Introduction to Houdini 15
In this Houdini 15 tutorial, you'll develop the skills you need to get up and running.
What you'll learn
In this Houdini 15 tutorial, you'll develop the skills you need to get up and running. You'll get the most out of this course when you're brand new to Houdini, but still have a basic understanding of general 3D concepts. We'll start with the first time you ever launch Houdini and walk through creating an awesome effects shot. Along the way, you'll learn some of the most powerful aspects of this node-based software such as the key concepts of the Houdini user interface, basic geometry manipulation and polygon modeling. We'll also explore how to import geometry, create custom user interfaces, apply materials and manipulate UVs. We'll get our feet wet in each step of the pipeline, including modeling, animation, dynamics, lighting and rendering to construct a dramatic FX shot using rigid bodies and fractured geometry. By the end of this Houdini training, you'll be able to dive into the other amazing Houdini content in our library with confidence. Software required: Houdini 15
Table of contents
- The User Interface 9m
- Desktops and Projects 6m
- Creating and Transforming Geometry 10m
- Using the Interactive Transform Tools 13m
- The Handle Tool and Viewport Arrangement 7m
- The Network View and Understanding Contexts 9m
- Further Understanding Contexts 10m
- Importing Geometry, Display Modes and the Parameter View 7m
- Understanding Scene Scale 9m
- The Tool Menu and Value Ladder 16m
- Making Selections and Working with the Edit Node 8m
- The Edit Node in Practice 6m
- Basic Modeling Tools 8m
- The Poly Extrude Tool 13m
- Ghosting Objects and the Polycap Node 7m
- Simple Expressions and the Blast Node 12m
- Poly Bridge Tool 15m
- Features of the Poly Bridge Tool 10m
- Spine Shape, Pairing Shift, and Bridge 10m
- Sub-dividing and Edge Loops 9m
- Using Expressions to Animate Wheel Rotation 9m
- Editing the Parameter Interface 10m
- Duplicating with the Copy Node 11m
- Understanding Attributes 13m
- Adding Vertex Normal Attributes 12m
- Adding UV Mapping Attributes 8m
- Adding Materials Using Groups 9m
- Advanced Group Creation 12m
- Applying Materials 7m
- Visualizing and Editing Groups 12m
- Lights, Camera, Mantra 12m
- Tweaking Existing Principled Shaders 13m
- Customizing the Generic Principled Shader 8m
- Merging in the Set Geometry 5m
- Animating with Keyframes 10m
- Animating Without Keyframes 11m
- Working with Initial State Velocity 9m
- Creating Functional Collision Geometry 7m
- Using the Friction Physical Property 10m
- Using the Bounce Physical Property 9m
- Preparing the Scene for Dynamics 15m
- Adjusting Bounce and Friction 12m
- Pre-fracturing Geometry 14m
- The RBD Fractured Object 12m
About the author
John is the resident Houdini and dynamics author at Pluralsight. In college, he had the opportunity to work at SideFX (the creators of Houdini) and has been able to teach dynamics and visual effects to numerous creative industry professionals over the years. He lives for the rush of seeing his pupils experience "light bulb" moments. John's latest passion has been breathing new life into the Pluralsight Houdini training library and making sure that no software or tools can get in the way of an ar... more