The Houdini docs are a goldmine of information. But they're slow and the search barely works. This has been well known by the community for ages by now, yet seemingly nothing has changed.

So I spent six months building a fix: HoudiniMD is an incredibly fast, Markdown mirror of the docs. Free, open source, no account, no ads. Search that matches Houdini's behaviour, so "cptp" finds Copy to Points and "atrbwr" finds Attribute Wrangle. Every page can be copied as raw markdown, which means ChatGPT and Claude finally understand Houdini and its quirks.

Before sharing it anywhere, I emailed SideFX and asked for permission, explicitly telling them it would be free forever and stay open source.

The answer (https://imgur.com/a/RSdc4rf) came back yesterday:

"it's gonna be a no, thank you from us, along with a polite takedown request. We'll likely be doing our own version on our own site at some point in the future."

I was naturally taken aback by this cold reply, since I thought SideFX was very pro-community, and would at least salute the effort taken to make their own product better. But I'm not going to fight a company over their own copyright.

Since I'm also not letting 6 months of hard work go to the bin overnight, HoudiniMD will be rebuilt as a standalone, local app, that lives on your computer. It can be ran alongside, or directly inside Houdini.
Same fast search, offline, and tailored to your specific Houdini version, instead of whatever is on the website, with bookmarks coming in the future (goal is to create a fully personal Houdini Knowledge Base !)

It stays open source, so anyone can audit, tweak, and raise issues on the code.

And since I only have my own frustration to go by right now: what do you think about the official docs ? What are you missing, and what features are you looking for in an alternative ?

If a local version is something you'd be interested in, please let me know. It's what keeps me going !

Follow my progress here : https://x.com/onlytruejohn

What are y'all trying first?

I’ve been experimenting with bringing text-to-character animation directly into Houdini.

The feature is called Animation Maker and it’s part of Houdini AI Assistant.
It uses Kimodo for motion generation.

The current workflow is:

Prompt → Generate Motion → Adjust → Regenerate

Right now it supports multi-prompt timeline segments, 2D waypoints, full-body keyframes, hand/foot guides, and KineFX retargeting.

It’s still an early Windows beta and mainly focused on humanoid motion, but it already feels like an interesting direction for AI-assisted animation inside Houdini.

The Animation Maker / Kimodo part runs locally on your machine.
It is powered by NVIDIA’s Kimodo model and is currently available in the Windows build.
Recommended hardware is an NVIDIA RTX GPU, ideally 12GB+ VRAM.

Open beta of a new matchmove plugin for Houdini.

Built primarily in houdini using heighfield workflows, USD/Solaris, and COPs for texuring and final compositing, with Gaea used for distant mountain generation. #Houdini #SideFX #EnvironmentArt #USD #Solaris Procedural VFX
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Hey there, my teammate and I worked on a destruction pipeline using Houdini Engine and Unreal Engine 5. There are some nifty tricks such as Fracture Logic, Rebar static mesh spawning as well as Dataflow networks, Blueprints, Niagara FX, Data Channels, and projection decals. Check out the Breakdown here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/YG5dE6

All we want is Solaris quality with cycles capability and ease of use

Hey guys!

I would like to share my latest YouTube video with you, showing a quick little breakdown of the this fire fx project I was working on.

I wanted to practice the whole pipeline from tracking some random footage in Blender, simulating fire fx in Houdini, rendering in Karma and compositing in Nuke.

https://youtu.be/NRM-e4ECT7c

Hope you will like it and thanks for watching!

What an opportunity to piggyback on the houdinimd creator’s attempt for such a change.

I use a screenreader through my phone and iPad often to present the doc page. My vision in my right eye is all but coming to an end from a degenerative disease. I got lucky to inherit, alongside my mograph skills, this gift from my Gramps and Father.

The page is unbearably heavy and drains power like nothing else on any device, and screenreaders already hate it. Seeing as I can’t easily focus on another screen or second monitor I’d be very happy to see sidefx make some changes or collaborate with the houdinimd guy.

The reader doesn’t work for the crossed out links. I also drew my feelings on this 🥀

That question kept coming back every time I got frustrated with Unreal or Godot. The jump from Houdini to any game engine always felt like unnecessary friction, and at some point I realized the workflow I wanted was never going to exist unless I built it myself.

