Austin Brennan Shows How to Create a Tower by Using VEX in Houdini, Building it Procedurally Using the Math of the Golden Ratio

CG Artist and Side Effects Houdini user Austin Brennan shows how to make a golden tower, that uses a golden spiral as its premise, using the golden ratio as a foundation. The golden ratio does mean that there will be some math involved, which Brennan covers first.

The tutorial spans some of the procedural aspects of Houdini and leverages them to build out controls as the tutorial progresses. In the end you will have built a system that leverages the magical ratio to a Golden Spiral adding controls for adjusting the height, and resolution sweep angle of the tower.

Building a golden tower like this is a great exercise in translating equations (such as the golden spiral) into functional code using Houdini’s VEX.