micro organism underwater thing in houdini

[metalsteve81]

Hello all. This is the latest project I have been working on for my demo reel. Houdini / Redshift. I used growth to effect redshift displacement, some flaking using simple voronoi and spring sop that was activated by the same growth as the displacement.

I plan on growing the infection across the beam sections and having them break apart. I was told it needs to be more saturated too. what do you think?

All feedback is welcomed.

 

[stickman]

This might be a non-issue given a larger context (shots before/after, etc) but the progression of the effect could have an intermediary step... so that the eye follows it more easily into the depth of the scene. Right now, I'm distracted by the coolness of the scene and when the effect pauses then jumps towards the back, I'm caught looking elsewhere. Alternatively, you could have a lighting or something.
Generally, it doesn't have a micro feel, as everything tends to become a subsurface volume at that scale. You also have some volumetric godrays which make the scene feel biggish.

[mestela]

Dof would really help sell the macro feel too (but you'd have to work out where you want to pull focus, as you have interesting stuff going on in the near/middle/far regions).

[metalsteve81]

Dof took focus away from the effects so I didnt use it.

The idea was micro organism but as if you were also microscopic. Kinda like you are in a ship investigating the spread of infection. But I agree with the volumetric lighting. It ended up more like an underwater scene rather than microscopic. maybe remove the volumetric light and replace with gentle depth of field. Ill give those a try. thank you for your input.

[Mind Thrower]

It will be cool if main structure had just a bit of animated noise, to look like its alive. Btw very nice!

[metalsteve81]

Thats a pretty cool idea, I hadnt thought about that. I thought about tiny hairs but making it move would be much cooler. Thanks Mind Thrower.