Hi guys,

Anyone out there know where I can pick up on Mantra in depth (shader-writing, optimizations, etc.) ?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers!

im getting into shader writing, as a way of understanding VEX more. But VEX is very similar to RSL (Renderman Shading Language), so ive been going through Essential Renderman Fast (thanks to Jeff Wagner's recommendation).

I dont know how close IFD's are to RIB's, i skipped pretty much everything that dealt with RIB files in the book, just got striaght to the RSL lessons.

Rendering and Shading is a big area, its like modelling, you can understand all the tools but you might not be able to make a decent model, that comes with observation and practice.

I would pick a specfic area of rendering, and grow from there.

Anything to do with VEX i would say is a good start as it can really open the possibilities of Houdini, not only in shader writing but also SOP, POP's, COP's, DOP's and CHOP's.

Cheers mate.