VFX Academy of Design

Become a master of VEX in Houdini

This course is a comprehensive introduction to the use of VEX in Houdini. Some of what you’ll learn includes: implementing collision deformers, Laplacian and Taubin smoothing, Perlin Noise, and implementing our own fBM noise, different shaders in VEX, volume manipulation, pyroclastic noise, terrain erosion, and more.

Registration Now Open

Registration Period

Oct 09, 2024 - Jan 27, 2025

Course Start

Jan 18, 2025

Course Format

Standard

Skills Level

Advanced

Duration

8 weeks

Q&A

Once a week

Feedback

Individual recordings

Lecture Type

Pre-recorded

Assignment

Due each week. Expect to spend 10-20 hrs/wk viewing lectures, Q&A, and assignments to classes

PREREQUISITES

Comfortable knowledge of Houdini and its principles and programming experience, preferably in a C-like language (C, C++, MEL, RSL, Java)

MATERIALS

Latest Houdini

The more you know, the better.

Week #1

Introduction to VEX, Geometry Manipulation

The first class deals with setting up Houdini to work with VEX and VOPs and starting to get our feet wet with writing a few geometry deformers in SOPs. We will be talking through the theory behind Laplacian and Taubin smoothing and learn how to implement those algorithms in VEX.

Week #2

3d Noise, Implementation and Application

One of the fundamental principles in VFX is noise. We will be looking in detail into the theory of noise and learn some specific terminology and compare different functions in small VEX examples. We will then go ahead and implement our own fBM functions which we will then use to create procedural effects like a fireball and lightning. We will touch upon how to treat noise functions on animated characters and then slightly bend our minds to create amazing patterns using the concept of domain warping.

Week #3

Dynamic Geometry Generation

Main topic of this week is geometry creation. We will be growing some grass curves, implement features on how to even animate it, and learn how to turn them into polygonal geometry we can render. We move on to implementing our first SOP solver to create some actual animated lightning –applying what we learned about noise and geometry creation.

Week #4

Gray-Scott Reaction Diffusion

This week focuses on the great Grey Scott Reaction/Diffusion model. We will learn about its theory and how to implement it in VEX. With the resulting setup we will experiment in various ways, to create some amazing naturalistic looking pictures.

Week #5

Flocking Systems Implementing Boids

Another often used method is flocking. Used for birds, fish or spaceships, the flocking mechanism by Reynolds – often referred to as BOIDS – is a fundamental principle driving many workflows in VFX. We will look into BOIDs theory and then learn about and implement a full flocking setup with behaviours like separation, alignment, wander and cohesion and instantiate geometry to the simulated points to create a flock of birds.

Week #6

Growth Algorithms and Space Colonisation

Growth algorithms are an important part of VFX work. Veins, magic, plants and other vegetation can be created with space colonization algorithms. We will be looking at the principle of seed and feed points, create ivy overgrowth and bushy plants to populate a 3D scene, making it more believable and life-like.

Week #7

Volume Manipulation, Pyroclastic Noise and Point Replication

After dealing a lot with polygonal geometry, our focus will shift to other primitive types. We will be looking at the principle of advection by moving points and volumes through a velocity field and also implement a volume displacement setup to create cloud like effects. We will learn how to use point replication to increase the detail of point renders in a geometry context but also as a render time procedural. We will extend that excursion into rendering land by writing a more complex procedural that turns points into fur at render time.

Week #8

Hydraulic Erosion

We finish off the class by learning about concepts of Thermal and Hydraulic erosion. We will apply those algorithms to write our own VEX setup, creating highly realistic landscapes to be used in VFX or Games.

Taking your skills, to the next level

Timothy Stam

FX Technical Director

LECTURES BY Johannes Richter

Course Start: Jan 18, 2025

Timothy is currently a Lead FX TD at MISC Studios in London, having worked at Goodbye Kansas, Framestore, MPC, Electric Theatre Collective, and at Double Negative before. Timothy has worked on the cities for the Yorktown sequence for Star Trek: Beyond, did a variety of FX on Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Birds of Paradise, and more recently worked on streaming/TV series such as Locke and Key, Vigil, The Rig, Cursed, Jack Ryan and more, and has worked on a number of commercials projects, both doing FX and building procedural modelling tools, for clients like Honda, Seat, Dyson, Argos and others.

He studied digital effects at Bournemouth University and game art at the Utrecht School of Art and Technology. Timothy has been teaching in various capacities, most recently at Anomalia (Czechia), at Pluralsight (City Generation with Python in Houdini), as Houdini tutor for MOPA (Arles, France) and has also done a number of Master Classes, for Bournemouth University and Staffordshire University.

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PRICING SCHEDULE

Even though our courses are the most affordable for the quality of education, these finance options allow you to focus on your goals instead of the barriers that keep you from reaching them.

3x Payments

$233

2x Payments

$349.50

Full payment

$699

Winter TERM REGISTRATION Now Open

Oct 09, 2024 - Jan 27, 2025

COURSE BEGINS on Jan 18, 2025

What makes this learning experience unique?

PERSONALIZED FEEDBACK

Receive personalized feedback on all assignments from the industry’s top professionals.

LIFETIME ACCESS

Enjoy lifetime access to the spectrum of course content, including lectures, live Q&As, and feedback sessions.

CERTIFICATION

Show off your Certification of Completion when you turn in 80% of course assignments.

FLEXIBLE LEARNING

Learn anywhere, anytime, and at your own pace with flexible, online course scheduling.

VEX in Houdini

Character Design

Electives

Environment Design

Drawing Foundation

Compositing/Lighting

Houdini/FX

Rigging

VEX in Houdini

Become a master of VEX in Houdini

The more you know, the better.

Trailers

Instructor Trailer

STUDENT GALLERY