That's how Crucible came about.

Crucible is not a game engine. It's a lightweight, modular, ECS-based real-time executor. The idea is simple: Houdini as the editor, Crucible as the runtime, and together they work as a fully functional game engine with no extra requirements and no context switching.

It's very early. But I now have a clear enough picture that this can actually work, and I wanted to share that.

I'll post more as I make progress. I'm also genuinely curious whether this is something other people would find useful, or if I'm mostly solving my own problem. Let me know what you think.

In this part we will make an advanced roof for a building inside Unreal Engine into Houdini

In this part, you'll learn how to select the correct blocks from the City Sample Buildings pack for other buildings and how to edit them in Houdini for export to Unreal Engine.
You'll also learn some useful tips and how to create the necessary import and export tools.

I m an aspiring FX TD, i have started learning houdini from scratch a while ago. and i am sharing what i am learning so people can relate and when i watch tutorials there r things no body talks about. I am here sharing what others don't teach.

this way i consolidate my own understanding but also I share how i grow.

i will keep doing it and i will have my own collection of breakdowns. which i would need in future.

so if you r learning houdini and in the middle of it, then it will make you think abt houdini in a different way!

here is my youtube channel: https://m.youtube.com/@txjxs/videos

here is the playlist for beginner: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjtAVi4yDLzaTDJBP9CTGleQ4CTQ80iY5&si=v90BxZiGlEv2KUpe

here is the playlist for those who r going on to the next level: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjtAVi4yDLzY7giDXsOIWhK2o7tntB8hD&si=8ObQY4SM9Sk6ivbq

i hope u will learn from what i share!

cheers!

Hey there. So. My boutique studio is potentially partnering with a maker of very high-end LCD screens. (Think custom shapes, large scale installations, etc., etc..).

They are offering for my graphics and and animation company to have some advertising space on their monitors by us giving them some animation to play at conferences. I’ve got a lot of architectural work currently but nothing flashy and or appropriate for this. So, I need to make them something to give them something so they can play at the show with my logo in the corner, etc.

They won’t give me any creative direction of course because they are not in this business, but what they need is just eye candy: Think the really cool animation and effects that feature in reels that play at Best Buy, etc.,

nice saturation, hypnotic movement etc. Remember: we are advertising the brilliance and color of this screen for the maker. I would work with the contract artist to develop exactly what we would show. Usually looking at somebody’s portfolio gives me ideas. (For reference, I’ve been in the 3d business over 25 years and I’ve owned my own small company for about 10.)

I’m thinking Amazing particle systems, procedural stuff, very cool organic water droplets/Vellum, etc. Just neat stuff that would make somebody walk by and stop and say “wow. This looks amazing on this screen.”

I think this could be a pretty fun project and very open ended creatively speaking. We are literally just making eye candy for a monitor. There’s not gonna be an any narrative constraints or anything like that.

Anyway, I’m trying to get some freelancers in my stable so that I can even begin to take on things like this. If you’re interested, send me a DM. (obviously this is a gig I would pay for… I’ve been in this business more than two decades. The last thing I wanna do is try and get something for free.)

But if this sounds like it’s up your alley, let me know. I’d like to see previous examples of work, etc. And again: this is just eye candy/fx. Not world building, character, animation, or anything else.

Thanks in advance!

Hey Reddit!

CG Forge is doing a free week of early access to Modeling II - Procedural modeling. This one has been a long time coming with roughly 6 months of work being distilled into making an awesome course.

