Controlled Building Demolition FX in Houdini

Discover how to create an art-directable destruction scene in Houdini with this 5-hour workshop by Timucin Ozger, Head of FX at the award-winning Mr. X. This entire workshop is taught inside Houdini; only a basic understanding of the Houdini user interface is all that is needed to be able to follow along with this tutorial, from an empty scene file to a full-set demolition.

Tim reveals his production-proven, rigid-body destruction (RBD) techniques using the RBD Bullet Solver and shares how to properly fracture a model and create constraints together with secondary simulations such as debris and pyro effects. Throughout the process, Tim explains all the tools and concepts required, from TOPs setup for fast iteration, RBD Material Fracture, Packed Primitives, RBD Constraints, simulation secondaries, Custom DOP net smoke setup, Sparse Sim Pyro Setups, for-loops with Compile Blocks, Instances, and rendering with Redshift. As the final step, Tim details how to trigger all the events with custom objects to create your very own complete building demolition inside Houdini.

Houdini project files are supplied as a downloadable learning resource with this workshop.