hi everyone..

I have just started to learn houdini and had been creating effects in

maya since quite some time..Could anyone help with any links or

tutorials of dynamis and effects in Houdini..

Also one more question, If any1 who had worked in maya creating

effects and now creating in Houdini..could u please share the difference

and any advantages of creating effects in Houdini as compared to maya..

Cheers..

Akshay..

For tutorials, there's some if you go to Learning > Tutorials at the top of this website. I see there's “Dynamics Quickstart” and “Working with Particles” right now.

+ gnomon's dvds…
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/dvds/groups/houdini_g.html [thegnomonworkshop.com]

You also can read an effects tutorial at my web page: www.miguelperezsenent.com [miguelperezsenent.com]

Akshay
Also one more question, If any1 who had worked in maya creating effects and now creating in Houdini..could u please share the difference and any advantages of creating effects in Houdini as compared to maya. Akshay..

The main difference is proceduralism. Here is an abridged version of a document I put together for another purpose. I'm curious to hear people's reaction to it. It's starts with a definition of effects.
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• * Effects is often defined as anything that isn't a character, a prop or a set asset. Using this definition you quickly arrive at an almost infinite set of possible effects rig variations.
  * Effects regularly involves interaction between other assets - Effects is often about data convergence, data interaction and data manipulation.
  * Effects can draw on all sections of the computer graphics workflow. Creating effects requires everything from modeling, to animation, to surfacing, to shading, to compositing techniques and tools.
  * Effects often happens at the end of the pipeline - just before or after lighting. To permit effects development to take place in parallel with animation and lighting it is necessary that effects systems be built in a procedural way. Procedural systems are adaptable to any changes that happen upstream in animation. Procedural modeling tools are therefore highly important for effects production. Procedural effects systems are also easy to re-use in multiple shots.
  * Effects creation is a highly technical enterprise. There is really no such thing as an “effects artist” in the sense that an animator is an “artist”. There is usually little that separates shot work from rig modification. In a way anyone that can do effects is at least a junior level TD or a technical artist depending on how you want to look at it. Most companies won't hire effects staff who aren't very technical. There are so few places in which they are useful on a normal production.
  
  In commercial production, the emphasis is on arriving at a look quickly, through whatever means possible. This is because most commercials have a limited number of shots, and each effect type often doesn't appear in more than one or two shots. For these reasons, in commercials it is possible to arrive at solutions through layers of non-reversible, non-procedural solutions. There is a large repertoire of layering techniques out there, and like layers of paint, you generally can't go back and alter your first layer four or five layers later. Also, if you need to change you first layer, you generally need to throw the painting away and start again.
  
  There are two approaches to feature film effects production, and one is to develop effects in the same way that they are created in commercials - but on a larger scale. For one-off shots, this is still a cheap and acceptable way to work. For an effect that appears in more than a few shots - the reversibility of proceduralism becomes hugely advantageous. For effects that are likely to be needed in other projects - layering also ceases to be an efficient way to work. Again, good procedural engineering becomes of great value. There are a lot of studios that make effects in inefficient ways. Some by-products of poor effects production workflow include:
  
  1./ Inconsistency of effects looks across shots and sequences.
  2./ Massive artist burn out, and other related staffing issues.
  3./ Massive technical support overheads, and overblown R+D budgets.
  4./ Over-budget productions.
  
  For many visual effects companies and feature animation studios this is not an acceptable way to work, and they have arrived at workflows that limit as many of these by-products as possible. Such companies focus on highly procedural systems with carefully exposed artist interfaces for printing massive numbers of elements. For companies planning to re-use systems, or who create effects for films with effects shot counts that number near to 1000 shots, it generally makes sense to do away with cottage industry techniques and use a mass-production model of production. In this model of production, automation and system re-use is extremely important. Being able to pass data through a pipeline which intelligently applies one process after another to incoming data is a feature of this model. This is called a procedural workflow.
  
  Companies looking to undertake effects work on large projects generally aim for an effects workflow that seeks to avoid all common by-products of a poor effects workflow whilst catering to the implicit nature of effects creation described above.
  
  1./ Consistency of effects look across shots and sequences.
  2./ Limited artist burn out, and other related staffing issues.
  3./ Low technical support overheads and no blown R+D budgets.
  4./ Productions that include dramatic effects – but are still on budget.
  5./ Using pre-existing technology wherever possible.
  6./ Using tools that have a good procedural workflow that permit efficient effects pipeline construction, and re-use.
  7./ Using tools that simplify and accelerate effects rig development for fast development and production turnaround.
  8./ Tools that provide a good artist interface with which technically competent artists can quickly interact with underlying systems.
  
  It is difficult to account for all possible effects with the “canned-effects” solutions offered in many entry-level 3D software packages. Inevitably creative direction demands things that the canned effect tool cannot provide. At that point the production workflow becomes extremely inefficient. Solutions for canned effects systems that have reached their limitations include hand painted 2D solutions, and expensive, slow programmer support.
  
  The basic workflow in Houdini recognizes the nature of creativity and productivity, and is oriented around flexibility and procedural workflows. The learning curve is more steep for people with no computer graphics knowledge, but TD's with some mel experience tend to find it perfectly logical. To compliment it's procedural modeling tools, Houdini also offers a range of post-modeling deformation tools that are also procedural. Like Shake, Nuke and other high end procedural compositing packages, Houdini has a node type layout, so there is no need to work in a text editor to create effects rigs. At the same time it is possible to support viewport workflows as with other packages. In Houdini, effects TD's can view their data at any step as geometry shaded in a viewport, as data in a spreadsheet form, or as data summarized by clicking on the node itself. It is simple to bypass steps to see what are the resulting changes, and look at the data in the ways described above in many different places at once. This excellent data accessibility and interactivity accelerates the effects rig development and debugging. Houdini TD's never work blind as you might in a text editor. Houdini also simplifies system re-use. It is possible and in fact common to copy a Houdini scene file from one shot to another and have it work without any changes. Houdini is extremely open in its design and as a result provides superior data convergence and integration. Houdini provides excellent tools for accessing and modifying geometry attribute data attached to any asset. Houdini digital assets provide an easy way to abstract and encapsulate a workflow, or sections of a workflow - complete with user friendly UI - for re-use on other shots and other shows. Rig and workflow re-use is therefore simple, fast and stable. Houdini has built-in advanced support for multiple renderers. It is not necessary to break out the C++ API every time effects wants to access some internal data, or pass some new data to one of these renderers. Houdini has built in audio, compositing and non-linear animation tools. It has built in dependency controls for output drivers (ROPs) permitting the sequencing of complex workflows that intermingle multiple simulation, compositing, procedural modeling, lighting, non-linear animation and render layer procedures. Unlike other packages, it is rare to come across an effects problem that demands a C++ devkit solution.
  
  ——————————————————————————–
  
  I hope that helps.

Hey, welcome to the party Akshay, Houdini sure is a lot of fun, If things go as planned it might just become a fulltime job soon too.

Nice to see more folks this side of the ponds hopping onto the bandwagon

cheers

Akshay
hi everyone..

I have just started to learn houdini and had been creating effects in

maya since quite some time..Could anyone help with any links or

tutorials of dynamis and effects in Houdini..

Also one more question, If any1 who had worked in maya creating

effects and now creating in Houdini..could u please share the difference

and any advantages of creating effects in Houdini as compared to maya..

Cheers..

Akshay..

Hey Guys,

Thanks alot for your replies..

Cheers..