I love houdini. whenever i am working with it i feel how powerful it is but i find it kinda impenetrable. i am a noob and it seems this software is designed for pros, those who know a lot about 3d. i can't even understand the help and examples.
the other night i spent about 4 hours reading and watching tutorials about this carve tool and at the end i was not satisfied with my progress. and this happens every time i am working with Houdini (i have an IQ of 120 so i am not stupid) what should i do? go back to Blender? :?: :?:


EDIT: Subject line typos corrected. They were making my brain hurt. -chrism

Did you already watch 3dBuzz' houdini fundamentals online-course?
It's free and imho a very good start.

Cheers

Houdini is not the best modeling software, so sure, go back to Blender to model. However, where other packages fail to control effects, Houdini excels, and while a basic understanding of modeling is important, knowing the fundamentals of Houdini will allow you to excel at effects.

If you dont understand the videos and examples on the carve sop, try another one. You'll learn more about Houdini, and you'll learn it faster, by not beating yourself in the head with the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over…. etc.

In the end, it doesnt matter what package you use, you will need to understand fundamental concepts. If you dont understand 3D in general, you'll find it difficult.

ramin22
i can't even understand the help and examples.

ramin22
(i have an IQ of 120 so i am not stupid)

No offence mate, but you do realise what you just said, right?

The example files are pretty easy to follow. But you can't expect to be an expert straight away. It takes time to make the conceptual leap into Houdini and even more to become proficient.

Persist with it and you will be rewarded.

Agreed with the above ^^

The difference is that, modeling doesnt take much thought apart from the preperation progress, refs and poly-flows/loops ect. Effects do take a lot of concideration and a lot of basic understanding over a lot of area's, thats the way things are. You say some of those tutorials are hard to understand….stick with it man, after it does sink in, then you realise how much control you have been gifted by using those methods, and those methods can be used to model with (see the modeling with particles tutorials )

There is a customer story here on the Side Effects site (Final Fantasy X: My Tanaka), and I reference a quote to people everytime who are asking “why should I carry on…ect ect ect”

You can solve any complex effects problem with Houdini. It is also the best tool for people who want to understand the fundamental structure of computer graphics.

Houdini is far more than a modeling package.

Give yourself time to play with the individual tools - I start up a new houdini all the time just to try out things in an isolated environment rather than in my main scene. Treat it like a sandbox full of little tools. Learning houdini and becoming good at it is a commitment, but is great fun along the way.

Depending on your previous background it will take most people at least 2 months or more to start producing reasonably decent work with Houdini. It will take years to truly become a houdini master.

It is tempting to go back to your previous software, but push through that temptation and struggle and explore. It is through that struggle that you will learn: trying out, breaking and building things. After a while you might go back to Blender for something and you will start missing houdini functionality or lower level access to data.

You're feeling stupid at times even though you know you are not. It's an easy mistake to confuse stupidity with lack of experience. Houdini teases your brain, it makes you think. Once you get used to thinking rather than clicking buttons, you'll start to anticipate problems and work up and down the node tree. After a while the viewport will become less important as you are able to see most of what is going on in the network editor.

Be patient, learn a bit of houdini everyday. Search for some of the “learning houdini” posts on 3dbuzz and odforce. Plenty of others have recommended learning strategies there as well. Tutorials are a good start, but playing with the nodes will eventually get you further as there will come a point when there are no more tutorials that show you what to do.

thanks. i have decided to work harder on it. i will continue with houdini. :evil:

thanks. i have decided to work harder on it. i will continue with houdini. :evil:

That's the spirit!

And don't forget to ask specific questions about things you are stumbling with. We are quite willing to help.

You can solve any complex effects problem with Houdini. It is also the best tool for people who want to understand the fundamental structure of computer graphics.

I can't begin to tell you how many times I have said this very thing,
In so many words.
I have a much better understanding of 3D and CG as a result of
my experience with Houdini. This is after some time working in the field.
It's mind expanding I tell ya!

The 3dbuzz fundamentals are definatly a good place to start, i find their videos are quite easy to follow, and they cover *every* thing they do. pretty much every time he clicks the mouse, he tells you why, and what it does.
and the official intro videos in the houdini help are very good as well

there are several other good sites with tutorials, and i have found that forum users on side fx, 3dbuzz, and odforce are very helpful

The 3dbuzz fundamentals are definatly a good place to start, i find their videos are quite easy to follow, and they cover *every* thing they do. pretty much every time he clicks the mouse, he tells you why, and what it does.
and the official intro videos in the houdini help are very good as well

there are several other good sites with tutorials, and i have found that forum users on side fx, 3dbuzz, and odforce are very helpful

thanks clown. i have already finished the intros and now i am continuing with 3d buzz fundamentals. yes they are easy to follow and really helpful.

And after that be shure to check out 3dBuzz' FastTrack.

It's a complete short-movie project and shows houdini's workflow very well.

Get back, get back.
Get back to where you once belonged (beatles)

Should you go with Blender? Let's see, you don't seem like and arrogant piece of crap who thinks he's better than those who can't write python code……

:?:

bad experience on a blender forum or what?

lol

jason_iversen
:?:

I have had a few people over there who get kind of belittling if you don't understand the g(r)eek speek they spew.