Applied Houdini Particles V - Grains

Get started with grains here: www.bit.ly/2D5njUW
Particles V - Grains is here to teach you how to make epic snow/sand/mud effects with grains in the Vellum Solver, also known as PBD (point based dynamics)! In this lesson we will quickly learn how to efficiently simulate millions of tiny stacking particles in order to make a snowy expanse collapse into a sinkhole. Along the way we'll control various properties and constraints to control our grain simulation, as well as cover novel geometry and rendering based tricks to make our snow look as good as possible. Start playing with snow with grains today!
Applied Houdini is a production quality oriented series created by Steven Knipping (vimeo.com/161576184), currently a Senior Rigid Body Destruction / FX Technical Director at Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic (Avengers: Infinity War, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Force Awakens). Benefit from production proven workflows while also getting an in depth explanation of why things works they way they do. Best of all - each video is crammed with actual information and footnotes instead of gratuitous talking and dead space!

[@brazwen]

It looks very realistic.

[@wildform242]

very cool tutor!!!!

[@nothingifnotcritical]

Thanks!

[@anthonysvfx8424]

Very cool! Excited for this one (as I tend to be for each).
Quick question: Did you render this on your computer or send it to an online farm? I know you’ve used a farm in past tutorials, but I’m wondering what hardware is necessary to pull this off on a personal workstation (let’s say overnight)?

[@nothingifnotcritical]

Hey! I do usually render on a farm, but I actually did this one on my own overnight!

[@anthonysvfx8424]

That’s amazing, Steven, and a definite selling point! ...It’s amazing the quality of VFX we can accomplish these days in our own homes.

[@brightgarinson3099]

This is awesome! I can't wait for your demo reel. Will you release it this year?

[@nothingifnotcritical]

Hey! You can see my current demo reel here: www.appliedhoudini.com/about/
But yeah, I need to update and make a new one to add Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Avengers: Infinity Wars in! I think within the next few couple of months would be a good timeline...

[@brightgarinson3099]

@@nothingifnotcritical Ok, amazing! I can't wait to see your work on Infinity war.

[@sridharan5172]

​@@brightgarinson3099oh😮

[@VIPINFX]

Looks Awesome!!! Can you also cover snow/sand/mud Sticking to a object like Tyre and stuff..

[@nothingifnotcritical]

Thanks! You can directly apply this lesson to that, you would just need a tire made out of grains with a high attraction force...

[@VIPINFX]

Cool Thanks.

[@bondell1840]

What is the diff between this and vellum grains?

[@nothingifnotcritical]

This is Vellum Grains!

[@fidofx2189]

How does one make melting snow?

[@nothingifnotcritical]

You could source grains when they reach a certain temperature into a FLIP sim I suppose! Would still probably need some compositing magic to help with the transition between states though...

[@fidofx2189]

@@nothingifnotcritical thanks

[@MBCITB]

Where is the tutorial for this?

[@nothingifnotcritical]

Right here: www.bit.ly/2D5njUW

[@storiz107]

Is it still valid for houdini 18.5+?

[@nothingifnotcritical]

Yes! And if you ever get stuck for any reason, you can always reach me at [e-mail].

[@AceMaijin]

what's your configuration?

[@nothingifnotcritical]

32 GB RAM, Gtx 1080 TI, Ryzen 2950X. The graphics cards is not so important here, and having enough RAM is probably the most important. You don't need the best CPU in the world if you run a simulation overnight!

[@AceMaijin]

@@nothingifnotcritical Thx for info, so the RAM, ok need to buy 64 GB for good simulation i guess

[@nothingifnotcritical]

@@AceMaijin The more RAM the merrier of course - you can get great results at 32 GB though.