Dynamic Effects Animation for Games

Houdini, Photoshop & Unreal Workflow with Antonio Cappiello

Create an impressive dissolving character VFX sequence in Unreal Engine using Houdini and Photoshop. This 2-hour workshop by Principal VFX Artist Antonio Cappiello is ideal for beginner and mid-level real-time VFX artists who want to learn procedural low-poly modeling techniques, create RBD simulations, and pack flipbooks into a sprite sheet in Houdini. Those who want to go beyond basic Niagara particle systems functions will also find this a useful guide.

This step-by-step workshop offers a brief look at frame-by-frame animation in Photoshop, showing how to work with the Timeline, the Lasso tool, and how to apply filters and effects to the texture. You’ll see how to model and fracture assets in Houdini and learn how to import them into Unreal Engine and place them in a level. Antonio reveals his process for creating materials in Unreal and teaches how to create environment Niagara particle systems. He also demonstrates how to create dissolving materials and how to paint animated smoke using Photoshop.

The final stage of the workshop reveals how to import flipbooks into Unreal Engine and create materials and emitters before creating the final level sequence and placing and animating the material parameters and particle systems. As the last step, you’ll discover the final tweaks and see how to add an effective camera shake and grain effect. 

Basic knowledge of Houdini, Photoshop, and Unreal Engine is ideal; however, the tutorial is designed to show basic shortcuts and functions so you can follow along with every step of the workshop. All of Antonio’s Houdini, Photoshop, and Unreal files shown in the workshop are included as downloadable files with this workshop.