Calm down. It's a joke. For now…

Sounds scary and seems anything is possible in this world after Autodesk acusition of Softimage but I wonder what is SideFX official view on this option?

Really scary.

Yes, my visit on this forum today is a result of what I heard yesterday. It seams that Houdini is the last independent high end 3d software now…

Autodesk European prize politic is horrible. 3ds max costs 3500$ in US, but in Poland I would have to pay 5200 euro and I can buy it only from polish reseller. I believe that will surely happened with XSI.

I was looking for a better software for film and broadcast animation then 3dsmax. I had many problems with our render farm because of windows. So we were only looking for linux compatible software. We decided to switch (in near future) to XSI but now I am starting to feel little insecure. Since Autodesk bought 3dsmax, program become even more unstable and full of new bugs and unnecessary gadgets.

So, my questions is…
Is Houdini a good choice for a small studio (2 - 6 people)? I heard that it is a software only for big studios with army of programmers.

Can Mantra renderer match quality and speed of mental ray? Is it true that with one license you can have even 50 rendernodes?

I hope that Houdini will say independent. Competition is very important. I will not like to see all cg programs in a hand of Autodesk and Adobe and then hear that these two are going to be a part of Microsoft…

I was looking for a better software for film and broadcast animation then 3dsmax. I had many problems with our render farm because of windows. So we were only looking for linux compatible software.

If you look for a software with great support for a Linux, Houdini is your choice (the only choice nowadays actually). SESI compiles and provides on daily bases 10 versions of Houdini starting from 32bit WinXP, through WinXPx64, OSX to 6(!!!) different versions of Linux distros (varying in gcc and kernel).

Is Houdini a good choice for a small studio (2 - 6 people)? I heard that it is a software only for big studios with army of programmers.

This is misunderstanding. The whole business about Houdini is that you don't have to be a programmer to do things that require coding in other software. What is important in small shops is to have one, skillful guy, who can prepare tools for others, the others don't have to know Houdini well, since in Houdini you can build so called “rigs” (assets) for every piece of a scene. Artists use assets, TDs build them for artists (without single line of code most often). But one thing is worth to note: In Houdini one should know what he's doing, this is not a tool with one-button solutions for everything. Once you understand what you want to do, you have a free way to do it.

Can Mantra renderer match quality and speed of mental ray? Is it true that with one license you can have even 50 rendernodes?

Mantra is at least equal in speed and quality with mental ray. It's actually gives more then that, since it's hybrid engine (micro-poly, raytrace, pathtrace, volumetric) and… yes, all of this comes for free with single Houdini license. mental ray can dream about Mantra's performance when it comes to motion blur, displacement, volume or fur rendering.

One downside of it is, again, you need a single guy, ready to render with Mantra. Someone familiar with PRMan is perhaps the right person.

If you are interested to see H/M in action in Warsaw, PM me .


cheers,
skk.

PS And yes, SESI prices are equal for every country…

This post isn't even funny.

I'm an XSI causality now left scrambling away from AD.

I think comparing mr with mantra seems odd. I'm not going to pretend I know a lot about mantra, but the best parts about it work very differently than those of mr. Somethings will render faster in mr…and I'm positive anything with motion blur, DOF, displacement, fur will render faster in reyes engines.

I'm not looking to the render engine though of Houdini- I'm looking at the last good procedural work flow option that isn't owned by AD. The complexity of houdini freaks me out a bit- but with that comes quite a bit of power.

Where else can you find that kind of power out of the box?

Just like how XSI users saw a surge in Maya users once AD acquired Alias I'd expect you guys to see a whole lot of XSI users.

I have sincere hopes that SideFX will pick off some of the disgruntled employees in Montreal and move them to Toronto if they see anything they like.

GKlindt
I think comparing mr with mantra seems odd. I'm not going to pretend I know a lot about mantra, but the best parts about it work very differently than those of mr. Somethings will render faster in mr…and I'm positive anything with motion blur, DOF, displacement, fur will render faster in reyes engines.

Sure. I didn't mean Mantra bits mr on every step. Mr is powerful and reach application with a whole glory it deserves. I meant that people usually don't realize the power of Mantra rendering (and it's price!). In fact Mantra can stand along with mental ray, prman and shines, which doesn't mean it hasn't own weakness. Even if it's a 90% of PRMan or mental ray, it's still 1% of its price .

Very true- mr licensing is not very competitive really for anyone going for a small or larger farm and that's always something that should be considered when looking into a render engine.

