WHAT'S NEW
Houdini 20.5 includes hundreds of new workflows and improvements including the MPM solver for solid mechanics, Copernicus for image processing, Quick Surface Materials for access to Material X and new rigging and animation tools.
Keynote
Sneak Peek
Modeling & UX
Modeling tools include an updated Clip, a new Planar Inflate and Point Cloud tools. New UX enhancements include the Node Info Window and Recipes.
VFX
The new MPM Solver lets you simulate materials such as snow, soil, mud, and more. There is also a new RBD Car Rig.
Copernicus
Explore the new 2D and 3D GPU-based image framework designed to create procedural texture maps, NPR/toon shading and Slap Comps.
Character Animation
Starting with Animation Layers, enjoy a suite of new animation tools designed to streamline the keyframing of character motion.
Character Rigging
Discover the magic of tags which make it easier to set up procedural character and creature rigs using pre-built rig components.
Lookdev
Use new Solaris workflows for layout, lookdev and lighting then render with Karma XPU which now has Adaptive Sampling making it much faster.
Modeling & UX
There are complete rewrites of key modeling tools such as Clip and Sculpt designed to make them work with dense meshes at interactive speeds. The new Sculpt SOP features new brushes, stroke types, masking controls, a reworked interactive viewport state, and non-destructive workflow. Quad Remesh is still in beta but continues to get more accurate while offering control over the resulting mesh. The new Info Panel creates a better experience for artists working with node networks.
Clip
The new Clip tool works with high density meshes and can now cap all the holes to keep models airtight.
UX | Node Info Window
The MMB info window has a new look for readability and can be docked along with your other panes.
Planar Inflate & Sculpt
Use Planar inflate to shape your geometry then use Quad Remesh (beta) to clean up the topology and add detail with the new Sculpt.
Point Clouds
Point Cloud Measure interprets unorganized points without needing to convert them into a surfaces or volumes.
UX | RECIPES
Houdini now lets you save a set of parameter values, or a set of network items – such as nodes, dots, sticky notes and boxes – as a named recipe. You can then apply those parameter values, or recreate those nodes, as often as you want. You can create three types of recipes:
- Parameter Presets - Save a set of parameter values and even spare parameters on a node as a recipe then apply those saved parameter values to other nodes. You can apply the preset to an existing node when you want to set those values all at once.
- Tools - A tool recipe saves a node or set of nodes, including their wiring and current parameter values, as a new tool on the tab menu. You can then get the tool from the tab menu to recreate the setup.
- Decorations - A decoration is similar to a tool recipe, but you designate one node as the central node that acts as a placeholder for applying the decoration.
SIDEFX LABS
Project Dryad
Project Dryad is a suite of biome generation tools that will be coming soon from SideFX Labs. Some of these tools are already available and you can explore them in the Content Library.
The tool set is designed to be a sophisticated vegetation scattering system using realistic real world data points. The tool will consider a wide range of factors such as terrain, sunlight, temperature, precipitation, water retention, soil quality and more.