Hi, Everybody:

I am a Houdini newbie. I have basic knowledge of Maya and just got my computer barely suits the requirement for Houdini, and I am ready to go. 8)

I would like to know which product in the family did you start or should I start.
Are there people who only focus or work on Halo, Select, and Escape? :roll:

Or did you all start with Master anyway? :twisted: Correct me if I am wrong. To make a 3D animation work, modeling is the first thing to start with, right? So Either Escape or Select or even Master is the one I should start with…or it just doesn't matter? Compositing skill is what I am aiming for. Please share with me if you have any suggestion. Thanks!

david

Since apprentice lets you try the Master anyway … why you dont just start and stick with Apprentice?.. select and escape just lack of some tool but they dont have anything different (GUI or whatever else) which can make you confused once you go Master.. even if you point at compositing only.. just go on the COPs layout …


that's my advice.. i can be wrong tought.
I'm also learning Houdini and I always load the Master suite.

cheers.

I also recommend Houdini Master.

The other product offerings are actually all Houdini Master but with particular operator types not available to you in the UI. This is done through licensing only! This is why you only download Houdini Master then based on what licenses you have installed, you can run those product subsets but you are still essentially running the base product: Houdini Master.

For example, Houdini Halo, the compositor part of Houdini only allows you to place compositing nodes. You can still load in .hip scene files generated by Houdini Master and access any node in the Hip file that relates to your compositing session. Hitting play will, for example, play any particle systems.

With Escape, you don't have access to the compositor but loading a file with a comp network present and you have a Trace SOP that access that comp network, it will still work just fine and dandy. If you load in a Houdini Digital Asset in to Escape, let's say a fire-breathing character with particle fire and DOP sims, you can't access the particles nor the DOPs but they will still play just fine in your viewport.


So learning Master as opposed to the other subsets of Houdini is a no-brainer. They are all the same.

Thank you very much, guys!

I have tested all the products myself as well and found out what you guys exactly pointed out. Always using one another so why not keep them all handy right? I am very excited about learning everything of Houdini now.

Best Regards,

david