Dmitri Bajenov

glitchi
The worst problem of Houdini learning curve is not that it is hard to learn, but actually everyone and their mother just casually assume you have 5 years of TD experience behind you when you ask even the simplest questions. Honest, when I tried to find help for ridiculously easy things (as they seem right now), people shared their project files which made me even more confused. “Oh that's easy, you just have to compute Tangents, but write them as Normals”. wat? (I remember when I came across this exact thing I felt so miserable and stupid)

This “everyone” is absolutely not assuming you have that much experience, they are purely answering a question without going into lengths to get you up to speed with all of the prerequisites. Keep in mind that the person answering had to start at the beginning as well at some point, just like you. Frankly the learning curve is not to cause any feelings of inadequacy in anyone, it usually simply means that you are not at a point where you can tackle or understand a particular problem yet, but you will be some day if you work at it.

glitchi
At any rate, I would love my hand at trying to be helpful, my goal in mind is to change the perception of Houdini from a strange scary beast to “I can not believe I have not started using it earlier”. Hopefully it clarifies my intention.

Now, I understand you steering this discussion towards your intention of changing the perception of H, and there is only one person who can do that - you. You have to work at it and get enough experience so it becomes less scary, there aren't any shortcuts to that