In the beginning...

Learning Houdini is not easy.
There is a steep learning curve and many weird tricks that are not always obvious for the beginner. Over the years I've learned much from being able to access various Houdini scene files. Mostly I've just been lucky enough to find the right thing, or pick the brains (and .hip files) of various wizards I've met along the way. Doing fx is about being able to take apart the image or animation that you see and reconstruct it in such a way that you have the control you need to do what you want. This means knowing a *lot* of little tricks. Occasionally I've stumbled over something useful and thought it'd be great to put this somewhere so people may be able to use it, and build on it. This blog is where I've decided to post such bits and pieces I think stand out and are useful to understanding Houdini and how to think more deeply about doing things outside the box.