80 Level Digest: YouTube Tutorials on Grooming in Houdini

Houdini, developed by SideFX, is a 3D procedural software for modeling, rigging, animation, VFX, look development, lighting, and rendering. It is one of the most advanced tools for digital content creation available today which means there is a lot to learn.

There is a lot to cover, so we've prepared ten great YouTube tutorials to help you learn grooming hair in Houdini.

Introduction to Groom Tools by Escape Studios

Escape Studios offer courses in Visual Effects, Game Art, Animation, and Motion Graphics. It works with many studios, like MPC, Cinesite, Framestore and The Mill, Jellyfish Pictures, Milk and BlueBolt, and more.

In this tutorial, Mark Spevick shows Houdini groom tools and how they work and talks about what it’s like to work as a professional effects artist.

Groom Fundamentals by Jesus Fernandez

VFX Artist Jesus Fernandez specializes in hair and fur, with over 10 years of experience in the VFX and Animation industries.

This video is the first in the series of groom tutorials. The course is made to reinforce your knowledge of grooming and help you better understand how hair works, its characteristics, and details. Check out the artist's channel to find many more useful tutorials.

Toothbrush – Quick Introduction to the Houdini FX Grooming System by pixeltrain

In this tutorial, Generalist and VFX Trainer Helge Maus shows how the grooming system works and which nodes are involved in building a system. The artist uses a toothbrush to demonstrate how to generate guides and hair from them. You will also learn how to use Attribute Paint to drive the placement and length of the hair.

KineFX Rigging | Fur Dude – Animate & Groom the Fur by Houdini

Animation is an important part of Houdini, and hair needs to move with the model. This video from the official Houdini channel will show you how to add frizz, clumping, and hair dynamics to the "Fur Dude" character, with the result ready to be exported for rendering.

Grooming Hair In Houdini For VFX & Games by Rebelway

Rebelway is a VFX school that helps aspiring artists learn the skills they need to "land their dream job and create world-class FX work." In this tutorial, Saber Jlassi, former Senior Technical Director at Blizzard, will teach you how to create a grooming system for VFX and autogenerate cards and textures for games.

How to Groom Hair & Fur in Houdini | Arnold by Arvid Schneider

In the next video, Senior Visual Effects Artist Arvid Schneider shows how to set up and manipulate basic grooming guides and fur systems. After this video, you will be able to create realistic fur and hair "for all kinds of furry creatures."

Arvid Schneider has worked on several well-known movies, like Jurassic World, Transformers, Spectre, Aquaman, and more. He was a Lighting Technical Director at Industrial Light & Magic, Cinesite, and MPC and is now working for Image Engine.

Houdini Tutorial | Hair/Fur Grooming Effect by Motion Designers Community

Our next choice is this tutorial by Vladyslav Lavrenov, where he talks about generating basic low-resolution guide hair, then animating it, and finally, increasing the amount and quality of hair to then render it in Octane.

Creating CG Hair in Houdini by Arvid Schneider

Let's move on to another great tutorial from Arvid Schneider, where he demonstrates how to make a hairstyle and facial hair. This walkthrough doesn't have a narrative following the image, but it's still pretty clear and useful.

Speed Grooming in Houdini by Mai Ao

This tutorial shows the grooming workflow in Houdini 19 based on "internal information" from SideFX's Senior Technical Director Kai Stavginski. If you don't usually do grooming, like Mai Ao, this video might be extra useful and understandable for you. The artist will show you how to draw guides and use the Guide Groom tool in general.

Houdini Grass Tutorial Using Grooming Hair and Fur Systems by CGI Nerd

You might want to apply the knowledge you got to some other parts of your scene, not just the hair, so this video might help you look at some workflows from an unusual angle. In it, Alejandro Perez will walk you through creating an area for the grass, adding fur to it, and adjusting a grass shader, the blades' thickness, and the grass length to make it more realistic.

Like any software, learning Houdini can take some time. We hope these tutorials helped you understand its grooming tools and answered some questions you might have had.

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Preview image by Cristian Bolivar