# Quick Start

This page gets you from a fresh Houdini scene to a shaded character you can animate, in five steps. Every control is explained in depth later, in [Using the Asset](../using/building-the-rig.md).

!!!success Before you begin
Make sure your character is exported from Character Creator correctly. The export settings genuinely matter — see [Preparing Your Character](preparing-your-character.md) first if you haven't already.
!!!

>>> 1. Create the node
Inside a Geometry object, press **Tab**, type **Reallusion**, and place a **Reallusion Rigger** node (under **JV**).
>>>
>>> 2. Choose an import mode and point it at your file
At the top of the node is an **Import** dropdown. Leave it on **USD** (the default, and much faster) if you exported a USD file, or switch it to **FBX** for an FBX export. New to the two modes? See [USD vs FBX](import-modes.md).

Then set the file field the dropdown shows — **USD File** or **FBX File** — to your exported file.

Keep your character's textures beside its file, exactly as Character Creator exports them — a `Materials` folder next to the `.usd`, or a `textures` folder next to the `.fbx`. The tool resolves them relative to the character file.
>>>
>>> 3. Build the character and the rig
Click the **Build Character** button.

The tool imports the character, builds all of its materials, sets up displacement and wrinkles where the character supports them, and creates a look controller. Then, because **Build APEX Rig** is on by default, it builds the rig in the same press and bakes the character's own animation through it. On our test characters the whole press takes roughly 40 to 90 seconds; the progress bar at the bottom of the Houdini window shows what it's doing.

When it finishes, a **Reallusion Rigger APEX Rig** node sits directly below the Rigger. That node is the animatable character, and it is now the displayed node.

!!!warning Careful with this one
The rig freezes the character it was built from. If you change the import settings or the character file afterwards, nothing updates — delete the rig node and press **Build Character** again. Pressing it while a rig exists only refreshes the materials, and leaves the rig and your animation alone.
!!!
>>>
>>> 4. Animate
Select the rig node and press **Animate**. You're now in Houdini's APEX animate state: pick a control in the viewport, move it, key it. The character's own animation is already there, as the **BaseAnimation** layer, so you're refining it rather than starting from nothing — or press **Add Rest Pose Layer** (the first icon in the rig node's **Layers** row) to start from the rest pose on a layer of its own. **Exit Animate State** returns you to the normal view.

![The rig in the animate state](../static/body-controls.png)

The face has its own sliders, and the rig node's **Face Tools** and **Auto Animation** folders add Face Puppet, Face Key Muscle, Auto Blink and Auto Breathe. See [Animating](../using/animating.md).
>>>
>>> 5. Look at your character
Your character is built in Solaris (Houdini's `/stage` context), and Karma reads the rig node's output, so your animation is what renders. Click **Go to LOPs** (in the Rigger's **Render** folder) to jump there, then set up a viewport with a Karma render to see it.

**Create Render Setup** builds a three-point light rig, a camera, and Karma render settings for you. The bright **red controller node** in the LOP network holds every look control: skin, wrinkles, eyes, hair, and more. See [The Lookdev Controller](../lookdev/lookdev-controller.md) and [Rendering](../lookdev/rendering.md).
>>>

That's the whole workflow. From here, read [Building the Rig](../using/building-the-rig.md) for the build options, then [Animating](../using/animating.md).

## What next?

* **Adding more animation?** See [Clips & Layers](../using/clips-and-layers.md).
* **Animating the face?** See [Face Tools](../using/face-tools.md).
* **Blinks and breathing?** See [Auto Animation](../using/auto-animation.md).
* **Scene files getting big?** See [Rig Settings](../using/rig-settings.md).
* **Something not working?** See [Troubleshooting & FAQ](../reference/troubleshooting.md).