Tokyo Roundup - September 2009

Just got back from our visit with the Houdini users in Tokyo and IndyZone, the Japanese reseller of Houdini for almost 2 years now.

This was my 3rd time going to the Land of the Rising Sun, and John Courte's (Senior Houdini Artist) first.

Our primary purpose there was to meet with several long time clients and to get together with the Houdini Gurus in the area, many of whom were long time devotees and users of Prisms.

We also attended the CEDEC conference in Yokohama as part of the SGI presence. SGI was kind enough to have over all the way from Amsterdam, Paulus Bannink, Lead Technical Director at Guerrilla Games. He was kind enough to re-present his talk at SIGGRAPH 2009 in New Orleans on using Houdini for Games in Killzone 2.

Just wanted to thank everyone who helped organize another wonderful trip while we were there. Especially the folks at SGI for not just our attendance at CEDEC, but hosting the Houdini Usergroup Meeting at the beautiful Yebisu Garden Place, home of SGI.

Here are a few photos of our time in Tokyo:

Hanging out with Daniel Ferreira, now at SEGA Sammy. He helped us build the Houdini 10 Crumpling and tearing tools while working on GI Joe at Digital Domain.

Paulus' presentation at the CEDEC conference in Yokohama.

American tourists in Tokyo. John and I on a photo-taking journey of Yokohama.

SGI slide showing a legacy of machines just before the Houdini Usergroup Meeting at Yebisu Gardens.

Ichiro Tanaka of IndyZone introducing John Courte.

Explaining some new UI enhancements in Houdini 10

Japanese users gather.

After party. Here I am with Abe-san from Square!

Japanese users eating and drinking!

We'll see you again in December Japan, for SIGGRAPH Asia!