Pragmatic VEX: Volume 1 [4K] [H20]

[animatrix]

After more than 5 months of unimaginable amount of work, I am proud to release my first in-depth Houdini course on VEX 

More details in the video description and the website.

Active Patreon members will receive additional discounts proportional to their lifetime support (25% of their lifetime support). Message me on Patreon for your discount coupon.

Enjoy!

01 - Introduction
[Point Clouds]
    02 - Introduction
    [pcopen() vs pcfind() vs nearpoints()]
        03 - Introduction
        04 - Implementation
    05 - pcfilter() Implementation for pcfind()
    06 - pgfind()
    07 - pcfind_radius()
    08 - Excluding the Current Point & Ad-Hoc Groups
    09 - Finding Min & Max Neighbour Points
    [Unique Pair Matching]
        10 - Concept
        11 - Implementation
    [Camera Based Occlusion with Variable Pscale]
        12 - Concept
        13 - Implementation
    [Uniform Point Distribution Over Polygonal Surfaces [Point Relaxation]]
        14 - Concept
        15 - Implementation
    16 - Decoupling Operators
[Convolution Kernels]
    17 - Introduction
    18 - Border Handling
    [Connectivity & k-Depth Point Neighbours Using Edges]
        19 - Introduction
        20 - Concept
        21 - Implementation
    [Connectivity & k-Depth Point Neighbours Using Primitives]
        22 - Concept
        23 - Implementation
    [Extending k-Depth Point Neighbours Using Edges]
        24 - Introduction
        25 - Concept
        26 - Implementation
    [Extending k-Depth Point Neighbours Using Primitives]
        27 - Concept
        28 - Implementation
    [smoothstep() [Cubic Hermite Interpolation]]
        29 - Concept
        30 - Implementation
    [Shaping Functions]
        31 - Introduction
        32 - Implementation
    33 - Blurring Attributes
        [Sharpening Attributes Using Unsharp Mask]
            34 - Concept
            35 - Implementation
        [Generalizing the Kernel Code to Handle All Attribute Types]
            36 - Concept
            37 - Implementation
[Attribute Gradient]
    38 - Introduction
    39 - Concept
    40 - Implementation
[Gradient Ascent & Descent]
    41 - Planar Geometry - Introduction
    42 - Planar Geometry - Concept
    43 - Planar Geometry - Implementation
    44 - 3D Geometry
    [Contour Lines]
        45 - Introduction
        46 - Concept
        47 - Implementation
    48 - Heightfields
[Geometric Advection - Orthogonalization & Flowlines]
    49 - Introduction
    50 - Concept
    51 - Implementation
[Clustering & Quadtrees]
    52 - Concept
    53 - Implementation
[Adaptive Subdivision]
    54 - Introduction
    55 - Implementation
56 - Hashing
[Adaptive Subdivision]
    57 - Improving OpenSubdiv Catmull-Clark Subdivision Surfaces Algorithm
58 - Half-Edges
[Adaptive Subdivision]
    [Aggressive Performance Optimizations]
        59 - Eliminating Groups
        60 - Custom Fusing In VEX
        61 - Recreating Proximity Structures In VEX
        62 - Get Unshared Edges In VEX
        63 - Final Optimizations
[Limit Surface Sampling]
    64 - Introduction
    65 - OpenSubdiv Patches
    66 - Moving Points to the Subdivision Limit Surface
    67 - Scattering Points on the Subdivision Limit Surface
    68 - Generating a Point Cloud on the Subdivision Limit Surface
    69 - Pre-Generating a Point Cloud on the Subdivision Limit Surface
    70 - Creating Isolines on the Subdivision Limit Surface
[Adaptive Subdivision]
    71 - Computing Surface Normals from the Subdivision Limit Surface
[Custom Subdivision Surfaces]
    [Splitting Edges [Edge Divide]]
        72 - Concept
        73 - Converting Edges to Primitives
        74 - Creating New Edge Points
        [Rebuilding Polygons]
            75 - Concept
            76 - Implementation
        77 - Preserving & Interpolating Attributes
        78 - Multithreading by Connectivity
        79 - C++ vs VEX
        80 - Preserving Groups
        81 - Final Optimizations
    [Implementing Bilinear Subdivision]
