Victoria University of Wellington

ADMINISTRATORS

Houdini is an award-winning, industry standard digital content creation software for multiple industries, including Film, TV, Game Development, and beyond. Teaching Houdini at your institution will give your students an advantage when pursuing a career in these fields.

Schools

We support Houdini programs in Secondary Schools, Training Centers, Colleges and Universities. 

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Software

Schools have access to a special Houdini Education license designed to be used in computer labs. 

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Certification

Our school certification program celebrates institutions that inspire excellence in their students.

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FAQ

A few key questions and answers about setting up Houdini Eduction licenses at your school. 

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Higher Education / Training Centers

Houdini offers flexibility and proceduralism, which organizations in many industries use to improve their processes and the designs they produce. Students who become proficient with Houdini are resourceful problem-solvers and are in high demand in the workforce.

SideFX supports instructors in building skills for students that are in increasing demand in industries such as:

  • Media & Entertainment (Film / TV / Advertising, Games, AR / VR) 
  • Architecture 
  • Product Design 
  • Scientific Visualization

Houdini Education licenses are available for $75 USD Annually, which is a significant discount for degree-granting schools and qualified training centers.

Secondary Schools

Houdini offers a great solution for classroom instruction, extracurricular club, or lab/library use. Houdini motivates students to improve their ability to problem-solve, understand logic, and work creatively and efficiently. Houdini is ideal for integrating procedural art into STEM subjects and unlocks both artistic and technical creativity in students which leads to exciting career opportunities.

SideFX supports instructors in teaching students how to use Houdini to visualize concepts and build interdisciplinary connections in subjects like:

  • Math 
  • Physics 
  • Computer Science 
  • Digital / Creative Arts 
  • 3D Animation / VFX

Houdini Education licenses are FREE for Secondary schools.

EDUCATION

SOFTWARE

Houdini Education software, is intended for qualified individual post-secondary students, multi-seat classrooms and computer labs. This educational version of our award winning software has no restrictions on render size and no watermark. It also allows Houdini Digital Assets created in either Houdini Education or Houdini Apprentice to be loaded into host applications using Houdini Engine Education licenses.

Houdini Education licenses include the following:

1 HOUDINI EDUCATION 

This license includes all of the operational features of the fully functional Commercial Houdini FX license, however, it saves to a  special file format which also works with in the FREE Houdini Apprentice software. This creates a great ecosystem for students to move their work between their home computer to the school lab. 

10 KARMA/MANTRA TOKENS 

These licenses allow you to render images using Houdini's physically-based rendering solutions, Karma and Mantra. These render tokens may be deployed to individual workstations or used across multiple nodes on a render/compute farm. 

Image by Samirmako.

10 HOUDINI ENGINE EDUCATION 

These licenses allow Houdini Digital Assets to be loaded into various DCC apps such as Maya, 3DS Max, or the Unity or Unreal game engines. 

Houdini Engine can also be used to batch process rendering and simulation tasks on a render/compute farm.

CERTIFICATION

A Stronger Connection

Our Certification program is a way for us to celebrate schools that endeavour to understand deeply, are willing to share insights and inspire others to make passionately.

How we choose our schools: 

Certification is by invitation only, but if you want to grab our attention and let us know that you are interested send us a student reel. With a panel of industry judges we certify applicants that have been teaching Houdini for at least one year, based on three criteria.

  • Quality of student work 
  • Instructor knowledge and quality of curriculum
  • Professional development of students

Benefits of Certification:

  • Alumni Licenses: Graduates of Certified school programs are eligible to receive a free Commercial Houdini license for 6-12 months as they make their way into the workplace
  • Home Licenses: Current students of Certified school programs are eligible to receive a free Houdini Education license to use from home, towards their coursework (Note: This is not available to programs that are exclusively offered online.) 
  • Promotion: We will recognize your school on our website, at industry events & with our Commercial customers when they are looking for interns or talent 
  • Sponsorship: SideFX offers prizes for school-run contests & industry judges to connect students to studios 
  • Class Presentations: Invite us to your class to give an online presentation and/or answer questions about student projects 
  • Portfolio Review: We can't always make campus visits, but can meet with your students online to give feedback on their portfolios

FAQ


Q | Are Education licenses floating or node locked?

A | Our Education licenses are floating and can be installed on a server that is accessible by multiple campuses anywhere in the world. These are known as Global Access Licenses. Houdini Apprentice licenses are node-locked to a single computer.


Q | Can students rent Houdini Education licenses?

A | Yes, any verified student can rent Houdini Education from the SideFX website. In addition, Houdini Education and Apprentice have compatible non-commercial file formats. Students, instructors and researchers can use Houdini Apprentice at home then render out projects without resolution limitations or watermarks at their lab using the Education licenses or they can rent their own Houdini Education licenses for home use.


Q | Are there monthly or multi-year rentals of Houdini Education?

A | At this point, Houdini Education licenses are 12 month rentals only. 


Q | How does the Houdini Education license compare with commercial or indie licenses?

A | You can explore the details in this Comparison Chart: