GridMarkets Blog

Interview with Marcelo Cermak, award-winning FX Technical Director and Visual Effects Artist. Fluid dynamics has become his specialty.

This case study explores the creation of a realistic snow environment using Houdini 20.5 and the Material Point Method (MPM) solver, enhanced by character animation and cloth simulation, and rendered through GridMarkets Renderfarm. The project tells the story of a medieval soldier’s returning home from the battlefield, walking across a snow-covered landscape under a hopeful morning sun.

From folding cities in Inception to award-nominated FX on Star Wars: Visions 2, Virginia Cantaro’s journey is driven by a passion for procedural storytelling. A freelance Houdini FX Artist with over a decade of experience, Virginia has contributed to Academy Award–winning films, high-end television, and experimental motion design—while sharing her knowledge as an educator and embracing efficient cloud rendering with GridMarkets.

From early experiments in 3D modeling to tackling an ambitious tsunami simulation for his final Master’s project, Mattia Ghidotti is an emerging FX artist driven by curiosity and technical challenge. In this interview, he shares his journey into Houdini, the complexity behind managing large-scale water simulations, and how GridMarkets enabled him to render hundreds of gigabytes of data efficiently—proving that students can achieve professional-level results with the right too

Maria Sahai’s creative path bridges photography, visual effects, and education. A professional photographer turned Houdini FX artist, Maria has contributed to major productions including Dune: Part Two, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities. In this interview, she shares how observation and photography shape her FX work, her approach to teaching the next generation of artists, and how GridMarkets enables her to create complex simulations wit

From early experiments in computer graphics to award-winning work at world-class studios, Ivan Larinin’s career is defined by a deep connection between technology and storytelling. Now a Senior Houdini Artist based in Montreal, Ivan blends precision, creativity, and problem-solving to deliver visually striking FX across feature films, episodic content, and high-end cinematics. In this interview, Ivan breaks down the creative and technical challenges behind complex FX shots,