Hello,

for few weeks, I've been thinking whether to learn Houdini to achieve more amazing and powerfull particle effects. I was reading articles and gathering information. Based on what I know so far, XSI, offers almost all functionality than Houdini.

Is it not just a myth, that Houdini is better than XSI in particle effects? An example can be this SideFX page describing what particle functionality Houdini has: http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=398&Itemid= [sidefx.com]

Well, what I know, that XSI 5.1 has all the tools covere by Houdini. Where is therefore the hidden power of Houdini, if there is any, and is it worh to learn Houdini just for particles and to use XSI of all the remaining things?

Thank you and have a nice day,

Rene.

the first thing comes to my mind…. as an FX artist and TD here… (our pipeline is mostly XSI) …. is that, like with Maya, you can archieve many FX in XSI … but not without scripting…. and most of the time its lot of scripting….

so yeah … Houdini is way better than XSI on that.

my personal opinion.

cheers

Is it not just a myth, that Houdini is better than XSI in particle effects?

hehehehehe Sorry…. Jean Claude answered.

One can hardy get an impression of the capabilities of a software package by reading Feature Lists. Every app there that includes particle toolset has your Forces, Collisions, Instancing, Sprite rendeing and the like. Houdini has them, XSI has them, Maya as well, etc, etc.

As yet another XSI user, I can say that if you need to do complex particle effects, you should never consider XSI, unless you're eager to lose your precious time writing and debugging scripts and fighting the crappy toolset.

Cheers

thank you for your responses,

and could you please tell me how is it with shaders and Houdini? Say, that XSI has very powerfull ba_volumetric shader, that allows me to create either space nebulae, galaxy, clouds, smoke, etc….. If I decide to use Houdini, will I have to develope photorealistic shaders, by a lot of programming, or does Houdini have built in shader tools, that let me to create virtually anithing, even the beautiful explosion shaders that were seen in Stealth movie?

I will order Magic of Houdini book in very few days.

With regards,
Rene.

When it comes to the sprite based rendering techniques, houdini has all you need - all it takes is some VOP chaining - just like in RenderTree.
Houdini has no built-in shaders comparable to the BinaryAlchmey shaders - all volumetric tools you need to develop yourself. Houdini provides core modules: the particles, point cluds for fast lookup, etc. You need to write shaders in VEX to render them, but there are several examples descirbing some methods and workflows floating around - search Odforce in particular.
The clouds in Stealth were rendered with Storm - a custom toolset by DD, so don't expect anything like that

Not until H9 at least……

Today I will order the book The Magic of Houdini. Relating to workflow in Houdini, if I create and animate particles, it is only a half work done, and then I have to write appropriate shader to the particle effect. Is that correct?

Where Houdini artists usually take amazing shaders from? Do they write them, or is it possible to configure volumetric shaders, lens flares, etc.. directly in Houdini please? In XSI there are already finished shaders like BA_Volume, however because I have never writen any shader, I am affraid, it will need a lot of math knowledge.

With regards, Rene.

Bunkai I really do get the impression from this thread and the one over at xsi base that you dont have much experience with 3d in general Thats not a bad thing per say, but you are trying to compare chalk and cheese.
I think really at your level any application you learn be it xsi , maya , max , etc will put you in good shape to progess your career.
After working in film using xsi and maya its all the same and after a while it all becomes the same … some jobs im using maya , some xsi. I would say though learning maya or max will help to get your career kick started as those programs are commonly used by lots of studios.

Good luck

R

Hello circusmonkey,

Yeah, i am asking on both places, one is devoted to XSI another to Houdini, because I want to find a comparison of the two tools and want to hear opinions from both sides. From outside they both, Houdini and XSI, seem to me to serve the same purpose, and therefore, yes, I try to compare them, to find the one that better suits my needs.

As far as my experience in 3D, I received first prizes in an international magazine about 6 years ago in LightWave. So far, I still work in 3D and therfore I wish you do not confuse me with a person who do not know 3D at all.. The fact is, I have never worked in movie industry, and never used particle effects neither standalone shaders, just Hypervoxel from LightWave to create volumetric effects.

Besides, asking questions that are elementary to you, will definitely help others to understand things, because, I bet, they will help others too.

With regards,
Rene.

Thats great , your first port of call should be downloading the free versions and setting your own projects and doing your own digging , then you will really know where you stand.

good luck

R

Renee,

Where Houdini artists usually take amazing shaders from? Do they write them, or is it possible to configure volumetric shaders, lens flares, etc.. directly in Houdini please?

Regarding Shaders in Houdini, there is the VEX Builder, so you can build your shader interactively. So after doing your particles, if you cant find what you like from the existing shaders coming with the distribution, you can build your own for Mantra and Renderman. There are some tutorials around and I am sure the Book will help you to start. Obviously those “amazing shaders” take time and thinking to make!

Thank you all, very much. Yesterday I ordered the book, and I will download the demoversion soon too.

Thank you, and have a nice day,
R.

hi all,

what is the difference b/t volumetric and particle FX?

thanx,
t :?:

Particle effects include a wide variety of effects. Volumetric effects is just one category of particle effects.

Parcile effects can simulate dust, sand, stars, grass, water, fire, hair, etc.. Clouds and smoke are examples of volumetric effects.

Very simple answer to your simple question.

With regards,
Rene.

“Volumetric” is a name for this type of rendering when “volume” of some object is taken in to acount (as oposite to “flat” surfaces of 3d mesh). Because most of so called “particels effects” are related to partly transparency objects (like smoke) this volumtric calculation is highly recomended.

“Particles” means nothing more then points traveling through the space and have nothing to do directly with rendering. Volumetric is one of ways to genarate some picutres from that


cheers,
Sy.

Bunkai
Very simple answer to your simple question.

Hey, I'm easy to please. :wink:

XSI has particle effects!?

ReggieFourmyle,

oh yeah, XSI has particle effects. It has both, particle engine with dynamics and simulation and it has built in shaders you can use with particles.

However, another question is where these XSI particle modules stand in comparison with other competitive packages. Although it is very difficult to compare them, if a person has not mastered particle engines in all competitive packages. This would be very difficult task.

Although XSI users bellieve that XSI's particle engine should be better, rumors say, the next version of XSI will have much better particle tools.

Bye.