ethervoid Posted December 20, 2012 Share Posted December 20, 2012 Hi. I've been looking forever for some kind of tutorial, demo, reel that can show me the real potentiality of Houdini taken to the point where you could say it is ideal for doing a certain shot, or in my personal case, something that i could say "shut up and take my money" . So far i've watched 3Dbuzz's, various Peter Quinn's ones, and although they are good tutorials, i haven't really got any sense of how powerful Houdini can be with its proceduralism and the famous flexibility handling sims. The examples i've seen of modeling bridges or what not, although nifty and "logical" like i enjoy, feel a bit redundant for a generalist like myself. With the time i take to prepare a network for modeling a bridge using a procedural approach, i've already used an extrude on a shape over a spline and added detail. Sure, changes may have to happen later but again, for a one man show not in high end studios and with a decent pre-production and planning, it seems to actually take more time and effort than doing it in other 3d programs in a traditional modelling sense. That's my newbie feeling so far, and i know i'm wrong and only seeing the tip of the iceberg of potential, so i'm really looking for examples where i can convince myself that Hou can become my best friend for average 3D work. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukeiamyourfather Posted December 20, 2012 Share Posted December 20, 2012 You're asking for tutorials that show the best of the best but you say "average 3D work" at the same time. So which do you want? If you just want to model and render product packages and create shiny logos you don't need the capabilities of Houdini to do that. Also you won't find super high level tutorials very often if ever because they are so specific nobody can use anything from them in any other situation. If you haven't yet check out the videos directly from Side Effects and the videos on cmiVFX. Demo reels from Houdini users are another good place to get the idea of the capabilities. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ethervoid Posted December 20, 2012 Author Share Posted December 20, 2012 You're asking for tutorials that show the best of the best but you say "average 3D work" at the same time. So which do you want? I meant average 3d work as in a general day-to-day tasks program, in a sense of not going to use it for a high-end super massive fluid sim for the latest blockbuster or work for a top vfx studio. Basically how can even i, an average joe with generalist work to do, benefit from its unique way of working. Thanks for the suggestions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annon Posted December 20, 2012 Share Posted December 20, 2012 Well you probably won't benefit, it's a sharp learning curve and generalists usually find the transition harder than more technical artists. If I was a generalist working by myself I'd probably be using blender as its open source and have some great features. Houdini's great for pushing shots past the barrier you hit with other software, but it's a labour of love. Saying that, you might get on with it so the only way to find out is to have a go. Do a Vimeo search for Houdini and sort by date to see what people are up too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ethervoid Posted December 20, 2012 Author Share Posted December 20, 2012 Thanks, will continue to look. Btw, anybody knows/remembers any tutorial/worskshop where they show a full development of an asset or work on a shot from beginning to end in Houdini? So far have only seen very particular (no pun intended) tutorials like "this is the rbd system","these are flip fluids" etc. but never in context of a real production shot. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafaelfs Posted December 20, 2012 Share Posted December 20, 2012 CMIvfx has some project based tutorials in more "general" ares as well, like shading mantra, procedural modeling, caustics, assets, etc... http://www.cmivfx.com/tutorials/view/203/Houdini+Shading+and+Rendering http://www.cmivfx.com/tutorials/view/501/Houdini+Python+Weather+Widget http://www.cmivfx.com/tutorials/view/213/Houdini+Procedural+Road+Creation http://www.cmivfx.com/tutorials/view/504/Houdini+3D+Galaxy+Creation+Effects To name a few... It's hard to know what you mean with day to day work since pretty much everything is a day-to-day work of a houdini user (generally speaking). But I agree that in most cases you'll have to connect the dots from different houdini tutorials. Cheers PS: 3DBuzz also has a technical effects title that's quite project oriented from beginning to end, as well as CGMasters. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ethervoid Posted December 20, 2012 Author Share Posted December 20, 2012 Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafaelfs Posted December 20, 2012 Share Posted December 20, 2012 With the time i take to prepare a network for modeling a bridge using a procedural approach, i've already used an extrude on a shape over a spline and added detail. Sure, changes may have to happen later... Make no mistake, that's a reality in houdini as well. You'll always have to weight the "right way" versus your allotted time to accomplish a task. Sometimes the "right way" is the one that gets the job done be it fully procedural or not. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acey195 Posted December 22, 2012 Share Posted December 22, 2012 Make no mistake, that's a reality in houdini as well. You'll always have to weight the "right way" versus your allotted time to accomplish a task. Sometimes the "right way" is the one that gets the job done be it fully procedural or not. Cheers If you are going to model entirely non-procedurally in Houdini, there are way better packages (3ds Max, Maya, Blender) IMO. Of course you can do rough models quickly in Houdini. And you can of course make it partially procedural. that said, I love procedural modeling in Houdini, even more so than the effects/simulation/rendering side. I think I have never used a manual edit node so far Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danylyon Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 hi William I was a bit in a similar situation. After using Maya for several years (at a studio) and picked up some XSI and Arnold... I went back to freelancing. I looked into Houdini and it just clicked. What I love in Houdini, that it's very easy to get Technical in it. Although I'm a generalist (I like tech though).. I feel much more home in Houdini than Maya. In Maya.. you either had a way to do it.. or a plugin / script or.. you had to get really nasty (Mel scripting or really get into the core).. which I don't want to. In Houdini you have to know a bit more upfront but it's much easier to get really dirty in it. .. and every job.. even the small ones always need a bit of trickery and dirt to get working :-) Don't look at it from just a procedural modeling stand point.. it's not the big thing. I will Model most things in Silo (100$ easy to pick up). Yes Houdini is often used in Effects shots.. but those shots are often done entirely inside Houdini from one artist.. so it's really an excellent package for a one man show. What really opened my eyes of the workings from Houdini was cmiVFX's *Houdini Fundamentals* Hope this helps a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ethervoid Posted December 24, 2012 Author Share Posted December 24, 2012 Thanks everybody, i went back to basics and am following the 3dbuzz tutorials, i'm enjoying their classroom approach with white board style explaining. Cheers and happy hollidays! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hatrick Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 (edited) i found this one http://www.digitaltu...=552&autoplay=1 very helpful (maybe a bit more advanced stuff) ! for me one of the best project based tutorials for H i came across. in case you don't know already, this site http://www.papicrunch.net/GC-houdb/ is a good independent place for browsing through all sorts of H stuff. good Luck L Edited December 26, 2012 by hatrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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