You don't have to be a coder to use Houdini but simple codes are common among most tutorials (just copy them). So it is possible to just click a button and get the factoring effects but most tutorials shy away from them in lieu of how Houdini functions under the hood. There are some automatic buttons for most of the common effects.

There's a lot of users sharing 'Hip' or project files. There's a massive surge of tutorials, so that's not a problem. For me, it's not like I can make up workflows. Go specifically after the effect you want with a tutorial. So to learn Houdini, you need patience and persistence. However, it's not an 'artsy' kind of editing. Take it a step further, and you can compile the instructions into its program or HDA (Houdini Digital Asset). You give the app a set of instructions instead of manually doing each step then you don't have to do it over each time you tell it how to do it. By Procedural, I mean this, instead of, carrying a bucket to the well every time you want water, you build a pipeline and turn the faucet on and off.

Once you get use to it, proceduralism is very logical. So there's no Zbrush sculpt interface, and once you use Houdini, it makes sense why there isn't. I am a Maya character artist and use Zbrush. Mainly, it's all node-based, so at first, it seems unfriendly or even daunting. On one hand, Houdini can do what you have been dreaming of, and on the other hand, it can be complex to figure out how to do. However, that's a two-edged sword that has its pros and cons. So it can do a lot more than you wish other programs could. The thing about Houdini is it's more technical than most artist, animator and motion graphics programs (dare I say Maya and C4D). Rigid Body Dynamics (RBD) is also very powerful for objects collisions. Houdini is an industry standard software for fracturing, destruction effects, and dynamics.

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