SideFX Software

Forced Landing A cinematic FX shot focused on a physically believable forced landing after engine failure. This project was built around controlled motion and real-world scale — from the unstable approach and asymmetric ground contact, to aircraft deformation and long sliding interaction with terrain. The aim was to avoid exaggerated destruction and instead let mass, velocity, and friction define the outcome. The crash sequence, ground interaction, debris, dust, and smoke were created using a fully procedural workflow, with all elements designed to support weight, momentum, and energy transfer rather than spectacle. Camera timing was kept grounded to a human observer perspective. Created using Houdini and a physically based rendering pipeline. Grateful for the learning and resources shared by the Houdini community — especially SideFX Software Houdini, Applied Houdini, and Steven Knipping — and also INDIAN VFX SCHOOL. YouTube: https://lnkd.in/d5DfgW9g FX breakdown: https://lnkd.in/dfFVd6Sv #HoudiniFX #VFX #FXArtist #Simulation #RBD #Procedural #Cinematic

Excited to finally share this shot. This project went through a lot of iterations, and figuring out when to let go was a big part of the process. At some point you realize no project is ever “finished”... just finished enough to move forward and apply what you’ve learned to the next one. Rendered in Unreal Engine, with simulations and FX built in Houdini. A great learning experience overall, especially around iteration, scope, and trusting your instincts when it’s time to call something done. Look forward to some breakdown shots of the workflow over the upcoming days! Explosions and various set dressing VDBs were integrated with the power of Zibra AI compression. Big thanks to Ashley Burkart for the sound FX on this piece, it really brings it to life. Also, thank you Urban Bradesko for the final color grade and creative inspiration along the way. If you'd like to learn more, check out my workshop with DoubleJump Academy in the Ultimate Destruction for games workshop: https://lnkd.in/gkWJGVZg

Introducing THE MAYHEMISER: a tool designed to give 3D models a handcrafted, faceted look. This video is an extract from a talk I gave at the Sydney Houdini User Group for UTS Animal Logic Academy, diving into some of our R&D around prototyping for stylised animation. #Houdini #HoudiniFX

Made a new tutorial for my patreon showing off all of the FUN i have been having lately in SideFX Software Houdini 21's COPERNICUS toolset, particularly since they added simulations using blocks. It's opening a whole new dimmension of houdini (literally). I can't even explain in words how exciting this stuff is and what kinds of possibilities it opens up for all kinds of 2d/3d workflows. https://lnkd.in/gsEXVvTx

❄️ Some things I’ve learned working with snow in Houdini • Mesh your grains sim and render it as a uniform volume. It’s more efficient than rasterizing or relying on subsurface scattering. • Use a mass attribute to drive forces. With a sop solver inside dops calculate the point cloud density and drive mass, creating clusters that react differently to wind —small snow particles get pushed more, while larger chunks stay heavier. • Use a constant density pyro sim around your collisions to advect particles realistically • In grains, use the attraction weight attribute driven by the same density solver so clusters stick together more naturally (compressed snow). • Keep meshes low-poly and force a catmull-clark subdivision at render time to smooth the uniform volume. • Add detail with procedural micro-displacement in a vex shader instead of relying only on grain resolution. This allows fast sims with high visual detail, without too expensive grains resolution. • You transfer a rest attribute or even uvs from the grains to the final mesh to drive textures for displacement. • Experiment with not rendering backfaces on the uniform volume—this can improve the look and help avoid certain render artifacts. Over the past two years, I’ve been working on several snow-related projects as an FX artist, and along the way I picked up a few techniques that might be useful to others. Feel free to reach out if you’d like to talk more about the process. Rhino animation by Nav Singh 🦏❄️

I revisit this project almost every year to tweak the sim, adjust shaders and render, using the most recent tools in Houdini SideFX Software