Hello! I've been using Houdini for about a year, and would really like to take courses in the program at a school. I'm in LA, and according to this website, my only two options are Santa Monica College and the Gnomon School of Visual Effects. I spoke to an admissions councilor today, and it became apparent that the majority of the classes at Gnomon are maya centric. It was recommended to me to change my perspective from focusing on Houdini, if I want a proper education at the school. This led me to believe that Gnomon isn't the right place for me. I'd like to learn Houdini, but I need to find the right program. I'm also not looking to earn an actual degree, but just to take individual classes. What I could really use is some direction. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Joseph

The LA office has some hands on training classes sometimes on focused areas like fur etc. Maybe speak to the office there

Rob

Thx! I'll contact them asap. Any other ideas are also welcome. I'd be great if I could either discuss this with a professional in the field, or with a Houdini instructor. Thx in advance!

I went through the same thing looking into schools. I've been dabbling in Houdini Apprentice for a few years, but just got real serious about learning. I'm saving the bucks, and hope to buy FX next quarter.

I took some of the SideFX classes a couple of years ago but was too green to do well. I plan on signing up for more. Sign up early, they fill fast, and preference seems to be given to actual SideFX customers (understandably).

Since schools are so expensive, and offer only minimal Houdini training. I've been learning from the Sidefx tutorials, and these two subscription tutorial sites. The subscriptions are dirt cheap compared to a year at a school, the videos come with project files, and you can learn at you own pace.

http://cmivfx.com/store/ [cmivfx.com]

CMIVFX has a lot of new videos covering H12. and 12.5

http://www.digitaltutors.com [digitaltutors.com]

Hope it helps.

Thanks for the info I've actually gone through all 3rd party tutorials for H12 and ya, i've found that houdini courses in the area are quite limited. Has anyone tried an online service like animation mentor or cg spectrum? thx!