Home

Artefact VFX

I'm a professional VFX Artist and CG Supervisor who has worked on films such as Godzilla X Kong, Rings of Power, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Ant Man & the Wasp, Deadpool 2, and Black Panther. I'll be sharing tutorials, education and walk throughs focused on character and creature design, hard surface vehicles and weapons, procedural modeling in Houdini and many other topics.

This channel will cover 3D modeling, sculpting, texture, groom, lookdev and other disciplines using Maya, Zbrush, Houdini, Mari, and Substance Designer.


Artefact VFX
Learn how to create realistic leaves and vegetation in Houdini using free leaf maps. Perfect for environment artists, game devs, and VFX creators who want a fast procedural workflow. 🌿 Easy Houdini Vegetation Tutorial — Create Realistic Leaves with Free Assets! In this step-by-step tutorial, you'll learn how to create leaves and vegetation in Houdini using free leaf maps from Fab. We’ll cover how to: ✅ Download and prepare free leaf textures ✅ Use the Trace SOP to create leaf geometry from images ✅ Build a leaf kit for procedural setups ✅ Instance leaves onto twigs and branches with Copy to Points This workflow is ideal for environment artists in games, film, or VFX, and for anyone exploring procedural modeling in Houdini. 🎨 What You’ll Learn: Procedural leaf creation using Houdini nodes Efficient instancing with Copy to Points Setting up leaf kits for reuse across projects Turning image maps into 3D assets 📦 Resources: Free leaf maps → https://www.fab.com/category/material/nature-terrain--vegetation?is_free=1
How to Create Leaves in Houdini
In this video we'll get you up and running with Solaris in Houdini. We'll go over the basics of importing geometry, creating shaders using RenderMan, lighting a scene and creating a rendered image 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:14 - 5 Things To Create a Render 00:06:38 - Materials 00:19:54 - Render Settings 00:24:09 - Subdividing Geometry at Render Time 00:26:13 - Creating Basic Materials 00:39:33 - Area Lights 00:49:12 - Render an Image to Disk 00:59:04 - Adding a Studio Setup 01:02:55 - Metal Shaders in RenderMan 01:05:26 - RenderMan Preset Browser 01:20:39 - Final Thoughts #solaris #houdini #renderman #lookdev #lighting #vfx #usd
Solaris in Houdini & RenderMan - Quickstart Tutorial
In this second video of the series we'll take our concept art and develop it into a full 3d model using Maya and Zbrush. We'll also create a grey shaded render using RenderMan in Houdini and Solaris. I'll be demonstrating topics such as 3d model blocking in Maya using image planes, dynamesh in ZBrush, sculpting form and volume, establishing surface flow, zremesher, decimation, quad draw for retopology, uv unwrapping and layout, as well as geometry HD in ZBrush and rendering in Houdini/Solaris with USD. I'll be using the excellent drawing tablets from Xencelabs: • https://www.xencelabs.com/products/pen-tablet-series • https://www.xencelabs.com/products/pen-display-16 Chapters: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:08 - Model Blocking in Maya 00:08:13 - Xencelabs Pen Display 16 00:09:00 - Dynamesh in ZBrush 00:14:58 - Continuing the Rough Sculpt 00:18:59 - Sculpt Refinement 00:21:17 - Establishing Surface Flow 00:22:04 - Preparing for ZRemesher with Polygroups and Polypaint 00:23:29 - ZRemesher 00:25:09 - Decimation 00:25:18 - Prepare for Retopology 00:25:43 - Retopo in Maya with Quad Draw 00:30:08 - Modeling the Mouth 00:32:14 - UV Layout 00:36:19 - ZBrush Prep for Final Sculpt 00:37:03 - Adding More Teeth 00:38:54 - Importing Teeth to ZBrush 00:39:11 - Continuing Final Sculpt 00:43:23 - Additional Teeth 00:43:55 - Geometry HD in ZBrush 00:46:55 - Continuing Detail 00:49:59 - Sculpting Skin Detail 01:07:30 - Detailing the Neck 01:10:32 - Final Touches in ZBrush 01:12:39 - Creating a Gemstone 01:16:37 - Presentation in Solaris and RenderMan 01:28:32 - Completed Grey Shaded Render and Final Thoughts @Xencelabs #conceptart #photoshop #creaturedesign #characterart #midjourney #alien #drawing #drawingtutorial #design #digitalart #xencelabs #createwhatyoudream #pentabletmediumbundle #houdini #zbrush #maya
Character 3d Modeling For Film VFX - Full Tutorial Maya, ZBrush, Houdini, Xencelabs Pen Display 16
In this video we focus on retopology where we create an organized mesh that can be used for uv layout, texture, rigging and other departments. We'll start by decimating our sculpt in ZBrush using decimation master and then sending this to Maya for use as a live object in quad draw. Future videos will go over texture, groom, lookdev and many other subjects. Full res images: https://artefactvfx.com/personal-work/kyka/ Mentorship Workshops: https://artefactvfx.com/workshops/
Kyka Character Design Series - Retopology
Mech built using procedural workflow in #maya ,#mash and #arnold #characterart #zbrush #charactercreation #art #characterdesign #houdini #mech #3d
Procedural Mech
In this first video of the series we'll develop a pencil sketch into a fully realized concept art image that can be used to create the character in 3d for film VFX. In the next part we'll continue using Maya, Mari, Zbrush and Houdini to fully build the character. We'll also render using RenderMan in Solaris. I'll also be using the excellent drawing tablets from Xencelabs: • https://www.xencelabs.com/products/pen-tablet-series • https://www.xencelabs.com/products/pen-display-16 @Xencelabs #conceptart #photoshop #creaturedesign #characterart #midjourney #alien #drawing #drawingtutorial #design #digitalart #xencelabs #createwhatyoudream #pentabletmediumbundle
Calaris Creature Design Tutorial with Xencelabs Part 001 - Concept Art
This is a quick timelapse showing the creation of fur in Houdini and a basic rendering setup using Solaris and Pixar RenderMan XPU with CPU and GPU support. I cover some tricky aspects like keeping guide count down, making the hairgen look more natural and coloring the hair using the displayColor attribute. Key concepts covered: • How to create fur or hair on a basic object • How to sculpt guides • Improving the hairgen output by varying length and adding clumping • Coloring fur using noise • Importing the fur into Solaris • Creating basic shaders and using the displayColor attribute • Viewing the render in Copernicus and outputting a png file to disk 00:00:42 - sculpting guides 00:02:43 - coloring with noise 00:06:45 - Solaris & RenderMan #houdini #renderman #solaris #copernicus #3d #hair #fur #lookdev #modeling #3dmodeling #XPU
Quick Guide to Creating Fur in Houdini, Solaris & RenderMan
Very fast demo showing the basics of creating fur in Houdini and rendering in RenderMan using XPU. Full tutorial here: https://youtu.be/q6CYD0A1F2Q?si=KutDm8SVCaMzsFJy #3d #houdini #renderman #vfx #solaris #xpu #modeling #fur #3dmodeling #lookdev #groom
Fur in Houdini & RenderMan XPU
Timelapse of the sculpting work on Kyka, 3d character, creature design using ZBrush and Maya
ZBrush Sculpting Timelapse - Kyka Character Design #zbrush #3d #charactercreation #sculpting
Load More... Subscribe