Well done MichaelC
Hats off to you for explaining it. Thats it exactly.

What you said is basically what I was driving at by saying “Houdini has an atomic approach to things”, and “think of it as an Operating System for 3D”.
You have so much core level control over things that it is not easy to say
….to make X do Y like so! …because you can do X a bunch of different ways.

Studying others files is an absolute must. You can actually “see” what the other person was thinking when they were building the file.

I did exactly the same as you, I would pick a project and just say I'm doing this in Houdini and stick to it until its done. You also develop a keen eye for
ongoing and new threads for anything that sounds like what you are doing in your project, and nine out of ten you find a little gem of info that helps you. (Your mileage may differ)

I do feel for any new user though, as it seems to be a daunting task,
when you have all these quick push button solutions around. The trouble is they might be quick but they don't foster any ability on the part of the artist. If you take a little more time up front to really learn, then later when any problem comes along, your ready for it, and your fast at it.

give a man a fish and you feed him today, but give him a fishing pole
and you feed him for life.

whooo … waxing a little too philosophical there.


I'll stop now.

-Lyn-

aidanodr
The faster and more efficiently I learn, the better in this environment. As they say - in this modern world - time is money.

No matter how you put it, it requires a lot of time to learn high-end 3D animation packages.
I also find the comparison with Modo quite irrelevant. Modo is an app dedicated to only one aspect of the 3D production (or maybe two): modeling and painting. Because of that, it's toolset is very limited. It's also very straightforward, with very clear paths for achieving a result.
High-end animation packages are exactly the opposite. They try to be open and offer you many ways to deal with a problem (and of all of them, Houdini is the best in this area). Have you actually seen an instructional material to take on *each* feature of Maya, from modeling, through animation, rendering, effects, live, MEL, python and other billion things that are available in it? Only the modeling toolset of Maya or Houdini is probably bigger than Modo's, because along poly's they deal with NURBS, construction histories, animated deformations, skinning, particle integration etc.
Of course there's never too much docs. But it's also a reality that at this very moment there's quite a lot of stuff available.
And why nobody bothers to actually look into the online help? It gets better by the day.
You can learn a huge amount of stuff by simply loading the *hundreds* of example files and studying them. This can get you started very fast.

Dragos

What a great discussion. thanks for all the suggestions for new lessons and for the nice comments regarding the lessons already built. One thing I have learned after 15 years of creating tutorials for a variety of 3D apps is that there are NEVER enough tutorials.

We will continue to get more lessons online and many of the ideas presented here will be great to incorporate.

Robert

Hi Lads,

digitallysane said: “No matter how you put it, it requires a lot of time to learn high-end 3D animation packages. ”

In response to my statement: “The faster and more efficiently I learn, the better in this environment. As they say - in this modern world - time is money.”

Yes - I agree it can take a long time to learn a hi end 3D app, but an organised centralised tutorial / video tutorial repository similar to Luxology.TV would be invaluable and make this process far more agreeable.

I have only used Modo as an illustration of a product who's approach to training/learning - I think - is top notch. I was not comparing - or did not mean to compare it with Houdini head to head.

Luxologys approach is I reckon - a well educated user is a happy user is an ambassador which equals more sales when the word is spread. By organised I mean tutes on all aspects with real examples being used. For example - modelling a simple motor car OR a wheelie bin in Houdini, UVing it, Texturing it, Rendering it. This - so a new user in one tute or group of same can get an idea of workflow. From their will be confident to explore on his/her own.

OK, it has been said above that Houdini can have many solutions to one issue. Houdini is not alone in this. BUT - for the sake of new user / starving artist to grasp Houdini workflow, surely its possible to do an end to end real world type tute with ONE of these solutions?

digitallysane said: “Modo is an app dedicated to only one aspect of the 3D production (or maybe two): modeling and painting. ”

Well - as of version 301 - Modo has the beginnings of Animation - all tools are keyable, blah blah. Expect full character anim in v401. Yes it Models, Paints - but also has top UV Mapping tools ( easiest so far, I have seen, to use ), Sculpting, Rendering ( global illumination and physically-based shading models are available, providing for advanced optical phenomena such as anisotropic blurry reflections, indirect caustics, and subsurface scattering.) Once Char Anim is added it is then a “Full” 3D app.

Re the comment - "it's toolset is very limited“ - look again I suggest. I say this in a light manner digitallsane, trying to be constructive from a new houdini users perspective at this thread. Also I assume all are aware that Modo is a break away from Lightwave. As far as I know Luxology are all ex Newtek. Not a bad pedigree!

Unfortunately or not - The new HD pricing could draw in alot of users who may seem at a ‘lesser’ level than hardened Houdini practisioners. Its priced at a level that would attract Casual Users - the type of user some hardened professionals may look at and go ”ermm!“, turn about and walk off in dispare, muttering ”What will they do to my 3D app" If this - the general 3D casual user - is the wrong audience then a rethink on the HD promotion may need to be done. Though - I think I can only assume it is a promotion to actually widen the user pool of this great 3D application.

I have had this argument with users of another 3D app I use - What we found was that their are Technical type programmer users who make their own plugins/scripts. These guys have a whole different view of an app, more into tinkering under the engine and could dismantle the thing at will. Then their is the more creative/arty user who wouldnt know python and programming and scripting and never will. It is rare to get both user types combined, I have found and sometimes neither can understand the other.

Anyway - now I AM rambling nonsense … I shall stop. I hope Robert, something in all of this makes sense. AND to you hardened Houdini users - I am not dissing your app, as a new user I am giving my two cents from the outside while I am still objective ..

By the way - in case people are going mmm - When I mentioned that time is money in my business. This was a general phrase, I realise Houdini HD is for personal use and thats what I will be using it for. If I like it and come across a commercial use - I will upgrade to Escape.

Cheers
Aidan

Yea!! Robert

Well said

“One thing I have learned after 15 years of creating tutorials for a variety of 3D apps is that there are NEVER enough tutorials. ”

Thanks for watching this thread, and thanks for all you guys have done.

As Rob has said, we are working on this issue quite diligently. I too appreciate the input and ideas, and they will show up as lessons in the not too distant future. That you are all pressing us to provide more material I view as a very good thing.

Hi Probbins,

Yes - this was good to hear from Robert and from you.

By the way - As you see from my Profile Flag I am from Ireland. Cork City on the southern coast only a few miles away from BLARNEY. The legend has it that to kiss the Blarney stone bestows upon you the gift of the gab. All Corkonians are naturally born with this - we talk alot. So - I apologise to all in advance if sometimes my messages are a bit verbose and rambling

Cheers
Aidan

Yeah well I still stick to what i said in my audio file. I may not have exp. I might not be able to model. I may not understand the use of all the tools even if someone told me what each button does. But I am not going to give up. I am like Lee in Naruto the kid that has no skills but goes on to be a great man. In fact I have learned how to render out useing the Mantra node so i don't get black renders anymore. I have also learned that in the view port how to set up the camera view you have to click save view and thats the new angle it will render out. Last night I was so full of WIN. took all day but it was pure WIN.

Just to add to this very important topic. Something that I would love to see is some sort of diagrams with some audio comments. Maybe starting from a global ( differents parts, interaction, data structure, data flow, hierarchy, “DG”..) point of view and go deeper or more local… BTW this can be a very good/visual way to “store” the video tutorials.
Hope this help.