Anim8or vs Houdini

Anim8or is a free Windows program for 3D modeling and character animation. Modeling tools include primitives, mesh editing, subdivision, splines, extrusion, lathing, modifiers, bevels, and warps. Character animation features include a jointed editor, inverse kinematics, morph targets, procedural motion, and facial animation. The program creates scenes and animations, outputs AVI movies and JPG, PNG, or BMP images, and imports, modifies, and exports .3DS, .OBJ, and .STL files. Materials and preview options cover textures, bump maps, soft shadows, spotlights, fog, and OpenGL shaders. A scripting language and plugins extend parametric shapes, object export, and editing tools. Its license permits personal, educational, and commercial use, gives users ownership of creations, and has no fee. Installation uses a single executable that can be unzipped and run from a chosen directory. The download page lists version 1.0, dated May 29, 2017, as the latest release there. Support includes forums, email, release notes, a manual, and tutorials.

Houdini is SideFX’s procedural 3D creation system for film, television, games, motion graphics, virtual reality and synthetic-data work. Its workflow stores actions in nodes connected as networks, and supports sharing workflows and custom digital assets with colleagues. Tools cover modeling, sculpting, animation, parametric modeling, character rigging, rendering and 3D-print export. Houdini FX adds simulation tools for fluids, destruction, pyro effects, grains and cloth. KineFX supports character rigging and animation, alongside tools for hair, fur, feathers, muscles and cloth. Karma renders images in the Solaris look-development workflow, while PDG distributes tasks, handles dependencies and creates datasets for machine-learning and AI applications. Houdini runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. The free Apprentice version is for non-commercial learning and personal projects; its renders are capped at 1920x1080 and carry a watermark. SideFX lists perpetual licenses, annual upgrades, rentals, subscriptions and education licenses. Listed paid pricing starts at $299/yr, though individual options have different terms and prices.