Angel Statue
Responsible for All Aspects except the Statue Model
Year: 2023
Rendering in Houdini Redshift
Average Render Time: 1.6 min per frame
Number of Light: 3 Spot Light
Project Description
In the particle disintegration project, I created a particle disintegration effect using particle dynamics or vellum grains in Houdini. To achieve this, I employed the pyro source spread node to simulate a disintegration effect that gives the illusion of erosion. Additionally, I incorporated the popnet node to facilitate the emission of particles in specific sections.
Technical Guide
To get the disintegration effect on the statue by using pyro source spread(Tutorial: New in Houdini 18: SOPs Pyro Spread https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-DDdGcvBaI&t=157s & Houdini Disintegrate using boolean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXD51UY4j10). I started with pointsfromvolume node to generate a regular set of points that fill a given volume. I then identified the area where I wanted the spread to occur using a Group node. Subsequently, I established an attribute limiting the effect to a points group, naming this attribute 'temperature.'
In the pyro source spread node, I changed different values and noise types to achieve the desired speed and erosion shape. Next, I converted the portion where the pyro source spreads growth into VDB, and used the boolean node to cut off the statue. And make that portion display the particle disintegration effect by using popnet node. Inside the popnet, I increased the constant birth rate to 900,000 and introduced both the popwind and popdrag nodes to attain intricate results.
In the end, I used the expression '@pscale = 0.0015*rand(@id)' to change the particle size and randomize their size. Tips from Williams: After filecache, using transform node to scale those particles down a little bit and merge the cache and transfrom nodes to get the illusion of a large number of particles.
Problems Encountered
As I intended to render this project using Redshift, an additional step was required compared to Mantra. Specifically, I needed to enable the 'Render Object as Particles' option to render out the particles. However, doing so would result in my entire mesh being treated as particles. To resolve this and enable the rendering of both the particles and the disintegrated statue, I utilized a Null node to separate my particles into another Geometry folder. Subsequently, I configured this folder to render particles by enabling 'Render Object as Particles.' Meanwhile, I kept the original folder with 'Render Object as Particles' disabled.
Second issue is my Particles are flying too crazy. The main issue is the Amplitude of the popwind node is too high. I changed it from 3 to 2.
