First of all, Houdini is a beast like no other, it requires a mindset totally different when you approach it for modeling/texturing/creating effects/... but, as Perna said, it worth, it's procedural philosophy is really powerful and flexible when approaching special effects (from modeling to explosions), it's a big time…
So I've just watched this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxpSFwCjezI#t=45 I has been thinking about trying to do something like this in Modo with controllers and so on and then I saw this video. I have heard about Houdini but never had time to research. It looks like the app is particularly suited for procedural…
Hmm. The video looks pretty cool; however, a lot of times you're going to need a specific design and it may be easier just to quickly model. In addition, how will these models smooth? It says it creates relatively smooth geo, but if you have to spend an hour cleaning it up, it's not worth it. From what I've seen by reading…