Master creature grooming techniques in Houdini
The Gnomon Workshop has released Creature Grooming Techniques in Houdini: a guide to hair and fur workflows for visual effects production recorded by Digital Domain artists Luis Cadavid.
The intermediate-level workshop, which is intended for artists with some previous experience of grooming work, comprises three hours of video training for Houdini, Maya and Nuke.
A guide to current VFX production workflows for grooming digital hair and fur
Cadavid begins by discussing the fundamental concepts of styling digital hair and fur for VFX work.
He then moves to Maya to demonstrate the werewolf model used in the tutorial, which was created by Felipe Gomez, showing the volumes that will be used to create the groom.
Having exported the creature model to Houdini, Cadavid prepares all of the objects required for the work, creates the VDB volumes required, and separates the mesh to create the groom.
He then creating hair guides for the face, body, legs, ears and tail of the werewolf, giving the hair volume and shape using a range of control attributes.
Tools covered include Curve Advect and Guide Process, including its control attributes Set Direction, Set Lift, Set Length, Curve Mask and Noise Mask.
Once the first pass of the groom is done, Cadavid reveals how he tests materials and HDRI lighting, and sets up the scene camera so he can get an idea of how the groom is working.
About the artist
Luis Cadavid is a Senior Groomer at Digital Domain, having previously worked at other VFX and animation facilities including Framestore, Mr. X and Mikros Animation.
His resume includes Hellboy 3, Paw Patrol: The Movie and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.
Pricing and availability
Creature Grooming Techniques in Houdini is available via an online subscription to The Gnomon Workshop. Subscriptions cost $49/month or $490/year. You can try the training for free.
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Full disclosure: CG Channel is owned by Gnomon.