New tutorial – Introduction to Houdini: Fluids
The Gnomon Workshop has released Introduction to Houdini: Fluids, a beginners’ guide to fluid simulation in the procedural 3D software, recorded by VFX artist David Silberbauer.
The workshop provides over four and half hours of video training in Houdini.
A beginners’ guide to an industry-standard fluid simulation toolset
In the workshop, Silberbauer explains how to use the fluid simulation toolset in Houdini, widely used for effects work in the VFX, animation and game development industries.
He begins with warm-up exercises, showing how set up simple FLIP fluids with Houdini’s built-in shelf tools.
Silberbauer than moves to more complex whitewater setups to demonstrate the difference between DOP and SOP workflows, explaining why artists would choose one over the other.
Discover how to create a VFX shot of a shark leaping out of the ocean
Having introduced the key workflows, the workshop shifts to shot work, demonstrating how to create a fluid interaction shot of sharks breaking the water surface in an ocean.
Silberbauer begins by bringing in an animation of a shark and setting up a basic ocean tank.
His setup does most of the heavy lifting, connecting nodes, channel referencing, and adding default settings that work well out of the box.
Silberbauer talks viewers through the key settings, explaining how to adjust them to achieve custom looks, before building the whitewater system to mesh the fluids.
Next, he demonstrates how to extend the ocean using the Ocean Spectrum and how to blend smoothly between the ocean spectrum and the FLIP simulation using volume masks.
In the final section of the workshop, Silberbauer assembles all of the elements for the shot in Houdini’s Solaris environment, creating materials for the shark, adjusting the look of the water, setting up basic day and night lighting setups, and finally adjusting the Karma render settings.
The workshop uses free assets from Poly Haven and the Digital Life project.
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: Fluids is available via a subscription to The Gnomon Workshop, which provides access to over 300 tutorials.
Subscriptions cost $57/month or $499/year. Free trials are available.
Read more about Introduction to Houdini: Fluids on The Gnomon Workshop’s website
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