Set up a Houdini project with organized folders, create orthographic grids as modeling references, and bundle them into an HDA for reuse across future scenes.

Create a Houdini project to keep files organized by defining the project path and name and customizing folders like geometry, hd, and textures for this dropship workflow.

Set up orthographic grids in Houdini to create top, side, and front UV layouts, assign textures for reference modeling, and align with Unity forward direction for efficient workflow.

Assign materials to orthographic grids (side, front, top) by grouping geometry, creating per-view materials from the material palette, mapping color textures, and controlling opacity with an alpha slider.

Create a Houdini digital asset from orthographic grids to reuse work, assign top and side materials, and expose opacity as a top-level parameter for quick, repeatable dropship modeling.

Learn to model the body of a dropship in Houdini using fundamental modeling tools, mixing traditional techniques with procedural methods, in a nondestructive workflow.

Utilize Houdini's traditional and hybrid modeling to block a sci-fi dropship body, nose, and back, then extrude and refine with poly extrude and mirroring for a master geometry.

Bevel the edges of a dropship in Houdini using a per-point bevel size driven by a back-to-front gradient, a poly bevel, and a point scale attribute with a ramp.

Master the subdivision workflow in Houdini 16.5, using subdivide, edge loop, and poly bevel to shape a low-poly block into a higher-resolution, symmetrical mesh for paneling and game mesh.

Master symmetrical modeling along the x axis by clipping and mirroring in Houdini, then bundle into a subnet and convert to a reusable Houdini digital asset that speeds future models.

Block the top of the dropship with faster shape blocking, review key Houdini concepts, and adopt organized network and scene view workflow to keep notes clear as you begin.

Block the dropship's top with major shapes, starting at the cockpit, using boxes, merges, bevels, and edge loops; maintain non-destructive workflow and symmetry with mirror clip.

Advance the dropship’s major shapes on the top section in Houdini by using merge nodes to block the geometry, add boxes, bevels, edge loops, and mirror for symmetry.

Block engine mounts in Houdini using a procedural workflow with tubes, transforms, and pivots; set up center pivot presets and knife-based edge loops to bevel and extrude for detailed geometry.

Block in the dropship engines with booleans to form more complex shapes in Houdini, then use points to copy geometry for a procedural workflow on engine mounts ready for detailing.

In Houdini 16.5, block a single jet engine in a separate engine geometry, applying subdivision, knife, extrude, and bevel to shape a rounded casing ready to copy across the dropship.

Learn to finish the engine blocking in Houdini by building a two-jet engine casing, shaping with clipping, beveling, and non-destructive edits, then duplicate and mirror for a sci-fi dropship.

Use booleans to create complex shapes by cutting into an engine casing in Houdini, revealing internal details and enabling live, adjustable edits.

Place engines on internal mounts in Houdini 16.5 by merging the body and engine, then move from manual to procedural placement using engine attachment points and copies.

Use copying points in Houdini 16.5 to place engines at the engine mounts’ edge and mirror the copies for symmetry, then block the dropship and prepare high‑res texture maps.

Explore building a procedural landing gear in Houdini 16.5, compare hand modeling and procedural workflows, automate cables with an HD gate, and package the asset as a Houdini digital asset.

Create the main strut of the landing gear in Houdini 16.5 with a fully procedural workflow, sweeping a circle along split primitives and beveling caps for a scalable dropship gear.

Create a pivot widget in Houdini 16.5 for a sci-fi dropship using copy to point and group range to isolate top, bottom, and mid points.

Create the suspension arms through procedural Houdini modeling, using points and lines, normals, copy to points, a grid, and a boolean node, and finish with a pivot widget.

Complete the suspension arms by adding the bottom arm and back pivot widget, positioning joints with midpoint moves and object merges to achieve a fully procedural landing gear.

Create a fully procedural foot for the landing gear in Houdini 16.5 using a curve, grid, and sweep to keep the foot dynamically aligned as the two gear positions change.

Develop an HDA to automatically create cables along a provided curve in Houdini, using sweep with a circle profile, normals, and seam generation for game-ready geometry.

