FEATURED ARTISTS
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3D Character Artist - Malta
Sylvester Dorgu is a 3d character artist. His attention to detail breeds life into his creations. He likes to push the most sophisticated software out there to their limits. Sylvester is a gifted self-taught artist whose work is truly captivating. See HERE.
ALL FEATURED ARTISTS
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VFX Artist - Tours, France
Fabian Nowak is an internationally recognized award-winning visual effects artist. If you're a fan of action-packed movies, chances are that you have watched his creations in absolute awe a few times before. Fabian’s story on how he pursued his dream job is
just as awesome as his big budget works. See HERE.
VFX Artist / Houdini Educator, Los Angeles
Debra is a Houdini educator. She is also founder of Houdini.School. We spoke with her on what her journey as an artist was like and where she thinks the industry is headed. See HERE.
VFX Artist
Los Angeles-based and recent GNOMON graduate, William Scott has already amassed an impressive VFX skill - and is this month's GridMarkets Featured Artist. See HERE.
VFX Artist, Musician, Technologist
The multi-talented artist, musician and technologist, Jeff Ranasinghe is this month's GridMarkets Featured Artist. See HERE.
Director/Producer
Not just a director, a storyteller from Trinidad & Tobago. Oliver Milne is this month's GridMarkets Featured Artist/Director. See if his story resonates with you. See HERE.
Houdini / Blender
London-based George Simms, a Master of Arts student at Goldsmiths University studying Computational Arts, reflects on his speculative practice, exploring 3D and virtual worlds through different perceptions. His work has reimagined the futures of touch interfaces as well as creating generative render tools with machine learning. Read more
Houdini / C4D
Lewis started as a Cinema 4D artist then decided to make the move to Houdini. Read about how he made the transition, and why, and how he now gets the most out of both tools.
Houdini
I cannot stress enough how important it is to build and develop a very good artistic sense. Mastering the tool and the technical side only does NOT make you a great artist.
Houdini
One of the frustrations I’ve experienced as a professional FX artist working as part of a larger team is that, on many occasions, my effects are comped and dialed back so much that you can barely see them.
Houdini
Manuel tells the story behind his wildly successful Munich-based design studio Aixsponza. He also gives insights into his design process and his techniques for using Houdini.
Houdini
Python in Houdini - Building Python Shelf Tools . . . “Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.”
Houdini
Hi my name is Alex Halstead, I’m a Senior FX Artist from Australia currently working at Iloura, Melbourne. Coming from a Generalist Max and Maya background, I moved to Houdini about 5 years ago and haven’t looked back!
Houdini
Hernan Llano is currently an FX TD at Framestore, London. Part 2 of his awesome tutorial on how to build a basic splash setup that will allow you to create nice shapes with a high level of artistic control.
Houdini
Hernan Llano is currently an FX TD at Framestore, London. He recently moved into Houdini after working with 3Ds Max for quite a few years as a generalist (mostly on the technical side), as a Rigger TD, and also as an FX TD. He really enjoys sculpting forces and moving particles around. Read more
Houdini
If I were hiring someone right now and needed to describe an ideal FX TD, they would have all of the qualities I talk about in this article. But there are other attributes that make someone stand out from the bunch. A positive, friendly attitude and the willingness to be social with your co-workers is something that endears you towards others.
Houdini
I like any kind of complexity, that’s why I like doing effects. Huge particles or fluids sims are favorite problems to solve - I strive to make them faster, easier and more controllable. This brought me to fractals with their complexity and high level of detail.
Houdini
Hi, my name is Maxime Causeret. I’m a Houdini Fx artist, motion graphic artist and Director based in France. I studied Art and Technologies at the University of Paris 8. Today I would like to present my last clip, “Order from Chaos”, and I would also like to talk a bit about interaction with music in Houdini.
Houdini
My name is Alvaro Segura and I'm currently a Houdini FX Lead at MPC Los Angeles. I studied Graphic Design in Caracas, Venezuela, and 3 years of Game Simulation Programming in Los Angeles, California.
Houdini
Hi there readers, my name is Ramiro AMK Fernández. I’m a passionate Art Director and digital artist based in Buenos Aires, Argentina! Read more
Houdini
Houdini artist Varomix spends his life working and traveling between Mexico and LA. As he will tell you cheerfully, he loves working with anything that consists of pixels. We call that being multi-talented.
Houdini
I’m Adam Swaab, a Creative Director and Technical Director based in Los Angeles. Since 2001, I have worked in television and film, spending the last 6 years almost completely working in Houdini. I specialize in visual FX combined with live-action, with a design aesthetic.
Houdini
Houdini is well known for its dynamics tools, and new users often throw themselves into particle and smoke sims straight away. The shelf tools make this easy, but to better understand dynamics you need to move beyond the shelf presets.
Houdini
As a boy, I was mainly interested in soccer and all kinds of sports. It was only when my dad bought a Commodore 64 that I started getting into computers. During my childhood I really enjoyed playing video games such as “Prince of Persia” and “Eye of the Beholder”.
Houdini
I began my career at a small company in the South of France called "Forge Animation”, where I worked for 4 years. During that time my projects included an adaptation of the novel "La horde du contrevent", an adaptation of the book "Abyme" and Fx for commercial spots like Nissan, Tedx and NRJ.
Houdini
I’ve been in the industry for over 20 years now. I actually started out in print and moved on to advertising where I did everything from DTP to illustrations and art direction. Then I migrated to the film industry and directed a ton of music videos and commercials. VFX and motion were initially only a hobby. But then I started doing post on my own films and suddenly I was working full time doing VFX.
