Houdini for Games in Unreal Engine

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In this course you will learn how to setup HDAs to use inside Unreal Engine to create real-time, game ready procedural art assets.

Intermediate

Starts from

$465

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syllabus

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Instructor:

Grayson Cotrell

duration:

8 weeks • 80 Lessons

HDAs

Rendering

game-ready procedural assets

Procedural modeling

Real-Time Destruction

Advanced Shader Setups

Modular Pipe Generation

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EARLY ACEESS WORKSHOP

Early Access gives you immediate entry into workshops designed to evolve with the VFX community. As you participate, share feedback, and engage with instructors, the content grows and improves based on your needs.
‍
Note: Join now at a lower price—once the workshop is fully completed, the price will increase

Workshop is currently completed at:

Recent Events & Announcements

Houdini for Games in Unreal Engine - Webinar with Grayson Cotrell

May 16, 2024

Using Houdini Engine to setup Physics in Unreal 5 with Grayson Cotrell

September 17, 2024

But wait, there's more!

Our teaching approach is hands-on & project-based.
We cover the theory and put it into practice so you can learn how to think like an artist.

BREAKING DOWN THE ESSENTIALS

We are getting started from the ground up! Making sense of the UI and learning the crucial terms and concepts that will make the rest of your exploration in Houdini much more enjoyable and much less confusing.

BUILDING PROJECTS FROM BEGINNING TO END

We'll learn to create a project from start to finish, from building the geometry, through animation, simulation, lighting, materials, and finally rendering in Karma! Heck we'll even dabble just a bit in compositing for that cherry on top.

LEARNING TO CARVE YOUR OWN PATH

Houdini is a sandbox of potential, and as such we will explore multiple ways of approaching the same problem, to get your mind working on being free and flexible in bringing your visions to life!

EXPLORE THE POWER OF PROCEDURALISM

We'll dive into what makes Houdini the most powerful software in the world, leaning on the incredibly flexibility of proceduralism to build a shed for a homeless little ghost. Is there any greater calling?

PARTICLE SIMULATION!

We'll explore the concept (an immense power) of simulation, and our first stop on the tour? Oh it's particles baby!

BRIDGE HOUDINI TO UNREAL WITH HOUDINI ENGINE

Use the power of Houdini inside Unreal Engine to see the results of your HDAs in real time.

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REAL TIME DESTRUCTION IN UNREAL ENGINE, POWERED BY HOUDINI

Combine the immense power of Houdini’s fracturing and destruction workflows with the ability to shoot and destroy objects in unreal engine.

PRODUCTION READY HDA CREATION

Create HDAS with sleek and easy to understand User Interfaces, ready for you and other artists to benefit from.

PROCEDURAL MODELING

Dive into the techniques used to create procedural mesh’s in seconds, that would take hours to create and place by hand.

ADVANCED SHADER SETUPS IN UNREAL ENGINE

Utilize techniques like Screen-Space UVs, Tri-planer projection, and noise generation to create mind bending materials for your Procedural Models.

get inspired & create

Join our new workshop, "Houdini for Games in Unreal Engine," led by Grayson Cotrell. This course will guide you in using Houdini Digital Assets (HDAs) for Unreal Engine to create game-ready procedural art assets.

‍You'll learn to think like a technical artist and efficiently solve problems for optimized results. We'll cover base simulation setup and creating a network of HDAs for the desired look. We'll also provide an artist-friendly setup to handle client retakes efficiently. By the end, you'll be able to direct the simulation and explore asset looks.

Course instructor Grayson Cotrell, a Gnomon School Of VFX graduate and a Dynamics Technical Artist at Naughty Dog . Now, he develops tools & workflows for quick creation of game-ready destructible objects and simulations.

START DATE

INSTANT ACCESS

SKILL LEVEL

Intermediate

duration

8 weeks • 80 Lessons

FORMAT

Step-by-Step

Q&A

24/7 DISCORD

LECTURE TYPE

PRE-RECORDED

A certificate is available upon completion of the workshop.

Lifetime access.

Due each week. Expect to spend 3-5 hrs/wk viewing lectures, Q&A, and time on assignments.

ASSIGNMENT

Upon successful completion of this workshop you'll receive an official doublejump Certificate to prove you've mastered Film FX

CERTIFICATE

Houdini,MAYA & Nuke.

PROGRAMS

Houdini & Nuke.

PROGRAMS

Introducing our first

Beginner Friendly Houdini Workshop

NO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

LEARN REAL-TIME VFX

Jump into Real-Time Game Production

JUMP INTO UNREAL ENGINE

And create your own Cinematic

DOUBLEJUMP YOUR SKILLS IN

Houdini and Unreal

It will blow you away

The only Explosion workshop you will ever need.

FX That We Will Reverse Engineer

OBSCURUS FX

This masterful magical effect is all about control. We will learn to manipulate particles, volumes and geometry with completely custom VEX code that can help you achieve any look.

BUBBLE BOMB

In this effect I will show you how to break down a complex, layered effect into simple setups and how to maintain that all important sense of scale and explosive timing this epic shot requires.

DISINTEGRATION FX

One of the most common magical FX but difficult to get right. Together we’ll unpack how to spread decay maps naturally and how to use this to drive an eye-catching disintegration FX that feels weighty and believable.

*We don't own the footage in these clips. We are using them as reference material for the workshop.

