A scholastic introduction to VEX's fundamental data carrier written for cgi designers with no previous experience in programming.
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- Attributes
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Volume 0 of VEXplanations takes a closer look at this foundational unit, upon which all information gets created, communicated and used within SideFX's Houdini.
Its extended community refers to these elusive entities numerous times. Yet, a comprehensive mainframe which describes Attributes (+ their intricacies) is hard to come by. To the eyes of an absolute newcomer, just entering the daunting world of Houdini (let alone VEX), this can be very disheartening.
Ultimately, the very purpose of Attributes is geometry generation, and therefore constitute a means to an end. To this end then, a small analysis on elemental Euclidian units is included in this read, regarding:
as well as their structural relation to one another.
Thus, a concept is invented (named "Event Horizon"), which breaks down calculations to their absolute minute steps before the final computation takes place. This system will help you understand how a computer thinks, in order to arrive at a value. This developing quality, given time, is going to unlock your sixth sense of debugging.
You will learn to identify what qualifies as an Attribute, as well as an Attribute carrier, including:
- Attribute Wranglers
- Variables
- Floats
- Integers
- Vectors
- Global Attributes
Additionally, a small navigation to Houdini's UI system is included, along with an introduction to the dreaded Geometric Spreadsheet.
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disclaimer: VEXplanations is a series designed to pave the way to VEX mastery, but it won't make an overnight coder god out of you. Its goal is to implant triggers that will allow you to ask the correct questions on your own, which is the only way of becoming proficient in any field.
