FXWars! Bonfire!: Glenn Hollingsworth, Forensic: Field Fire!

Hi guys.

It's about time I participated and perhaps complete a challenge.

Im going for a standard field fire that you would find on any Nov 5th (bonfire night). I will be using only Houdini 12.5.427 (Apprentice version).

I am not running any sim test's yet, I want to build the fire assets first. Different fuel sources (branches, palletes, logs, ect, ect).

First port of call is building a branch asset. This asset will have a number of different styles of branches built from the same curve, but varying the length, shape, girth and noise of the branch. There wont be any offshooting branches as you wont really see much of them through the fire, so massive amounts of details are not really needed, just the length and shaping are important.
The asset will be built so that these branches can be randomly copied to scattered points using point normals for orientation.


Direct link to the full size image:http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/515/9mz8.jpg/

Continuation of the branch asset. I have around 4 differing branch styles, shapes and thickness. The plan is to have quite a lot more branches than four. Each branch still needs some procedural uv's to create the image based textures that will be used in shading them. Again each branch will have a slight random look when shaded.

I have a copy of the branches copied to a deformed sphere just to test how robust the system is.
Copying 5000 branches took about 30 second for Houdini to cook it, and it works great. 5000 is a bit overkill, but was good for tesing purposes.

Next up, more branches to be made, then move on to more fuel types, palettes and logs.



Direct link to full res image: http://imageshack.us/a/img40/7150/0dml.jpg

Started on the uv's...




Link for full res: http://imageshack.us/a/img138/3254/4i37.jpg

Not much to add really. Finished off the uv's, not perfect but they don't need to be. Took a while actually, because the copying wasn't transfering the individual uv's across. Turns out it was a user error (me overlooking a few things). Just remeber that this is not the fire base, this is just stress tesing my asset.

Now the branches are pretty much complete, I can move along...




Link to full res: http://imageshack.us/a/img62/4118/nlpw.jpg

Continuing on with the modelling stage. This time I've modelled a CHEP pallet. This is modelled to the exact European spec's of 1200x1000x162.
I could have dropped a box down and extruded it to make the shapes, but I've gone the curve/sweep route so I can keep super clean geometry because I am planning to fracture some pallets later on.



Link to full res: http://imageshack.us/a/img109/8778/sonz.jpg

Wow, you have more patients than I do for modeling inside of Houdini! Looking good so far!

Cheers pnoland, Houdini isn't as bad as most make out for modelling, it's just different from other packages, sometimes for good, and sometimes not. If I was going for something hard surface and heavy on details, I would have modelled it in 3ds max.

Small update, I am going to go for a bespoke procedural shader R&D before I go the photo texture route with the branches, just for some practice. This is very early stages and needs a lot of work, but the foundation is there.




Link to full res: http://imageshack.us/a/img21/8122/5uit.jpg

Houdini! awesome!

Love your Rukia avatar btw

Ok guys, the plug goes live on Monday.
Until then I am not looking.

Please do post your final entry here:
FXWARS Challenge:38- Bonfire: Post Your FINAL ENTRY

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.