Hello,
I am a pretty knowledgeable 3D generalist, and I used Maya so far.
My concern about learning Houdini is this:
Can Houdini be learned from the manual/docs only?
I see that there are no books on H9 except the “On the spot” title, which seems intended for people familiar with Houdini.
I would like something like “Magic of Houdini”, but for H9.

Thanks

I always recommend to my students to get software books which are behind the bleeding edge. They are cheaper (expecially used) and usually contain very relevant information, and sometimes even contain better or more fundimental workflows.

The magic of Houdini book is still very current, so are all of the training videos from gnomon etc.

I'd like to see a book which deals with dynamics, fluids, character animation, python integration or rendering since those have changed so much in 9.

I'm working on a book right now for CHOPs, which are relatively ancient features but still extremely powerful. I'm making sure I do all the screen captures from 9 though so it will look “new and exciting”

Personally I think the single best way to learn Houdini is to right-click on the nodes in question and read the blurb about them, try them out. Can't do that in other apps without looking through a reference normally.

The only thing I would add is that it might b a little confusing in spots because there's a push in H9 towards “selection first, then action”. This wasn't the case in H8. Unfortunately, it's not consistent(and in fact, can't be) as there are actions such as polysplit which still require action choice first.

But yes, all you'll be losing out on are some of the shelf tool approaches to things, which aren't in and of themselves something you need to know, and some new features, which are evident in the What's New in the docs. H8 books will give you a very solid grasp of what is actually going on in Houdini, and that hasn't really changed.

Cheers,

J.C.

I haven't stated that I am new to Houdini, and I have no experience of H8.
I just needed to ask if for someone who knows 3D in general, the H9 docs are a feasible to learn the app.