Tutorial: Introduction to Houdini – Grains
The Gnomon Workshop has released Introduction to Houdini: Grains, a beginner’s guide to Houdini’s powerful granular fluid simulation tools, recorded by VFX artist David Silberbauer.
The workshop provides over six hours of video training, and complements Silberbauer’s other introductory tutorials on fluid and FX simulation in Houdini.
Create a desert sinkhole scene using Houdini’s granular fluid simulation tools
In the workshop, Silberbauer explores how to create a sinkhole effect in a desert scene, using Houdini’s Grains solvers.
He begins by discussing what makes Houdini unique as a VFX software package, introducing its UI and how scenes are set up, and the basic concepts of working in “the Houdini way”.
Silberbauer then explores how Houdini’s HeightField nodes can be used to create a base mesh for the desert environment quickly and procedurally.
From there, he introduces Houdini’s dynamics nodes (DOPs), discussing the differences between different DOPs, and how to create one from scratch.
To create more interesting shapes for the simulation, Silberbauer makes use of Ramp, Wrangle and Noise features.
He then jumps into Solaris, Houdini’s lighting and layout environment, to create a final render, using the new Copernicus image-processing framework to add the finishing touches.
Other topics covered include using VDB processes to create sources for simulations, the basics of FLIP fluids, meshing fluids and Houdini’s Material Point Method (MPM) solver.
As well as the tutorial videos, viewers of the workshop can download Silberbauer’s Houdini project file. The workshop uses assets from the free Megascans library.
About the artist
David Silberbauer is a VFX Artist at animation facility Sunrise Animation Studios.
He previously worked at VFX studio BlackGinger on movies including Monster Hunter, Deep Blue Sea 2 and 3, Black Beauty and Escape Room, as well as commercials and cinematics.
Pricing and availability
Introduction to Houdini: Grains is available via a subscription to The Gnomon Workshop, which provides access to over 300 tutorials.
Subscriptions cost $57/month or $519/year. Free trials are available.
Read more about Introduction to Houdini: Grains on The Gnomon Workshop’s website
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