Houdini Sand FX Sand Reveal by Rez

Master Houdini sand simulations with Vellum Grains. This course teaches you to create spreading attributes that control sand behavior, from particle setup to a polished Redshift render and Nuke composite.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Set up and optimize Vellum Grains for realistic sand simulations.
• Drive forces with custom growth attributes for art-directable motion.
• Combine gravity and custom velocity fields for organic particle behavior.
• Optimize heavy simulations for efficient rendering of millions of grains.
• Render using Redshift proxies and composite the final shot in Nuke.

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Intermediate knowledge of Houdini.
• Tools: 3-button mouse.
• Hardware: Minimum 16GB RAM, dedicated GPU for simulation and rendering.

📝 Description

This course is all about getting your hands dirty with Vellum Grains in Houdini. You won’t just hit simulate and hope for the best. Instead, you’ll build a system where a custom growth attribute drives the behavior of every single grain. This gives you total control over the motion, letting you craft an organic, art-directable sand reveal.

We start by setting up the grains and optimizing them for simulation. Then, we combine different forces like gravity and custom velocity fields to achieve an interesting, organic motion. After the simulation, we cover a ton of optimization tricks to render millions of grains efficiently using Redshift proxies. Finally, we complete the render by compositing everything in Nuke. The whole pipeline is built around practical, real-world VFX workflows.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Intermediate Houdini artists looking to master Vellum Grains.
• VFX artists wanting to create art-directable particle simulations.
• Generalists who want a complete pipeline from simulation to final composite.

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Rez has been working professionally in CGI for the last 12 years. He has worked with teams on projects for League of Legends, Valorant, Puma, and Final Fantasy. He brings that real-world production experience to his teaching, focusing on practical, efficient techniques.

🏁 Final Result

• A complete, portfolio-ready sand reveal shot, from Houdini simulation to a polished Nuke composite.