cmiVFX Launches New Houdini VEX SOPs Videos Volumes 1 and 2

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cmiVFX Launches New Houdini VEX SOPs Videos Volumes 1 and 2
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Princeton, NJ., September 20, 2007 — cmiVFX | cmiStudios. launches it dual video VEX training video for the SideFX Houdini 3D application. The product series has been in development for several months, and is fine tuned to work with intermediate and experienced users of Houdini The first 2 Videos are available today at the cmiVFX store. http://www.cmivfx.com/store/Browse.aspx?Category=11
Product Announcements — Houdini VEX SOPs VOLUME 1
http://www.cmivfx.com/product_houdini_vex1.asp

Upon general request, CmiVFX is proud announce its two first volumes of new series of Houdini videos about VEX and VOPs. VEX is one of these things that makes Houdini really unique. Initially designed to be a powerful shading language, its paradigm has been extended to enable users to create new custom operators (like new SOPs, POPs, CHOPs). With the Houdini visual programming philosophy, VEX comes as a new dedicated context: VOPS where the data flow of your program is represented by custom nodes that wrap mathematical functions. VEX programming is so immense of a field that you could recreate almost half of the nodes of Houdini in all context combined ! So we had to start somewhere. These first two videos are an introduction to VEX/VOPs in the SOP context, maybe the easiest one to master: this means you'll learn how to create new surface operators, new modeling tools, new deformers with VEX/VOPs. It is at the same time an introduction to VEX concepts that are shared among all the various contexts, that we will reuse in our videos about rendering and shader development, or in videos about particle animation .Seashells, global deformers, water ripples... while being a language reference, these videos are intended to be a great cookbook for useful mathematical formulas.

DVD 1
Emphasis on Operator creation and customizability. Getting much farther than just scribbling one equation to link two parameters, like in a basic expression language, learn how to create elaborate formulas and create rich and detailed User Interfaces.
Creating New Nodes
The ultimate purpose of VEX is to create new operators, and depending on the context you're working on, new surface operators, new shaders, new compositing filters, new particle operators etc.
VEX development is analogous to C++ plug-in development ( with almost the same speed of execution) and is often used to prototype HDK nodes.

Interfaces
Not only are you creating the brains of the node, with implementing advanced algorithm into its core, but you also create visual interfaces for these pieces of functionalities. Some of these UI creation concepts are shared with the digital assets, so this video is also a thorough introduction to Houdini's incredible customizability.

Handles
Sliders, axis, circles: Handles are interactive controls that allow you to visually manipulate your geometry in the viewport. Learn how to create handle and associate them with the different parameters that control your objects.

Slide shows / WhiteBoards
Traditional slide shows are back to recapitulate your knowledge. They're now available as additional pdf files for you to print. You loved the whiteboard in Lsystem videos Well, it's back. Come with engineers to the development room where they draw schematics and formulas to prototype their plug-ins. Because that's how it happens in real life.

Algorithms
The algorithms we show you can be reused in a variety of other contexts, and in a variety of different applications. As often with Houdini, we teach you more than Houdini. We teach you all the real algorithms, that you can Translate in Renderman SL, in Maya expressions and more generally in any package that have expression languages. Don't buy your 3d manuals, just watch them!



Product Announcements — Houdini VEX SOPs VOLUME 2
http://www.cmivfx.com/product_houdini_vex2.asp

DVD 2
You'll go further in customization, learning sophisticated formuals for seashell creation as well as creating animated ripples at the surface of water interactively connected to a rain particle system.

The Beauty of Nature
Seashells: Discover what is behind the algorithmic beauty of seashells, how nature is doing math, producing out of the same mathematical model an immense diversity of beautiful seashell silhouettes. Water Ripples: Learn how to simulate water ripples due to raindrops collision on the surface of a lake. Connect your VEX operator to a particle system and let it rain!

Multiple Inputs
In the same spirit as Renderman's DSO ( dynamic shared object), learn how to use several inputs in a VEX SOP, so that you can have helper geometries. The possibilities are endless, and you can now see Houdini's SOPs and CHOPs as an abstract extension of VEX data types and VEX functions.

VEX and VOP workflow
Learn how you can create new VEX functions as well as new custom VOPs. This means that you're building operators whose purpose is to build operators... Add this to Digital Assets and Python meta-commands, and you get an unprecedented level of hierarchical customization. Learn how to integrate VEX and VOP in the same network.

Math
Matrices, polar coordinates, trigonometry, waves and later, noise octave summation, fourier transform, barycentric coordinates. Sound scary? Well it's not. Your new mathematician / personal trainer takes you by the hand in this world to spark your nostalgia about all that. You will be surprised to find all this math enjoyable again.

Rich as a book, Easy as video
This set of videos is the most comprehensive documentation you will find about VEX and VOPs. You will effortlessly progress through concrete examples, All the examples have been carefully chosen to leave no gaps in your education. The result is something which is as dense as a book, that you regularly come back to watch when your stuck on a project.

About cmiVFX
cmiVFX is the leader in High Definition Video Training for the Visual Effects Community. To test drive the new cmiVFX TVOD © system, visit http://www.cmivfx.com/cmi_window.html* For additional information about cmiVFX, visit www.cmivfx.com.
© 2007 cmiVFX | cmiStudios. *All rights reserved.