Hallo to SideFX Programmers,
i'm new in Houdini, moving first steps. Your approach is quite different from the great part of other 3D programs, and i find some difficult to enter in it. For example: is it possible to use contestual menues for a particular type of object or operation? I find the Tab menu a little confusing with all those menues all togheter, i think that it'll better simplify the things.
Another thing that i'd like to see, i told that in the main Houdini forum, is a beginner guide, in PDF format, so i'll print and study it.
I've buyed the two books, but i think that a good guide by you will be wellcome.
You know that most of other graphic programs have many guides, books ant tutorials everywhere while Houdini has not.
Thank you.
Achille

P.S. I'm only an hobbyst, is Houdini pherhaps too difficult and complex for me? :?

i see where this is going, maybe embrace the different interface. Sure, context menus are the mainstream solution but i think you can get a lot of speed from the tab+type workflow, it means less looking in menus and getting what you want the easier way (untill the brainsynapse peripheral arrives).

With any new software, probably the easier thing then to adapt is to want to change the interface just think the interface might be set up this way because we (the starters) cant possibly grasp what the depths of this software are (sound poetic?).

Lets hope SESI stays independent and wont get eaten by another company elsewhere in canada, i kinda liked a|w before the same thing happened to them.

ric

In the tab a lot of tools are categorized according to a specific need (polygon, nurbs, primitives, attributes etc…) And then there are the context views (CHOPS/VOPS/ROPS) which limit your options a bit. That's all you get.

For the pdf book, please see another thread in the general forum…little synopsis: it's very unlikely a pdf will be made.

There are a lot of video tutorials which can help you out. Check the gnomon site, the cmivfx site and digital tutors. There are also some excellent video tutorials from Sesi (and they even got some h8 pdf's which are still usefull!) and 3dbuzz.

You're right about Houdini's lack of publicity. It pretty much gets ignored on the web. In my mind, Houdini is primarily for serious geeks.

starfire324
Houdini is primarily for serious geeks.

Hehe I like that.. it should be the new slogan for Houdini.