First Steps | Light, Shade & Render

First Steps - Light, Shade & Render Series Lesson 1 Module 01 sets the tone for the rest of the modules. We will discuss setting up the desktop with panels specific to lighting and rendering, lighting naming conventions, and importing cameras, geometry and lights.

First Steps - Light, Shade & Render Series Lesson 2 In this module we will look at the Material Gallery and focus on the Mantra Surface Shader. Once we understand how to use the Mantra Surface Shader we will look under the hood and look at its VOP Network.

First Steps - Light, Shade & Render Series Lesson 3 Lesson 03 starts our discussion in how to create custom shaders using VOPs. Our task for this module is to create the surface and displacement shader for Patty Pan Squash. Discussions will include the difference between bump shaders and displacement shaders, different illumination models, base color application, color ramps, stripes and patterns. We will focus on explaining the color code system of VOPs, and what the global inputs and outputs do.

First Steps - Light, Shade & Render Series Lesson 4 A continuation of lesson 03 we will create a couple more shaders. We will then look how we can take a section of the VOP network, as an example a section that contains a math equation, and rebuild it using VEX then package it into a VOP.

First Steps - Light, Shade & Render Series Lesson 5 This lesson will focus on the different light objects in Houdini. We will start discussing point, spot, line, area, and the sun light. The lecture will move on to discuss IES Light Maps and attenuation options. We will finish out discussion by looking at Light Portals and HDRI maps.

First Steps - Light, Shade & Render Series Lesson 6 Using Python, the Parameter Interface, and Digital Asset Creation we will create our a light rig the can be used for production.

First Steps - Light, Shade & Render Series Lesson 7 This module is dedicated to understanding the different rendering engines, Micropolygon, Ray Trace, PBR, MicroPolygon PBR, and Volumetric, in Houdini. The discussion will include when to use them and how to set them up for rendering.

First Steps - Light, Shade & Render Series Lesson 8 This lesson will go over Mantra Procedurals: Delayed Load, Fur Procedural, Point Instance, Point Rendering, and VEX Volume.

First Steps - Light, Shade & Render Series Lesson 9 In this lesson, we will look at setting up takes, wedges, and extra image planes to optimize the lighting pipeline.

First Steps - Light, Shade & Render Series Lesson 10 In lesson 10, we will learn how to set up ROP render dependency trees that include Composite and Script ROPs.

First Steps - Light, Shade & Render Series Lesson 11 This module looks at the camera object in Houdini. We will discuss DOF and bokeh, Motion Blur and it's various incarnations: Camera, Object, geometry based motion blur options.