Hey guys,
Let's say you wanted to recreate the GhostBusters 2 blaster effect.
1. To me it looks like particles emitting light or is it just colored particles that look like light ?
So I assume you would have to setup the material of the particles to be a light emitter. Not sure if there are any examples around?
2. Let's say you have several scenes with different from -> to positions for the particle blaster.
Does that mean you have to render out each scene separately in houdini (with tracking info imported), then take it over to comp in AE/nuke for example. (Sounds like a lot of work).
-OR-
Is there a way to setup an asset in houdini that dynamically takes the from -> to positions and integrates with comping the scene.
Thanks!
Particle Blaster Effect and Workflow question
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- Soc Seamon
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- Enivob
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Here is an example file of a particle beam style effect. I found this floating around on OdForce a while back.
Generally light/glows are handled via emission based materials in a GI environment. You can find examples on emission based lighting. You could also try to turn the entire effect into a mesh light, not sure how effective that would be, however.
On televised series based work you may find some tools are developed to help speed up the repetitive nature of sci-fi weapons play. Like ships targeting other ships with lasers and such. But in one-off movies I would think it would depend upon if the shot is a hero shot or not. Hero shots are going to be hand crafted for a particular shot and may not port well to other camera angles. It just depends upon the effect and how it needs to integrate into the scene.
I think you would always need to render out each scene separately and hen comp it together. Perhaps SideFX will develop Houdini Engine for Nuke, then the possibility of using HDAs in a compositing app could be a reality.
If you have not checked out VideoCopilot's Saber [videocopilot.net] plugin, check it out, it's free!
Generally light/glows are handled via emission based materials in a GI environment. You can find examples on emission based lighting. You could also try to turn the entire effect into a mesh light, not sure how effective that would be, however.
On televised series based work you may find some tools are developed to help speed up the repetitive nature of sci-fi weapons play. Like ships targeting other ships with lasers and such. But in one-off movies I would think it would depend upon if the shot is a hero shot or not. Hero shots are going to be hand crafted for a particular shot and may not port well to other camera angles. It just depends upon the effect and how it needs to integrate into the scene.
I think you would always need to render out each scene separately and hen comp it together. Perhaps SideFX will develop Houdini Engine for Nuke, then the possibility of using HDAs in a compositing app could be a reality.
If you have not checked out VideoCopilot's Saber [videocopilot.net] plugin, check it out, it's free!
Edited by Enivob - Oct. 20, 2016 09:36:42
Using Houdini Indie 20.5
Windows 11 64GB Ryzen 16 core.
nVidia 3060RTX 12BG RAM.
Windows 11 64GB Ryzen 16 core.
nVidia 3060RTX 12BG RAM.
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- Soc Seamon
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- 23 posts
- Joined: Nov. 2015
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Thanks a lot.
Yea, I've used the saber plugin but always feel like I'm cheating it's so easy to do in AE.
Guess, I like the challenge of houdini.
Especially with houdini's particles seems like houdini would be awesome for something like that, but I guess getting materials right in houdini seems to be painful.
Yea, I've used the saber plugin but always feel like I'm cheating it's so easy to do in AE.
Guess, I like the challenge of houdini.
Especially with houdini's particles seems like houdini would be awesome for something like that, but I guess getting materials right in houdini seems to be painful.
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