Embark on an incredible journey to discover the secrets of crafting breathtaking environments with our new course, "Cold Bay and the Bears." In this first module of a three-part series, you will dive into the world of Houdini, Solaris, and Karma, learning the essential techniques to create stunningly realistic environments.
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But that's not all! Once you've mastered Module 1, continue your adventure with Modules 2 and 3:
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Module 2: Dive into river simulation and whitewater creation for an even more immersive experience.
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Module 3: Bring your scene to life with Kinefx, grooming, and simulations for bears and salmon.
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Don't miss this opportunity to elevate your Houdini skills and create mesmerizing environments that will captivate your audience. Enroll now in "Cold Bay and the Bears" and unlock the power of Houdini, Solaris, and Karma today!
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The purpose of this course is very straightforward: to provide artists with practical knowledge, so they can access and understand all tools related to environment creation and fluid simulations inside Houdini, so they will be free to translate their ideas into real, high-standard projects.
How is the COLD BAY different?
You'll learn many tools that will help you
create the most complex ENVIRONMENTS in Houdini
In this 10+ hours of quality content, recorded in 4k you will go into a deep understanding of studio workflow and techniques and I will share a professional approach to tackle a shot.
Welcome to my VFX online course on creating Cold Bay and the Bears. As Senior VFX Artist at MPC, one of the leading VFX studios in the world, I have spent many years studying and mastering the art of designing complex environments for feature films and series.
This course goes way beyond of creating a random environment, but rather understand the real concepts behind every step of our journey into this creation.
Get ready to explore and master:
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Advanced Height Field Techniques: Unlock the potential of terrain creation and manipulation.
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Geometry Post Manipulations: Detail your terrain like never before.
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Custom Hierarchical UVs: Achieve efficient and organized UV layouts.
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Introduction to Solaris: Harness the power of Houdini's powerful lookdev and layout toolset.
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MaterialX Shader Building: Craft complex, visually stunning shaders with ease.
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Procedural Scatter Systems: Populate your environment with intricate rock and plant systems.
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Solaris Instancer and Layout Tool: Learn to work with instances and layouts in Solaris.
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Water Spectrum Customization: Define water flow directionality for immersive realism.
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Dynamic Procedural Masks: Create calmer, more natural areas in your environment.
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USD Workflow, Solaris, and Karma Rendering: Optimize your pipeline for maximum efficiency.
What exactly is in this course?
In this 11+ hours of quality content, recorded in 4k you will go into a deep dive in Houdini Flip Simulations and as a bonus, you will also receive a production-quality boat, with 4k textures.
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Section 1 - Foreground Terrain
Advanced Height Field Techniques: Learn to utilize Houdini's powerful height field tools to sculpt intricate and realistic terrains. This course will cover techniques such as erosion, noise, and layering to create complex and organic landscapes that truly stand out.
Geometry Post Manipulations: Enhance your terrain with post-processing techniques, including geometry deformations and procedural detailing. Discover how to add features like cliffs, cracks, and rocks to achieve unparalleled visual fidelity in your environments.
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Section 2 - Foreground Terrain and UV texturing
Custom Hierarchical UVs: Master the art of creating efficient and organized UV layouts using hierarchical techniques. This approach helps you maintain the perfect balance between texture resolution and performance, ensuring stunning visuals without compromising on performance.
Introduction to Solaris: Explore the world of Solaris, Houdini's powerful look development and layout toolset. Learn to streamline your scene assembly, lighting, and rendering workflows, enabling you to work faster and more efficiently.
MaterialX Shader Building: Delve into the world of MaterialX, an open standard for creating rich, physically-based shaders. Learn how to craft visually stunning and complex shaders that elevate the realism and detail of your environments.
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Section 3 - Foreground Scatter Rocks
Procedural Scatter Systems: Discover how to create intricate rock and plant systems using procedural scattering techniques. Populate your environment with realistic and diverse ecosystems, adding depth and believability to your scenes.
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Section 4 - Foreground Scatter Rocks
Solaris Instancer and Layout Tool: Get hands-on experience working with instances and layouts in Solaris. Learn how to efficiently manage and manipulate large numbers of objects in your scene, optimizing performance while maintaining visual quality.
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Section 5 - Water Spectrum and River Creation (no Simulation)
Water Spectrum Customization: Master the techniques for defining water flow directionality and wave behavior, creating immersive and realistic bodies of water. Learn to tailor the water spectrum to your specific environment, ensuring a natural and convincing result.
Dynamic Procedural Masks: Develop your skills in generating dynamic procedural masks to create calmer, more natural areas within your environment. These masks help blend different elements and terrain types seamlessly, enhancing the overall visual coherence of your scene.
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Section 6 - Background Terrain
Further develop your techniques using different methods for terrain and scatter setup. This time the kay is optimization;
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Section 7 - Final Render
USD Workflow, Solaris, and Karma Rendering: Dive into the Universal Scene Description (USD) workflow and learn how to optimize your pipeline for maximum efficiency. Integrate Solaris and Karma rendering into your process to achieve fast, high-quality results with minimal effort.
With these in-depth lessons, you'll be well-equipped to create captivating and realistic environments using Houdini, Solaris, and Karma.
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“Is this course right for me?”
The Cold Bay course has been designed to give you the tools, the structure, and the methodology to develop and create your own complex Environment, a lot of custom tools to optimize your scene and creativity will be your only limit. However, you'll have to put in the time and work to see the results.
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Requirements:
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Basic understanding of Houdini
Here is what you get when you join Perfect Wave:
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Lifetime Access!
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10+ Hours of course
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7 Modules
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All course updates are free
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All project files
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HDA Collection
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4K professional recording