<s>
Houdini	B-Application
is	O
a	O
3D	O
animation	O
software	B-Application
application	I-Application
developed	O
by	O
Toronto-based	O
SideFX	B-Application
,	O
who	O
adapted	O
it	O
from	O
the	O
PRISMS	O
suite	O
of	O
procedural	O
generation	O
software	B-Application
tools	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Houdini	B-Application
is	O
most	O
commonly	O
used	O
for	O
the	O
creation	O
of	O
visual	O
effects	O
in	O
film	O
and	O
television	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
SideFX	B-Application
also	O
publishes	O
Houdini	B-Application
Apprentice	O
,	O
a	O
limited	O
version	O
of	O
the	O
software	B-Application
that	O
is	O
free	O
of	O
charge	O
for	O
non-commercial	O
use	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Houdini	B-Application
covers	O
all	O
the	O
major	O
areas	O
of	O
3D	O
production	O
,	O
including	O
these	O
:	O
</s>
<s>
Rendering	O
–	O
Houdini	B-Application
ships	O
with	O
SideFX	B-Application
's	O
rendering	O
engines	O
Mantra	O
and	O
Karma	O
;	O
Houdini	B-Application
Indie	O
licence	O
and	O
up	O
support	O
3rd	O
party	O
rendering	O
engines	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
Renderman	B-Application
,	O
Octane	O
,	O
Arnold	O
,	O
Redshift	O
,	O
V-ray	B-Application
,	O
Maxwell(soon )	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Volumetrics	O
–	O
With	O
its	O
native	O
CloudFx	O
and	O
PyroFx	O
toolsets	O
,	O
Houdini	B-Application
can	O
create	O
clouds	O
,	O
smoke	O
and	O
fire	O
simulations	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Houdini	B-Application
is	O
an	O
open	O
environment	O
and	O
supports	O
a	O
variety	O
of	O
scripting	O
APIs	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Python	B-Language
is	O
increasingly	O
the	O
scripting	O
language	O
of	O
choice	O
for	O
the	O
package	O
,	O
and	O
is	O
intended	O
to	O
substitute	O
its	O
original	O
C	O
Shell-like	O
scripting	O
language	O
,	O
HScript	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
However	O
,	O
any	O
major	O
scripting	O
languages	O
which	O
support	O
socket	O
communication	O
can	O
interface	O
with	O
Houdini	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Houdini	B-Application
's	O
procedural	O
nature	O
is	O
found	O
in	O
its	O
operators	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Houdini	B-Application
uses	O
this	O
procedural	O
generation	O
in	O
production	O
of	O
textures	O
,	O
shaders	O
,	O
particles	O
,	O
"	O
channel	O
data	O
"	O
(	O
data	O
used	O
to	O
drive	O
animation	O
)	O
,	O
rendering	O
and	O
compositing	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Houdini	B-Application
's	O
operator-based	O
structure	O
is	O
divided	O
into	O
several	O
main	O
groups	O
:	O
</s>
<s>
VOPs	O
–	O
VEX	O
operators	O
–	O
for	O
building	O
nodes	O
of	O
any	O
of	O
the	O
above	O
types	O
using	O
a	O
highly	O
optimized	O
SIMD	B-Device
architecture	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
node	B-Architecture
graph	I-Architecture
architecture	I-Architecture
is	O
similar	O
to	O
that	O
employed	O
in	O
node-based	O
compositors	O
such	O
as	O
Shake	B-Application
or	O
Nuke	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
this	O
way	O
Houdini	B-Application
can	O
be	O
regarded	O
as	O
a	O
highly	O
interactive	O
visual	O
programming	O
toolkit	O
which	O
makes	O
programming	O
more	O
accessible	O
to	O
artists	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Houdini	B-Application
's	O
set	O
of	O
tools	O
are	O
mostly	O
implemented	O
as	O
operators	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
