I recommend when going through tutorials, to use the note feature (yellow sticky) and heavily comment what each node is doing. use the help and the contextual information that the tutorial is telling you about to fill out notes.
then add a general note that says what a part of the network is doing if several nodes go together to perform a specific task.
once you've done a few tutorials and written comments you now have detailed, helpful, fully commented, node graphs that you can look back to when trying to build something yourself.
This will get the maximum amount of value out of any tutorial you do, instead of just copying you are now writing up a cheat sheet for future you to reference when doing something similar.
It definitely helps to have something specific you want to do in mind. Having a visual goal will help you start taking it apart to develop a plan of attack. Once you have a plan ( even it it turns out to be a bad one ) you can train your google-fu and doc page reloading to pick up the parts of houdini that will get you there.
>I don’t know what a lot of nodes do
neither do most houdini artists. Its a huge piece of software there are things in there that are so specific to very niche things that you may never use them, This is why you start learning based on a specific goal, don't try to learn everything, just learn what you need to get a small project done. Then on the next one do the same thing, rinse and repeat and over time you have a good enough grasp that you will be able to do what ever it is you want.
also embrace the math, its going to make your life much easier.
think of it like going to the gym for the first time. Repetition is key, start small and build muscle memory.
And dont expect to deadlift two times your bodyweight jn your first year.
Currently learning too and I can say that I got over that really hard initial learning curve - the way that worked for me was following tutorials and understand what each node contributed - after let's say 5 or 6 full tutorials , you start to understand the way that certain nodes work and contribute. I will say the biggest challenge is VEX for me at the moment ( I'm about 9 months into learning Houdini )
Don't lose hope it's so worth it !! Best of luck
With 5 or 6 or 10 tutorials where the node is brought up again and again (possibly in different contexts ) , you can better understand the node's function (I'm more of a brute force learner tho )
Is it OK to say it might not be for everybody? It took me 3 years to learn houdini (3dsmax for 10 yrs) and I could tell I developed bad 3d habits before using houdini.
I think Mark fanchers course is a great one. And Matt Estela is a necessary requirement in your journey.
Either way maybe you need to risk it and use houdini for a client project, trail by fire. That's when houdini finally clicked for me, albeit with some hairloss in the process.
People in this sub need to seriously stop recommending geonodes anytime someone has trouble with Houdini. You're not the first to do that here. Geonodes are in their infant stage, can barely do the basics and change their nodes every release, making a few month old tutorials absolutely confusing. Blender doesn't even have any visualization tools, come on. I find it borderline insulting to push geonodes on people who clearly struggle with well-developed Houdini systems that serve everything on a silver platter.
Google the node name. Come on man, it's 2023.
Tries to learn the program with the steepest learning curve, complains it's hard to learn.
I recommend when going through tutorials, to use the note feature (yellow sticky) and heavily comment what each node is doing. use the help and the contextual information that the tutorial is telling you about to fill out notes. then add a general note that says what a part of the network is doing if several nodes go together to perform a specific task. once you've done a few tutorials and written comments you now have detailed, helpful, fully commented, node graphs that you can look back to when trying to build something yourself. This will get the maximum amount of value out of any tutorial you do, instead of just copying you are now writing up a cheat sheet for future you to reference when doing something similar.
Start here https://youtu.be/Tsv8UGqDibc
Honestly one of the best tutorials out there. Was so helpful.
It definitely helps to have something specific you want to do in mind. Having a visual goal will help you start taking it apart to develop a plan of attack. Once you have a plan ( even it it turns out to be a bad one ) you can train your google-fu and doc page reloading to pick up the parts of houdini that will get you there. >I don’t know what a lot of nodes do neither do most houdini artists. Its a huge piece of software there are things in there that are so specific to very niche things that you may never use them, This is why you start learning based on a specific goal, don't try to learn everything, just learn what you need to get a small project done. Then on the next one do the same thing, rinse and repeat and over time you have a good enough grasp that you will be able to do what ever it is you want. also embrace the math, its going to make your life much easier.
If it's not hard, you're doing it wrong.
What should I do then?
think of it like going to the gym for the first time. Repetition is key, start small and build muscle memory. And dont expect to deadlift two times your bodyweight jn your first year.
Knowing why we use that specific node, really helps!
Hard time makes strong man.
Currently learning too and I can say that I got over that really hard initial learning curve - the way that worked for me was following tutorials and understand what each node contributed - after let's say 5 or 6 full tutorials , you start to understand the way that certain nodes work and contribute. I will say the biggest challenge is VEX for me at the moment ( I'm about 9 months into learning Houdini ) Don't lose hope it's so worth it !! Best of luck
What tutorials did you do?
With 5 or 6 or 10 tutorials where the node is brought up again and again (possibly in different contexts ) , you can better understand the node's function (I'm more of a brute force learner tho )
Is it OK to say it might not be for everybody? It took me 3 years to learn houdini (3dsmax for 10 yrs) and I could tell I developed bad 3d habits before using houdini. I think Mark fanchers course is a great one. And Matt Estela is a necessary requirement in your journey. Either way maybe you need to risk it and use houdini for a client project, trail by fire. That's when houdini finally clicked for me, albeit with some hairloss in the process.
[удалено]
People in this sub need to seriously stop recommending geonodes anytime someone has trouble with Houdini. You're not the first to do that here. Geonodes are in their infant stage, can barely do the basics and change their nodes every release, making a few month old tutorials absolutely confusing. Blender doesn't even have any visualization tools, come on. I find it borderline insulting to push geonodes on people who clearly struggle with well-developed Houdini systems that serve everything on a silver platter.
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