It's this page - it has links to each certified school;

http://beta.sidefx.com/education/schools/ [beta.sidefx.com]

mattebb
My impression of the main pages that you get to after clicking on film or games or whatever, is that all the info seems quite vague and hidden. I think the sort of people looking for houdini would be looking for more concrete straight up examples of how houdini works and what it can do - eg. with more concrete info (text/images) showing why houdini is different to other 3D apps.

If I was considering houdini for the first time, I'd be more impressed by seeing in-situ screenshots and animations of houdini producing great things - eg showing the power of procedural workflows, rather than assorted renders and quite general marketing text.

My 2c!

These pages are overview pages. Each section will get a “Learn more” button which will lead to pages with screen grabs, videos and feature details.

Netvudu
It looks very nice, indeed!
I hope it will still keep some of the current´s site info regarding Schools? It took us a lot of work to become a certified school! 8)

Check out the Education section in the footer - Certified schools are featured in the schools section

Here is a preview of the new look:

We have been hard at work on a new website and it is available now in beta form at:

http://beta.sidefx.com [beta.sidefx.com]

To see the site you need to log on using your existing profile.

• Please contact us at webmaster@sidefx.com with any login issues.
• Please post any beta feedback to the new forum.

Here is a quick outline of the keys features of the site:

• Responsive Design - this site is designed to be seen on desktops and on mobile devices - please test in different scenarios.

• Forum - this site has a “out of sync” forum which is for testing purposes only - anything you post will not be part of the final published forum. Please try it out to test its features but be aware that these posts will go away when we launch. When we go public there will be a sync with the existing sidefx.com forum so that messages are not lost.

• Tutorials, Stories and News are available for viewing. Please review these for readability and layout - The tutorial page has filtering to help find the lesson you need. Please test this and let us know how it works for you.

• Profiles - An important feature of the new site is your profile - you can create a public profile which includes social media links and portfolio pieces.

• Galleries - Please add content here to help grow the Gallery. You can also publish your own tutorials.

• User Tutorials - You can also add your own tutorials to the site - go to your profile and click the edit icon (gear) - you can add tutorials using the tutorial tab.

• Product section - These are broken down into Film/TV and Games.

There are some key elements that are not yet on the beta site - these will be added soon:

• Download
• Store
• Journal


Please test the site as much as you can. Any feedback we get now will help ensure a better experience for the whole community when we launch.

Thanks,
Robert

SHED animation studio and SideFX are co-producing an animated short called “Outside”. The worldwide premiere of the teaser launched today at TAAFI - Toronto Animation Arts Festival International. The teaser was fully produced in Houdini - including modeling, characters, animation, lighting and rendering in Mantra. If you weren't at TAAFI, you can see it here!

http://outside-movie.com [outside-movie.com]

We will be adding 3rd party rendering in H15.5 - no added cost:

http://sidefx.co/indierender [sidefx.co]

Update: Please note that these prices may change soon. HQueue is not working yet on the Amazon cloud with Houdini 15. See this thread for details:

https://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&p=195144#195144 [sidefx.com]

If you put down an hqueue ROP down in Houdini and select the cloud radial tab then you can choose the machine type and the price will update based on your choice. This is the most up-to-date way to learn what each machine type costs.

There is currently no plan. We want to make sure that the existing plug-ins (Maya, Unity, Unreal) that SideFX is developing are in top shape before we explore other plug-ins. A small test was done for Modo but there are no official plans to take it any further. If that changes in the future then an announcement will be made.

Robert

The plug-in for the current production build is now available at:

https://github.com/K240/HoudiniEngineFor3dsMax/wiki/Houdini-Engine-for-3dsMax-Binaries [github.com]

Compiled version of the plug-in is currently being created with some documentation and will be available on github soon. There has been a delay because Hideki has had some technical difficulties.

This plug-in is being developed independently by Hideki in his spare time as a contribution to the 3DS Max community. SideFX released the source code for the Houdini Engine plug-ins in order to allow for these kinds of independent plug-ins and we appreciate all the effort Hideki has put into this project.

The delay from last year was because of an issue with Houdini Engine. Because 3DS Max and Houdini have different dependencies, there were conflicts in these that caused problems. With Houdini 15 and Houdini Engine 2.0, the engine now works independently from the host app in a thin client. This means that dependency conflicts aren't a problem and Hideki is able to release the Max plug-in.

Robert

Sorry to say but the new website is not planned for the H15 release. There is a lot of backend work to do and we will want the community to beta test it before we make the switch. We have some great ideas for focusing the website on the community first and foremost and have the right team in place to make that happen.

We released the Houdini 15 sneak peek video (https://vimeo.com/135607909 [vimeo.com]) at SIGGRAPH to let you know what the main areas of improvement would be in the new release. There is also a great video from Ubertage with Scott Keating talking about the VFX tools (https://vimeo.com/140505036 [vimeo.com]). Of course there is lots more that R&D has cooked up but that will have to wait until the 15th ;-)

Robert

The H15 product launch is not happening on October 5. The event was called a launch event but it is more of a preview event. Houdini 15 will be formally launched very soon. We promised October in the sneak peek and there is a clue in the version number ;-)

Robert

Here it is….



Proper sneak peek coming next week. This was a teaser for the trailer…

The floating licenses are for commercial licenses. Indie licenses are node-locked to one machine.

You can see comparisons here. The licensing and pricing section shows which versions support floating (labelled as local and global access in the chart) licenses:

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=219&Itemid=382 [sidefx.com]

You can convert Apprentice files back to Indie files using this utility:

http://www.orbolt.com/upgrade-houdini-files [orbolt.com]

The 3DS Max plug-in is still in development but has been delayed due to technical issues we need to address on the Houdini Engine side. Hideki will be able to continue his work once we have addressed those issues.

Once we know more then we will be able to announce a release date. Until then you can be sure that we are working hard to make the necessary changes.

Both the C4D and the 3DS max plug-ins are being developed outside of SideFX and these projects have involved lots of discussion back and forth as we learn what our partners need to be successful.

The Houdini Engine was launched in SideFX labs because we wanted to get it into people's hands early. We are learning a lot everyday which will help make all of the plug-ins stronger in the long run.

Robert

We are in the planning stages of an updated sidefx.com website with more modern technology and would like to get feedback from the community regarding what you would like to see in the new website from both a design and technology point of view.

You can either email me directly at rmagee@sidefx.com or post to this forum. Links to existing websites that offer the kind of user experience you would like to see would be very helpful.

Robert

You can get the staircase asset from the Orbolt asset site:

https://www.orbolt.com/search/?q=softpackage:Unreal [orbolt.com]

We will work to get more assets available during the beta period.

Robert