The Gnomon Workshop has released Lightning & Electricity Effects, a guide to generalist FX workflows in Houdini, recorded by VFX Artist Josh Harrison.

The workshop provides five hours of video training in Houdini, Maya and Nuke.

In the workshop, Harrison sets out his entire workflow for creating electricity and lightning effects using Houdini, following a professional CG generalist approach.

The training takes viewers through the process step by step, from project organization to final-frame rendering, integrating a custom character into a Houdini effects setup.

Harrison begins by setting out how to prepare character models and animation for import into Houdini, and provides simple workarounds for rigging characters in Maya.

Moving to Houdini, he then demonstrates how to set up materials and shaders for the Mantra render engine, then focuses on creating the lightning effects.

Having set out fundamental concepts and approaches to creating electricity, Harrison moves on more advanced techniques to create secondary and tertiary effects elements, discussing how to use particle and Pyro simulations to add detail to the scene.

The final chapters of the workshop cover how to convert meshes into renderable light geometry, how to create custom AOVs in Mantra, and how to use those render passes to composite the final shots in Nuke.

As well as the training videos, viewers of the workshop can download Harrison’s Alembic animation cache. The workshop also uses Ryan Reos’s Spartan Hoplite character and Truong’s inexpensive Mike Freeman rig.

Josh Harrison is a freelance Senior FX Artist and Senior 3D Generalist. He began his career in film at Luma Pictures, working on movies including Godzilla vs. Kong.

He them moved into TV and commercials at MPC and The Mill, working on series including American Horror Story and House of the Dragon.

Lightning & Electricity Effects is available via a subscription to The Gnomon Workshop, which provides access to over 300 tutorials.

Subscriptions cost $57/month or $519/year. Free trials are available.

Read more about Lightning & Electricity Effects on The Gnomon Workshop’s website

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