What We’ll Be Blowing Up

The Creator

Complex shot with multiple elements Water sims and particle sims combined with a big ass Nuke + ocean rendering and some character coth FX. yeah this is a good one.

Iron Man Jericho

Directable smoke trails with multiple emitters and three big dust explosions? yes please. ( we will check the environment creation as well )

Dune rain of fire

Just looks awesome and we wanted to re-do it. Complex shot with multiple elements. Become a one man army that can finish a full shot like this from start to finish. People will love you in the studio.

The last of us

Big night explosion with the realistic overexposure feeling. Fire elements plus rbd destruction on the house.

Master Exploder

Big demo scene for the Master Exploder toolkit with pro tips on how to have post sim directable color on you explosions and smoke.

the NUKE

Just a fun nuke with our Explosivo materialX shader. Compositing really made this one sing.

doublejump skill System

What we will learn together in

8 weeks • 80 Lessons

WEEK 1

Project Concept and R&D

What we will cover:

• Picking references, collecting and organizing assets, project schema, workflows

WEEK 2

Custom Meta Humans Blueprint

What we will cover:

• Costumes, face scan and texture improvements

WEEK 3

Environment Blocking

What we will cover:

• Virtual location scouting in a basic environment
• Creating temp sets for visualising each location on the mocap stage

WEEK 4

Planning a Mocap Shoot

What we will cover:

• Shot list, camera placement, actor blocking, etc

WEEK 5

Prepping Mocap Data

What we will cover:

• Ingesting and organizing Mocap and Pcap data for editing
• Retargeting to skeletons
• Syncing audio, face, and body data
• Using Metahuman Animator to solve facial performance

WEEK 6

Editing and Blocking

What we will cover:

• Choosing animation takes, setting up shots, temp cameras
•Assembly edit using UE’s Sequencer

WEEK 7

Virtual Camera

What we will cover:

• Choosing animation takes, setting up shot
• Setting up virtual camera rig to IOS device using Live Link
• Streaming UE environment to IOS screen
• Recording camera takes, best practices, and manual adjustments• Finalising edit

WEEK 8

Animation

What we will cover:

• Using UE’s Control Rig to tweak face and body performance
• Importing alembics for bespoke animations (cloth, RBD, etc)

WEEK 9

Shot Design

What we will cover:

• Shot composition and lighting
• Set dec, prop scatter, BG crowds
• Adjusting per sequence and per shot

WEEK 10

MRQ Rendering and Nuke Compositing

What we will cover:

• Using Cryptomattes to grade and compositie, 2D VFX elements to compliment UE’s effects
• Final polish, optical artifacts

doublejump skill System

What we will learn together in

8 weeks • 80 Lessons

WEEK 1

Learning the Game - Project Brief, Concepts and Quick VFX Production Wins

What we will cover:

This week we will dive into the Project brief where you will get a synopsis of the Lore for the game we are making. You will be given a list of VFX that the Game Director is tasking you with to create this epic moment. Then you will be guided through theproduction Pipeline to make sure you stay on track with your tasks to move through thisproduction in an efficient and effective way to deliver high-end AAA level effects.

You will then start tackling some Character and Prop VFX for our Rune Embers and Character Glow to get some quick, early wins under your belt to boost morale as you move forward into the thick of production. We will also explore the power of our Level Sequences for looping animations and keeping our effects active after we return togameplay from our cinematics.

WEEK 2

Figuring out the Good Stuff - Establishing VFX Pipelines through the R&DProcess

What we will cover:

This week is all about getting into the Research and Development process for creating some of our more complex VFX Assets.

We want to explore and tackle the technical methods we need for creating our VFX to make sure we have a clear path forward. We will dive into Houdini and set up our pipeline for fracturing, animating and exporting our Activation Crystal for Unreal.

We will also explore using Point Cache Data from Houdini to Niagara for spawning our Dark Energy Tendrils to our fracture animation. We will create a Material Function to handle our Disintegration FX across multiple materials used by our character and explore how we can control it through a global set of parameters.

Then we will wrap up the week by establishing another Houdini Pipeline formore advanced VFX mesh creation. We will use techniques to make beautiful twisting helix like meshes that can be influenced through the use of Vertex Color information in our Unreal Materials.

WEEK 3

Becoming a Master Craftsman - Creating Master Assets for Iterative andEfficient VFX

What we will cover:

This week has a simple and clear goal. We will create Master VFX assets that can be reused, iterated on, or instanced across multiple VFX. We will do this by thinking through what assets will have multiple use cases for reusable textures, materials, meshes and Niagara Systems.

We will tackle pyro simulations and texture packing methods for getting more frames into our flip books while still maintaining a good level of fidelity.

We will build textures for our portal beams and lens flares and finish by creatinga Master Material that will be used across a vast majority of our VFX.

WEEK 4

Powering Up - Diving into Our Prop and Character Based Gameplay andCinematic VFX

What we will cover:

Now it’s time to dive deeper into our Level Sequences, Gameplay Logic and Cinematics.

We will focus more on creating with Art Direction in mind to build out VFX that adhere to a cohesive style and design. This is where we will start employing ourworkflow strategies for using our Master Assets to iterate quickly.

We will dive deeperinto Niagara to spawn ribbons that emanate from our prop and attach to our character as he animates during the cinematic. We will also use our Vertex Color on our Xmeshes we created in Houdini to randomize a single mesh.

We will also employ strategies for attaching mesh FX and particles to specific character bones while sampling specific regions on a characters mesh.

