Simulations in Houdini / EmberGen

Intermediate Level | 8-Week Mentored Course | Unreal Engine, Houdini, EmberGen, LiquiGen

Advanced training for artists ready to ship stylized effects that work in gameplay. Build real-time VFX in Unreal Engine with live art direction and critique. Dive into an industry-standard project pipeline, apply advanced theory, and refine your own work alongside VFX masters.

Mentors: Diana Simonyan
Next Start: Spring 2027

 

Live Mentorship | Limited Seats

$175 /week
Billed as one payment of $1400 for 8 weeks.
Additional payment options available. 

 
This course includes:
  • 8 live classes with mentors
  • Houdini student license
  • EmberGen/LiquiGen license
  • Weekly live sessions
  • Direct mentorship each week
  • VFX Apprentice asset library
  • 1-year access to all materials
  • 3 months of Instant Access courses
Join the Waitlist

Simulations in Houdini / EmberGen

Intermediate Level | 8-Week Mentored Course | Unreal Engine, Houdini, EmberGen, LiquiGen

The definitive course for procedural semi-realistic VFX simulations in games. Build fire, smoke, splashes, and groundbreaking effects under the guidance of professional artists. Dedicate 8 weeks to working in Houdini, EmberGen, and LiquiGen and apply these FX in realtime gameplay. 

Mentors: Diana Simonyan
Next Start: Spring 2027

 

What do you get from this class?

  • Learn simulation essentials in Houdini, EmberGen, and LiquiGen
  • Build real-time VFX simulations for games
  • Create optimized flipbooks for the best performance
  • Discover game VFX destruction workflows in Houdini
  • Complete real-time pipelines with Unreal Engine
  • Implement Vertex Animation Textures in engine

Weekly Course Breakdown

Week 1 - Embers & Explosions

Use EmberGen to develop game VFX. Set up and tweak simulations to create fire, smoke, and explosion flipbooks.

Week 2 - Groundbreaking Discovery

Tackle Rigid Body Dynamics and shatter the ground. Learn Houdini simulations to create the groundbreaking effect.

Week 3 - Unreal Explosions

Bring the EmberGen flipbooks into Unreal Engine Niagara emitters and apply a variety of widely used shader tricks.

Week 4 - A Sequence of Events

Assemble all of your assets into a gorgeous explosion. Polish your effect to finalize it for the realtime showcase.

 

Week 5 - Testing the Waters

Dive into LiquiGen and transform your VFX simulations into Vertex Animation Textures (VAT) for gameplay.

 

Week 6 - Smoke & Light

Apply six-point lighting and motion vectors to create unique shaders in Unreal Engine. 

Week 7 - Charge, Cast, Burst

Use every asset you have created in the course to assemble an ink splash effect in Unreal Engine.

Week 8 - Toxic VFX

Take your VFX into the Unreal sequencer to modify and create a unique elemental variation of your effect.

Realtime VFX Simulation Course: EmberGen for Game VFX

What you walk away with

  • Two VFX simulations with elemental variations
  • Direct feedback from senior-level artists
  • Art directed paint-over breakdowns
  • Production-ready materials & textures
  • Project files and gameplay tested assets
Join the Waitlist

Your Simulation Essentials Mentor

 

Diana Simonyan

Diana has worked as a VFX artist for 3 years, outsourcing effects for a number of games of different genres, including titles such as Baldur's Gate 3.

Currently, she is working at Digital Extremes as a VFX Artist on Warframe and is excited to share some of her knowledge with you!

Graduate Feedback

Skye Mednick

Simulations in Houdini / EmberGen Graduate

Feel like the course taught me everything well enough to jump into other projects with what I've learned and a lot of these techniques are totally demystified.

Had such a good time I'm strongly considering the portfolio bootcamp in the future if I've got the time.

Sungkuk Park

Simulations in Houdini / EmberGen Graduate

I honestly didn’t know where to begin with either Houdini or EmberGen. 

Being able to follow how each effect was constructed step by step helped me understand not only how to use the tools, but also how Houdini VFX workflows and EmberGen simulations can be applied in real production environments.

Kevin Leroy

VFX Artist - Riot Games

I truly wish this existed when I started VFX. It's full of industry-defining resources.

More importantly: it covers different engines and software. From concepting to in-engine, this course has it all, and it is all of the highest quality.

FAQs

Join the next Simulation Essentials course

Ready to enroll in the next launch? Sign up to be notified of the next opening.