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, an industry leader in 3D animation and visual effects software, is excited to announce the immediate release of Houdini 11.
With a focus on productivity, Houdini 11 meets the needs of artists and studios who are
looking for ways to accomplish more and work faster. From the new FLIP fluids solver,
which offers amazing speed and control, to automatic fracturing of RBD objects, to a re-
architected shader building workflow, artists will be able to work much more effectively
with Houdini 11.
“The new FLIP fluid solver is going to make a big difference for artists in production,”
says Kim Davidson, President and CEO, Side Effects Software. “Not only is it up to 70
times faster, it draws on the power of our renowned particle tools to offer an
unprecedented level of directability.”
The new dynamic fracturing tools are also designed to automatically create high-quality
fracturing effects using a Voronoi-based algorithm. Artists can establish nicely shaped
interior cracks and use volume “maps” to control the results.
The new version also brings important enhancements to Houdini’s lighting and shading
workflows. Artists can make lighting decisions interactively in the viewport with new
OpenGL effects such as GPU-assisted Volumes, unlimited lights and support for diffuse,
specular, opacity, environment, bump and normal maps.
Houdini’s Mantra renderer is being used more and more in production and with Houdini
11 it becomes more accessible to artists. Houdini 11 ships with a robust general-purpose
material which includes features such as sub-surface scattering and per-light exports.
Houdini 11 includes new lights to make it easier to set up and render shots.
“With Mantra, artists now have more options, more control and a significant improvement
in speed,” says Davidson. “And as always, Mantra-tokens are unlimited which means
that renderings can be distributed across as many machines as required.”
In addition, Houdini 11 introduces new tools for combining, surfacing and visualizing
volumes defined by the camera frustum, support for Disney's "ptex" format and tools for
styling fur. In all, Houdini 11 includes a wealth of new features and enhancements which
are all geared towards making the artist more productive.
Pricing and Availablility
Houdini 11 is available immediately with Houdini Escape available for as low as $1,995
and Houdini Master available for as low as $6,695. The free Apprentice Edition can be ownloaded today from sidefx.com and Houdini Apprentice HD can be purchased for
$99. Existing version 10 Apprentice HD customers can upgrade for $69.
With Houdini 11, Side Effects is launching a new Annual Subscription Plan which offers
access to Houdini software, upgrades and support for a year at a time. This program
lowers the up-front cost for studios interested in working with Houdini and gives them a
flexible way to scale up their licenses. With this program, Houdini Escape is available for
as low as $1,595 and Houdini Master is available for as low as $4,595.
About Houdini
The Houdini family of animation software offers digital artists an unprecedented level of
power, flexibility and control based on award-winning procedural technology. The
comprehensive feature set includes: modeling, rigging, animation, particle effects,
dynamics, compositing, integrated rendering, and more. All Houdini applications work
together seamlessly and are available for the Mac OS X, Linux and Windows operating
systems.
Houdini has been used to create stunning digital animation in blockbuster films,
including: Avatar, Iron Man 2, Hot Tub Time Machine, Percy Jackson and the
Olympians, Invictus, 2012, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Coraline, Watchmen,
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Bolt, Transformers 1 and 2, The Pirates of the
Caribbean: At World's End, Superman Returns, The Wild, X-Men: The Last Stand,
Spider-Man (1, 2 & 3), the Harry Potter series, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Matrix
trilogy and more.
