can someone explain to me what all the contexts in houdini mean?, i really like houdini but im stuck on learning these contexts which are crucial to learning houdini.
i looked around and watched some tutorials but i still don't understand it.
jeff
That's too bad then.
My intention wasn't to scare you off. Just answer your question. It's up to you to filter and pick out the minimal bit you need.
I just exposed to you everything that there is in Houdini because you asked about acronyms btw. To be blunt, most Houdini users know just a fraction of the tools and they do amazing production work. Master just a handful of nodes and techniques and leave the rest alone.
What is it that you are interested in btw?
jeff
I am only familiar with blueprint at a basic level but the two are quite similar in that they use nodes to construct procedural set-ups.
Houdini differs in it's breadth of features and in it's deep geometry modification toolkit including multiple primitive types and volumes.
As for learning simulations in Houdini, depending on what you want to do, most straight forward simulations should be just that. Not having to involve SOP solvers or other advanced simulation techniques. Most simulations should have set-ups from the shelf and you just tweak the set-ups in place.
If you have specific questions about simulations, fire away on new threads and we'll try to help out and simplify approaches for everyone to learn from.
-jeff
jeff
First thing, set your desktop to “Technical”. This gives you the folder view on the left hand side. A Houdini scene is actually composed of network folders and objects inside those networks. You can traverse these folders with the network pane.
Folders are associated with a network type. We have acronyms for the network types and the nodes inside these networks.
Object = Object type nodes in an Object type folder. These Object nodes allow you build transform constraint hierarchies. Geometry type Object nodes contain SOP nodes that construct and modify geometry that inherit any transforms at the object level.
SOPs = Surface OPerators or geometry nodes that are inside an object folder. These are used to construct and modify geometry. Any kind of geometry from polygons to volumes.
DOPs = Dynamic OPerators or simulation/solver nodes that are used to construct simulations. Simulations read in geometry from SOPs and passes this data in to the DOP solvers.
SHOP = SHading Operators are materials that represent a shader to apply to geometry. Some are hard coded with vex and others are folders that you can dive in to and modify the VOPs inside.
VOPs = Vector OPerators inside VOP network nodes are used for everything from building shaders to modifying geometry, volumes, pixels, and more.
VEX = Vector Expression Language. The code language used to write shaders. VOPs are wrappers around VEX code snippets.
CVEX = Context agnostic Vector Expression Language. This has replaced all the VEX specific contexts throughout Houdini. It is a generalized language that uses the same environment and functions anywhere inside Houdini.
COPs = Composite OPerators in composite type folders. Used in image compositing operations.
ROPs = Render OPerators in side ROP Output directories which are used to create render output dependency graphs for automating output of any type of data and for triggering external processes like rendering. Commonly used to generate sequences of geometry, simulation data and trigger Render tasks that generates sequences of images to disk.
CHOPs = CHannel OPerators used to create and modify any type of raw channel data from motion to audio and everything in between. Most users safely ignore the CHOP context, and so can you, for now. Put it on the “get to it later” list when learning Houdini. But definitely keep it on the list.
All these folder types and node types are clearly indicated inside the Tree View you get up by default with the Technical Desktop. I highly recommend anyone new to Houdini to get used to working with the Tree view as you can see everything in the scene without diving in and out all over the place.
What makes these acronyms so important is that you can communicate ideas much quicker without any ambiguity with your fellow Houdini co-workers. This is known as “Houdini Speak”.
We have stripped many acronyms from the docs but the fact that they still exist and get used all the time speaks volumes to their usefulness.
If you ever speak with me, I use acronyms full stop and expect to hear them right back. Just putting that out there.
-jeff
RosatoRosario
Beautiful, POPs?
jeffthis would be great, however even if we don't count specific shading contexts (surface/displace/fog/light/shadow), it seems that even in H16, Vop Chop (therefore even the “new” Channel VOP/Wrangle and Transform Wrangle) and Vop Cop2 Filter/Generator have still not been replaced with CVEX
CVEX = Context agnostic Vector Expression Language. This has replaced all the VEX specific contexts throughout Houdini. It is a generalized language that uses the same environment and functions anywhere inside Houdini.
mrmowglior is it?
Ok, so I am trying to figure out what a TOP or a TOP Network is, it's not in the on online help from Houdini. Any ideas?