The program has been able to pay for itself because of the Proxi.id verification service and we’re excited to share the direct-to-consumer offer with our university partners and peers in the industry.” “Everyone that learned about the project at SideFX was impressed at how quickly we were able to launch. SideFX launched their direct-to-consumer offer months ahead of schedule and has plans to expand their academic program to new markets and regions using Proxi.id. Students around the world now get low-cost access to Houdini and can learn skills that help them start their careers in the film and gaming industry. It wasn’t the large technical process we expected you made it super easy to implement.” Results “When our implementation team saw how easy it was to integrate the Proxi.id verification service into our ecommerce tech stack, they told me it could be done in a week. Proxi.id’s easy integration and low-code API allowed SideFX to launch their direct-to-consumer offer months ahead of schedule. It was important for SideFX to launch their student offer before the start of the school year to ensure that students would have access to Houdini on the first day of class. We wanted to work with a service that our users can be comfortable using, knowing that their information is not being passed around, shared, or sold.” “Privacy played an important role in our decision. Proxi.id was the only vendor that did not retain any end-user data and leveraged technologies to eliminate the need for users to provide personal information to complete a verification. With the expansion of global privacy regulation, SideFX wanted to work with a verification partner that was at the forefront of protecting end-user privacy. Other companies we spoke would have made it difficult for us to enter new markets and expand the program.”

“We met with three or four different verification service providers, but none of them offered a solution that was able to scale with the growth of our program. Proxi.id was able to provide their service at a cost that helped keep the price of Houdini low for students and allowed the company to easily scale their program. It was important to offer Houdini at the lowest price possible to ensure that students could afford access to the software. These vendors were too expensive, did not take end-user privacy seriously, and could not meet their deadline to launch at the beginning of the school year. SideFX approached multiple academic verification service providers but discovered that many did not provide the freedom to start small and scale. Knowing that verifying academic users in-house would be an added burden to their technical and education teams, SideFX set out to find a partner that would help them provide a direct-to-student offer and grow their academic program. When I first started in this position, my priority was to get Houdini into the hands of every student that wants to learn it.” “Studios love our software, and they want new entrants to the workforce to know how to use it. It was important to expand student access to Houdini as there is strong demand for school graduates that already know how to use the software. The company wanted to create a direct-to-consumer offer for students who attended schools that did not have an existing relationship with SideFX. “Faculty and students hear about Houdini – how it’s used by leading studios to make films and games – and want to use it.” – John Moncrief, Education Training Manager The company knew the benefits of providing students with access to their products but wanted to do so at a larger scale to grow their academic program. SideFX had an existing academic program that worked closely with individual schools and faculty to create learning programs and provide Houdini access to students. The program’s mission is to help students find meaningful jobs in film, tv, and game development. The company is dedicated to creating positive learning experiences and has an academic program that focuses on building an education-based community with special learning programs for faculty and students.

Any time you are watching TV, a movie, or playing a video game, you are likely looking at something made with Houdini. Houdini is a fully procedural graphic development system that utilizes node-based workflows to make it easier for artists to explore different creative paths while maintaining tight timelines. SideFX is most well known for its Houdini software.

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