I wouldn't steer towards uber nodes. The larger a node gets, the more maintenance it requires and more taxing it becomes as a bottleneck. If a node gets too big, you may end up with a situation where it becomes really popular from having a larger feature set and everybody and his cousin uses the node in every project. At that point the node can become an albatross around the developer's neck because any tweaks to the node could cause negative ripple effect throughout the community should something go wrong. The whole point of having a node system is to guard against that scenario by distributing the workload and only use the features you need. Uber nodes would automatically add bloat to your workflow from the many features you often wouldn't use but have to come along for the ride.
I think what's needed are more dedicated nodes for modeling, texturing, and animation tasks to fill in the current voids. There also needs to be some more UI polish to work with modeling and character animation workflows. Both are merely the base level adequate. They need to improve into good or great. Houdini needs a few modules to account for workflows where a node base system simply doesn't make any sense or provide advantage. Think pushing and pulling points on geometry to sculpt a character, or tweaking texture UVs for game assets. Building a network with hundreds of nodes containing all the tweaks is counter productive beyond a handful. It would be better to make a dedicated user interface to work on that task in long session form, then merely bake out the stack of tweaks as a single node in the tree when all is said and done - or something to that effect. Perhaps the user would apply markers to decide how many tweaks can be bundled together as a single node upon completion in the same fashion a user can define an arbitrary point as a restore point when updating Windows. The FCurve editor is mostly OK, but the layout of tools on all sides of the windows needs a rethink. While they're making good use of screen space, it puts more burden on the mind of the user to keep track of all the tools and be more conscious of pointing and clicking with the mouse when tweaking FCurve Key values so as to avoid inadvertently clicking a tool placed on the perimeter of the FCurve editing workspace. Sometimes it's better to have emptiness on one or more sides of the workspace. What needs most attention is management of large networks of ops as when dealing with character rigging as you need some degree of assessment of how the character's parts are hooked up to function. A schematic view makes that fairly straightforward and the parts that are overdriven by expressions or other tools are easy enough to locate with arrows and wires connecting them. Doing the same in Houdini on a complex character is quite a chore as the trees of nodes don't necessarily illustrate the patterns of parent/child relationship or trickle down behavior one would expect to be able to follow. This makes the process of rigging a bit counter-productive from an organizational standpoint and puts extra burden on new users or users who haven't seen the asset before and need to become familiar with it before they begin work. It requires a great deal more study to get up to speed. What most non-technical artists complain about is the lack of attention to detail in getting boiler plate tasks done. Not because the application isn't capable, but because it requires a lot more time and energy than should be necessary. It's kind of like having to rebuild your car from scratch every time you want to go grocery shopping. Even if all you have to buy is a carton of milk, the effort to get there is just not worth it. Furthermore, the houdini manuals aren't particularly good at describing how to make use of the system for these types of tasks. There's documentation on individual nodes and interfaces, but there really isn't anything to tie it all together in a harmony that makes sense to the end user. One hand isn't talking to the other. I am a technical user and found this to be the most frustrating part of learning Houdini. While there are videos, the last thing I want to do is spend hours and hours scrubbing through videos to find the one nugget I need to get to the next step of the task. I would like to use Houdini, but am choosing to not pursue it until I see more adoption for character and modeling work. Matt Message: 1 Date: Sat, 12 May 2018 09:34:28 +0100 From: Jordi Bares <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Houdini : non VFX jobs? To: "Official Softimage Users Mailing List. https://u7507473.ct.sendgrid.net/wf/click?upn=5SmYwFIJXHmC5X9wAP0G6mg4oLGBuQENbeDkYXezg3m6vjHxJcC6rUMd8QE2MtqzowgyFFK4aAsDEzrdrVTV4Q6qbgbc-2FgnnpGob6G467zR75G56-2BuWz1AMtPXsoVdDXV-2BcQeKP7tI8SfI-2Feh9je45J8SGNt7RpMTV0RRx7u7ipqHdfH8mUievo2c62JbpLwyOU1kOPaRg2-2B2LXheI89DD7bUnzqVaJnQEBTdW08bxgXJLrEoHtcUb0Os6TNOgzkIKzPZXURWx-2FSJePMnVU8LRJWmAfJUhgo104PS4WFp-2FfJ3N5rbRuTadZflH0O-2Fh0M2h4yxib0ouX7j-2B2tixig6uQ8oA9tHKwbpeDBX96kNmyQeXTP2xyJ8o0enQb8fdkpC1N1yrj-2F86ylX3Yd13AvqA-3D-3D_a6oQc7tnfcb0GKvoO27fPkrQ0ATQyF1SDBXJOg7-2FbuRcfPN3qEOBT69cmokleaSSPofJ-2FsrnKHj2PU8BkVnJ10SI6mv-2F5E3Jx4A-2BAG7PKZANv87zTZZ-2Bld5pBnaDM4danrdZTBxG8PsnvqX3prPh9KUsBx0Fs5WMJA49JKt3MAAbeKW5bz-2BLrojwmJpH25pglvYlcj4iKaKzSt1M3AG214DJayd5bpwwTcoF4os-2FZWE-3D"; <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" @Matt, Exactly my thoughts (but clearly better explained) I would certainly advocate to improve things in terms of node functionality or assisting better in certain aspects (blend shape manager, exporting bundles in and out, or adding hierarchical overrides in takes, or adding certain tools we use every single day, or bringing more ?uber nodes? to VOPs so we don?t have to be so granular) but always without sacrificing proceduralism or breaking their core design. 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