Artwork by Rostislav Uzunov
Join us for the Houdini HIVE at SIGGRAPH ASIA in Tokyo – on Tuesday, December 3, 2024.
Hear from top artists from the Houdini community as we go behind-the-scenes of their recent projects. Learn how Houdini procedural techniques help artists create high quality work. Find out more about the latest release Houdini 20.5 and its key features, such as an MPM solver – and Copernicus, an image engine for creating textures and slap comps.
We're located at G Block/4F, Room G409 in the Tokyo International Forum.
You will need at least an Exhibit & Experience Access badge to view the presentations.
SCHEDULE
1:55 PM
USD/Solaris Workflow Evolution, Houdini tools and Axiom Efficiency
Christophe Rodo, Andrew Palmer, Matthew Puchala | Megalis
4:55 PM
Mikael Moane | Cause and FX
Presentations will be recorded and posted on this page some time after the event.
Tuesday | Dec 3 | 10:00 AM JST
Houdini Labs for Games and Realtime FX
In this session we discuss how Houdini Labs can help developers create games from indie to AAA scale. We also explore Unreal Engine 5 features allowing realistic rendering of fluid and ocean simulation from Houdini. Additionally, we compare Houdini with other alternatives including Blender's Geometry Nodes, evaluating their performance and visual quality.
Michal Rutkowski boasts a decade of experience in the games and VFX industry across Asia and Europe. His journey has seen him work as a Technical Artist at Square Enix Japan, ARM, and Outpost VFX, where he specialised in physically-based rendering and R&D. Currently, Michal channels his expertise into building an innovative outsourcing venture Meta Meow in Japan, delivering Technical Art and Graphics Programming services for console and PC game developers. He also leads tool development and research at Meta Meow.
Tuesday | Dec 3 | 10:35 AM JST
Different ways to deal with Rock Formations for Games
I will cover different ways to create rocks for game, realistic and stylized, unique nanite meshes and instances of modules, modules creation using procedural workflow and PDG, texturing data creation and even MLOP for auto texturing using prompt.
Jerome Hereng joined Sparx*, Jerome with over 15 years of prior experience working in renowned studios like Illumination Mac Guff as an FX Artist. Since joining Sparx* in 2015, he has built the FX department and branched out into game engines specializing in procedural tools. On the Sparx* side, Jerome has added his touch to major titles like Star Wars Rebels, Demon’s Souls Remake and Kena: Bridge of Spirits.
Tuesday | Dec 3 | 10:35 AM JST
Character Animation with Houdini - Introduction to APEX
Attendees will learn the fundamentals of setting up APEX for character animation, along with practical tips.
Ryusuke Ohta is a programmer at a broadcast technology company and the organizer of the Houdini Advent Calendar in Japan. He has authored articles on the Houdini Engine API and KineFX, published books on Wrangle and Python, and supervised the introductory Houdini guide, Houdini Drill.
Tuesday | Dec 3 | 12:30 PM JST
Project Elderwood and the State of Foliage Modelling with Natsura
Introducing Project Elderwood, a new work-in-progress showcase of game-engine workflows using Houdini and Unreal Engine with a special focus on Plants and Vegetation modelling workflows in Houdini, taking advantage of the third-party Natsura tools developed by Feike Postmes and George Hulm.
Feike Postmes started out as a technical artist with a love for mathematics. Currently developing the Natsura toolset. He co-founded a technical art company called DodoDevs where he works on procedural solutions for 3D content generation. He grew up in the Netherlands and studied at Breda University of Applied Sciences. Currently living in Tokyo Japan, always happy to talk, whether its procedural art works, so make sure to say hi if you see him.
Tuesday | Dec 3 | 1:20 PM JST
Make friends the Houdini way!
Practical techniques for crowd agent creation at scale. We explore techniques for creating digital humans for crowd setups from 3d scans, adding variety and mocap dance parties.
Chris Gardner is a TD, Houdini artist and proud non-lighter at alt.vfx, based in Sydney, Australia. In between building pipelines, various feather systems, stuffing cats into tubes, he also is responsible for crowd work, successfully pretending to know stuff about character setup.
Tuesday | Dec 3 | 1:55 PM JST
USD/Solaris Workflow Evolution, Houdini Tools and Axiom Efficiency
Established almost eight years ago, Megalis embraced Houdini as the backbone of their pipeline since day one. They share their learnings on implementing USD and Solaris, show some simple but powerful tools on which they rely on a daily basis – and talk about Axiom which became their go-to Houdini plugin for quick volumes iterations.
Christophe Rodo is VFX supervisor and co-CEO for Megalis VFX. Chris has worked as FX and Pipeline supervisor on full CG features as well as live action projects in the companies he dreamed to work at since he was a teenager. Now creating his own dream and hopefully others’ by building a studio that can create projects driven by passion.
Andrew Palmer
Matthew Puchala
Tuesday | Dec 3 | 2:45 PM JST
Foundation of Versatility: Practicing a Procedural Pipeline for Dozens of Games
This session will guide attendees on how to be supportive for multiple types of games and walk them through the steps of delivering middleware rather than providing turnkey procedural solutions among large-scale game studios. Calvin Gu from LightSpeed Studios will present the latest trends in OpenUSD and Houdini Solaris, and how he applies them to the Unreal Engine. Attendees will learn about how to command Houdini in Editor Utility Widget, Scriptable Tools, and any other places in Unreal Engine, and how Lightspeed Studios organically streamlines them together.
Calvin Gu has spent the last seven years developing pipelines for movies and games. He is currently a Senior Technical Artist at LightSpeed Studios, where he oversees a team responsible for the generic 3D content production solution. Previously, Calvin worked at SideFX, contributing to Solaris, and at WetaFX.
Tuesday | Dec 3 | 3:20 PM JST
Digital Fabrication with Houdini
This presentation covers several examples of digital fabrication using Houdini, including ceramic 3D printing. Through these projects, we explore how Houdini’s procedural tools enhance precision and adaptability across various fabrication methods.
Junichiro Horikawa is an independent designer with experience in architectural design from working at an architecture firm. He uses algorithmic design techniques with Houdini to create geometric forms for architecture, product design, and fashion. Currently, he also serves as a specially appointed researcher at a university, while collaborating on design and art projects and producing tutorial videos on YouTube.
Tuesday | Dec 3 | 4:10 PM JST
From Idea to Insanity
A journey through personal works and RnD projects, while exploring how simple ideas can be expanded to into small pieces of joyful insanity, and how sometimes it's important to play the game: "your supervisor would never ask you for... but what if they did?"
Thomas Klyhn Christensen is a senior generalist who started his career in architectural visualisation and later moved into large scale public art, tv, animation and visual effects. He has a profound hunger and curiosity for learning and applying new knowlege, in ways that are not always obvious or commercially viable and if it involves Houdini Crowds he gets even more excited.
Tuesday | Dec 3 | 4:45 PM JST
Small Team - Big Things: How Cause and FX created large-format content for massive LED stages
Discover how Cause and FX tackled the challenges of mutiple large-format deliveries, harnessing the power of Karma XPU and Solaris. By maximizing our established pipeline and render farm, we crafted high-resolution visuals tailored for large-scale displays, reaching resolutions up to 27k.
Mikael Moane joined Cause and FX in 2018, back when the company was a close-knit team of about 10 artists across all departments. Over the years, Mikael has contributed to the growth and development of the CG department, which expanded to a team of around 20 artists at its peak. Today, Mikael leads the pipeline development and maintenance for the CG department, tackling complex technical challenges and overseeing R&D projects that drive innovation within the studio.