SideFX's procedural 3D software, released in 1996, in which scenes are built from networks of operations. It is widely used for effects and generative 3D work.
I am kind of obsessed with Houdini. I love how masochistic it is. I love hitting tab and opening up the menu and seeing the five hundred nodes laid out, imagining all the possible ways you could solve your problems to make an image in your mind more tangible.
Karyn Nakamura, Wendi Yan & Karyn Nakamura on the Artifice of Knowledge