Using DOPs to control initial performance, this tutorial teaches the user how to use extra information like speed, size and orientation and to manage it. Generating little bugs that walk around and avoid one another. We will cover expressions, channel generation, and rendering with physically based rendering.

In this tutorial we will learn the basics of using L-systems with turtle functions, randomness, gravity and metaballs to sculpt the set. Our system will then be run to create a small forest of growing trees.

We'll learn how to build a procedural SOP Network and simulate its behavior using a SOP Solver in tandem with RBD. We will light and shade this geometry to build an animation system that can be run to create an infinite number of possibillities.

Dynamic fracturing of rigid bodies is a powerful and production ready tool in Houdini. The shelf tools are a great place to start but there's a lot more under the hood that can be leveraged to get high quality and highly tunable results in less time. This tutorial covers dynamic fracturing starting in the context of dynamic simulations, then using dynamic fracturing building blocks to visualize fracturing without the need to simulate anything, and other tip and tricks to attain complex effects and improve robustness of the workflow. The material is based on the assumption that the viewer has a working knowledge of other aspects of Houdini and might have some experience with other DOP simulations. Dynamic fracturing was introduced in Houdini 9.5 but this tutorial was created using Houdini 11.0 so there may be some differences with earlier versions of Houdini.

In this series of lessons, we will learn how to use the auto-rigging tools in Houdini. By using the Auto Rig feature, we can build advanced custom rigs in a matter of minutes rather than hours so we can animate our characters quickly, consistently, and easily.

Python is a very powerful and popular programming language and is poised to replace Hscript in Houdini. We will learn how to run Python commands from the shell, build functions, and use modules to get access to more commands. We will learn how to manipulate our Houdini scene with Python code and eventually we will build our first shelf tool based on Python.

In this series of lessons we will learn how to build and render realistic oceans using Houdini's Ocean Toolkit (HOT), a powerful external tool designed to generate realistic ocean surfaces in Houdini. We'll go step-by-step though the fundamentals of HOT and how to use its Ocean SOP and its different parameters including Wave Length and Ocean Depth. We'll also go over how to build geometry that is suitable for ocean displacement and how to create a special shader from scratch to shade our ocean as well as learn how to light, render, and use compositing networks to add fog to our final shot.

Designed for people upgrading to Houdini 10, the following lessons will get you up-to-speed with Houdini's new features and enhancements so that you can become more productive. We will first go over the network editor enhancements as well as the new wiring mechanisms. We will then learn about the new Motion FX tools, ODE RB, and other enhancements in modeling, rendering, and dynamics.

Along with building a complex light rig, the following lessons will show the advantages to using Digital Assets and the knowledge you gain will be critical in other Houdini projects especially in the realm of character rigging. By making your nodes reusable with Digital Asset, you can save a lot of time and really take advantage of the procedural nature of Houdini.

In this project, we'll focus on the bare essentials to creating and working with Fur. We will learn how to create the fur and how to control its amount. We will learn how to use the paint tools to control areas of growth and fur length as well. We will also learn how to use the comb fur tool to style the hair and also delve into some fur shading and fur rendering.

In this project we will learn about the fundamentals of stereoscopy and some guidelines to setting up comfortable stereo imagery. We will learn how to use the stereo cam rig in Houdini as well as how to use the 3d display to preview and set the parameters. Then we will go over how to preview, composite, and render the images using Mantra.

In this series of lessons we will get acquainted with the rigging process including covering different concepts such as transforms, bones, and blendshapes. We will start by going over what parenting is all about and how it relates to rigging. Then we'll learn about different Houdini constraining methods like blend objects and expressions. After that we will learn about bones and how to capture geometry with them. Finally, we will cover different rigging features like Blendpose and Blendshapes.

In this training course we will focus on building a biped skeleton. We will start with the legs and work our way up the spine to the arms and conclude with the neck. Along the way we will learn different practices and methods for drawing the bones and by the end of the project we will have our hierarchy of bones ready for the next phase.

Capture regions are a fast and simple way to bind your characters to skeletons. By learning how to manipulate these regions, we can efficiently capture our characters so that our bones can easily be deformed. We'll begin this project by learning how to capture our geometry with regions and learn how to edit and refine these regions to get good deformation on our character. We will make heavy use of the Edit Regions tool and learn different techniques in manipulating our capture regions to get the best deformation. This series of lessons picks up from the end of character skeleton building and proceeds into control rig set-up.

We'll begin this project by learning how to capture our geometry with proximity and then go into how to edit and refine these regions to get good deformation on our character. Then we will go over how to make heavy use of the Edit Capture weights and Paint Capture layer tools as well as how to use different techniques in manipulating our capture regions to get the best deformation possible. This series of lessons picks up from the end of character skeleton building and proceeds into control rig set up.

