Deborah R. Fowler

Resources for VFX 721
Procedural Modeling and Animation

Posted 2013  ·  Updated on March 14 2026
Houdini Information Houdini Tips & Tricks Submission Guidelines Expectations SideFX docs
Lecture Overview   Course Structure
Due Dates (link to google calendar)   Deadlines
Assignments are available online only.
Please review these notes regularly during the course of this quarter.
Assignments Graded Work
Weight % Assignment Released
(class #)		 Image Due
(class #)		 Reviews / Dailies Final Deadline
(class #)		 Optional Render
(class #)		 Grading Rubric Breakdown Template
10 Exercises


listed in Class Notes below


20 Project 1 class 2 class 3
class 7 — Building class 8 PGR 1 BreakdownP1
30 Project 2 class 1 class 8 review daily
layout class 11		 class 13 — Complex Scene class 15 PGR 2 BreakdownP2
30 Project 3 class 13 class 14 mechanics review class 17 class 19 — Expressions class 20 PGR 3 BreakdownP3
10 Professionalism






In keeping with creating a studio environment you will be expected to adhere to deadlines and show your work in progress in a "dailies" fashion.

If you have questions, let me know. I am always happy to give you feedback to help you improve your work but you have other projects/exercises to complete within this quarter. Improvement and deadlines are part of the studio process. The "orange box" class dates above indicate assignments allowing optional final renders.

Reminder: You are always encouraged to refine your work, however at some point deadlines require you to put it aside. You will not be re-graded for work submitted after deadlines but it will still count toward your participation grade. Improving your work is important but so is being able to work within the deadlines.

Note About Optional Final Renders Submissions

As per the submission guidelines please submit the files in a folder labeled Quarter_Class_PN_LastnameFirstname_Title_Final (contents as before).
***Please leave the original submission in the dropbox***

This folder should be on the top level of your dropbox. This allows me to see at a glance who has submitted a "Final" Version.

In-Class Exercises Required
In-class Exercise Approximate Class Deadline (class #) Grading Rubric
In-class Phyllotaxis 2, 3 class 4 EGR 1
In-class Orange class 6 day after 6 refer to handout

There are examples on the tips and tricks page — these are small sample files that resolve questions I have been asked repeatedly and hopefully will act as a more informal documentation. If you would like more explanation I will be happy to answer questions, as always ask questions!

Key words: phyllotaxis, math review, logic review, look dev, instancing, layout, dynamics, rbd, particles, chops

Student Responsibility Reminders:

  • Review expectations and brief overview
  • When an exercise or project is assigned, read over the description
  • Keeping up with assigned homework is expected — it is part of acting professionally
  • Check your Slack daily
In-Class — Phyllotaxis Hints (required exercise) P1 Prep
  • To help with this exercise I made a short video which you may find helpful. Spheres are placed in a circle according to the equation of a circle.
  • to help understand parameter use in Houdini there is a short powerpoint here

In addition, you should review the material here. For fun (optional reading below):

  • Other interesting sites related to the beauty of nature and mathematics are here and here.
  • If you are interested in Fractals see Mandelbulbs. (There are forum posts about this topic as well)
  • Also for those interested in Cacti, this is from Siggraph 92 — a collision based model of phyllotaxis
In-Class — Table Hints (no longer required exercise)

For extra hints on how to use the font node here are three example files: font.hipnc, fontRunTogether.hipnc and fontAlternative.hipnc (use this last one only if you have coding experience — if you like this format take a look at Hscript examples on the tips and tricks page).

More Hints:

  • Keep in mind there must be a complete condition on each side of the logical operators && (representing and) || (representing or). ie. if ( $F > 4 && $F < 10 , 1, 0 )
  • Order matters — see two behaviors that change based on order of conditions: ExamplesOfSwitchIf.hipnc
  • Nested if statements are valid (that is to say your true or false condition may be an entire if statement). However in Exercise 2 one thing that may make it easier if you do not like nesting if statements is to have the true condition be the word ie. "Kermit" and the false to be an empty string "".
  • You may also use the more "C like" version of an if statement, an example is in fontdemo.hipnc
  • Also color hint: fontColorHints.hipnc
Project 1 — Building Hints P1

You will be creating a procedural system for generating the exterior of a building. I recorded a more recent video of my lecture that can be found on vimeo. The Internet provides numerous examples of procedural buildings and city generation. Pascal Mueller et al. at ArcGIS CityEngine should serve as inspiration for this exercise. Interesting video related to the Building exercise (done in maya with mel) on procedural buildings here. We will look at previous students' work in class.

In addition to postPlace.hipnc also look at sampleWindow.hipnc, sampleDepthWindows.hipnc, orientToCircle.hipnc and finally tubeWindowCopy.hipnc — all on the Tips and Tricks page

Project 2 — Complex Scene Hints P2
Project 3 — Procedural Animation Inspiration P3

Search: Kinetic Sculpture/Art, Carnival rides, automaton, tin toys, Rube Goldberg machines, wind-up toys, flying machines

Previous examples for inspiration here.

Helpful Links Resources
Submission Guidelines & Rules Required Reading