All images from The Magic of Houdini by Will Cunningham. Reprinted with permission.

This is the first of a new series of excerpts from the Thomson Course Technology book The Magic of Houdini by Will Cunningham. In the next few months VFXWorld readers will learn the basics of the dominant tool that has been used in the creation of some of the most awe-inspiring animation and cinematic effects ever made.

Why This Book Was Written
Because it was sorely needed! This project swirled and coalesced from the origins of several years spent teaching and never having exactly the material I wanted to use for instruction. It grew from meager, isolated exercises into a cohesive, comprehensive whole that should serve well in getting essential information to a beginner and also giving more knowledgeable users a resource for studying areas new to them. Houdini is a vast package of immense capabilities. Hopefully, this book will help you through some areas you have yet to explore and give additional insight in areas you are already familiar with.

Basically, this book is the compilation of almost everything I wish I had when I was trying to scale the peaks of a package with a steep learning curve and few resources to get you going. In addition, it takes a few steps beyond that and introduces topics like VOPs and DOPs, which are areas where even the most seasoned professionals can often use more practice. They may sound strange, but VOPs and DOPs are just acronyms for various contexts within Houdini. VOPs means VEX Operators and DOPs means Dynamics Operators. As you progress through the book, you will get familiar with these and a number of other contexts.

History of Computer Animation at a Blink
Somewhere and some time in the volumetrically foggy past, you must have been dazzled by the artistry of this medium. Most everyone in this industry can trace his or her enthusiasm back to some seminal moment in days gone by where the magic of the movie moment was enthralling and lasting. The past few decades have introduced and cemented the use of computer graphics across the visual medium. What was once limited to research and graduate projects has spread to become fully integrated in the fields of television, research visualization, art, print media, video games, the Internet and, of course, feature films. Movies like Tron (1982) and The Last Starfighter (1984) were among the first to beautifully integrate computer animation with live-action on the big screen.

As the technology progressed, more and more films began to incorporate the new medium in order to enrich an environment, create an entirely imaginary one, add effects that were too costly, dangerous, or impractical to perform in real life and more. Then The Abyss (1989) entered the stage and indelibly made 3D animation a part of the production process. The stunning effects achieved by Industrial Light & Magic in this film brought those beautiful pseudopods and for the first time showed that a totally fabricated 3D character could evoke and embody emotion. Since that time, we have been the fortunate viewers to a maturing process that continues to hold me in thrall.

History of Houdini at a Glance
Having been a Houdini intern in days gone by for Side Effects, I’ve met most of the folks who work there and they are all very cordial and civilized. I nevertheless continue to believe that all the programmers, at least, live in a dark cave somewhere outside of Toronto and do nothing but work to improve the software. During the various company gatherings and my chances to meet the Canadian contingent of employees, I was continually impressed that the long years of isolated living in near lightless conditions hadn’t made any of them socially inept or unduly increased the size of their eyes and pupils.

It is rare to encounter a company that is among the top competitors in its field and yet also maintains a very friendly and informal air. This attitude prevails throughout the Houdini community as well and is part of what makes it such a great package to use.

PRISMS and then Houdini have been used in some of the most innovative films ever created, including What Dreams May Come, The Matrix, Titanic, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and more. It is a good bet that if you go to the theatre and see something that blows your mind, Houdini had a hand in it. In 1998 Side Effects received a technical achievement award from The Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences for the procedural modeling and animation components of PRISMS, (which were passed along and continue to be refined in Houdini). In 2002, the Apprentice edition was released and so finally the masses had legal access to the software for learning and tinkering. This free learning version has almost all the functionality of the complete Master version and so is a great way to learn the package — and you don’t have to worry about the FBI coming to your house inquiring about what you’ve downloaded recently! In 2003, The Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences awarded numerous folk at Side Effects the Academy plaque in honor of their contribution to the movie making process. In 2005, Side Effects finally incorporated an integrated Rigid Body Dynamics and Soft Body Dynamics context in the package, much to the profound happiness of its users!

Check out www.sidefx.com/company/history/index.html for more information about Houdini’s history and its innovations in the industry. As they say, it’s always good to know your roots.