ARTIST INTERVIEW
A geometrical VFX artist shares his work
Your art style is quite distinct, how did you come to develop it?
The work I’ve published so far simply reveals what I have been preoccupied with for the past couple years – researching AI, neural networks, the geometry of languages, runes and hieroglyphics.
How long have you been doing 3D? What was your first 3D app and how did you discover Houdini?
I started in Maya in 2008. I found the UX annoying and counterintuitive, I switched to 3ds Max, then to Softimage, then to Cinema 4D and fell in love with its UI, camera tools and take system. I first heard about Houdini at Siggraph in 2011 when attending talks on the making of Tron: Legacy.
Houdini doesn’t have the most artistfriendly reputation. How did you end up with using Houdini?
I embraced Houdini fully in 2016 when I was working on my submission for the ‘Marvellous Machines’ contest – I created a design of a Houdini node. That project was my homage to this software, driven by the intention to elevate how artists think of Houdini. Many fear it for wrong reasons, the software is not hard. Most artists just lack patience and discipline, hence the abundance of derivative work and mediocrity in the creative industry; many artists simply prefer to re-work someone else’s setups versus pursuing mastery, thought, craft, art, quality, storytelling and science.
Learning Houdini is like learning a foreign language. If you rush it, your command of the language will be limited, but if you’re dedicated, you can become a 3D poet. I highly recommend Rohan Dalvi (www.rohandalvi.net),
Saber Jlassi (www.rebelway.net) and Adam Swaab (www.learnsquared.com) as talented Houdini mentors.
Good, original, interesting, attentionworthy work takes time. It’s easy to blame Houdini as not being ‘artist friendly’. Which tool is artist friendly though? Maya? Modo? C4D? Blender? All tools have short-comings in one area or another. I think the point of navigation for 3D artists should not be about whether the software is hard or easy. Whatever vision I have, I want to be able to craft it to the nature of the envisioned result. I do not want my imagination to be limited by the technical capabilities of a 3D app. That’s what drives me. That’s why I design in Houdini. It’s a powerhouse.
What is your favourite/most memorable/successful project to date? Tell us a bit about it.
The most recent published project I can talk about is a critically acclaimed game Observation by No Code Studio and Devolver Digital. We got a BAFTA! Collaborating with Jon Mckellan (No Code) was incredible, and the original score for the title sequence was composed by the legendary Robin Finck (Guns N’ Roses, Nine Inch Nails).
Observation is a kind of 2001: A Space Odyssey – but you’re HAL. You’re not on a space station, you ARE the space station. This game is a sci-fi thriller where players assume the role of S.A.M., the station’s artificial intelligence, by operating the control systems, cameras and tools to assist a crew member in discovering what is happening to the station, the vanished crew, and S.A.M. himself.
Observation is my favourite for so many reasons. Each shot is meticulously developed and encoded with clues about the game narrative (Easter eggs alert!). I developed custom rigs to art direct mutation and construction of neural networks and geometry in a way that hasn’t yet been shown before. Hundreds of tests. Hundreds of hours. In the finale our vision was to make the geometry go sort of supernova and a black hole at the same time, a tall order.
Designing ‘The identity of SAM’
SAM was designed to mimic a spine – symbolising consciousness, structure and purpose. The face looks menacing and powerful, it’s screaming and laughing at the same time. SAM has a ‘crown’, a digital bionic pineal gland that allows instructions to be received from ‘the signal’.
Designing ‘Digital Soul Meets Digital Matter’
The signal splits the mind, like a vaccine it injects its code into the digital architecture. It is rapidly and aggressively testing different connections, it moves fast and sharp, like it’s lashing out for solutions. Negative space resembles a human skull to signify this phenomena will have a major impact on consciousness.
Confided in a cocoon, gestating, chained to the constraints of the environment, patiently waiting for the completion of recoding by ‘the signal’. The dark energy of ‘the signal’ is descending from the matrix and is integrating into the mind of SAM.
Designing a ‘Molecule’
Before new consciousness is achieved, mutated bits are building a framework, a protected environment for this to happen safely.
Check out the full project breakdown, including over 100 slides explaining art direction, iterations and design thinking, at biogenic.design/project/ observation.
Let’s talk about some personal projects, as you have full freedom to develop those.
‘Temples of Houdini’ (aka Houdini nodes) is still my favourite personal project. With each design I start by creating a story first, and then craft around it to fulfill it visually.
Because imagination is not bound by the laws of physics, Houdini nodes are designed to manifest any idea. Masqueraded as a small box, a node is a massive digital temple. If you dive inside, you will find yourself in Tesla’s lab, a modern Hogwarts’ library, or Einstein’s study, a place that contains a wealth of leading edge research in alchemy, mathematics, physics and biology. Pipe an idea into a node and it travels through a tapestry of carefully crafted mathematical equations, refined lines of code woven elaborately like a Persian rug, to evolve the geometry of an idea further. An idea exists as a node completely transformed, enhanced with new attributes, ready for further evolution. Networks of nodes look like constellations of stars forming a galaxy, a digital nervous system that is giving an idea its shape, motion, character, life.
A full project breakdown, design thinking and versions can be found at www.biogenic.design/project/houdini.
The Houdini 18 splash screen was another homage to the software and its particle-based thinking. Have you seen Arcturus through a telescope? A deceptively tiny, vibrant orange particle that is 26 times bigger than the Sun, a massive consciousness powerhouse… sort of like Houdini, where we can build colossal worlds out of one digital atom, one particle. A project breakdown can be found at www.biogenic.design/ project/houdini18.
Currently I am working on procedural language systems, hieroglyphics, futuristic alien-like UI design elements and another animation piece that I will reveal a little later.
You also have a tendency to do extensive brainstorm/research when you get into a project.
I believe to take an idea to the next level of its expression you need to do a deep inquiry into the world of that idea; a word is a world – understand its anatomy, function, history, evolution. Perform sort of a ‘surgery’ on the ‘nervous system’ of an idea; it takes layers and layers of distillation to come up with a diamond.
Akshay Tiwari and I are currently developing a pipeline inside Houdini in which we have a creative brief, a script, mind maps, references, assets, RND, shots breakdown, animatics. The entire production lives inside a Houdini script – one unified creative landscape that contains not just the assets to render shots, but also the tapestry of how the entire idea architecture came to be. I will show that when I come to reveal the next project.
What artists have you been most inspired by?
Ash Thorp, Adam Swaab, Heribert Raab, Tim Zarki, Akshay Tiwari, Edon Guraziu, James Cameron, Alex Alvarez, Rohan Dalvi, Saber Jlassi, Trevor Kerr, Denis Villeneuve, Mike Hill, Russ Gautier and many others.
Each of them has different styles, philosophies, each impacted my taste, design sensibility, selectivity, and some of them became very good friends.
I really do love getting inspired by others – I love when the geometry of thought blooms and I see or hear something I could not have imagined before. I respect intention, craftsmanship and honest work.