Visual Effects 2: Houdini Pyro

Above is the flipbook and render of my Houdini Pyro assignment. For our next project in Visual Effects 2, we had to use the Pyro option in Houdini to create fire. I chose to create a torch, for this one. I had much more trouble with this assignment than the first one. Overall, I just have a harder time understanding Houdini, but I did try my best. I could use a lot of work, though. The fire itself is too large to be a real torch. Also, it fluctuates too much. Still, the color is fairly nice

Here is the plan that I typed out before starting.

           For this assignment, I will be making a torch fire. To start off, I will model a very simple torch in order to have a prop in the scene to add to the effects of the fluid. Once the models are placed and scaled correctly in Houdini, I will then start the fluids by creating a torus to emit the Smokeless Flames. Setting up the container is the next step. This must be done before adjusting the motion of the fluid. I will adjust the Division Size so that the container has more resolution. I will also make sure that the voxels remain square in order to not cause distortion. For even more control over the motion, or if I wanted to view a certain part individually, I can go into the Pyro node attributes for the container. 

            Next, I will adjust the motion of the fluid so that the flame looks more believable. I will do this in they Pyro Solver of the AutoDopNetwork.  Under the Simulation tab, I will start by adjusting the Timescale in order for the fire to move faster. However, because of this, I will need to also adjust the substeps of the fluid in order to not lose detail. I will also make the flames shaper, or more crisp, by lowering the Temperature Diffusion. The Cooling Rate will be raised in order to keep the flames small and contained.

            Continuing on with the movement, I will go into the Combustion tab and slightly adjust the Gas Release to cause a small burst for the initial ignite. I may also look at adjust the Ignition Temperature, to make sure that the flame starts burning on frame 1, and Flame Height, in case the fluids need to be taller.  To finish up the motion, I will go into the Shape tab and adjust the Confinement. This will create the swirling effect of the flames that we see in torch fires.

            Once the motion is all done, I will move onto the shading. Going into the Shop network, I will start by adjusting the color in the Color tab. I will switch Constant to Artistic, so that I can create the strong color variation of fire. If needed, this is where I would do any type of color correction before rendering. After the material has been finished, the only thing left to do is to complete a memory cache of the simulation and render. I will do this by creating a camera for the render view and then creating a Mantra-PBR node. From here, I will set up my render options and render out an image sequence. This sequence will be taken into either After Effects or Nuke and be exported as a movie file.