Master the art of detailing and masking smoke and Pyro simulations in Houdini. This course will take you beyond presets, teaching you the inner workings of Gas Microsolvers, vector operations, and custom simulation techniques.
What You’ll Learn:
Understanding noise in Houdini and its role in simulations.
Exploring vector operators: curl, gradient, divergence, Laplacian, and curvature.
Enhancing smoke and Pyro simulations with detailing and masking techniques.
Breaking Down Gas Microsolvers
We will start by analyzing Houdini’s built-in Gas Microsolvers, including:
Gas Turbulence
Gas Shredding
Gas Vortex Confinement
Gas Disturb
Rather than just tweaking their settings, you’ll learn to rebuild them from scratch using Gas Microsolvers. This approach will provide core knowledge of DOP networks, helping you develop your own advanced simulation techniques. Key microsolvers covered include:
Gas Match Field
Gas Analysis
Gas Linear Combination
Gas Field VOP
…and more!
Custom Techniques for Smoke Detailing & Masking
Once you understand the traditional methods, we’ll move into creating custom detailing solutions for smoke simulations. You'll learn how to:
Build custom masks using Houdini techniques.
Develop an OTL (Houdini Digital Asset) for flexible reuse in any simulation.
By the end of this course, you won’t just know how to use Houdini’s tools—you’ll understand how they work at a fundamental level, allowing you to create your own powerful DOP-based systems for simulation.
