Houdini Game Art - Create foliage for Games with Houdini (Udemy.com)

Learn how to increase your work speed with a procedural workflow

Created by: Alexandre Stroukoff

Produced in 2018

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What you will learn

  • Create a useful ivy generator than can be expanded upon
  • How to use Houdini to complete a task faster in a production environment
  • Understanding how to control objects copy in Houdini (Orientation attributes)
  • Create Realtime foliage meshes

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Quality Score

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Overall Score : 90 / 100

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Course Description

This course will take you through the step necessary to create realtime foliage using Houdini.
Starting from reference pictures, we will use Houdini to create a useful Ivy Tool that could be expanded into a more Generic Vegetation Tool.
The main focus of this course will be HOUDINI. You don't need an advanced knowledge, this course is great for Houdini beginners who want practice procedural modeling in a real production way instead of doing more abstract tutorials. You can use this course as an excuse to finish your first Houdini project, that will take you from beginner to a more intermediate skill level with Houdini.
I will show a typical production workflow from the "real world" that you can use directly in a video game production. We will take shortcuts, and do thing as fast as possible, the goal being the end result.
By the end you should have a idea of how you can integrate Houdini in your video game art pipeline, and have some cool assets you can show off in Unreal or Unity or any engine, and maybe, this will be your first game art assets made with the help of Houdini !
You wil be provided with the final Houdini file used in this tutorial.
NOTE : Even though I use Substance Designer and 3ds Max in this tutorial, their are not mandatory, and can be easily replaced other similar software.Who this course is for:
  • You know a bit of Houdini but would like finally use it in a concrete way
  • You are an artist who want to use Houdini procedural capabilities to get the job done faster
  • Game Artists curious about adding a bit of proceduralism in their workflow

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Instructor Details

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My name is Alexandre Stroukoff and I am a Senior technical Environment artist. I started working on video games since 2010, on titles ranging from big AAA titles ( Watch_Dogs, Ghost Recon,...) to mobiles games (Modern Combat Versus, Disney Magic Kingdom, ...).
I have a huge interest in all aspect of the game art pipeline, and, a firm believer in using technical knowledge to improve the way we produce artistic content for games.
After multiple years and project using Houdini, I have a good understanding of the software and how it can be used in a video game production pipeline, and I want to share this wonderful software with you. I hope that you will understand how procedural tools like Houdini can help you work faster and provide extremely high quality content while still controlling the Artistic side of things !

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Reviews

4.5

12 total reviews

5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star
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Well presented and fun to follow along.

Yes! I'm trying to watch it now but have to do this!

Awesome knowledge here, really speeding up my workflow with incredible tips and tricks!

利用するノード説明があってとてもありがたいです。

It's a great course, but I would prefer more detailed explanations of the nodes and for the instructor to go a little more slowly

A complete rundown on one useful technique for creating good looking low poly foliage, easily and quickly applicable in real-world scenarios. Does what it's set to do, is well explained, and the instructor is attentive and easy to follow.
My criticism is that for a Houdini tutorial there are some steps that can be accomplished within Houdini, which would be very interesting to explore and are not that advanced (for example the baking process, or just the re positioning of the leaves), and those are done in 3D Max. Given the general lack of tutorials relative to other programs and the fact that it's advertised as a Houdini technique, it would be awesome that the whole example was created integrally within the program. I believe that would be more revealing for people wishing to understand how they can use the software.
Creating a HDA for real-time editing within a game engine would be another awesome subject that this could have covered (specially with the houdini for games focus) that sadly isn't touched.
Another minor criticism is that the instructor will sometimes gloss over things that can be confusing for total newcomers. Mind you, most of the times he will take care to explain each node, but there are some omissions. This leaves the course in a position where a new user can follow (and should) but might have trouble understanding some steps, and more advanced users might find it too basic.

Harder to understand why we are using certain nodes when they arent explained. I am however fine with not fully understanding the color isolation, i just found the cutting while mixing with colors and materials a little stressful to deal with.

Superb tutorial! Such many useful information that really can help environment artists to do great game-art faster and easier. The course aren't boring, have a ton of interest and useful information but I advice to finish a couple newbie Houdini tutorials before this one.
Big thanks to Alex. I will be waiting for new videos.

Worthwhile course. Fairly focused and easy to get through but covered the topic with a good amount of depth.

Generally this is a good lecture. However there are few things why I gave this course 4
Pros
- A Good step by step lecture
- UI shows up for shortcuts
Cons
- 720p.
- Many times, I don't know what key the instructor is pressing
- There is no visual indicator what key the instructor is pressing. Since in description the target audience is beginners, this is the biggest thing I don't like. It would be really helpful to visualize what key is being pressed. (Like as screen key cast thing in blender
I like this lecture and want to learn more from the instructor, hope he could improve some parts.

My First time in Houdini and the tutor is really making me get a feel for the way it works, I wish I had such a good tutorial when I took my first steps in Substance designer or Blender.

This is awesome! I love the tutorial! Very basic and clear to understand!