is	O
one	O
thing	O
to	O
know	O
what	O
all	O
the	O
nodes	O
do	O
–	O
but	O
the	O
key	O
to	O
success	O
with	O
Houdini	B-Application
is	O
understanding	O
how	O
to	O
represent	O
a	O
desired	O
creative	O
outcome	O
as	O
a	O
network	O
of	O
nodes	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Many	O
studios	O
that	O
use	O
Houdini	B-Application
on	O
large	O
feature	O
effects	O
,	O
and	O
feature	O
animation	O
projects	O
develop	O
libraries	O
of	O
procedures	O
that	O
can	O
be	O
used	O
to	O
automate	O
generation	O
of	O
many	O
of	O
the	O
elements	O
for	O
that	O
film	O
with	O
almost	O
no	O
artist	O
interaction	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Also	O
unique	O
to	O
Houdini	B-Application
is	O
the	O
range	O
of	O
I/O	B-General_Concept
OPs	O
available	O
to	O
animators	O
,	O
including	O
MIDI	O
devices	O
,	O
raw	O
files	O
or	O
TCP	B-Protocol
connections	O
,	O
audio	O
devices	O
(	O
including	O
built-in	O
phoneme	B-Language
and	O
pitch	O
detection	O
)	O
,	O
mouse	B-Device
cursor	B-Application
position	O
,	O
and	O
so	O
on	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Of	O
particular	O
note	O
is	O
Houdini	B-Application
's	O
ability	O
to	O
work	O
with	O
audio	O
,	O
including	O
sound	O
and	O
music	O
synthesis	O
and	O
spatial	O
3D	O
sound	O
processing	O
tools	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
VEX	O
(	O
Vector	O
Expression	O
)	O
is	O
one	O
of	O
Houdini	B-Application
's	O
internal	O
languages	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
is	O
similar	O
to	O
the	O
Renderman	B-Application
Shading	I-Application
Language	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
current	O
implementation	O
of	O
VEX	O
utilizes	O
SIMD-style	O
processing	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Houdini	B-Application
is	O
bundled	O
with	O
a	O
production-class	O
renderer	O
,	O
Mantra	O
,	O
which	O
had	O
many	O
similarities	O
to	O
RenderMan	B-Application
in	O
its	O
scope	O
and	O
application	O
in	O
its	O
initial	O
incarnation	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Mantra	O
(	O
as	O
does	O
Houdini	B-Application
itself	O
)	O
also	O
supports	O
point-clouds	O
,	O
which	O
can	O
be	O
similar	O
in	O
application	O
as	O
brickmaps	O
in	O
Renderman	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Mantra	O
can	O
perform	O
extremely	O
fast	O
volume	O
rendering	O
,	O
and	O
also	O
physically	O
based	O
path-tracing	B-Algorithm
–	O
a	O
technique	O
which	O
attempts	O
to	O
more	O
accurately	O
model	O
the	O
physical	O
interactions	O
of	O
light	O
and	O
materials	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Derivative	O
Inc	O
.	O
is	O
a	O
spin-off	O
of	O
Side	O
Effects	O
Software	B-Application
that	O
markets	O
a	O
derivative	O
of	O
Houdini	B-Application
called	O
TouchDesigner	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
Tailored	O
toward	O
real-time	O
OpenGL-generated	O
animation	O
,	O
it	O
was	O
used	O
on	O
rock	O
group	O
Rush	O
's	O
30th-anniversary	O
tour	O
to	O
produce	O
dynamic	O
graphics	O
driven	O
directly	O
by	O
the	O
musicians	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
TouchDesigner	B-Language
was	O
also	O
used	O
by	O
Xite	O
Labs	O
(	O
formerly	O
V	O
Squared	O
Labs	O
)	O
to	O
create	O
live	O
visuals	O
for	O
Amon	O
Tobin	O
's	O
ISAM	O
installation	O
tour	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
notable	O
works	O
in	O
which	O
Houdini	B-Application
was	O
used	O
include	O
the	O
1997	O
Contact	O
movie	O
and	O
more	O
recent	O
2016	O
Zootopia	O
.	O
</s>
