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  • Side Effects Dramatically Lowers Prices for Houdini And Introduces Asset Store

8th August 2012

Side Effects Dramatically Lowers Prices for Houdini And Introduces Asset Store

side effects softwareSide Effects Software, a Toronto-based developer of 3D animation and visual effects software, is proud to announce new prices for Houdini designed to facilitate growth within the Houdini global community, simplified branding for the two Houdini workstation products and integration with the Orbolt™ Smart Asset Store to give Houdini 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. “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. This creates savings of ups to 30% for Houdini and up to 50% for Houdini FX. These amazing new prices make Houdini much more affordable for both small studios using it for the first time and for large studios scaling up for new projects.

“Houdini 12 has proven itself as an essential tool for our VFX artists. It is great to see Side Effects lowering prices so competitively,” says Gavin Graham, Co-Head of 3D, Double Negative Visual Effects. “These new prices will make it so much easier for us to scale up to meet production requirements, and competition for the always-in-use Houdini FX licenses will be a thing of the past!”

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.

orboltAt 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 which are thoroughly reviewed and tested before being offered for sale. The assets will work with both Houdini and Houdini FX and will provide production-ready solutions for VFX artists facing tight deadlines and rising costs.

With CG projects under significant cost and deadline pressures, 3D artists need access to a wide variety of 3D assets. From fully-rigged props, to render-ready visual effects, to animatable characters, to game assets, Orbolt holds the key to a whole new way of working. At Orbolt, members of the global Houdini community apply their knowledge and expertise to deliver a growing set of completely customizable 3D assets.

“The Orbolt Smart 3D Asset Store leverages the collective expertise of Houdini artists worldwide,” says Kim Davidson, President and CEO, Side Effects Software. “Houdini is used by top studios to create the best animation and VFX for feature films, commercials and video games. Now that knowledge can be wrapped up and shared with the wider CG community.”

One of the key goals of Orbolt is to bring together talented CG artists to create smart 3D assets using Houdini’s Digital Asset technology. Artists can join the Orbolt community and become asset authors. They can set their own prices and let Orbolt deliver the assets to the world. Smart 3D assets can be authored using either a commercial version of Houdini or the non-commercial Houdini Apprentice edition.

“Smart 3D assets can be built using sophisticated techniques that are wrapped up into a single node with an artist-friendly interface,” says asset author Kim Goossens, from the NHTV University of Applied Sciences. “Artists can then adjust the controls to make the asset their own. And for asset authors, the Orbolt store offers a great way to share knowledge while benefiting financially.”

As each asset is uploaded, the Orbolt team tests and verifies it before publishing. This process ensures that assets work properly and can be trusted by the community. Only the best quality assets will be made available for sale. To join the beta program as either an artist or asset author, visit the Orbolt website and request an invitation. All CG artists are encouraged to join this exciting new site and see what smart 3D assets can do for you.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 8th, 2012 at 7:36 am and is filed under Animation, CGFX, Game Dev, National News, Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
  1. Tami Quiring (@VillageGamer)
    12:45 am on August 8th, 2012

    .@sidefx Dramatically Lowers Prices for Houdini And Introduces @Orbolt Asset Store http://t.co/MiAEkf9y

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