cmiVFX - Houdini Mograph

Most of the time Houdini is spoken of, in terms of its usage, is in creating massive visual effects shots which require Particles and Dynamics. The purpose of this video was to show Houdini being used for creating something relatively different. Motion Graphics is a huge field and Houdini, because of it’s procedural nature is a great tool to create various types of elements that can be used for motion graphics. The inspiration for this video came from films like “Iron Man” and “Tron Legacy” especially the various UIs that can be seen in those films. The video, through a singular animation, will demonstrate how you can create the elements required to create such a User Interface. Also, the video will show how these elements can be animated using very few parameters so the user has the maximum amount of control over the animation without having to animate a massive number of parameters. Instructor Rohan Dahlvi, will also briefly cover how these elements can be rendered and composited.

Chapter Descriptions
Modeling Central Loader
Starting the project. Using a NURBs Tube, Carve SOP and Font SOP to create and animate the Central Loader.


Modeling Secondary Ring
Using the same NURBs Tube to create a secondary ring around the central loader.


Modeling Random Arcs
Modeling multiple arc around the loader using COPY SOP and Copy Stamping. Also setting color for the arcs using Ramp parameter.

Creating Animated Waveform
Creating an animated waveform using VOP SOP and turbulent noise.

Creating Animated Bars
Creating an animated bars type graphical display. Animating the bars using the Channel Frames function (chf) and copy stamping to offset the animation for every bar.

Creating Animated Bars Continued
Applying the same technique from the previous chapter to create and outer ring for the entire UI.

Create Dataline's
Creating Datalines to surround the UI. The Datalines will be created using Add SOP and copy stamping. We also modify the text using copy stamping.

Datalines Continued
Creating a more complex variation of the Datalines with control over the direction of the lines based on their position on the arc upon which they are copied.

Animating Ui Part 1 And 2
Animating the UI using a single animated parameter using channel referencing, Timeshift SOP and copy stamping.

Houdini Plexus Basic
Using Houdini to create an effect where a central dot connect and disconnect to other dots based distance. The effect primarily uses the Foreach SOP

Houdini Plexus Complex
Continuing the previous effect but allowing all the dots to repeat the same process using Copy Stamping. This will allow you to recreate the effect created by the AE plugin called Plexus

Spaceship Model
Modeling the centre of the spaceship using basic NURBs modeling. The completed spaceship model is shown briefly.

Spaceship Animation Part 1,2,3,4 and 5
Forming the spaceship from curves and animating the effect. This is done primarily using the Carve SOP and the animation is controlled using a single parameter which is offset using the "chf" function and copy stamping.

Spaceship Rendering
Merging all the elements into a single file and setting up the timings for all the various animated parts.

Spaceship C Final Result
Rendering and getting the final look. The lines/curves are rendered using the width attribute. We will also see how we can do the basic compositing in COPS.