Helge Maus

Hello Houdini Beginners, The first module of my free “Houdini FX Practice Hour” project “CoffeeCup” is finished.
Over the course of 13 lessons, you will learn the basics of the Houdini Polygon Modeling tools and how to get into a procedural approach with selections, groups and a little bit of HScript.

You will learn how to work with UVs and build a workflow between Houdini and Substance Painter. We will render our scenes in Mantra. In two bonus lessons, we dive deeper into the Classic Material Workflow between Houdini and Substance Painter 2020 and the new UDIM based workflow. I hope, some of you find this useful.

Here is the full playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp90cx0wSyKbb3jldZ43aRyHv-IrMyjCJ [www.youtube.com]

These lessons are meant as an addition to the other two Houdini Practice Hour projects (Banana and Toothbrush), so if you want to follow the complete learning path, you should begin with these. Have fun!

Hi Masoud,

There was a great Houdini HIVE presentation on Siggraph 2018:

Character Adventures - Rigging, Animation and Crowds | Louis Dunlevy (Cutting Edge) | SIGGRAPH 2018
https://vimeo.com/286184782 [vimeo.com]

I used it for my own motivation to learn the character tools in Houdini FX.

Kind regards,

Helge Maus

Hello Houdini FX Newbies,

Some time ago I have launched my new Houdini FX publication. It's a good starting point for beginners and artists coming from other 3d applications like Cinema 4D, Maya & Co. It's well structured and easy to follow. If you have any questions about it, please let me know.

Thanks, Helge


Trailer: https://lnkd.in/dZaSBNw

Here is the direct link to the publication:
https://lnkd.in/deNWqJQ


Here the full description:

This publication "pixeltrain - Houdini FX Fundamentals >> Fast Forward“ by experienced trainer Helge Maus is a complete Introduction to Houdini FX.

In 117 lessons with a duration of 18,5 hours, your instructor Helge Maus provides you with a step by step approach to understanding Houdini FX and its workflow as a fully-featured 3d application.

This training is designed to get you up and running quickly, enabling you with the skills needed to work effectively in this incredibly powerful 3d and vfx package. Additionally, it lays the foundation of essential concepts and paradigms to understand more advanced topics for other modules of Houdini FX down the road.
In this course, Helge Maus starts from the ground up providing you with a solid and practice-oriented foundation in Houdini FX.

First, he takes you through the user interface, followed by an exploration of the different levels and contexts of a Houdini project. You will conclude by learning how to manage these concepts through the production cycle within Houdini FX.
You will write your first expressions in Hscript. Therein, you will learn the concepts of dependencies between objects, explore using groups and packed geometries and finish by building your first asset.
Once you have those primary skills under your belt, Helge gives you a brief introduction into working with VOPs (vex visual scripting), Digital Assets, Volumes and VDBs.
After that, you will start learning the basics of modeling inside of Houdini FX. You will begin with the basics of NURBS Curves and generating surfaces, followed by the powerful and flexible polygon modeling tools.
Important topics like Deformations and UVs are explained in-depth and demonstrated.
After you have learned to build your assets, you will assemble your scene, set cameras with physical attributes, and finish with lighting and shading.

Helge wraps up with a practice-oriented introduction of rendering techniques using the Houdini Mantra renderer.
After finishing this training you will have the skills needed to understand the more advanced workflows and modules of Houdini FX.

Topics included:

01 Welcome to Houdini FX
02 Basic Concepts in Houdini FX
03 VOPs & Digital Assets
04 Volumes & VDBs in Houdini FX
05 Working with Curves
06 Generating Surfaces
07 Polygon Modeling
08 Retopo, PolyBuild & Boolean
09 Deformations
10 UVs in Houdini FX
11 Lighting & Cameras
12 Shading
13 Rendering

You can find the entire table of contents here >> pixeltrain.de/images/stories/Houdini_FX_Fundamentals_Content.pdf

These tutorials were created using mostly Houdini 17.5. However, we made sure that everything will work in Houdini 18+. Also, you will receive subsequent information about any version-based technical changes as needed.