Recently, my former employer, Electric Image, released a new version of their consumer level 3d ware called Amorphium3. I worked on development of original version of this software back in 1997, and have followed its development. Anyhow they claim that this new version suppourted true Catmaul-Clark sub-division surfaces, like in PIXAR's Renderman, and of course Houdini. So I ran a test. I exported the sub-d cage out of my Houdini project, of that centaur creature, and imported the cage into Amorphium3 to see if the resulting surface would be same as render sub-d and Subdivide SOP in Houdini.
It was close. Close enough that I would say that their claim is true. So I cobbled together a screen shot of cage, mesh, and smooth OpenGL. You can see it at
http://sv2.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/imgView.php?imgID=6518 [sv2.3dbuzz.com]
As a lighhearted joke, I put in a screen shot description that the screen cap was taken of my super wide 4.50:1 aspect monitor. Obviously I don't have such a thing, and it doesn't even exist. I even called it Moneypit Graphics. So over next two days, I got ton of e-mails asking me where did I get this monitor.
I found it amusing, that instead of commenting on how to improve the model, or how had Houdini made it easier to construct it, people actually care more the hardware. Go figure!
As I promised, this model will be made available for free to Houdini community. As my thank you for the help that I received from users and SESI personnell. As an Apprentice user, I definatly did not expect, nor did I deserve the level of attention I received. Sence I am first a 3d modeler, the best way I can thank all those that helped me, is to make available some free high quality geometry. In the future, as circumstances allow, I intend to make other Houdini created models available free of charge for non-commercial use.
David Rindner