Mathias Jørgensen Houdini Projects

[mathiasj]

Hi all,

Since I just started out a few months back I thought I would start a finished art thread to keep track of my work in Houdini.
Both to get critiques when people offer them as well as have something to look back and reflect on

Thanks for all the help you guys give. It's a HUGE part of my growth as a self-taught artist.

Edited March 19, 2020 by mathiasj

[mathiasj]

My first finished Houdini animation! A tesla coil from Red Alert.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oOLbJq

Made with H18, Renderman 23, Substance Painter, Photoshop and Nuke.

Project was focused on learning more about procedural modeling. This time lightning.
Based on Steven Knipping's amazing Particles III course: http://www.appliedhoudini.com/blog/2018/2/16/particles-iii-sparks-and-lightning

Started just trying to model the lightning hitting Tommy. Then decided to turn it into a full animation to also learn more about the general 3D workflow in Houdini e.g. animation, PBR, layering materials, animating materials, scattering and compositing.

Initially had a particle system as well for snow falling, but for the life of me couldn't get the alpha map to work right. 
Even though previewing the UV on the plane looked fine, when rendered it looked like the scale was way bigger for some reason. Can't figure out if this was Houdini or Renderman, but after struggling with it for several hours and it not being a problem in Mantra, I decided to scrap the snow since the time spent on what was a small detail seemed wasted. Will focus on it again in another project.

Didn't pan out exactly as I wanted: bit more on the cartoony side, and the elements are clearly copy stamped. 
Hope to improve this over time with more experience

On to the next project! ... something to do with The Mummy (1999) ...