Create an Explosion in Houdini
- Bryan Holt
- Oct 14
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 17
Greetings! Life has been crazy lately, but fortunately I have still been able to produce educational content for those of you still learning in Houdini! Recently, I had a student who was a few months into his journey of learning Visual Effects, specifically simulation FX, in Houdini. He wanted to knock out an explosion in Houdini for a shot in his demo reel. It got me thinking, what if I created .hips that were annotated, detailed, and easy to follow along? Well after a few more students have asked the exact same question, here we are!
Technically a work in progress project, I am going to go ahead and release the first iteration of this demonstration as is so that I can 1) get this out there, but more importantly 2) gather feedback from you, the student.
For this first project, due to limitations, only students with a current Houdini FX Education license and/or apprentice can access this for now. I am working on converting this to INDIE really soon.
Why? Well, because I have been working in education, and most of my students are in FX Education, it has been the version of Houdini I have been working out of.
UPDATE: As of October 17th, 2025, this is now full release and available commercially and non-commercial!
I also plan on doing a video, and possibly Q&A sessions over on the Discord! So be sure to check that out. You can join the Discord Server here. It's free! Also be sure to subscribe to the Email Newsletter so when I release new content and resources! Sign up now!
On that note, all of this is free. I don't want to gatekeep everything. Of course, I need to make a living and put food on the table for my family, but I also have a passion for not only VFX but enabling creatives just like you to achieve their dreams.
So what is in this file?
Detailed walkthrough of setting up a particle based emitter to create an explosion in Houdini for folks who have never attempted an explosion before (outside of the shelf tools.)
Tips and Tricks I use everyday for effects.
Simple and Easy to understand, no super advanced VEX, and no 3rd Party Plugins!
Ground Texture included now in the download!
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