Houdini has long had a place in our guide to the best 3D modelling software, but I'm still amazed at how fast it's evolving. Developer SideFX has just dropped a seven-minute teaser video showcasing what's coming in Houdini 21, and the amount of updates and new features is simply epic.
More will be revealed at SIGGRAPH 2025 in Vancouver next week, but the video provides a glimpse of some of the more than 400 new features. And one particular 30-second sim has got everyone talking. Just check out the cookies and frappuccino sequence demonstrating Material Point Method (MPM) enhancements one minute in.
As well as MPM enhancements, the video shows updates across most major toolsets, including upgrades for Compositing Operators (COPs), a new OTiS solver for muscle and tissue and the ability to transfer muscle and bones geometry between characters, the Otto humanoid rig, Vulkan viewport and enhancements Apex, Karma and more.
Users are praising SideFX's approach to AI, including to power a low-res to high-res feature. But, more than anything else, people are entranced by that cookies and milk moment. "The most epic bunch of frames I ever saw come out of a software," one person commented on YouTube.
It really does feel like SideFX is showing of with the incredible realism of that sim, but then that's the point of a teaser like this. The choice of a Röyksopp track for the soundtrack makes it feel even more cinematic.
The only complaint people have is that new features are being released faster than they can learn the existing ones. "I wish to born again and learn houdini from the version v1," one person commented on the video. The mountain is steep...it's growth everlasting...but I must keep climbing," another person wrote.
You can see a full list of the Houdini 21 new features visible in the video in a post by ILM senior FX technical director Yunus Balcioglu on the SideFX forum. You can learn more about the software in our Houdini 20.5 review and on the SideFX website.
