Houdini Tests and Impressions

[Sreckom 17]

I suggest to definitely try 3Delight renderer. 

[thanulee 91]

Great stuff Igor. WIth ur knowledge of c4d/xpresso houdini probably is a great fit for you.
Fun to see this post here in these forums  

What some studios do to keep things more simple/efficient, is exporting ur alembics back to c4d to use Redshift there (not always possible due to c4d viewport performance, cause u will see the difference is huge). You can also export attributes from H to c4d. And also use MAXON noises to bring into H. U ll probably find along the way that many things are much easier done in c4d, so exchanging files with attributes between these 2 software, is a nice workflow.

I totally recommend "dont be afraid of houdini" since Mark Fancher is a top notch motion designer and the specific course is addressed to c4d users.

I am really curious about the performance increase we can get in c4d with future versions. I am not a fan of scene nodes as I simply wanna use the object manager.
But I think c4d is very limited at this stage in comparison to H. I wont even compare dynamics, but i ll just mention the performance of instances, which is crucial for offsetting keyframes etc etc. 

Lastly, there is this plugin inside H called MOPs which simulates the cloner behaviour and makes it very easy for the c4d users by not exposing all of the backend at once (not that u need it i guess hehe). It might give u some ideas though https://www.motionoperators.com/

Cheers!!

[Igor 1,000,000]

19 hours ago, Sreckom said:

I suggest to definitely try 3Delight renderer. 

Is that thing free and free source? I was amazed by the cartoon shader, really impressive, not sure about other things, I might check it at some point, but for now I would like to focus on Renderman, thanks for sharing!!  

 

@thanulee Thats cool to hear, but my goal is to make a full transition. Right now I am all in modeling nodes and modeling ways. I am kind of impressed how fun it actually is once you start to understand the possibilities and different way of modeling. After that, I will be going toward simulation and dynamics. But lets see, baby steps. 

 

P.S. - XPresso and MoGraph was kind of Hrvoje things, not mine. 

[DasFrodo 464]

5 hours ago, thanulee said:

Lastly, there is this plugin inside H called MOPs which simulates the cloner behaviour and makes it very easy for the c4d users by not exposing all of the backend at once (not that u need it i guess hehe). It might give u some ideas though https://www.motionoperators.com/

 

That looks really cool, thanks!

[Igor 1,000,000]

If anyone has no objections, I will put all useful links in the first post so that we are not scattered all around with the useful stuff, I would rather have them on one post.  

And of course, who ever share a useful link, he will be mentioned. 

[thanulee 91]

2 hours ago, Igor said:

Is that thing free and free source? I was amazed by the cartoon shader, really impressive, not sure about other things, I might check it at some point, but for now I would like to focus on Renderman, thanks for sharing!!  

 

@thanulee Thats cool to hear, but my goal is to make a full transition. Right now I am all in modeling nodes and modeling ways. I am kind of impressed how fun it actually is once you start to understand the possibilities and different way of modeling. After that, I will be going toward simulation and dynamics. But lets see, baby steps. 

 

P.S. - XPresso and MoGraph was kind of Hrvoje things, not mine. 

oh nicee! yea im confusing u i guess. I had some courses from this forum about TD etc and thought is was u. In any case good luck  

[Lonchaney 46]

5 hours ago, thanulee said:

I totally recommend "dont be afraid of houdini" since Mark Fancher is a top notch motion designer and the specific course is addressed to c4d users.

Agree. His trainings are pricey but thorough. I don't use Redshift so sadly this was a bust for me.

[3D-Pangel 776]

On 4/2/2021 at 9:04 AM, Igor said:

To my standards, yea, but I was not sure about yours. 

As all the modeling is procedural, then does it ONLY create quads?  If so, you are starting on the right foot towards Cebera's standards 

 

One other question....what is the Help file like and can you search on an action you want to take and then get the recommended node with a full explanation of all its internal settings? 

 

Now I have ZERO understanding of Houdini, but I would imagine a good bridge between the destructive mode of modeling and the non-destructive procedural method of modeling is to help the user map their prior knowledge of destructive modeling commands (bevel, cut, bridge, etc) to the Houdini nodes (if they go by different names).

