Week 01: Planning and Breakdowns
Welcome to my Blog! I’ve been learning Houdini for the past several months and I have been absolutely loving it, so this semester I will continue to hone my skills by working on a Houdini VFX shot recreation for my capstone.
Throughout this project, I aim to build on the techniques that I’ve already learned—like particle simulations— while exploring new areas, including pyro and fluid simulations. Choosing a shot to recreate was no easy task, especially with so many incredible films to choose from. However, I’ve always been drawn to the VFX in Thor, so when I saw the scene where Thor creates a tornado with his hammer, I knew that would be the perfect challenge.
I have experience in creating particle simulations and compositing, but I’m excited to push myself further and expand on my skills during this project!
The Avengers (2012)
FX Breakdown
Above is the scene I’ve selected from The Avengers (2012). My plan for this project is to recreate the first two shots: the close-up on Thor and the subsequent wide shot that reveals the full tornado. This week, I kicked off the project by breaking down the visual effects in these two shots in order to gain a better understanding of the elements involved.
Shot 01 Breakdown:
Shot 02 Breakdown:
After breaking down these shots, I created a list of all the essential elements for this project. I categorized them into two groups: ‘A’ items, these are my priorities, and ‘B’ items, which are not essential—I’ll address them if time permits. You can view the list by clicking on the underlined ‘A’ and ‘B’ items below:
As mentioned above, the third shot in the scene shows the lightning materializing armor onto Thor. I would love tackle this if time allows, but I recognize that this is not a priority for this project. I’m also looking forward to refining and improving upon my compositing skills.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back next week with another update!
