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Nathan Chen
Art Creation
Destruction Effect With Building Generation
My thesis artifact simulates a city suffering from war , showing the effects and process of destruction and deformation — including dynamic aftereffects . Buildings , roads , and vehicles have been destroyed in the artifact from an explosion force , some of which also affects items in the environment .
I chose this subject because I wanted to master the workflow from Houdini to Unreal . In this project , I defined the requirement and workflow of the Destruction Ready Geometry , and applied destructing and deforming effects on phsycially-based rendering ( PBR ) material . I then tested and recorded file size data to analyze the pros and cons of different exporting methods ( alembic , VAT , and RBD to FBX ) and established a methodology to decide what destruction effects ( baked or unbaked ) should be applied . I also created and simulated explosion , fire , smoke , and fluid effects in Houdini and integrated them into the
Niagara system . In addition , I learned and made procedural building generation in Houdini and exported that as Houdini Digital Assets ( HDA ) to Unreal .
This project took more than 150 hours to test and record the experimental data of different destruction export files , approximately 200 hours for production , and another 150 hours to complete the artifact based on previous research and experiments .
By working on this project , I grew as a Visual Effects ( VFX ) based technical artist . The research , testing , documentation , comparison , analysis , and study involved in this project and in organizing my own methodology provided experience with utilizing a logic-based approach to effect creation . I also learned the value of polish . A technical artist is also a character artist . It ’ s not enough to just make something work ; it must be polished and look good as well .
10 ART CREATION