        82 - Introduction
        83 - Concept
        84 - Modeling Test Geometry
        85 - Starting from Edge Divide
        86 - Creating New Face Points
        87 - Creating New Edge Points
        [Creating New Closed Polygons]
            88 - Concept
            89 - Implementation
        [Creating New Open Polygons]
            90 - Concept
            91 - Implementation
        92 - Preserving Primitive Groups & Interpolating Primitive Attributes
        [Preserving Vertex Groups & Interpolating Vertex Attributes for Closed Polygons]
            93 - Concept
            94 - Implementation
        95 - Preserving Vertex Groups & Interpolating Vertex Attributes for Open Polygons
        96 - Implementing Iterations
        97 - Preserving Literal Groups
        98 - Creating Neighbour Primitives
        99 - Final Changes
        100 - Testing On Complex Geometry
    [Implementing Catmull-Clark Subdivision]
        101 - Introduction
        [Closed Surfaces]
            102 - Rules
            [Gathering Edge & Face Points]
                103 - Concept
                104 - Implementation
            [Computing Weights for New Edge Points]
                105 - Concept
                106 - Implementation
            [Computing Weights for Original Points]
                107 - Concept
                108 - Implementation
        [Attribute Interpolation]
            109 - Concept
            110 - Implementation
        [Boundary Interpolation Rules for New Edge Points]
            111 - Concept
            112 - Implementation
        [Boundary Interpolation Rules for Original Points]
            113 - Concept
            114 - Implementation
        115 - Open Surfaces - Handling Corner Points
        116 - Handling Non-Manifold Topology
        [Open Polygons]
            [Computing Weights for Original Points]
                117 - Reverse Engineering OpenSubdiv
                118 - Implementation
            [Computing Weights for New Edge Points]
                119 - Reverse Engineering OpenSubdiv
                120 - Implementation
        121 - Handling Open Polygonal Curves
        [Handling Mixed Topology]
            122 - Full Geometry
            123 - Sub-Geometry
        124 - Testing On Complex Geometry
        [Performance]
            125 - Profiling
            [Grouping Boundary Edges from Primitive Group]
                126 - Concept
                127 - Implementation
            128 - VEX vs C++
[Caustics]
    129 - Introduction
    130 - Sea Caustics
    131 - Pool Caustics
[Enhancing Gradient Ascent, Descent & Contour Lines]
    132 - Introduction
    133 - Implementation
    134 - Tracing Both Directions
    [Updating Distances Properly]
        135 - Concept
        136 - Implementation
    137 - Looping Streamlines Problem
    138 - Adding Trace Parameter
[Evenly Spaced Gradient Ascent, Descent & Contour Lines]
    139 - Introduction
    140 - White Paper
    141 - Concept
    142 - Constructing the For Loop Network
    143 - Improving Seed Points Selection for Tighter Packing
    144 - Implementing Separation
    [Enforcing Separation Using Self Proximity]
        145 - Concept
        146 - Implementation
    147 - Optimization
    148 - Final Tweak
    149 - Applying to 3D Geometry
[Custom Subdivision Surfaces]
    [Extreme Performance Optimizations]
        150 - Introduction
        151 - Establishing Baseline for Performance
        152 - Updating Attribute Interpolate Nodes
        153 - Interpolation vs Copying
        154 - Optimizing Input Group
        155 - Caching Geometry Data
        156 - pointedge vs pointhedge
        157 - Getting Primitives from Half Edges
        158 - Eliminating Edge Groups
        159 - Parallelizing Geometry Creation for New Primitives [Unrolling Loops]
        160 - Parallelizing Geometry Creation for New Edge Primitives [Unrolling Loops]
        161 - Finalizing the Network
        162 - Performance Profiling the Latest Version
163 - Conclusion

