Bored? (A New Toy)

[Ben Feuer]

May not be new to all of ya'll, but I'd never tried it.

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_download&task=apprentice&Itemid=89

The link is to a free 'learning edition' beta of Houdini 9.
It's been used in *everything*, Monster House, Spiderman 3 (for the TOTALLY AWESOME Sandman sequence), it has great particles and dynamics.
The beta does everything except export objects and render to ++ resolutions. No expiration.
I heard earlier versions were tough to get your head around but I think this version's got a fair learning curve. Free tuts and all, nice community. I'm digging it and I know jack about 3d.
If you're planning to do VFX, it's worth a try.

 

[Curran Giddens]

Thanks for the link. Now if only they made an osx version....

 

[Ben Feuer]

One argument for Boot Camp...

 

[Brad Hawkins]

Side effects offers lots of free or cheap (<$100) workshops for those in the LA area. They are usually on the weekend and they usually offer 2 or 3 at a time. So you might do something like "modeling" in the morning and "animating" in the afternoon, and "rendering" in the evening.

If you sign up for the LA Siggraph mailing list you'll get the announcement next time they offer their workshops. :biggrin:

 

[Rocco Schult]

hey, it does full SD and with Linux, FreeBSD might not be so far away...

 

[Brad Hawkins]

Here a link to their newest session of training from SideFX. $60, not bad :meh:

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=887&Itemid=215