This project is a great example of a trend we are seeing across the industry, in which ad agencies and production companies are becoming extremely sophisticated in how to use CGI effects to best advantage.

Based on the strength of our team and the sum total of the tools at our disposal, including Houdini, we're ready to create any visual challenge our clients can imagine.

Houdini allowed CAMF Prods. to manage details efficiently in multiple platforms for the game Roman Race 6004 A.D. All Roman Race 6004 images courtesy of CAMF Prods.

Michael Fuchs, Manager of CAMF Prods.
CAMF Prods. is a Salzburg, Austria-based studio focused on 3D computer animation and visualization for film, games, entertainment and other applications. Over the course of 10 years, Side Effects Software’s Houdini has been one of our key software applications. Most recently, we used Houdini to create highly detailed characters and landscapes for a new Xbox and PC game called Roman Race 6004 A.D. The 3D part of the game, in which teams of fantastical animals and riders are raced through ever-changing terrains, was modeled, textured and animated completely with Houdini.

One of the critical challenges for games development, especially when you are producing for multiple platforms, is to find an efficient means of managing detail. Sometimes a high-resolution version of a character or landscape is required, while in other places a lower-resolution version is more appropriate. Being able to adapt materials from high to low polygon count can significantly improve workflow and the manageability of project data overall.

Our solution to this was to work procedurally in Houdini, maximizing the software’s new polygonal character tools and VEX builder features to rapidly develop sets of 3D elements and effects that could easily be changed and displaced as needed. Working this way, our artists created high-resolution game-character models of about 8,000-9,000 polygons that could be brought down to 800-1,500 polygons with no perceivable loss in detail or distinguishing features. Each racing team was created in this fashion, enabling 3D elements to be maximized for use across different aspects of the game.

Artist-friendly Houdini software allows animators to make changes quickly and easily. Here, Emu Atsu-Khan and Albedi Ohni fight to the finish in Roman Race 6004 A.D.

The game’s landscapes were also generated procedurally in Houdini. This allowed complex changes to be implemented quickly and easily for the game engine during testing, and we could also apply them automatically for our “game floor” and the collision objects. At one level, we fully textured the landscape and optimized it for the game engine; at another, we adapted it for the cut scenes. At the game level, larger portions of the environment were cut into sections using Houdini surface operators (SOPs) in a technique that allowed us to determine on the fly how much of the landscape would be visible. For the cut sequences, custom procedural shaders were primarily used as a way to automatically assign different landscape attributes, such as sand deposits on the upper levels of a canyon or a “wet” (or darker) look to various sections of rock.

Throughout, such enhancements as an artist-friendly procedural interface for the Houdini VEX scripting language and Houdini VEX builder let us establish very efficient and flexible production techniques to create all of the 3D artwork and integrate it into the game engine. For this project, I think we were also among the first to use Houdini’s recently introduced enhanced character tools, particularly "Capture Paint," "Capture Mirror" and "Bone Mirror" within a games context. Overall, our use of Houdini on Roman Race 6004 A.D. allowed us to markedly improve our workflow, test more variations and ultimately deliver a more optimum game player experience.

An alumna of UCLA, Darlene Chan has worked in the motion picture industry for 14 years. She served as a production executive for Paramount Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures, Davis Entertainment and Motown. She produced Grumpy Old Men (1993) for Warner Bros. In 2001, she joined Animation World Magazine as general manager and was named managing editor in 2002.