thesoloman Posted August 29, 2014 Share Posted August 29, 2014 Hello all. I've been using houdini on and off for the past 2 years, for hobbie projects, nothing amazing or anything. I felt like I never learned houdini. I want to start learning it more serious and get a solid foundation of VOPs. Can someone please point me to a good resource? I've looked at the help inside houdini and it is still very confusing to me. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tar Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 Welcome to your tutorials! First task is to randomise the points of a line in VopSop - you have one day to complete this Please post your questions and results here and the Odforce members will help you out. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thesoloman Posted August 30, 2014 Author Share Posted August 30, 2014 (edited) Well I know how to do it at the SOP level... How would I do it with a vopsop? My real question is, is there any good solid tutorial that covers vopsop specifically. I've seen plenty of tutorials that are just button pushers. I would like to understand it. line.hipnc Edited August 30, 2014 by thesoloman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tar Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 sorry don't know of any tutorials. Out of interest why are you so fixated on tutorials as the only way to learn? I'll venture that no tutorials really gives you understanding that you are seeking; they are almost always shortcuts to techniques using other people knowledge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thesoloman Posted August 30, 2014 Author Share Posted August 30, 2014 (edited) I really don't know why you think I'm fixated on tutorials, I never once even mention them in my first post. I asked for a good resource. Would you mind sharing some insight on the a good way to learn? What do you mean by "shortcuts to techniques using other people knowledge."? Thanks, I appreciate it. Edited August 30, 2014 by thesoloman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tar Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 A good way to learn is to try things out, ie. my first post. Not sure why you completed it in Sops when you wan to learn VopSops. Try to randomise point positions in VopSops, try to colour points by XYX position etc. That's a way to learn. Re: Tutorials - you mentioned them in your second post... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thesoloman Posted August 30, 2014 Author Share Posted August 30, 2014 Right, because you mentioned this in your first post "Welcome to your tutorials!" Anyways, it doesn't matter. Would you be able to show me how that would look in vopsop so i can deconstruct it? It would help me a lot. Even a simple task like this would help. I'm used to learning programs like C4D, Maya, Nuke, and a bunch of other programs alike. Houdini for sure is giving me a challenge. I'm really not sure what i the best way to learn it. Thanks for your advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonathanGranskg Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 Right, because you mentioned this in your first post "Welcome to your tutorials!" Anyways, it doesn't matter. Would you be able to show me how that would look in vopsop so i can deconstruct it? It would help me a lot. Even a simple task like this would help. I'm used to learning programs like C4D, Maya, Nuke, and a bunch of other programs alike. Houdini for sure is giving me a challenge. I'm really not sure what i the best way to learn it. Thanks for your advice. The best way to learn Houdini is by playing around. When you open up a VOPSOP you have to have an idea of what you're trying to achieve. If you want to randomize points maybe you can find a node for that by searching for "random" in the tab menu. And then you can try what happens when you add point position and a random vector and put into the position output or maybe the color output. Perhaps there are even other ways to randomize points. Noises are a very popular way to randomize points. Try some noises out and play with them. For a beginner they might seem confusing, but really most DCC apps use them in one way or another. As for adding color based on point position, that's really just throwing the Position vector into color. But because position can go from -infinity and +infinity and color is between 0 and 1, the points will most likely be very brightly colored. To be honest, learning how to use VOPSOPs is just playing around with it and putting down nodes. Open up the help card (press f1) for nodes you do not understand. really_basic_vopsop_example.zip 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgie Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 (edited) First task is to randomise the points of a line in VopSop - you have one day to complete this May I hop on that train too ? ;3 http://i.imgur.com/43dw04l.jpg edit; actually I realised just posting a screenshot would be quite rude to thesoloman so I'm explaining what I did and why - I'm not by any means claiming it's correct or anything. So, since the random returns a value based on the seed you feed to it, plugging the point position directly into the random function won't work - all the points are at 0 in X and Z. So I decided to add the point number (ptnum) to the point position (P) and then feed that into the