Download free Houdini tools from SideFX’s Project Skylark
SideFX has begun releasing custom Houdini tools developed for Project Skylark, its in-house tech demo intended to showcase procedural techniques for building stylized game assets.
The first batch includes tools for generating clouds and buildings, the latter also available as a .hda file that can be used in Unreal Engine.
SideFX has also made the Unreal Engine project file for Project Skylark available to download.
Project Skylark: showcasing art-directable techniques for building stylized game assets
Like the earlier Project Titan and Project Grot, Project Skylark is an in-house tech demo designed to test procedural workflows for creating 3D content for use in games.
Whereas Titan and Grot focused on creating more photorealistic content, Project Skylark aims for a more stylized, painterly, low-poly look, suitable for an indie game.
The resulting environment – a fantasy/historical-style hilltop village surrounded by trees and fields – was created by a team of six artists, working part-time for four months.
The assets, which also include props like bottles and plant pots, and even CG birds, were created using custom Houdini tools, and the environment set up in Unreal Engine 5.
The painterly textures for the assets were created using Copernicus, the new image-processing toolset introduced in Houdini 20.5 last year.
Download custom Houdini tools for creating stylized 3D buildings and clouds
SideFX has now released several of the custom tools created for Project Skylark, including the procedural 3D building generator showcased in the video above.
Another neat Houdini setup, for generating procedural clouds, creates a volumetric cloud from a rough sketch of the cloud’s outline.
Both .hip files are provided as accompanying downloads to video tutorials showing how the tools were created, and how the content they create was used within Project Skylark.
Other tutorials cover creating stylized rocks, bottles, plant pots and bird houses, and come with accompanying .hda files showing the resulting procedural assets.
SideFX has also released the complete Unreal Engine 5 project file for Project Skylark, which contains the entire game level.
License and system requirements
The Project Skylark tools are available free as .hip files created in Houdini 20.5.
Some also include .hda files that can be imported and edited in DCC applications compatible with Houdini Engine, including Unreal Engine.
To use the .hda files inside Unreal Engine 5, you will need the Houdini Engine for Unreal plugin.
It is now included in the Houdini installer, and is free for use on commercial projects, but only works with commercial licenses of the software, not free Houdini Apprentice licenses.
The Project Skylark Unreal Engine project file is available under SideFX’s Standard license, which permits use in commercial projects.
You can find pricing and system requirements for Houdini in this story on Houdini 20.5.
Read more about Project Skylark on the SideFX website
(Includes links to video tutorials, which also include downloads for the custom tools)
Download the free Project Skylark Unreal Engine project file
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