Hi folks, I am curious to know what If Houdini would become the most powerful integration for motion graphics too! C4d is releasing a top notch integration with After Effects and as far I know Houdini can do A LOT LOT LOT better things than those….
So my request is to integrate houdini with after effects…I know it's a huge wish…but it could be done and I am sure. :shock:

Interesting idea but I've come from a C4D/AE background myself and I'm not sure I would like to use AE in conjunction with Houdini. A nodal workflow such as Nuke seems more beneficial and more in tune with how Houdini works itself. Granted I've very little experience of Houdini (6 months learning on the side) and none of Nuke so maybe I'm not the best person to comment on these two working together .

AE seems to create more problems than it solves for jobs I have been doing recently (Linear workflow, multi-pass exr's, slow performance on 4K…). Unless they can sort things out I can see myself trying to switch to something like Nuke in the future as most of my clients ask for 3D work rather than ‘motion graphics’.

Mark Lindner
. A nodal workflow such as Nuke seems more beneficial and more in tune with how Houdini works itself. .

Nuke and Houdini are match-made. You can think of Nuke as an expanded version of Houdini's Composite, COPs.

Mark Lindner
Interesting idea but I've come from a C4D/AE background myself and I'm not sure I would like to use AE in conjunction with Houdini. A nodal workflow such as Nuke seems more beneficial and more in tune with how Houdini works itself. Granted I've very little experience of Houdini (6 months learning on the side) and none of Nuke so maybe I'm not the best person to comment on these two working together .

AE seems to create more problems than it solves for jobs I have been doing recently (Linear workflow, multi-pass exr's, slow performance on 4K…). Unless they can sort things out I can see myself trying to switch to something like Nuke in the future as most of my clients ask for 3D work rather than ‘motion graphics’.

Agreed, But Nuke is super when it comes to VFX with multi passes, but for motion graphics with crunchy and cheesy output After Effect is way better than anyone. Nuke has made a pipeline with simple text effects in there previous release, long way to go with motion graphics with nuke.
I am talking about Motion Graphics. I am experimenting dynamics with Houdini and it has a bright future in mograph I believe…

What exact features would you like to see in this integrated AE-Houdini environment?

Thanks!

MartybNz
What exact features would you like to see in this integrated AE-Houdini environment?

Thanks!

Thanks for your response. I have a list that would be awesome for us:
1. Camera export capability.
2. A direct render output in AE (making objects and dynamics in Houdini and see it in AE instantly) Though AE ray trace render engine is GPU based and expensive. So at least a reference output in AE could be done. There could be a pipeline may be>> Animation in houdini> see the reference in AE> tweaking and editing animation in houdini>final judgment in AE and final render.
3. We can take the advantage of mighty PROCEDURAL system of Houdini to make assets for motion graphics.
4. As texts are our basic elements in motion graphics may be Houdini can help us to extrude it and shader it and of course can help us in dynamic animation as mentioned earlier.
Thanks!

If Houdini Engine is released for After Effects that would similar

MartybNz
If Houdini Engine is released for After Effects that would similar

That would be aweesommme and creamy!

you could try this - it's a bit old but it probably still works
http://www.sidefx.com/exchange/info.php?fileid=498&versionid=498 [sidefx.com]

and check out the cmiVFX tutorial on motion graphics in Houdini…

1. Camera export capability.

Have you had a peek at Atomkraft for AE?
That allows for alembic data to be imported into AE. I don't know the AE-version yet, but the other Atomkraft releases would work without the license if you were to just import things and not use the renderer. That was a way to get alembic into Nuke for example, before they had their own native implementation.

You should check it out.

Thanks all. I haven't checked Atomkraft, Will check it for sure.

