If you are not familiar with Houdini there is a dedicated training site for using Houdini a games pipeline: www.gametutor.com and the more bread and butter, but still relevant, and highly advanced www.cmivfx.com some vids are a bit dated though and hard to follow in the new versions of Houdini.
For free training in Houdini Kim Goosen's Youtube has great procedural modeling series.
tldr; Houdini for $199 a year, Houdini engine another $99 a year. Yay cheap high end tools!
I use Houdini for all things, including modeling. I found that technical modeling is easier than in other packages, but you have to know application workflow to take real advantage of it in modeling. If you jump in with the same mindset like in Maya/Max, you will be disappointed.
Yeah I've done some Houdini modeling. For some things it's miserable, for others it's bliss and in a league of it's own. Things like terrain, roads, meshes for particles systems, trees, rocks etc. Houdini is awesome. It's currently a horrible box modeler though so I'd stay away from it for that.
However they have been taking a lot of feedback during this dev cycle on making the viewport modeling workflow more modern, and and have supposedly been making a real effort to improve the modeling tools. Since they have a pre-Autodesk XSI developer this could turn out to be pretty fantastic. Rumor has it they will show something of the next version of Houdini at Siggraph.
Modeling aside I'll be picking this up for sure, this just accelerates my exodus from the land of Autodesk.
Mantragora you should do a proper Houdini modeling tutorial, I've been banging my head against it for awhile and have all but given up on using it's modeling for things like what you just posted.
How does it play with other 3d apps? Like the building example; could I model my windows inside Max & then plug them into Houdini for procedural building generation? I'm aware I would most likely lose the on the fly adjustability of the windows created inside Houdini.
I'd also be interested in interfacing it with World Machine, it's weathering is great.
Houdini plays super well with other apps in my experience. The situation you described would work no problem, however there is a more intriguing possibility because of the Houdini Engine.
You could bring the network that makes the building into Max through the Houdini engine, model your windows and other facade elements, and plug them into the generator all in side of the familiar 3DSMax. Editing them and see them update.
That same building asset (in the Houdini sense of the word) would also likely load up in UE4 or Unity.
That's great to hear Abel... 1 question, after all the nodes generated while modeling, is there a way to collapse them yet? Like Maya's delete history?
Yes you can delete history. Lock the node you wish to delete things up to, then delete everything above it. Or you can just right click a node in the network and export the geometry at that point.
I prefer the second option as you retain the network/history which is actually immensely useful in Houdini.
There is also subnets which will tuck away a group of nodes into it's own network and netboxes which will group nodes into a box that can be collapsed and expanded for easier management.
That's great to hear Abel... 1 question, after all the nodes generated while modeling, is there a way to collapse them yet? Like Maya's delete history?
If you jump in with the same mindset like in Maya/Max, you will be disappointed.
At this point thats all you have to know. Once you dive deeper into it, you will understand why you don't want to use anything like history in Houdini. This app is really different then the rest. You can't just take you Maya/Max knowledge and live happily in Houdini.
Replies
If you are not familiar with Houdini there is a dedicated training site for using Houdini a games pipeline: www.gametutor.com and the more bread and butter, but still relevant, and highly advanced www.cmivfx.com some vids are a bit dated though and hard to follow in the new versions of Houdini.
For free training in Houdini Kim Goosen's Youtube has great procedural modeling series.
tldr; Houdini for $199 a year, Houdini engine another $99 a year. Yay cheap high end tools!
However they have been taking a lot of feedback during this dev cycle on making the viewport modeling workflow more modern, and and have supposedly been making a real effort to improve the modeling tools. Since they have a pre-Autodesk XSI developer this could turn out to be pretty fantastic. Rumor has it they will show something of the next version of Houdini at Siggraph.
Modeling aside I'll be picking this up for sure, this just accelerates my exodus from the land of Autodesk.
I'd also be interested in interfacing it with World Machine, it's weathering is great.
You could bring the network that makes the building into Max through the Houdini engine, model your windows and other facade elements, and plug them into the generator all in side of the familiar 3DSMax. Editing them and see them update.
That same building asset (in the Houdini sense of the word) would also likely load up in UE4 or Unity.
I prefer the second option as you retain the network/history which is actually immensely useful in Houdini.
There is also subnets which will tuck away a group of nodes into it's own network and netboxes which will group nodes into a box that can be collapsed and expanded for easier management.
There is your answer:
At this point thats all you have to know. Once you dive deeper into it, you will understand why you don't want to use anything like history in Houdini. This app is really different then the rest. You can't just take you Maya/Max knowledge and live happily in Houdini.