We will this start this course by learning how to set up inverse kinematics on our character's legs and how to build a reverse foot set up. Then we will learn how to set up the arms and hands and move on towards rigging the spine bones using a curve as a guide. After that, we will dig a little deeper and learn how to tweak our IK solvers to get better rig behavior. Then we will go over how to assemble and eventually package our control rig. And finally, we will spend some time working on a solid eye rig for our character.

Popular highlights include: Particle-based Fluids; Volume-based Fluids; Ripple Solver; Viscosity; Fire, Smoke and Liquid simulations; Smoke Solver; Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics; Microsolvers; Visualizing Simulation Attributes; Rendering Fluids in Mantra; Source, Sink and Pump; Physical Properties; Rigid Body Dynamics; Gas Constant; Fuel and Temperature; Vorticles; Caching; Forces and Expressions; Creating and Painting Attributes.

Popular highlights include: Mantra Overview; Working with Shaders; Rendering Methods; Environment Lights; Rendering in Passes; Rendering Multiple Channels; Deep Raster Output; Rendering to Different Files; Micropolygon Rendering; Raytracing; Physically Based Rendering; Global Illumination Techniques; Path-tracing; Final Gather; Ambient Occlusion; Image-based Lighting; Caustics; Shadows; Geometry Shaders; Outline Rendering with Wren; Volumetric Rendering; Mantra Archive; Depth of Field; 3D Motion Blur; Transform Motion Blurs; Deformation Motion Blurs; Velocity Motion Blurs; Compositing Techniques.

Popular highlights include: Rigid Body Setup; Dynamic Operator Networks; Physical Properties; Initial States; Deforming Rigid Bodies; Forces; Constraints; Groups; Rigid Body Creation; Cookie Shatter; Fracture and Glue Objects; Animation to Simulation Switch; DOP Expressions.

Popular highlights include: Particle Simulation and Events; Particle Rendering; Rigid Body Dynamics; Paint-based Geometry Shatter; Rigid Body Fractures; Dynamics CHOPs; Particle Based Fluids; Fluid Emission and Interaction; Animated Sprites; Cloth Basics; Cloth Parameters; Fur and Guide Attributes; Wire Dynamics; Wire-driven Geometry; Groups and Partitions; Forces and Expressions.

