Archive notice: This article was originally published on March 15, 2013. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Side Effects has released version 12.5 of the Houdini rendering and animation software. This release adds new tools for creating cloud and and ocean surfaces, and the OpenVDB volume-sculpting technology developed by DreamWorks has also been integrated into Houdini.
The Cloud FX Tools, which use OpenVDB, are intended to make it easy to build cloud formations. Clouds can be shaped and lit with the new Houdini cloud system.
According to Side Effects, the surface of an ocean can be created more easily with the new Ocean FX Tools. Ocean Waves, for example, is volume-based geometry that can be deformed as as a wave. With the Wave Tank tool, a Particle Fluid Shelf, artists can create a FLIP Fluid Simulation. In addition, the Cloth, Hair and Bullet Physics simulation systems have been updated in this version.
You can find the complete, extensive feature list here.
The price for a single licence per workstation is 1,995 US_Dollars for Houdini and 4,495 US dollars for Houdini FX. An annual update is available for 995, or for Houdini FX for 2,495 US dollars.
We will discuss Houdini 12.5 in detail in DP issue 04/13; until then, you can warm up with the Houdini Showreel 2012:
Houdini Demo Reel 2012 from Go Procedural on Vimeo.
