User Guide > Quickstart  

Discovering Houdini

Houdini offers an ideal environment for the creation of computer animation and visual effects. To begin developing your skills it is important to touch on different aspects of the package in a project setting. The following set of lessons will let you learn how Houdini puts a project through a simple production pipeline that involves modeling, shading, animation and visual effects.
 

1 Modeling the Scene
In this lesson, you will model a rocket ship and the surface of a moon. These objects will show you how Houdini's procedural approach to modeling lets you build and manipulate 3D shapes and forms.

 

2 Shading
In this lesson, you will learn how to define the look of your modes using VEX shaders. You will also learn how to set up renderings using Houdini's Mantra renderer.

  3 Animate the Rocket ship
In this lesson, you will set up your Rocket ship as a digital asset then keyframe the Rocket's motion. You will also add some procedural animation to enhance the animation quality and provide more control over the results.
  4 Add Particle Effects
In this lesson, you will learn how to generate particles that interact with forces and objects in the scene.