Several years back I developed a plugin for Cinema 4D called Hangover. Not only did it make me a few bucks, more importantly it was a great learning experience since it really pushed me out of my comfort zone with Python. I owe this to one person’s encouragement. That fellow is James Owen or also known as Chiny or as I had met him, Hypoly. I’m sure you have seen some of his work online. Maybe a few Vimeo Staff Picks or are even using some of his tools. James is an award winning designer and director within the motion graphics […]

If you’ve been involved any length of time with Houdini, I’m sure you have come across GridMarkets. First, they are one of the biggest supporters of the Houdini community. Through their engagement on a plethora of social media platforms, they support Houdini artists through promotion, feature articles and helping spread the latest news in the Houdini world. Besides the community involvement, GridMarkets also provides an incredible service for Houdini users. If you have been thinking about a fast, affordable, secure and easy to use way to leverage cloud rendering, you have found it with GridMarkets. The great thing is they also support […]

There is a great deal of training out there but finding high quality training is hard. Finding training that makes you feel like you have leveled up your game is even harder. Enter Senior Rigid Body Destruction / FX Technical Director at Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light & Magic Steven Knipping. After watching his Applied Houdini training I had to reach out to him and learn what makes him tick. I figured being Senior FX TD at ILM, Steven would be too busy but I was stoked when he gladly agreed to answer some of my questions. Grab your coffee because Steven gives […]

I remember glancing at a disintegration tutorial years back done in Houdini but at the time the application was still so foreign to me. Once I began working more with Houdini, the name varomix kept popping up when searching for Houdini training. I was impressed by the disintegration tutorial and a few others he had created at the time so I signed up for some of his training. I was pleasantly surprised at the laid back style of teaching and the cool tools he was creating whether in Houdini or Python. Needless to say, I watched a bunch of his stuff. Varomix has created a […]

If you’ve seen the Nike Air 1 Max spot by Aixsponza Studio, I’m sure you want to know who the wizards are behind the spot. One of these individuals behind the magic is Ben Watts. You probably know Ben from his excellent Cinema 4D and Houdini tutorials. Originally a Cinema 4D artist, Ben is now a full on heavyweight freelance Houdini VFX artist. I was able to steal a bit of time away from Ben to answer some of my questions. Folks, I present to you Mr. Ben Watts and his journey into the Houdini artistry. 990 Ben, give us a little background […]

Back in the day before the Twitters, Facebooks, and SnapChats of the world took over, most of us would frequent message boards to mingle and keep up with current events. Many folks just getting into the industry and industry veterans would hang out and talk shop. There was a great deal of knowledge-sharing going on. One these fellows spreading his smarts was Adam Swaab. Needless to say, he is still spreading the knowledge. Some of you may know him from his fantastic Houdini training over at helloluxx.com. What you may not know is he was previously a Cinema 4D user before moving on […]

If you’ve just recently jumped into the Houdini world, you most likely searched around for tutorials to get a handle of the basics. There is no doubt you have come across the name Rohan Dalvi and if you haven’t, I’m here to present to you one of the best trainers out there in Houdini circles. Rohan is a busy guy but he was gracious enough to lend some time answering a few of my questions. It turned out to be more of a conversation than an interview which is great! We learned a bit about what makes the man tick […]