Houdini in India

[rohandalvi]

hi,

I recently started learning Houdini on my own.

Just out of curiosity, are there any effects houses or animation houses in India which use houdini.

I know that R&H in the US used houdini on Superman Returns but are they also using it in India.

Any information will be most helpful

And what do u think is the market for a software like Houdini in India.

with regards
Rohan Dalvi
www.advancedanimation.org

[neodev]

hi Rohan,

Actually as per my knowledge...houdini isnt used much in india...cos of the simple reasons ... Houdini is all scripting based platform for heavy fx works ..which is yet to be outsourced to india  and the local industry  demands are met by the exsiting desktop solutions.....
Even I  thts true with RnH India ...as their the emphasis is on perfection  so they are growing from Roto to compin in 2d and matchmoving to animation slowly in 3d ...so when they start usig Houduini I am sure they will do so in a phased way..but will take some I guess.

What say ppl ?

Dev

[rohandalvi]

hi dev,

thanks for the reply,

but heres the thing, there is actually very little scripting involved in working with Houdini, just some basic Maths.

Actually it can do most complicated tasks ,which would require a lot of scripting in softwares like Max or Maya, without any scripting at all. Thats what so cool about it.

But I guess you are right that the software is extremely high end and currently even i dont see any major animation or effects houses in India having a need for something like Houdini.

Anyways, I would always suggest  any one interested  in VFX should definitely  check out Houdini atleast once to get an idea of what this software can actually  pulloff. It is a real eye-opener as far as VFX is concerned.

with regards
Rohan

[veeraa]

Hi Mr.neodev,
Please get your facts right before making statements such as

"...cos of the simple reasons ... Houdini is all scripting based platform for heavy fx works"

The whole point of houdini's procedural workflow is visual programming paradigm. Minimal or amlmost No scripting/coding is necessary. Thats the whole point of using Houdini. The one place where you need to use code is probably expressions. You can try out and tweak things very fast compared to other apps where a MEl or JScript or VBscript or python or native API/SDK is necessary. In terms of pure speed compiled plugins written in native API is much faster but you've to take into account the cost, development effort and testing time which goes into it, which is pretty enormous. Even for scripting there is a test/develop/deploy cycle which is pretty long and unavoidalbe. For anything to go into production it has to be tested sufficiently. I'm a system programmer and I should know. As far as 3d is concerned I've used Lightwave extensively and I'm been using houdini for a while now. Houdini is the only package which will allow you to do anything very complex within a given time, cost and quality. Other packages also can do the same thing but that effort and cost gets stretched mainly because of this scripting and coding part. If you are trying to do something with the factory stock with a few changes to attributes then its ok. But the moment you step into something complex or out of ordinary then there is no way to avoid coding in packages other than Houdini. This houdini allays with its visual paradigm and that too very effectively. It is unmatched in this industry yet. I'm a houdini novice too but I can quickly list down the limitaions which I found. The guys at Side Effects have made things really abstract and allows you to build any thing you want as far as effects are concerned. You can script things but only as a matter of convinience & not a necessity like in maya or XSI. The few short comings I found
1) Lack of documentation from Side Effects - Although it is improving with each version but still a long way to go.
2) Learning material like training videos, books and tutorials.
3) Too small a houdini community although very eager and will to help and share - mainly odforce, 3dbuzz and sidefx forums.
4) The fact that Houdini does'nt have many plug-ins doesn't mean that it is not widely used or capable. It is but the in house expertise and the library or OTL(this is the houdini term for saving and reusing a problem once solved). This OTL thingy is really powerful and once u solve a problem then you may never need to solve it again. Just reuse it in your next project with a few changes.
5) Lack of control over UI customization like in Maya & XSI. In this aspect Maya really excels the ordering is like for UI customization Maya >> XSI > Houdini.
6) Once you start learning & do a few projects using houdini and realize its power, it may look at Side Effects is either bad at marketing or has a stroke of bad luck with making it popular. But its actually because
a) The learning curve is very steep for houdini
b) Although the artist can go back and change any aspect or decision he made in the past and continue without scrapping everything and starting afresh, getting the procedural thought process takes some times and enoumous experience with houdini way of thinking, working and organizing things.
c) The fact that houdini exposes every single aspect of itself without hiding anything also means that you are confronted by enormous amount of detail(which is actually power when tapped well) at the outset. If you can think of anything complex like avalanche in XXX or sandman in Spiderman 3 or Mangeto controlling the brigde in X-Men 3 then you think houdini. All these complex things were made using houdini without relying on plug-ins is what I heard.

[veeraa]

Anyone in the Visual media industry be it at any level or any domain, plz check out houdini. You'll get a real out of this world experience either in your thought process, organization or problem solving approach or something useful which I've not listed here. But you'll take home something. Do a few projects, check out a few examples or tutorials and talk to a few houdini artists or do all of these. I'm a system programmer by profession but I borrow a lot of ideas from the graphics inudstry, esp from games UI to my own work. Small small things but yet very useful. One area where your guys are constantly researching is how data or workflow can be organized or changed or approached so that the work gets done faster or cheaper or both. This is called Ergonomics in the manufacturing industry. So its really really useful rethink and reuse these kind of advancements across all other domains. This is true with any technology. no Technology is useful if it doesn't save time or cost or effort or improve quality/experience.

[the dOktoR]

This thread woke up after 2 years!!!! wow.

[niralrajani]

RnH India is using Houdini in india now in there FX dept

[panditarts]

hi,
i am student and i am interested in houdini.

[animoaashu]

Ahaaa Finally Houdini thread in Action.

Love to cee u guys talking about Houdini, Lets make it more Interactive and start The houdini Learning.




Lets Learn, how to Learn

[angels_arrows]

I have been learning Houdini from a year now and I really have to say its similar package to all 3D software... what separates it from the rest is the Node based workflow. As veeraa mentioned in a detailed reply I totally agree and have to say its a eye opener. I guess couple of studios now in India use Houdini for Fx based work mainly for simulations like pyro, fluid, particles and dynamics. I have heard redchillies and dreamworks have a Houdini based pipeline ( plz correct me if i am wrong ). All in all it mainly depends on what kind of specialization your looking at

[sid01]

yello there supp guys i am a sid n i work for may but when i tried houdini it's quite complicated sure for that it's good enough new bugger for houdini n what i see mostely u would can't belive me but trust it's really awsome s/w i ever tried it make da way simple and easy

[janasi]

future for houdini in India? m planing to get trained in houdini & nuke together from bournemouth uuniversity.

Any feedback for the university?

Thanks

[angels_arrows]

well . .just that They teach Houdini like any other software taught in India