Develop a fully procedural cable tool in Houdini 16.5 that converts a curve into a cable with adjustable radius, point count, and circle resolution, exposed as a digital asset.

Learn to shape a sci-fi dropship body in Houdini using booleans to add panel lines, with compound boolean objects and create more assets for kitbashing and detailing.

Learn to create panel lines on a body geometry using booleans, shatter, and a poly bubble node to cut and bevel seams, then manage sections for clean paneling.

Continue panel lines part 2 on the dropship in Houdini 16.5, using box and boolean cuts, bevels, AB seams, and a mirrored, nondestructive, procedural workflow.

Finish the lower-body panel lines of a sci-fi dropship in Houdini 16.5 by applying booleans and shatter, refining the tail, and shaping the cargo bay door.

Explore compound booleans in Houdini by adding an inlet detail to a dropship nose, using spheres, boxes, and copies to carve and shape vents inside a booleans workflow.

Learn to use VDB from polygons to create a clean, smooth bevel on hard-surface edges in Houdini, including voxel size, subdivision, crease, smoothing controls, avoiding banding, and final polygon conversion.

Detail the dropship's upper body, including the cockpit and window, and add piping to exposed areas. Create a piping HCA and a widgets library to speed sci-fi kitbashing in Houdini.

Create the cockpit structure in Houdini by blocking in the cockpit, beveling edges, applying boolean operations, then refine with subdivide, curves, poly extrude, and VDB smoothing.

Detailing continued in Houdini 16.5 reinforces edge creases, bevels, and paneling using booleans, subdivisions, and curve-based carving. Learn to mirror, extrude, and prep piping for a sci-fi dropship cockpit.

Learn a procedural workflow in Houdini 16.5 to quickly generate sci-fi piping for a dropship, including curve creation, snapping to surfaces, beveling, sweeping, UVs, and detailing with clamps.

Wrap piping functionality into a Houdini digital asset for reuse, exposing inputs and parameters such as pipe radius, corner offset, connector length, and connector bevel, to procedurally generate piping.

Explore procedural piping in houdini to quickly generate varied sci-fi tubing on jet engine geometry using find shortest path, vdb, and per-primitive size randomization.

Learn to model and place sci-fi widgets on a dropship in Houdini, using procedural widget creation, copy to points, normals transfer, and quick placement techniques for efficient scene assembly.

Detail the engine in Houdini, starting with the outer casing, then the jet engine area with the nozzle and piping, and finish with the engine mounts for dropship modeling.

Explore outer casing detailing for a sci-fi dropship engine in Houdini, adding paneling lines, front reinforcement, pivot mounts, and fans through box modeling, shatter, bevel, extrude, and copy transform techniques.

Learn to detail jet engines in Houdini 16.5 by extruding, cutting, and boolean shaping, center components with centroid expressions, and refine pivots for a sci-fi dropship.

Procedurally detail jet engines in Houdini by adding piping with shortest path routing, subdivision, and poly extrusion, then refine with bevels, sweeps, and circles.

Refine engine mounts for a sci-fi dropship in Houdini by beveling edges, extruding features, adding procedural piping, and using copy to points with normals for accurate orientation.

Explore houdini 16.5 by modeling a sci-fi dropship, learn topology techniques and the topo build node, reuse geometry, and finalize a game-ready model ready for export.

Learn how to use the topo build node in houdini to resurface engine casing from a low-res template, convert to vdb for watertight geometry, and shape polygons with build tools.

Refine topology with the topoBuild node and typology brush to create polygons, move points and edges, add splits and anchors, detach geometry, and form triangles for game-ready jet-engine models.

Reuse topology in Houdini using the topo build node to speed up engine casing resurfacing, leveraging symmetry, mirror, clip, and selective extrusion and inset for balanced, efficient geometry.

Master jet engine re-topology in Houdini by using object merge to grab low-res geometry, dissolve unwanted edge loops, bevel edges, and mirror along the y-axis for game-ready topology.

In Houdini 16.5, this lecture shows the dropship model, detailing low-poly optimization under 10k polygons, topology reuse, and mirroring to save texture space, plus separate body and engine texture sheets.