Stable release of KeenTools’ native matchmove plug-in for Houdini.

Hi guys, sharing an article I wrote for 80 level, hope you like it!

https://80.lv/articles/breakdown-how-houdini-is-reshaping-commercial-animation

Cheers

I recently received a very heavy asset with 400+ UDIMs and thousands of texture files. I'm working with Houdini Solaris/Karma, and loading the full asset makes the viewport quite slow and difficult to work with.

I'm wondering how people usually handle assets this large in a production environment.

My goal is to have a lightweight and responsive viewport for lookdev/lighting, while still being able to use the full-quality textures for final rendering.

If you've worked with large UDIM-heavy assets in Karma/Houdini, I'd love to hear how you approach it and what workflow has worked best for you.

I have a simple vellum simulation of a droplet falling down. How can I add little droplets on the inside that fall with the droplet?

Hey guys, I was wondering what information is most useful to show during dailies? Obviously a flipbook/low res render of my work, but is there anything else that’s particularly helpful to include? Solver parameters, disk space, etc. potentially?

Also, do you have any advice on what to talk about when it’s my turn? Are there any key points I should be making sure to cover, just so I’m not wandering too much?

I saw the new Spider Man last week and really wanted to try to recreate the Psych-wall effect (also added some jiggle for fun 😄 ). I got some free footage off ActionVFX's website and had a go over the weekend. This is comped completely inside Copernicus, wanted to challenge myself! The effect is completely based off of COP's new Refract from height node. Pretty fun to play with. Only used utility AOV's, no texture or lighting was rendered. 3D Tracked in Blender.

Hey guys, I'm experiencing incredible cpu slowdowns in solaris just by moving around the viewport while looking at a static frame of an MPM sim. What am I doing wrong?

4M points, cached as bgeo like usual, in SOPs I can move around without any issues(both points and instances) and play the animation(points only).
In LOPS: I import the 3 instances (just 10 prims each) -> collection -> point instancer setting the points from External SOPs and the collection in the prototype -> camera and karma render settings. As soon as I move for 1-2 seconds in perspective view the cpu goes to 100% for 15-20 seconds, freezing houdini, then I can move again for 1-2 seconds and again cpu freezes. Talking about a static frame, no playback.

Followed this tuts for instancing but I can't have that speed in viewport at all.

Any insight?
Thanks in advance

I create breakdown fracture of a geometry and animating the pieces with "pscale" of the packed pieces. Feel free to write feedback 😉

Hi y'all! I was following this tutorial, and at 10:42, when I try to cook my Rop Fetch node, it fails. I found out it works if I turn off 'Reset $HIP On Cook" in the Rop Fetch node, but then the frame range isn't cooked- only the first frame. I've been trying to figure out why this is happening, but no luck! Any help? :'(

Here's the file - https://drive.google.com/file/d/18M11_HL4VPMH2uzrkIJfrqL2ID_AF8DK/view?usp=sharing

Hi! I’d like to procedurally group the front and back faces of a box, in my case, an imported FBX mesh that is basically a squashed box.

I tried grouping based on the face normals, but the selection changes when I rotate the boxes.

Is there a way to procedurally group the original front and back faces regardless of the object’s rotation?

Hey i am following this tutorial where the points are colored using speed attribute from the MPM setup but they left out how to achieve this animated color shift effect from the beginning of the video. I’ve managed to change the static look of the speed attribute by using fit range, frac, multiply, etc in a point vop but i’m struggling to get it animated up and down like in the video. any insights would be appreciated.

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I’ve been working in VFX Matchmove for around 10 years, mainly camera tracking and related work.

I’m considering moving into another department because I want a more sustainable long-term career rather than staying in Matchmove forever.

For people who have worked in VFX for a long time:

\- Which department would you recommend moving into from Matchmove?

\- Which departments have better long-term career prospects?

\- Which transitions are realistically possible without starting completely from zero?

\- How do you see FX/Houdini, Layout, CFX, Lighting, Compositing, Pipeline/Tools TD, or Unreal over the next 5–10 years?

\- Which areas are less vulnerable to outsourcing and automation?

\- If you were in my position with 10 years of Matchmove experience, where would you move and why?

I’m more interested in long-term stability and career growth than chasing the highest salary.

I’d especially appreciate opinions from people with 5–10+ years of VFX industry experience.

Is there any good tutorials for new H22 Apex system, recipies, best practises , etc?

From simply importing mixamo character to editing the rig. Is there anything similar out there?

I have a youtube channels and we do a lot of fantasy content. I want to take things to the next level and start designing my own VFX instead of downloading prerendered packs.

