Create a Simple, Efficient No-Render Houdini Dissolve Effect

Houdini is a powerhouse. Procedural at its core, slapping nodes together allows you the open-aired possibility to create anything. For example, there are more than few ways to handle the disintegration and reintegration, or dissolve effect. Now you can add one more to that list.

Saber Jlassi is a Senior Cinematic TD at Blizzard Entertainment. Saber has a nice 5-part tutorial series showing how to set up a really simple and efficient dissolve effect in Houdini. One that doesn’t require any rendering at all. The tutorial starts by using two still mantra-rendered images in Houdini, creating the dissolve effect using POPs, or particle operators.

Jlassi also offers the documented Hip files, that contain all the data needed to recreate the dissolve FX from the tutorial for a small fee.