Popular highlights include: Houdini Interface Overview; View Navigation; Object Transformations; Node-Based Workflow; Using the Network Editor; Building Various Networks; Using Shelf Tools; Parenting; Path Animation; Overview of Operators; Shading and Texturing; Rendering; Direct Lighting; Ambient Occlusion; Duplicating, Copying and Stamping; Particle Effects; Rigid Body Simulations; Modeling with NURBS and Polygons; Creating and Installing Digital Assets; Animating with Bones; Keyframe Animation; Animating with Expressions; Using the Channel Editor.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Opening the help browser; Bookmarking and Searching; Using the AppView for Houdini. Gain a complete understanding of Houdini with the Houdini Bundle, a great resource to learning intuitive workflows and time-saving techniques to modeling, texturing, rigging dynamics, and rendering in Houdini.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Baking preparation ; Learning how to bake with the Mantra node ; Using VEX Decal to apply baked texture . To learn more about Houdini check out Introduction to Fluids in Houdini, an essential guide to creating realistic fire, smoke, and liquid effects in Houdini.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Using Ripple Object and Ripple Solver; Creating ripples with sculpt tools; Learning how to create ripples with a moving bulge. For a complete overview of Houdini check out Introduction to Houdini 9, an in-depth guide to learning the essentials of Houdini.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Creating a simple particle simulation; Learning particle replacement with Copy to Points; Adding forces. Learn more about Houdini with Fundamentals of Rigid Body Dynamics in Houdini, a complete resource to creating complex rigid body simulations and realistic effects in Houdini.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Accessing the Sculpt tool; Learning different sculpt operations; Using bitmap data . Discover a comprehensive resource to learning Houdini with Introduction to Mantra in Houdini, a detailed guide to gaining a complete understanding of the powerful rendering tools available in Mantra.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Learning how to draw curves; Revolving curves; Editing curves. Gain a complete understanding of Houdini with the Houdini Bundle, a great resource to learning intuitive workflows and time-saving techniques to modeling, texturing, rigging dynamics, and rendering in Houdini.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Learning how to trail our particles; Displaying our particles as lines ; Creating a basic particle simulation; Using the Particle Emitter; Setting up with a polywire. For a complete overview of Houdini check out Introduction to Houdini 9, an in-depth guide to learning the essentials of Houdini.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Learning Houdini's end-built composting system; Using renders for relighting; Setting up Normals information; Adding a Mantra node ; Setting up the camera and lights; Changing the ambient, diffuse, and specular colors. Discover a comprehensive resource to learning Houdini with Introduction to Mantra in Houdini, a detailed guide to gaining a complete understanding of the powerful rendering tools available in Mantra.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Introducing a curve node; Creating a line segment; Using the Resample node; Dropping in a dynamics network; Learning cloth simulation. Learn more about Houdini with Fundamentals of Rigid Body Dynamics in Houdini, a complete resource to creating complex rigid body simulations and realistic effects in Houdini.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Breaking a polygon node to create a rigid body simulation; Manipulating the cutting plane; Setting up Noise Parameters; Creating a clean geometry piece. Gain a complete understanding of Houdini with the Houdini Bundle, a great resource to learning intuitive workflows and time-saving techniques to modeling, texturing, rigging dynamics, and rendering in Houdini.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Creating a new shelf ; Changing the label of our shelf; Populating our custom shelf with tools; Deleting and removing a tab. To learn more about Houdini check out Introduction to Fluids in Houdini, an essential guide to creating realistic fire, smoke, and liquid effects in Houdini.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Learning how to add extra parameters ; Setting up a Mountain node; Dropping a camera into our scene; Adding lighting properties ; Changing the functionality of our Mantra node. Discover a comprehensive resource to learning Houdini with Introduction to Mantra in Houdini, a detailed guide to gaining a complete understanding of the powerful rendering tools available in Mantra.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Building customized shaders; Dropping in a Shader View; Learning how to use the VOP VEX Surface SHOP; Using specialized nodes; Changing the Normals. For a complete overview of Houdini check out Introduction to Houdini 9, an in-depth guide to learning the essentials of Houdini.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Utilizing the Skin SSS Shader; Disconnecting networks; Using Lambert shading and Subsurface effects shading; Implementing the SSS Scatter node; Reducing the scattering distance; Generating an SSS Point Cloud. Discover a comprehensive resource to learning Houdini with Introduction to Mantra in Houdini, a detailed guide to gaining a complete understanding of the powerful rendering tools available in Mantra.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Learning about properties in Houdini; Dropping in a Mantra node; Populating our properties; Adding a Surface Shader; Setting default values for different parameters in our render. Learn more about Houdini with Fundamentals of Rigid Body Dynamics in Houdini, a complete resource to creating complex rigid body simulations and realistic effects in Houdini.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Learning how to use the PolyReduce node; Reducing the number of polygons on our object while keeping the original shape; Implementing a new camera; Creating efficient renders. To learn more about Houdini check out Introduction to Fluids in Houdini, an essential guide to creating realistic fire, smoke, and liquid effects in Houdini.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Creating holes in a NURBS surface; Utilizing the TRIM node; Dropping in a Circle node with NURBS curves; Learning how to use the Project node; Converting between NURBS and polygons . For a complete overview of Houdini check out Introduction to Houdini 9, an in-depth guide to learning the essentials of Houdini.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Scattering points across a surface; Copying one object to all the points on another object; Turning lines into polygons; SOPs Used: Line, Point, Copy to Points, Scatter, PolyWire, Sphere . To learn more about Houdini check out Introduction to Fluids in Houdini, an essential guide to creating realistic fire, smoke, and liquid effects in Houdini.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Using Copy's Stamp Attributes to randomize length and color; Randomizing stamp values per point used for copying; Learning how to use Stamp functions to derive values for copied parameters ; SOPs Used: Line, Point, Copy to Points, Scatter, PolyWire, Sphere. For a complete overview of Houdini check out Introduction to Houdini 9, an in-depth guide to learning the essentials of Houdini.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Changing the Group Operation; Using an expression to filter the selection; Changing the expression to find N-gons . Gain a complete understanding of Houdini with the Houdini Bundle, a great resource to learning intuitive workflows and time-saving techniques to modeling, texturing, rigging dynamics, and rendering in Houdini.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Using the Trace node; Adding a resample node to create less geometry; Creating polygon geometry using the PolyWire node. Discover a comprehensive resource to learning Houdini with Introduction to Mantra in Houdini, a detailed guide to gaining a complete understanding of the powerful rendering tools available in Mantra.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Using a UV Pelt node to unwrap our UVs; Editing the UV Pelt node to create better UVs for texturing; Saving the UVs to an image. For a complete overview of Houdini check out Introduction to Houdini 9, an in-depth guide to learning the essentials of Houdini.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Using the Render Region tool; Creating a Mantra render node; Setting Mantra to render a range of frames. Learn more about Houdini with Fundamentals of Rigid Body Dynamics in Houdini, a complete resource to creating complex rigid body simulations and realistic effects in Houdini.