AllegroThere are plenty of videos available for learning in the “Learning” section of the website. There's also a lot more in the help docs than just the help for each node. But to answer your question. There is no printed manual that comes with Houdini.
I mean a reference document that starts at the beginning and explains everything with simple examples along the way. How houdini works, why it works the way it does, what are these chops and sops…. I guess even in the days of videos I prefer a ‘book’ of some sort, even if its a pdf and not ‘printed’…If you press the “s” key or click the selection icon at the left of the viewport, you shouldn't have any difficulty with selecting things so that you can then use the shelf/tab menu to perform your next operation. Note that if you're laying down nodes in the network editor rather than the viewport, you do a operation -> selection type of workflow instead of selection -> operation
Ill have to try this. I just found I could rarely get predictable results in the group field with the list of selected elements for the next operation, I was getting extra edit nodes and things instead…I'm not sure of what exactly you're doing with your balls :twisted: but if you're in a geometry network, you can try using a point sop to control the particle scale attribute. You can use the interact pop to make particles interact with each other.
Again, lots to learn here… but by default particles render as small spheres, all I want is a size parameter to go with the default size, I would have expected it in the location node that is creating them, but maybe it's a attribute you have to add, either way it wasen't easy to find….
I've yet to use Modo, so I can't comment on comparisons. There's a couple of ways to do GI / occlusion though. You can use an environment light (simple way) or the VEX Global Illumination shader (you should look up that one in the help docs since it's not as straight forward).
Modo's blazingly fast. I don't want to use an environment light, or occlusion, I'd like to use some type of interpolated irradiance like Final Gather in mental ray or Lightwave, or Irradiance cacheing like in modo. The VEX GI shader might be what I'm looking for, however the shading/VEX stuff seems even more daunting at this point than setting up dynamics and particle…. deep software.
Thanks for trying to help me out. I'll keep posting questions here as I run into stuff. Hopefully it will be useful to other new users as well. I've already figured out how to use proper SDS surfaces in the render and use a simple poly-subdivide SOP at the end of the SOP network set to render visible off. That allows a nice preview in the viewport, but dosen't dice up the geo heavily for the render, the true SDS work much better.
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Houdini Indie and Apprentice » new apprentice user, some questions ...
- Mike_RB
- 78 posts
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Houdini Indie and Apprentice » new apprentice user, some questions ...
- Mike_RB
- 78 posts
- Offline
Hey, So far houdini is really sharp. I have a couple of questions that maybe you guys could help with.
-Manual, is there one? Or is the start-up videos and the help on each node everything there is?
-Poly modelling. It seems like I can almost never get the selection for the next operation rather than editing the current operation.
-Particle size. The ‘balls’ that particles start out by default as are ok, and I can turn them into points, but do they have a size parameter, and if so can you then use that to make them collide with eachother based on that size…
-Render speed. My experiments have led me to believe mantra is pretty slow, at least in comparison to modo. How do you turn on ‘gi’ like in other apps. Grey environment, gi on, nice overcast look….
I'm sure I'll have more questions later, but those would be a nice place to start. I'm coming from a LW/modo/XSI type background, so the whole super procedural thing is a little alien to me so far, but fun.
thanks.
Michael Blackbourn
-visual effects artist
The Embassy Visual Effects
-Manual, is there one? Or is the start-up videos and the help on each node everything there is?
-Poly modelling. It seems like I can almost never get the selection for the next operation rather than editing the current operation.
-Particle size. The ‘balls’ that particles start out by default as are ok, and I can turn them into points, but do they have a size parameter, and if so can you then use that to make them collide with eachother based on that size…
-Render speed. My experiments have led me to believe mantra is pretty slow, at least in comparison to modo. How do you turn on ‘gi’ like in other apps. Grey environment, gi on, nice overcast look….
I'm sure I'll have more questions later, but those would be a nice place to start. I'm coming from a LW/modo/XSI type background, so the whole super procedural thing is a little alien to me so far, but fun.
thanks.
Michael Blackbourn
-visual effects artist
The Embassy Visual Effects
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