Most of the time, for me, i dont want to beg for someone to help me, if i need help though i will ask for it, but I want to find a way to help myself.

From my perspective there are alot of concepts in Houdini that people of certain background will already understand from the word go and instantly have a graps on whats actually going on. I watched pete latest tutorial on a Gas solve and i have to say it was hard getting to the end, simply because i had little/loose knowledge on the subject. I hadnt even heard of an S-noise before.

Is there any material anyone could recommend, on the theoretical side of Houdini, im talking about physics books, math's book whatever. Although i recently purchased a Math's book, that covers alot of topics i never got into and will hopefully shed some light.

Where i can get a god foundation in the concepts that will crop up in Houdini.


-andy

SYmek

Gerome
Well if you take the Staff count at SESI, you will be amazed to see how few people managed to make a software such as Houdini.

I think wee all live in a constant admiration , this is why such topics exists.

Regarding tutorial about Mantra, I think the basics are there, then one needs to explore. Also I think if ones has a good knowledge of 3D and Rendering (Theory), the tutorials may not be that much of a lack, if it is, well, some studies should be undertaken.

That's the main issue here. I don't have a problem to be closer to computer science, in fact I really appreciate that Houdini allows me understand 3d graphic better by not separating me from technical issues.

But this is not a point. The point is that if pure technical competence is crucial for operating Houdini, this is the best possible choice of SESI to provide such competence. Actually this is how things happen for PRMan or mental ray, there are dozens of materials which simple provide theory via its implementation. This was the only way Pixar could expect PRMan reception. Not only provide a tool, but also provide a stupid tricks for it

There is no point to say that SESI is not a university to teach people algebra, since if SESI won't do that, someone else will do it. Competitors namely… well, algebra is not the best example, but you got my point.

If some kind of knowledge is necessary to operate with Houdini/Mantra, the sources of them should be provided. They don't have to be free or extremely comprehensive , they have to be avaiable. For now there is no single book covering one of the most amazing rendering system out there.

Ironically there is not so much about it. One good page about quaternions for example, that describes what they are, how to use it in Houdini's hscript, vex, vop would be enough to kill the pain of people struggling with that issue. And if I'm not wrong, I remember pretty advanced people here, who had problems with quaternions in Houdini

Cheers,
sy.

I hear you man. !!
if i only knew more about matrices quaternions and voxels ect…

I'm glad you went through the videos and I regard them as a success since you have discovered concepts and functions that you need to understand further. That is a primary purpose of a set of general lessons, to identify what you don't know and clarify the types of questions you feel you need to ask.

A secondary purpose to lessons like these is to hopefully inspire others with a greater understanding to develop examples and lessons that have a finer focus and fill in the many gaps.

phrenzy84
Most of the time, for me, i dont want to beg for someone to help me, if i need help though i will ask for it, but I want to find a way to help myself.

From my perspective there are alot of concepts in Houdini that people of certain background will already understand from the word go and instantly have a graps on whats actually going on. I watched pete latest tutorial on a Gas solve and i have to say it was hard getting to the end, simply because i had little/loose knowledge on the subject. I hadnt even heard of an S-noise before.

Is there any material anyone could recommend, on the theoretical side of Houdini, im talking about physics books, math's book whatever. Although i recently purchased a Math's book, that covers alot of topics i never got into and will hopefully shed some light.

Where i can get a god foundation in the concepts that will crop up in Houdini.


-andy

Where i can get a god foundation in the concepts that will crop up in Houdini.

I highly recommend these books. Math books are fine for learning math. If you want to apply math, get these books. They focus mainly on shader writing but hey, you are manipulating and shading geometry and that is directly applicable to Houdini.

Advanced RenderMan
http://books.google.ca/books?id=6_4VaJiOx7EC&dq=advanced+renderman&pg=PP1&ots=cpXuNROKJ2&sig=znQI4maMwk47IpszG0SsHsUc4_Y&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.ca/search?q=advanced+renderman&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail [books.google.ca]
The first two chapters are on the basic math you need to know for CG. It doesn't teach you math theorems and proofs. It shows you how to do stuff.

Texturing and Modelling, A Procedural Approach
http://cobweb.ecn.purdue.edu/~ebertd/book2e.html [cobweb.ecn.purdue.edu]
The third edition is the current edition. I have both the second and the third. Believe it or not, the third edition actually omits a ton of cool code examples!!! Relevant code examples! The authors claim that computers are fast enough so you don't need to know the basics….
Get the second edition used if you can.

Essential RenderMan Fast
http://www.dctsystems.co.uk/Text/erm.html [dctsystems.co.uk]
Great intro book to RenderMan by a fantastic professor: “Ian Stephenson”. Again much math is actually used. Get this first if you have never entered the world of writing scripts/code or shaders. After this book you will be ready for the two books above.

Again all can be applied to Houdini geometry as well as Mantra. Note that writing shaders for RenderMan is slightly different than Houdini's Mantra but not by much.


I am working on a few old school blogs that cover patterns and cycles, data types, vectors and matrices with actual files in VEX, SOPs, shaders, etc. The first step is to show you how to actually build your own VEX operator. I really don't like to rely on the VEX in-line operator but quickly create a real VOP to do your work. I have found lots and lots of math resources but scant little info on how to “actually” use it in in real-world situations. The Games programming magazines are terrific for that btw.
I start off with four vids that show you how to build a VOP to wrap around the transpose() function. Watch the first intro vid to see what transpose() can do for you.
Check it out:
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1235&Itemid=216 [sidefx.com]

Ahhh thanks for much jeff.

At least now i have a starting point. These books are as good as purchased. Well at least it shouldnt be too hard to get Essential Renderman and Adavanced, but i will look for the second edition of that Procedural Texturing/Modelling book.

My goals at the moment, vary within houdini (so much to chose from). I want to try this and try that. I grew up(in the world of CG) as a character modeller so I want to build from that. So shaders, riggin, or procedural modelling is where Im headed.

Cant wait to get stuck in.


thanks again Jeff, and looking forward to the rest of your VOP's series.


-andrew