Procedural Assets and Environments with Houdini, Substance 3D & Unreal Engine

Last month, we announced the launch of our own educational materials, and here's the first one. This course by Rosen is designed to teach students how to build procedural game environments by covering the entire pipeline – from asset creation in Houdini and Substance 3D Designer to shader implementation and scene setup in Unreal Engine.

It's beginner-friendly, but we recommend getting some prior experience with Houdini, Substance Designer, Unreal Engine, procedural generation, and shader workflows.

Although Houdini is used as the primary tool for procedural mesh creation, students are welcome to use any 3D modeling software for creating additional assets.

Why Take This Course?

The primary objective is to teach you how to develop a procedural workflow that enables faster iteration, flexible level building, and creative freedom. You'll gain practical, industry-relevant skills in:

• Houdini workflows for tool creation and environment building;
• VEX scripting basics;
• Texture generation techniques in Substance 3D Designer;
• Shader creation and material setup in Unreal Engine.

This course stands out by offering a comprehensive, procedural approach to environment creation, guiding you through the whole asset pipeline.

Course Content & Breakdown

The course includes 13.5 hours of content, distributed across the following:

• Houdini: 5 hours
• Substance 3D Designer: 4 hours
• Unreal Engine: 4 hours 20 minutes
• Substance 3D Painter: 10 minutes

Course Outline

• Course Introduction. Overview of the project, software requirements, and initial Houdini Engine setup.
• Spike Tool. Build a customizable spike generator in Houdini.
• Palisade Tool. Create a procedural palisade tool in Houdini and implement it in Unreal Engine.
  
• Wood Textures. Design a wood material generator using Substance 3D Designer.
• Unreal Setup. Begin material setup and create a sand Z-blend function.
• Weapon Rack Tool. Construct a weapon rack tool procedurally in Houdini.
• Ladder Tool. Develop a procedural ladder in Houdini and set it up in Unreal Engine.
• Shaders & Blockout. Advance shader development and begin initial level blockout
• Char & Stone Materials. Generate charred wood and stone textures in Substance 3D Designer; complete a burning shader.
• Banner & Flames. Create a banner generator in Houdini and a flame mesh for animated panning textures.
• The Stacker Tool. Build a stacking system in Houdini and bring it into Unreal Engine.
• Level Art & Final Touches. Finalize the weapon rack, complete the night scene blockout, and build a new day scene from scratch.

About the Instructor: Rosen

Rosen brings over eight years of industry experience to this course, with a career that spans film VFX, game development, and technical art. He began his journey at Bottleship VFX, a top-notch visual effects studio in Bulgaria, before quickly transitioning into the game industry at Snapshot Games, where he contributed to the development of Phoenix Point. There, he integrated Substance 3D Designer into the studio's pipeline, revamped the material library, and began creating VFX under the guidance of a seasoned mentor.

He later joined Creative Assembly, starting as a Houdini Artist but quickly evolving into a VFX Artist. His responsibilities included creating building texture atlases for Total War: Troy, developing all of the game's VFX, and supporting the tech art team with scripting for 3ds Max and Blender.

Eventually, Rosen moved to Camouflaj (now part of Meta) to work on Batman: Arkham Shadow and the Quest port of Iron Man VR. Initially brought on as a Senior Texture Artist, he was quickly promoted to Principal, where he oversaw tileable environment textures, planned workflows, handled outsourcing, and developed custom texturing tools in Substance 3D Painter and 3D Designer.

Rosen's achievements include:

• Creating all VFX for Total War: Troy despite minimal prior experience in VFX
• Optimizing a key production script from 3 hours to 20 minutes
• Leading the environment texture pipeline on Batman: Arkham Shadow, which later won VR Game of the Year and received widespread acclaim across Reddit, Twitter, and Discord for its visual quality

Why This Course Was Created

Rosen is deeply committed to giving back to the community through platforms like Twitter, YouTube, and ArtStation. When we approached him, he saw the opportunity to build something more substantial – a complete course that combines his expertise across environment art, texturing, shaders, VFX, and procedural tools.

Unlike traditional environment art courses, this one doesn't just focus on asset creation for portfolio pieces. Instead, it offers a production-like experience, demonstrating to students how various disciplines intersect in real-world pipelines. It's particularly well-suited to those interested in tech art, as it explores multiple aspects of environment creation.

Rosen hopes that students will gain insight into disciplines beyond their core skill set. While the course focuses heavily on procedural asset creation in Houdini, the techniques can be adapted to any 3D workflow. A key goal is to demystify Houdini, proving that it's not all about complex node graphs and scripting – it can be intuitive, approachable, and artist-friendly.

Recommended Software

To follow along with the course, students are encouraged to use the following tools:

• Houdini Indie (20.5.522 recommended)
• Houdini Engine for Unreal (20.5.584 or 20.5.613)
• Houdini Apprentice (free version, though some Unreal steps may not be available)
• SideFX Labs plugin (available via the Houdini Launcher)
• Substance 3D Designer (14.1.2)
• Substance 3D Painter (11.0.2)
• Unreal Engine (5.5.4)
• Any 3D modeling software (for creating additional props if needed)

You can get the course for $120 here.