The CarFX – Houdini Car Destruction by William Wallace

This course teaches you how to build a complete vehicle destruction pipeline in Houdini from scratch. You’ll take a high-res CG car and smash it to pieces, keeping full control over constraints, timing, and realism. It’s over 9 hours of practical training covering everything from suspension rigging to final rendering in Karma.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Build a complete vehicle destruction pipeline in Houdini
• Rig a suspension chassis for realistic car behavior
• Manage complex assets and constraint networks
• Create metal deformation and rigid body simulations
• Set up and render destruction sequences in Solaris with Karma

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Basic of Houdini UI and 3D space
• Tools: 3-button mouse
• Hardware: Minimum 16GB RAM, dedicated GPU

📝 Description

This isn’t a theory-heavy lecture. It’s a hands-on, project-based course where you build a working destruction pipeline step by step. You start with a stripped-down high-res car asset and a custom suspension chassis, then work through the entire process: constraint networks, rigid body dynamics, and solver management.

The real value here is control. Most destruction tutorials just blow things up and hope for the best. This course shows you how to manage every piece—how to set up constraints that break at the right time, how to deform metal realistically, and how to keep your simulation stable without losing the chaos that makes destruction look good.

You’ll also cover the rendering side with Solaris and Karma, so you can actually present your work. The course includes scene files and project setups, so you can follow along and adapt the pipeline to your own projects.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• FX artists looking to specialize in vehicle destruction
• Houdini users who want a practical, project-based pipeline
• Artists transitioning from games or film into high-end FX work

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

William Wallace has been in the VFX industry since 2006, working as an Art Director, FX Artist, and FX Supervisor at top studios like Hydraulx, Method Studios, and Scanline VFX. His filmography includes major blockbusters like The Avengers, San Andreas, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and the Monsterverse franchise, as well as TV series like Stranger Things. He specializes in large-scale simulations, procedural destruction, and complex FX, with a strong background in engineering and design principles.

🏁 Final Result

• A complete, render-ready car destruction sequence with controlled constraints and realistic metal deformation
• A reusable Houdini pipeline setup for future vehicle destruction projects