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Houdini Lounge » Learning Houdini...No, really... learning Houdini
- jcarney
- 10 posts
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Interesting question; the only answer I can give w/o elaboration is to be motivated TO learn. That's the hard part. I started off a couple years ago, learned a bit about houdini then hit a rather solid wall. I found it increasingly difficult to learn as time went on, got frustrated and quit trying to learn (houdini, at least); I had a problem in that I didn't just want to learn how to do something in Houdini. I wanted to know how to start from opening a new file in Houdini to ending with a short movie, even a simple one. I was able to do just that but it was very difficult. I now have much grander plans which have forced me to step back and learn a bit about film making. My foray into “i want to learn 3d animation” ended up with learning about ideas and scripting, storyboards, lighting, composition, compositing; I've not even touched on sound yet or music score. I have ideas that unfortunately, just learning to use a software app, even a powerful one as houdini, is just a small part. One thing I've learned is that you need to have an idea of WHY you want to learn and what you want to do with what you've learned. I highly suggest reading as much as you can so you can start learning in a specific direction (modeling, technical director, lighting, shading, etc). Good luck.
Houdini Lounge » Intentions of the Creators of the Apprentice Version
- jcarney
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Speaking from the point of view of someone that has just started out towards the goal of becoming an animator (as in, employed in some capacity doing just that) I think the apprentice edition (or non-commercial) is wonderful. I've tried similar types of Maye (ple) and XSI (experience) and I've found that houdini is more robust, from my limited point-of-view. I don't think it should put any limits on anyone skiled in Houdini's use. What would it matter if you learned from the non-commercial edition or the production/commercial version? If you have the skills and can show it, I would think that would make a great resume in and of itself. The NC version of Houdini, as far as I know, is only limited in what it's final rendered output is. Everything else is pretty much the same in either version. IF you were planning on making a career of creating animated scenes, FOR MONEY, then you'd probably have to purchase the commercial version (which should now be capable of a tax write-off as it would be for business use). As for teaching, I'd think that would depend on how you were going about that; will you be free-lance? Check with individual clients; if it's for school of some sort, check with them; I'm sure that in any case, demonstrable skills would go a long way. Just my opinion.
jc
jc
Houdini Lounge » [Q] gwavefront.exe requires license?
- jcarney
- 10 posts
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Ok, i'm not at home (I'll check later) but if your using the NC versions (you didn't specify) and gwwavefront is one of the apps installed with houidini setup, each of them requires a seperate license (as if each was bought and installed separately); even though i use houdini master NC almost exclusively, I have used some of the other apps (halo, etc) and they each ask for separate licenses upon first use. If this isn't your situation, forgive my presumption….I just know this is how it is with the NC stuff…
Technical Discussion » the rocket tutorial !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- jcarney
- 10 posts
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hey todge, see the post in this forum titled ‘render to disk’; it's an old post (i replied to bring it forward) but it has VERY good info, thanks to edward. Go to 3dbuzz forums and look around in the houdini forums; there's a small discussion going on; i've been asking for, and getting, some very good help for this tutorial file. I've posted a small movie file of the rocket tutorial I made. I'm going to post another here soon with some of the changes I've made recently (illuminating exhaust, mostly). Anyways, have fun and let's see what you've done when you're done.
edit: todge, you might wish to post similar questions/problems in one topic/thread. I just read through 3 different threads all asking the same thing. If you have further questions, just keep posting in the one thread. Just an idea…that way others that may be having the same issues won't have to go looking around; everything will be in the one thread.
edit: todge, you might wish to post similar questions/problems in one topic/thread. I just read through 3 different threads all asking the same thing. If you have further questions, just keep posting in the one thread. Just an idea…that way others that may be having the same issues won't have to go looking around; everything will be in the one thread.
Technical Discussion » Rendering to disk?
- jcarney
- 10 posts
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Technical Discussion » Rendering to disk?
- jcarney
- 10 posts
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edward
No prob. Ok, so for anyone else who is interested, I've modified the original post to take into account everything so you should be able to just save that somewhere for future reference.
How about 9 months in the future? :wink:
Thanks for putting this up for us n00bies!
Technical Discussion » Segmentation fault loading Houdini Halo program
- jcarney
- 10 posts
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Well, I can't answer the question but I can add a similar problem; I've had houdini master do this to me several times. I can't say with any certainty exactly what I was doing in Houdini just before it happened. The only thing I can think of is not shutting down with the ‘exit’ or ‘close’ menu item. A lot of times I'll just click the ‘x’ to shut down the window. I thought it might also have been occuring after running a render op. I'll make sure to make specific notes next time it happens.
