I've just installed the apprentice version of Houdini, the software that made me very excited. I'm ready to meet some sleepless nights and great feeling of having new discoveries but, as I downloaded ALL of the .zip files and nearly all of the training videos, I couldn't locate the “ObjectStatesStarter.hip” neither in the installed demo files nor the downloaded content. The video is about Houdini interface, video named “ObjectStates”
I'd be glad if you inform me about the missing file's whereabouts?
Interestingly, if you do a Google search for “ObjectStatesStarter.hip”, you find the links to it. It is somewhere within vislab site. I too had trouble locating some files, but strangely enough most files can be found through Google. No wonder everyone is excited over Google going public! You can find almost anything with the darn engine. 8)
Hope it won't take very much learning to use Houdini. I'm in fact a Lightwave user, and have a very limited time after work for studying Houdini.
I'd like to know if someone tells his opinions about shortcomings and cool features of the software. As far as I see, it's a bit different than other packages about GUI, but I felt myself close to it's general workflow and think that the procedural approach of Houdini is great.
If you guys add some of your opinions and comments about this, I'll be happy.
At first Houdini GUI can seem somewhat daunting, but once you learn the general logic behind its workflow it starts to get easier to navigate the interface. The procedural approach is great and though some other packages also have areas where procedural workflow exists, none is as developed and capable as Houdini's. In fact you can become somewhat spoiled when you get used to the complete none-linear way of modeling and animating. So much so that when I do work in another package I expect there to be an operator I can delete or change when something goes wrong only to realize it isn't Houdini. :roll: If you know what you are doing, it is really tough to screw up in Houdini since your entire history remains live.
The only other thing is that Houdini is such a deep application that it is easy to lose focus when trying to learn the software. So stick with some of the basic areas when starting and expand from there. Good areas to start learning is SOPs and POPs, since you are most likely to use these two areas a good deal when doing projects in Houdini. IMO.
Since I'm an extreme newbie :wink: in Houdini, every bit of detail and info gets my attention and is very useful for me. Watching the overview videos and many of the lessons, Houdini kinda' made me feel at home at first glance. So it's approach seems close to my nature and sure it's very professional.
The most concerning thing for me about Houdini is; I felt my self a bit lonely. First, there's no one around me knows about or using it. When I look at galleries of web sites like 3dtotal, cgchannel etc. I don't see much Houdini users there. Maybe because the software is not so affordable for individiuals, and even for the most studios. And probably I couldn't be able to use it professionally for making money because I'm limited with the apprentice version and not sure to find a job using Houdini in my counrty.
But in spite of all those I mentioned above, I think it worths to struggle on and I'll do as much as I can find the time…
Thanks again and hope to hear more about this.. Later. Diya
