David Zhu - FX Artist Projects Showreel

Helicopter Crashing

Houdini Softbody and Pyro simulation

Explosion and flame!

It seems a short Houdini shot. However, with explosions, smoke trails, in place flame, shockwave, air distortion, helicopter deformation, debris, and even a vellum simulation of the tiny little grass in the foreground. 

Responsible for All Effects, Lighting, Compositing

Free Fallin

Houdini rigid body simulation and smoke simulation.

Responsible for All Effects, Lighting, Compositing

In the Rain

Houdini Fluid and Smoke simulation

A Houdini liquid simulation shot. The critical points of this project are the fine control of the raindrops, water streaks, and splashes. It was really heavy computation to do on a personal computer, but I learned a lot from the whole setup of this project.

Besides the main fluid simulation, I also did the pyro sim for the exhaust flame and the smoke sim for the tire mist.

Responsible for All Effects, Lighting, Compositing

Quartz Torus

Houdini Procedural Growing System

The growing effect is using SDF to constantly control the points moving along the surface in the XYZ axis. The torus was broken down with VDB cutting geometries to obtain complex reflection and refraction inside.

Responsible for All Effects, Lighting, Compositing

Cyberpunk Bar

Unreal Environment and Real-time VFX

I developed this project based on @Alex Underwood's concept in Unreal. I was responsible for all aspects. I played with exporting the simulation from Houdini to Unreal, such as smoke, muzzle flash, and rigid body simulation. I had a lot of fun at Metahuman practice.

Responsible for All Aspects, Real-time project in Unreal 4

Thank you for taking a look at all my work!

Please also visit my website: www.davidzhu.net and LinkedIn