 

Dave

[DasFrodo 464]

7 minutes ago, 3D-Pangel said:

As all the modeling is procedural, then does it ONLY create quads?  If so, you are starting on the right foot towards Cebera's standards 

 

One other question....what is the Help file like and can you search on an action you want to take and then get the recommended node with a full explanation of all its internal settings? 

 

Now I have ZERO understanding of Houdini, but I would imagine a good bridge between the destructive mode of modeling and the non-destructive procedural method of modeling is to help the user map their prior knowledge of destructive modeling commands (bevel, cut, bridge, etc) to the Houdini nodes (if they go by different names).

 

Dave

 

With my (limited) exposure to Houdini so far I can tell you that pretty much everything has in-depth explanation. However, as long as you don't understand all the internal Houdini wording and how certain data works, and what doesn't it's often really a guessing game. They do not go into detail like the C4D manual does, let alone give you any examples. They literally only describe what this node does, not even necessarily what it's for or in what context it would be useful.

[Igor 1,000,000]

40 minutes ago, DasFrodo said:

 

With my (limited) exposure to Houdini so far I can tell you that pretty much everything has in-depth explanation. However, as long as you don't understand all the internal Houdini wording and how certain data works, and what doesn't it's often really a guessing game. They do not go into detail like the C4D manual does, let alone give you any examples. They literally only describe what this node does, not even necessarily what it's for or in what context it would be useful.

This is not true, in my eye Houdini help is far more advanced and have better integration. You can choose to open help directly inside Houdini and load file examples directly from help manual, or you can open it as a "web browser". Also you can hoover any parameter and you will get explanation for what this parameter is for, in case you need more in depth explanation, F1 is your friend. So @3D-Pangel I can tell you that Help system is better in my opinion, not perfect but just better. Also Houdini page has tons of tutorials you can follow and of course their own forums. So far I also reported few bug and I got reply on all of them, regardless of them being real bugs or not. So overall Houdini isn't lacking behind C4D on any front as far as I can tell.

 

Speaking of modeling and topology...this is what I was doing last two day for practice for my mini H+RM project:

 

 

 

and no, not everything can be procedural, but in my opinion Houdini also have far more superior tools for modeling, you just need to know how to properly use them. Mixing all of the nodes what makes Houdini really really good, regardless not being always procedural. But instancing and reusing of asset, grouping, selection etc. is really really epic. On top of that they are adding SideFX Labs plugins which are additional small tools/scripts for modeling, UVing etc.

 

 

And this would be the node network for the model above

 

[DasFrodo 464]

3 minutes ago, Igor said:

This is not true, in my eye Houdini help is far more advanced and have better integration. You can choose to open help directly inside Houdini and load file examples directly from help manual, or you can open it as a "web browser". Also you can hoover any parameter and you will get explanation for what this parameter is for, in case you need more in depth explanation, F1 is your friend. So @3D-Pangel I can tell you that Help system is better in my opinion, not perfect but just better. Also Houdini page has tons of tutorials you can follow and of course their own forums. So far I also reported few bug and I got reply on all of them, regardless of them being real bugs or not. So overall Houdini isn't lacking behind C4D on any front as far as I can tell.

 

 

I think this is where we have to agree to disagree.

 

Yes, most parameters are explained in a certain way. However, C4D often gives you examples on what you use them for or in what specific scenario a setting might be useful. I have yet to see a single line of text in the Houdini documentation that does that.

 

They mostly just throw technical mumbo jumbo at you (not that that's bad per se) that doesn't really help if you try to understand the intricacies of a certain module.

[Igor 1,000,000]

8 minutes ago, DasFrodo said:

 

I think this is where we have to agree to disagree.

 

Yes, most parameters are explained in a certain way. However, C4D often gives you examples on what you use them for or in what specific scenario a setting might be useful. I have yet to see a single line of text in the Houdini documentation that does that.

 

They mostly just throw technical mumbo jumbo at you (not that that's bad per se) that doesn't really help if you try to understand the intricacies of a certain module.

Again, not every Node have files included on the Help, but those that do have, they explain things in this fashion:

 

 

 

That's the file that can be directly loaded to your already opened scene and you can use that immediately or study it. Both help system are good, but I think even with C4D help a person who is completely new to it, would understand anything from it day one. Certian learing path is needed to be albe to understand certain definitions etc..