Technical Discussion » Rendering with the renderer that comes wth my nc - Mantra
- jcarney
- 10 posts
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The ROP window you select at the top of the pane (where you click to go to OBJECTS, SOP, CHOP, etc); you want the OUTPUT or ROP (Render OPerations). Make sure the panes are linked together, so they're all on the same page, so to speak In the NETWORK pane, hit TAB and select GENERATORS then MANTRA. (I'm using the TRAINING DESKTOP, so some things might be a bit different, depending on what you have selected). In the parameters pane (below network pane), change the parameters to your liking. For a start you might try these:
for the STANDARD tab:
set CAMERA to cam1 (any camera or light object will work; has to be one or the other though)
for OUTPUT PICTURE, select MPLAY WINDOW
for IMAGE FORMAT, just leave it as is, you can play with different settings as you get more comfortable
put a check in FRAME RANGE then set it to what frames you want to render
Everything else, just leave it at default (again, you play with different settings later)
Now hit the RENDER button
Depending on your scene and the number of frames, this could take a long while
When it's done, the MPLAY window will open up and you will be able to play your animation; note: what's been done to this point is all the frames have been rendered and are sitting in your main houdini folder; what mplay does is just play those files in order. Exactly how to make this into an .avi file or some other movie format I haven't gotten around to yet.
Have fun!
for the STANDARD tab:
set CAMERA to cam1 (any camera or light object will work; has to be one or the other though)
for OUTPUT PICTURE, select MPLAY WINDOW
for IMAGE FORMAT, just leave it as is, you can play with different settings as you get more comfortable
put a check in FRAME RANGE then set it to what frames you want to render
Everything else, just leave it at default (again, you play with different settings later)
Now hit the RENDER button
Depending on your scene and the number of frames, this could take a long while
When it's done, the MPLAY window will open up and you will be able to play your animation; note: what's been done to this point is all the frames have been rendered and are sitting in your main houdini folder; what mplay does is just play those files in order. Exactly how to make this into an .avi file or some other movie format I haven't gotten around to yet.
Have fun!
Technical Discussion » Rendering with the renderer that comes wth my nc - Mantra
- jcarney
- 10 posts
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Here's a quick and dirty way to make your first render. I'll detail a couple of things then mention a bit (or at least, what I've learned so far) about rendering.
1. start a new file
2. add a geometry object
3. select the object in network pane then press ‘i’
4. delete ‘file1’
5. add a nurb sphere
6. go to the SHOP layout
7. add a vex shader (plastic will work)
8. go back to the object level, select the geo1 object
9. on the shading tab, click on the + sign next to shader surface and select the shader you added (v_plastic); this applies that shader to your sphere
10. create a light object and transform it to, oh, say 4 4 4 (xyz)
11. in the light parameters select the geo1 object to look at
12. now click on the bluish, launch view: mantra icon (it's at the bottom of your view pane)
13. Look at your first rendered object!
This probably could've been done better, but it's quick and dirty and it works. Now, if you've created something more expansive AND it's animated, you should go to the ROP layout, add a mantra generator and change the settings to render frames, say 1-100 or whatever; note that this WILL take time, as each frame has to be rendered. The more complex the scene is, the longer it will take. As an example, I went through the rocket tutorial and when done I rendered it fram by frame to make a small movie (which I can view in the mlay window; haven't figured out yet how to make it an .avi file or something like that). As there were about 180 frames, I think it took something like 30 mins or so to complete, at a very small 300x200 view size.
You really should follow the already mentioned tutorial guides; they are very helpful.
1. start a new file
2. add a geometry object
3. select the object in network pane then press ‘i’
4. delete ‘file1’
5. add a nurb sphere
6. go to the SHOP layout
7. add a vex shader (plastic will work)
8. go back to the object level, select the geo1 object
9. on the shading tab, click on the + sign next to shader surface and select the shader you added (v_plastic); this applies that shader to your sphere
10. create a light object and transform it to, oh, say 4 4 4 (xyz)
11. in the light parameters select the geo1 object to look at
12. now click on the bluish, launch view: mantra icon (it's at the bottom of your view pane)
13. Look at your first rendered object!
This probably could've been done better, but it's quick and dirty and it works. Now, if you've created something more expansive AND it's animated, you should go to the ROP layout, add a mantra generator and change the settings to render frames, say 1-100 or whatever; note that this WILL take time, as each frame has to be rendered. The more complex the scene is, the longer it will take. As an example, I went through the rocket tutorial and when done I rendered it fram by frame to make a small movie (which I can view in the mlay window; haven't figured out yet how to make it an .avi file or something like that). As there were about 180 frames, I think it took something like 30 mins or so to complete, at a very small 300x200 view size.
You really should follow the already mentioned tutorial guides; they are very helpful.
Technical Discussion » License server is down
- jcarney
- 10 posts
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So THAT'S what the problem is…I tried running the licensing for H6 and it seem to just hang. Then it says that license is installed but it shows only for H5.5. Guess I'll have to wait a while to run 6.
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