Houdini
My love for computer generated images started the day I watched the movie “Tron” around 1982. At that time I was ten. Of course I had no idea about personal computers, but only a couple of years later my parents gave me the best gift ever: a brand new Commodore 64.
Houdini
It was around that time (2006) when my good friend and colleague, Pablo Giménez, made me realise that particles and simulations were not just a couple of panels on your regular 3D application. There was a whole world of proceduralism waiting for me to explore it, not to mention an actual career to pursue! Since then, Houdini has been my main weapon for FX-driven shots.
Houdini
Ethan Tufts (State Shirt) writes about his latest album Lost Hills: “There is this recurring dream that I have. At some point in my future, everything I grew up with and everything I know about my past is replaced with a sprawling empty city, devoid of any life. It's taken me years of reliving this dream to finally realize what it was trying to tell me, with the help of Alan Watts: "The past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is." Read more
Houdini
I was always interested in computers, graphics, and gaming. From a young age I was building my own computers and trying to get the best performance out of them. Gaming got me into computer graphics, but visual effects and rendering really peaked my interest in terms of their photo-real look, complexity, and high computational demand.
Houdini
I’ve been in the VFX industry for almost five years working on films and high-profile commercials. My favorite part of FX is tackling new, sometimes unexpected challenges because that gives me the opportunity to learn and develop my skills and knowledge. During my time in the industry, I’ve been lucky enough to have been able to work on a wide variety of effects including building destruction, water, lava, melting steel, growth systems, hair systems, procedural spacescapes, and of course explosions. Read more
Houdini
After graduating from the Georges Mélies School in 2013 with a degree in 3D Animation and Special Effects, I had the chance to work as an FX artist for studios such as Framestore and Illumination MacGuff. From there I transitioned to the role of FX Supervisor at Supamonks Studio. At the beginning of this year I started directing Supamonks’ next cinematic project, a video game trailer scheduled for release in August 2016. Read more
Houdini
Art has been a constant in my life for as long as I can remember. When I was seven or eight years old, I would sit in front of the TV and draw ghostbusters and transformers, fascinated by the shapes and colors flickering on the screen. When a friend at school signed up for an art summer camp I insisted on going as well. So my parents signed me up. From then on, art camp was the highlight of the summer. View more
Houdini
Channeling my inner John Kasich, I will start with a random anecdote. Some 20+ years ago, living in a hut on the beach in Dahab, Egypt, I ran into Scott, a professional pool player from Wales. We started talking about the game and with my science background I of course started talking about trigonometry and linear algebra . . . Scott just gave me this annoyed look and said - I don't know #$%# about physics or math, but I played a lot of pool. Read more
Houdini
As an FX artist with nearly eight years of experience in the film industry, there are quite a number of people who have affected my life in very meaningful ways. From professors, leads, and supervisors, to fellow students or even my own students, each has left their mark, many perhaps without even realizing it. I truly believe that our experience in the visual effects industry is made or broken by the people around us, and I hope to show, through my story and through the role mentors have played in my life, the impact we have on each others' lives. Read more
Houdini
I began my career in the video game industry working as a technical artist for game company Immersion Games. We developed AAA games like Monster Madness, Cellfactor, Kung Fu Academy and technical demos for Ageia (now owned by Nvidia). Most of my time was spent building levels, writing shaders, rigging characters and doing FX development. Later on in my career I moved to the advertising and movie industry. Read more
Houdini
My first experience with 3D graphics was as a teenager visiting my friend’s South Bronx apartment. He showed me a 3D animated scene of a grand abandoned temple with eye opening visuals of fire, bones and elements of dark ambience. I was already an avid artist, but right then and there I knew that this was what I wanted to do for a living. So I aggressively started to pursue my new goal. Read more
Houdini
My name is Alican Görgeç and I am an FX TD from Istanbul, Turkey. Since I was a kid I had an interest in shooting and editing videos. This eventually led me to study film and television at Istanbul’s Bilgi University. As a student I discovered that I enjoyed the post-production side of filmmaking the most. It was not much later that I got introduced to 3D effects while helping my friend Cüneyt Tekin with motion graphics work for his company, Vaybee. 3D started as a hobby, but it would eventually become my profession. Read more
Houdini
Long time Gridmarkets supporter and super talented Australian VFX artist Ben Watts has done it again: He collaborated with an international team of artists under the creative direction of world renowned 3D motion design studio Aixsponza to produce a fantastic Nike ad which has blown our socks off! You can find a breakdown of the Nike Vapor Untouchable II spot on the Aixsponza website. Read more
Houdini
I enjoyed drawing, painting and sculpting since I was a kid. Engaging in creative work provided me with a much needed escape from the deadly routine of everyday life. I hated my public school and didn’t see the point in focusing my life on passing the next test or on completing yet another homework assignment. So I retreated into the worlds created by films and video games. Spirited Away, Toy Story, Ghost in the Shell, Blade Runner, and The Matrix are just a few examples of movies that inspired me growing up. Read more
Houdini
Hi, my name is Alexander, I was born in late 1984 in the city of Dresden, Germany. I was twelve years old when I saw “Star Wars” for the first time. I watched the VHS cassette behind my parents’ back and I was so stunned by the imagery! Watching the movie was an emotional experience for me, one that marked the start of my dream of making my own movie. It did not take long for me to understand that I wasn’t seeing reality captured on camera. I quickly understood that this was a story made by people behind a camera. Read more
