CG artist Tolya Shuverov, posts a look at how to turn a run cycle into an abstract animation, but connecting points and lines together in Side Effects Houdini. Taking a run cycle that is freely available on Mixamo, Tolya takes advantage of Houdini’s procedural ability to turn a run of the mill run cycle into a fantastic looking abstract animation.
a simple abstract wire effect using Houdini 15
By contrast, you can see a similar effect being created with Autodesk Maya 2016 Extension 2 release, using the motion graphics toolkit, MASH. In Maya, the effect was created by using MASH to distribute objects along a mesh, and then creating a mesh from points.
Houdini really lends itself well for creating abstract animation like this. To drive this point home, have a look at other abstract animation tutorials using Houdini. CG Artist and FX Supervisor, Niels Prayer showed how to create an abstract particle simulation in Houdini, and how to Create Abstract Fractal-Driven Chaos in Houdini & After Effects, and Use Sound To Influence Houdini Parameters.
Daniel Krivoruchko also shared a look into a technique he used for creating an abstract particle trail effect using VEX in Houdini, while Simon Fiedler took us through creating abstract forms using Volume Trails in Houdini.
