Watch a tutorial of the Motion FX advances in Houdini 10..

After the dramatic UI overhaul and dearth of new features seen by the progression from version 8 to version 9 of Side Effects Houdini, many industry professionals will be keen to see what's in store for its imminent version 10 incarnation. The answer is, in contrast to 9's substantial changes, consolidation and optimization. These efforts focus mainly on improving work flow, refinement of the new dynamics features of 9 and a more solid establishment of Houdini's Python integration via the Houdini Object Module (HOM), with a more complete implementation of commands and more comprehensive documentation.

Workflow Efficiency
In Houdini much time is spent wiring and manipulating nodes. Whereas this process can be automated through the use of H-script and now HOM, this requires scripting knowledge that many users may not have. New features to the network editor have been made which will help to address this and make the process more efficient. Central to these features is node behavior akin to Shake. Nodes will now automatically wire together if placed between two other wired nodes and will also disconnect from nodes when shaken. Other enhancements include automatic selection of parent or children nodes when a node is clicked on while simultaneously holding shift or ctrl respectively. These are small tweaks, but with the advent of large networks undoubtedly useful time savers. The introduction of post-its to enable the user to more easily comment their networks and an upgrade to netboxes, which can now be placed inside one another, are also useful additions. Another noteworthy upgrade is an overhaul to the default alt+e expression editor. This has now been bestowed with a plethora of new tools, such as code indenting, designating comments, undo/redo and search and replace. Previously it was not uncommon to use a third party text editor to load when using the alt+e shortcut, this may do away with that necessity. With regard to UI cosmetics, the most obvious addition is the availability of the 'Houdini Dark' color scheme, which is a little easier on the eyes and was a commonly downloaded color scheme file with version 9. The user is even also able to dictate the width of nodes with the HOUDINI_NODE_WIDTH environment variable. Now that's user power!

Motion FX is the cool new feature aimed at re-establishing the power of one of Houdini's often overlooked contexts: channel operators or CHOPs. Courtesy of Dean Grubb.

The Forgotten Context
Motion FX is the cool new feature aimed at re-establishing in artists' minds the power of one of Houdini's often overlooked contexts: channel operators or CHOPs. Motion FX is accessible via the context menu on any field in the parameter pane and furnishes the user with a range of animation post-processing options. For example, if the user has key framed a bouncing ball (wildly inventive!) they can then use motion effects to cycle the motion, or add a filter such as smooth or noise. Simply right click, select the corresponding option and Houdini will set up the CHOP network, its imports and exports and some sensible defaults. The user is then free to tweak the effect to their liking. Different animation effects can be layered to quickly create movement of high complexity. It is possible to re-create these effects in earlier versions of Houdini manually within CHOPs, but the point of this feature is accessibility and efficiency. The resulting CHOP network can also of course be examined and edited by the user, massively facilitating the learning curve of post processing with the CHOP's context.

Motion FX are not simply limited to editing key framed movement. These effects can be applied to any keyable parameter. They can be used to post process and filter particle birth rates, gravity settings, modeling parameters and literally hundreds if not thousands of other variables from any context of Houdini. That taken into consideration, this feature is potentially extremely powerful.