Houdini 101: Your First Steps in Procedural FX

We will start this course of from very basics how to navigate in the scene around and then we will take a brief tour of Houdini all of different contexts what they are and why they are here and in the process we will build entire scene from importing geometry assigning materials lighting and rendering our scene.

Once we have established our foundation then we will take a deep dive into the Houdini SOP context and in here we will take a look at different geometry grouping techniques geometry attributes transferring the attributes driving extrusion from attributes.

And then we will take a look at copying and instancing how to orient instance geometry instance attributes copying multiple geometry.

And then we will learn about VEX and VOPs and how to work with VOPs and then we will take a look at writing vex code and we will learn about different data types and how to create parameters and channels.

And then we will learn about working with volumes in Houdini how to create procedural skyscape and hero clouds working with smoke solver and pyro solver for creating smoke, fire, and explosion simulations rendering fire and explosions working with ACES and rendering with ACES Color space.

And then we will dive into particles how to create particle simulation working with particle forces creating our own particle forces. And then we will take a look at POP Grains for creating sand and snow simulation.

And then we will learn about Houdini RBD Bullet solver for creating rigid body simulation, creating destruction simulation, fracturing the geometry.

And then we learn about vellum solver for creating soft body simulation. And we will finish this course off with flip fluids how to create both large and small scale fluid simulations. We will learn about flip viscosity to create viscous fluids. We will learn how to import geometry in Solaris for rendering and we will learn about Karma XPU for rendering.

Some key topics we’ll cover include:

Introduction & Basics

• Navigating the scene
• Overview of Houdini contexts

Building a Scene

• Importing geometry
• Assigning materials
• Lighting and rendering

Houdini SOP Context

• Geometry grouping techniques
• Geometry attributes & transferring
• Driving extrusion from attributes

Copying & Instancing

• Orienting instance geometry
• Instance attributes
• Copying multiple geometries

VEX & VOPs

• Working with VOPs
• Writing VEX code
• Understanding data types, parameters, and channels

Volumes & Simulations

• Creating procedural skyscape & hero clouds
• Smoke & pyro solver for fire/explosion simulations
• Rendering with ACES color space

Particles & POP Grains

• Particle simulation & forces
• Creating sand and snow simulations

Rigid Body Dynamics (RBD) & Vellum Solver

• Bullet solver for rigid body/destruction simulations
• Fracturing geometry
• Soft body simulations with Vellum

Flip Fluids & Rendering

• Large and small-scale fluid simulations
• Flip viscosity for viscous fluids
• Importing geometry in Solaris for rendering
• Rendering with Karma XPU