Greg Roberts

Absolutely thrilled to share the incredible work by Agustin Gonzalez, Surfacing Lead at Skydance Animation, and his team, including Pepe Buendia who recently presented at FMX 2025 in Stuttgart as part of SideFX's Houdini Hive! They introduced "Fibric", a procedural, curve based clothing toolset for Houdini, designed to streamline and enhance the creation of high quality digital garments. The presentation walked through how Fibric works from generating fabric patterns to refining cloth behavior highlighting the features that make it both artist-friendly and technically robust. To demonstrate its full capabilities, they presented Leena, a fearless pirate character created specifically to put Fibric to the test. Her entire outfit creation, from patterning to final render, was built using USD and rendered with Karma inside Houdini’s Solaris environment. 👉 Karma is a powerful physically based renderer that is deeply integrated with Houdini’s Solaris environment, allowing for high quality rendering directly within Houdini’s native workflow. 👉 Houdini Solaris is a suite of lookdev, layout, and lighting tools built on Pixar’s Universal Scene Description (USD), enabling artists to manage complex scenes with greater flexibility and precision. Big appreciation to the full team who brought this project together: Francesco Guarini 🔜 Annecy Festival – Art Director Borja Lopez-Galiano – Modeling & Anatomy Supervisor Agustin Gonzalez – Grooming, Shading & Lighting Carlos Velázquez Ayala – Modeling Artist Rodrigo Hernán López – Rigging 📺 Check out the full work and see Leena in action, link in the comment section! 👇 #sidefx #karma #houdinifx #gamingindustry #goalreify

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⚔ New tool in Houdini: Procedural crowdsource generator for army formations I've been developing a tool focused on generating the initial positioning (source) for crowds in Houdini, designed especially for army formations and large-scale configurations. 💡 What does the tool do? It allows you to create agent distributions in a completely procedural way, with total control over: 🧩 Patterns and spacing, for linear, block, or user-defined formations. 🧭 Adjustable heading (direction and orientation of units). 🎯 Agent selection and initial states directly from the interface. 🏷 Automatic group naming, ideal for organization and subsequent management. 🎨 Color-coded visualization, assigning a different color to each group for easier reading and control. 🌄 Terrain adaptation, adjusting positions according to the base geometry defined by the user. The tool aims to streamline crowdsourced content creation and offer flexibility for complex setups, while maintaining artistic and technical control over the final product. #Houdini #Crowdsource #Procedural #HoudiniTool #CrowdSetup #Proceduralism #Pattern #Crowd

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🚀 New workflow just dropped at Sequencer You can now maintain full character consistency across long-form videos — with no length limits. This unlocks serialized content, narrative storytelling, and scalable production without breaking continuity. Check it out here 👉 https://lnkd.in/gxr5qiV3

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Transferring 3D movement into AE for mobile creatives shouldn't require a chain of three different 3D programs. I was looking for a way to skip the Unreal → C4D/3ds Max → AE pipeline. After a half-day session with Gemini, I created a simple tool to do exactly that: ✅ Direct 3D to 2D motion transfer. ✅ No plugins needed. ✅ Streamlined workflow for mobile ad production. Have you developed any custom tools or workflow shortcuts using AI? I’d love to hear what you’ve built to make your life easier! #VFX #Animation #UnrealEngine #AfterEffects #Efficiency #AI #CreativeTech

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🚨We’re Proud To Announce Our First ActionVFX Academy course: Intro to ComfyUI for VFX Generative tools aren’t going away. And rather than fight them, we’d rather learn how to use them well. It’s a structured, hands-on path for VFX artists who want to understand how AI tools like ComfyUI can integrate into real pipelines, without replacing craft, control, or creative judgment. 🧠 Learn how to: - Integrate ComfyUI into your compositing workflow - Build useful, repeatable AI pipelines (not just slot-machine generations) - Use tools like ControlNets, LoRAs, and inpainting with purpose - Upscale, relight, and enhance shots with real production thinking 🎓 Starts Sept 2, 2025 🎥 15 modules, downloadable assets, practical structure 🎯 Real insight for working artists Sign-Up Now and Get 30% Off: https://bit.ly/3IR8kBm 💬 This course is built for compositors, motion designers, and technical artists who don’t want to be left behind, but refuse to compromise their quality and Studios looking for smart, scalable ways to speed things up without losing quality. #VFXArtist #CompositingTools #AIWorkflow #PostProduction #ActionVFXAcademy #MadeWithActionVFX #Nuke #ComfyUI #FutureProofVFX #TrainingForArtists

