Actually i see no reason to use HTOA instead of mantra in houdini, the integration mantra has can never be achieved by a third party. And the results seem very impressive, not that different from what you would get with Arnold. I haven't tried HTOA but from what i have touched upon with Mantra, it seems very capable.
On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 12:53 PM, Mike Donovan <[email protected]> wrote: > I can second these comments about HTOA … Solid Angle’s support is also > incredibly responsive. One thing that is a bummer with HTOA is that you > will need to purchase a Houdini Engine license for every node on your farm > unless all the geometry creation is done before rendering. > > > > This cost be quite steep … essentially a $500 additional cost to each > Arnold license. > > > > Mantra is quite amazing though and we are trying to figure out if we just > use Mantra for most of our Houdini projects. > > > > Of course our lighting artists will kick an scream and threaten to jump > out the window if forced to use something other than Arnold. … haha. > > > > M > > > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Cristobal Infante > *Sent:* Wednesday, August 19, 2015 6:04 PM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Continued use of Softimage question > > > > *"IPR window shader picking" *wow man this is nice, didn't know about > this ;) > > > > Another good one is that you can assign materials via the IPR windows just > by dragging and dropping them onto the objects. > > > > The massive plus with mantra, it's deep integration with Houdini means > that everything just works out of the box. Even though HTOA is really well > implemented is still a plugin and like Sitoa it has the typical arnold > caveats (render doesn't update with every move, adding property to objects, > etc). Still is pretty awesome to have the options, and it's great to see > the pace of development of HTOA. With every release there is always > something working 20% faster ;) > > > > By the way, has anyone given akeytsu a proper go? > > > > > > > > > > > On Wednesday, 19 August 2015, Andy Goehler <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Hi Francois, > > > > all Houdini projects so far have been rendered using Mantra. For our type > of work we’ve found it performing very well in comparison with Arnold. > Here’s are some of my day to day time savers: > > > > *distributed rendering* > > being able to use the farm on a single frame during lighting is great > > *artist friendly lights* > > I have my shortcomings with Arnolds lights, mainly either controlling the > spread on area lights or texturing spots to get realistic specs > > *mouse cursor bucket picking* > > sounds trivial, saves me so much time > > *IPR window shader picking* > > ctrl clicking in the render view brings up the properties of that pixels > shader. click -> adjust -> done. > > > > That being said, we’re keeping an eye on HtoA and I try to set up new > projects with Arnold as well and run a comparison. > > > > > > > > On Aug 19, 2015, at 16:39, Francois Lord <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Hi Andy. > > Did you move to Mantra, or stayed with Arnold? > > Softimage crashing too often in lookdev is the #1 reason why I'm actively > looking elsewhere. > > On 19-Aug-15 10:35, Andy Goehler wrote: > > We at Fiftyeight moved on from Softimage to Houdini for scene assembly and > rendering. While Houdini’s offerings may not be the designed/perfect pass > system currently, we’ve managed to adjust to a level of comfort. Shading > and lighting productivity has gone way up. Houdini has proven to be very > stable during shading and lighting, contrary to my frustration with Soft > crashing unacceptably often. > > We were not looking for the best solution currently available either, we > were looking for a platform to build upon. And are very happy with Side > Effects as a software vendor. Licensing, Bugs reports and fixes, feature > requests and implementation and daily builds make us a satisfied customer. > > Andy > > > > > > > GOGREEN Climate Protection with DHL: please consider your environmental > responsibility before printing this email. > > This email is intended exclusively for the individual or entity to which > it is addressed. This communication may contain information that is > proprietary, privileged or confidential. If you are not the named > addressee, you are not authorized to read, print, retain, copy or > disseminate this message or any part of it. If you have received this > message in error, please notify the sender immediately by email and delete > all copies of the message. >
