Hello all!

I’m a UX Product Designer that’s decided to learn Houdini for the first time. My goal is to hopefully be able to find that intersection between UX Product Design and how Houdini can help with that for future concepts.

My question is: What would be the most all inclusive tutorial series out there that would be both friendly (semi-new here), holistic and give an idea for future growth and experimentation?

FYI. I’ve watched many tutorials through the years, so I understand how Houdini works. What I don’t have is the experience to align this knowledge and make it stick via repetition.

Hey psionicsin,

in my opinion, (you already have a basic understanding) it`s best to start a real project and do it entirely within Houdini.
That way you are forced to learn all the aspects you need that are relevant to your type of project.
Houdini is a huuuuge software and to get common with all of its aspects will take years.
Also, there are so many ways to do things.
I would say start a real project and every time you face a bump search for a tutorial or forum post that helps you to solve it.

Cheers
CYTE

I also transitioned to Houdini from UX Product Design. It took me about a year to grasp the basics just looking everything I could. The next step is to start using Houdini daily and persist through the challenges. Stick with it and begin doing actual work in Houdini.

Additionally, I recommend this informative series to polish the basics: https://www.hipflask.how/ [www.hipflask.how]

I had similar thoughts recently... I watched a lot of atomic tutorials but what I think I lack right now is what you are describing as a 'holistic' tutorial series. Something that goes through all the stages of a project, from animatic to final render, with basic rigging and camera animation, lighting and takes, setting up custom passes etc...

psionicsin
Hello all!

I’m a UX Product Designer that’s decided to learn Houdini for the first time. My goal is to hopefully be able to find that intersection between UX Product Design and how Houdini can help with that for future concepts.

My question is: What would be the most all inclusive tutorial series out there that would be both friendly (semi-new here), holistic and give an idea for future growth and experimentation?

FYI. I’ve watched many tutorials through the years, so I understand how Houdini works. What I don’t have is the experience to align this knowledge and make it stick via repetition.

It's hard to find a single tutorial that has all the things you want but you can look through the list of tutorials here and watch the ones you are interested to get some ideas. Something that's seemingly completely unrelated might be of interest in your field:

https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials [www.sidefx.com]

Shameless plug my course is also there
https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/pragmatic-vex-volume-1 [www.sidefx.com]

Thanks so much for the knowledge and recommendations guys. I’ll be sure to research every suggestion you guys gave me.

I’m doing this not only because truly want to learn this package, but I also have a direct connection to a VFX studio. I could potentially do side projects for them. So this would make me a value I believe.

Hi and sorry if I am late to response but beside all of the good advices already given you should definitely check appliedhoudini.com especially that you said you are interested in VFX also.

I have to remind you though that the tutorials there are slightly advanced and I would suggest that you start from particles series which are slightly easier(I wish someone has said this to me when I started because I took a harder path by following volume series first).

So please do not forget www.appliedhoudini.com

fred_98
I’m a UX Product Designer that’s decided to learn Houdini for the first time. My goal is to hopefully be able to find that intersection between UX Product Design and how Houdini can help with that for future concepts.

My question is: What would be the most all inclusive tutorial series out there that would be both friendly (semi-new here), holistic and give an idea for future growth and experimentation?

FYI. I’ve watched many tutorials through the years, so I understand how Houdini works. What I don’t have is the experience to align this knowledge and make it stick via repetition.

Focus on making tools for others in applied contexts and let that guide your learning. There is also a new field for Design called "PhysFX" Designer that uses Science to Design Effects on the "Real World" with Physics.

If you are doing Experience Design it is very possible that there are no Houdini resources. This seems to be an area of Skills Development for Houdini currently.

Being that you are specifically coming from a UX Design background, it can be useful to see Houdini as a Tool-making software. I will be releasing an Experience Design tutorial soon based on using Houdini as a Convivial Toolbox and how to design Tools for Co-Design Toolkits with Houdini.

Convivial Toolbox: Generative Research for the Front End of Design [www.service-design-network.org]

I have many applied projects in University and completing UX Audits of the Experience with Undergrad Design Students.

I'd also recommend Hipflask.how to get a really solid foundation. A little dry in presentation perhaps - but excellent and in-depth on the topics covered. Obviously you'll need to judge it's relevance against your current level of knowledge.

Foucs on abstract Fx

I'm a big fan of houdini-course.com for getting people up to speed, and I've learned a lot myself from Christian.

Happy new year
Foucs on abstract Fx

Worst advice you could possibly give to a Houdini novice, especially someone who's going for a UX workflow of all things. What's the point of this post?

I would second what Siavash said, heard nothing but good things about houdini-course.com.

I have been a long-time subscriber to Entagma and reference the library all the time.
It has been the best resource for me thus far:

https://entagma.com/ [entagma.com]

https://www.youtube.com/@Entagma/videos

What about Rebelway and TheVFXSchool?