As a Houdini user seeing the workflow of Solaris backed by the power of Houdini's proceduralism/vex for it's price makes Katana seem irrelevant as the Foundry will need years to build in all the flexiblity that Houdini has.

But I'm curious how lighters in the industry have reacted. Maybe having a tool where they only need to worry about lighting/shading is desirable. Perhaps there are small workflows they like that don't stand out to non dedicated lighters.

I'm curious to hear what people feel/heard?

A studio should start to use houdini/solaris in near future, katana/clarisse should be a relic of the past, I've spoken

I can't wait to use it at work! But a renderview would be nice first, but it will come

I can't wait to use it at work! But a renderview would be nice first, but it will come

Houdini $7000 USD

Katana $9000 USD


I just don't understand…Is there even a comparison?

Wren
Houdini $7000 USD

Katana $9000 USD


I just don't understand…Is there even a comparison?

LOP is fully available in Core - $3000 USD

They are all tools, and if your company has invested heavily in Katana, I don't see them switching to Houdini just because. It will take time. SideFX has invested heavily in enterprise-level features like PDG and now Solaris, and this is what sets them apart and will continue to set them apart from the competition. Having said that, the market is constantly evolving and there are various segments of users who have different needs, and I don't see Solaris being a one-size-fits-all solution at the moment. I have no doubt that things will evolve and the overall strategy will be more clear in the future.

For the studios that have pipelines using Katana it was definitely expensive in time, money and training to setup and more so for them to change away from it. Solaris is so new it's kinda “risky” to shift and causing effort that might not be needed.

Though what stands out to me is that most studios need Houdini and having extra licenses to sim or do procedural things is always useful and of added value not even considering it's cheaper. However they don't need Katana, and if the lighter/lookdev isn't using their Katana license it's just sitting there. Additionally given that the most difficult and heaviest stuff to render is often FX related, anything that makes it easier to get the data to the renderer is highly desirable which Houdini can do a lot of things on the fly procedurally lifts a lot of weight/pressure of what needs to be exported.

That SideFX Solaris roadmap would need to be fleshed out and implemented before anyone's market share would be at risk, I'd think.

Midphase
They are all tools, and if your company has invested heavily in Katana, I don't see them switching to Houdini just because

Sounds exactly what Blackberry execs were telling themselves on each investor meeting.
Didn't take that much time to adopt Octane and RS as a render engine for medium-sized mograph did it, otherwise everyone would be using mental ray till this day.
Better use one excavator instead of 50 people with shovels. Nevermind 49 other people losing their job of manual shoveling, but what can you do.