Fifty50 Covers Techniques That You Can Use to Create Icicles or Stalactite Growth in SideFX Houdini.

Inspired by a shot from a Man vs. Machine effect, Fifty50 set out to recreate that type of organic growth effect with Houdini. The result is this demonstrated technique that allows you to turn any object into Icicles or Stalactite Growth — Also perfect for getting a wax melting look for objects in your scene.

Houdini Growth Effect is a favorite topic amongst tutorial authors. Check out this roundup of some of the best tutorial that shows how to create a growth effect using the procedural DCC.

Fifty50 breaks down his project that covers using the Dot Product in VEX, Volume Gradients, VOPs for noise and density settings, and VDB Reshape. “I directly manipulate the VDB volumes directly to create a directable art mask to drive the organic growth effect, in a custom direction needed.” Fifty50 mentions. Skip to 13:00 for a summary of how the setup works.