Buzzkill

INFO

Buzzkill was my final project at Escape Studios, and was a collaboration between myself and fellow student Miruna Mares. We set out to create a short film centred around canivorous plants, as both of us had experience with building plant simulations in previous modules. I used Maya to model the initial pitcher plant shape, but I was keen to develop my VFX skills further, so focused heavily on building simulations in Houdini. In the end I created two scenes with separate simulations for the pitcher plant, one simulation for the alien plant and one simulation for the cape sundew plant.

ROLE

Simulations
3D Modelling
Texturing
Lighting
Editing

CREDIT

Fly 3D model / animation / texture
Venus flytrap model / animation / texture
Interior fly transformation simulation
Fern 3D model
all above: Miruna Mares

SOURCED ASSET

Ostrich Fern 3D model / texture

Model before displacement is applied.

3D MODEL

I modelled the pitcher plant leaf base in Maya, and used displacement maps to create more detail such as the raised veins seen on the lid of the leaf as well as the bumpy texture on the body of the leaf.

Scene one of Buzzkill.

SCENE ONE

Scene one introduces the audience to the fly protagonist and the first of the carnivorous plants. The fly lands on the pitcher plant leaf, crawling inside where it is digested by the pitcher plant (as portrayed by the burping plant).

Shot 1 still.

Vellum simulation using velocity to advect the central pitcher plant, as well as a pop wind to create turbulence for the surrounding leaves.

Vellum simulation output as a collision object.

To create the illusion of a mutual collision relationship, I first built a low resolution pyro simulation to generate a velocity field. I then used that velocity to advect the vellum tetrahedral softbody of the pitcher plant, before finally using the output of the vellum simulation as a collision object for the higher resolution pyro smoke simulation.

Scene three of Buzzkill.

SCENE THREE

Cape sundew plant apears in scene three of Buzzkill. I built it purely in Houdini. The only simulation used in this scene is vellum - to give some wind and fluidity to the cape sundew and surrounding leaves.

Subtle vellum simulation.

Tentacles of the Cape Sundew plant.

Leaf curl with fly.

SWITCHING FLIES

I used a switch node with a frame expression to swap between the animated flapping fly and the static fly attached to the curling leaf. That way the fly seems to land on the plant and become stuck.

Final scene of Buzzkill.

FINAL SCENE

In the final scene, the newly created alien fly crawls into the pitcher plant before blowing it up to get revenge.

Still of explosion.

Voronoi fracture shown on central pitcher plant.

Isolated splat.

SOFT BODY DESTRUCTION

Following the same set up as a traditional rigid body destruction, I used an RBD Fracture node to fracture the pitcher plant. The key part in achieving the SBD was feeding the fractured pieces into a ‘for each loop’, where I could isolate each piece, remesh it and set it up for the vellum simulation.

Having imported the pieces into a vellum DOP, all I needed to do was to stitch the edges of the fractured geometry together. I also built a low resolution pyro simulation to generate a velocity field for the explosion in order to advect the vellum soft body.

SIAN MACFARLANE