PROJECT-BASED LEARNING

These tech demos provide a project-based environment for learning about Houdini in a production setting. Each of these demos is created with the involvement of artists and industry experts using best practices. This provides a rich set of tools and workflows that you can learn to apply to your work.

Project Elderwood explores game art workflows using Houdini and Unreal that feature rich vegetation typical of adventure games. This project highlights advanced modeling and texturing tools, with Houdini creating foliage assets through procedural techniques. The project utilizes the Natsura plugin for live tree creation and offers video tutorials on procedural cliffs and rocks. 

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Learn the fundamentals of tool-making with Houdini and Unreal Engine 5. Project Skylark has a stylized look that is generated by the procedural assets used to populate a game level. Most of the textures have been created using the Copernicus toolset.

In Unreal, these tools help build stunning scenes—including houses, foliage, and bridges. 

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SideFX proudly presents 'Turbulence,' an animated short film from Tumblehead Animation Studio and Christopher Rutledge. This film follows a diverse group of characters through the eventful experience of air travel. 

 Houdini played a crucial role in the film's creation, especially in rigging and animation, showcasing the advancements of the KineFX/APEX workflows. Solaris was used for scene setup, Karma XPU for rendering, and COPs for compositing every shot.

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Project GREYLIGHT

Project Greylight is an in-house Solaris tech demo designed to streamline multi-shot workflows, USD department layers, version control, and overall work organization.

The project includes a five-HDA toolkit, demo files, and walkthrough guides, offering a hands-on way to explore and experience a more efficient approach to VFX workflows.

Aimed at students, indie artists, and curious studios, Project Greylight provides a professional VFX workflow experience without the requirement of custom pipelines or content management systems.

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Project GROT

Project GROT showcases the versatility and creativity that procedural generation brings to the world of game development. The focal point of the scene is an ancient cave, illuminated by the fiery glow of molten lava, taking the viewer on a  journey through the depths of an otherworldly realm.

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Project Pegasus

Project Pegasus uses Houdini's procedural workflows to create an open world 3D environment that integrates with the latest technologies in Unreal Engine 5. As this project progresses, the tools and techniques created for this demo will be shared with the community as learning materials and downloadable content. 

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Project Titan

Project Titan is designed to production test Houdini's procedural workflows while creating a 3D environment that leverages the latest technologies in Unreal Engine 5. The tools and techniques created for this demo have been shared with the community as learning materials and downloadable content. 

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The Dawning

The Dawning is an animated short created by SideFX with a crew of external and internal artists. The production of this animation touched everything - from storyboarding, concept design, modeling and texturing of assets, creation of terrains and environment building, rigging, animating, FX, lighting, rendering, comp, colour grading and sound design. The tools and techniques created for this demo have been shared with the community as learning materials and downloadable content. 

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