Lately I've been having a very hard time learning Houdini. Sometimes the doc just repeats what it already taught me. Some of the tutorials I watch I get unwanted results when I'm copying the same thing that was done in the video due to being on a different version. This discourages me from watching another tutorial. Some tutorials and project files are extremely basic to the point I have no clue how I would even expand on the tool or method. The issue with some courses they only advertise certain things or other software. Some of which I am slowly learning on my own or through YouTube. I just want the skill to make everything from 20,000bc to an alien economy. I look on Google images and I type anime castle, anime buildings, or futuristic buildings I struggle to figure out how to make them. I want to stack them with cool VFX/sims. The muscle system is also something I want in my desired style of work. I know a ton of studying and practice will help me get there but I can't find a 1 stop shop that teaches me on the threshold of basic/complex to allow for me to expand on my with my own creativity. I'm not looking to be on Houdini and then suddenly I have to go to another software. Honestly I only want to use Unreal Engine for its skybox, lighting, I think I could put its sound system to use, and whenever metahuman is complete I want to play with that, other than that I'd like to be strictly Houdini. I use blender to create basic humanoid figures. I want to be able to make a scene with whatever look and simulation I want. I got a powerful laptop just for Houdini. I keep trying everyday regardless of whatever block I hit because art is the only thing I am good at and 3D is the only way for me to bring my ideas to life. Houdini has new tools to make things easier, I'd like to know how to use them for the things I explained above and so on. Although there are project files out there for download, due to make lack of skill with Houdini I have no clue how to expand on it. I will say this much, I'm not trying to learn everything in Houdini. I'm not seeking to work with a 20,000+ part robot, no way! BUT if the course offers room to tackle that, then its a plus to know when I master the things I want to do I know where to find the knowledge to face that challenge.

A lot of these courses promising xyz yet I'm only seeing water, pyro, RBD, sure that's nice and all but I don't want to be limited to that... if you could teach awesome buildings and etc, why not advertise some of it? If anyone can direct me to a REAL 1 stop shop Houdini course that works with latest version that stays on topic and gets to the point while still explaining what, why, and how, I'd be super grateful!

I am afraid something like this doesn't exist. You simply need to learn from whatever you can find and go slow. Nothing comes overnight with Houdini. Focus on basic concepts first and build slowly from there every single day. Concepts like Attributes, Normals, Vectors, Grouping are one thing you should master before expecting to do anything serious in Houdini. Houdini is super flexible but you need to go slow. There are plenty of resources, free and paid and I would suggest watching all of them, not to learn but to get an idea of what and how things are achieved with Houdini. Houdin is not like any other 3D app out there, which has its own pros and cons, but ultimately, Houdini is the most flexible and most powerful 3D app at the moment. And you can pretty much follow any tutorial and apply it with H19 and H19 is probably the best time ever to start with Houdini. The only exception is Solaris, Karma, and new Curve tool as far as I know that with some old tutorials you might not be able to follow. I've been watching H16 tutorial from Indie-Pixel and it's still valuable as it was back then.

Also, what could help is to find someone to learn Houdini together as that will make sure you stay motivated. Sharing what you do with others is important and getting feedback also. Unfortunately here, you will not find that kind of satisfaction, but usually, guys are helpful if you are lucky.

Good luck with your endeavors and make sure to have fun along the way. And when you feel like giving up, take a break and come back.

SIgor420
I am afraid something like this doesn't exist. You simply need to learn from whatever you can find and go slow. Nothing comes overnight with Houdini. Focus on basic concepts first and build slowly from there every single day. Concepts like Attributes, Normals, Vectors, Grouping are one thing you should master before expecting to do anything serious in Houdini. Houdini is super flexible but you need to go slow. There are plenty of resources, free and paid and I would suggest watching all of them, not to learn but to get an idea of what and how things are achieved with Houdini. Houdin is not like any other 3D app out there, which has its own pros and cons, but ultimately, Houdini is the most flexible and most powerful 3D app at the moment. And you can pretty much follow any tutorial and apply it with H19 and H19 is probably the best time ever to start with Houdini. The only exception is Solaris, Karma, and new Curve tool as far as I know that with some old tutorials you might not be able to follow. I've been watching H16 tutorial from Indie-Pixel and it's still valuable as it was back then.