Then we will finish up our gameplay ability that we created through our Character’s Animation Montage to activate our stairsand build out an infinite looping system we can use to add some extra detail to our level intro looping effects with controls to integrate them into our Houdini Animation.

Of course we will also be very heavily involved in our Blueprint logic and Level Sequences.

WEEK 5

Power of the Portal - Use Advanced Niagara Systems and VFX Techniquesto Complete our Portal Cinematic

What we will cover:

In week 5 we will focus healy on our Activator Beam, Portal Beam and EnergyImpact / Kick Off effects.

We will build out the systems and FX for all of our Portal assets. We will dive into composition for our Portal Beam and Activator Beam Impact FX and explore ways to build out directionality into them that will maintain the illusion of depth, randomness and avoid repetition.

We will tackle different ways to use dynamic beams for diversification of effect types and round out the week with the additional creation of our Dispersion Tether effects through a more bespoke creation approach in Houdini.

This will address needing additional assets in production and how we can still maintain consistent art direction when we need to add to our library.

We will focus on exporting the right assets from Unreal to Houdini to maintain proper composition and balance forour new mesh creation.

WEEK 6

Shut it Down! - Finish the Final Cinematic VFX with Our CharacterDisintegration, Soul Travel and Complete Portal Shutdown

What we will cover:

THIS. IS. IT.

Time to finish it all up and shut it down.

We will round out our DisintegrationFX for our character by adding particles to be absorbed into the Portal Beam that are emitted directly from our characters emissive materials.

We will balance our animation timing, expose material and Niagara parameters for greater control in sequencer, and build out the deactivation systems needed to fully shutdown our Portal after our Character’s soul has reached its destination to begin the journey for this game’s story.

Our focus will be on working quickly and efficiently through reusing and iterating on our Master Assets so we can cross the finish line and ship this game on time.

We will go through a final balance pass and discuss some optimization techniques we can use to help our FX stay optimized and performant.

doublejump skill System

What we will learn together in

8 weeks • 80 Lessons

WEEK 1

Procedural Bridge: Getting Started & Modeling

What we will cover:

Transfer data from Houdini To Unreal via Houdini Engine, Create their first Houdini Digital Asset(HDA) for Unreal, and learn the foundations of procedural modeling.

WEEK 2

Procedural Bridge:Texturing, Vellum Simulations, & Alembic Workflows

What we will cover:

Learn how you can harvest the power of houdini to help create materials for unreal, set up a cohesive Vellum simulation, and get a simulation integrated to Unreal.

WEEK 3

Procedural Destruction From Houdini To Unreal

What we will cover:

Create our own advanced fracture setup, set up Physics in Unreal from Houdini Attributes, and dive into Blueprinting in Unreal.

WEEK 4

Procedural Infection Part 1: Growth Algorithm And Mesh Creation

What we will cover:

Dive deep into creating a growth algorithm Inside Houdini, learning how to utilize For-Loops and Vex To a high potential.

WEEK 5

Procedural Infection Part 2: Unreal Engine Advanced Material Setup

What we will cover:

Use our tool in Unreal and create a beautiful Ethereal Material, Creating Tri-Planar & Screen Space Projections for a sci-fi/fantasy feeling.

WEEK 6

Modular Pipe Generation

What we will cover:

Learn the foundations for setting up modular asset placement procedurally, look at 3D path generation inside Houdini.

WEEK 7

Presenting Work Through Environment Creation: Foundations And Lighting

What we will cover:

• Choosing animation takes, setting up shot
• SSet up an interior environment in Unreal to showcase your tools complete with lighting, camera setups, & foliage placement.

WEEK 8

Presenting Work Through Environment Creation: Polish And Rendering

What we will cover:

Polish up the environment with decal placement, Color correction (Inside Unreals Camera), & Rendering.

doublejump skill System

What we will learn together in

8 weeks • 80 Lessons

WEEK 1

Artistic principles and fundamentals of FX and Explosions

What we will cover:

We'll cover artistic principles and fundamentals of FX and explosions, including timing, animation, shapes, and color theory. We'll dive deep into the detailed anatomy of explosions and how to recreate them, learn about creating realistic fire simulations and developing effective shaders, and discover how to draw inspiration from Anime & Game FX techniques to apply them to your work.

WEEK 2

Pyro & Volumes Refresher amd Making costum XPU Shader

What we will cover:

Pyro 101 refresher (this is not an intro workshop but we will still cover this just in case), volumes 101 refresher (this is not an intro workshop but we will still cover this just in case), Constructing the Master Exploder emitter setup (the Artists way), Making the custom Crispy Chicken XPU shader.

WEEK 3

Master Exploder & Skadoosh

What we will cover:

Guest lecture by Corbin - Building Master Exploder and SHADOOSH toolkit for a Studio Pipeline (the FXTD way) (vex and python heavy module) for FXTDs

WEEK 4

The Moonshot

What we will cover:

In this module, you will learn how to optimize your scenes to handle heavy volume simulations efficiently in Solaris, create and control grains & particles emitters for car effects as part of the Master Exploder setup, and master color control techniques for post-simulation volume instances in explosion effects.

We'll also cover designing realistic ground shock waves and pressure setups, managing rendering workflows in Solaris, and finishing your work with professional compositing techniques in Nuke.

WEEK 5

Red Angry Tornado

What we will cover:

Bending and manipulating Volumes, Secondary particle and Volumetric FX, getting the Red Core in the Tornado.

