As a 3D VFX and Digital Composition artist, I am always looking for ways to improve my skills. For my first project in VSFX721, I created a procedural House/building using Houdini. The Savannah House is a customizable building with adjustable functions for height, width, depth, base height, roof height, annex width, and annex depth.
I created a procedural building called the Savannah House using Houdini. It took me about 30 minutes and 37 seconds to render the image at an average resolution of 1920×1080. The geometry complexity was around 7,000 polys at default building size. I used the mantra renderer with two lights: a sun and a skylight. The sampling parameters were set to a noise value of 0.01, pixel samples of 5×5, and min/max rays of 4/10 for diffuse and 3 for reflection.
User Guide
Inside the “house” geometry node, there are separate sections for roofs, the main building, and windows. Each section is separated with boxes of different colors. There are seven adjustable functions located at the top level. Here is how each of them works:
Height: Controls the height of the whole building and changes the number of windows attached to each side of the wall.
Width: Controls the width of the whole building and changes the number of windows attached to each side of the wall.
Depth: Controls the depth of the whole building and changes the number of windows attached to each side of the wall.
BaseHeight: Changes the height of the bottom part of the building and controls whether the building needs stairs or not.
RoofHeight: Changes the height of the roof.
AnnexWidth: Controls the width of the annex and changes the number of windows attached to each side of the wall.
AnnexDepth: Controls the width of the annex and changes the number of windows attached to each side of the wall.
Technical Guide
To create the Savannah House, I started by creating two boxes for the main part of the house and the annex. After connecting them properly, I moved on to create more boxes for the base part. The windows were made with boxes and polywires, and I used the copy to point node to attach them on lines which served as indicators on the wall. When all the essential parts were built, I added more details to the windows and the roof.
User Guide •
This tool is designed to make it easy for all users to customize the Savannah
House. Inside the “house” geometry node there are Roofs, Main building, and
windows. Each section is separated with boxes which have different color. There
are 7 adjustable functions located at the top level, They are Height, Width, Depth,
BaseHeight, RoofHeight, AnnexWidth, and AnnexDepth.
Height – Controls the height of the whole building and cha nges the number of
windows attached to each side of the wall.
Width – Controls the width of the whole building and changes the number of
windows attached to each side of the wall.
Depth – Controls the depth of the whole building and changes the number of
windows attached to each side of the wall.
BaseHeight – Changes the height of the bottom part of the building and controls
whether the building needs stairs or not.
RoofHeight – Changes the height of the roof.
AnnexWidth – Controls the Width of the annex and changes the number of
windows attached to each side of the wall.
AnnexDepth – Controls the Width of the annex and changes the number of
windows attached to each side of the wall.
Technical Guide
I started by creating 2 boxes for the main part of the house and the annex. After connected
them properly, I moved on to create more boxes for the base part. The window was made with
boxes and polywires, and I used the copy to point node to attached them on lines which served
as indicators on the wall. When all the essential parts were all built, I moved on to add more details
on the windows and the roof. Finally, my first procedural building was done.
What I have done beyond the requirements :
Besides the helpful instructions on professor Fowler’s website. I managed to use multiple null
objects and linked them to object merge node, so that my geometry window can be more
organized without having lines crossing each other.
In addition to the technical guide, I would like to discuss some of the challenges I faced during this project and how I overcame them. One of the biggest challenges was figuring out how to make the building truly procedural while still allowing for customization. I spent a lot of time experimenting with different approaches and ended up settling on a system of boxes and parameters that allowed for a wide range of adjustments.
Another challenge was optimizing the rendering time. While the final render time of 30 minutes and 37 seconds is relatively fast, it took a lot of trial and error to get there. I had to experiment with different sampling settings, lighting setups, and geometry complexity to find the right balance between quality and speed.
Overall, I am very proud of the Savannah House project and the skills I developed while working on it. By creating a truly procedural building that can be customized with just a few clicks, I believe I have demonstrated my ability to create efficient and effective VFX tools. I look forward to continuing to explore the possibilities of procedural modeling and pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the field of VFX and digital composition.
