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The glowing stag

Personal project · Houdini Pyro and Octane

Choose a colour for the stag
Stag of glowing orange smoke, seen from the side, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing red smoke, seen from the side, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing pink smoke, seen from the side, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing magenta smoke, seen from the side, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing purple smoke, seen from the side, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing blue smoke, seen from the side, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing light blue smoke, seen from the side, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing lilac smoke, seen at an angle from the front, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing fuchsia smoke, seen at an angle from the front, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing coral smoke, seen at an angle from the front, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing golden smoke, seen at an angle from the front, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing yellow-green smoke, seen from the front, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing green smoke, seen from the front, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing emerald smoke, seen from the front, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing turquoise smoke, seen from the front, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing cobalt blue smoke, seen from the front, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing dark blue smoke, seen from the side, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing dark blue, swirling smoke, seen from the side, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing dark blue smoke with lighter patches, seen from the side, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing dark blue smoke flowing through its body, seen from the side, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane Stag of glowing deep blue smoke, seen from the side, reflected in the black ground: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane

Stills from my video: a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane. Click a colour to see the stag.

Watch the animation on YouTube

The glowing stag is a personal project, born purely out of a love for magical atmospheres, smoke simulations and VFX.

Smoke, light and energy

I wanted to experiment with flowing layers of energy, smoke and light in an organic shape. The goal: an ethereal, almost otherworldly creature that seems to be made entirely of particles and smoke, with a crisp reflection on the ground below.

From model to smoke

I started with the 3D model of the stag. I converted its geometry into VDB volumes and used them as emitters for the sparse Pyro and smoke solvers in Houdini. I built much of that setup in VOP networks, Houdini’s node-based way of working. I rendered the stag in Octane.

The biggest challenge

Fine-tuning the density and the turbulence, which was also the most time-consuming part. A simulation like this easily takes a night of computing and caching before the smoke has exactly the right organic, mysterious flow and glows beautifully in the dark.

Overview of 21 stills from the glowing stag video, from orange to dark blue: VFX with a Pyro simulation in Houdini, rendered in Octane
All 21 stills from the video at a glance

Watch the Short on YouTube

Houdini simulation of a glowing blue stag made of volumetric smoke against a black background
The final image of the glowing stag

Next project: Modern Waterfront Residence →

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E-Line Vision
Bringing vision to light.