Houdini 101: Your First Steps in Procedural FX

Transfer attributes between geometries in Houdini, including color attributes (cd) and point or primitive attributes. Control transfers with distance thresholds, and create or transfer attributes for procedural effects.

Pack primitives into a single point to efficiently copy geometry in Houdini, then unpack to access originals and explore point and primitive attributes.

Explore when to use VEX wrangles versus VOP-like nodes in Houdini, using attribute warp node with noise for extrusion, importing p, exporting CD, and sampling noise.

Remap values in vop networks by importing the curve u attribute and using a fit range node to map zero and one into a new range.

Learn to remap values with vex using fit and ramp functions. Control scale and line position from the curve view with ramp parameters and an attribute wrangle.

Create a ramp-driven procedural effect in Houdini by coding a ramp parameter in VEX via an attribute wrangle, using it to drive scale and the y position (p.y).

Explore volumes and voxels in Houdini, converting polygon geometry to VDB and native volumes, adjusting voxel size for resolution, and comparing VDB from polygon with ISO offset fog volumes.

Compare Houdini native volumes and VDB volumes. Learn to convert geometry to both using iso offset and VDB from polygons, and understand sparse VDB efficiency with active voxels.

Explore SDF volume vs fog volume, convert polygons to VDB volumes, perform boolean operations, smoothing, and noise to create complex geometry and cloud-like effects.

Learn the cloud creation workflow in Houdini: generate a skybox and fog vdb, convert cloud shapes with vdb from particles, then layer cloud noise and wind for hero clouds.

Create a smoke simulation in Houdini by using DOPs and SOPs, converting geometry to fog VDB, importing density volumes with volume source, and driving with a sparse solver and forces.

Explore houdini's pyro solver to create smoke, fire, and explosions using a top-level digital asset, then tweak wind, turbulence, voxel size, and vdb caching.

Create a fire and smoke simulation in Houdini by converting geometry to VDB volumes, feeding burn and temperature into a pyro solver, and adjusting buoyancy and gravity.

Set up a pyro solver in Houdini by creating a pyro source from scattered points. Rasterize attributes to volume and link voxel size to particle separation for higher resolution.

Learn how to cache Houdini smoke simulations to disk to manage ram usage, including setting up a file cache, choosing VDB storage, frame ranges, and loading cached data in Solaris.

Explore how to create explosive pyro bursts in Houdini using the pyro burst source, adjust shape, seeds, trails, and fading, and convert attributes to volume for a full pyro simulation.

Explore explosion simulation in Houdini 101 with pyro burst source, density, temperature, burn, divergence, and volume to create high-res, dynamic explosions, including noise, ground collision, and real-time playback.

Assign explosion materials and render in Solaris using a pyro bake volume for scattering. Import Kerma pyro materials via a material library to achieve realistic smoke and glow.

Learn to build a pop network in Houdini, using pop object, pop solver, and pop source to emit particles and apply forces with noise for dynamic motion.

Explore configuring particle forces in Houdini, including initial velocity and variance. Control the pop axis force, orbit speed, lift speed, suction, and color with the pop color node.

Explore pop curve force in Houdini to drive particles along a curve, using second context geometry like helix or circle and tuning follow, suction, orbit, and global force ramps.

Create custom particle forces by building a velocity volume from geometry, applying volume noise, visualizing with volume trail, and driving particles with pop advect by volume in the DOP net.

Turn a helix into a velocity volume to create a custom curve force that guides particles along a path. Learn advection, noise, and collision control to keep particles within bounds.

Drive particle advection with smoke and pyro simulations by creating and importing velocity volumes, so particles follow the evolving velocity field and turbulence shapes the motion.

Render Houdini particle simulations by emitting particles, applying wind, adjusting life and scale, and coloring via a CD attribute in Karma XPU.

Explore pop grains for sand and snow simulation, from creating a triangulated sphere source and noise displacement to configuring grain source, gravity, and the pop grain solver for collision-aware dynamics.

Create a dry sand and wet sand look with Houdini's pop grain node, color, and attraction weight. Adjust substeps, friction, stiffness, and clumping to control collision and sand behavior.

Activate grain particles in Houdini 101 by transferring mass and an activation attribute to a pop sim, enabling a crumbling sand effect with frame-driven growth.

Render sand grains by importing grain particle caches into a lob network, applying a sand material with color from material x geometry color and roughness 0.5, and rendering in expo.

Learn to build a grain soft body in Houdini by converting a grain source into constraints, applying gravity and a ground plane, and tuning stiffness and substeps.

Learn when to use animated versus deforming workflows in Houdini 101, including name attributes, piece prefixes, packed geometry, and how the RBD bullet solver handles animation and deformation.

Learn vellum soft body workflows—from planar patch-based cloth to triangulated mesh—pin constraints, wind, and struts to preserve volume and render.

Explore Houdini's vellum constraints, including cloth and pressure constraints for balloon-like soft bodies, shape-match for rigid behavior, and tetrahedral soft bodies that preserve volume, with substeps and plasticity controls.

Explore Houdini vellum hair constraints by building a line, pinning end points, adjusting stretch and bend stiffness, and attaching to a collider for a soft, springy hair simulation.

Explore vellum grains and vellum fluids by configuring grain sources, gravity, and a vellum solver to create dry and wet sand, with viscosity and surface tension tuned via substeps.

Import a particle fluid tank into the flip simulation, set water level and particle separation, and link it to the flip domain; then tune wind, gravity, and colliders for splashes.

Explore the flip SOP solver workflow to emit, simulate, and collide fluids with gravity, surface tension, and viscosity, using a flip boundary, colliders, and a flip tank for water-like effect.

Thank you for joining Houdini 101: your first steps in procedural fx. Enjoy what you learned, and see you next time.