Archive notice: This article was originally published on February 17, 2017. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
For everyone who missed the live stream last Monday for the launch of Houdini 16: here is another summary of important new features from the “Amarok” update. You can also watch the entire stream again here.
Houdini Product Line
First, a brief overview of what software packages SideFX offers at all. Houdini Core contains all standard features for creating 3D models, from animation to rendering. Features from Houdini Core are additionally expanded in Houdini FX with dynamic effects such as PyroFX, fluids and rigid bodies. Houdini Indie is a low-budget version of Houdini FX with some restrictions. With the Houdini Engine, you can easily use assets created in Houdini in other programs. SideFX also offers the free variants Education and Apprentice. You can find a clear comparison table here.
Houdini 16 New Features
- User interface: In Houdini’s Node Editor, you now have the option to create custom shapes, colours and further functions for visualizing your node networks. A radial menu has also been added, allowing you to navigate in the Houdini interface contextually and likewise in a customized way.
- Modelling: With a focus on procedural workflows, SideFX integrates Boolean operations into the modelling process. With Poly-Fill, you can close openings in your meshes with quads or other methods and have them automatically adapted to the rest of the 3D model. With a new Shatter feature, you can now break your 3D model into self-defined individual pieces as desired.
- Animation and rigging: With “Biharmoc Capturing,” the skinning process in Houdini has been simplified. The Bone tool now also comes with aids for positioning and setting the number of bones. In addition, Houdini now contains a modifiable module for automatically rigging 3D models. Inserted muscles can now be dynamically rigged and animated.
- Hair and fur: The old procedural grooming tools for hair and fur simulations have been replaced, so you can now exert more influence on the result directly via the node operators. Special adjustments, such as clumping, in the creation of hair are now taken into account in simulations.
- Look development: Houdini 16 has a new architecture for creating uber shaders. The new shader functions include a new subsurface-scattering model, nested dielectrics, absorbtion and dispersion, and more. Improvements for texture baking and the viewport renderer are also added.
- Fluids and oceans: The simulation of collosions involving viscous fluids has been revised and can now be adjusted with regard to further parameters. Artificially modifiable surface tension, guided simulations and additions to prevent tiling artefacts are further components of the updates for the ocean tools.
Costs and Download
Houdini offers different payment models. The Indie licence starts at €186. You can purchase the full version of HoudiniFX from €4,217. You can find a complete overview here.
