Hi guys,

I am relatively new to Houdini and am trying to run a simulation that runs from left to right through a single piece of geometry. The end result is supposed to be the ash of a burnout cigar falling from one end to the other (kind of in a looney toons style almost).

I had intended to do this using a dry sand solver or RDB grains to achieve this effect. I know I could cut the geometry into tiny slices and then set the start frame on each slice to achieve a similar result. However, I feel like there has to be a better solution that would give me a better result.

I was thinking of using a plane to run through the geometry to the initialise the simulation on the parts of the cigar that I run the plane through (just setting keyframes on the plane to control the simulation essentailly), but I have yet to get this to work.

If any of you guys to could help me out or point me in the direction of a good tutorial then that would be very much appreciated.

You can get inspired by the process in this tutorial: http://cgterminal.com/2016/01/02/houdini-animated-freezing-ice-effect-tutorial/ [cgterminal.com]