Hi all, I compiled this list of the learning material we've developed - including tutorials, webinars, masterclasses and event workshops. This is just another way of viewing the list, as you can find all of these on SideFX.com/tutorials, and in our Vimeo channel - but thought you might find this list format helpful.

http://sidefx.co/2uqjwMt [sidefx.co]

Lots more to come so we'll update along the way…

- Chris

Thanks. Even though most of this is on the website, it's great to find everything together in one handy spreadsheet.

Thanks a lot!

I have a questions that is slighty Off-Topic:

What determines if the training will be a workshop/webinar/masterclass? I mean how is that decision made?

I personally do not like webinars so much because - it sometimes feels like questions interrupt the flow of the lecture and you have less FPS etc.

But that is just my opinion and i understand that people might like the style of webinars. Just wondering what goes into the decision.

@powestroke3000 I find myself only partly in agreement with you.

One of the wonderful things about Jeff Wagners webinars are the digressions but equally they are one of my biggest annoyances too. A great example this year would be Jeff Wagners H16 Geometry Workflows webinar. Something went wrong with the recording on this one so Jeff had to re-record it. This meant that it stayed on brief and followed the well prepared deck Jeff had put together.

But there are times when Jeff's digressions elucidate wonderful areas of knowledge that are connected to the agenda but which otherwise might not have been discussed. My request would be that Fianna compiled all the questions to be answered in the last 45 minutes. That way Jeff could stay on brief but we'd also benefit from Jeff's 30 years plus experience of working with Houdini.

As great as the Masterclass series is, it does lack that audience interaction. I'd love a live Q&A after the pre-recorded Masterclass. Something that could involve audience, developer and Jeff as that could lead to interesting tangents but not disrupt the core learning material.

I totally agree with that! I know that sometimes the questions bring up points they guys from SESI might not have thought about.
A pre-recorded Masterclass or lecture with a QnA would be great. I feel like “lectures” are better to give you the base information with slides etc. but yes QnAs are best for nice trickery and workflows etc.!

Completely agree with other posters. Would love to have un-interrupted sessions so Jeff can cover everything planned for the session and save questions for the end.

Great resources, Jeff's webinars are awesome!

Thanks Chris, that list is well appreciated.

I agree that Jeff's digressions often illuminate something unexpected. I never have time to watch them live so if something is going down a path I'm familiar with I'll just skip that bit of the recording so all good from my perspective.

I usually play videos back at 2x speed until I hit something I need to slow down to follow which can help too. There are some plugins for Firefox+Vimeo that let you control playback easily.

Cheers

Peter B

Bookmarked! Thanks for putting this together Chris.

Just added all the new SIGGRAPH sessions to the worksheet - plus Ari's new particle tutorial…

http://sidefx.co/2uqjwMt [sidefx.co]

Any masterclass or webinars special for rigging and animation in houdini because there is no any materials about rigging and animation in houdini. I found one at 3DBUZZ but it's to old and hard to keep up with the current houdini version and it's real hard to follow the tutorials. I hope sideFX will create tutorials special for animation and rigging.

powerstroke3000
Thanks a lot!

I have a questions that is slighty Off-Topic:

What determines if the training will be a workshop/webinar/masterclass? I mean how is that decision made?

I personally do not like webinars so much because - it sometimes feels like questions interrupt the flow of the lecture and you have less FPS etc.

But that is just my opinion and i understand that people might like the style of webinars. Just wondering what goes into the decision.

Different people like different learning material formats, so we try to mix it up. Some topics seem to work better with a more interactive webinar format, while others work better with a more structured approach.

While doing some studio visits last year, I saw Jeff's amazing presentations, and how much people appreciated having Q&A access to Jeff and some of the other SideFX product specialists. So we wanted to bring that to the world, instead of just one studio at a time.

When we first launched the Illume series, we'd take questions throughout the session, but found that too distracting - so held off all questions until the end. But that felt a bit stiff, since there are some quick and easy questions that come up directly related to something he's working on - but we're still holding off most questions for a bigger Q&A at the end.

We're still learning and evolving, including having done some with remote presenters (eg Matt Estela) - and have been continually working on improving the quality of audio and video …incl the new sexy orange booth … and we'll continue tweaking and improving as we go, based on the poll results and the feedback we receive via email, and in places like this forum. So thanks for that!

Chris

I think the Illume series has been a fantastic initiative. Glad you that you took our feedback constructively. There's no value in them becoming wooden, but the more successful webinars have been the ones where Jeff has been able to get through his agenda without any of it becoming compressed because of lengthy digressions.

The Matt Estella Illume, was one of my favourites. I think the community would value more content like that.

