Hello,
where did the names “SideFX” and “Houdini” came from to name this wonderfull software… Why did they call it Houdini ?
Just curious, many thanks,
bern
JColdrick
As another piece of useless trivia, we've just moved into the space they previously occupied, where Houdini was developed. We keep looking for stashes and hookas but so far… :cry:
JColdrick
SideFX goes way back to when the company principals(Kim Davidson and Greg Hermanovic) worked for an FX house called Side Effects Productions, where they developed Prisms, the precursor to Houdini. I still have a Side Effects bag with the coiled logo sitting here in my office.
Prisms was awesome, way ahead of it's time…it was fully procedural, just like Houdini, but instead of a network of nodes they had to be in “lists”. Similar to programs, you had little “jump” nodes that referenced back to other SOPs in the list, much like a program function call. Lots of fun managing those. Anyway, compared to Houdini you'd slit your wrists, but at the time…
When they left Side Effects Productions, they kept the first part of the name, but lost the “Productions”.
As far as Houdini, I'm unaware of any inside jokes or meaning, but the notion was definitely about being a master illusionist that could escape from any production “traps”.
Cheers,
J.C.
As another piece of useless trivia, we've just moved into the space they previously occupied, where Houdini was developed. We keep looking for stashes and hookas but so far… :cry: