HS-249: Procedural Tooling: Building HDAs for Unreal (7/29/26)
This course focuses on building procedural tools in Houdini and deploying them into Unreal Engine using Houdini Engine.
Course Overview
Live Demo + Q&A
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All live classes are recorded and posted within 1-2 business days.
Wednesday, July 29th, 2026, 10:00 am - 12:30 pm PST
Wednesday, August 5th, 2026 10:00 am - 12:30 pm PST
Class Description:
This course focuses on building procedural tools in Houdini and deploying them into Unreal Engine using Houdini Engine. Students will learn how to design artist-friendly HDAs, expose important parameters, and integrate tools into real-time workflows. The course uses the Gingerbread Generator tool as a full end-to-end case study, from idea to Unreal integration.
Learning Outcomes:
Students will gain a clear understanding of how to build, package, and deploy Houdini digital assets (HDAs) for use in Unreal Engine and other programs. They will learn best practices for tool Art-directability and UX, performance, and real-time usage, and leave with a reusable production mindset for procedural systems.
Course Materials
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Session Zoom Link
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Session 1 Outline
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Session 2 Outline
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Submit your work
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Procedural Tooling: Building HDAs for Unreal
- $70.00
Course Teaser
Session 1
Tool Development & Houdini Engine - (Building the Gingerbread Generator)
This session outlines the essential development workflow for creating a Houdini Digital Asset (HDA). It covers key procedural modeling strategies using the gingerbread tool as an example. You will learn the foundational pipeline requirements for Houdini Engine and the critical architecture needed to build robust, artist-friendly tools with intuitive parameter controls.
- Procedural modeling strategies
- Shape variation and controls
- Material and attribute setup
- HDA structure, inputs, and outputs
- Parameter exposure and tool UI design
- Best practices for artist-friendly HDA UX
Session 2
Unreal Integration - Real-Time Usage and Optimization
This session focuses on the real-time production workflow, guiding you through integrating your Houdini Digital Assets (HDAs) directly into Unreal Engine. You will learn to manage live cooking and baking processes, design intuitive user interfaces for artists working within the engine, and implement key optimization techniques to balance performance with visual fidelity, while adopting professional pipeline management practices.
- Introduction and pipeline overview
- Houdini Engine basics
- What makes a good production tool
- Integrating the HDA into Unreal
- Importing assets, live cooking, materials, and baking workflows.
- Tool UX in Unreal
- Optimization Strategies: Balancing performance with visual fidelity.
- Navigating common pitfalls and effective pipeline management.
Instructor
Eldad Sery
Technical Artist
Eldad Sery is a Technical Artist, Art Director, and Educator with over two decades of teaching and industry experience. He specializes in Houdini, procedural workflows, tool development, and real-time pipelines for Houdini and Unreal Engine. Eldad has taught over 3000 students worldwide and works with studios on scalable, art-directable procedural and AI-driven pipelines.
WHAT YOU NEED TO TAKE THIS COURSE
- A computer (see SideFX system requirements)
- Houdini (Apprentice version is free)
- A second monitor (recommended)
- Integration with Unreal and other Houdini engine programs is not supported with the Apprentice version and requires a paid Houdini version!
- Our live courses qualify you for a student license at $75 per year, please contact [email protected] to get access.
- Headphones, microphone, and webcam (If you do not have a webcam you can use your phone!) *optional, for live participation*
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
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REFUND POLICY:
Live-Session Courses
Students may request a refund up to 1 day before the start of the course. Students may also withdraw from Live-Session Courses at any time and are entitled to a pro-rated refund. The withdrawal date must be 1 day before the next class they intend to drop.
On-Demand Courses
All on-demand courses are non-refundable.
Refund a Class
Please send a request to get a refund via email to [email protected].
Your written request to drop any or all of your classes must include:
- Student’s full name
- Name of the course(s) being dropped