Download SideFX’s free Project Greylight toolkit for Houdini
SideFX and VFX artist Andreas Weidman have released Project Greylight, a free set of tools for setting up USD-based collaborative multi-shot workflows in Houdini.
The toolkit comprises five Houdini HDA files, plus a demo project and 10 walkthrough videos.
Developed in-house at SideFX by Solaris pioneer Andreas Weidman
Project Greylight is an in-house tech demo created by SideFX in collaboration with artist Andreas Weidman, currently VFX supervisor at dupe.
He previously worked at VFX facilities Goodbye Kansas Studios and Important Looking Pirates.
SideFX describes him as “one of the early pioneers” of Solaris, Houdini’s USD-based shot layout and look dev environment, in production.
Set up collaborative multi-shot workflows in Houdini without complex pipelines
Aimed at students, indie artists and “curious studios”, Project Greylight sets out a collaborative VFX workflow that doesn’t require a custom pipeline or content management system.
It provides a set of tools for streamlining multi-shot workflows in Solaris, including USD department layers, date-based USD layer version control, and automatic render versioning.
The project website includes 10 video tutorials covering fundamental USD concepts and explaining how to use the toolkit.
The files themselves – five custom tools, provided as Houdini Digital Asset (.hda) files, and a demo project with readymade source assets – can be downloaded from Weidman’s Patreon.
Although developed for use in VFX work, the toolkit could also be used on motion graphics or games cinematics projects.
Price and system requirements
The Project Greylight tools have been tested on Houdini 20.0+ on Windows 10+, Rocky Linux 8 and macOS 14.0+. They’re a free download.
You can find pricing and system requirements for Houdini itself in this story on Houdini 20.5.
Read more about Project Greylight on the SideFX website
Download the free Project Greylight Houdini tools from Andreas Weidman’s Patreon page
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