This R&D focuses on a large-scale ocean simulation in Houdini, with custom control over the wave behaviour and the full secondary FX stack, including whitewater, mist, spray, and wet maps.

The setup was built as a dependency-driven workflow, so changes to the primary water simulation could automatically propagate into the related secondary simulations and data layers.

The main challenge was managing the scale and complexity of the water simulation while still keeping the system art-directable and technically controllable. I used custom forces and solver logic to shape the wave motion and guide the behaviour of the main FLIP simulation.

From that primary simulation, the workflow generates the supporting FX layers, including whitewater, mist, splash detail, and wetness information, helping maintain consistency between all elements.

The main goal was to create a scalable production setup capable of handling a massive amount of simulation data while keeping the different FX layers connected, reusable, and easier to update across iterations.