Houdini Fx Step To Step - Visual Effects Made Easy

Learn Houdini the easy way - a practical handbook to learn the basics of the software

What you'll learn
The basics of Houdini and some of the most important visual effects
Particle systems
Basic simulations: fire, smoke, oceans
Compositing with real footage
Rendering in Mantra
Modelling, lights and materials
Requirements
This is a basic course on Houdini. Every step is clearly explained, so you don't need to have any special knowledge of the software.
Description
This course has a clear objective: to make simple enough the complexity of Houdini, and make your first step in the way of visual effects.It is addressed to people with little or no knowledge of Houdini, so if you are already experienced with this software, maybe the course is not fo you!Also take a look at my last course, "Houdini FX - How to add Visual Effects in Real Videos", it is specifically addressed to show how to create special effects to be composited with live footage.Houdini is a very complex software and it takes months just to understand how it works.So we decided to create simple lessons that will guide you in the basic concepts of Houdini.In this course you'll get right to the point. For each lesson, only simple and essential explanations.With this course, you'll learn the basic technics about Houdini's modelling and special effects.You can use the lessons as a reference or a starting point to learn the basics of Houdini.We will update the course regularly, in order to add new topics every week.The course is the result of a personal experience. When I started studying Houdini, I had great difficulty finding courses or lessons that clearly explained the steps to achieve an effect or a simulation.Even in the tutorials for beginners, there was always something unclear.Sometimes there weren't all the steps explained, sometimes there were advanced concepts that a beginner can't know.And above all, in order to complete a tutorial, you had to know concepts explained in other tutorials.In short, an endless road.But that's not all. Often the tutorials are extended on topics of little importance or the teacher talks about things that have nothing to do with the lesson.Have you ever followed a tutorial that lasts 40 minutes just to explain a concept of 5 minutes?Continuous pauses, concepts repeated several times, continuous comments often of little use.If you don't remember a passage, you have to listen again 40 minutes of the lesson just to get to the point where the teacher talks about the concept that interests you!In short, from all these experiences, I wanted to create a course that explains clearly, but without delay, each step to achieve effects and simple simulations.If you already have a good knowledge of Houdini or if you are looking for a course to achieve spectacular and cinematic effects, maybe this course is not for you.This course is for beginners and is a practical guide, made up of short lessons, simple steps and clear explanations on how to use Houdini.For each lesson you will also find the attached project file with all the explanations to be able to repeat the exercise independently.You will learn how to make simple animations, create materials and apply textures to an object.We will also see the principles of the procedural system that is the basis and the strength of Houdini.Please send me your comments, suggestions or other topics of interest to improve the course and help all the people who want to learn this great software!

Overview

Section 1: Houdini basics

Lecture 1 The user interface - part 1

Lecture 2 The user interface - part 2

Lecture 3 What are "nodes"

Lecture 4 How to add and manage cameras

Lecture 5 The lights in Houdini

Lecture 6 Essential modelling tools - part 1

Lecture 7 Essential modelling tools - part 2

Lecture 8 Rendering

Section 2: Materials and Textures

Lecture 9 Materials - introduction

Lecture 10 The concept of UV mapping

Lecture 11 Textures part 1

Lecture 12 Textures part 2

Lecture 13 Textures part 3 - how to manually create the UV Map

Section 3: How to reproduce the exercises

Lecture 14 Shooting videos

Lecture 15 How to import the video in Houdini

Section 4: Rigid bodies

Lecture 16 Rigid bodies intro

Lecture 17 A simple object destruction

Lecture 18 Wall destruction

Lecture 19 Exercise 1: Ball thrown with a finger

Section 5: Oceans

Lecture 20 Oceans - part 1

Lecture 21 Oceans - part 2

Section 6: Smoke

Lecture 22 Smoke - part 1

Lecture 23 Smoke - part 2

Section 7: Fire

Lecture 24 Fire - part 1

Lecture 25 Fire - part 2

Section 8: Terrains

Lecture 26 Terrains - part 1

Lecture 27 Terrains - part 2

Lecture 28 Terrains - part 3

Section 9: Particles system

Lecture 29 How to create particles

Lecture 30 Movement and trajectory of particles

Lecture 31 How to add forces to particles: Axis Force

Lecture 32 "Axis Force Particles" examples and files

Lecture 33 Particles along a curve path

Lecture 34 Interaction between particles

Lecture 35 Interaction of particles with other objects

Section 10: Advanced section: particles system - how to build a simulation from scratch

Lecture 36 What you will learn

Lecture 37 The particles emitter

Lecture 38 The "Point" node

Lecture 39 Let's add a speed to the points!

Lecture 40 How to set a random velocity for particles

Lecture 41 The "mass" property

Lecture 42 Bouncing particles on the foor!

Lecture 43 How to split the particles that hit the floor

Lecture 44 Create the drops, camera and light

Lecture 45 Final rendering: add the motion blur

Section 11: Hair and fur

Lecture 46 Fur ball - part 1

Lecture 47 Fur ball - part 2

Section 12: Fluids

Lecture 48 Basic fluid simulation: Flip Tank, part 1

Lecture 49 Basic fluid simulation: Flip Tank, part 2

Lecture 50 Basic fluid simulation: Particle Fluids

Lecture 51 Exercise: fluid from a glass, the final compositing

Lecture 52 Exercise: fluid from a glass

Section 13: Grain

Lecture 53 How to simulate an hourglass - part 1

Lecture 54 Hourglass - part 2

Lecture 55 Hourglass - part 3: simulation of the sand

Section 14: Modelling techniques

Lecture 56 Introduction

Lecture 57 How to add texture and drops to a can - part 1

Lecture 58 How to add texture and drops to a can - part 2

Section 15: Tips, quick effects, simple projects collection

Lecture 59 Introduction

Lecture 60 Points from texture - intro

Lecture 61 Points from texture

Section 16: Reference guide and templates: and how to use them

Lecture 62 Reference guide sections

Lecture 63 Introduction

Section 17: Motion FX templates and reference guide

Lecture 64 What is Motion Fx in Houdini

Lecture 65 Channel driven animation basics

Lecture 66 Motion FX basics: channel driven rotation

Lecture 67 Camera shake

Lecture 68 Motion FX basics: camera shake

Section 18: Procedural templates

Lecture 69 Introduction

Lecture 70 Many instances of the same object: introduction

Lecture 71 Many instances of the same object: the reference and template

Section 19: Global recap and workflow

Lecture 72 What is this section for

Lecture 73 Procedural workflow

Lecture 74 Basic settings

Lecture 75 The Attributes

Lecture 76 The Geometry Spreadsheet

Lecture 77 Groups

Lecture 78 Data types

Lecture 79 Files and projects

Lecture 80 Camera and lights

Lecture 81 Materials

Lecture 82 Final rendering

The course is aimed at those who want to immediately use Houdini, in particular the visual effects, without the need to follow long training courses.