WEEK 6

Jericho - Iron Man

What we will cover:

In this module, you will learn how to build custom trails tools for scattering and wedging explosions. We'll explore techniques for creating massive, realistic explosions using the Master Exploder system, and dive into large-scale shockwave setups with crucial optimization techniques.

You'll master the rendering and layout workflow in Solaris, learn professional compositing techniques in Nuke, and finish with color grading in Davinci Resolve to achieve cinematic results.

WEEK 7

Dune Explosion

What we will cover:

In this module, you will master the art of creating dynamic trails and instancing for explosions, bringing life and complexity to your effects.

You'll learn advanced techniques for efficient layout and rendering workflows in Solaris to manage complex scenes.

The course will teach you professional techniques to achieve Hollywood-scale shots using home computing resources, and finally, you'll develop essential compositing skills in Nuke to perfect your final output.

WEEK 8

The Last of Us

What we will cover:

Explore the intricacies of creating realistic nighttime explosions, including dynamic fire effects and secondary elements like embers and trails.

Master RBD destruction techniques, learn efficient rendering and layout workflows in Solaris, and perfect your shots with professional compositing in Nuke.

WEEK 9

The Creator - Water Nuke

What we will cover:

Shore water sims with Flip. Multiple workflows for creating the water splash (Flip & Particle).

Layout and Rendering in Solaris. Composting will be done in Nuke.

WEEK 10 - BONUS

The Kong shot

What we will cover:

One of my favourite CG explosion shots comes from analyzing and replicating a shot from KONG.

We'll explore multi-layer explosion setup techniques, handle rendering and layout in Solaris, and finish with professional compositing in Nuke.

WEEK 11 - BONUS

Scatter Killer Nuke

What we will cover:

Make a nuke explosion with shockwaves. Rendering and layout in Solaris.

Scatter Killer workflow to control the hot and cold Temperature patches. Compositing in Nuke.

doublejump skill System

What we will learn together

SECTION 1

Intro and Setup

What we will cover:

It’s time to build from the ground up! This week will be dedicated to installation of Houdini, along with some helpful (and free) 3rd party tools, and of course, getting familiar with the UI of Houdini!

There is so much to explore here so let's take our time getting comfortable in our new home.

SECTION 2

Scripting Language and Concepts

What we will cover:

This week is dedicated to wrestling with important terms and concepts inside of Houdini.

If you have no experience in coding, like me when I started, these videos will help you make sense of a lot of the things we will be doing down the line and serve as a resource you can always pop back to later on to refresh your memory!

SECTION 3

Modeling- Building a Shed

What we will cover:

It’s time to get our hands dirty!

This week we will be focusing on some basic modeling, exploring both the manual, and procedural approaches to building a shed from the ground up!

SECTION 4

Modeling- Building, Animating, and Creating UV's for Our Little Ghost

What we will cover:

It’s time to continue our modeling journey by building our first character, looking at the various ways we can achieve an organic final result, and ironically bringing our ghost to life in the process.

We will also be looking at UV’s, what they are, why they matter, and how we can make them for our geometry!

SECTION 5

Modeling- Intro to Solaris

What we will cover:

A final scene and animation is nothing if you can’t render it, so we will be exploring Solaris and the Karma renderer!

This section is all things lighting, materials, cameras and action.

SECTION 6

Particles- Creating Snow

What we will cover:

Our first foray into the world of simulation!

We will unpack what simulation is, how it works and begin by exploring the most basic of the simulation branches in Houdini, particles, by creating a snow simulation for our scene.

SECTION 7

Particles- Creating Rain

What we will cover:

Using the information we have already digested we will re-approach our scene, this time creating a rain effect with proper dynamics and splashing!

This is a shorter week and as such is a great opportunity to catch up if you need it!

SECTION 8

Baby Thanos Snap

What we will cover:

In our last week of this section we remove a man from the face of the earth with the baby thanos snap!

It will introduce us to a whole host of new and exciting concepts, including Houdini’s new “Copernicus” texture creation tools, and will serve as an excellent final exam for the concepts we have learned to this point!

SECTION 9

Rigid Body- Exploring Rigid Body Destruction

What we will cover:

We will work to uncover how, and why, rigid body destruction works the way it does; mastering core concepts like fracturing and constraint building that will enable us to unleash our full destructive potential!

SECTION 10

Rigid Body- Cannon Wall

What we will cover:

What fun is building a wall if we don't get to immediately get to knock it back down?

In this section we will be destroying a brick wall with cannon fire, creating diverse and explosive collisions to bring that puppy down.

SECTION 11

Rigid Body- Batman Statue Collapse

What we will cover:

In this section we dive deeper into controlling the look of our rigid body simulations, by reducing a statue of Batman to rubble.

We will learn how to customize the weight and feel of the materials we are destroying, create dynamic collisions, and explore the idea of "wedging" to generate multiple variations of our sim while we sleep!

This will be the final proving ground, combining everything we have learned about destruction to this point.

SECTION 12

Pyro- Exploring Pyro Simulation

What we will cover:

Pyro simulation (smoke/fire) is different to anything we have covered thus far, and in order to unlock this new super power we will need to unpack exactly how/why it works.

SECTION 13

Pyro- Smokey Dancer

What we will cover:

Using our new-found understanding of pyro, we will build our first official project by creating a dynamic smoke-emitting dancer.

