I've read through quite a few back-threads about this and they all seem to follow the same line: someone asks about learning Houdini, the first few responses suggest the video tutorials, then the thread turns to a discussion of some Houdini esoterica that to someone like, say, me (with zero knowledge) makes no sense at all. Which is all well and good, except for that first part about the tutorials.

Come on now, be honest. What's the _real_ way to learn the program? No way its a tutorial that starts with a disclaimer “This was written for version 5, and version 6 has a really different interface. But you'll get the idea.”

So what the typical way? Learn on the job? Take a class? Did people here really get proficient using the online resources?

thanks!

The online material helps me a lot actually, I use the video tutorials all the time.

IMHO The best way to learn Houdini is to make friends with a Houdini artist :wink:

The forums can be helpful or they can get you nowhere, just depends.

If you like pain you could work at DD :twisted: and learn that way. Or Sony. Or R&H. (DD has a great Houdini community.)

In my experience it's always been best to learn Houdini with a friend. It cuts down on frusteration and you're able to learn twice as fast by sharing what you've done with the other artist. A community is helpful.

No matter what though it takes a lot of patience. You're not going to learn it in a week so dont even try. The most important thing you can do is try to get your head around the way it thinks. Once you understand the basic logic you can start to figure things out on your own.

I use the sop specific help all the time, if you dont know what that is just open the params on any op (press p or switch to parameter view) and click on the question mark to bring up help for that op. BTW when I say op I'm referring to anything with *op in the name – sops, cops, rops, etc.

There are a lot of ways to learn Houdini. A lot of the info on the web is highly technical. It depends on what you want to use it for, but that info can be helpful as well. Obviously http://www.odforce.net/ [odforce.net] can be a good source (but search doesnt work! :x !!!)

These forums can be great as well for help (if you have a specific question.)

Your most valuable asset during the first few days/weeks of learning will be patience.

We'll keep an eye out for your posts so we can be of help.

Good luck and welcome to the community!

I had play with Houdini 5 for about 3 weeks of after work time. I am 20 months from the day when I decided to stop messing around and use all my time between freelance jobs completely on learning Houdini. At that stage Houdini 6 had just come out. I have watched the video tutorials and most of them are Houdini 6 some are Houdini 5, in general they are similar enough to be fine for learning Houdini.

As for really learning Houdini, at least as I have up to now, you need to be in close communication with someone in the know. To have them sitting beside you is the best option but you get what you can. I was on my own learning Houdini for 6 months in a city where I was the only one I knew doing so. Until Rangi moved into town and we started collaborating. Now what I learn from him is not easily quantifiable, the easy ways to do some things, a few production methods and some suggestions on how I may approach a problem. The most powerful thing is when I get helped over the small things that catch you up. The problems that an experienced user can just say ?gjust use a copy sop this way?h and you?fre off creating again instead of spending 3 days exploring why you can?ft do something so simple.

Often I find my self making a VOP sop to do something that there is already a sop for, this can be frustrating when you discover a sop already existed but the time spend getting comfortable with VEX or VOPs is not lost. Don?ft despair about doing things in inefficient / hard ways ether. In future when you know how it is done the easy way the messy way that you solved a problem in the past may prove to have benefits in different ways in the future. I feel now I have my Houdini voodoo to a level where I can get some momentum up and make things that impress people. I will never stop improving as long as I don?ft rest on my laurels, and I know this software will be able to meet my needs and even my wants.

Well, I learned Prisms first and moved on to Houdini, but I don't think that is still an option Besides I think Houdini is probably easier to learn.

I think to learn any high level software well you have to do a lot of on the job training. I need that deadline staring me in the face to motivate me into learning. And I think it is worth mentioning that I learn how to use Houdini every minute of every project, and I've been using it since Version 1 (before that if you count Prisms and Sage). It is a continual process.

To be quite honest, if I had it all to do over again it would be quite a daunting task and I too wouldn't even know where to begin.

I would be interested to know what challenges a new Houdini user faces, from the first time opening up the software to reading through the documentation and following tutorials. What are the most confusing things, what concepts are the most difficult to adjust to.

