Stephen Davidson

(Funny this thread is going from rumors, to wishes to feature requests)

Can SideFX please make everything hotkeyable or pie menuable? Even stuff in the File, Edit, Render, Assets, Windows......blah, blah, blah......everything should be easily made into a hotkey and or radial menu. All those accoutrements in the Scene view window....I would love to be able to pick out some of those an put them into a radial menu.

Also please consider upgrading the radial menu to 'grow a beard'...meaning we get a stack of commands below the radial menu. Like this

What worries me is that there are a lot of various demands and SideFX would have to be extremely careful where they put resources to develop the software. So in the meantime, consider supporting Alexey Vanzhula, he is making a direct modelling solution for Houdini which you can pick up now. He also has a Houdini to ZBrush app called Z.
https://alexeyvanzhula.gumroad.com/ [alexeyvanzhula.gumroad.com]

The native grooming tools are a bit weird and confused between versions. I recommend GroomBear
https://kwac.gumroad.com/l/groombear [kwac.gumroad.com]

Also for NURBS, look at Plasticity.
https://github.com/nkallen/plasticity [github.com]

CAMERAS
Cameras need to be made intuitive for general use, camera matching and animation. Every usable control and feature of real cinema cameras should be available in Houdini, including custom film back sizes. Ability to control Houdini scene camera with external device such as iPhone, VR set. A natural way to shoot a scene, inspect a model or walk around a digital set.

REALITY CAPTURE
RC to Houdini. Cameras, image planes, un-distorted images and model export to Houdini with single click. Useful for modelling, groom, texture baking. Includes ability to look through cameras and see back-plate image align with scan-data model.

CAMERA MATCHING
Footage matched/ tracked in Houdini. Quick and slick way to match cameras, add models, set extensions, FX to footage.

HOUDINI TO ZBRUSH (Much more than GoZ)
An advanced Houdini to ZBrush workflow. leverage Houdini for it's strengths in proceduralism, object and asset management, object versions, posing models with KineFX,and leverage ZBrush for its sculpting tools. A FACS workflow and ability to sculpt animated models. It would make it possible to create a Houdini scene for exporting displacement maps using Houdini instead of ZBrush, which is more production friendly. Houdini would carry everything and only fingers ZBrush's brain for sculpting. (I cant tell you how frustrating ZBrush is in production, particularly when working on assets between artists and particularly in ensuring standards when exporting displacements). Bringing most of that work to Houdini will make it manageable in a studio environment.

RIGGING
Auto rig presets including facial rigging and pose libraries.

LOFTY WISH
..this is very lofty and possibly stupid but I wish SideFX would buy out smaller companies that do tracking and compositing. just as Solaris is a competitor to Katana, I wish for video tracking and compositing out of the box. It doesn't have to be amazing but just good enough to do basic stuff. Id love to explore a very slick video track, match, add models and FX and light comp workflow without having to use so many other tools.