This is where pyro starts to get fun!

SECTION 14

Pyro- Batman Statue Debris

What we will cover:

Revisiting our Batman statue collapse, we will add a crucial element to any RBD sim... the smokey debris!

We will explore how to add dust to the cracks and crevices of your RBD sim, as well as creating a secondary particle debris simulation from the smoke.

Here we will see our first glimpse of the power of combining multiple simulation types in one project, and it's a beautiful thing to behold!

SECTION 15

Pyro - Flames

What we will cover:

What point is there in looking at pyro if all we do is talk about smoke??

That's why in this section we create FIRE.

Exploring concepts of how fire spreads and grows, all the way through our creation of that PIPING HOT final render.

SECTION 16

FLIP- Paint Tube

What we will cover:

In this section, we will unpack what "FLIP" fluid simulation is actually doing under the hood by building an explosive pipe of sloshy pink paint!

Exploring concepts of liquid emission, meshing, collisions, and rendering to get a final, vibrant and sloppy result that is sure to satisfy the masses.

SECTION 17

FLIP- Donuts

What we will cover:

In this section we will be diving into the creation and control of viscous fluids, by creating a seamlessly looping donut glazing machine!

Who could ask for more?

SECTION 18

FLIP- Pool Dive

What we will cover:

This is where we branch off into our final corner of FLIP, the FLIP tank! FlIP tanks give us the ability to create larger bodies of water, complete with secondary simulations of foam, bubbles, and spray; and we are going to quite literally dive into it all!

Warning, you may get wet.

COMING SOON

SECTION 19

Vellum- Creating a Cape

What we will cover:

Entering the world of Vellum, we will start with a simple project exploring how vellum thinks/works.

By using vellum constraints we can create and attach a cloth cape that dynamically moves with whatever character it is attached to!

COMING SOON

SECTION 20

Vellum- Belly Fat

What we will cover:

Continuing in our exploration of vellum, we will do our best reverse-imitation of Ozempic, by adding fat to our character.

During the operation we will unpack how "softbody" simulation works in Houdini, enjoying all the lovely jiggle physics that come along with it.

COMING SOON

SECTION 21

Vellum- Human Balloon

What we will cover:

It's time to inflate our understanding of Vellum even more by exploring pressure/inflation simulation!

In this section we will explore dynamic expansion and contraction of cloth by creating an ascending balloon on a string. Warning: this is not your average balloon.

COMING SOON

SECTION 22

Vellum- Sand Castle Collapse

What we will cover:

It's time to knock down a sand castle! In this section we will explore the flexibility Vellum gives us to control the behavior and evolution of sand.

From clumping, to wetness, to dynamic collisions and so much more!Warning, you may get wet.

COMING SOON

SECTION 23

Vellum- Rocker Hair

What we will cover:

It's time to knock down a sand castle! In this Lets make some hair!

In this section we will plant, style, cut, and simulate a full head of luscious locks using all the tricks of the trade to make rendering over 1,000,000 floppy little hairs possible!

COMING SOON

SECTION 24

KINE FX- Rigging A Zombie

What we will cover:

Zombies may be the dead, but they still need bones to move. So in this section we will grant that wish and create a fully rigged, animatable character setup- looking at creating bone structure, weight painting, animation, and the blending/looping of multiple animations!

And yes, we are definitely ragdolling him at the end.

COMING SOON

SECTION 25

Crowds- Building an Agent

What we will cover:

It's time to build a zombie army!

But considering every army is comprised of individuals, we will start by creating ONE optimized and flexible zombie "agent" who will bend the knee to our every command!

COMING SOON

SECTION 26

Crowds- Making an Army of Agents

What we will cover:

Now to add the power of numbers!

Once we have a zombie created, we will dive into building out the full horde, exploring concepts like guiding agents motion, terrain projection, and transitions between animations!

COMING SOON

SECTION 27

Crowds- Ragdolling Your Army

What we will cover:

Every zombie horde needs a kill switch in case things get out of hand, which is why we will be adding ragdolling to our army.

We've set them all up, so this is the part where we get to knock them all back down!

COMING SOON

Enroll Now

Ready to unlock the Magic of Houdini?

Standard Edition

$465

Full Workshop
(Module 1, 2 & 3)

Mentoring & Support

DoubleJump Academy Certification

Lifetime Access & Updates

Join Now ( $465 )Or 3 Payments of $155

Legendary Edition

$495

Includes everything from Standard Edition and:

Nuke - Student License *

Houdini - Student License *

Access to Private Legendary Discord group with the Instructor and TAS.

Limited edition T-Shirt. (Made by: Arturo Gutierrez)

Animation Library ( by Griffin Academy)

Join Now ( $495 )Or 3 Payments of $165

Supremium Edition

$750

Includes everything from Legendary Edition and:

Private call with Instructor

Supremium Discord

Extra T-shirt

join Now ( $750 )Or 3 Payments of $250

* Educational Houdini & Nuke License for Students
‍
We are excited to offer our students an exclusive opportunity to purchase the educational version of Houdini at a discounted rate. Here are the key details:
Price: The educational license is available Houdini for $75 and Nuke for $99.
Availability: This special offer is only accessible through our school.
Not Free: Please note that while this is a discounted rate, it is not a free license.
How to Purchase: Eligible students can obtain the license through our school's designated process.
‍
This offer provides a significant cost saving compared to the regular price, allowing our students to access professional-grade software for their educational journey.
If you have any questions about this offer, please don't hesitate to contact us at hello@doublejumpacademy.com

doublejump skill System

What we will learn together in

8 weeks • 80 Lessons

WEEK 1

Blender/Unreal Engine

What we will cover:

• Data Preparation.
• Scale Units.
• Model Axis Orientation.
• Wheels Camber.
• Model splitting (Body, wheels etc.).
• Normal orientation.
• Unreal Engine Project Setup.
• Import to Unreal Engine.

