November 5, 2010

Today Side Effects Software released three chapters of the GO | Procedural user guide which is designed to introduce artists to Houdini then help build up their skills with a variety of instructional lessons. More lessons will follow as they are written to add to the knowledge available for artists learning Houdini for the first time.

Each lesson comes with a PDF document and a video lesson to support a variety of different learning styles. You can start by watching the video then follow along with the PDF or read the document on the subway then use the video to complete the lesson. Either way, you have access to lots of great new information about Houdini and its procedural workflow.

Introduction This chapter provides an overview of Houdini and its use as a 3D animation and visual effects solution. In this introduction, you will review all areas of the software while learning key concepts and relevant terminology.

Quickstart In this lesson you will explore a variety of modeling tools as well as tools for fracturing your objects using rigid body dynamics. You will soon see that it is just as much fun smashing up objects in the virtual world as it is in the real world.

Nodes, Networks and Assets With Houdini’s node-based workflow, it is important to start learning how to think and work procedurally. In this lesson, you will learn how to create your own custom tool using the procedural nodes and networks to define its function and interface.

Video Preview:

Here is the video overview which accompanies the User Guide's Introduction.

Go Procedural User Guide: Introduction from Go Procedural on Vimeo.

Note: This video can be downloaded from Vimeo...