quinniusmaximus
number one… I'm not big on people whining about things being hard.
If it is too hard… move on.

Dude, that's not fair and a rather harsh statement to the reality of how visual effects are created in production.

People in vfx typically are either great engineering minds with modest artistic abilities, or great artists with limited technical know how. There are the rare ones that can do both, and they often become power players. Our craft is a complete hybrid of art and technology, everyone has their place and contributions.

Houdini is hard (or at least different) and technical compared to other software, which is great when needed, those reasons are documented in this thread. I have been lucky enough to work with smarty-pant tech minded Houdini artists, yet many of them struggle with the arts. I'm certainly glad they didn't “move on” because“ some areas of production were ”too hard." I need and appreciate their gifts, the same way they need mine.

*Stepping off my soap box*

- Phunt

I am guilty of this as well. But I have to admit to making hundreds of OTLs over the years, probably one to do just a simple helix. And then thrown it away into a pile of mess that I've never touched again.

If I were to lodge one complainent. It's not against the Software, but rather the lack of Artists spreading tools out there for people to use. I use Johner over on Odforce as my Hero for this. One man, spreading out an entire Fracturing system ready to drop right into the software. (There are many others of course!)

I am very humbled by that man. And hopefully one day, will get the time to do my bit for the community as well. First step…… Helix OTL!!!!!!


-j

I think there is a massive mis-understanding here and I only mention it because it seems to filter out to the industry.

So to set the record straight

Houdini is easy
It's one of the simplest apps to learn, pretty much the entire package works the same way and you can teach someone to use it in a day or two.

What is hard is knowing how 3d graphics works
To really use the power and simplicity of houdini you need to know how to build things from scratch and that means you need to know the basics of 3d graphics and that is hard.

But I agree there are a few simple tools missing that would make life easier especially when you first start and don't have time to build them all from scratch, however that situation is definitely improving.

Hi maxedout ,
Just for you I created a simple helix HDA . So whenever the need strikes you you can make a helix ! its up on the exchange. Along with a tool that will make you a chain ! Jeff challenged me. So I had to put it up.Those basic tools can show you how easy it is to build useful assets for your projects.

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=8 [sidefx.com]


I love using Houdini over Maya as I am not technically brilliant like some of the guys in this thread . Using Houdini has let me build tools that I want without using mel to write an interface or using mel to write some runtime expression. This in turn has let me carry on being creative !

Hope it helps

rob

Nice!

hey circusmonkey, thanks ..thats really cool and definitely helps.

Spiral anything!

my reason to go with houdini is:

so as to create complex effects, one should learn too many things in maya(lets say). you need to be familiar with mel, later c++, and need to know allowed syntax,and which libraries to invoke.

just think abaout how much effort you should invest, if you go in houdini way and the other way.

i just want to dive in the complex things,without learning anything else.
and houdini lets me to do it.

and remember, anything you built in houdini is kinda plugin.