VFX and Shader Programming with Houdini
A collection of work from my junior year at BYU doing visual effects and shader programming with Houdini, NukeX, Maya, Agisoft, and Photoshop.
VFX with Houdini
Sandstorm Particle Effect
Using several different particle emitters, I created an effect that simulates dust devils in the desert. The trickiest part was getting them to swirl around a central axis, and there was no clear cut way to create a force that would do that. I came up with a solution using a spiral made of curves combined with attraction forces that rotates constantly, spinning the particles as it goes across the ground.
Rock Thrown at Vase RBD Simulation
Created to learn more about how RBD simulations work in Houdini. Getting the pieces of the vase to break apart naturally was difficult; the rock couldn't be thrown too slowly or too quickly or the motion of the effect wouldn't read. The smaller shards that come off the vase are particles with randomly instanced pieces of geometry from a separate shattered object attached to them. The vase and table were textured using Substance Painter.
Magical Poof Transformation Effect
Created for an unreleased BYU junior short film, this poof effect was designed to mask a human's transformation into a baby chicken (hence the feathers). The clouds were created with particles that were turned into volumes (rather than using a fluid simulation). The after-image of the cloud was created with a pyro simulation. The feathers are actually highly detailed pieces of geometry that are instanced onto particles with very specific rotation code. There is an individual box attached to each feather that dissolves them as their life continues, and those feathers emit particles from their intersections with those boxes when they do so.
Shader-Programming
Photo-Realistic Lime Using a Material Made With Houdini Noise Patterns
This lime was modeled in Maya and uses only noise patterns made with Houdini to mimic the surface of an actual lime. I stared at limes for many days to make this, and now I analyze all the fruit that I pick up at grocery stores (while other shoppers question my sanity as I do so). Rendered with Solaris.
3D-Modeled Skateboard Composited Seamlessly into Real Photograph
This skateboard is not real. It is a 3D-model. I made its wheels, axles, and other parts using Maya. I textured those pieces with Substance Painter. The wooden board was not manually modeled; I took about 200 pictures of it and then used a photogrammetry software called Agisoft to create the board and its textures. Photogrammetry can't create the height or roughness maps for things, however; I modified the albedo texture with Photoshop to create custom maps for height and roughness. The brown areas are scratched and so they are deeper and duller than the painted areas of the board. The color difference between the paint and the wood made it much easier to create those maps in this instance. I aligned the board with the couch in Houdini and rendered it out with Solaris, making sure to match the resolution of the original photograph. I brought the exr file into Nuke for compositing, and--presto! The skateboard that never was became a part of reality.
Shadows from the original photo that were comped in.
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