WEEK 2

Unreal Engine

What we will cover:

• Adjusting Model Pivots (UE Modeling Tools).
• Automotive Materials Pack description.
• UE Materials Workflow.
• Car Shading.
• High precision tangent basis (important setting which must be enabled).
• Car Rig Assembly, wheels, brake callipers etc. (Car Rig blueprint provided).
• Car Rig adjustments. Wheel offset, body height, camber.
• Placing Car Rig in the scene, static functions overview. (Wheel turn, body lean).
• Brake Lights/Headlights blueprinting and preparing for animation – blueprinting in Car Rig.

WEEK 3

Unreal Engine

What we will cover:

• Placing Car Rig in the scene.
• Suspension settings overview.
• Drawing spline path.
• Attaching car to spline.
• Multiple Spline/Multiple Cars usage.
• Sequencer Basics, preparing for animation.
• Adding cars to sequencer.
• Animate driving, stopping, turning.
• CineCamera actor overview.
• Adding Cameras and animating cameras.
• Camera Shakes/Sporty style of camera animation.
• Car Ramp Jump.

WEEK 4

Environment Creation

What we will cover:

• Environment Light Object description.
• Environment Light Mixer Window.
• Setting directional light/skylight.
• Using HDRI, HDRI Limitations in Unreal Engine.
• Overview of Free Unreal Engine Marketplace assets and environments.
• Using Free Assets from Quixel Bridge.
• Creating Simple Minimalistic Environment (using basic shapes and Quixel Bridge Assets).
• Light setup and Post Processing Volume effects/exposure settings.

WEEK 5

Rendering

What we will cover:

• Create car animation sequence within our created environment.
• Types of Render in Unreal Engine (Lumen vs Path Tracing).
• Lumen + Ray Tracing description and limitations.
• Movie Render Queue Overview.
• Color Profile ACES (for movies or Photoshop).
• Setting up render in Lumen only + Lumen and Ray Tracing.
• Setting up Render in Path Tracing.
• Importing in DaVinci Resolve for color grade.
• Colour space transform in DaVinci Resolve for correct display.
• Render with Cryptomatte.
• Importing EXR with Cryptomatte masks for Photoshop retouch.
• Using Cryptomatte in DaVinci Resolve with React plugin

See The Difference

What Our Students Created

Sükrü Cengil

Art Director >> Head of Design Visualization Volkswagen AG

Sheldon Schwartz

Steve Jones

Motion Graphics Lead

Sükrü Cengil

Art Director >> Head of Design Visualization Volkswagen AG

Luca Goury

Automotive CGI | Visualisation Artist

Arjun CL

Matheus Ventura

Realtime Rendering Research

Winner: International Automotive Movie Awards

Luca Goury

Automotive CGI | Visualisation Artist

Sükrü Cengil

Art Director >> Head of Design Visualization Volkswagen AG

Oval Labs

Realtime Rendering Research

Sükrü Cengil

Art Director >> Head of Design Visualization Volkswagen AG

Luca Goury

Automotive CGI | Visualisation Artist

Sükrü Cengil

Art Director >> Head of Design Visualization Volkswagen AG

Sükrü Cengil

Art Director >> Head of Design Visualization Volkswagen AG

Steve Jones

Motion Graphics Lead

Enroll Now

Ready To Master Filmmaking in UE?

Standard Edition

$449

Full 10 Week Workshop

Mentoring & Support

DoubleJump Academy Certification

Lifetime Access & Updates

Enroll Now ($449)Or 3 Payments of $112

Legendary Edition

$495

Includes everything from Standard Edition and:

Animation Mocap Library

Nuke - Student License *

Firmware Art Package ( Includes some assets, stills, film script, shoot notes, Firmware OST, Digital Poster, etc)

Access to Private Legendary Discord group with the Instructor.

Enroll Now ($495)Or 3 Payments of $165

Supremium Edition

$985

Includes everything from Legendary Edition and:

Private call with Instructor

Supremium Discord

Extra T-shirt

Enroll Now ($985)Or 3 Payments of $328

Enroll Now

Ready to learn Real-Time VFX?

Standard Edition

$449

Full Workshop

All Final External Asset Files (I.e. Designer, Houdini, etc…)

All finished external assets (FX Textures and meshes)

Mentoring & Support

DoubleJump Academy Certification

Lifetime Access & Updates

Enroll Now ( $449 )Or 3 Payments of $149

Legendary Edition

$495

Includes everything from Standard Edition and:

Sci-Fi VFX Course - 25hr

Sci-Fi VFX Course - All finished external assets (FX Textures and meshes)

Sci-Fi Course - All Final External Asset Files (I.e. Designer, Houdini, etc…)

Nuke - Student License *

Free EmberGen License for the duration of the course.

Houdini - Student License *

Access to Private Legendary Discord group with the Instructor.

