IndiArt Visual Studios

Break Down of Cinematic Dragon FX | Houdini-UE-Nuke Workflow Following up on my previous post, here’s a breakdown of the cinematic Dragon FX shot. This project focused on building a modular FX and rendering workflow, while maintaining visual quality and efficiency. 🎨 References & Lighting Direction For the environment, I took inspiration from Blade Runner to establish a dense, futuristic sci-fi atmosphere with layered depth and scale. For lighting, I explored the teal and orange cinematic contrast inspired by John Wick, focusing on strong color separation, controlled highlights, and moody exteriors. 🔧 Key Technical Highlights • FX Development (Houdini) Layered particle and smoke setup (body + core systems) Controlled density, motion, and visual hierarchy Rendered FX separately in ACES for flexibility • Environment & Lighting (Unreal Engine) Marketplace assets heavily relit for a cinematic look Camera matched from Houdini to Unreal Rendered using Lumen in linear color space • Compositing & Look Development (Nuke) Custom passes (Fresnel, AO, UV) for mask-based grading Heat distortion, glow, and lens effects Lens FXs • Final Grading (DaVinci Resolve) Contrast and color balance refinement Reference-based look development This breakdown highlights how procedural FX, real-time environments, and compositing come together to create a cinematic result. 🎬 Check out the full video post: https://lnkd.in/g2MFQU9J 👉 Check out the full project on Behance. Link is in the comment. Would love to hear your thoughts or feedback! 🙌 Credits & Inspiration Special thanks to: Voxyde Hugo’s Desk Rebelway (Compositing in Nuke) Waqar Qazi #Houdini #UnrealEngine #VFX #CGI #3DArt #FXArtist #LightingArtist #LookDev #Compositing #ColorGrading #Procedural #Cinematic #IndiArt

Cinematic Dragon FX | Houdini + Unreal Engine Workflow Sharing a recent cinematic Dragon FX project created using a hybrid pipeline across Houdini, Unreal Engine, Nuke, and DaVinci Resolve. The dragon FX was built using layered particle and smoke simulations in Houdini, focusing on motion, density, and visual hierarchy. To optimize performance, FX elements were rendered separately in ACES, while the background environment was heavily relit in Unreal Engine with matched camera animation. Final compositing was done in Nuke using custom passes for targeted grading, contrast shaping, and effects like heat distortion and lens-based enhancements, followed by final color grading in DaVinci Resolve. This project focuses on combining procedural FX with real-time environments to achieve a cinematic result while maintaining efficiency and control across the pipeline. 👉 Check out the full project on Behance. Link is in the comment. Would love to hear your thoughts! 🙌 Credits & Inspiration Special thanks to: Voxyde Hugo’s Desk Rebelway (Compositing in Nuke) Waqar Qazi #Houdini #UnrealEngine #VFX #CGI #3DArt #Cinematic #FXArtist #LookDev #Compositing #ColorGrading #Procedural #IndiArt

Break Down of Cinematic Sci-Fi Environment | Houdini-Nuke-DaVinci Workflow Following up on my previous post, here’s a breakdown of the cinematic sci-fi environment I created using Houdini Solaris and a USD-based workflow. This project focused on lighting, procedural asset workflows, and optimizing rendering for a complex cinematic shot. 🔧 Key Technical Insights 1. Custom USD Component Builder: Developed a custom component builder in Houdini to streamline asset integration. Imports FBX assets automatically Generates proxy and simulation geometry Creates USD payloads Assigns materials using texture maps Outputs ready-to-use USD assets with preview renders This significantly reduces manual setup time and enables fast integration of large asset libraries. 2. Rendering Strategy & Optimization: Despite a short shot duration (6.25 sec), render times were high due to scene complexity. To optimize: Split the scene into layers: Hero assets, Environment & Fog / Smokes Rendered hero elements in 4K Background elements in HD (depth of field optimization) Used ~128 samples with per-layer sample tuning 3. Noise Reduction & Compositing: Lower sampling introduced noise and fireflies, which were resolved during compositing. Multi-pass EXR workflow (ACES) Heavy Noise reduction and cleanup in Nuke & DaVinci Additional refinement during grading in DaVinci Resolve This approach helped maintain visual quality while keeping render times manageable. 🎬 Check out the full video post: https://lnkd.in/gbShwBq5 👉 Check out the full project on Behance. Link is in the comment. Would love to hear your thoughts and feedback! 🙌 Credits & Inspiration Special thanks to: Rebelway (Cinematic Lighting & Compositing in Nuke) Voxyde Hugo’s Desk Waqar Qazi #Houdini #LightingArtist #LookDev #Solaris #USD #VFX #CGI #Cinematic #3DArt #EnvironmentArt #Compositing #ColorGrading #Procedural #IndiArt #IndiArtStudios #IndiArtVisualStudios

