Advanced Lighting in Houdini by Dmitry Gromov

On April 30, 2026

Author:Dmitry Gromov

Duration:10-weeks

Actual Duration:20h 57m

Release date:2025, November

Publisher:Rebelway

Skill level:Advanced

Language:English

Exercise files:Yes

Software:Houdini

Course URL:https://www.rebelway.net/advanced-lighting-in-houdini

Master production-level lighting and look development in Houdini's Solaris and Karma.

Ready to take your Houdini skills to the next level? This course dives deep into advanced lighting and look development, focusing on production-ready workflows using Solaris and Karma. You’ll learn to manage complex scenes, optimize rendering, and achieve professional results for film and VFX.

🎯 What you’ll learn

Master Solaris for scene assembly and USD workflows.
Implement efficient lighting and lookdev for various asset types.
Understand and utilize ACES color management.
Optimize Karma rendering settings for production.
Integrate FX elements into your lighting scenes.
Prepare renders for compositing in Nuke.

✅ Requirements

Skills: Students should already be comfortable navigating Houdini, using nodes, and understanding basic workflows. Basic experience with Solaris/Karma is recommended but not required.
Tools: Houdini (latest version recommended).
Hardware: A capable workstation for 3D rendering. Specific specs are not listed but a dedicated GPU is highly recommended.

📝 Description

This course is an advanced, production-oriented lighting and look-development program built inside Houdini’s Solaris/Karma environment. It’s designed to guide you through taking a full CG shot from assets all the way through layout, FX integration, lighting, rendering, and compositing. Unlike general Houdini courses, this one zeroes in on the critical aspects of lighting, lookdev, scene assembly, and rendering using the latest industry standards like Solaris/LOPs, Karma CPU, ACES, and USD. You’ll learn practical techniques for setting up lighting systems for various scenarios, from simple streetlights to complex hero assets and environments. The course also covers essential FX preparation, advanced lighting techniques for shots, render optimization, and compositing workflows in Nuke.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

3D Artists looking to specialize in lighting and look development for film and VFX.
Houdini users who want to master the Solaris and Karma pipeline.
Junior VFX artists aiming to improve their scene assembly and rendering skills.
Anyone seeking a production-focused approach to CG lighting.

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Dmitry Gromov is a seasoned CG Artist with over 9 years of experience working on films, TV shows, and freelancing for global clients. His extensive background in the industry makes him uniquely qualified to teach advanced lighting and look development techniques within a production context. He brings real-world experience and practical insights to the course, ensuring students learn workflows that are directly applicable to professional projects.

🏁 Final Result

A portfolio-ready CG shot demonstrating advanced lighting, look development, and rendering skills using Houdini’s Solaris and Karma. You’ll have a completed scene from asset integration to final compositing, showcasing your ability to manage complex production pipelines.

Curriculum

📋 Course content

Module 1: Intro To Solaris, scene overview and setups used – main built-in (SideFX) setups, custom setups; Textures workflow – ACES, rat; Setup a simple shading and lookdev workflow with some lights, turntable
Module 2: (SINGLE ASSET) Setting The lighting systems for the traffic Lights / street lights, signboards, overpass, vehicles
Module 3: (COMPLEX ASSET) Setting up the Street and Parking Lighting the street and parking
Module 4: (PROCEDURAL ASSET) Building parts preparing, Building procedural setup, Building shading, Building lighting, Instances primvar variations.
Module 5: (HERO ASSET) Bracer (Robot)/ Queen of spikes (Creature) asset preparation, Lookdev and efficient Animation workflow
Module 6: (ENVIRONMENT) Layers workflow, Set Manifest, Layout (step by step adding static assets), Animation (detailed), Setdress (incl. signboards)
Module 7: (FX PREP) Setting FX for environment atmospheric, ocean and cars
Module 8: ( LIGHTING SHOT) Basic light sources / blockers, Fog setup, Light linkers for optimization, RGS for optimization, “LPE Rename” HDA for combining light sources
Module 9: (RENDERING) Render vars, Render products and combining render vars, “Split Per LPE Emission” HDA for exporting Per LPE Emission, Preparing Beauty, Preparing Utility, Render settings (incl. deeps, denoise limits etc)
Module 10: ( COMPOSITNG) Compositing In Nuke