Colliding implied surfaces is cool!

Learn how with this Thursday's class "Understanding Volume Primitives". Dave Koester will break it down for all DOPs fans.

Call us for class files at 310.319.9876.

Beginners to Experts

Last week's training covered everything from "how to make a movie with special effects" (for Loyola Marymount students) and a "very gentle intro to Python in Houdini" with Igor Boshoer, to "Motion FX & CHOPs" with Gonzo Cababaca and "Python Tricks" with Houdini guru Luke Moore.

Is that snake charming?

Side Effects Welcomes Siegfried Ostertag

Ziggy Ostertag has joined the Side Effects team as Houdini Trainer, and is shown here on his first day at work, right in the thick of it.

Ziggy began his VFX career in Germany at Computer Projects Unlimited, and at C.O.R.E. & Effectory as both trainer and VFX TD. He has worked at Rhythm & Hues, Imageworks, and Digital Domain in LA.

Come learn from the master!

Houdini Training at Graffiti School, Mumbai

Andrew Lowell at Mumbai workshop with VFX trainers from Big Animation, Frameboxx, Foskia Graffiti and others.

Look for great Houdini effects coming out of Bollywood soon!

Houdini Essentials with Andrew Lowell

Andrew Lowell, straight from Massive/Houdini TD on Invictus, is at Side Effects, Santa Monica to teach Houdini Essentials Over 2 Days this Thu Mar 4 & Fri Mar 5, 10 - 5pm.

Vancouver's Ray Corbett Teaching at Sidefx

Houdini and Nuke Artist
Raymond Corbett
will be in LA this week to teach 2 workshops at Side Effects:

Houdini and Nuke Workflow on Friday the 26th from 2 to 4:30
and
Working with Trail Effects on Saturday the 27th from 9 to 5

Free Lunch!

Yesterday's free, one hour Intro to Houdini class provided a great way to get Going Procedural, with beautiful work files from Goncalo Cabaca and great snacks as well! Keep an eye on Side Effects Training for more classes to come.

SCAD's Houdini Bootcamp

Savannah College of Art and Design's Visual Effects faculty signed on for a custom "Houdini Bootcamp" this month and came through with flying colors. Veteran Side Effects trainer Peter Robbinson put the educators through their paces. Kudos to bootcampers Bridget Gaynor, Kenneth Huff, David Kaul, Malcolm Kesson, Joe Pasqual, Stuart Robertson, Clarke Stallworth and John Rauh.

Fall 09 Training Recap

Wow! 13 classes and 2 bootcamps in 3 months. Time for the Holidays!
Your ideas for 2010 training are welcome. Please contact aliza@sidefx.com.

Houdini and Nuke Synergy

Brian Burke and Dan LeTarte of Method Studios teamed up to show how Houdini and Nuke can work together to create a highly flexible procedural system. This class filled very quickly and brought up many great areas to explore, so we plan to have another soon.

Training For Trainers

Side Effects Production Consultant Judith Crow shares her special techniques in this workshop designed to help studio training heads and educators learn how to get their teams and students going procedural in Houdini quickly and effectively.

Houdini Boot Camps In Santa Monica

In our training room, close to the beach, but no laps involved! These pictures show veteran Side Effects trainer, Peter Robbinson, at our September bootcamp. Attendees were from Idaho, Atlanta, Vancouver, Philly and Singapore. Our next bootcamp is next week, a rare class with our senior consultant, Judith Crowe. Keep an eye on sidefx.com for more classes to come.

Triggering Sounds and Virtual Audio Recording

The house was rockin' with Andrew Lowell as he walked the standing room only crowd through the making of a virtual sound track.

Upcoming Events! October 2009

A quick post to let you all know about a few upcoming events.

First off, this Saturday the 24th we'll be the Featured Speaker and Luncheon Sponsors for the VES Production Summit 2009.

Come join us to meet and greet a few Side Effects Staff, including our Founder and President, Kim Davidson.

Later next week, we'll be offering a Mantra Class by our ex-wonder intern Brian Burke from Method Studios in the Santa Monica training center.

We look forwarding to seeing you all!

Mantra 10 Focus Week

HOUPLA Presents: Focus on Mantra
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
6:30pm - 9:00pm

Side Effects invites you to join us for an evening with 3D Graphics Programmer, Andrew Clinton and learn about some key feature enhancements (such as IPR and PBR) in Houdini's world class renderer, Mantra version 10.

The evening will follow with refreshments, and music spun by Side Effects' own John Courte, Senior Houdini Artist.

**Space is limited, please RSVP **

Time:

• 6:30 - 7:00 Registation
• 7:00 - 7:30 Presentation
• 7:30 - 9:00 Social Hour and Music

**Also be sure to attend Andrews training class on Thursday, Sept 24 from 7pm - 9pm. Volumetric rendering will be discussed - including an overview of the volumetric rendering pipeline in Mantra, how to render fire and smoke, and optimization techniques for volume renders, and much, much more.**

LA Event: HOUPLA Presents Mantra 10

We're going to have our developer Andrew Clinton, in charge of Mantra, down from Toronto in a few weeks.

To celebrate, we'll be throwing a small social gather, following his presentation on the latest and greatest in Mantra.

Check out the link to RSVP for this event. Space is limited, so we can't let those not on the list enter.

Also, Andrew will be doing a master class on Volumetrics in Mantra the following day!

Peter Robbinson visits Singapore and China!

Our Senior Houdini Instructor, Peter Robbinson went on a whirlwind visit with our Asia Pacific Rep TK Ng to train classrooms in Singapore and China a few weeks ago. Here are a few highlights from his time at Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP ), where SESI has an Asia Pacific Headquarters in Singapore and Crystal Institute of Digital Education in Beijing, China.

Peter on his first day of training at NYP:

.... I focus on two main themes, the procedural workflow and how data is handled and shared thorough out houdini. The later point is not something that can be appreciated right away but needs to be upfront right from the beginning; "why are there different editors...". The data structure and hip files are essential elements that explain channel referencing and de-mystifies the syntax. Proceduralism is a bit harder to grasp at first, but they do see the potential and it usually stimulates quite a bit of "what if I want to ..." questions. Here's a quick panorama of the classroom, with the teachers on the left and in the center and some of the students who will be travelling to the LA office to become interns. TK is standing, in the blue shirt, on the left.

Peter with the ITE School of IT & Electronics and their staff:

The director of the school is on the right, Ms. Yeo Sock Tin, the young woman in the center with the white shirt is Ms. Zhou Yi Nan (she took my course last week) and teaches game programming. The young woman in the black dress is Ivy Liong Choi Yin is the Section Head of this department (oh my god I'm getting old), and the woman on the left is Ms. Wong Kim Booey, the Course Manager. The Director is very keen on adding Houdini to their curriculum and certianly Ms. Zhou did well in my class.

Peter arrives in Beijing and teaches at Crystal Institute:

I could already tell by the energy in the classroom and the attendance that this training session was going to be a good one. My worries about language problems were also dispelled. Many in the class, more or less, could follow along with my talk and TK was doing a great job with translation. He used a dictionary on his Ipod to help with words he was not familiar with and referred to the class for their examples.

Thanks Peter and TK for bringing some Houdini skills to Asia Pacific :)


Peter Robinson - Senior Trainer
TK Ng - Asia Pacific Houdini Rep (TK@sidefx.com)