Congratulation to Will Cunningham (and Peter Bowmar, Jason Iverson and Dave Johnson) and SESI on the publication of the first Houdini book ever!

can't wait to have a look!

here's the link in case you don't view the front page:
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=448&Itemid=66 [sidefx.com]

Hooah .. Good job for the book..
quite abit expensive for canadian .. 61 CDN+tax and shipping but I am so getting the book. :wink:

Finally … wasnt it supposed to be released end last november?.. i checked Amazon until couple of days ago .. and i really cant wait to order it now..

anybody already read it and can give first impressions?

cheers and congrats for the Book.

I like the cover art! :wink:

I've read a lot of it, and I think it's great!

there is another thread asking how a body is to go about really learning houdini. well, it was my desire and endeavor to simply and solidly answer that question in writing this book. i hope you find the book useful and perhaps even, at times, entertaining. if you have any suggestions, comments, notes on possible errors, etc, please do send over an email to willauthor@gmail.com.

salud,

will

oh yes, did you have a part in making the potter, vrljc? i had seen the short film several times and loved the endearing nature of it. thomson suggested using a frame from it and i chose the one that is now on the cover. if you did have a part to play in the short, thank you much! as i can't think of a more perfect visual expression for the intention of the book.

Amazon.com Sales Rank
Today #3,318 in Books
Yesterday #39,693 in Books

Cool )

Incidentally, the sales of this book will greatly affect the future of Houdini books. Buy one for your parents, they make great gifts! )

Cheers,

Peter B

ok .. i just ordered the book from amazon.. now give me some candy..

edited: It's kinda strange becasue if you buy it from thomson , it will cost you 61+ shipping and tax but in Amazon.ca , it costs me CDN$ 49.61.

Yes, I did the FX on the cover. I am glad you liked the short film. The crew of us who worked on the cover are honored to be able to supply the image, as we are all GREATLY looking forward to getting our hands on a copy of the book.

Its kinda funny with Houdini that just when you think you know the package, you can always find a new area to dive deeper into. I hope I can do that some more using the material in the book.

It's funny you say that, just proofreading parts of it I learned a lot, and I've been using it since version 0.9beta ! I don't think it's possible to know everything about it… though some in R+D might disagree )

Cheers,

Pete rB

Seems like a great book.

But the preview chapter already has a few errors, hope they fix them.

on page 146, step 2: “Go to the Birth tab and change the Variance in Y to 0.1” should read “Go to the Attributes tab”

on page 147, step 5: “Advance to frame 29” should be “frame 23”.

Other than that, seems like an interesting read.

Perhaps the publisher is open to publishing Errata's on their website?

Hope so. I bet we'll all be busy for a little while when the book does come out )

halo fellows,

yes indeed. i'll be compiling any corrections that readers send over to willauthor@gmail.com and updating an errata section on the thomson website once a month or so. it will be put up some time next week. hopefully, it won't be too abundant.

salud,

will

No problem, I look forward to getting the book when it ships.

I got my book yesterday. This morning I had a power reading session. I think it's great resource.

Congrats to all involved in getting this book written and published. I hope you will be very succesful.

Cheers,

/Ricl

question.
is the book available in paperback or hardcover?

Amazon.ca and .com are listing it as paperback.
chapters.com is listing it as hardcover… (but not here yet for orders)

i always like the hardcover books as they last longer and take a better beating. (and we all know we ar going to give the book a good once over)


so… is it paperback or hardcover?

thanks
-k

the copy I got from amazon was paperback.

currently, the book is only available in paperbook.

salud,

will

Ok… i preferred to spend some time (and damn i did it! ehe) reading it before expressing my comments on the book.

when I recieved it .. i actually was with Andrew Quinn talking about Houdini and pipelines.. and such…
I took a fast view of the book.. but i had no much time to read it until later in the evening after my dinner… at first I was a bit..“oh no.. its for noobs”…
after half hour .. “oh damn … that's a great book”.


Its a great book.. nicely wrote (friendly and really clear and explanatory), with nice examples that points at the real meaning of the tool or chapter explained.



The more i read… the more i love it.

POP's intro by Caleb Howard simply impressed me and left me wordless… stil cant believe at what i've read there..


just a point … about point and copy Sop's, that's true, you'd need an entire book about those two incredibly powerfull tool… then why you didnt gone a bit deeper with some more examples?.. i expected a bit more about those two SOPs.
I also expected a bit more about Expressions but they are wide spreaded around the chapters so I might bewrong yet.. (wasnt supposed to be last chapter Variables and Expression?)

I still have to read it entirely obviosuly.. and I guess I'll do it many and many times.. again.. I love this book.

great work.