Houdini 6.1: the recent upgrade proves powerful.

Houdini is the secret weapon of many top effects and animation houses. Perhaps not as well known as other tools, Houdini is one of the most powerful effects and animation packages on the market. It enables artists and technical directors to create complex scenes easily. Houdini 6.1 builds on the strengths of the software tool with a number of nice, incremental improvements.

Houdini runs on Windows or Linux and comes in several flavors. Houdini Master, the complete suite of tools, has all the Houdini features and, at a cost of $17,000, represents a substantial investment. A subset of Houdini Master geared for modeling, rendering, and animation, Houdini Select is modestly priced at $1299. Side Effects Software will soon release Houdini Escape, with tools geared toward character animation, and Houdini Halo, for compositing and 2D image manipulation. Houdini Apprentice is a free version available to anyone interested.

Installation went off without a hitch. The interface is clean and uncluttered. The user can select from a number of preconfigured desktops specialized for tasks such as modeling, animating, and particles. Houdini's speed of operation was impressive, even on my two-year-old workstation; yet, a powerful system is a must.

Houdini works on a much different paradigm than most 3D applications. It was built from the ground up as a flexible, procedurally based package. Most Houdini experts prefer to work with the tool's many procedural operators--surface operators (SOPs), particle operators (POPs), and so on--that can be connected much like a visual programming language to create custom scenes and effects. You can connect anything to anything: An animated character can trigger particle systems as it steps, which in turn cause other effects and animation. A new on-line help system and the ability to perform most operations in a standard viewport aid new users in overcoming the learning curve.

Houdini has a large array of features, from modeling to non-linear animation to compositing and special effects. It has fully featured NURBS and subdivision surface modeling, incredible particle systems, nonlinear animation, high-end texturing, rendering, and compositing. It can do just about everything, eliminating the need for a lot of third-party offerings to fill in the gaps.

Houdini is most popular for its special effects and particles, but it also has one of the better character animation tool kits on the market. Rigging ...