Cinesite’s Houdini work primarily covered CG pyrotechnics, explosions, Cyclops’s laser beams and Nightcrawler’s “BAMF” teleportation effects. The latter accounted for half of the more than 100 Houdini effects completed at Cinesite, as transferring Nightcrawler’s ability to dematerialise into trails of smoke from comic to screen was one of the team’s largest challenges. “For Nightcrawler, we needed an effects and rendering pipeline that was easy to control and change during production so that we could deliver around 50 final BAMF shots,” says Cinesite’s Vijoy Gaddipati. Houdini’s extensibility through in-house tools proved particularly useful. Nightcrawler’s live-action stunts were recreated as a CG model in Houdini, augmented with particle and other effects, and finally rendered with Houdini Mantra.
Cinesite also helped create the powers of other mutants. Cyclops’s laser beams were based on a Houdini particle system that could emit from his visor at different speeds and in different directions. These effects were rendered entirely in Mantra using VEX shaders.
Rhythm & Hues used Houdini for the tornado sequences, the X-Jet and other VFX ranging from snow, wind and water to projectiles, blood and shattering glass. A functional modelling, animation and effects-rendering workflow was central, allowing particles and gases to be configured and adjusted easily. Houdini was used, for example, to simulate Magneto’s ability to produce projectiles. Rhythm & Hues also created the X-Jet’s thrust effects, heat distortion and dust turbulence, as well as Storm’s atmospheric effects. “We animated the tornadoes created by Storm with our in-house Voodoo application and then imported them into Houdini, where we used particles to create the gaseous elements,” explains Richard Hollander, senior visual effects supervisor at the US production company.
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