Luca Scheller is a 3D generalist and Visual Effects Artist based out of Munich who has been creating some Houdini tutorials that cover some interesting topics. Here Lucas shows us how you can build your own MetaBall field using a bit of VEX volume wrangling.
Houdini already has a Metaball surface node that can create MetaBall and MetaSurfaces that can be used for both modeling and animation. The MetaBall effect can even be created with a meshing node… But what would be learn from that?! Might as well make one and learn something in the process. Luca offers the scene file for download here.
VEX is a fast and low level language in Houdini that allows you to build your own custom nodes. The VEX language runs like C or C++ code, meaning that it is very fast. With VEX you can create custom operators for geometry, volumes, audio, or images, without diving in and having to write code.
