(Almost) complete modelling noob here, is there any reason Houdini

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I've been using it as a generalist tool (including modeling) for a long time, so I'll try to give my 2 cents.

Houdini has traditionally been a vfx/td tool and very few people attempted to use it for traditional modeling. Since straight poly-modeling is one of the easiest things to transfer between packages, the urgency and focus to improve that facet of the program wasn't really there. I mean, SideFX did improve it over the years here and there, but realistically the modeling tools were not a showstopper for their customers.

Things have kind of changed and more people outside of vfx are coming over to Houdini, and there is big internal push to expand it beyond vfx. I believe SideFX hired on a couple of ex-softimage devs and it seems like good number of SI users moved over to Houdini as well. They've contributed a lot of ideas on improving the modeling/workflow aspects of Houdini (there's a bigass thread in the SI subforum on sidefx) and some of that has been incorporated into 15.5/16.

I also really like the modeling tools in the latest release, but like you I'm not up-to-date on other programs like Modo/Max/Maya. I've used them all at some point but not in the capacity of a modeler who's job it is to crank out awesome models day after day. I'm thinking if you're really proficient in another modeler and you have all your scripts and plugins to buff up your workflow, switching to Houdini as a modeler might be a hard sell. Not saying it's baby duck syndrome. More like, why bother when it's so easy to transfer models and why do it if Houdini's modeling tools aren't vastly superior.

Personally I'm really used to having Houdini's network editor and being able to branch off things, modify them and merge them back in, and all the other useful stuff you can do in a procedural workflow (even when you are modeling in a mostly destructive fashion).

Modelling in Houdini is like killing a fly with a Howitzer

>>561357
So is it really easy or is it amazing or what?

Your analogy is terrible.

>>561373
This analogy fits perfectly, you are just to dumb to understand it.

Can you kill a fly with a Howitzer?
Does it make sense to use it?

>>561448
no its a terrible analogy. Houdini is shit for modelling. Think maya but worse. Much, much worse.

in terms of modelling

Modo > max > xsi > giant sea of shit > houdini

>>561449
t. hasn't used Houdini after 14

>>561450
t. shill

>>561451

Not that guy, but one of SideFX's primary goals is to improve modelling in Houdini to make it a one-stop-shop.

>>561455
shoo shoo shills. Have a (you)

>>561449
If you think Max's modeling tools are superior to Softimage you are sniffing glue. Also, Modo's workflow is based on Lightwave. A study done by blender guru of all major software found that for the same action Softimage required fewer clicks to achieve the same effect than Maya or Max.

Houdini's strengths is the proceduralism of creation, and the analogy of the howitzer is to say that the variation that you can create within the workflow can be a bit overbearing. Most 3D assets usually require less iteration than Houdini allows, but it all depends on what your target is. If you look at how modern open world games are made, you will notice Houdini is involved in most of them because you can populate worlds procedurally quickly rather than by one by one. You probably could have done something similar with Softimage's ICE environment, but Autodesk decided that Maya and Max were more popular so they killed the better app.

>>561449
No, no, NO you STILL don't get the analogy.

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>>561460
>A study done by blender guru of all major software found that for the same action Softimage required fewer clicks to achieve the same effect than Maya or Max.


>Autodesk decided that Maya and Max were more popular so they killed the better app.
>the better app.