Houdini is built from the ground up to be a procedural system that empowers artists to work freely, create multiple iterations and rapidly share workflows with colleagues.

In Houdini, every action is stored in a node. These nodes are then “wired” into networks which define a “recipe” that can be tweaked to refine the outcome then repeated to create similar yet unique results. The ability for nodes to be saved and to pass information, in the form of attributes, down the chain is what gives Houdini its procedural nature.

While the nodes are what makes Houdini unique and give it power, there are lots of viewport and shelf tools that allow for artist-friendly viewport interactions. Behind the scenes, Houdini builds up the nodes and networks for you. Houdini lets artists explore different creative paths because it is easy to branch off a new node to explore alternative solutions.

Visual effects artists gravitate to Houdini because its procedural workflow is ideal for creating sophisticated particle and dynamic simulations. Effects are typically designed to react to actions taking place in a shot and a procedural solution “automates” these reactions providing studios with more creative control and more rapid turnaround.

FX FEATURES
Physical Simulation & VFX
Houdini FX combines superior performance and physically realistic dynamic simulation tools to VFX artists creating feature films, commercials or video games. With its procedural node-based workflow, Houdini FX lets you create more content faster to reduce timelines and enjoy enhanced flexibility in all your creative tasks.

Houdini is perfect for Visual Effects artists and technical directors with its particle and dynamics environment. Houdini FX includes all the CORE features for a complete toolset that includes tasks such as lighting, animation or procedural modeling.

PYRO FX
Fire & Smoke
With Pyro FX , Fire and Smoke simulations look more realistic and are faster and easier to set up. The speed gains in Houdini are significant allowing for more iterations. The ability to simulate using the GPU takes things to a whole new level and advances in volume rendering create an impressive final look.

Artwork by Rebelway

FLUIDS
Water & Liquids
Create realistic sims using forces such as surface tension, viscosity, and visco-elasticity. Particle fluids can be surfaced at the geometry level to produce high quality splashes while fluid forces are used to create white water effects.

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