14 DAY TRIAL // Houdini 9.5 is now available from Side Effects Software. The application is said to be the 3D industry's first node-based workflow for Mac. Houdini 9.5 has the ability to make nodes inside locked Digital Assets editable. Nodes such as Paint or Edit are available for artists as they work with a particular asset.
The makers claim this feature alone was driven by customer demand, which made Digital Assets even more valuable in production. Houdini for Mac supports 64-bit Intel-based Macs running Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). The software offers a standard Mac menu bar, a window menu on Houdini's Dock icon, drag and drop support, and QuickTime support. The updated version of Houdini (9.5) includes some enhancements, such as FBX export with support for geometry, lights, cameras, animation, hierarchies, skeletons, weighted skins, UVs, geometry caches, particles, and dynamic simulations. Also included, for motion graphic artists, is Adobe Illustrator and eps import.
A tool shelf was added in Houdini 9, to streamline workflow and to make Houdini more accessible. With version 9.5 out, the professional 3D software continues to utilize the shelf with new Rigid Body fracturing, debris generation, river and wave simulation tools, and tools for generating fluids-based fire and smoke. An animatable "all-purpose" Ramp parameter type has also been added to help artists build shaders and control effects. Artists can also use real-time shadows in the viewport, and Houdini now supports hand-coded OpenGL2 shaders.
The modeling and rendering platform has been used for quite a few big projects, including Spiderman 3, The Incredible Hulk, Superman Returns and Resident Evil: Extinction. The software comes in four editions, two of which are downloadable (Apprentice and Apprentice HD). Only one is free to download - Houdini Apprentice - somewhat of a trial version of Houdini that introduces Mac users to the basics of the program.
For more information on the program, or to download Houdini and try it out now, click HERE.
