I'm considering using Houdini (instead of xfrog) for an animation of a tree growing. I'd probably use L-systems like in the tutorials at http://www.cmivfx.com/ [cmivfx.com]
Can I model and render a tree growing using Houdini Escape, or do I have to (gulp!) get the full Master version?
I'm pretty sure l-systems themselves are fine in escape, but depending on what you want to do with them you could hit some sort of a snag. It might be an idea to download the apprentice version and give it a shot to see if it all works out fine for what you want to do.
Definitely Escape will be fine unless you want to run complex dynamics on the trees using DOPs, in which case you'll need Master. You can run simple dynamics using the Spring SOP in Escape though, but they'll be really simple
