Archive notice: This article was originally published on September 30, 2014. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
HtoA has tight integration with Houdini from Side Effects Software and is intended to provide a good lighting workflow between Houdini and other DCC applications because setups can be exported and shared. The Arnold for Houdini 1.0 plug-in has the currently fastest Arnold core from the current version 4.2.1.
HtoA’s features include depth of field and improved shutter control for all Arnold cameras. According to Solid Angle, the Arnold Lights also have light filters and an exact viewport representation. Interactive rendering is also said to be available, allowing parameter changes made to the camera, lights or shaders to be displayed in real time. The plug-in makes it possible to use around 106 shaders from the Arnold Shading Network and to pass Houdini geometry attributes as Arnold user data.
Volume rendering is done using OpenVDB, and AOVs can be rendered as individual or different files. Motion blur can be represented accurately and can be overridden per object. Multi-camera rendering and DeepEXR are also supported.
Arnold for Houdini is supported by Windows, Linux and Mac OS X and can work with Houdini versions 13.0.476, 13.0.498, 13.0.509. The plug-in is free for Arnold owners; a perpetual Arnold licence costs 1,000 euros.
All further information about HtoA can be found here.
There are also new versions of Arnold for Maya and Arnold for Softimage.
The legendary video "Windowlicker" by Aphex Twin has certainly already given many people sleepless nights. Ambitious artists processed their trauma with the 3D model recreation of the singing nightmare, which was created using Arnold for Cinema 4D (C4DtoA), among other things. You can find a detailed making-of about it in the upcoming DP issue.
Image: Hercules/Milk VFX
