Aspiring FX students can glean insights from Mark Fancher's journey mastering Houdini, including key skills, learning resources, and practical advice for excelling in FX projects.
Students aspiring to master Houdini for FX projects stand to gain valuable insights from Mark Fancher's journey and expertise. Mark shares his path to becoming a Houdini Artist, key skills for tackling complex FX challenges, recommended learning resources, and advice for aspiring FX artists. His practical tips, methodologies, and experiences offer a roadmap for students looking to excel in this dynamic field.
Certainly! When I was younger I always liked art, drawing, music and creativity but I never realised that it was something I could actually do for a living. I entered the workforce in a very uncreative field after going to college for Physics. I struggled to the point where I really felt like the only option left was to pivot into creativity as a career. I learned to program interactive websites using Flash and After Effects and loved the animation aspect of it so much because it was so similar to making music, but visual. Eventually I started to gravitate more to video editing / motion graphics but I still felt limited. Needing the freedom of 3D space I started to learn and use Maya. Having the physics background, the simulation of natural phenomena always attracted me, which is how I ultimately landed in Houdini as my main tool.
I’d say supplement your regular Houdini activities with a side quest that focuses on fundamentals. The type of fundamentals will vary depending on what kind of artist you are. If you are very technically minded, I would lean into learning lighting, composition, design, and classical animation principles. If you are coming from another 3D software and already have those boxes checked, then dive into the technical fundamentals: Learn all the attribute types, geometry classes and how to manipulate them with vops and/or vex. This is usually most easily digested by following more advanced tutorials. If it doesn’t all sink in at once, do it again - repetition is key!
In motion graphics, our timelines are very compressed. When I get a bigger effect I have to do, I try to figure out the simplest and most efficient way to get the job done. “How can I cheat”, is always at the forefront of my mind: Are there dependencies that I can identify that will allow me to avoid mutual interaction between simulation elements? e.g. For a boat floating in the water, simulating the two way buoyancy interaction of the boat floating on top the water is overkill in many cases. It is usually way easier to manually keyframe the swaying motion of the boat to create a one-way collision interaction with the water. Also, are there any other parts that I can “cheat” with procedural geometry setups instead of doing full blown simulations? Are there breakpoints in the overall motion, where I can run 2 separate sims and edit them together one after another? Breaking things down technically this way and coming up with a plan allows me to focus one aspect of an effect at a time instead of falling into the trap of “doing it all in one sim”. It allows me to compartmentalise the process into efficient sub-effects. This protects other parts of the simulation from being broken by unforeseen chaos, and reduces simulation time, allowing me to iterate quickly on each section and ultimately gets me to the end result faster.
There are so many great resources out there, including the fundamental lessons share on SideFX, it’s just a matter of finding the teaching style that works for you. My favourites are cgwiki, Applied Houdini, and Entagma. They got me started and taught me the things I needed to know to be able to teach others my ideas. I now have a YouTube channel with a bunch of free lessons and I also have deeper dives from beginner to advanced on Houdini.School, MFXLabs.com, and Mograph.com!
The most challenging aspect of this project was having patience and seeing it through to the end. It was months worth of work after normal work hours which really can make it hard to focus. I originally had the idea for this project a few years ago, and fiddled around with making the landscape, but like most projects, I shelved it for what would most likely be forever. But this one really haunted me and I felt like it could be something special if I could just get in the groove. So about a year later, I brought it back to life and really went for it. It was an awesome learning experience all around.
I’ve done destruction sims before, but I’ve never done them at this scale. I’ve never made an environment, or rigged a hand, or a bird, or faked that handheld/cellphone look. It was really cool to tap into my generalist knowledge and bring all these disciplines together, but also really hard. Around every corner was an “I dont want to deal with that” situation and it took a lot of willpower to just grind through a solution and not re-shelve the project.
I try to watch as many talks and tutorials as possible. At a certain point, I realised it was way more important for me to remember “where I learned something” as opposed to actually following along with the tutorial hoping to memorise all the steps. My brain isn’t that big. It’s more effective for me to watch as many tutorials as possible, and just recall the tutorial when I need it for client work - then follow along with it. I’d recommend a similar approach to students as well. Watch as many tutorials as you can, and don’t feel that you have to follow along click for click with all of them. As you progress beyond the beginner stage, fully rebuilding tutorials on the computer is just going to slow you down. Certainly practicing in the software is important, so definitely carve time out for that. But try to do your own thing or start combining different aspects of different tutorials together.
From a general career advice perspective: Be a good person that people want to work with. Maintain a positive attitude. Take feedback with grace, and don’t get too personally attached to any client work. Make it great, but don’t get too upset if a shot gets cut or a revision ruins it. This can be tough, but it gets easier with time.
There are so many it’s hard to pick, but my favourite project in recent years was XK Studio’s XKR-002 project. It was so inspiring the extreme designs and the addition of all the typography over the top was chef’s kiss. What Lukas and Alexa have built over there at XK is really special.
One of my favourite artists is Rich Lord. I think he is a really good example of someone who is balancing extremely high technical skill with unique artistic vision. His concepts are otherworldly but are grounded in such polished organic rigging and motion that really gives it a vibe that is hard to describe.
The easiest part of a Houdini project is the effect that was learned from a tutorial. The hardest parts are all of the skills that take the tutorial effect and elevate it to the next level, and this is where things become exceptional. Some examples are:
Original and clever ideas: In a software like Houdini, there are almost no limitations, so if you can imagine it, it can probably be done. It's just a matter of knowing how. After a while, it becomes easier to think more abstractly with the fundamental concepts behind how an effect works, allowing artists to break free from the confines of the tutorial effect. This leads to the ability to combine different effects to make new ones or maybe even effects that have never been seen before!
Working efficiently: The dark art of performance optimization, managing cache sizes and simulation times are all things that will never be seen in the final image, but they save on time and resources which are the currency of good artistry. No other DCC allows users to manage resources the way Houdini does. While it might not be directly obvious, efficiency management will absolutely push the limits of how big a rendered effect can actually be.
Lighting and composition: In motion design everything has to look good. These are fundamental non-Houdini specific skills that are capable of elevating any project, whether it's a 10 hour sim, or a still image.
And finally, polish and attention to detail: Lets face it, sims can be very jittery on the first pass and it’s extremely obvious. Cloth / softbody sims and fluid meshes are notoriously flickery out the gate under certain circumstances so ironing out the kinks and getting things super smooth is really important. These troubleshooting skills aren’t at the front of everyone’s mind when making simple tutorials, but I really think it’s one of the most important parts of the process from a technical standpoint.
I would say, give it time but stick with it. Houdini isn’t something you’ll suddenly be amazing at after 1 or even 10 tutorials, but I believe that anyone who eats, sleeps, and breathes Houdini for an extended period of time has the ability to become great at it! I’ve seen so many people in recent years go from “I’ll never understand this” to totally crushing it. You got this!
Mark Fancher, a 3D Motion Designer specialising in Houdini at Alreadybeenchewed.tv, has dedicated the past decade to mastering 2D and 3D motion design, animation and visual effects.
He is known for his collaborative spirit, innovative approach, and relentless pursuit of skill enhancement. Reach out to Mark via Instagram.