Cinematic Sci-Fi Environment | Houdini Solaris USD Workflow The project focuses on lighting, rendering optimization, and building a scalable procedural pipeline for high-quality cinematic output. The layout is inspired by The Creator, while the lighting blends natural sunset tones with a stylized sci-fi cinematic look. The scene was rendered using Karma with multi-pass EXR in ACES, composited in Nuke, and finalized in DaVinci Resolve. This project also marks my transition from a real-time workflow to a fully procedural pipeline, focusing on scalability, flexibility, and deeper control over the production process. 👉 Check out the breakdown post here: https://lnkd.in/g-6Ut5mr 👉 Check out the full project on Behance. Link is in the comment. 🙌 Credits & Inspiration Special thanks to: Rebelway (Cinematic Lighting & Compositing in Nuke) Voxyde Hugo’s Desk Waqar Qazi Open to feedback and discussions! #Houdini #CGI #Cinematic #VFX #3DArt #EnvironmentArt #Lighting #VFXArtist #Procedural #USD #Solaris #Compositing #ColorGrading #IndiArt

Procedural Open-World Forest (PCG) | Unreal Engine 5 I recently revisited and refined one of my environment projects, a large-scale procedural open-world forest built using Unreal Engine 5.7’s PCG system. The focus was on scale, natural vegetation distribution, terrain variation, and maintaining real-time performance, while still achieving a cinematic look and atmosphere suitable for games and real-time visualization. This video is a short cinematic showcase of the environment. 👉 For a deeper look into the process, PCG setup, stills, post process, check out the breakdown post here: https://lnkd.in/d9vV2hDx 👉 Full project Behance link in the comments. #UnrealEngine5 #PCG #ProceduralGeneration #OpenWorld #EnvironmentArt #GameDevelopment #LevelDesign #RealTimeRendering #Cinematic #GameArt #IndiArtVisualStudios #IndiArtStudios #IndiArt

Oreo Strawberry | Houdini & Unreal Engine - Breakdown Following up on my Oreo Strawberry spec commercial, this project was a deep dive into bridging Houdini’s high-fidelity physics with Unreal Engine’s real-time power. A key challenge was managing high-resolution simulation meshes for extreme close-ups in UE. By implementing specific optimization workflows, I was able to maintain stability in UE5 and achieve seamless 4K renders, proving that the engine handles complex geometry like a charm. Tech Stack:  Houdini - Oreo, Chocolate & milk simulations - focusing on weight, viscosity, and natural interaction. Unreal Engine 5 - Alembic & USD import, look-dev, lighting, camera animation, and Lumen 4K EXR linear color space rendering. Turning a week of rendering into a single day. DaVinci Resolve - Final editing, color grading, optical FX, and sound design to bring the crunch to life while preserving brand color consistency. Swipe through to see the evolution from raw particles to the final render! I’d love to hear your thoughts. 👇 Watch the 4K Cinematic and detailed breakdown. (Link is in the comment.) Working on a festive project or product concept? Happy to collaborate and explore ideas. SideFX Software, Unreal Engine, Epic Games, Blackmagic Design #Houdini #UnrealEngine5 #VFX #ProductVisualization #3DAnimation #BehindTheScenes #CGI #MotionDesign #Oreo #indiart #indiartstudios #indiartvisualstudios

