Week 01 - Gaussian Splat with Particles Simulation

Mar 23 - 29, 2026

Spring Quarter 2026 Weekly Plan

Week 01

  • Explore Gaussian Splat with Particles Simulation in Houdini

  • Fix alpha channel and depth pass of the Gaussian Splat soil

  • Week 02

  • Continue testing Gaussian Splat with Particles Simulation in Houdini and add stylization to the particles created from splat data

  • Hand test assets to pipeline team for testing Houdini - UE / Houdini - TD pipeline

  • Week 03

  • Explore stylized big scale pyro simulation

  • Week 04

  • Continue testing stylized big scale pyro simulation

  • Hand test assets to pipeline team for testing Houdini - UE / Houdini - TD pipeline

  • Discuss storyboard and shot list

  • Week 05

  • Create FX asset lists

  • FX first pass

  • Hand first pass assets to pipeline team for testing Houdini - UE / Houdini - TD pipeline

  • Week 06

  • Refined FX assets and optimization for LED volume

  • Create assets with different approach for LED volume, such as pre-rendered effects card and optimization for real-time

  • Hand second pass assets to pipeline team for testing Houdini - UE / Houdini - TD pipeline

  • Week 07

  • Polish FX assets for LED Volume

  • Load Test

  • Determine approach for final result

  • Week 08

  • Adjust, fix or find solution to make sure that the scenes and assets will work nicely on a real LED volume shoot

  • Polish FX assets look development

  • Finalize showcase reel for final presentation

  • Week 09

  • Polish Final deliverables

  • Presentation rehearsal

  • Final Presentation

  • Week 10

  • End of quarter warp up

  • Project archive

  • Project summarize and documentation

  • Plan for next step

  • Gaussian Splat with Particles Simulation

    Use some data from Gaussian Splat, such as points position, color attribute and scale with particles simulation in Houdini

    Explore solutions for Gaussian Splat rendering in Houdini

    Rendering: Particles with Karma XPU, Gaussian Splat with V-Ray Houdini

    Process

    Create a proxy geometry for using as a velocity source

    Use VEX code to create a spinning velocity from Normal attribute (@N)

    Final velocity field: Combine spinning with noise and push-in vector (to prevent particles from expanding to wide)

    Inside POPNet, use POP Wrangle to force the particles to go back to their original position (mug shape)

    Mix Gaussian Splat with normal particles by animating Alpha and scale attribute to make Gaussian Splat disappear when particles show and vice versa

    Cache out Gaussian Splat point to prepare for rendering

    Read simulated Gaussian Splat data back in with V-Ray Gaussian Splat node to render with V-Ray

    V-Ray for Gaussian Splat Rendering

  • Ray-traced: Splats are treated as semi-transparent geometry that light rays intersect

  • Real shadows cast onto and from splats, real reflections/refractions with scene geometry

  • Has Alpha channel

  • Only supported in Render Operator context (ROP/Out) in Houdini, not Solaris