Well, here I go. In my opinion Houdini is a natural transition since ICE exposed us to procedural approach and although limited the concepts are pretty much there.
Wirking with Houdini has been a great and at times very frustrating experience as simple things (everyday ones) are quite convoluted but complex ones are trivial. My take is to us both and embrace Houdini for much more than fx. Just mantra itself justifies this, is really good render engine and the integration is spectacular. Very similar to Arnold in my opinion although less fun than Arnold. Regarding how to use it, this is really the trick mostly due to how everything involves you constructing it from pretty much scratch. I particularly miss the Softimage style passes and overrides, groups, animation system, mixer, viewport Manipulation and specially the render tree (phenomena), MiaMaterial and camera. Workflow wise XSI is so polished and slick... But as Andy said, going to Maya is going backwards a step, I would say a couple of villages though. Going to Houdini may be tough at times but overall brings value and feels like a real step forward. Overall I think Houdini is a great companion and depending what Autodesk does I have done my homework and won't be thrown out if balance anyway. If I had to build a studio from scratch I would buy both (soft and Houdini) and use Houdini as the backbone (FX, Rendering, cloro, Lighting but not for modelling, animation, previs...) Hope it makes sense Jb Sent from my iPhone On 19 Jun 2013, at 19:42, Adam Seeley <[email protected]> wrote: > Interesting, > > I've been thinking about getting into Houdini, I was wondering what the > comparison would be. > > Adam. > --------------------- > Yoyo Digital Ltd. > 07956 976 245 > http://www.linkedin.com/in/adamseeleyuk > https://vimeo.com/adamseeley > > > > > From: Jordi Bares <[email protected]> > To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > Cc: "<[email protected]>" <[email protected]> > Sent: Wednesday, 19 June 2013, 17:35 > Subject: Re: the jungle drums > > I have been using lately Houdini in pretty much everything for the last 9 > months as I moved to Realise and man I miss Soft big time! > > I will write about it soon. Need 100 fingers to type it. > > Sent from my iPhone > > On 19 Jun 2013, at 12:28, "adrian wyer" <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> i see amazing work done with Soft on a variety of websites, by many talented >> artists... >> >> there are things you can do in ICE that you would struggle to do any other >> way (especially if you're a human and not a Houdini double dome!) >> >> Soft is a GREAT package, (possibly the BEST all round 3D app) with the most >> loyal and inventive userbase >> >> Autodesk would be IDIOTS to put it out to pasture, and i can't help feeling >> that many would simply move to modo/cinema4D/blender rather than jump >> backwards to maya >> >> this is a time when we as a community really need to make some noise and >> show the 'man' that we love our software, and want to keep it!! >> >> my 2c >> >> From: [email protected] >> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Stefan >> Andersson >> Sent: 19 June 2013 12:15 >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: Re: the jungle drums >> >> In the whole I think we should be happy that Softimage is still alive. The >> ever shrinking user base and the none existent new talent base… well… I >> think we can just face the fact that it's not going to be "the year of >> Softimage" this year either. I'm a bit surprised actually that Autodesk is >> still keeping it alive, though I'm happy that there are still people willing >> to put their souls into it. >> >> MPC in not using Softimage for crowd stuff (as far as I know), where did you >> hear that? >> >> RenderView is a lot better and stable than render region. The IPR with >> Arnold is pretty neat. Maya doesn't have ice, but it does have a node >> connection editor which works pretty well when you are rigging. Render >> layers is a bit dodgy, but you learn to live with them. Simulation stuff you >> can always make in Softimage or Houdini. FumeFX and SOuP replaces 90% of the >> need for it though (at least for me). >> Having native Alembic support is a life savior, and I don't understand why >> Autodesk couldn't implement it into Softimage…. why???? >> >> So many things I had hope for with the 2014 release, since it had been years >> since the last update and the new team was given their time to get familiar. >> And what did we get? Camera Sequencer… >> >> I for one looks forward to The Foundry roadmap with Nuke/Mari/Modo. Going to >> the user group tonight and hope to hear some good news. >> >> all the best >> stefan >> >> >> >> >> >> On Jun 19, 2013, at 11:27 AM, Andi Farhall wrote: >> >> >> have been going off again. Intimating the end of the line for soft. By this >> I assume the end of supported development from Autodesk, but will that make >> much difference? >> >> Isn't it the case that there has been no real development of any of the >> three packages in years, excepting perhaps ice? It can't simply be that maya >> will be the only software that people will end up using, there has to be a >> next generation surely as things evolve. If not, then an unsuported product >> is just as much use as a supported but unevolved one, right? >> >> I know lots of places that use soft, some of them exclusively so how long >> can they carry on with an unsupported product? There must be years of life >> left in soft and if places like MPC really are using ICE for crowd stuff >> then this has to add to it's life expectancy. >> >> I'm not against learning a new package whatsoever, but it has to be an >> improvement on what i've been using until now, and as somebody who spends >> all day in either ICE or the render region and render passes i have to say >> maya seems a backwards step, and if it is a backwards step then maya has >> room for improvement or even replacement perhaps. >> >> They could call it Maxsi perhaps. I would learn that... >> >> or will we be left in a stagnatting software pool simply because a few large >> studios are now backed into a corner? >> >> A> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> ........................................................................... >> http://www.hackneyeffects.com/ >> https://vimeo.com/user4174293 >> http://www.linkedin.com/pub/andi-farhall/b/496/b21
