Commercial products

Houdini Master

Perfect for Visual Effects artists and technical directors with its integrated particle and dynamics environment. All users, including artists, can build tools and assets using Houdini’s simple, interac-tive workflow then encapsulate their work into Houdini Digital Assets. These assets can then be referenced into multiple scenes then edited and updated seamlessly. This makes it easy to step back and make changes even late into the production cycle, letting customers quickly present multiple iterations to their client.

Houdini Escape

Ideal for modelers, lighters, character riggers and animators with such features as compositing, motion editing and third party rendering to name a few. 3D Artists can use Houdini Escape on its own or use it as a layout and lighting tool for visual effects created in Houdini Master. Scenes can be easily shared between both package. Houdini Escape also includes Mantra, a production-proven, built-in renderer as well as strong hooks to other renderers such as Pixar’s RenderManTM.

Personal learning editions

Houdini Apprentice

Houdini Apprentice is a non-commercial learning edition and contains all of Houdini Master’s features with minor limitations: a small unobtrusive watermark, a non-commercial file format and a maximum render resolution of 720x576, ideal for creating demo reel content. Students can also use this version to work at home then share data with workstations at school running education versions of Houdini Master.

Houdini Apprentice HD

With Houdini Apprentice HD, we have taken away the watermark and put the focus on giving artists, enthusiasts and students the perfect tool for developing personal art and animation on a shoestring budget. Houdini Apprentice HD will render still images at any resolution and animations at a maximum resolution of 1920x1080. Houdini Apprentice HD uses the same non-commercial file format as Houdini Apprentice and artists can share files between the two versions.

Side Effects Software is a world leader in the development of 3D animation and visual effects software for use in film, commercials and video games. Side Effects award-winning Houdini software utilizes a node-based procedural approach which provides digital artists with an unprecedented level of power, flexibility and control.

Houdini’s comprehensive feature set includes modeling, rigging, animation, particle effects, dynamics, compositing, integrated rendering, and more. Houdini is available for the Mac OS X, Linux and Windows operating systems.

Houdini has been used to create stunning digital animation and effects for block-buster films such as Bolt, The Tale of  Despereaux, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Speed Racer, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Superman Returns, The Wild, X-Men: The Last Stand, and more. Over the last decade, Houdini films have received the Oscar for Best Visual Effects eight times.