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by animatrix

[animatrix]

Gradient descent is an optimization algorithm used to minimize some function by iteratively moving in the direction of steepest descent as defined by the negative of the gradient.

[NoaX]

Currently finishing Joy of Vex, Entagma videos, Vex for Artist just to build the necessary knowledge to watch these. Super excited, I will pre-buy shortly. Thank you for such an incredible series. 

[timj]

Will get it soon! Great course!! 

[animatrix]

Thanks so much guys, tried my best!

[kiryha]

Hello Yunus, this course looks outstanding, thanks for sharing!

How did you combine the Scene View with Network View (when you manage the creation of nodes on top of the camera view)?

[animatrix]

2 hours ago, kiryha said:

Hello Yunus, this course looks outstanding, thanks for sharing!

How did you combine the Scene View with Network View (when you manage the creation of nodes on top of the camera view)?

Thanks a lot Kiryha!

I achieved the overlay network editor by writing a lot of Python Qt code

https://gumroad.com/animatrixx#Igugf

It doesn't seem to work on mac/iOS though due to some weird Qt bug.

[cudarsjanis]

On 8/17/2020 at 12:47 PM, NoaX said:

Currently finishing Joy of Vex, Entagma videos, Vex for Artist just to build the necessary knowledge to watch these. Super excited, I will pre-buy shortly. Thank you for such an incredible series. 

Same here. trying to prepare my self for this one! Looks so good!!!!

[dariosaquetti]

Looks interesting, although a bit pricey.

[animatrix]

Thanks a lot guys!

On 2020-08-20 at 8:39 PM, cudarsjanis said:

Same here. trying to prepare my self for this one! Looks so good!!!!

You can always interleave with other content  Even though the course is advanced, there is still a progression of complexity within the course. So starting with basic elements, it gradually ramps up in complexity and ends with highly technical topics.

[animatrix]

We have implemented gradient ascent and descent on planar geometry, much like a terrain where we used the gradient of the height.

For an arbitrary geometry, what can we use as the cost attribute? One thing we can use is depth.

[animatrix]

Now that we know about gradients, there is another concept that's related to them that can be acquired quite easily, and that concept is contour lines.

A contour line (also isoline) of a function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value, so that the curve joins points of equal value. There are very interesting relationships between the gradients and the contour lines.

[animatrix]

We have already seen how to apply gradient ascent, descent and contour lines to heightfield like planar geometry. The same concept can be applied to heightfields.

Because heightfields are volumes, getting the gradient is very easy by using the volumegradient function. The normal of a heightfield is (0, 1, 0) if the heightfield is an XZ volume, meaning facing up. Getting the cross product of both of these vectors will give you the contour lines.

[animatrix]

Subdivision surfaces are piecewise parametric surfaces defined over meshes of arbitrary topology.

It's an algorithm that maps from a surface to another more refined surface, where the surface is described as a set of points and a set of polygons with vertices at those points. The resulting surface will always consist of a mesh of quadrilaterals.

[animatrix]

Due to popular demand Pragmatic VEX: Volume 1 now comes with subtitles available in the following languages: English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Spanish. The subtitles are in srt format.

This will greatly increase the reach of the course to a much wider audience.

[animatrix]

Korean translation is being generously performed by Seona Hwang for the sake of helping the Korean Houdini community. Huge props to her for her selfless act!

[animatrix]

Since the release of my Houdini tutorial, a lot of people have been asking me about the overlay network editor shown in the videos. It's not a video trick, or a feature in Houdini It's part of my Supercharged extension: https://gum.co/fxsup

It has a lot more enhancements such as context-sensitive rule-based hotkeys that can invoke hotkeys based on custom rules and even the ability to assign a key sequence (dual keys) for any action or even a custom function call.

Apart from this, there are close to 100 other features that are too long to list here but I will make a new video that shows each one in detail.

 

[animatrix]

Pragmatic VEX: Volume 1 has been updated to Houdini 18.5 to ensure it shows the most up to date methods available in the latest version of Houdini.

Existing users received the updated course as soon as it went live.

Enjoy!

[animatrix]

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6747163270169407488

For efficiency of editing and reducing course length, all code shown in the course is written by a standalone program written in C# that mimics natural human like typing that has dozens of controls for randomized and contextual character delays, gradual speed increase over longer words as well as getting faster and faster with each instance of repetition.

I wrote this program to provide a smoother learning experience for the viewers, rather than wasting people's time with my mistakes, or wasting my time editing my mistakes.

Note that the development of the written code and the node networks are non-linear which is the most time consuming part of the planning, and as such this program respects that requirement.

Edited December 23, 2020 by animatrix

[animatrix]

The new trailer is up! All intro renders in the course are now re-rendered in 4K using Redshift (Sponsored by Redshift).

Happy new years everyone!

Edited December 27, 2020 by animatrix