But the beauty of Houdini I believe is it's self fulfillment. Houdini has all the fetures from fractals to crowd sim, from volumetric to fluid. So I really don't support having plugins from 3rd party. I need Houdini in boss mode. :twisted:

I didn't work with AE , But I know you right , AE is great and very simple for Motion Graphics .
I don't know about supporting Python in AE , If it's support , so maybe you can write your own pipeline tool.
I'm a Maya user too and I wrote a python tool in the Maya for integrate Nuke on it.
Introduction Video :
https://vimeo.com/78813008 [vimeo.com]

Joker386
I didn't work with AE , But I know you right , AE is great and very simple for Motion Graphics .
I don't know about supporting Python in AE , If it's support , so maybe you can write your own pipeline tool.
I'm a Maya user too and I wrote a python tool in the Maya for integrate Nuke on it.
Introduction Video :
https://vimeo.com/78813008 [vimeo.com]

wow! can you develop one for ae too? I am very rookie in py..

cgvirus

Joker386
I didn't work with AE , But I know you right , AE is great and very simple for Motion Graphics .
I don't know about supporting Python in AE , If it's support , so maybe you can write your own pipeline tool.
I'm a Maya user too and I wrote a python tool in the Maya for integrate Nuke on it.
Introduction Video :
https://vimeo.com/78813008 [vimeo.com]

wow! can you develop one for ae too? I am very rookie in py..

unfortunately I'm not familiar to AE , But it's good time for you to start learning Python , I think learning python is not very hard and we have too many tutorials in the Internet. :wink:

But as arctor said , try this tool , maybe it can help you 8)

http://www.sidefx.com/exchange/info.php?fileid=498&versionid=498 [sidefx.com]

My thoughts on Houdini engine for AE:



Houdini has the potential to be the dominant 3D motion graphics tool as it has a much more consistent and integrated design environment and somewhat broader capability than C4D, it just needs a couple things to make it more mograph friendly:

-Houdini engine for AE would make it WAY more usable for motion graphics artists

-work on improving the Illustrator curve import. As a motion graphics designer learning how to use houdini, trying to get my Illustrator files to import correctly and create usable geometry is the single biggest thorn in my side. It doesn't seem like it'd take much work to really nail this, it just has to be an area of focus for SideFX.

Not going to go into a rant on why I dislike how and what Adobe does with their products, but whatever ‘integration’ would mean , I'm ok so long as my copy of Houdini can run without anything to do with Adobe at all.

I don't think any part of this solution would require you to use After Effects if you don't want to, we're just asking for SideFX to consider adding a Houdini Engine plugin for After Effects, similar to what they have for various other 3d software and game engines.

The most important thing to work together with AE for mothion graphic is import/export object anmiation especially Camera Animation.

jerry7
The most important thing to work together with AE for mothion graphic is import/export object anmiation especially Camera Animation.

I'm an utter Houdini noob, only installed it yesterday. My background was 3DSMax, then Blender. Starting to get my head round things. Just about. (hey look, I made a cube)

But I know one of the first things I'm going to have to try and do if/once I get up to speed (like in 6 months or so - Ha!) is create some sort of camera exporter for After Effects, if I can't find one.

I understand the reaction in this thread - AE does seem to belong in a different tier of visual s/ware to Houdini - but it's the tool some of us are comfortable comping in. And I've got a swathe of AE plugins I'd like to be able to use along with my output from Houdini. Plus it's incredibly fast at some things… Particular's particle systems ain't any where near as industrial strength as Houdini's, but they render lightning fast (yay GPU), and are perfect for certain situations. Especially on short deadlines.

So yep - outputting camera and object animations is pretty important to me, but I'm not as interested in the idea of an AE Houdini Engine; I'm not sure whether the cost/benefit ratio would make it worthwhile.

That moment when you see your old noob thread awakes….lol…..What an idiot I was and still today.These days I don't even play with AE anymore. May be it's still a requirement for many but not for me anymore. Technology has gone too far. After realtime render engines AE has become to my pipeline only a tool for 2D animation, infact that is changing as well. When I started exploring nodes more I started loving nuke/fusion/Blender, Unreal and Houdini. It's faster and flexible in that way. Sorry to bother SideFX Team….It was 2014