Unleashing My Creative Potential with Houdini FX

Above the Clouds

Dragon: Troung CG Artist. Animation: Céline Molière. Rest: Myself.
Programs used: Houdini, Nuke, Redshift.

I started this project with creating a landscape using Heightfield volumes in Houdini. After finding a few simple rock textures from the internet, I combined them on one mesh using procedurally created maps in order to achieve a seamless blend.

The cloud formation is a combination of SOPs and DOPs workflow. I deformed the shape of a basic sphere and added additional adjustments using the Cloud and Cloud Noise nodes. Once I was happy with the result, I transferred VDB to dopnet where I achieved a more dynamic and physically correct shape and have clouds moving throughout the whole shot.

Scattering all the clouds I needed, while figuring out the most efficient way to optimize my scene to be able to continue working fast, was a challenging part of the project. I created density maps to scatter clouds in select areas only. Finally, I Isolated the cloud that the dragon is flying through and ran another simulation on it.

Here's a closer look at the isolated main hero cloud dynamics:

The Clash

Characters and Animation: Mixamo. Rest: Myself.

Programs used: Houdini, Redshift, Nuke.

The Clash is a project for which I wanted to challenge myself by creating multiple different simulations in one scene. It would have been difficult to get all these effects to work together and make them feel like they belong to one world without Nuke. I definitely sharpened my compositing skill and had some good practice with rendering out AOVs. 

One of the things that I had the opportunity to explore further from working on this project was the topnet. Having to wait for each simulation to cache, I got to dive into TOPs to have several simulations running overnight. Without diving into TOPs I doubt that I would have been able to finish this project because of how heavy it became on GPU memory. Houdini was crashing after every other rendered frame. The Batch per Frame option definitely saved The Clash from going into my 'not-finished' archive.

The look development for the crystals was a challenge that I hadn't priorly anticipated. I experimented with several ideas: Using Mesh Lights as scattered sources of illumination, then Point Lights, creating emission texture maps - none of them gave me the result I wanted. Eventually, I came up with the idea to create a strong directional light facing straight down. I excluded that light from affecting anything in the scene apart from the crystals. Since that light is still visible within their reflections, refraction as well as subsurface, we can see them illuminating and creating the feel that I hoped to convey in the scene.

The cave and rocks were procedurally made in Houdini. Here are some progression screenshots.

Wound

Tree: SpeedTree Preset. Rest: Myself.

Programs used: Houdini, Karma XPU, Nuke.

I always found it very challenging when it came to RBD simulation projects. That's why I'm proud that I was able to finish this one. Working with geometry that have topology and UV's made me learn many SOPs that I didn't even know existed, and it was a lot of fun exploring their functionalities. Using basic sphere shapes, I isolated areas where I wanted to fracture the tree. I had to do a few iterations of different fracture techniques to get the irregularity of the shapes.

After I got the desired shapes, I created constraints and started running simulation.

I should mention that this was also my first time using Vellum simulation to get the grass. It's always fun to get to explore new solvers and explore Houdini using them.

Simulating grass was fairly simply. All I had to do is to transfer the velocity attribute from the energy bullet.

I love Heightfields. For this project, I made a simple landscape and lake using Ocean Spectrum and Heightfield.

The biggest challenge in this project was rendering. I was curious to explore Houdini's new Karma XPU-based render engine. Regardless of all the limitations it has, I came to love it a lot, especially considering the render time. I am definitely going to utilize Karma for more personal projects.

Silent Inferno

Trees: SpeedTree Preset. Rest: Myself.

Programs used: Houdini, Redshift, Nuke.

This is the very first project I made after I started using Houdini. Almost a year ago, I dived into the world of node based non-destructive workflows. This is the render that I made with minimum knowledge of Houdini  and Nuke. It is always nice to track and see your progress as you learn new things. I really love this project because it is the start of my CG journey.

Go Beyond, Plus Ultra (WIP)

Character: Artem Dubina. Pose: Céline Molière. Rest: Myself.

Programs Used: Houdini, Karma, Nuke.

This is the project that I am currently working on.

It is the first 2D-style piece that I have attempted so far. I found myself really inspired by the increasing number of experimental, stylized films that have been produced in the industry lately and wanted to give it a shot as well. So far, I have neither worked from a concept directly nor under someone’s art direction. While I was definitely enjoying the process of full creative freedom, I also thought that trying to recreate a concept and making it justice would make for good practice. I decided to reference a sequence from the anime series: 'My Hero Academia', for which I, after seeing the full fight for the first time, immediately decided that I wanted to recreate these effects, whether that be in a 3D or 2D style.

The entire process was done in Houdini, with a few adjustments that I made in Nuke and for which I, once again, used Houdini's Karma render engine. I decided to approach this project without a ToonShader or heavy comp work. All the 2D elements in the render were accomplished in 3D. For example, the outlines on the character are a curve that I rendered as black ribbons, the fire was simulated with a standard Pyro Solver, achieving its final look with post-processing, and the action line effects were done by copying curves on points that I then scattered along the outline. All the textures and models, except the character, were procedurally created in Houdini.

I had a lot of fun figuring out ways to achieve this look. I had to step out of my comfort zone and use techniques that I never thought of beforehand, which was a very interesting process for me. I find myself continuously impressed by just how amazing this software is, which allows you to create anything you can think of and Go Beyond, Plus Ultra.

Closing thoughts

Right now I am in my last year of the BFA program at Gnomon with two more terms left. I am very passionate about exploring all potentials of Houdini, therefore I try to create as much as I can myself in all of my projects. Moving forward, I am looking forward to spending more time learning different pipelines and the fundamentals of CG. Starting from how GPU and CPU handle different processes to understanding the principles behind exr files and different types of cache formats. I love the feeling of being able to talk to the machine and software packages that I use, as well as troubleshooting by digging deep into the reason of each problem I encounter.

My links: Artstation, LinkedIn, Instagram, Demoreel.

Thank you!