CGI Product Rendering - Festive Ice Cream Concept | Houdini, Unreal Engine, Nuke & DaVinci Resolve With the festive season approaching, I created a CGI product rendering that blends festive elements with a strong visual narrative. The goal of this project was to leverage each software’s core strengths to deliver a detailed yet fast-paced workflow. I’ve recently begun exploring a Houdini-UE-Nuke pipeline for product renders using HDAs/render passes and I’m truly impressed by how this combination can deliver high-quality visuals at speed, especially in today’s AI-driven content landscape. I’ll be exploring this workflow even more moving forward. For this project: Houdini was used to create the hero assets with custom mask data for precise material control in UE. Unreal Engine handled real-time set dressing, lighting, material setup, and fast rendering. Nuke was used to add realistic lens imperfections such as distortion, depth of field with cat-eye effect, chromatic aberration, grain, and subtle anamorphic characteristics. While UE can add post-fx, Nuke still offers a much more physically accurate result (You can see the difference in lens distortion and DOF). DaVinci Resolve was used for color grading and additional light-leak/lens-art effects to finalize the look. 👉 Check out the breakdown passes in the post. I reworked marketplace assets dramatically (see the before/after pass), chose a teal-orange palette, and added string lights strategically for cinematic bokeh. This time, I wanted the images to feel more than just CGI renders - I wanted a moment. Since Christmas is around the corner, I introduced small festive props and two warm foreground characters - a mom holding her child as they look toward the ice cream and holiday decorations. In the second shot, the moment continues: the mom lifts the ice cream to take a photo. These small story elements helped elevate the imagery from a product shot into a festive, emotional frame. 👉 Full project and breakdown link is in the comments. Working on a festive project or product concept? Happy to collaborate and explore ideas. 📩 Reach out: jay@indiartstudios.com 🌐 More work: https://indiartstudios.com If you're interested in learning product rendering in Unreal Engine, many of the techniques shown here are explained step-by-step in our Beginner’s Guide to Product Rendering in Unreal Engine & DaVinci Resolve course. 👉 Check out the course overview: https://lnkd.in/dRWQWHHe #CGI #ProductRendering #3DArt #UnrealEngine #Houdini #Nuke #DaVinciResolve #RealTimeRendering #LookDev #LightingArtist #3DVisualization #DigitalArt #ProceduralModeling #CGIArtist #RenderingWorkflow #CinematicRendering #AnamorphicLook #VisualStorytelling #ChristmasRender #IceCreamRender #UnrealEngineRendering #VFXArtist #CGIProductArt #EnvironmentArt #3DDesign #IndiArtVisualStudios #IndiArtStudios #IndiArt

Part 2 is LIVE! - Product Rendering in Unreal Engine & DaVinci Resolve 🎬 Excited to share that Part 2 of my course, Beginner’s Guide to Product Rendering in Unreal Engine & DaVinci Resolve, is now live! 🚀 In this part, we’ll dive deeper into product lighting, rendering and post-production techniques, covering: 💡 Studying professional photography lighting setups 🎨 Selecting and preparing the perfect hero asset in Maya or Blender 📸 Understanding exposure (F-stop, Shutter Speed, ISO) ⚙️ Setting up high-quality lighting and render settings 🎬 Finishing with color correction and post-production in DaVinci Resolve If you’ve already joined the course, you can access Part 2 right away! Not enrolled yet? This is the best time, the course is now at $14 (earlier $9) and will increase to $24 once all four parts are released. 👉 Check out the full course details and join now - link is in the comment! 👉 Full course overview: https://lnkd.in/dRWQWHHe #UnrealEngine #DaVinciResolve #ProductRendering #UnrealCourse #UnrealTraining #CinematicRendering #3DVisualization #LearnUnreal #IndiArtVisualStudios #IndiArt