Houdini Wood Fracture

July 06th 2020 08:00:24am

Houdini wood fracture techniques have been around for a long time. Many tricks and tips exist on how to do it. One thing I noticed and haven’t seen anybody try is adding some imperfection details like warping the geometry. Think water logged wood planks, they twist and curve a bit. A few years ago I did some experiments as a training exercise for myself, and came up with a solution. This tutorial explains a few techniques, and alternate ways to handle a task.

Looking to dive right in and study the build? You can purchase and get more info about a project file (currently for H18 or newer) via the button on the right. The project includes the full build from the tutorial, including the DOPs setup.

    Some tutorial highlights include:

  • Setting up a simple wood fracture geometry
  • Implementing custom controller parameters
  • How to easily shift geometry to the floor plane with Match Size
  • Basic DOPs rigid body setup
  • VEX code
  • Hotkeys and tips throughout

Using this wood fracture technique I had made some animations previously as a personal exercise.

This one is from a few years ago.

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After Effects ExtendScript Training: Ep. 9
Free Function Friday Ep.22 – getLightType
After Effects ExtendScript Training: Complete Series
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