Terminator Salvation Case Study Posted

Check out the great case study on Terminator Salvation recently posted on the Houdini site!

Great thanks to Asylum Visual Effects for helping us bring public the great techniques utilized through Houdini to make a great FX film.

PS: Trivia for you kids out there. John Courte, recently hired as our LA based Senior Houdini artist just recently wrapped at Asylum before joining us back in March!

John Courte, Jeff Lait, Jenny Blacklock, Silvinna Rocca, and Martin Sawtell at the Side Effects headquarters office in Toronto.

EVENT: Toronto Technical Evening on Crumpling and Tearing

Come join us in Toronto this week :)

Crumpling and Tearing in Houdini 10
Thursday, June 4th, 2009
7:00pm - 9:00pm

This technical evening will cover the new crumpling and tearing features that are available in Houdini 10's physically-based cloth solver. These include support for plastic deformation, dynamic tearing and changing topologies. The presentation will include direction on basic workflows, and fundamental physical properties of cloth objects. Many of these concepts will be supported by working example videos including smashing cars, cutting fabric and collapsing buildings! Presenters for this event will be Side Effects Developer Michiel Hagedoorn, and Side Effects intern Martin Sawtell.

Come along for an informal and interactive evening to see what Houdini 10's cloth simulations tools have to offer.

The evening will conclude with refreshments.

Please register on the event page here.

Customer Highlight: Loki Visual Effects

Check out the amazing work our clients up in Toronto did using Houdini 10 fluids. Who said using beta in production was a bad idea?

Full Press Release
Watch "WenJun".

Toronto’s Loki Visual Effects combine 1000fps Phantom footage with pristine CG for a LVMH Group (Moet Chandon Hennessy) concoction called WenJun. And just in case you think the 3D liquid is all just stylish refraction – according to legend, Chinese poet Sima Xiangru was totally smitten with the widowed lady Zhou Wenjun but afraid to reveal his love. So the poet went down to the lake and played his guqin (a form of zither) so beautifully it caused the water to rise up in fanciful shapes. Agency: Bravo Asia, Director/Cameraman: Steve Gordon @ Sons & Daughters, Production Company: Cheers Films, Shanghai, VFX: Loki Visual Effects, Editor: Bob Kennedy @ Rooster, Music: Mike De Eyre @ Tin Pan.

Local Event: Toronto

(Janet Fraser and some Houdini peeps at the Overdraught in Toronto)

If you're in the Toronto area don't forget to go meet up with the local Houdini Community with THUG at Overdraught restaurant!

date: Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
time: starting at 6pm EST
place: Overdraught restaurant and pub

156 Front Street West
Toronto, ON M5J 2L6, Canada
(416) 408-3925
map

Please note: A few key members of the Side Effects Staff are currently in India with FICCI Frames. Please contact us at community@sidefx.com if you'd like to organize a meeting.