I stumbled upon a job posting (the link is not allowed here for some reason):

We are currently seeking a Houdini Developer (Houdini Engineer) with a preference for Vancouver based talent but open to remote and international hires.
What you will be doing:

Spearheading the integration of Ziva technology into Houdini as a plugin.
Gathering requirements and feedback from character/animation technical directors to inform the software’s design and development.
Maintaining a Ziva plugin for Houdini and keeping it up-to-date.
Optimizing performance and memory usage
Meeting regularly with the software development team to prioritize tasks and report progress
Writing automated tests for new features and bug fixes

I don't know when it was put up, but it looks like the good folks at Ziva Dynamics are going to port their great plugin to Houdini.
This ought to bump Houdini up into the character animation industry. Fingers crossed!

pickled
This ought to bump Houdini up into the character animation industry. Fingers crossed!

Please correct me if im wrong but Ziva is a post effect right? In terms of the chain of operations, animators animate and that is then passed on to Ziva and work is done their to make stuff look more physical, no?

Or is it part of the rig that animators use?

Because if it is a post effect, Houdini is being used already in productions for muscle and skin, having a 3rd party player would make this area more interesting, might even spur SESI to develop some of these feature into the core build. But its something already being done.

But if its linked with the rig and therefore you need to animate with Houdini to take full advantage with it then that truly is exciting. Ive always felt once people start to animate in Houdini then its no holds barred, the whole pipeline will become Houdini-centric