Content area
Full text
Before this review, I had only heard here and there about Houdini, either in passing or when some 3D production magazine mentioned that the application was used on this or that big-budget film. Maybe it's just my particular circumstances, but I don't personally know any game developers who use it for modeling, texturing, or animating. Houdini has a reputation for being a tool only used by film artists for complex algorithms in special effects work. But there's no reason game developers shouldn't adopt it for special purposes-or for the whole enchilada, if they're not already married to one of the three packages that dominate our industry.
IF YOU LIKED THE ORIGINAL, YOU'LL LOVE THIS!
After I installed the software, I really had no clue what to expect. All I had read so far was a brief caption on Side Effects' web site about how the company had changed the UI and "workflow enhancements" to be way more "artist-friendly."
That being said, I decided to give Houdini 9 the old newbie test, and promptly skipped over the UI quick start videos. And there it was ... Maya. Just kidding. I mean Houdini. But it really did remind me of Maya's UI, with the shelves at the top and similar icons, and buttons on the right-hand side. Even the panels on the left side have a similar feel, too.
The likeness to Maya made me feel completely comfortable with Houdini from an artist's standpoint. If Side Effects did this intentionally, I say, "Brilliant."
Without having seen Houdini's previous versions I cannot compare how much more artist-friendly the UI is now, but Side Effects sure has hit their mark with the first impression a new user gets from the design.
I immediately clicked the left mouse button while holding down the Alt key, then the control key, and then the shift key, saying to myself, "Hey wait a minute. How the heck do I navigate?" I felt quite silly shortly thereafter because you have to use the right, middle, and left mouse buttons to dolly, pan, and zoom. Yep, it's that simple.
Next I clicked the box icon and-shazam!-with no surprises there was a basic box with a gizmo around the object for translating and rotating. But after...