Connection - A Houdini Short

The concept of this project was developed from two inspirations. First was “The Essence by Auroroa | Performance Video” by Abertay alumnus Maja Oszczypała and her work on capturing a single performer’s actions using motion capture technology. I wanted to create a more complex version of the project by using two performers being captured with motion capture. The second inspiration came from a former project I had collaborated on using particle systems in Houdini, and I wanted to explore particle systems further in order to get more hands on with visual effects in Houdini.

As the project progressed so did some elements of scope. There was a pathway to introducing cloth as well to the subjects and simulating vellum to VDBs and then back to particles to further enhance the feel of particles flowing. This was later revised and removed when experiments with particles began to bring more elements of interest such as a splash of particles on each footstep, as well as highlighting the ground upon which the subjects were standing. As the original focus of the project was experimenting and learning as much as possible about particle simulations in Houdini, I ultimately chose the path that brough further work in the form of particles.

Coincidentally ILM in partnership with Sir Wayne McGregor released Infinite Bodies, a project which took motion capture data from dancers and turned it into a VFX performance. The project had the look and feel of what I wanted the final output of the project to look like, albeit with a much higher skill level and stronger execution done by the team. I had two options, to scrap the idea I had since it had already been executed by a studio or do my own version of the concept as an independent artist. I chose to go forward and see what I could achieve from my own skills.

One of the motivations behind this project was to delve further into the creation of particles in Houdini. This was done through creating a simple sphere and using advection and other forces to explore the different influences and results from these nodes before moving forward. The majority of this process was executed through following a YouTube tutorial (EzPepz, Solar Flare particle effect in Houdini) on creating a solar flare before adapting it to my own needs.

Further down the production line during render tests, I realized that the project did not give a “cinematic” feel. To combat this problem, I decided on shifting from the standard 1920:1080 resolution to 2560:1080 ultra-wide format. Using friends and colleagues as a control group, I received positive feedback from this change and resolved myself to move forward using it. In addition to changing the resolution I opted to have a light postproduction approach with slight tint and chromatic aberration adjustments to create the final look.

As the project progressed so did some elements of scope. There was a pathway to introducing cloth as well to the subjects and simulating vellum to VDBs and then back to particles to further enhance the feel of particles flowing. This was later revised and removed when experiments with particles began to bring more elements of interest such as a splash of particles on each footstep, as well as highlighting the ground upon which the subjects were standing. As the original focus of the project was experimenting and learning as much as possible about particle simulations in Houdini, I ultimately chose the path that brough further work in the form of particles.

The most dynamic challenge was the constant evolving of how to handle/represent the particles and what it meant for the environment at large. Every time the particles were updated, subtle changes were made to the environment, lights, and texture systems. Initially there was only a singular plane as the back drop, but as the particles took the emissive route, it became clear that the reflection was only happening in one direction of the environment and so the environment was recreated in order to have walls in all four directions. As the reflectiveness of the environment was adjusted the number of lights and their placements were then adjusted to create a low lit but engaging environment. When the look and feel of the particles were adjusted, the roughness of the floor would also be adjusted to accurately capture the reflection on the floor in line with the art direction.