Enroll Now ( $495 )Or 3 Payments of $165

Supremium Edition

$985

Includes everything from Legendary Edition and:

Private call with Instructor

Supremium Discord

Enroll Now ( $985 )Or 3 Payments of $328

Enroll Now

Ready To Learn Houdini for Games in UE?

Standard Edition

$465

Full 8 Week Workshop

Mentoring & Support

DoubleJump Academy Certification

Lifetime Access & Updates

Enroll Now ($465)Or 3 Payments of $155

Legendary Edition

$735

Includes everything from Standard Edition and:

Procedural Scaffolding HDA

Nuke - Student License *

Houdini - Student License *

Access to Private Legendary Discord group with the Instructor.

Limited edition T-Shirt.

Enroll Now ($735)Or 3 Payments of $245

Supremium Edition

$985

Includes everything from Legendary Edition and:

Private call with Instructor

Supremium Discord

Extra T-shirt

Enroll Now ($985)Or 3 Payments of $328

Enroll Now

Ready To Master automotive in UE?

Strandard Edition

$815

Full 5 Week Workshop

Advanced Custom Car Rig Blueprint

Mentoring & Support

DoubleJump Academy Certification

Lifetime Access & Updates

Enroll Now ( $815 )Or 3 Payments of $271

Legendary Edition

$935

Includes everything from Standard Edition and:

Unreal Engine Race Track Environment

Nuke - Student License *

Houdini - Student License *

Access to Private Legendary Discord group with the Instructor.

Limited edition T-Shirt.

Enroll Now ( $935 )Or 3 Payments of $311

Supremium Edition

$1,195

Includes everything from Legendary Edition and:

Private call with Instructor

Supremium Discord

Extra T-shirt

Enroll Now ( $1,195 )Or 3 Payments of $398

INCLUDED IN THE LEGENDARY

Animation Library

Access a growing library of high-end animation assets created in collaboration with Griffin Animation Academy built to simulate real studio workflows.

What You’ll Get:

‍Production-Ready Assets
Use advanced rigs and scenes you won’t find anywhere else.

‍Studio-Like Collabs
Work across departments under real CG supervision.

‍Showreel-Worthy Shots
Say goodbye to black background renders - build work that stands out.

Enroll Now

Ready to create Epic Explosions?

This workshop is designed for intermediate to advanced artists and is not suitable for beginners.

Standard Edition

$650

Full Workshop

Files & Scenes

Master Exploder Toolkit

Mentoring & Support

DoubleJump Academy Certification

Lifetime Access & Updates

Enroll Now ( $650 )Or 3 Payments of $216

Legendary Edition

$750

Includes everything from Standard Edition and:

One Extra Explosion

City Destruction - Hip File

WOW Legion Explosion - Hip File

(Alpha) Fluid Combustion Solver made by Nick Culver & Jeff Guttin.

Animation Library ( by Griffin Academy)

Nuke - Student License *

Houdini - Student License *

Access to Private Legendary Discord group with the Instructor.

Explosion Underwear OR Limited Edition T-Shirt. (Design TBA)

Enroll Now ( $750 )Or 3 Payments of $250

Supremium Edition

$985

Includes everything from Legendary Edition and:

Private call with Instructor

Supremium Discord

Explosion Underwear & Limited Edition T-Shirt. (Design TBA)

Enroll Now ( $985 )Or 3 Payments of $328

Enroll Now

Ready To Master Reverse Engineering?

Disintegration FX

$325

Full 8 Week Workshop

Mentoring & Support

DoubleJump Academy Certification

Lifetime Access & Updates

Enroll Now ($325)

Bubble Bomb FX

$325

Full 8 Week Workshop

Mentoring & Support

DoubleJump Academy Certification

Lifetime Access & Updates

Enroll Now ($325)

Obscurus FX

$325

Full 8 Week Workshop

Mentoring & Support

DoubleJump Academy Certification

Lifetime Access & Updates

Enroll Now ($325)

FilmFX Bundle

$650

Get one FX for free.

Full FilmFx Workshop

Mentoring & Support

DoubleJump Academy Certification

Lifetime Access & Updates

GET BUNDLE

Get Full FILMFX Bundle

Strandard Edition

$650

Full 24 Week Workshop

Mentoring & Support

DoubleJump Academy Certification

Lifetime Access & Updates

Enroll Now ($650)Or 3 Payments of $216

Legendary Edition

$735

Includes everything from Standard Edition and:

One Extra VFX chosen by community

Animation Library ( by Griffin Academy)

Nuke - Student License *

Houdini - Student License *

Access to Private Legendary Discord group with the Instructor.

Limited edition T-Shirt.

Enroll Now ($735)Or 3 Payments of $245

Supremium Edition

$958

Includes everything from Legendary Edition and:

Private call with Instructor

Supremium Discord

Extra T-shirt

Enroll Now ($958)Or 3 Payments of $319

Discover the
Unreal Engine Automotive Legendary Edition

Legendary Edition Includes:

• Unreal Engine Automotive Masterclass
• Unreal Engine Race Track Environment
• Limited edition T-Shirt (Design TBA)
• Nuke Student License
• Houdini Student License
• Access to Private Legendary Discord group with the Instructor

discover editions

Enroll Now

Ready to learn how
to create Environments?

Standard Edition

$70

3hr Tutorial

Houdini, Nuke & HDRI Files

Mentoring & Support

DoubleJump Academy Certification

Lifetime Access & Updates

Enroll Now

Legendary Environments Bunle

$155

Environments for Beginners

Epic Environments for Movies

1 Extra Pirate Ship Project -Files + Tutorial

Private Discord Group & live feedback by William Fiorentini.

