Tim van Helsdingen shows how to create a neat looking attracting cubes animation in Houdini.

Houdini artist and trainer Tim van Helsdingen posts an hour-long tutorial that shows how to make and render an animation where cubes attract each other in space. The tutorial uses Houdini and Redshift to get the final result.

Tim uses DOP instancer, a tool that he made to handle the interactions and the simulation of the cubes in the scene. DOP Instancer was Tim finding a way to create a more accessible and more natural way to emit rigid body dynamic objects. The Houdini HDA also supports packed objects and works with constraints.