Horrible as the thought is that SESI would be bought by Autodesk,
I'd like to turn it around, how about SESI nab the ICE developers at this point
and get on with some really serious dev work?

just thinking out loud

For anyone thinking of trying Houdini in a small shop don't forget that if you hit a show stopping bug chances are support will fix it and post a release in a few days, you cant really beat that.
But yes you probably need one guy in the shop who knows it really well and writes tools for the others. It's also easy for artists to put their own tools together, but they will still need one TD to turn to when they get stuck. Sesi are great at support and helping out but you will need one guy to learn it in-depth. Someone with a good basic knowledge of 3d principles will go a long way in Houdini.

lynbo
Horrible as the thought is that SESI would be bought by Autodesk,
I'd like to turn it around, how about SESI nab the ICE developers at this point
and get on with some really serious dev work?

just thinking out loud

Yes, and if they bring the ICE developers on board, maybe after a few years we will get something like ICE in Houdini. Maybe they could call it … I don't know.. VOPs or something..

cheers,
Abdelkareem

lynbo
Horrible as the thought is that SESI would be bought by Autodesk,
I'd like to turn it around, how about SESI nab the ICE developers at this point
and get on with some really serious dev work?

just thinking out loud

I don't think SESI has a lack of qualified developers . It doesn't look like considering it's the most innovative company in industry (with a minor competition in that respect…)

I've used both houdini and xsi for several years now, and recently worked on a few projects using ICE. It actually has some really good points that I haven't seen easily able to do with Houdini out of the box. Of course there are many more areas where Houdini is much more flexible… especially in the procedural geometry creation areas. But ICE is really really fast… (to work with, process, and iterate)

I for one bought Houdini and have promoted it in a small shop , they bought 2 licences , its perfect for small companies ! you get it out of the box and it works !

Rob

circusmonkey
I for one bought Houdini and have promoted it in a small shop , they bought 2 licences , its perfect for small companies ! you get it out of the box and it works !

Rob

This is actually why I decided to start focusing on learning Houdini after using 3DSMax for about 10 years. I'm fed up with half delivered poorly implemented features or chasing plugin vendors that disappear after a couple of iterations of the main application. I needed something that didn't rely on outside applications to get its work done, and that worked out of the box to do what I needed. I've admired the ideas and workflows behind ‘dini ever since I first used it. I only wish there’d been something like apprentice about when I was starting out, but then I wouldn't likely have know what I needed then.

*ramble ramble*

Anyway, I totally agree with the quoted sentiment.

*drops 2¢ into the bucket*

josh3light
I've used both houdini and xsi for several years now, and recently worked on a few projects using ICE. It actually has some really good points that I haven't seen easily able to do with Houdini out of the box. Of course there are many more areas where Houdini is much more flexible… especially in the procedural geometry creation areas. But ICE is really really fast… (to work with, process, and iterate)

I'd be interested (in private message perhaps) to learn what specifically ICE does out of the box that you were not able to do with Houdini out of the box.

you guys at SESI sould pick up a copy to check out!

one of the best features (for me at least) is the speed, man it's fast!!

jason

!!!
All Must Read

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1401&Itemid=316 [sidefx.com]

anamous

lynbo
Horrible as the thought is that SESI would be bought by Autodesk,
I'd like to turn it around, how about SESI nab the ICE developers at this point
and get on with some really serious dev work?

just thinking out loud

Yes, and if they bring the ICE developers on board, maybe after a few years we will get something like ICE in Houdini. Maybe they could call it … I don't know.. VOPs or something..

cheers,
Abdelkareem

HaHa
touche
nice!

As an independent company, our mission today remains the same as it has been for the last 20 years – a focus on innovation and delivering the best tools for CG artists working in production. Our independence allows us to shape our own destiny and we plan to continue working this way.

Yes! Right way.
Autodesk can go home.

(i`m hope - forever.)

SYmek

lynbo
Horrible as the thought is that SESI would be bought by Autodesk,
I'd like to turn it around, how about SESI nab the ICE developers at this point
and get on with some really serious dev work?

just thinking out loud

I don't think SESI has a lack of qualified developers . It doesn't look like considering it's the most innovative company in industry (with a minor competition in that respect…)

Just to be clear
I wasn't at any time suggesting that the devs at SESI aren't top notch, it should be obvious that they are! I mean Houdini! Wow.
I was just suggesting that try to keep the best with the best and out of the clutches of the evil empire. As I said just thinking out loud.