Interview to Naomi Birot, VFX/CFX Artist / Houdini trainer follows . . .
Naomi Birot is a passionate CFX Artist. She really loves moving the hairs, twisting the fabrics, making seatbelt setups and stuff!
She worked at Mikros Animation and MPC Paris as VFX Artist, at Illumination McGuff as CFX Artist on Sing 2, at Digital District as CFX artist and on short films as VFX artist and Nuke Compositor.
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YOUR BACKGROUND - FACTORS & INSPIRATION TO BECOME AN ARTIST: STARTING DAYS
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Following my studies at EMCA, I was lucky enough to start my professional life at Illumination as a CFX Artist Maya. During my time at Illumination, I learned Houdini during a professional training course organized at the Ecole des Gobelins.
Houdini thus became my favorite software!
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LIFE JOURNEY & CAREER PATH
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After working on “Pets 2” and “Sing 2”, two Illumination feature films, I worked as a VFX Artist at Mikros animation and MPC, and I'm currently CFX Artist at Superprod on the upcoming animated feature Asterix 3.
What's more, since 2023, I've joined the team of Houdini Educator at Voxel FX to train future Houdini Artists.
Between each production, I try to produce as many personal projects a possible, with the aim of developing my skills as a generalist and reconnecting with the artististic training I received at school.
Alongside my projects, I'm part of the Houdinimatic moderation team, a discord that brings together the largest French-speaking Houdini support community.
TOOLS USED?
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After 5 years trying to apprehend Maya, I decided to go full Houdin for VFX or CFX. The new USD workflow is incredible. I kept using Marvelous for some personal CFX projects, specially for modeling, but with the constant updates added to Houdini It's impossible for me to go back to Autodesk.
FACTORS & INSPIRATION TO BECOME AN ARTIST?
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I'd like to introduce you to this project, which dates back a year or so. While trying to practice making an environment with FX, I came across a magnificent concept by Juan Diego Leon. It's got some gorgeous rock patterns and an extraordinary atmosphere. So I decided to work on this rock formation where a skull seems to emerge from lava flows. At the time, I was playing “Hallow Knight” for the third time and decided to add flows of a black liquid that might be found in the corridors of the ancestral pool.
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COULD YOU EXPLAIN STEP BY STEP YOUR WORK?
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Of course!
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So I started by setting up the main elements: camera, lights, terrain.
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Then I downloaded a skull which I had fun damaging, fracturing and making more natural using a little VEX and voronoi fracture.
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Then I added a lot of rocks to the ground.
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I keep a whole band of 3D assets on one of my hard disks so I can dig in and save time. So here, I've only imported 3 tree trunks that I've placed in my scene..
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The part that interested me most was the lava veins that will integrate the skull into the rock formation.
Here, I started with a very simple system: place start points on the foundation, end points on the crane, and make these points meet by creating curves.
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Then, a simple extrusion, adding noises and other procedural manipulations, allow me to automatically generate these veins, whatever the position of the skull or the height of the cavern..
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On this project, I initially wanted to practice procedural rock generation.
So for the large rocks, I started by stacking boxes to create a basic shape that I would duplicate...
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​​​​...and with various transformations allow me to create the detail-free shape of my rock.
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Here is the final look of the tall rocks with more details.
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Then I added the different layers of FX: lava coming out of the eyes and nose, a thin layer of fog, particles like opaque bubbles rising from the ground.
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I'm not very familiar with the fluid in Houdini, so this lava coming out of the eyes was a challenge to get something thick, but almost laminar in terms of flow.
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Revisiting this project a year later, there are many things I would have done differently, especially in terms of the artistic choice of lava.
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Finally, it's time to launch the rendering after just over a month since the start of this project and the first rocks placed on this terrain. I've decided to do an Arnold render and split it into two passes: one for geometry and one for volumetrics.​
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CAN YOU TELL SOME WORDS ABOUT GRIDMARKETS?
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At the time, I had a very underpowered computer. Rendering with geometries only and without refraction/reflection took me almost 1 hour for 720P. After a few trials, I quickly adopted GridMarkets as a solution. This solution was brought to me on the Houdinimatic discord where a few artists were using this service. With around a hundred credits I was able to return my two passes and make adjustments. I quickly got down to less than 1 minute per frame by switching to GridMarkets, a real time-saver!
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SOMETHING TO ADD?
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First of all, I would like to thank my husband, family, and friends for their support. Then, I thank all the talented artists who have trained. Then, I thank all the talented artists who have trained me, especially Francois Gressier from Voxel FX, the fantastic colleagues I work with on a daily basis and the Houdinimatic community. Without all these people, the various crises (Covid and strikes in the US) could have been much harder and more difficult for me. I've taken advantage of them to build up a number of personal projects and take up teaching when production is scarce. On this subject, I'd like to send all my support to the graphic designers affected by liquidations, unemployment, or the impossibility of finding an internship or a job upon leaving school. Be brave, all of you!
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By: GridMarkets marketing
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