Also, what could help is to find someone to learn Houdini together as that will make sure you stay motivated. Sharing what you do with others is important and getting feedback also. Unfortunately here, you will not find that kind of satisfaction, but usually, guys are helpful if you are lucky.

Good luck with your endeavors and make sure to have fun along the way. And when you feel like giving up, take a break and come back.

Hey,Sigor!
Nice comment and a pretty motivating one!

You seem to be a person who could help me figure out my thing with Houdini which I'm puzzled with at the moment: I came to Houdini thinking it would add to my motion graphic set tools, but, as it, probably, happens to everyone, I became fascinated with it. And after learning basics and having touched upon some more intermediate stuff I realised that, maybe, I need to set some boundaries with Houdini in terms of not trying to learn everything and .. eh .. try to specialize? What would you suggest in this case? Considering I'm trying to follow the path of motion graphics. It's worth to add that I got lost in tutorials by now.

Thanks in advance!

SerjKirchano

SIgor420
I am afraid something like this doesn't exist. You simply need to learn from whatever you can find and go slow. Nothing comes overnight with Houdini. Focus on basic concepts first and build slowly from there every single day. Concepts like Attributes, Normals, Vectors, Grouping are one thing you should master before expecting to do anything serious in Houdini. Houdini is super flexible but you need to go slow. There are plenty of resources, free and paid and I would suggest watching all of them, not to learn but to get an idea of what and how things are achieved with Houdini. Houdin is not like any other 3D app out there, which has its own pros and cons, but ultimately, Houdini is the most flexible and most powerful 3D app at the moment. And you can pretty much follow any tutorial and apply it with H19 and H19 is probably the best time ever to start with Houdini. The only exception is Solaris, Karma, and new Curve tool as far as I know that with some old tutorials you might not be able to follow. I've been watching H16 tutorial from Indie-Pixel and it's still valuable as it was back then.

Also, what could help is to find someone to learn Houdini together as that will make sure you stay motivated. Sharing what you do with others is important and getting feedback also. Unfortunately here, you will not find that kind of satisfaction, but usually, guys are helpful if you are lucky.

Good luck with your endeavors and make sure to have fun along the way. And when you feel like giving up, take a break and come back.

Hey,Sigor!
Nice comment and a pretty motivating one!

You seem to be a person who could help me figure out my thing with Houdini which I'm puzzled with at the moment: I came to Houdini thinking it would add to my motion graphic set tools, but, as it, probably, happens to everyone, I became fascinated with it. And after learning basics and having touched upon some more intermediate stuff I realised that, maybe, I need to set some boundaries with Houdini in terms of not trying to learn everything and .. eh .. try to specialize? What would you suggest in this case? Considering I'm trying to follow the path of motion graphics. It's worth to add that I got lost in tutorials by now.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Serj, glad to hear that.

Regarding Motion Graphics. Unfortunately, it's not my field of expertise, but I know where you could or should look to learn more about it. Entagma guys are obvious go-to guys, but they are a bit technical as they are using VEX pretty much all the time, even though it's nothing super complicated, not understanding what VEX is doing or means it doesn't help to put it into practice. But there is another guy I really like and he really really doing some amazing things and making Houdini looks easy and straightforward to use, you can find him here https://www.youtube.com/c/timjdesign/videos [www.youtube.com]
I watched all of his videos even though like I said, I am not into MG, but I definitely want to know more about it, so his videos were golden.

And then, there are MOPs https://www.motionoperators.com/ [www.motionoperators.com] something you should definitely check if you are into MG. I wanted to buy this plugin to support the developer, but my PP couldn't process the payment and when I send an email to dev to explain my problem, he didn't reply, so in the end, I couldn't buy it but I know it's very praised out there and you should definitely get it.

Hopefully that helps a bit, sorry if I wasnt bit more helpful. If you want to talk more about Houdini in General, you can join my PolyMarvel discord. We are mostly into modeling, but we also talk and share other things, so feel free to join.

https://discord.gg/Hnqzd2bMND [discord.gg]

Well, thanks a lot for the links!
Already it feels like I'm back on track
I really appreciate it!

(Sorry to hear about the plugin situation, hope it sorts out some day)

Yeah, since I'm also into modelling, actually, joining PolyMarvel seems like a right move
So see you there, probably!

Sorry about any issues contacting me! I never got any email from you, but you can reach out to me here in private messages or at henry@motionoperators.com for any questions regarding MOPs.