorry i misspoke, i meant boints

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 22/05/2025

yeah that's software-dependent. maya labels this behavior "segment scale compensate" on joints and is on by default... child bones will be translated by the scaled parent but will apply the inverse scale to themselves to stay the same size.

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 21/05/2025

controllers are the front-end for interfacing with the skeleton. you'll often have very complicated constraint structures and multiple skeletons driven by the controls that blend their outputs together into the final skeleton that's exported to the game engine.

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 21/05/2025

The MOPs website (and toadstorm.com) will be offline for less than 1 hour for some maintenance and improvements. Thanks for your patience!

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 21/04/2025

I'm looking for software developers who can help me write a floating license server for MOPs+. Some experience in Houdini is a plus but not required. If you're interested or know someone who is, please reach out to me at henry@motionoperators.com.

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Reposted by MOPs

Everything Procedural Conference @everythingproc.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Apex is still pretty scary and new for most existing Houdini artists, but there’s no need to be scared anymore! Matt (@cgwiki.bsky.social) will provide a jargon-free explainer of Apex at #EPC2025! Get your tickets now: everythingprocedural.com #everythingproc #ProcGen #Apex #GameDev

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 25/03/2025

I wrote a little primer on rigid body dynamics in Houdini after seeing a lot of similar questions online. Bullet is a pretty deep rabbit hole to fall into and there's a lot of legacy stuff that's very confusing for new artists... hopefully this helps you get started! www.toadstorm.com/blog/?p=1123

toadstorm.com

A Houdini RBD Primer, Part 1 – Toadstorm Nerdblog

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 11/03/2025

A new release of MOPs+ is now available! This adds the new MOPs+ Rig Aim node, as well as a new streamlined version of MOPs+ Collision Geo. More details on the MOPs Blog: motionoperators.com/blog/index.p...

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 25/02/2025

Used to freelance as an artist for many years in LA. Get an accountant, especially if any of your income isn't W2. Please DO NOT go to H&R block or similar, they will have absolutely no idea how to prepare taxes for anything that complex (I tried doing exactly that when I first started)

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 19/02/2025

It absolutely could, although there's existing constraints for that. This is more about gradually bending chains towards a target, for things like tentacles, tails, trees, etc.

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 19/02/2025

I'm trying to get another fun new toy done for the next release: MOPs+ Rig Aim. Enjoy watching it wave Paul around! motionoperators.com/blog/index.p...

An animation of the Paul test geometry bending to face a target object like some kind of mutated drinking bird toy

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 14/01/2025

Some info about the upcoming improvements to MOPs+ Collision Geo: motionoperators.com/blog/index.p...

motionoperators.com

MOPs+ Collision Geo 1.1 – MOPs Blog

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 12/01/2025

I've updated the MOPs blog page to use a new Wordpress format so it's easier to post about updates and development in general, and so people can use RSS to get updates instead of social media. The updated page is here: motionoperators.com/blog/

motionoperators.com

MOPs Blog – The less scary part of Houdini since 2018.

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 27/11/2024

🚨 Black Friday sale! Today through 12/1, get a MOPs Plus license for 20% off using the coupon code MOPSFRIDAY2024.

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 23/11/2024

i know this is a business account or whatever but i just baked some really good bagels and you can't stop me from posting them

18 incredibly good-looking everything bagels cooling on racks

a close-up of the sexiest bagels you've ever seen

one sliced bagel dressed with cream cheese and smoked salmon and a few thin red onion slices. i am going to eat myself sick

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Reposted by MOPs

Matt Estela - cgwiki @cgwiki.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Little Apex explainer targeted at experienced Houdini folk. It's rough (got a cold, ugh), but figured it'll be useful to people like me who were simultaneously interested and apprehensive. Will likely re-record later when my voice recovers and I learn more things... www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9-e...

youtube.com

apex overview

YouTube video by matt estela

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 18/11/2024

manual painting of delegates really sucks but it is just so much faster than the alternative, nothing else is going to match that speed

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 15/11/2024

either of you nerds have a preferred course for learning it that isn't going to try to explain to me what a polygon is?

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 24/10/2024

A new build of MOPs Plus is now available! This introduces Infection Falloff 1.1, with a better interface and support for "healing" and reinfection, some improvements to MOPs Typography and Apply Attributes, and more! Details on the changelog: www.motionoperators.com/changelog/

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 23/10/2024

A new Stable release of MOPs is now available! Lots of bugfixes, nitpicks, UI improvements, and a unit testing module for developers. Details on the Release page: github.com/toadstorm/MO...

github.com

Release MOPs v1.10.0 · toadstorm/MOPS

A new Stable release! This includes all Experimental changes between 2023-12-14 and now. Highlights include: Added official unit tests for developers! (please contribute T___T) Fixed a broken chan...

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 23/09/2024

The Houdini HIVE Horizon talks from Toronto are now available online, including my talk about MOPs and UX in Houdini! Check them out here: www.sidefx.com/houdini-hive...

sidefx.com

HIVE Horizon 2024 | SideFX

HIVE Horizon 2024

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 17/09/2024

Trying to solve an age-old Houdini problem here. Whenever it's done, I'll release the full toolkit for creating self-installing Houdini packages as open source software. Doing my best to keep making Houdini easier!

A typical installer dialog box depicting the automated installation of a Houdini package

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 22/08/2024

I'm going to be presenting at Houdini HIVE in Toronto next month! Hope to see some of you nerds there... www.sidefx.com/houdini-hive...

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 30/07/2024

Please note that this discount will not apply if your subscription is paused past the renewal date or is cancelled. Best of luck out there everyone!

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 30/07/2024

Hi MOPs+ Users, I know times are tough for motion designers right now, and every subscription you need for your job can start to add up. To that end I'm applying a 15% discount to all active MOPs+ personal license renewals, effective immediately...

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MOPs @motionoperators.com · 15/07/2024

A new Experimental release of MOPs (1.9.2e) is now available. This fixes a number of minor UX errors and an issue with the MOPs Noise Modifier. Details on the release page: github.com/toadstorm/MO...

github.com

Release MOPs v1.9.2 Experimental · toadstorm/MOPS

Updated the group mask channel link in MOPs Plain Falloff. Fixed another group mask dropdown in MOPs Pivot. The MOPs Instancer should no longer accidentally generate duplicate id attributes from me...

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