Sci-Fi Warp - Houdini & Nuke VFX Course

Welcome to a new Houdini Course : Sci-Fi Warp

In this course we are going to create this entire VFX Shot in Houdini and Nuke.

This shot was heavily inspired by the amazing Blizzard cinematic Trailer for Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void.

Mesh Setup

We start off the course by preparing our mesh for simulations and growth FX. Using various SOP level tools we are going to be rebuild the mesh with hexagon shaped polygons.

Growth Simulation

Using the SOP Solver we're going to create a simple growing attribute which will drive the scale and various color attributes for the polygons

Particle Simulations

We're going to create multiple layers of particle simulations. Some will be driven by custom velocity forces created with pyro, and some with standard POP tools. We're also exploring a lot of post-simulation operations to further art direct movement, color, and other attributes.

Lighting, Rendering & AOVs

In the rendering sections we will set up all of the lights and materials, and render everything using Redshift.

Here we will also discuss best practices and how to set up different light passes and AOVs.

We're going to create a custom smoke field with VDBs, animate a blast effect, and optimize it for rendering.

Compositing

In nuke we will bring all of our renders and start putting everything together.

We will separate the AOVs for each layer so we can have complete control over the final output.

Project Files & Renders

All renders used for compositing are included - So you don't have to render anything yourself! (The way the renders are setup is covered in the course)

Please check the LINKS file for render download.

The download archive also includes the completed Houdini project file (ver. 19.5) and Nuke project file (ver. 14.0v5) - Please note that project files are created with Houdini Indie and Nuke Indie

I hope you will enjoy this course!