Building a Procedural FX Pipeline for Age of Empires II

Ever since its humble beginnings, Virtuos has relied on a comprehensive set of tools to provide art, animation and game development services to clients worldwide. Houdini is one such tool that has seen extensive use in the making of both games and film.

Virtuos first began using Houdini to animate scenes in TV series, often in tandem with 3D rendering programs such as Maya or Mental Ray. One prominent example can be found in Star Wars Rebels, with various VFX such as the molten metal effects caused by lightsabers being made in Houdini. The software is also primarily responsible for creating the laser and ship destruction effects found in the space battle section at the end of Season 3.

A Real-Time Journey into Houdini

Matt Workman is a cinematographer and founder of Cinematography Database who in recent times has used game engines to help previs and plans shots. He also developed Cine Tracer (https://www.cinetracer.com), a real-time cinematography simulator made in Unreal Engine.

Confident in the power of real-time rendering to help imagine scenes and for virtual cinematography, Workman, however, wanted to do more procedurally in terms of building assets for these scenes. So in just the past few months he has dived into Houdini for the first time and been sharing his progress. We checked in on where he is up to.

Global Game Jam with Houdini Contest 2020

Welcome to the 4th Game Jam with Houdini Contest! Any Global Game Jam 2020 team that uses Houdini to make their game jam game is eligible to enter the contest. Last year, SideFX held their third Houdini Contest which resulted in some awesome winning games. We are excited to return in 2020 with another contest. Read the instructions below on how to get a free temporary Houdini Indie license and how to enter on the Global Game Jam website.

Houdini 18 Released

TORONTO | SideFX is pleased to announce the release of Houdini 18. This release introduces SideFX Solaris, a USD-based context for lookdev, layout and lighting that brings procedural tools to this important part of the pipeline and SideFX Karma Render (beta), a new HYDRA-based renderer that integrates into the Solaris environment. This release also includes SOP-based tools for configuring Destruction and Pyro FX shots and a focus on UX and optimization throughout the software.

Houdini HIVE at SIGGRAPH Asia 2019

Houdini HIVE is back at SIGGRAPH ASIA with a full day of educational sessions and studio presentations featuring SideFX product experts, and professionals from top studios from around the world. We look forward to seeing you!
Read more about it here
Image Courtesy of Drew Parks | NEON JUNKYARD

Houdini 18 Launch Presentation

Check out the latest additions in Houdini 18 - including Solaris - Houdini's layout, lookdev and lighting platform. Plus learn about the latest features in Vellum, fluids, pyro, destruction, modelling and more.

Reindeer Ready

Framestore's Ahmed Gharraph and Grant Walker talk about the making of their reindeer for McDonald's Christmas.

SideFX Solaris

SideFX is pleased to announce SideFX Solaris at SIGGRAPH 2019. This presentation was recorded on Tuesday July 30 at the Houdini HIVE in Los Angeles. Solaris brings a new context called LOPS, or lighting operators, that brings native USD [Universal Scene Description] support to Houdini to allow for comprehensive lookdev, layout and lighting workflows.
Read more about it here

2019 Houdini Reel

SideFX is proud to present the 2019 Demo Reel featuring the amazing work of Houdini customers worldwide. The shots in this reel represent the creativity and hard work generated by the Houdini community of artists. Congratulations to everyone involved for these fantastic shots!

Houdini HIVE at SIGG 2019

Houdini HIVE is now live and back at SIGGRAPH this year with three days filled with educational sessions, studio presentations, industry panels, and much more! Featuring SideFX product experts, and professionals from top studios from around the world!
Read more about it here
Image Courtesy of Drew Parks | NEON JUNKYARD