Steel Hunters · Houdini HDA · Procedural vegetation
The challenge
The environments needed extensive climbing vines with a layered, intertwined character. A single path along a surface was only the starting point.
The approach
I extended Houdini’s shortest-path foundation into a system of main vines, secondary branches, hanging sections, leaves and intertwined strands. Winding additional vines around the main growth was the central addition. Branch thickness and placement remain connected to the parent structure, with optional Vellum shaping for hanging growth.
The value
The asset brings several scales of vegetation detail into one controllable workflow. I later refined it for Magic: The Gathering work, adding curve-guided transitions between separate surfaces and gravity-influenced shoots. Those refinements belong to the newer tool; the archived version shown here documents the earlier layered-growth system.
