Houdini Master Class Series
This exceptional series of classes is hands-on, dynamic and perfect for junior to mid-level artists wanting to learn Houdini or expand on their current Houdini knowledge. Artists will develop instincts, speed, and comfort to speed up their efficiencies and their skills to the next level!
Where: Online Classroom with live instructor. All classes will be recorded and distributed to registrants.
When: Saturday-Sunday 10am – 3pm PST (with 1 hr break)
Cost: $395 per person for single registration
Group Discounts: $350 per person for 3-4 registrations / $295 per person for 5+ registrations
Individual Discounts: $350 per class if registering for 3-4 classes / $295 per class if registering for 5 classes or more. Please contact Vickie for this option at vickie@cg-masters.com
*Please Note: Due to the interactive and hands-on nature of these classes, there are limited seats available.
Are you a Visual Effects Society Member? If so, the VES has partnered with CGM to provide a 25% discount (under Benefits) to current members. For more information, check out the VES website.
Below is the list of classes available. Contact Vickie if you have any questions.
Procedural motion in Houdini (CHOPs)
May 29-30
Every now and again you’ll hear the word “CHOPs” in a Houdini team, striking fear and misunderstanding into the hearts of many TD’s. This area is both underused, misunderstood, and incredibly powerful when used correctly. The course will demystify many basic CHOPs workflows adding a valuable complement to the Houdini artist’s box of tricks.
Dynamics, Vellum (Softbody) primer
June 26-27
There’s nothing quite as weird and fun as using Houdini to simulate squishy dynamics. This course will give insight into both the artful side of Vellum, as well as how to set it up from scratch and control the low-level data driving the simulations. After this course the Houdini artist should have a greater ability to work with and animate hair, cloth, and softbody FX.
Thinking in VOPs, The power of node based programming
July 24-25
Artfully written VOPs networks can turn long arduous and unoptimized procedures into incredibly powerful, flexible, and fast setups. Many dabble into this area, but few take the time to dig deep and master it. In this course we’ll go through the workflows which will turn your average geometry operation into an optimized powerhouse and focus on areas such as vector math, matrix transforms, looping, and string operations.
Dynamics, Fluids primer
Sep 25-26
This course will focus on two key elements to all fluid dynamics. A splash, and a wave. Studying reference and controlling how fluid behaves can elevate any fluid dynamics shot from passable, to spectacular.
Digital Asset construction, tricks, and best practices
Oct 23-24
There’s a lot more to Digital Assets than meets the eye. In addition to a firm grounding on digital asset creation and configuration, This masterclass will explore some of the more advanced and powerful workflows with digital asset creation such as dynamic parameters, storing geometry, and instancing.
Mastering transforms and common matrix operations
Nov 27-28
If there’s a single technical difference between junior/mid-level and senior FX TD’s it would be a command of matrix operations. This course will give several examples to develop comfort and ease with one of the most scary and mathematical concepts in 3d graphics.
Procedural shading exercises (SHOPs)
Jan 28-29 (2022)
Procedural shading isn’t used that often in the modern animation pipeline. However, once things get into the FX realm where the TD can no longer rely on uv’s or stable topology procedural shading knowledge can both add beauty to your work as well as generate highly realistic and optimized visuals. This masterclass will explore some basics in procedural shading and pattern generation.
Commanding SOPs
Feb 27-28
Moving from using Houdini nodes to commanding SOPs (Surface Operators), is a language unto itself. In this intensive two-day hands-on master class Artists will explore and Master the most fundamental operations like ray sops and learn how to copy efficiently and flexibly to generate staggering control and variation. Industry veteran, Andrew Lowell will lead you through the process of data flow, understanding vectors and rotations as well as creating your own tools by recreating common operations resulting in enhanced skills, speed, knowledge and confidence.
Registration for this class is closed but please sign up for our other classes below. If you are interested in future SOP Classes, please contact Vickie at vickie@cg-masters.com
Dynamics, Mastery of rigid body constraint
Mar 27-28
Constraints in rigid body dynamics often involve many data components to work properly, and highly involved procedures to test them out and give them life and variation. This course will dive into tried and true constraint creation and testing workflows, as well as address the mysterious Cone-Twist constraint.
Particle workflows and logic
April 24-25
This masterclass will approach the low level and often misunderstood workflows deep within particle behavior. The participant will gain a greater understanding of particle systems and ways to artfully control them, as well as technical prowess.