An area of growth I've noticed over the last 24 months is the number of motion design shops that have deeply integrated Houdini into their workflows. I'd love to see an Illume or two for this new non VFX/Games segment of customers you've developed. The awesome Entagma crew have of course provided so much great content over the last 12 months or so for this audience, but I'd love to see an Illume where SideFX engineers share their own take on the generative design/animation capabilities of Houdini.

My expectations are that Houdini 17 will fulfill the emergent promise of Houdini's rigging tools. The new constraints/biharmonic capture and experimental muscle stuff introduced during 16 cycle have shown great promise which I'm sure you're fleshing out further still. Whilst I don't think it's unfair to say character rigging is still to reach it's full potential, Houdini has major strengths in technical rigging (all manner of mechanical objects) so something at the mechanical end of the rigging spectrum would be nice.

No more to add other than thanks for the quality content. It's great to see a DCC vendor understand that good marketing isn't just about the chase for new customers. It starts by making your existing customers get the most out of your product as customers with skilled chops make for very convincing advocates.

It would be really cool to see more generative design content in the Illume webinars. In my opinion, Houdini is the perfect tool for that type of design creation.

Great feedback Jonathan, thanks for that…

There's no value in them becoming wooden, but the more successful webinars have been the ones where Jeff has been able to get through his agenda without any of it becoming compressed because of lengthy digressions.

- Totally agree!

The Matt Estella Illume, was one of my favourites. I think the community would value more content like that.

- Good to hear! And yes, we'd like to do more of those too. We'll continue to work on bringing out more.

An area of growth I've noticed over the last 24 months is the number of motion design shops that have deeply integrated Houdini into their workflows. I'd love to see an Illume or two for this new non VFX/Games segment of customers you've developed. The awesome Entagma crew have of course provided so much great content over the last 12 months or so for this audience, but I'd love to see an Illume where SideFX engineers share their own take on the generative design/animation capabilities of Houdini.

- Great news… though it hasn't been announced yet (it will be soon), we're hosting an event this October in London called Procedural in Motion, which will have educational presentations from advertising and motion graphics studios and artists. So that's a start, but I agree that we also need more SideFX experts covering those areas - so more to come there.

My expectations are that Houdini 17 will fulfill the emergent promise of Houdini's rigging tools. The new constraints/biharmonic capture and experimental muscle stuff introduced during 16 cycle have shown great promise which I'm sure you're fleshing out further still. Whilst I don't think it's unfair to say character rigging is still to reach it's full potential, Houdini has major strengths in technical rigging (all manner of mechanical objects) so something at the mechanical end of the rigging spectrum would be nice.

- Fully agree, and yes there's still lots more to come in rigging enhancements.

No more to add other than thanks for the quality content. It's great to see a DCC vendor understand that good marketing isn't just about the chase for new customers. It starts by making your existing customers get the most out of your product as customers with skilled chops make for very convincing advocates.

- Thanks Jonathan, that's our goal, so it's good to hear you feel we've been heading in the right direction!

- Great news… though it hasn't been announced yet (it will be soon), we're hosting an event this October in London called Procedural in Motion, which will have educational presentations from advertising and motion graphics studios and artists. So that's a start, but I agree that we also need more SideFX experts covering those areas - so more to come there.

This is really great news Chris. And being a London boy I'll be sure to be there.

Looking forward to the full details so I can put the word out amongst the UAL (University of the Arts London)students. These are fine art and design students, so very different from the typical Bournemouth NCCA under/postgraduates (that are already well versed in the ways of Houdini). Nonetheless, a good number of these future artists and designers are intrigued by the possibilities Houdini can make possible.

This is great news indeed! Can't wait to see what will be presented.

Lots of updates on the Digital Learning Material worksheet [sidefx.co] - including Luiz Kruel's gamedev tools, rigging tuts by Bjorn Sorensen and Michael Goldfarb, Jeff Wagner's collision webinar series, Mike Lyndon's COPs webinar, and Scott Keating's Intro to VFX session.

Nice one, thanks Chris!

Updated the Digital Learning Material worksheet [sidefx.co] with the items we've published since March, including…
- GDC presentations (Matt Vitalone on Call of Duty, Anastasia Opara, Alex Dracott on Terrains, etc)
- Game Tools tutorials by Luiz Kruel and Mike Lyndon
- High-res Mesh Pipeline tutorial by Michael Pavlovich
- Material Style Sheets webinars by Jeff Wagner
- The Mill's Will MacNeil on Adventures In Procedural Design
- Game Asset Modelling for Unity tutorials by Kenny Lammers
- Vertex Animation Texture splashes by Andreas Glad
- FMX presentations (Custom Shading in Game Trailers by Sergio Caires, Water by Jeff Wagner, Simon Holmedal, ETC, Entagma etc)
- Pyro webinar by Jeff Wagner
- Utrecht presentations (lots of sessions in both advertising/motion graphics and gamedev/VR)
- and others…check out the full list in the worksheet…