Are you working with Houdini software and looking for some solution to speed up rendering time? One of the best solutions is to use a Houdini render farm. In this article today, Super Renders Farm will rank the top 4 best Houdini render farms and give you some suggestions for choosing the right one for your projects
What is Houdini?
Houdini SideFX is a 3D software for CG animations, films, games, and TV. It is one of the best 3D software in the world and provides powerful toolsets for features, including modeling, rigging, animation, particle effects, dynamics, compositing, integrated rendering, and more. Houdini SideFX utilizes a node-based procedural approach, which enables digital artists with an unprecedented level of power, flexibility, and control. Nowadays, Houdini to be considered is the future software of the 3D industry by many 3D artists and studios around the world.
Houdini can combine with many different renderers and use both CPU & GPU render. Some popular names of render engines utilize GPU rendering with Houdini like Redshift, and Octane. If you prefer CPU rendering, you can render Houdini with Mantra, Arnold, and V-Ray.
Although Houdini is a popular software, there is not much render farm support for it. Because of the specific factors related to the project as well as plugins or the extensibility of the project with Houdini. But we still have the famous names Houdini render farms. So what is that? Let’s explore below!
1. Super Renders Farm
SuperRenders Farm was founded in California, USA in 2010 as a small local rendering company. In 2017, they began to grow considerably by developing online render technologies. Super Renders Farm is a cloud rendering service that is based on SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) and IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a Service). They supported all major apps used by the industry 3dsMax, Maya, Blender, Houdini, SketchUp…
Super Renders Farm offers users two rendering methods: submit jobs to the render farm via Web or Desktop Client application. If you choose to use the Web, then you only need four steps after creating an account, uploading resources, submitting the job, analyzing the scene, and rendering. If you are using the Desktop Client application, they only support Windows operating systems, which allow you to submit render jobs directly from 3D applications such as Maya and 3ds Max.
Super Renders Farm based on IaaS model. It allows users can control every aspect of rendering from choosing the hardware to installing software, plugins, and scripts, using their remote servers as your computer, and more. So, you can install any versions of Houdini (which run on Windows 10 or Linux …), and any renderers.
You can select a wide variety of service package including CPU rental packages or GPU rental packages (namely GTX 1080Ti, RTX 2080Ti, RTX 3080, or RTX 3090 which are all the state-of-the-art and newest ones in the market). Using Super Renders Farm service will not limit your types of plugins, software version or GPU/CPU rendering.
2. Fox Render Farm
Fox Render Farm is one of the best famous render farms. It is a China render farm, established in 2009. Fox is the best choice for many 3D artists and studios around the world, and it is the service for many hits and blockbusters.
Fox Render Farm is based on SaaS model. It allows proceeding with rendering on their website. Because is a SaaS render farm, Fox just supports certain Houdini versions with render engines. And unfortunately, it does not support Plugins with Houdini at all. It is a con if your projects have scripts or plugins.
3. Ranch Computing
Ranch Computing is one of the best render farms for Houdini with high-performance 3d rendering service. It is a France render farm with over 15 years of experience in this industry. They provide both CPU and GPU-based rendering. Like Fox Render Farm, Ranch Computing is SaaS render farm, and rendering management is also on the web
Ranch Computing provides Houdini user RANCHecker – which is a plugin integrated into your Houdini. RANCHecker will help you check if your project is okay. If it’s okay, it will upload through RANCHecher. Then you go to their website and submit it. From there, it’s up to you to wait until the project is finished and download the results.
Because Ranch Computing is SaaS render farm, Ranch just supports some Houdini versions with some render engines. And of course, you can’t control the rendering process.
4. AnimaRender
AnimaRender is a powerful render farm for Houdini. It is a Russian render farm, which was founded in 2016. Like numerous other render farms, they’re SaaS and also give CPU as well as GPU rendering. You’ll download their plugin and integrate it into your Houdini, also you can start your render from the interface of your software.
Besides SaaS render farm, they provide GPU Rental service where you can rent fig (5x1080Ti and 5x2080Ti) for at least 3 days. You can connect with the GPU server through Anydesk/VNC. Then, you can install another version of Houdini on their instance and use it as your want.
With SaaS render farm, you need to check your Houdini version, Render engine and plugins before upload to their system. Because AnimaRender doesn’t support plugins and some version of Houdini.
Summary
There are the 4 best Houdini render farms you should choose for your project. Each render farm has its own pros and cons. Your job is to select the suitable one. If your project is large-scale or has some special plugins or custom scripts, we recommend you use Super Renders Farm or AnimaRender.