random. And again, since the result from the random is always the same if the seed is the same, I decided to use a multiply constant node with different values for X and Z - that way the seed would be different. If you don't do that, you'll end up with your points being positioned such that X=Z edit 2; and I just realised I'm adding the point number to 0 which is absolutely pointless and I could've simply fed the multconstant to the random .... ;/ Also I'm adding the Y position to itself thus doubling the line's length. Good job, Geroge ;/ Edited August 30, 2014 by Georgie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thesoloman Posted August 30, 2014 Author Share Posted August 30, 2014 Thank you Jonathan and George! big help! I will go through the hip file and screenshot. I really appreciate it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgie Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 ^well to be honest I was hoping that marty (and others maybe ;3 ) will keep throwing basic tasks at you ( us xD ) and check the thread every now and then. Either way, you're welcome ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hatrick Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 (edited) you`ll find odforce beeing an incredible recource ! besides that i recommend the following https://cmivfx.com/store/280-houdini-fractals i found this nice because you learn about vops in different contexts. CMI also has some tuts about VEX in common. further, one of the best houdini tutors in my opinion https://sites.google.com/site/pqhoudinitutorial/ when you brows through his lessons you ll get a good idea about Vops (basics) and using them along with other technics in H. cheers ...https://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2567&Itemid=254 Edited August 30, 2014 by hatrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danw Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 I reckon Marty's suggestion could be a great way to get to grips with some of the uses of the VOPSOP node. I mean, essentially it's just a box that processes every point you input, and applies a bunch of maths to each one. Like a lot of things in Houdini, asking for tutorials on it is somewhat akin to asking for python/C tutorials. Beyond the absolute basics (which in the case of VOPSOP, is pretty much covered by what I wrote above), the subsequent response will usually be "hard to recommend tutorials unless you tell us what you want to achieve". And ultimately, the best way to learn about the possibilities isn't to work out what you want to achieve, and then follow someone else's solution. It's to come up with, or be given problems you need to solve, and work out the best way to solve them. It would then be useful to have people critique the solution you came up with, and suggest ways you could make it more elegant, or more adaptive, etc. Then you'll pick up tricks for the next problem you try to solve. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tar Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 Life is too short for long tutorials - run it like a science experiment - asking 'what would happen if I did this...' etc I totally realise there a lot of people that hate this way, they want step 1, 2, 4 but you can't get a fundamental understanding until it makes sense to you, not the instructor. Play, check, iterate is the damn best tutorial instructions out there. That one is free! PS. I'm guessing the is probably 10,000 years of tutorials to watch in CGI right now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tar Posted August 31, 2014 Share Posted August 31, 2014 Next Daily VopSop challenge - run a sine wave through a grid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thesoloman Posted August 31, 2014 Author Share Posted August 31, 2014 Done! Took a little to figure out day2.hipnc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tar Posted August 31, 2014 Share Posted August 31, 2014 Awesomely quick work! An addendum if I may; we at the Company want to add a spline ramp and control the strength of the sine wave. This is the last task until day 3 if possible Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thesoloman Posted August 31, 2014 Author Share Posted August 31, 2014 Thanks, after about 15 minutes dabbing around in it I can't figure it out. I have to go out of my house right now, but I had a question to help me solve it later on. Is there a "result" node? Like, is there a way to see what is coming out of a node? i.e. vector, float, integer? Is there any other way to visualize data besides putting the number into the color channel of the output? day2SplineRamp_uncomplete.hipnc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tar Posted August 31, 2014 Share Posted August 31, 2014 To see the result of operations, append a Parameter node to and set Export to Always. You'll see the results in the Spreadsheet or Details The colours of the inputs/outputs arrow show the type: blue integer, dark green float, light green vector, tan string Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thesoloman Posted August 31, 2014 Author Share Posted August 31, 2014 Wow! That was make or break, with out the parameter result I would have never figured this out. Thank you. Here is day2 part 2. I'll be on the out look for day 3 tomorrow! day2part2.hipnc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.