I am going to do a series of projects. I will be using either Houdini or Maya. I will be using renderman to render.

I just want to know if I should give up houdini. (what is your suggestion to me?)

It is just because I am not a professional shader writer. (only briefly went through Renderman Fast and rendering for beginners) So I was going to choose Houdini because of its vexbuilder. But after spending weeks to learn houdini (just rendering). I found it takes very very long time to learn especially the renderman part! The reasons are there are nearly no tutorial which talk about renderman in Houdini! The only way that I could learn is to learn vex shader first, and then try to re-do it with renderman. But this just take longer time to learn. Also, all the rman shader node is Houdini do not have help. I could only learnt it by “guessing”! It took me very long time to just to archive a simple task! Another way for me to learn Houdini(with renderman) is to ask the people in Houdini forum but it also takes very long time to learn this way! (i just cannot rely on other people all the time!) I just wonder if I am the only one in this planet feel this way! on the other hand , very oftern the help file does not explain the step very clearly.

Futhermore, mtor ‘s help document is a lot better than Houdini! Maya’s hypershade is so cool! Maya have mayaman, mtor, renderman for maya. Maya's help documents and examples are a lot better than Houdini! Maya unlimited is also about 3 times cheaper than Houdini Master! In Maya, they have cloth and hair. Houdini 7 does not have hair and cloth (may need to buy syflex for Houdini). I know the Next version of Houdini will have hair and cloth (I saw that in highland ‘s user group meeting last year in L.A.) but it still cannot solve the problem! The problem i have is learning most of the things(especally Houdini’s renderman part) by guessing! (but with mtor or maya, I could easily find the answer relatively quicker by reading the help documents) I am just still looking for a way to learn Houdini in a effective way (especially with rman)!

Can anyone tell me the reason why I should not give up to use Houdini for my future projects?

my feeling of learning Houdini (with renderman) is like driving to a destination with giving a map!

I think if I am sideFx's manages, I will employ two Houdini experts to fix the help and tutorial documents of Houdini with renderman. I think 1,000 more copies of Houdini will be sold immediately!

Hey, Bruce, please dont feel offended, but you are the first guy who spent 30,000$ for Houdini Master and RenderMan ( and already own Maya Unlimited + RAT ) and without any idea how to use this investment.
Something is wrong here.
Please reduce your posts a bit, and try to ask questions which make sense.

Thank you.

This is a problem with Houdini. Documentation… why is there so little of it?

As to your question, I think you should continue to invest time in Houdini. The best way to learn IMO is to work at a facility that uses Houdini as part of its' pipeline on a regular basis. If you cannot do that you'll need to use the little documentation you have and spend more time investigating the software on your own.

Post straight forward questions on the forums and we'll do our best to answer you.

some
Hey, Bruce, please dont feel offended, but you are the first guy who spent 30,000$ for Houdini Master and RenderMan ( and already own Maya Unlimited + RAT ) and without any idea how to use this investment.
Something is wrong here.
Please reduce your posts a bit, and try to ask questions which make sense.

Thank you.

For someone who tries not to offend, you sure aren't doing a good job of it. “Remember, if you can't say anything good, don't say anything at all.”

brucelay
I am going to do a series of projects. I will be using either Houdini or Maya. I will be using renderman to render.

I just want to know if I should give up houdini. (what is your suggestion to me?)

It is just because I am not a professional shader writer. (only briefly went through Renderman Fast and rendering for beginners) So I was going to choose Houdini because of its vexbuilder. But after spending weeks to learn houdini (just rendering). I found it takes very very long time to learn especially the renderman part! The reasons are there are nearly no tutorial which talk about renderman in Houdini! The only way that I could learn is to learn vex shader first, and then try to re-do it with renderman. But this just take longer time to learn. Also, all the rman shader node is Houdini do not have help. I could only learnt it by “guessing”! It took me very long time to just to archive a simple task! Another way for me to learn Houdini(with renderman) is to ask the people in Houdini forum but it also takes very long time to learn this way! (i just cannot rely on other people all the time!) I just wonder if I am the only one in this planet feel this way! on the other hand , very oftern the help file does not explain the step very clearly.

Futhermore, mtor ‘s help document is a lot better than Houdini! Maya’s hypershade is so cool! Maya have mayaman, mtor, renderman for maya. Maya's help documents and examples are a lot better than Houdini! Maya unlimited is also about 3 times cheaper than Houdini Master! In Maya, they have cloth and hair. Houdini 7 does not have hair and cloth (may need to buy syflex for Houdini). I know the Next version of Houdini will have hair and cloth (I saw that in highland ‘s user group meeting last year in L.A.) but it still cannot solve the problem! The problem i have is learning most of the things(especally Houdini’s renderman part) by guessing! (but with mtor or maya, I could easily find the answer relatively quicker by reading the help documents) I am just still looking for a way to learn Houdini in a effective way (especially with rman)!

Can anyone tell me the reason why I should not give up to use Houdini for my future projects?

my feeling of learning Houdini (with renderman) is like driving to a destination with giving a map!

Hey Bruce, check out www.3dbuzz.com probably the best site bar none for anything 3d.

Just curious, why not Mantra?

I agree with ‘some’…
if you're working for a company that uses renderman + houdini
surely they'd have someone on hand to help - even if you're a
contractor.

-cpb

brucelay: you do realise the apprentice version will not run with prman? It will only run with Mantra as it needs to limit the output frame size. Rendering with a third party renderer will cheat that limitation, so SESI cleverly removed that feature to keep their investment safe.
Mantra is very similar to prman, whatever you learn in Mantra you can easily transpose to prman.


Stick to Mantra until you've mastered prman.

brucelay, use whichever package suits your needs and your desires the most. its up to you how technical you want to get. neither route represents wasted time.

be aware that renderman is a beast and you can tell me later if MTOR/Slim is easier or faster than VOPs to mantra OR VOPs to Renderman.

Thank you for all your suggestions!
I decided to stick with mantra! I can see vex builder has got the potential to be better than Maya's hypershade and MtoR's shading network system.

thanks!