Enroll Now

Enroll Now

Ready to do some Epic Environments?

Standard Edition

$85

2hr Tutorial

Mentoring & Support

DoubleJump Academy Certification

Lifetime Access & Updates

Enroll Now

Legendary Edition

$125

Includes everything from Standard Edition and:

1 Extra Pirate Ship Project

Private Discord Group & live feedback by William Fiorentini.

Enroll Now

Legendary Bundle Edition

$155

Includes everything from Standard Edition and:

Environments for Beginners

Epic Environments for Movies

1 Extra Pirate Ship Project -Files + Tutorial

Private Discord Group & live feedback by William Fiorentini.

Enroll Now

Meet your Instructor

Hi, I'm

Grayson

I love making tools & watching other artists use them. After graduating from Gnomon School Of VFX, I took a job as a modeling/prop artist at Naughty Dog. I grew my Houdini Skillset while there and transitioned into a Technical Artist position, Specializing in Dynamics & Destruction.

Now, I set up tools & workflows for our Dynamics Department to quickly create game ready destructible objects and simulations. I’ve been working with 3D for over 5 years and working at Naughty Dog for 3 year.

In my free time, I love going for rides on my motorcycle (Ninja Zx6r for any bike geeks out there) with friends, exercising, and playing video games.

Grayson

worked on projects such as

CHECK OUT INSTRUCTORS PORTFOLIO

Discover the
Ultimate Explosions Legendary Edition

Legendary Edition Includes:

• The Ultimate Explosions Workshop
• WOW Legion Explosion - HIP
• City Destruction - Hip File
• (Alpha) Fluid Combustion Solver made by Jeff Guttin & Nick Culver
• Animation Library ( by Griffin Academy)
• Explosion Underwear OR Limited edition T-Shirt (Design TBA)
• Nuke Student License
• Houdini Student License
• Access to Private Legendary Discord group with the Instructor

discover editions

Discover the
Unlocking the Magic of Houdini
‍Legendary Edition

Legendary Edition Includes:

• Unlocking the Magic of Houdini Workshop
• Animation Library ( by Griffin Academy)
• Limited edition T-Shirt (Made by: Arturo Gutierrez)
• Nuke Student License*
• Houdini Student License*
• Access to Private Legendary Discord group with the Instructor

discover editions

Discover the
FILMFX Legendary Edition

Legendary Edition Includes:

• FilmFx - Reverse Engineering Workshop
• Animation Library ( by Griffin Academy)
• 1 Extra VFX (chosen ycommunity)
• Limited Edition T-Shirt
• Nuke Student License
• Houdini Student License
• Access to Private Legendary Discord group with the Instructor

discover editions

Discover the
Houdini for Games in Unreal Engine Legendary Edition

Legendary Edition Includes:

• Houtdini for Games in Uneal Engine Workshop
• Procedural Scaffolding HDA
• Limited Edition T-Shirt (Design TBA)
• Nuke Student License
• Houdini Student License
• Access to Private Legendary Discord group with the Instructor

discover editions

Discover the
Cinematics In Unreal Engine Legendary Edition

Legendary Edition Includes:

• Master Filmmaking in Uneal Engine Workshop.
• Animation Mocap Library.
• DJA Crew T-Shirt.
• Nuke Student License .
• Firmware Art Package ( Includes some assets, stills, film script, shoot notes, Firmware OST, Digital Poster, etc).
• Access to Private Legendary Discord group with the Instructor.

discover editions

what skills will you gain

Imagine yourself as a game character. In games, you complete missions, level up, and earn skill points. Similarly, in this workshop, you'll gain valuable points and skills in real life.

LVL UP!

+ 22 SKILL POINTS

Pre-existing skill points

Newely gained skill points

Houdini skills

Volumes

flip

Particles

Rigid Bodies

Vellum / Soft Bodies

VEX

Shading

Rendering

Compositing

Proceduralism

Pipeline

Tech Anim

artist skills

FX Dev

Speed

Lead/Supervisor

what skills will you gain

Imagine yourself as a game character. In games, you complete missions, level up, and earn skill points. Similarly, in this workshop, you'll gain valuable points and skills in real life.

LVL UP!

+ 52 SKILL POINTS

Pre-existing skill points

Newely gained skill points

Houdini skills

Volumes

flip

Particles

Rigid Bodies

Vellum / Soft Bodies

VEX

Shading

Rendering

Compositing

Proceduralism

Pipeline

Tech Anim

Artist skills

FX Dev

Speed

Lead/Supervisor

Lifetime Access

Access the workshop/masterclass for life, including future updates. Keep your skills up-to-date with rapidly evolving features.

1:1 Mentor Feedback

Get personalized guidance from DJA Academy mentors to take your skills to new levels.

Project-Based Learning

Together with your instructor, you can build an entire project, add it to your portfolio, and get hired.

Expert Instructor

Our instructors lead the workshops/masterclasses with extensive real-world experience & knowledge, and with their passion for teaching.

Regular Updates

Regular updates ensure you stay ahead of the curve with the latest features (even years from now).

Feedback & Discussions

Access a community of peers to get feedback and be inspired.

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Why Us?

1:1 Mentoring
With Industry Experts

Have questions? Need help? Stuck with the next steps?
Want feedback? Ask your project mentor.

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