{"id":19824,"date":"2024-03-08T12:05:53","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T18:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/?p=19824"},"modified":"2024-03-08T12:05:57","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T18:05:57","slug":"visualization-students-explore-houdinis-tools-and-benefits-during-gamedev-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/news\/2024\/03\/08\/visualization-students-explore-houdinis-tools-and-benefits-during-gamedev-workshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Visualization Students Explore Houdini’s Tools And Benefits During Gamedev Workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Students looking to expand their technical skill sets participated in the Houdini Gamedev Workshop, a partnership between SideFX<\/a> and the Visualization<\/a> program, on Feb. 9 at the Hildebrand Equine Complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Houdini<\/a> is a software program and digital content creation package made by Toronto developer SideFX. It allows artists and developers to produce digital assets for games, films, television, motion graphics, architecture and medical visualization, according to Christopher Hebert, SideFX senior director of marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLaunched in 1995, Houdini was at first primarily used by large film studios for visual effects. Since then, it has broadened its application into a wide variety of sectors and applications,\u201d Hebert said. \u201cNow it is used by pretty much every major film, TV, advertising and video game studio in the world for functions across the pipeline, including modeling, world building, character FX, rigging and animation, VFX, lighting, layout and rendering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the benefits in learning how to use Houdini are how to create visual effects from the ground up to animate characters, scenery and worlds, Hebert said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo matter what you go in with visualization, Houdini is a very powerful tool to have in your toolkit,\u201d he said. \u201cHaving the kinds of tools that Houdini can make gives students that have just the minimum amount of experience or skills in Houdini the chance to really do some amazing things that leapfrogs ahead of someone having to build something from scratch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students chose from three tracks based on their skill set, working in level design and world building, real-time effects, tool building and digital assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aaron Thibault<\/a>, the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts\u2019 newly hired director for games and esports and an associate professor of practice, said students can use Houdini as a common tool to create and solve problems across all industry fields. He compared Houdini\u2019s influence to word processors when they emerged as an alternative to typewriters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith word processors, you could go back into what you wrote and make changes, but with typewriters you used white-out and had to reassemble everything that you did,\u201d Thibault said. \u201cHoudini is a parametric tool set for a workflow that the world needs for modern development. Our students have the opportunity to become part of that new world, to have a better way of thinking about problems and creation, in the entertainment and interactive fields.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace Callanan, a junior Visualization student, hopes to become proficient in animation and rigging to become a generalist in the field. She said she was grateful to expand her skill set at the workshop so that one day she can add \u201cHoudini efficiency\u201d to her resume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI found out that SideFX has a really immersive tutorial library, which is great. I plan to go home and watch some of those,\u201d Callanan said. \u201cI definitely just wanted to be more comfortable in Houdini after this workshop. I want to become more comfortable with the interface and just the workflow in general.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Magee, senior product marketing manager for SideFX, led the introductory workshop where students placed simulated trees in a sandbox through Houdini\u2019s terrain and scattering tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danicka Oglesby, technical artist at SideFX and a Visualization program graduate, conducted the intermediate workshop where students made an explosion simulation as a Houdini-generated effect. Caleb Duane, technical artist at Bluepoint Games and also a Visualization program graduate, was a part of the session for advanced students where they learned to create custom tools in Houdini.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xray Halperin, a senior technical artist at Insomniac Games, led a session for advanced students that explored tool-building techniques by re-creating a physical object in Houdini. Halperin, who developed procedural tools and techniques for “Marvel\u2019s Spider-Man: Miles Morales\u201d video game, showed examples of how he created snow on the New York streets in the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thibault said there is a special relationship between the school and Houdini. The students and faculty understand the power of the tools that SideFX makes, he said, and SideFX understands the capability of the students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t be happier to have them come all the way here to work with our students,\u201d Thibault said. \u201cI am very glad for our outgoing faculty member Andr\u00e9 Thomas, who really was the vision to spark this relationship, and I am happy to carry the torch. I also think we have a good balance between technologists and philosophers at our school, and I think we are able to offer something different and special in our department because of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top photo: Danicka Oglesby, technical artist at SideFX and a Visualization program graduate, conducted the intermediate workshop where students made an explosion simulation as a Houdini-generated effect. (Abbey Santoro\/Texas A&M University Division of Marketing and Communications)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Two
Visualization students Grace Alanis and Andersen Wood took part in the Houdini Gamedev Workshop on Feb. 9. (Abbey Santoro\/Texas A&M University Division of Marketing and Communications)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Two
Robert Magee, senior product marketing manager for SideFX , worked with students during the workshop. (Abbey Santoro\/Texas A&M University Division of Marketing and Communications)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
Christopher Hebert, SideFX senior director of marketing, spoke to Visualization students during the Houdini Gamedev Workshop. (Abbey Santoro\/Texas A&M University Division of Marketing and Communications)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"College
Visualization students took part in the Houdini Gamedev Workshop on Feb. 9. (Abbey Santoro\/Texas A&M University Division of Marketing and Communications)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
Visualization students took part in the Houdini Gamedev Workshop on Feb. 9. (Abbey Santoro\/Texas A&M University Division of Marketing and Communications)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students looking to expand their technical skill sets participated in the Houdini Gamedev Workshop, a partnership between SideFX and the Visualization program, on Feb. 9 at the Hildebrand Equine Complex. Houdini is a software program and digital content …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"featured_media":19849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[58,90],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVisualization Students Explore Houdini's Tools And Benefits During Gamedev Workshop - Texas A&M University College of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Students chose from three tracks based on their skill set, working in level design and world building, real-time effects, tool building and digital assets.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/news\/2024\/03\/08\/visualization-students-explore-houdinis-tools-and-benefits-during-gamedev-workshop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Visualization Students Explore Houdini's Tools And Benefits During Gamedev Workshop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Students chose from three tracks based on their skill set, working in level design and world building, real-time effects, tool building and digital assets.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/news\/2024\/03\/08\/visualization-students-explore-houdinis-tools-and-benefits-during-gamedev-workshop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Texas A&M University College of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tamupvfa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-08T18:05:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-08T18:05:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Houdini-new.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1185\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"661\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"robclark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@tamupvfa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@tamupvfa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"robclark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/news\/2024\/03\/08\/visualization-students-explore-houdinis-tools-and-benefits-during-gamedev-workshop\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/news\/2024\/03\/08\/visualization-students-explore-houdinis-tools-and-benefits-during-gamedev-workshop\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"robclark\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/9f6f92d18d5bc0deccbeb90ae781afb8\"},\"headline\":\"Visualization Students Explore Houdini’s Tools And Benefits During Gamedev Workshop\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-08T18:05:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-08T18:05:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/news\/2024\/03\/08\/visualization-students-explore-houdinis-tools-and-benefits-during-gamedev-workshop\/\"},\"wordCount\":920,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"News\",\"Visualization\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/news\/2024\/03\/08\/visualization-students-explore-houdinis-tools-and-benefits-during-gamedev-workshop\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/news\/2024\/03\/08\/visualization-students-explore-houdinis-tools-and-benefits-during-gamedev-workshop\/\",\"name\":\"Visualization Students Explore Houdini's Tools And Benefits During Gamedev Workshop - 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