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Houdini FX step to step - Visual Effects made easy (Udemy.com)

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

Created by: Stefano Cotardo

Last updated January 2022

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What you will 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

How it compares

Against the other 43 rated Udemy courses in Houdini on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.4 out of 5higher than 32% of them
  • Reviews201#17 of 44 by number of reviews
  • Length5.5 hoursshorter than 51% of them
  • Last updatedJanuary 2022more recently than 74% of them

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Quality Score

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Overall Score : 88 / 100

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Course 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!

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Instructor Details

Stefano Cotardo

I worked on graphics and videos for scientific purposes at the University of Biology of Milan.

My career continued in the field of web and multimedia, and I worked for some advertising agencies in Milan.

Later, I opened my own company, for the production of multimedia content for large companies.

I followed several courses in photography and I opened my own photography studio.

Currently I am a consultant for an important company for which I deal with the production of videos, photos and graphic communication.

I also work on training projects in the field of video compositing and 3D graphics, through the “UnreaLab” portal.

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Reviews

4.4

201 ratings on Udemy

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By Gary Eikner on 4/10/2024

All in all, there were a lot of key points like learning texture manipulations and how nodes affect the overall finished product. If I had to choose a favorite segment of the tutorials, it would be the rendering portion because of the depth of realism I can apply to anything.

By Fracteller - on 12/13/2022

For a 5 hours course, it is good, but not enough for the ones who want to dive deep more. In some cases I thought that there will be some explanations on what's being done, but no it's like a tutorial, some concepts are explained very very late, like the Attributes, it is in the last video! I know that the best way to learn Houdini and improve is to test and try, the thing is the concepts are not enough explained for new users to be confident and try things. I repeat, for a 5 hours course it is good and close from what I imagined, but it could be better if some videos are re-organized.

By Jörg Meyer on 12/8/2021

Fine. Just some basic explanations are missing, like how to actually select the "manipulate points" mode and ways to modify the parameters are used that are not clear to a beginner.

By Jose Casimiro on 10/31/2021

This course is a great foundation to understand Houdini from a High level perspective. I attended several detailed courses that were frustating to the point I was losing interest of continuing. But not this one. Congratulations to the instructor for putting this training together in such a easy way to follow.

By Edita Navikaite on 3/9/2020

Its good tutorial, I'm still missing additional information, sometimes we press or add things and I have no clue why we do it. Would be nice to know why, more better we understand how and why things work, more easy its to grasp the concept of the software's functionality. I wish there would me more FX tutorials. But thx for you effort.

By Kaspar Kuldkepp on 12/6/2019

As clear and descriptive as one could ever want. Pauses between sentences are a bit too long for me, especially at the first stages. But overall, for a complete noob in it, superb!

By Mark Shumard on 11/26/2019

I've been working in 3DS Max since 1991. Three weeks ago began looking into Houdini. All tutorials I've found to date have been too advanced and confusing except this one. It's just what I needed. Now I can go on to more advanced tutorials.

By Lee Neuschwander on 11/16/2019

My only comment at this point is that I had thought based on the image that the tutorial was special effects basics with a slightly deeper focus on the 4 subjects shown on the image. All in all I would say it's a great tutorial just not 100% what I had thought it was going to be when I bought it. That being said perfect for people who want a good grasp of Houdini as a whole.

By Bertrand Pinel on 5/27/2019

Pace is pretty slow at least regarding my level of knowledge of Houdini. But it is a very good starting point for people discovering the software. I would be glad to find more tips and tricks about mentionned tools.

By Monell Cole on 1/4/2019

I find this course very easy and simple by far one of the best . Houdini is a complex software but this course makes it easy and fast it gives clear explanations. Keep up the good job I hope there are more tutorials coming because I be very upset

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