WORKSHOP 1

Copernicus in Houdini: Procedural Power-Up  

Discover how to combine texture and shape generation techniques in Copernicus with Houdini’s procedural and automation tools to significantly increase your productivity and creativity.

We will go through: 

• Creating new textures and assets
• Adjusting existing textures for low-poly assets to enhance their complexity without compromising performance 
• Utilizing COPs to shape and stylize your real-time FX
• Using COPs to drive your FX sims, and much more 
  

Real-time artists will particularly benefit from this workshop, but anyone looking to leverage the power of Copernicus within Houdini will find it valuable. To make the most of this workshop, it’s best if you already have a foundational understanding of Houdini, such as creating and modifying geometry, navigating the viewport, creating and modifying attributes. This workshop is hands-on, so please be prepared to fully commit to both sessions.

INSTRUCTORS: Karim & Maria Sahai of VFX Mojo

WORKSHOP 2

Real-time Destruction in Houdini and Unreal Engine  

You will harness the power of Houdini to craft detailed building destruction for use in Unreal Engine 5. From layered fracturing to dust simulations, you'll gain hands-on experience building destruction effects that elevate realism and visual impact.

We will go through: 

• Layering destruction techniques, starting from fracturing a building model and progressively refining the effect using animated constraint networks 
• Creating multiple caches of the outer and interior details in order to achieve scalability and visual complexity 
• Understanding how to create various layers of destruction and properly export Vertex Animation Texture (VAT) caches, allowing seamless integration into Unreal Engine 5 
• Importing destruction assets from Day 1 into Unreal Engine and setting up Master Materials, Blueprints and lighting to enable destruction in game and tweak the settings to achieve balance between quality and performance. 
• Learning how to showcase your Houdini work in Unreal Engine and explore essential optimization techniques for real time content
  

You will benefit from this workshop if you are a Technical Artist or FX Artist with an interest in games and real time graphics. A basic familiarity with Houdini tools (SOPs, ROPs, Game Labs tools) and Unreal Engine 5 (Scene layout, Materials) is required for this workshop..

INSTRUCTORS: Michal Rutkowski & Mia Hsu of Meta Meow

 

WORKSHOP 3

High-Quality FX from Houdini to Unreal  

Creating complex effects for real-time engines can be incredibly challenging.Join us as we explore how to craft Advanced Real-Time FX using Houdini and Unreal Engine.

We will go through: 

• Learning how to create a striking FX sequence where veins grow like a venom effect to form a creature, using SOP Solver, VEX, and POP Solver in Houdini. 
• How to build a procedural animation setup and convert it into Vertex Animation Textures (VAT) for seamless real-time playback in Unreal Engine. 
• Diving into the creation of a realistic burning and disintegrating character effect. 
• Using RBD Bullet Solver and particle systems, we’ll simulate a character catching fire and breaking apart. 
• Learning how to convert this into VAT and drive dynamic texture changes in Unreal Engine using custom materials. 
• Wrapping up by integrating Zibra AI VDB to bring real-time 3D volumetric fire to life—perfect for next-gen game FX. 
  

This hands-on workshop is designed for artists with a basic understanding of Houdini and Unreal Engine, and it’s ideal for anyone looking to push the boundaries of real-time visual effects..

INSTRUCTORS: Gil nam Choi