Moving forward into the summer upon the completion of this project, I intend to continue to learn Houdini and its many facets, on top of this I will also be continuing on from last semesters project and developing my skills in Maya and also reading through multiple texts in preparation for future study and employment. Below I will list some areas that I would like to investigate, as well as the texts I will begin to read.

VOPS (Vector Operators) – Houdini

“Unlike many other contexts in which various data objects flow from one node to another, VOP nodes do not pass anything to each other. Instead, each node generates a piece of code which is then merged together with code from other nodes to form a complete function.”

Whilst I have already seen some of what is possible and the purpose of Vector Operators and VEX scripting within Houdini, it is still something that is completely alien to me, but is essential when working with procedural assets. I do understand that a knowledge of some scripting and coding is paramount to mastering Houdini, so because of this, learning VOPS will be on the top of my list of priorities over the summer, which I’m sure will be a very large challenge, but one that I am prepared to take on.

Architectural Destruction – Houdini

Even though I did already work somewhat with destruction in Houdini, I did not pursue it fully due to time commitments with other sections of the project, as well as the learning resources available being above my current skill level. Destruction in Houdini looks incredibly fun, and while other areas will definitely be more important towards learning the software, this is something that I will have a lot of fun with.

Procedural Assets & Terrain – Houdini

This area of Houdini was the original inspiration for taking on this project, it didn’t however, make it to the final cut, due to reasons listed above, since Proceduralism in Houdini naturally involves a lot of VOPS. In terms of a starting point, procedural terrains will most likely be where I begin to learn about VEX scripting and VOPS.

Literature

Below is a reading list sent to me by Escape Studios in preparation for studying an MA in 3D Visual Effects, which contains a wide range of books covering different areas of VFX. The VES handbook in particular is very interesting and was also recommended by one of my tutors earlier in the year, that and also the books on Maya specifically will most likely help me in developing my modelling skills. Whilst the texts do looks somewhat intimidating, I look forward to the challenge they present.

Summer Project

To achieve the above stated areas, I think my best path forward will be to continue this blog (Albeit on a different website) as a independent project, since writing down my thoughts, findings and experiments has proven to be very useful in helping me quantify what I have learned during my time with different 3D packages. Currently I think that this project will certainly be more free form than what I have accomplished over the semester, I look forward to challenging myself and pushing my abilities to the next level in preparation for working life.