HS-125: Procedural Nature (8/2/25)
In this course, Yan Paul Dubbelman will share his most-used node setups to create plants, trees, and leaves with lifelike motion and growth
Houdini's procedural systems allow you to create incredibly detailed models based on the natural world, but making them move and directing their shape and movement can be tricky and confusing. In this course, Yan Paul Dubbelman will share his most-used node setups to create plants, trees, and leaves with lifelike motion and growth. You'll learn to build flexible setups using Houdini's Tree tools to construct complex, easily-adjustable trees and plants, then discover how to bring these trees to life by making them curl and grow into their final state. We'll also create leaves by studying nature to understand how real leaves grow, replicating these natural shapes to produce high-quality models, then utilize Houdini's TOPs system to generate infinite variations. Additionally, you'll use the new Copernicus nodes to create optimized, lower-resolution versions that retain the same quality as the heavy, high-resolution models. This course avoids simulations and uses only 2 lines of code, making it accessible for beginners while delivering professional results.
You will finish the class understanding more about how Houdini handles growth, animations, variations, and procedural modeling. Through smart combinations of basic nodes, you will be able to create your own plants and make them come alive. Houdini is great at creating variations of objects, and understanding how to use the procedural systems is very important when working on large, highly detailed environments.
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Session 1 Outline
Session 2 Outline