Araniera Sweet

That the main problem with houdini.
The software is the best I ever used for 3D.
I absolutely love it but the lack of courses is what keeps people away.

For example now there KineFX and there no courses for it.
Where a course showing on how to rig a biped from start to finish with facial rig?
Where a course on how to use KineFX for a cartoon character from start to finish with facial rig?

How do you assemble your scenes?
In Maya we reference scenes/models/props/rigs/light but how should we do in Houdini?

Here a example from Maya:

[ibb.co]

It is so frustrating to learn Houdini because of the lack of structured courses.
Scene Assembly for indies, meaning a studio with less than five people.
How we should organize the file system and reference models and animation.
How to rig.
Whats the point of having KineFX without a clear pipeline example from start to finish.
A person doesn't have the luxury to do R&D in a tight schedule.
For example, you have the Rig from Rok Andic, how would you build it on Houdini.
It is too difficult for someone coming from another software.
It seems that he had to create very different solutions because of dependencies and speed.
Also, by the look of KineFX, his rigging techniques in ben might be obsolete.

Why don't Side effects take a little of their budget to pay for the courses?

Do a project base game assets modeling/texturing course in Houdini.
The texturing part is not about painting.
It is about workflow, procedural textures, noise, generating high poly and low poly, baking, sending to substance painter, and reimporting the textures.

Building the materials, having a lookdev assemble scene.

But if you want people to stay and use Houdini in the pipeline, you need rigging materials.
How to rig, export, reuse, apply animations, etc.
But in a structured way.

Houdini is complex, it is different, but it is the best in many areas.
I love modeling in Houdini, but I have to export to Maya to assemble my scenes after modeling.
Because I can't figure out how to do all the stuff I need in Houdini in a reasonable time-frame.

It is such a wasted opportunity.
Again I am trying to only use Houdini since 16.5.
There is still no structured, project-based learning path.

It is hard to learn new things.
But it is harder to learn without courses.
And another thing most of the time Houdini users are not aware of their knowledge level.
A person coming from another application may not understand it because it lacks concepts related to Houdini to entirely understand the process.

Most Houdini tutorials over complicate things.
Here a example:
Houdini in the Pipeline // Rob Stauffer // Houdini Illume Webinar

The first 10 minutes are enough to tune out.
There a lack of structure in the presentation, and it was too confusing.

Instead of a clear to the point explanation with clear examples, it is a mess of small tips you have to look for in a 1-hour video.

What happens people go back to their old software of choice.