FX Houdini TD · Houdini & Unreal Engine 5 Instructor
Simulations, visual effects and procedural tools for games and film. At Ubisoft Paris, I built the Houdini asset destruction tool used on Rainbow Six Tactics. I also teach Houdini and Unreal Engine 5.
Tools and pipeline
Houdini, Python and VEX in service of production: HDAs, procedural generators and integrations into Unreal Engine and Unity. In 2026, I design and direct my own tools, developed with the assistance of Claude Code.
Ubisoft Paris Studio · Rainbow Six Tactics
Houdini asset destruction tool with automatic export to the game engine, used on Rainbow Six Tactics. Also for the art and tech teams: HDAs, Python scripts, Viewer States and custom radial menus.
Trailer and thumbnail © Ubisoft Entertainment, shown from the official Rainbow 6 YouTube channel: they present the game, not my work.
R&D · Unity · 2026
Reusable Unity plugin that gives Claude Code compact commands via MCP: editor state, grouped console, material and scene audits, profiling (CPU, GPU, draw calls, p95), captures from any angle and image comparison in EV. Lighting debug re-renders the image with one term switched off at a time to isolate what changes it.
R&D · Houdini and Unity · 2026
A real-time cloth engine for character garments and soft accessories. Houdini batch-bakes the animations (Vellum, SDF VDB cleanup to push the cloth out of the body, conversion to a KineFX joint grid); at runtime, a lightweight C# solver blends these bakes with a critically damped implicit spring, air drag driven by the wind, stretch, bend and max-distance constraints, and collisions against capsules measured on the skin.
R&D · Unity · 2026
A single command launches the game, plays through a battery of automated scenarios and returns one line: OK / FAIL / N/A verdicts, a JSON report, and saves restored and verified by md5, in the editor as well as in a build. Long runs execute on 4 instances of the build in parallel with a fixed 16.7 ms timestep: speed never skews the measurements.
R&D · Unity · 2026
Rigid and soft assets fit any body with no manual tweaking: the body is measured slice by slice along the skin, shells are sized on contact, and cloth is deformed slice by slice with skin-weight transfer. A conformity check measures penetrations across several poses and outputs a report.
R&D · Houdini and Unity · 2026
A Copernicus network generates each piece's ID mask on its own (k-means in Lab space, metal detected by its color), which can be touched up in the .hip. A script-generated URP Lit shader recolors each zone while keeping the texture's grain, through a per-renderer value instead of a MaterialPropertyBlock: the SRP Batcher stays intact.
My avatar and my cloned voice, generated locallyR&D · Historic Murders · 2026
A custom web app that drives the whole making of an episode: script and fact-checking, cloned voice, storyboard, images and animation rendered locally in ComfyUI, then an editable cut exported to DaVinci Resolve.
Reference photo → avatar rendered locallyR&D · Historic Murders · 2026
The host of Historic Murders is me, rendered: my face and my voice, reproduced locally from my photos, my videos and a short sample of my voice, then animated in each period setting.
Institut Artline · Houdini module
Procedural rock generator: base shapes from Voronoi fracturing, low, mid and high frequencies, a Python interface that sets the parameters automatically, PDG variations and FBX export.
Institut Artline · Houdini module
Stratified rock formations built with loops, procedural crack and texture generators (AO, dirt, curvature), high- and low-resolution versions, and map baking.
Strange Doctor · Bachelor Game Artist · 2021
Back in 2021, an asteroid's destruction already went from Houdini to Unreal Engine with no manual export: Split tool, a small Python interface, separates the simulation group by group, then the Rbd to fbx script creates the Labs RBD to FBX export nodes and outputs each group as an engine-ready FBX.
Strange Doctor · 2021
Runs cables between start and end points picked in the scene, simulated with Vellum with collisions taken into account, to dress a set in just a few clicks.
Strange Doctor · 2021
Fracturing with cutters and two layers of noise: one group per piece before the fracture, each group fractured separately, and an exploded view to check the result.
Mu'Ori · Bachelor Game Artist
Lever puzzle solver and bridge tool for the level design of Mu'Ori, The Last Guardian of the Masks.
Mu'Ori · Bachelor Game Artist
Debug tool that displays traces and their settings directly in the level, to tune gameplay interactions.
Mu'Ori · Bachelor Game Artist
A single system that makes every object in the level pushable, whatever its shape.
Mu'Ori · Bachelor Game Artist
Houdini, Python and UE5 pipeline: a bone naming convention to match the mocap skeleton to the characters' skeletons, and PDG to preview several simulations in parallel.
Master's in VFX · 2018
Procedural buildings generated from simple curves, in Houdini and in Unity through Houdini Engine.
Projects
Click a project to see its videos, images and the tools used.
In development
Secret project
I can't show anything yet. I handle every aspect of it, from the original story to the VFX, including the concept, the game design and custom Houdini tools, solo with Claude as my AI assistant.
Free tutorials
From Houdini basics to volumes and automation with PDG, by building real-world assets.
Houdini basics through building simple assets: walls, rocks and particle effects, then automating variations with PDG.
View playlist
A first look at volumes: an asteroid modeled in VDB, a procedural texturing pass, PDG and rendering in Unreal Engine 5.
View playlist
First steps in Houdini with a tutorial on destroying a road.
View playlistTraining · Houdini & Unreal Engine 5
I teach Houdini and Unreal Engine 5. For Institut Artline, I created the entire “Environment in Houdini” module, used in the third year of the Bachelor I3D and in the Master's program: curriculum, exercises, course materials and 155 videos shot and edited, up to an introduction to Unreal Engine 5.6. I mentor the module in both programs.
Certifications
Beyond VFX, I'm also learning AI, data analysis and cybersecurity.
9Houdini, VFX and real-time
Also completed: Using Solaris in Houdini and Math for FX Artists (Rebelway).
3AI and data
In progress at Rebelway · 2026
Goal: applying generative AI and machine learning to studio pipeline design, with hybrid Houdini, Unreal Engine and C++ workflows.
8Cybersecurity and networking
About
Passionate about visual effects and software development since I was 11, I founded VFX Side to share my knowledge and help creators master Houdini, Unreal Engine and Python.
Over 10 years of software development experience, then a career switch to VFX in 2017: my goal is to make these techniques accessible to everyone, beginners and professionals alike.
Comparative Evaluation for Studies Done Outside Québec (MIFI, 2024): bachelor's or master's level Document on request
Questions about FX, tools, or a Houdini and Unreal Engine 5 course? Write to me.
sebastien.volpe@gmail.comCurrently in Montreal