The whole “How to Learn Houdini” issue keeps coming up, and there never seems to be a good answer. I think the Houdini community (and SESI too) has to learn how to teach Houdini better before that question can really be answered. It seems like there have been several good starts (the tutorials for example), but never an ongoing process. The exchange is another good start, the ability to download other peoples work to use as examples is a great learning resource.

I am learning now and I began with video tuts, no matter what version they are for, it still is very similar.
I think these tutorials can make you grasp the structure of the software, how it works, and thus put you on the slide.
After you do some tutorials you can start moving your projects to houdini and try to make them or replicate.
It is not very easy but I can risk saying that it is easier and much more clear that the whole maya crap which is a big mess.

Apart from that, houdini is just exciting because everything here is different and it's a pleasure to discover the extreme power in this oddity, you never know what hides behind a corner. For me it's a great drive!

So really make the tutorials (begin with the staircase because it's most fun), make them once again without watching… make some more (techimage had nice), and try to work.


cheers

Peter

Just started learning myself the other day with the 3dbuzz VTM's and some help from the SESI vids. The online help in version 7 has also proved a bit useful so far. I think it was the buzz vids that got me the furthest though. I'm also focusing specifically on modeling and character rigging tasks for now to keep it simple. I do that stuff for a living using other packages and I guess that helps a bit too.

I gotta say though… this program is quite amazing. I'm very surprised at what it offers, and very excited to learn more. It doesn't seem nearly as difficult as I first perceived it to be. The UI itself is wonderful and geared very much towards speeding up your workflow.

Honestly though scott, I did give houdini a go awhile back, around version 5 or so I think and felt completely lost. This time though… something just clicked. I don't think I've enjoyed learning a program this much in quite awhile.

All I can say is hang in there and if you haven't tried the vtms at 3dbuzz.com maybe give them a shot. Buzz takes you through the app right from the ground up, assuming you know nothing about it.

Interesting question; the only answer I can give w/o elaboration is to be motivated TO learn. That's the hard part. I started off a couple years ago, learned a bit about houdini then hit a rather solid wall. I found it increasingly difficult to learn as time went on, got frustrated and quit trying to learn (houdini, at least); I had a problem in that I didn't just want to learn how to do something in Houdini. I wanted to know how to start from opening a new file in Houdini to ending with a short movie, even a simple one. I was able to do just that but it was very difficult. I now have much grander plans which have forced me to step back and learn a bit about film making. My foray into “i want to learn 3d animation” ended up with learning about ideas and scripting, storyboards, lighting, composition, compositing; I've not even touched on sound yet or music score. I have ideas that unfortunately, just learning to use a software app, even a powerful one as houdini, is just a small part. One thing I've learned is that you need to have an idea of WHY you want to learn and what you want to do with what you've learned. I highly suggest reading as much as you can so you can start learning in a specific direction (modeling, technical director, lighting, shading, etc). Good luck.

I can add my cent to this thread about learning Houdini .. since its now months i'm in that “step”…

I must add some little, yet obvious but still to consider, things..

Addiction…addiction … addiction.

Houdini needs you to get addicted to it, my point of view, and once you get addicted.. u're gone .. you cant get back.. Now everything i watch i think how it can be done procedurally.. and every, again, every free minute i have apart from my kids is on houdini .. doing basic, easy stuffs, or trying to learn something from others hip files (odforce is a great community for this purpose) .. I must admit that every time I open an hip file from someone I get depressed on how things can be “easy”.. the hard way is to “think” that way, the houdini way, which is still a bit hard for me as well…

I just cant wait I'll really think in the Houdini way myself too..

but again, you need the addiction and enthusiasm to go on when things seems hard or stupid (yeah, somethimes i feel like houdini do things in a stupid way), in that precise moment you seriously need to go on and dont give up..

That's why Houdini is not *that* common in the *3D for all* community, its hard to learn, and at first touch really messing and different from any other apps that make most of the people think Houdini is a *mathematical super hard* program to use.. while it isnt actually. My point of view, which is a noob point of view, is that it lack of some stuffs that are “normal” on others applications, but then when you go deeper into OP.. you find that in Houdini the “normal” way doesnt exist and everything comes doable, just in a different manner, or workflow.


well.. nothing too interesting or new here.. just my cent.

cheers

ok, two words from me:

The reason for which Houdini is not so easy to learn: because it's not just a program, more the way of thinking. I realized that problems with learning it are very similar to problems which occured when one try to learn programming language. It is not enough to “know” all functions, keywords, globals, locals etc etc to really be ready for coding big application.

