How long to learn Houdini?

jordank95

I am so overwhelmed with where to start learning Houdini. I want to start learning this to incorporate into my skillset and add another tool that I can use in the studio I work for. Roughly how long until I can start using this in a professional setting? Can anyone recommend a good starting point to help ease my mind? Thank you.

jStins

I've flirted with Houdini a few times and made good progress with the learning paths here: https://www.sidefx.com/learn/

My flirtations have never evolved into a full blown romance, but I still see Houdini making eyes at me from across the room every now and then. As far as how long it takes to get good enough to use it in a professional capacity? well... 

poopipe

that's not far from the truth.

I often wonder if its harder coming into Houdini with a technical background than it is without - personally I find it quite restrictive and weird as hell but that's probably because I could write the code(poorly) to do the thing myself and I don't like having to bend my design to the peculiarities of the system

anyway

a word(s) of advice. 
learn a tool because you have a job to do and you think that tool will help you achieve it - not because you heard its a good idea to know it. 

jordank95

poopipe said:

a word(s) of advice. 
learn a tool because you have a job to do and you think that tool will help you achieve it - not because you heard its a good idea to know it. 

Solid advice. Though I would be learning it knowing that it would be helpful in the pipeline for an upcoming game I will be working on. Could we get around not using it? Of course...but I've always wanted to learn it and I think it would be beneficial in the coming year for me to know it. 

poopipe

what sort of thing are we talking about? 

Benjammin

I've been learning in on and off for a couple years and feel relatively competent - I'm able to solve problems and do some VEX, but I'm still talking to chatGPT a lot (which is its own learning curve...). 
If you have specific problems to solve in your pipeline then you can spend a bit of time getting used to the fundamentals then zero in on the specific things you need to solve.