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Houdini Direct Modeling - Pilot Fork | Feedback would be appreciated :)


Guest Igor

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10 hours ago, Igor said:

And thanks for the input, it's much appreciated. I am confident this time that I can pull it off. Also not recording myself while modeling could help with keeping things smooth as ill able to cut some parts where I thinking to much before saying something. 

 

Yep, that is the way I would do it if I were making live tuts - it is a lot more editing work, which seriously increases production time but it definitely makes for better videos once you are over presenting the basics. Not only can you use that technique to separate modelling from speaking but also to skip / accelerate render or simulation times (when that becomes important) and to speed up sections of tedious repetitive modelling work once you have shown the first few moves at regular speed people wanna 'get through' seeing the same move demoed 30 times more ! @Hrvoje uses that technique to great effect in his modelling tuts where he will often speed up the tweaking process between each main modelling stage, which would be very tedious to watch at regular speed.

 

CBR

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6 hours ago, 3D-Pangel said:

Who is the target audience for this tutorial.  Complete newbies starting from ground zero or newbies who understand the rudimentary basics of the interface? 

Good question, I am still thinking about it, but overall beginners and those on the verge of converting. My goal is to show that Houdini is not hard, just different. 

 

6 hours ago, 3D-Pangel said:

Also consider that even with a 4K image on a 25 inch high def monitor (2566x1440), the text below the Houdini icons on the top row are not quickly identifiable --- at least for a complete newbie like myself who is trying to absorb everything.  So if you don't mention the command when you click on the icon, then I have stopped following your lesson and reading the menu.  By the time I do figure it out, you are two more commands down the road. 

I could make interface a bit bigger so its easier to follow. 

 

I also managed to find app called Carnac which seems to have nice keystroke tracking capabilities and its free. It also displays more than one keystroke at the time.

 

6 hours ago, 3D-Pangel said:

Now, I think you are a great teacher and I am amazed how far you have come with the toughest package on the market in such a short time.  But we are not all like you.  Me personally, I am an idiot and I need to be carried gently from ground zero.  

Thank you and please don't say that, you just need to put time into it.

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15 hours ago, Igor said:

Thank you guys, very nice from you. I'll take all this feedback into consideration and see what I can improve. I still have around 20 days until H19. 

 

By the way, does anyone know what kind of software I could use for displaying keyboard keystrokes while working with Houdini?

Qipress might be an option

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36 minutes ago, Jops said:

Qipress might be an option

Lets see how the one I already have works. Ill record another video after work with all the improvements. If the one I have now is not good enough, then Ill try that one. Thanks for sharing!

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From experience I can tell you that making trainings is multi stage process. First you have to envision one and construct the timeline and events for it. It is very easy to fall into a trap of showing user something which requires previous knowledge which simply isn't there or is falsely assumed. Spend your time wisely and do a detailed breakdown of whole training. Write down each lesson, revisit and refine to a point where you have whole training literally on paper. Make absolutely sure that you don't convey not even a shred of incorrect information to viewer and be precise. If you will use an explanation which is not technically correct but you assume your interpretation will help viewer to understand the concept better make sure to point it out. This can take enormous amount of time.


Second is to practice narration and vocalization. This is quite demanding and will take time to get comfortable with it. Watch your breathing, pops and crackles.

Explaining something and building it at the same time is exponentially more difficult and it gets worse if subject is technically challenging. One more thing to consider in your (and my) case is to ensure what you are conveying is in the spirit of language and topic covered.

 

Third is editing. The better you do the ones above, less time will be spent editing. Depending on how refined you want to go this stage can take most of the production time.

 

Fourth, but not least important is to keep checks and checkpoints. Save often, remember where your cursor was in UI once you paused, recording app can crash, double check your mic every time, mute your cellphone etc. Make a list which you have to go through before recording. Don't hesitate to be detailed regarding scene files to a point such as "Saved_at_5:32_prior_to_when_I_extrude_a_polygon_cursor is over_this_node" style.

 

And good luck mate, you are taking quite a challenge now 🙂

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Off to a great start. Keep 'em coming.

 

Just a couple of comments from my side:

- When SideFX do their demo videos, they usually use the default layout. This is to ensure that new users are not confused about where things are can follow along more easily without having to do an initial UI layout to match the demos. Houdini does have a Modeling UI preset, so maybe it's worth starting off with the default startup layout, and then switching to that layout so that new users have a path to where you reached. You can then proceed to further customise that layout by collapsing panels you don't want to see (like the timeline - not sure why that's visible in the modeling UI layout).

 

- You mentioned about being careful with changing divisions upstream that will upset the selection groups. It would have been worthwhile to mention that the selection groups themselves can be procedural, which can allow you to change divisions, and still keep things working as expected downstream. Since this is a direct modeling tutorial, I guess that sort of setup is not necessary, but for newcomers it might be good-to-know information, since it does separate Houdini from the rest.

 

That's it really. Looking forward to the next one!

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23 minutes ago, eikonoklastes said:

Off to a great start. Keep 'em coming.

 

Just a couple of comments from my side:

- When SideFX do their demo videos, they usually use the default layout. This is to ensure that new users are not confused about where things are can follow along more easily without having to do an initial UI layout to match the demos.

 

- You mentioned about being careful with changing divisions upstream that will upset the selection groups. It would have been worthwhile to mention that the selection groups themselves can be procedural, which can allow you to change divisions, and still keep things working as expected downstream. Since this is a direct modeling tutorial, I guess that sort of setup is not necessary, but for newcomers it might be good-to-know information, since it does separate Houdini from the rest.

 

That's it really. Looking forward to the next one!

Thanks man, I know and I am aware of these things. This video was just a test, nothing more...hehe. I am also preparing whole Wiki that will focus on modelling tools, issues, tricks  and some other things. I will also go over the setups and explaining the layout from default to custom and how to make them. 

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2 hours ago, BoganTW said:

You may have already seen this. Noseman did a series for Youtube discussing tips and techniques for making video training. It's fascinating to watch.

 

 

Actually I did indeed. To get to that level I'll have to practice a lot. But there is no better way then simply doing it and improvements will come. I will also have to invest into some equipment. All in all, baby steps. ☺️

 

Thanks for sharing. 

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I thought the tutorial worked fine, but wow, what a cool way of modeling.  My way around it is every time I make a decision I might want to change, is to save a copy, how nice to be able to just go back and make adjustments like that.  I imagine Houdini overall would probably explode my brain though.

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9 hours ago, Macmangan said:

I thought the tutorial worked fine, but wow, what a cool way of modeling.  My way around it is every time I make a decision I might want to change, is to save a copy, how nice to be able to just go back and make adjustments like that.  I imagine Houdini overall would probably explode my brain though.

It doesn't work in all cases, but yes its definitely great when it does.  🙂 

 

What is even better is that your UVs are getting intact or getting automatically adjusted in case you wanna make some changes upstream. :cowboypistol:

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