Paul Esteves posts
038 - Exploded Chocolate
In this one we'll cover fracturing the chocolate bar, exploding it in animation and also rendering the exploded pieces.
038 - Chocolate Modeling
We'll talk about vdb modeling a chocolate and creating chocolate textures.
038 - Feastables Teaser
This month we'll be creating the chocolate bar using VDB modeling. We'll then talk about chocolate textures and how to make a nice chocolate material. In the second part we'll cover fracturing chocolate to get really nice edges with cool details. Finally, I'll talk through the exploding shot using just ...
037 - Advected VDBs Render
In this tutorial we'll talk through the render settings for this. Specifically how to use the rest attribute on noises to get some nice details.
037 - Advected VDBs
In this tutorial we'll talk about advected VDBs and how do set that up. We'll also create custom velocity fields using curves. It's a super useful technique I use all the time!
037 - Advected VDBs Teaser
This month we're kicking off the year with some VDB advection. I'll talk about how to setup advecting VDBs and also how to create custom velocities based on curves. In part two we'll do the full render setup, in Redshift.
036 - Knitted Tree Render
We'll tackle the rendering of the scene. Lights, materials and adding the small hairs that make it fluffy.
036 - Knitted Tree Setup
In part 1, we'll cover creating the knitting pattern, creating a Christmas tree, moving our knitting pattern onto our tree and finally expanding some threads in motion.
036 - Knitted Tree Teaser
This month we're getting festive and we'll be creating a knitted Christmas tree. However, i want to show you a really simple technique that'll allow you to knit any object. We'll then take a look at the "expanded" threads and build that procedurally. Finally, we'll talk about rendering in Re...
035 - Shoe Commercial Pt. 4 Rendering
In this video I will talk about rendering. This will not be a video showing how to render this scene, but rather an overview on how rendering works in Houdini. I feel like this is very important as a basic understanding of the fundamentals before actually making a scene look nice.
035 - Shoe Commercial Pt. 3 Pillow
In this part we'll cover how to do multiple Vellum objects. Both the Shoe and the pillow will be simulated as Vellum objects.
035 - Shoe Commercial Pt. 2 Spheres Collide
In the second part of our shoe series, we'll take a nice slow walk into Vellum simulations. Again, this is meant for people new to Houdini. I do my best to explain things slowly.
035 - Shoe Commercial Pt. 1 Twist
In this first part we'll take a look at the Houdini interface, the different contexts and also start slowly and do some sop level animations using the twist deform in Houdini. We'll also use the MOPS spring node, here is a link to MOPS: https://www.motionoperators.com/I also mention ODtools, which can be found ...
035 - Shoe Commercial Teaser
This month we'll be creating this fake shoe commercial. I am also calling this my "Intro to Houdini." I will be taking things really slowly, unpacking things as we go and explaining each step of the process so if you're brand new to Houdini, you can follow along and hopefully become more confident using...
034 - MPM Crumble Render
In this video we'll render out crumble scene using Karma XPU. I will render both the MPM and the Vellum version so we can compare.
034 - MPM Crumble Setup
In this video we'll tackle making the same scene using the MPM solver and the Vellum Grains solver to test the look differences and also the simulation time differences.
034 - MPM Crumble Teaser
This month we're talking MPM vs Vellum Grains. We'll build this scene using the MPM solver and then we'll do the same scene using Vellum grains. We'll compare the results and also the simulation times. In part 2 we'll render it using Karma XPU.
033 - 2d Pyro to Cops pt. 2
We'll take a look at additional settings you can use along the workflow to make each step a bit more unique.
033 2d Pyro to Cops pt. 1
In this first part we'll tackle the entire workflow at a basic level. We'll overview each step before diving deeper into the different settings we can use.
033 2d Pyro to Cops Teaser
In this month's tutorials we'll tackle 2d pyro simulations. We'll take those sims, put them through the new Cops 3.0 in Houdini 20.5. We'll use the copnet results to advect UVs and finally, we'll do some rendering in Redshift using our pyro simulation.
032 - Clipped Shoe Render
In this one we'll dive into karma and render our smoke and shoe.
032 - Clipped Shoe Setup
In this part we'll talk through setting up the clip node to reveal our geometry. Then we'll use the leading edge to create our smoke simulation using Axiom smoke solver.
032 Clipped Shoe Teaser
In this month's tutorial we'll take a look at the new updates to the Clip sop in Houdini 20.5. We'll use the leading edge to generate smoke and create a cool smokey reveal. In the second part we're jumping into Karma to render the scene.
031 Inflate Objects Render
In this video we'll talk about creating a velvet shader in Redshift. In the hip file I have the velvet shader as well as the hair workflow if you want to render the hairs.
031 Inflate Objects Setup
In this tutorial we'll talk through creating different shapes using curves. We'll use vellum to create a base shape with nice wrinkles. Then we'll take a look at the two different methods we can use to deflate/inflate objects.
031 Inflate Objects Teaser
In this tutorial we'll talk through creating some nice wrinkly cloth objects. We'll then dive into deflation and inflation, and look at 2 different methods we can use to do this. In part 2 we'll talk about rendering and how to create this cool velvet shader.
030 - Racket Fluid Part 3 - Render
We'll talk through retiming, meshing and then add lights and materials to the scene.
030 - Racket Fluid Part 2
Surface Tension, Viscosity, Velocity fields are all covered in this one. We'll talk through each one and how to set them up. We'll look at the sop fluid and dop fluid nodes. We'll also talk about setting up a small wedging setup so we can see a variety of results super easily.
030 Racket Fluid - Basics
In this first part we'll talk through the absolute basics of fluids and how to set them up.
030 Racket Fluid Teaser
In this series we'll talk about fluids in Houdini. Instead of just talking about this effect, I want to talk through fluids in general. So, in part 1 I'll talk about the absolute basics of how you can setup fluids using both the sop tools and the dopnet (and why to use each one). In part two we'll talk abou...

