The same with Houdini, you can know every SOP, COP, CHOP, POP, VOP, and still it doesn't mean you are the Master! Like in programming, you recognize good one from his style, five line of tricky code! Houdini Master needs two SOPs: Point SOP, and Copy/Stamp SOP to achieve amazing stuff. One must understand the virtual power of almost every ~OP in Houdini to use it succeessful.

the following may be slightly biased …

if you really want to learn houdini, get the book, The Magic of Houdini. it will take you from the stumbling steps of a complete novice to the confident strides of a competent intermediate level user. more importantly, by going through the entire book and really understanding it, you will gain a very solid foundation in houdini, a foundation from which you can proceed to explore more advanced topics with confidence.

buena suerte,

will

Wow, I didn't expect to ever revisit this thread. Not a year later at least. I agree with the gist of several of the posts - on the job, with a deadline is a really good way to learn (for me at least).

But I never bothered with Houdini. As soon as the learning curve brought me to “okay, I need to import this Illustrator part” which was answered by “Houdnin doesn't import Illustrator”. Same thing that hung me up when I tried to learn v5…

Just curious, has this changed at all in the newest version? I guess there isn't much call for importing Illustrator paths…but aren't there -any- other graphic designers using Houdini?

We should probably be forking this thread. But anyhow, hope this helps:
mail archive search [sidefx.com]

Yes, that was the state of things in v5. I don't know if AI import is better in v8 - is this still Houdini's idea of Illustrator suport?

“opening the eps file with a text editor and then adding the string:

%AI3_Note: Houdini Forever

then save out the eps and try importing it.
the file will come in with some garbage, but insert a delete sop then delete the unwanted primitives.”

'Cause that's just about the lamest thing I've seen in a long while, and I'm a career-long Electric Image user. Well, at least it doesn't make you do it from a DOS command line, now THAT would be the ultimate insult.

After jumping through those hoops, I did indeed get an AI file to load but only after -also- removing all colors and fills and leaving just the paths. That and the need to save it as AI3 makes this feature basically useless.

If there are any graphic designers using Houdini, and if any of them find this to be an acceptable way to work, I'd be amazed.

And that was about as far as my learning adventure went.

edward
We should probably be forking this thread. But anyhow, hope this helps:
mail archive search [sidefx.com]

Hi

If you are a potential customer , don't you think it will be better to talk with SESI direactly or even post a Feature request in this forum.I mean judging by the apperance of sesi staffs in both SESI and Odforce forum , I think that SESI is taking both free and paid user's suggestion, feature request and bug report seriously.
peace :wink:

Well, the EPS topic has come up a few times over the years (three, plus once on the mail list, plus maybe two in Japanese) so I assumed the topic has had its day in the sun.

Emails to the sales address listed on the Contacts page went unanswered.

It came down to this decision - Houdini seems to be really well suited to the larger operations. I'm just one guy here and do everything myself. 3D is a secondary consideration, I mostly do motion graphics. So none of the above really bothered me, since I'd already kind of ruled it out as a good replacement for EI. My 3D needs aren't fancy, to sort of quote Jasper from the Simpsons. (“Slow down. The sidewalk's for regular walkin', not fancy walkin'”)

But I still check back from time to time, so hey, maybe everything will fit in to place one of these days.

altbighead
Hi

If you are a potential customer , don't you think it will be better to talk with SESI direactly or even post a Feature request in this forum.I mean judging by the apperance of sesi staffs in both SESI and Odforce forum , I think that SESI is taking both free and paid user's suggestion, feature request and bug report seriously.
peace :wink:

In my opinion Houdini is veeery easy to learn, much more easier for me than Maya.

My method is a PROJECT. Start a project you like to create in Houdini. Choose something what U like to create: particles, lighting, modeling, etc, etc. Then start to doing it and every time U don't know something use: docs, tutorials, ask people on forum. Very important factor here is U shouldn't give up, U must go step by step and solve next problems in your project creation. At the end U'll be very suprised how many stuff U learned.