With all the locations I've listed for educational materials…
“the Magic of Houdini” book (I believe) is absolutely crucial to learning Houdini.
The Gnomon video is also very nice.

the book is really great!

to me, as a maya user, the book is the best source to understand houdini's architecture and concepts. it's really great along sidefx's and 3dbuzz' VTCs.

would like to know if an errata was published already? I searched at thomson site and found nothing related.

thx again for this great book

bests

christian

Just thought I'd add to this - recieved the book a couple of weeks back, but I've been too busy with other stuff to take a look at it.

Spent an hour or two flicking through it and it looks pretty damn good. Hoping to get a chance to work my way through it over the next couple of weeks - it'll definately help with my Modelling and Animation project

it is great to hear the book is useful!

good ideas on future possibilities, jim.

a few small errors have been trickling in over the past month and will, at some point in the not to distant future, be checked and added to an errata section on the thomson website. again, if ye find anything that looks like a badger in a rabbit hole (not quite right, i mean), please do let me know at willauthor@gmail.com and i'll check it out. i'll add a reply here, at the 3dbuzz thread, and on odforce when the errata material has been posted.

salud!

will

Hi Will. Absolutely awesome book. Did the errata ever get posted on Thomson's site? If so, can we get a link please?

wow…a Houdini user in Calgary….cold and lonely….


I'm sure there was an errata page but damned if I can find it now….anyone have the link?

arctor
wow…a Houdini user in Calgary….cold and lonely….

Cold is relative. When I moved from Australia to Calgary last Christmas, it was +40 C when I got on the plane, -36 C when I got off: a relative difference of 76 degrees. *That's* cold.

The book is great, no doubt. Any chance there will be vol. 2 - e.g. Advanced Houdini Topics ?

yes there is a lot way to go. even the book is great, beyond what i think of. still lots of open gaps in mine and beleive many of others mind.

*what abaout expressions in detail.
*vex with multiple exercises. simplest one to more advanced. and the idea behind it. not just something wire this to there and so on.i mean starting over the exercise with the math formula that is going to be constructed in vex. i know this is a huge topic but with a strong basic knowledge one can feel more confident. (and from that point it is wise to suggest reading advanced renderman.etc)
*why doesn't anybody produce much more,real life examples or production like videos. i beleive this is much more educational. you can demand howmuch $$$ you want. and i gurantee you won't bankrupt.

one tight example covering every single step in detail would be nice.

halo friends,

nope, there is no errata page to be found. sorry about that. between how few and small the problems have been as reported and normal (busy!) life in production, i haven't taken the time to collate and post what has come in.

as to other details, there are some things i would like to add to the book to make it a more complete introduction to the package. if thomson decides they want to have another go at it in a second edition, i'd like to add a COPs chapter, a CHOPs chapter, updates for UI and fluids from H9, improve a couple of the exercises, add a couple o' exercises using the point SOP, and correct a few grammar and logic errors. all that included, the second edition should be a fully fleshed intro to intermediate text.

as for a Houdini advanced topics book, i'd love for someone to write one as well. peter, jason, other guru types, get rolling!

before i would try a hand at it, 1. i need more experience working with houdini at its most esoteric levels, and 2. having a number of months off to get the effort rolling would also be nice. so, we'll see.

salud!
will