What use are big stompy robots without an environment to stomp around in? Mere run cycles is all. In the original version of this project, I just nabbed some random heightmaps from somewhere and smushed them into place. It was bad guys, real bad. So I've started from scratch:
SideFX added a bunch of terrain tools to
Houdini a few years ago and, as is usually the case, they knocked it out of the park. I'm a big fan of procedural workflows (Houdini speaks to me) and I've been meaning to learn this toolset since it was released.
So I've started on this worn, terraced canyon environment. Everything is controlled by noise, from the large mesa footprints to the tiny streaks of sediment on the ground. On top of that, following the standard Houdini terrain workflow, I set up a series of erosion solvers, that simulate the long-term effects of wind, water and thermal erosion on terrain. That rounds off edges, carves out streaks and valleys, and layers up sediment at the base of the mesas.
Currently I've just been focusing on general shape. Next up will be to add shaders (colour and reflective properties) and lots of small details (boulders, shrubs etc). Then I'll need to isolate the areas that the stompy robots directly stomp over, so those areas can then drive the interactive FX (footprints, dust, rubble etc).
If you're even remotely interested in VFX (or even games development), you should check Houdini out. There's a
free version. It looks pretty intimidating at the start, but check out some tutorials and you'll get to grips with it pretty quickly.
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