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You’re designing audio for a 1m² piece of thick synthetic cloth (e.g. nylon tarp) that moves dynamically using physics in a game engine. -Moves in any direction and rotates freely in 3D. -Reacts to forces like wind, collisions, and quick tugs. -Only interacts with a stone surface. -In third-person camera. 1-What types of sound assets you’d use or create. 2-How you’d drive playback based on physics (e.g. speed, tension, contact)? 3-How you’d implement and optimize it for real-time performance? The system should sound dynamic, feel believable, and scale to real-time gameplay on modern platforms. #GameAudio #SoundDesign #InteractiveAudio #AudioChallenge #TechnicalSoundDesign #GameDev

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1) shoot video. 2) screen shot first frame. 3) retexture&edit in Midjourney (I use personalization cranked to 1000 with --exp 100 at the end) 4) Luma AI modify video. 5) upload video + First Frame. 6) Set strength (how different the shapes you want are from the input video)

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Real-time volumetric clouds rendered in Unreal with raymarching using Houdini VDBs written to pseudovolume textures. I plan to explore adding some additional features like sdf mesh shadows and animated noise for a true timelapse effect. #shaders #raymarching #hlsl #volumetric #texture #unrealengine #realtime #render #sidefx #houdini #3D #CGI #techart #procedural

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Stop struggling with monolithic meshes in Solaris! 🛑 📦 Transitioning from Houdini SOPs to Solaris (USD) can be frustrating if your geometry doesn't come across with the right hierarchy. If you import a complex asset and it shows up as a single "mesh" primitive, you lose the granular control needed for high-end Look-Dev and Lighting. In my latest tutorial, I break down the SOP to LOP workflow specifically for splitting OBJ geometry into discrete USD meshes. Key Takeaways: ✅ Proper SOP Prep: Using attributes to define USD paths before export. ✅ Primitive Control: Why separate meshes are "stronger" for material overrides. ✅ Pipeline Efficiency: Organizing your Scene Graph for cleaner asset management. Whether you are a Lead Artist or just starting with USD, mastering how meshes are recognized in the Stage is a game-changer for your workflow. 📺 Watch the full breakdown here: https://lnkd.in/gARkGzgq #Houdini #Solaris #USD #VFX #LookDev #SideFX #LightingArtist #Pipeline #3DArt #SRS_PICTORIAL

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Been building a Gemini-powered Assistant + Smart Snippet Manager for Houdini SideFX Software to speed up workflows inspired by Radu Cius. 𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 • Non-blocking Gemini chat inside Houdini • Reads current network/selection and explains node-by-node, can directly jump or add stick note from the chat • VEX helper: analyze wrangle errors, propose fixed code, apply/revert directly on the node • Debug Node: inspects errors/warnings + parms and suggests concrete parameter changes • Code explainer: line-by-line breakdown of Python/VEX from selected nodes 𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐒𝐧𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫 • Central library for VEX, Python and node-network snippets • Smart save from selection: auto-detects wrangles, Python SOPs or networks • Smart load: create or replace nodes/snippets in the current network • Built-in editor with syntax highlighting, versioning and quick revert • Metadata: description, tags, favorites, plus search and filters (All / VEX / Python / Node / Favorites) 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐮𝐬: 𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 → 𝐒𝐧𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞 • 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐤𝐞: When Gemini generates useful code, I can push it directly to the Snippet Manager. •𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨-𝐓𝐚𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠: The AI automatically generates descriptions and tags for the library, so I never lose a snippet again. #Houdini #Python #VEX #SideFx #Gemini #AI

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We’re excited to release the Dash Demo Level for Unreal Engine 5. The project contains 18 sections, each dedicated to a specific Dash tool, allowing artists and teams to explore workflows, understand outputs, and speed up world-building inside UE5. Walkthrough video and download link below 👇

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One of the most anticipated rendering features in Unity is finally starting to land in Unity 6.6 Alpha: Surface Cache GI. I put together a new video covering: • What Surface Cache GI actually is (as well as documentation) • Why it matters for realtime lighting workflows • How it compares to traditional GI approaches • A full step-by-step walkthrough for trying it yourself in Unity 6.6 Alpha This feels like a very important step forward for realtime rendering workflows in Unity — especially for teams focused on faster iteration, dynamic environments, and high-quality lighting. If you’ve been curious about the future of realtime GI in Unity using SCGI, this should help you get started quickly. #Unity #GameDev #Rendering #GlobalIllumination #RealtimeRendering #GraphicsProgramming #TechnicalArt #URP #Unity3D #GameDevelopment https://lnkd.in/ghG2xVCt

