Side Effects Software, an industry leader in 3D animation andvisual effects software, is proud to announce the immediate releaseof Houdini which introduces a finite elementsolver for bending and tearing FX, a new multi-threaded particlearchitecture integrated into Houdini’s existing dynamics contextand a new lighting workflow to efficiently handle massivedatasets.
Solid Objects | Finite Element
The Finite Element solver analyzes the stresses on solid objects,then either bends or breaks each shape. This new solver is idealfor creating realistic destruction shots or soft body FX withvolume preservation.
“Houdini 13 offers more than just Finite Elements,” says FabianoBerlim, FX Animator at Vetor Zero. “It is Finite Elements connectedwith the rest of Houdini. Now I can emit particles, that generateheat based on friction, which lights a fire, that causes a solidobject to expand and break using the new Finite Elementsolver.”
New Particle Workflow
The new particle architecture has been fully integrated into thedynamics context to provide seamless interaction with othersimulation tools. This vex-based framework is multi-threaded andallows for speeds up to 10x faster as well as cached results forscrubbing in the timeline. There are also new particle tools andforces including Axis Force which uses 3D volumes to controlparticles.
Lighting and Rendering
Houdini 13’s new lighting workflow has been built to efficientlymanage huge datasets. This new workflow offers a new data tree viewfor assigning materials and lights to the objects and groups foundin Alembic files as well as Houdini’s new Packed Primitive objects.This new workflow is linear out of the box and combined withimprovements to Mantra’s quality and performance offers a powerfuland reliable lighting solution.
“After extensive testing we chose Houdini as our single lightingplatform and Mantra PBR as the renderer for our future CG-features.In addition, we integrated Houdini in our pipeline using Alembic asthe main geometry interchange format,” says Bert Van Brande,Director of Production Technology, Reel FX. “Mantra’s PBRphysically-based rendering provides us with high quality images, anintuitive lighting workflow, and a solution to render geometry,effects and fur in a single package. We are also impressed with thespeed of the renders and the modest memory footprint. On top of theworkflow benefits, Side Effects backs their technology withbest-of-class support.”
Open Standards
Houdini continues to support industry standards which make iteasier for artists to work in a multi-application environment.OpenEXR 2 by ILM is now supported to allow for deep compositing ofMantra renderings in Nuke. Houdini 13 also incorporates OpenSubdivfrom Pixar which provides viewport subdivision display,geometry-level refinement, native Mantra integration and supportfor crease weights.
Integration of OpenVDB from DreamWorks Animation continues toevolve and plays a big part in making the new particle fluidsurfacer faster and more memory efficient.
Bullet | Fluids | Ocean FX
This feature-rich release also includes an enhanced Bullet solverwhich is significantly faster, more scalable and more accurate.This solver also supports most geometry types out of the box and iseven capable of operating on points. The FLIP fluid and Ocean FXtools in Houdini continue to evolve with a new mist solver; thesplash tank, which gives artists the ability to add FLIP sims ontop of Ocean surfaces; new shelf tools; and a new, faster Fluidsurfacer.
Setup+Crack Size: 279 + 300 MB
Download Links > Houdini FX v13.0.419 x86/x64 + Crack