Norway Waterfall (SCAD VFX MA Thesis)

For More technical breakdown, please follow on my medium blog:

Problem:

If you look at lots of car commercials like Porsche and Audi. They all have many cool environments with little cars driving in the center to show the possible lifestyle after you buy the car. These are expansive to shoot the environment with a Concept car unless the car is already built in production. Promoting the idea before the production would not only save time and money but also can see how the market reacts.  After the digital model is done, the environment artist will work closely with the animator to produce the final result. 

Solution:

Use Houdini, and Maya to generate a photorealist scene that shows the idea. My job will be the environment artist that creates a believable environment

Houdini Technical Breakdown

• Procedural modeling terrain with heightfield

• Heightfield can’t produce a cliff, so use VDB and Vex to create a Cliff model and combine it with Terrain

• Hf scatter with SpeedTree and Megascan assets

• Flip simulation with Sample Terrain Collision to create the waterfall

• Cloud and Fog simulation

• Flip simulation with Sample Cliff then extends boundary to the ocean. 

• Texturing and Lighting

• Render and composite AOV