We will be having online lessons with Medhi Daghfous who has specialised in the Houdini programme. Medhi started has been working with Houdini for 6 years in the industry.
- Photogrammetry
- Pipeline td
- Modelling & Environment
- Katenya
- Procedural way
- Learning the vocabulary e.g. Nodes
- Houdini apprentice
Lesson 1
This was our first lesson into Houdini which meant it was just to learn the basics of how to use this programme. Medhi talked us through the interface and where you had to go to change settings in order to make it a workspace that was convenient.
Notes I made from what Medhi said:
- To move around the 3D space – left + right + space bar
- Pane tabs
- Graph Network View
- SOP – geometry, surface operators
- Obj – Object
- DOP – Dynamic content
- ROP – Render operations
- VOP – Vex Operations
- alembic – .abe
- file – .bgeo and can also load alembic files .abc
- .bgeo.sc – compressed version
- Merge node – to visualise more objects together
- Transform node – rotate / move / scale object
- 1 unit = 1 metre
- i – information – this is where you find dimensions, bugs and leave comments.
- D – Display options
- ROP – render operator
- $OS – variable
- $F – frame
- $HIP – formate of file best for sharing
- $JOB – set project
- file cache – reading from disk
I started off by following of his instructions of how to make a sphere in geo and adding nodes which I connect to apply effects and changes. Nodes were the base of how this programme worked. You can choose a selection of different nodes and link them together in a specific order which created the effects you want. Medhi emphasised that there are many different ways for someone to produce the same outcome but that he was teaching us the procedural techniques so we really understood in depth how this programme works. It feels like this is something that once you wrap your head around it, it starts to get easier.
Our objective was to create a rock like shape from just changing the attributes of the sphere with the attribute node. I took two screenshots of the result as the one on the left looked like a crumpled piece of paper and the other looked like the texture of a rock. This was to show that just changing settings of the attributes can completely change how the sphere looks in weight and texture.
I also did a test with a torus shape to see how it would work using different shaped nodes.
Our task for this lesson was to build a cabin, which we would later on destroy. I was surprised at how easy I found it following the steps. Although there were nodes I didn’t understand what they did but I did understand how the building was made. I have always loved building in the workshop so it was nice using that side of my creativity. It was all very logical in the sense of if it were a physical model.
My first impression of Houdini was that I loved how logical the program worked. I have always been someone who loves maths and art so this felt like it could be a programme that would suit me well. However, the new acronym I have learnt are very confusing so I think will take me a while to remember and understand. There is 10 weeks of learning so I think this will be possible.