respect to all of you Houdini people.
this is what I am thinking about: I am, let's say, something like advanced Maya user , and I was always very attracted with Houdini philosophy… unfortunately my life'n'job rhythm didn't allow me to learn Houdini the way I ‘d like it. Until now I have an opportunity to choose one more software for my studio pipeline, and guess, Houdini was my first choice. The thing is that I want to do mostly character animation, cartoony one, and the decision is something between Houdini and xsi… I know what xsi can do, and I even done few little projects in it, and I know that Houdini will be hard nut to crack , thing I want to discuss here with you is: is Houdini a good program for character animator to learn? or xsi is more productive peace of software for me. I know that art of animation isn’t software related, but still there are differences in approach, implementation of tools… etc.. and some kind of decision has to be made

off topic: is there some cool way of making squash'n'strech rigs in Houdini??

thanks in advance

djordje

You might want to take a look at the rabbit otl on the Houdini exchange, follow the link under the Learning menu.

or
click on this link

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=145 [sidefx.com]


It should give you some idea of how characters are set up in Houdini, one variation at least.

It's not anything I've ever done but I'm sure squash and stretch would be doable. Character tools have come along a ton since core started using it for a full cg animated film and they are still adding improvements. Definately worth a look, having characters (or anything really) wrapped up in otls is such a good way to work.

Speaking strictly about character animation, Houdini is a much better tool than XSI, both for rigging and animating. What you might gain from using XSI is a lower price for the entry level package, hair & cloth (you can do those in DOPs which are only available in Houdini Master - 17K USD), and maybe a larger tutorial base.
In Houdini you have an extremely powerful and flexible bones system, skinning controls, CHOPs which are the Animation Mixer on steroids (but with a slower workflow for simple tasks), very good modelling and best of all, OTL and takes.
With OTLs you can package your character in an operator and just begin animating. You can modify the setup while you do your animation and everything updates automatically.
With takes you can save multiple versions of the scene in the same file, compare them, mix them. Ideal for character work.
And yes, you can do squash and stretch setups.
As Simon suggested, try the rabbit and also the skeleton http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=145 [sidefx.com] OTLs for a quick view on what's possible.
Also, browse the character tutorials in the new help system which is very nice in Houdini 8

Dragos

he, words I wanted to hear money isn't a problem, so I am more and more attracted to houdini. just downloaded v.8 today, and I'll start playing with it. I have time to decide till late october, so… I'll do my best…
thanks a lot…