Just wanted to share an effect I did on Houdini on my spare time.

https://vimeo.com/69938923 [vimeo.com]

Hope you guys like it.


*Thanks to Jonathan Gilbert (itriix) and his FXPHD course Destruction in Houdini 12 from which I learned lot of wonderful tricks and applied them on this effect

haha, nice one.

Cool! I'd just add a bit more detail to the dust cloud and more turbulence
Also the optical distortion before the flight is a bit too subtle, either big it up or lose it.

Cheers

Thanks guys!

And thanks for the critics Rafael, I'll take it into consideration and test that when I have a chance :wink:

I wonder if there's any reference footage out there of a cloud of dust from those nice paving bricks being broken. For some reason, at first glance, it didn't seem to fit, (it seemed a bit too fine and opaque, and unusually coloured), but when I thought about it more, it might actually be what the dust from those bricks looks like if they've been hit hard enough, and the bricks are coloured, so maybe the colour fits too.

Of course, keep in mind that most would be more interested in the art of it, not obsessed with realism like me, so feel free to ignore my ramblings. :wink:

It's looking very cool,man!

hey ndickson, thanks for your input
yeah a real reference would have been awesome to have but I guess the police wouldn't like if I start destroying their bridges for reference gathering … this was the nearest I found to those type of bricks being destroyed on the web(why did they shoot it upside down beats me…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxeZdnkjIW4 [youtube.com]

I guessed that orange from the bricks would affect the cloud color but maybe I agree with you that I could use some more particular dust flying around also, looks too smokey.. i did put som particles in but i guess they were not enough.. not sure if i'm gonna invest more time on it though.. keep telling myself to let go or i'm never gonna finish any personal project


Thanks angelia, I appreciate it.

looking good!!
If I may add those little notes about the dust smoke…
- I think you should add more turbulence & lower the swirl size. If I compare it to your reference.
- It should also dissipate slower and have the feel its a heavy dust smoke.
-last note would be the integration, make sure that your darkest blacks and your whitest white matches your plate. This helps you get at least the base color grading needed to make it integrate. Your bricks fits well with the plate but if you look at your dust smoke render, I feel the shadows are strong compared to the lit area or maybe its the inverse! a good way to adjust that would be to make a 3 point lighting (R-G-B) around your some where the blue for example would match your light, Green the shadow area and Red the camera view or back light. If you split them in comp, you can color correct each area of the smoke and have better control over the final look!

did I say it's looking good!!