VOP's

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 29

Hi Moose,

Great to have feedback and to know what people want. Thanks!
About CHOP, it's funny, before the topic was raised in this forum, i was rather inclined to think about making a DVD about CHOPs. Actually, I 've already made a list of CHOP topics. A conversation in odforce made me realize that people don't use them enough because there isn't any tutorial about them.

I love CHOPs ( i will use some of their unique features in the second l-system DVD).
But there's a lot you can do with them.

-interactive animation (using keyboard, mouse, midi input, like how they used them with the Wii-mote joypads, and the Touch software of course:
http://derivativeinc.com/home/home.asp
-audio-driven and audio-related animation
-non-linear animation of characters and in general, motion retargeting ( which only appears now in major apps while the ability to do that exists since the early versions of Houdini).
And since channels are just data in general (CHOPs are kind of abstract operators) there is a LOT of things like Geometry deformation with Geometry CHOP, iterative animation ( just like how particles do : the state at frame n is computed from the state at frame n-1) with the Feedback CHOP.

Actually CHOP may come before VOPs...

About the evolution of the workflow. I personally wouldn't like the workflow to change, maybe some updates here and there ( i don't want Houdini to loose its proceduralism to be like others) It has been said the interface and the icons will change to something more fancy, more "candy-looking" which i don't specially like ( it's disturbing).
I will have to learn Python for the new Hscript-expression unified language ( based on Python). I really want to know more about H9..

Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Posts: 4

Which ever one first matters not with me. I'm eager to learn both in more detail.

Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Posts: 63

Hmm I don't know how to multiple quote people so I apologize:

1- Thanks David, you pretty much answered all my intrigues. My French is somewhat good because I live in Montreal and I attended 12 years of French school. Ouch. Smile

.

2- Moose, stop saying how good the l-system DVDs are, I’m waiting on the shipment of mine!

3- Chops, Vops, Cops, Sops… What ever you plan on teaching, no matter the order I’m going to learn a handful, and I’m pretty sure most Houdini apprentices feel the same way.

4- I’ve been trying to pick up python for usage in Realflow, hopefully once Houdini v9 comes out I will have learned the basics of the language. For some reason, I feel like David is going to read 1 light book on it, maybe check out one or two tutorials, and in the matter of like 8 days he will know python inside out… Anyone else thinking the same thing haha?

5- As for the change in the interface…They better not change it, I’m having a hard enough time picking it up as it is Smile

. Making some friendlier buttons wouldn’t be a disaster though; I think sesi is trying to open up the app to a wider market.

6- I don’t like football either David, but when it comes to this sport, France is definitely Italy’s biggest rival. Smile

Site Admin Joined: 14 Nov 2006 Posts: 247

Steve,

It is the cmi curse that changes the UI's of all the apps we start to teach.

Everytime we pick up a product and start training for it, it immediately gets revamped after are first couple of titles. Its almost humorous.

Anyway, despite that info....

I wanted to cover some specific workflow techniques in the to the DVD's more than just specific operators. LSYSTEMS was actually an idea i had many moons ago, but was going to be called into a different category of training. David convinced me that most people dont have the basics down in this area, that is why we went with the node group and essentials.

BUT, id rather show CHOPs in its natural element more than, general manual of operations. At least you can learn where the stuff is AND learn a trick or two the technique based way.

Same goes for VOPs of course. we will have some internal discussions of the route we will take after the closing operational Lsystems DVD's.

Most likely, you will see some more fx breakdowns of real world situations. MUCH LIKE THE CITIES DVD.

-c

Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Posts: 63

That sounds awsome. So they are going to be project based once again? Good, I'm not a fan of a tutorial that's bassicly a video format of the program's manual if you get my drift.

Site Admin Joined: 14 Nov 2006 Posts: 247

Steve,

Dont you worry... I HATE BUTTON CLICKING TUTORIALS!

I leave that to the blokes who cant come up with real life lessons.

Many people start off with those tuts. But they still have no clue why they are in the app to begin with.

Wink

-c

Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 5

Hi, David:
Will you consider the subject of a procedure crowd system,
that will be very very interesting.

for HOUDINI 9, some condidates for you:
fluid,
fur/hair/grass
volumetric shading/rendering
with all the previous interesting topics, you can make a nice tutorial collections
for us i believe.
thanks for all the great works.
:O)
xiao

Site Admin Joined: 14 Nov 2006 Posts: 247

xzhang,

Yes this is a concern for cmi. We will be unraveling the variety of crowd sim situations and tacking it from a few angles.

This is on my list for this up coming half of year. The main issue is digital agents. Lots to figure out to make it as hot as massive is.

-chris

Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 5

a suggestion for VOP DVD, maybe you guys can address some anti aliasing
techniques usable for production.

Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 1

Hi anyword on VEX DVD series?
I am about to buy all 3 houdini dvd but if there are any more dvds coming out, i will wait ..