od[force]: An area getting lots of flak here on od[force] is Houdini's Cloth. The general consensus is that cloth is not exactly "ready to race" right now. What do you think about Houdini cloth? Where do you place it in regard to Maya's nCloth which gets lot of praise generally?
Andy Boyd: I have not tried it, but heard it's not the best cloth solution.  I have had a play with nCloth in Maya and it's super easy to use, very fast and when I have a job that needs it I will go the nCloth route.

od[force]: What improvements would you like to see most in Houdini?
Andy Boyd: I want to see Mantra keep improving, no matter how good the software is, it's the rendered images that count the most. I want to see Mantra beat Mental Ray, I think it's almost there.

od[force]: What does it lack compared to Mental Ray?
Andy Boyd: Speed when it come to multi proc rendering. In fact on my Windows machine it's broken! I can only ever preview with one proc while the other 3 do nothing.

od[force]: I'm not happy with it on my Windows install either, but on my Linux install it screams.
Andy Boyd:  Yes, I have heard Linux is better.

od[force]: What is the place of Houdini at Method? How much of the overall 3D production is done in Houdini?
Andy Boyd: They only started using it when I started 7 months ago. There are 12 3D artists and 3 of us use Houdini - but all the others are very interested.

od[force]: That's interesting to hear. So there is potential for growth
Andy Boyd: We have budgeted to have 2 Masters and 2 Escapes for April onward. Then when big jobs come in we will just rent, works out cheaper.