Glad it helps easing the pain. I will keep your message ;-)

sekow
Jordi, you keeping me smiling in such dark days
thank you again for the effort. it is much appreciate.

jordibares
And another one… I am quite happy with this one in particular… hope you like it.

I would also like to ask Houdini experts to review if it is ok and if they see any drawback on the various techniques approached… I know a few but this is a never-ending concept.


https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y0ti6tyf7o3435u/thsQH1Kf2o [dropbox.com]

HoudiniGuides_GeneralConcepts_OrganisingScenes.pdf

Jordi, sir, you rock. And we should talk

Cristin

Thank you Jordi, excellent stuff. I think individual approaches to the abstract side of things, philosophies and concept's are the key points that get people going. Being taught how to fish etc…..

cheers,

A>

cb
Jordi, sir, you rock. And we should talk

Cristin

Uh oh… Now you did it Jordi ;-)

Your comment means a lot Cristin, happy to help whenever you want and I am sure I can put together a bunch of top Softimage artists that surely would like to help too.

cb

jordibares
And another one… I am quite happy with this one in particular… hope you like it.

I would also like to ask Houdini experts to review if it is ok and if they see any drawback on the various techniques approached… I know a few but this is a never-ending concept.


https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y0ti6tyf7o3435u/thsQH1Kf2o [dropbox.com]

HoudiniGuides_GeneralConcepts_OrganisingScenes.pdf

Jordi, sir, you rock. And we should talk

Cristin

Thank you for the guides, these are a great starting point!

thanks for the pdf's jordi, these are really going to help the transition to thinking like a master magician.

i have been using ari's first steps videos, these pdfs, and peter's numerous videos.

Thanks for the guides, Jordi! Can't wait to become a master wizard.

Would you mind continuously editing the first post with links to them as you create/update new ones so we don't have to scroll through multiple pages to find them all? Thank you.

By the way, if it helps anyone, I found a H9 hotkey cheatsheet:
http://www.sidefx.com/images/stories/blogs/houdini9_blog/h9_quick_ref_card.pdf [sidefx.com]

You can also find hotkeys on the back page of this doc:

http://www.sidefx.com/images/stories/getting_started/guide_introduction/hguide_00_introduction.pdf [sidefx.com]

The descriptions along the way also highlight important UI elements and hotkeys.

The link is to a dropbox account so it is everything I have published, no need to tweak links… I am just reminding people where they are rather than updating it.

:-)

alanf
Thanks for the guides, Jordi! Can't wait to become a master wizard.

Would you mind continuously editing the first post with links to them as you create/update new ones so we don't have to scroll through multiple pages to find them all? Thank you.

By the way, if it helps anyone, I found a H9 hotkey cheatsheet:
http://www.sidefx.com/images/stories/blogs/houdini9_blog/h9_quick_ref_card.pdf [sidefx.com]

I am on fire… ;-)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/22l2sx82m75buxj/H-0buUQAUP [dropbox.com]

HoudiniGuides_GeneralConcepts_OrganisingMaterials.pdf

These guides are great! -the cleanest and clearest explanations of Houdini's workflow afaik.

The secret sauce is the comparative explanations, extremely helpful even when one is not familiar with SI.

Thanks Jordi!

Very nice Jordi!

Small correction - in the nodeflags pdf, the flag you've labelled as Template in the COP node is actually the Render flag. In COPs (and CHOPs) you can have multiple display flags, so the Render flag is used to define the output of subnets (and the COP to cook if a node path refers to the containing COP network, not a specific COP). It would have been a bit of a workflow issue to combine the render/display flags into a single flag button in COPs because of this.

Jordi, just two really minor corrections to the Organizing Scenes pdf. Actually it´s just a procedural modelling correction so you might overlook them as they´re not the main topic, but just in case:

- At the procedural approach to the table section, when you create the tabletop, you affirm “…the tabletop that has been created with a simple extrusion of the grid (not very good technique as there will be an opening on the bottom)”. That´s not correct. If you check the “Output Back” setting at the polyextrude node there will be no opening.

- Also you could simplify the process with one less node, just taking out the second transform after the leg (xform_freezeaxis), and adding to the center Y parameter of the box the expression “-ch(”sizey“)/2”, so the leg will always be centered just below the c-plane exactly in the same way you did with the transform…minus one node.
Of course, some people prefer to separate the transform from the primitive node “by design”, which I can understand.

Hey Jordi,

Great to find this stuff here. I've just finished a whole preliminary round of development for a project of my own in XSI only to learn… well we all know what's happened.

So I have all my fantastic set up scripts and guide rigs for my characters in XSI, where do I start in porting these over to Houdini…? Python's not a problem by the way and I am glad to see Houdini supports that as well…

All the best
//Simon

jordibares
One more guide ready

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y0ti6tyf7o3435u/thsQH1Kf2o [dropbox.com]

HoudiniGuides_GeneralConcepts_ComparingInterfaces.pdf

Jordi, in Houdini, there's really sort of two animation worlds: keyframes and CHOPs. Do you think they're sort of mappable to XSI concepts like fcurves vs NLA?

jordibares
I am on fire… ;-)
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y0ti6tyf7o3435u/thsQH1Kf2o [dropbox.com]
HoudiniGuides_GeneralConcepts_OrganisingMaterials.pdf

Great guide so far, Jordi, I wish I had such thing leaving LW 10 years ago :shock:

One thing to note is that once you start placing materials inside an objects (which makes access scattered), Material Palette starts to be really handy. It jumps through the networks while selecting items, so it's a matter of keeping parameter pane opened to tweak any material in a scene whatever deep buried.

Also worth mentioning: Ctrl + click on an IPR viewer opens materials applied on the object under the cursor.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU,

Thank you everybody for the notes, I will make sure fix these errors.

You may want to see what is there first as IMHO you want to embrace the package philosophy, be that Houdini, Modo, Maya…

If are in London we could talk to our Houdini experts here at Realise to see how to help you on the transition of tools to Houdini if you are open to release them to the community.

Is that a possibility? if not you are more than welcome still so don't hesitate to ping me.

cheers

SimonWEC
Hey Jordi,

Great to find this stuff here. I've just finished a whole preliminary round of development for a project of my own in XSI only to learn… well we all know what's happened.

So I have all my fantastic set up scripts and guide rigs for my characters in XSI, where do I start in porting these over to Houdini…? Python's not a problem by the way and I am glad to see Houdini supports that as well…

All the best
//Simon

Thanks, I wanted to showcase it as a different transformation for educational purposes.

But also, I am one of those that want default nodes being transformed as a second operation rather than not so substituting the input object bring predictable results.

One of the documents I will be preparing is to try to differentiate transformations by what they do and certain style options that surely are a personal bias but for me are important.

thanks a lot for the pointers!

Netvudu
- Also you could simplify the process with one less node, just taking out the second transform after the leg (xform_freezeaxis), and adding to the center Y parameter of the box the expression “-ch(”sizey“)/2”, so the leg will always be centered just below the c-plane exactly in the same way you did with the transform…minus one node.
Of course, some people prefer to separate the transform from the primitive node “by design”, which I can understand.