LOS ANGELES — Toronto’s Side Effects Software has introduced new pricing for its Houdini 3D animation tool. The price reduction is an effort by the company to grow the global community. Simplified branding for the two Houdini workstation products and integration with the Orbolt Smart Asset Store help give artists access to the combined knowledge of the whole community.
“After our most successful year ever, we wanted to find new ways to make Houdini more accessible to more artists,” says Kim Davidson, president and CEO of Side Effects. “With Houdini taking hold throughout the industry, it is the perfect time to lower prices and introduce a smart asset store.”
To keep the focus on the Houdini brand and better describe the roles each product plays, Side Effects has rebranded its two workstation products as Houdini and Houdini FX. Houdini FX, formerly known as Houdini Master, includes all Houdini features, with a focus on particles, fluids, Pyro FX, cloth, wire and rigid body dynamics. Houdini, formerly known as Houdini Escape, has become a popular choice for many studios with its comprehensive set of procedural modeling, rendering, and animation tools and its ability to open up and render scenes and assets created in Houdini FX.
With the new version, Houdini FX is now available for $4,495 while Houdini will remain priced at $1,995. For further savings, customers will now receive their first year on the Annual Upgrade Plan for free.
At SIGGRAPH, Side Effects is releasing Houdini 12.1, which is the first version to integrate the Orbolt Smart Asset Store, where members of the global Houdini community combine their knowledge and expertise to create customizable 3D assets. Being launched in beta, the Orbolt store offers assets that have been thoroughly reviewed and tested before being offered for sale. The assets will work with both Houdini and Houdini FX.
Other features in Houdini 12.1 include the ability to create edge groups, a feature long coveted by Houdini artists, along with optimizations to FLIP fluids, Mantra rendering and Pyro FX. Houdini 12.1 is available immediately for download at www.sidefx.com.