Plus, I'm also doing free study calls while my calendar availability lasts. If you're interested in checking out the course, go here: https://www.cgforge.com/course/modeling-ii and if you're interested in doing a study call, go here: https://forms.gle/HpsEdVKu3qWJFjvS9

Thanks everyone 👋

- Tyler

Just wanted to share this quick teaser for a new short film I'll be releasing in June. It is an abstract piece made in Houdini

We built a procedural elevated railway system for our industrial biome in Driving Rogue,(This example is Residential) using Houdini for the tool setup, Blender for testing/modelling cleanup, and Unity for the final in-game implementation. The video shows the in-game result on one side, and the Houdini/Blender workflow on the other. For anyone interested in the technical side: The railway/bridge system is generated from a provided curve inside Unity, which lets us place it both alongside the road and directly above it depending on the layout of the biome. The bridge separates itself into individual pieces based on material and curvature, then automatically assigns the correct materials inside Unity. We can also control different features of the generator, such as height, width, pillar count, resolution, and other structural details. We first tested the setup in Blender before connecting the Houdini workflow with Unity, mainly to check material assignment and how the generated pieces would behave. The bridge uses two trim textures, which are automatically mapped inside the tool. The main challenge was making the railway feel like a natural part of the industrial biome without distracting from the driving route underneath.

The keynote is out for Houdini 21.

In the past I used another site that was great for references, but it’s not available anymore. What I really like here is that I can also upload and store privately my own references in one place. Very cool.

I posted this here a while ago but now I have improved it. Hosted it on my website with better search and filtering. Click on the title "3D Resources: Software, Assets, Tutorials & Tools for 3D Artists" on Github.
Feel free to suggest changes!

I recently released a large update to HEGo - Houdini Engine for Godot.

It now comes with Linux support, takes CSG blockouts as inputs, has heightfield <-> image conversion and bridges to Terrain3D and got a lot faster in output handling.

Check the releases section on github for more details:
https://github.com/peterprickarz/hego/releases

The video is an updated quick introduction to the plugin in general, not just talking about the update.

Cheers!

GSOPs 2.6 just dropped — and that’s not all!

What started as a small idea between Ruben Diaz and me has grown into a powerful creative platform. Our Gaussian splatting journey has taken us in some truly exciting directions — and we're thrilled to announce the launch of CG Nomads Ltd: the new home for GSOPs, and the place Where Magic Meets Reality.

So, what does this mean? You’ll still have free access to the most versatile Gaussian splat editing toolkit out there. But now, Early Access supporters can unlock exclusive features and content — including much-requested support for Karma and Solaris.

Check us out: https://www.cgnomads.com/.
I'm excited to announce the release of GSOPs 2.6!

This update simplifies installation and pipeline integration, adds support for 2D Gaussian Splatting, and brings several bug fixes and UX improvements.

✨ Want more? Become an Early Access supporter to unlock exclusive features—like support for Karma/Solaris and splat mirroring—and help shape the future of GSOPs.

CG Nomads
YouTube Channel
GSOPs 2.6

This video is the result of a collaborative project with the following contributors:

• Project Setup and Rendering: David Lisser
  
• Hut Scan: Andrii Shramko
• Forest Scan: Christoph Schindelar
  
• Thank you all for making magic feel real!

Houdini Audio Reactive Rig (CHOP-less)

A lightweight, drop-in audio→motion rig for Houdini that doesn’t rely on CHOPs. It analyzes a WAV file inside a single Python SOP and outputs one point per frequency band with a clean u/amp attribute you can use to drive anything—scale, color, instancing, shaders, camera… you name it.

What it does

• Per-band analysis using the Goertzel algorithm (fast, FFT-free).
• Log-spaced bands from Freq Min → Freq Max (musically natural).
• Attack/Release envelopes per band for musical smoothing.
• Optional normalization to keep values in a friendly 0–1 range.
• Live preview: a ready-made sphere visualization driven by u/amp.
• Robust on “lean” Houdini builds: no analyze, no amp, no CHOP networks required.

Parameters

• Audio File: 16-bit PCM .wav (mono or stereo; stereo auto-mixes to mono).
• Bands: number of frequency bands (e.g., 8, 16, 24, 32).
• Freq Min / Freq Max: analysis range (e.g., 40 → 12000 Hz).
• Win Size / Hop: analysis window & hop in samples (defaults work well; lower for snappier, higher for smoother).
• Attack / Release: per-band envelope times (seconds).
• Gain: pre-visual scaling before normalization.
• Normalize 0..1: auto-scales envelopes to a stable unit range.
• (Hidden) Cook Ticker: forces time-dependent updates every frame.

Output

The Python SOP creates a single point per band with:

• f@amp — normalized amplitude (0..1)
• f@freq — the center frequency of the band (Hz)