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To begin with, you will be walked through the process of setting up wxPython on your system and shown how to make it work properly with Houdini. From there,
The Boa Constructor IDE for Python is installed giving you an environment in which to do all your Python scripting. Once the underlying tools are set up, it
is time to take a look at the Houdini Object Model. This is very important to the creation of the Set Driven Key tool you will be creating as well as practically
any other tasks you wish to perform within Houdini using Python. Without the knowledge of the object hierarchy, properties, and methods available to you within
Houdini, you as the tool developer will be at a standstill when presented with any new task to complete.
Since wxPython is being used in the creation of the Set Driven Key tool, you will also take a quick look at some of the controls available to you within wxPython.
Knowing how these tools work and how to control their appearance will be very important in creating a uniform user interface for your new tools which appears to be
a native part of Houdini. This will make the end user, mainly the artists on your team, fell much more comfortable when using the tools you develop.
In order to provide a safe working environment inside of Houdini, an exception handling system is implemented as well. The goal of these videos is to show you how to create
robust, user-friendly tools that will make the lives of the people using them easier. It is very important when developing tools that other people will use to keep the
user experience in mind during development. As powerful as your tools may be, if they cause Houdini to crash because of an unhandled exception, your artists will not
be very happy. Python: Houdini Graphical Tools will show you the proper way to make your tools user-friendly.
Finally, you will be shown how to mimc the Set Driven Key behavior that is well-known to Maya users inside of Houdini. This will make use of all the knowledge you
have gained up to this point. You will be shown how to get references to selected objects and then manipulate properties of those objects using expressions.
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