RenderMan 27.3 Adds MaterialX to XPU
Pixar’s RenderMan 27.3 adds native MaterialX and initial Cryptomatte support to XPU, plus stylized-look, hair and volume updates.
Browsing Tag
Side FX Solaris
25 posts
Houdini 22: How Right Were We?
Houdini 22 arrived earlier than expected and confirms nearly all our keynote findings, with two experimental features carrying caveats.
Real Clay and Digital Ice Cream at Uber Eck
Clay sculptures, photos, Houdini MPM and Redshift made Kayak’s Greek ice cream statues melt on cue. Real dairy was less cooperative.
Here comes Houdini 22
2 hours and 18 minutes. That is almost exactly the runtime of the first Matrix film, and exactly the duration of the Houdini 22 release keynote. So yes, this promises a rather chunky package of new features and improvements.
Houdini 22 Teaser Fuels Guesswork
Houdini 22 looks ambitious, but the teaser is maddeningly brief. Treat every feature reading as informed fan speculation, not documentation.
KeenTools GeoTracker enters Houdini open beta
GeoTracker lands in Houdini as a SOP node for OBJ and Solaris, free in open beta. Geometry driven tracking, lens estimates, and quick sim colliders.
Redshift 2026.3 fixes displacement headaches
Redshift 2026.3 is a stability release focused on texture displacement, Hydra USD updates and host bug fixes.
Houdini 21: Like good wine (Part1, VFX & Geo)
Houdini 21 polishes the chaos: production-ready MPM, neural surfacing, smarter Pyro, and Vulkan viewport upgrades: all taste-tested for real-world use. (Part 1 of ???)
Pixar’s RenderMan 27.0
Pixar’s RenderMan 27.0 lands with final-frame XPU rendering, multi-GPU scaling, deep compositing, and a production-ready Stylized Looks suite.
When Annabelle Grew Up: The Digital Domain Horror Pipeline
425 shots, one terrifying doll, and a CG mill town: Digital Domain’s Alex Millet explains how his team built the horror of The Conjuring: Last Rites and kept it real.
KitBash3D Cargo 2.0 lands with Houdini Solaris importer and 350 free assets
KitBash3D Cargo 2.0 ships with Houdini Solaris USD importer and 350 free assets. Free for personal use, commercial rights require paid plans.
GSOPs 2.6: The Swiss Army Knife for Gaussian Splatting in Houdini
GSOPs 2.6 delivers free 2D/3D Gaussian Splatting editing, viewport rendering, mesh export, Karma and Solaris integration for Houdini 20.5.
Fusion 20: a deep look at the core
With its latest release, Blackmagic Fusion is positioning itself more aggressively than ever as a powerful and cost-effective complete package for node-based compositing and motion graphics. We check whether Fusion 20 lives up to the high expectations.
Andreas Weidman’s Project Greylight: Free Tools for Houdini Artists
Project Greylight by Andreas Weidman offers Houdini users free tools to streamline Solaris workflows, USD management, and integration with Unreal Engine.
A beastly good choice
The in-depth investigation of a FullCGI production with Houdini KineFX, Grooming and V-ray in Solaris.
USD, Solaris and Karma in Houdini 20 (and elsewhere…)
Solaris saw the light of day 4 years ago in Houdini 18. When I tried it out for the first time back then, it was still very bumpy and initially put me off. One crash followed another. If that happens today, then it's probably due to the graphics card driver, which is supposed to be up to date.
Houdini 20
The long-awaited update has finally been released and brings with it a whole host of new features. So many, in fact, that a special issue would be worthwhile. For now, here's an overview and an in-depth article on rendering by Olaf Finkbeiner in the next issue.
Houdini 19.5: I/O – UI – RBD -FLIP – PYRO – UX ..
There are no completely new features in the Houdini 19.5 update this time. Rather, there are fundamental revisions to the most important functionalities of Houdini: RBD Rigid Body Dynamics and Fluids Simulations. I/O, i.e. input & output, is another topic that extends across all tools. And as expected, there are some user interface standardisations and improvements - especially in the interactive tools. Let's dive right in!
Golaem 7.3 Release and Live Events
Golaem 7.3 brings USD integration, morphology options, scattering tools, skinning and Animation Retake to crowd simulation.
Houdini 18: Introduction to Solaris
Solaris: the node-based USD environment for lighting, lookdev, layout and rendering in Houdini 18.
Cinema 4D R21.1 and New Redshift Features
Maxon releases the first service pack for Cinema 4D Release 21, now with more Redshift support!
RenderMan 23 Is Here!
RenderMan 23 is here, still without XPU but with more USD support, improved interactive rendering, sampling and more!
SideFX | Houdini 18 Release Is Here!
Houdini 18 is released: SideFX adds a new USD context, destruction, Pyro and FLIP fluid updates, modelling features and much more.
SideFX Houdini 18 Launch
The next release is already coming: SideFX announces the launch event for the new Houdini 18 release!