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🎉 Jellyfish AI Impact now supports Windsurf, a leader in AI-powered coding solutions, offering tools like the Windsurf Editor that blend collaborative, continuous AI assistance with developers' workflows. Together, Windsurf and Jellyfish are changing how AI and humans work together.  Through our robust integration with Windsurf, Jellyfish AI Impact allows joint customers to:  🤖 Measure Windsurf’s impact on overall developer productivity: Analyze how Windsurf solutions like Windsurf Editor impact different engineering workflows and use cases – whether it's building new features, reducing technical debt, or reviewing for code quality and security improvements. 📈 Scale Windsurf adoption across the organization: Identify teams with high engagement to further accelerate development, automate testing, and streamline deployment, then replicate these best practices and implementation strategies company-wide. Learn more about what this integration means for your engineering organization here: https://lnkd.in/ghNguE47

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Foundry's pitch for Griptape: an orchestration layer that wires together tools, agents, and pipelines, AI or otherwise. The interesting move is pushing that plumbing directly into Nuke so artists can actually reach it. Pipeline tech that doesn't stay locked to the pipeline team.

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Behind Solaris stand The Unsung Hero of USD Rendering, usually when people think of USD rendering, the spotlight usually falls on Karma, Hydra, or Storm. But behind the curtain, there’s a quiet powerhouse doing the heavy lifting: Husk. Husk is Houdini’s command-line USD render delegate, the bridge between your USD scenes and the renderer. OK it’s not flashy but it’s fast, robust, and absolutely essential for automating renders across a pipeline. What Husk Actually Does It reads .usd, .usda, or .usdc files directly. And executes the Hydra render delegate (like Karma, Storm, or others). it handles frame-range rendering, overrides, and AOVs — all headless, no UI. Integrates beautifully with PDG/TOPs, enabling large-scale distributed rendering. You can run it from a terminal as so: husk myscene.usd -f 1 100 -o $HIP/render/beauty.$F4.exr Or wire it into PDG for batch rendering, versioning, and automation. Now why It Matters for Tech Artists USD-Centric Workflows its Husk is your link between Houdini’s stage and production render farms. Pipeline Integration Ideal for render farm hooks, automation scripts, or cloud jobs. Automation & Validation Perfect for procedural validation (auto-render previews, shot tests). Headless Efficiency No GUI, minimal overhead — great for render nodes or CI/CD. A quick Pro Tip you can even switch render delegates via command line: husk -R KarmaXPU myscene.usd This makes Husk a flexible entry point for any Hydra-compliant renderer — including Karma CPU, Karma XPU, and third-party USD renderers. Husk might not get the spotlight like Karma does, but it’s the backbone that makes scalable, procedural, USD-driven rendering actually possible. #Houdini3D #USD #Husk #KarmaXPU #PipelineTD #TechArt #Proceduralism #Automation #RenderFarm #PDG #Hydra #VFX #CGPipeline #OpenToWork

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[𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐁𝐅 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐢𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐭] I have been working on implementing RBF (Radial Basis Function) interpolation using Maya's Bifrost. While RBF is an incredibly powerful tool for things like Pose Space Deformation in rigging and interpolating scattered data points, grasping its behavior purely through mathematical formulas can be challenging. By visualizing the interpolation weights with color gradients, I was able to gain a tactile understanding of how the space is influenced by each point. This process reminded me that a procedural environment—which allows for rapid iteration—is more than just a production tool; it’s an "extension of thought" that facilitates a deeper understanding of complex algorithms. #Maya #Bifrost #TechnicalArtist #RBF #ProceduralDesign #Rigging #VFX

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Excited to launch our new CFX online Workshop today. In this workshop, we focus on Cloth and Muscle Simulation in Houdini, covering practical workflows for character-based simulations. Topics include multilayer cloth setups, collision handling, and muscle deformation for realistic character motion. 🎟 Launch offer available If you're interested in learning Character FX. check comments below. #Houdini #CFX #ClothSimulation #MuscleSimulation #VFX

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