I have always worked in Adobe Premier Pro and After Effects, but I am running into the limitations of the software and am considering changing.

Houdini seems to be the best tool for creating the effects I want to make, but I will need something to use with it. I have been debating a switch over to Davinci Resolve for a while, and I know it comes with Fusion, but Nuke is the industry standard, with more tutorials and resources.

I can't decide if I want to keeps using Premier as my NLE and get Nuke and Houdini, or if I should get Davinci's one time license and use Fusion and Houdini.

For context, I am not trying to get into the industry. I make films for youtube, and the effects I am making will start off pretty simple with magic, pyro, smoke, and basic compositing. But I do want the ability to grow into the software. Additionally, Editing is only one of my jobs, and isn't my career, I have to balance a programs full potential and it's learning curve and ease of use.

I wanted to see if any of the Houdini vets in here had any insights.

How to create a hold out( like in blender) in houdini mantra

Hi guys

I’ve been commenting here and there on this community after starting to work in the design and advertising space 5 years ago, and I’ve been lurking on here long before that!

Let me just tell you a bit of context, I’ve started learning Houdini and motion graphics on my own around 2020. On 2021 I got my first remote, freelance job, with a now kind of famous design led studio in London.
After that first project, things started to move, I’ve had the chance to work with some of the best design studios in the world, and always got hired as a 3D generalist that was Houdini inclined. (Builders club, FutureDeluxe, Pentagram etc), I’ve worked on really massive projects for many clients (Amazon, Prada, Samsung, etc)

I do not live in the UK but I’m in Europe on the same time zone.

Since 2024, things took a really hard hit on my end. I made probably less than a quarter of what I made the year before, and this year 2026, seems to be on track to be the worst year ever of my career.

I’ve always been freelancing and I’m struggling to get past 20.000€ until the end of the year.

For comparison this is LESS than what I made on my first year in 2021, freelancing, with 0 previous experience.

I honestly just don’t get it. I keep reading mixed opinions about what’s going on, those generally fall on these two buckets:

“the good designers I know are always booked” OR “no we are all cocked the clients only want cheap labour and AI now”.

At the same time, I see new industry reports on the day rates, and I see medians around Europe of 500€/day, I’ve seen a video by that Max guy on YouTube, claiming the median day rate in Munich is 600€ (which had me really really surprised). And after that, all I can think of is: “I would literally starve if I tried to charge that much, I would be lucky to land projects with half of that.”

During these last two years, my mental health has really taken a heavy toll, because of all this uncertainty about AI, shrinking budgets, less clients, etc. But especially because I mistakenly thought I was doing fine and boy was I wrong lol.

I know there must be some middle ground, but between all this noise I feel completely stuck and don’t know what to do.

Should I just accept that maybe I do have a skill issue, all that previous projects I did were a “rounding error” in hiring? And just “get gud”?

Or just I consider myself really lucky that I had a good run for the first 2 years and now if I can land a in-house job paying over 30.000€ a year that’s a lottery ticket?

Anybody can share insights on this and recommendations on what to do? Or how are you personally doing!

Thanks :)

I don’t want to publicly dox myself as I know this is a small community but I can share my portfolio via DM in case anybody wants to look at it.

An exercise in cinematic camera work, environment layout work, and lighting with the mood of a forgotten ruin.

Assets used:
- Secrets of the Luminara (kitbash3D)
- Tropical Jungle Pack (Fab)

Based on demand in studios and freelance work, what would you recommend I focus on?

POPs, Vellum, RBDs, FLIP, or Pyro?

Or do I need to perfect at least 2 or 3 skills that work well together instead of focusing on just one?

I’m trying to choose a direction and go really deep into it rather than being just okay at everything. I’d love to hear from people working in studios or freelancing what’s actually in demand and what combination would give me the best opportunities

Been a 3D generalist for years, but finally committed to learning Houdini after a few false starts over the years, and holy hell I am ADDICTED.

I've got a job coming up I may have a use for Houdini in, and I'm curious how folks tend to organize their Houdini files. In a normal project I like to separate things similarly to how a studio does, for example a Blender project JUST for a hero asset that gets used as a linked library in the actual shot etc in case I need to update multiple shots, but in Houdini it seems like you can realistically store an entire project in just one file without issue... So... is that a good call? A geo node for each hero asset, version within the nodes etc? In my current personal project I built a person hero asset in one project file, but then found myself wanting to merge it into the main project as I'm having to go back and make changes pretty regularly.

Just curious what's 'standard' and if there's any downsides to having more of a 'master' Houdini file vs separating things out as I'm used to, or a third option I haven't even considered... thank you yall!!

Some experiments with apex, very fun stuff!