Hey, as a Softimage Freelancer I do a variety of jobs. Mainly ICEey stuff, but also Lighting Shading and simple scene assembly “shot treadmill”… Here in Germany we are all more of Generalist, esspecially working in Commercials.

I am bit afraid that as an Houdini Artist the job offers would be more narrowed to just Fluids and Explosions (take it with a pinch of salt). Therefore fewer jobs.
Despite the fact that I have to reposition myself as Senior, again.

How healthy is the Freelance world with Houdini? Is this something only happening in London? And only in Film?

.sebastian

On a related note, it would be cool to have SideFx company demo reels showcasing great non-fx work too. You can then point clients to it when they say Houdini only good for fx!

Considering the huge surge in Houdini seats over the last 2 years you will have less problems finding work as a Houdini Artist than you have been as a Softimage artist, doing top projects with really good people.

The thing that you will find is that companies using Houdini (like Realise, Dneg, etc…) can't get enough and we need solid *creative* people like so many very experienced Softimage artists.

We are always looking for talented artists so don't hesitate to contact us

www.realisestudio.com
jb

sekow
Hey, as a Softimage Freelancer I do a variety of jobs. Mainly ICEey stuff, but also Lighting Shading and simple scene assembly “shot treadmill”… Here in Germany we are all more of Generalist, esspecially working in Commercials.

I am bit afraid that as an Houdini Artist the job offers would be more narrowed to just Fluids and Explosions (take it with a pinch of salt). Therefore fewer jobs.
Despite the fact that I have to reposition myself as Senior, again.

How healthy is the Freelance world with Houdini? Is this something only happening in London? And only in Film?

.sebastian

Just a curiosity, is there any studio that works only with Houdini, for all the CG work?

Cheers.
Paulo Duarte

I believe Axis in Glasgow are mostly Houdini-based.
http://www.axisanimation.com [axisanimation.com]

dear paulo i haven'd heard of a studio that is 100% on houdini.

for using houdini as a pipeline or backend i would say yes there are some studios.

there is a list on odforce whitch studios are using houdini but it's a bit outdated i think: http://odforce.net/wiki/doku.php?id=companiesusinghoudini [odforce.net]

Stefan_Kubicek
I believe Axis in Glasgow are mostly Houdini-based.
http://www.axisanimation.com [axisanimation.com]

I was at Axis for a bit, and the scene setup, lighting, materials, effects and render portion of the pipeline was all Houdini. Geometry and point caches came in from other software. Anyway, there should be people from Axis on the forums who know better than I

It's a nice place and they seem to be looking for Houdini people pretty much all the time; http://www.axisanimation.com/index.php?id=5 [axisanimation.com]

Realise Studio may be the only one but it is 100% houdini.

We use Zbrush for modelling and UV layout of course, Mari, photoshop, After Effects, tons of nuke, hiero and flame and smoke.

I know it sounds hardcore… it is, but the pay of is brutal as we have all the data in one application so for example, dealing with a character and extracting information for _God knows what_ is much easier if you have the scene with the data available.

Overall the modelling side is the tricky one so if a freelancer comes with his one laptop and maya inside, fine but that is as far we we will go.

jb

mandrake0
dear paulo i haven'd heard of a studio that is 100% on houdini.

for using houdini as a pipeline or backend i would say yes there are some studios.

there is a list on odforce whitch studios are using houdini but it's a bit outdated i think: http://odforce.net/wiki/doku.php?id=companiesusinghoudini [odforce.net]