Johan Tovar FX TD - 2024

Hi, I'm Johan Tovar! I recently graduated from Lost Boys | School of VFX, where I completed the Effects Technical Director program. In this post, you will find my demoreel along with explanations of the projects I completed during one year of intensive Houdini training. My work showcases my expertise in Procedural Geometry, Vellum, Pyro, and RBD.

This project was a recreation from a movie scene from X-Men: Apocalypse. I drew inspiration from this reference because I wanted to recreate something from that iconic scene in the movie.

One of the challenges I faced in this project was getting the bodies to collide and interact with the cloth simulation. At the end of the day, finding solutions to these challenges was a matter of trial and error, one after another.

In this group project, I was responsable for the right plane animation and the Pyro fire and smoke simulations and also work on the RBD Glass and smoke from the tower.

Working with a fast-moving source was one of the biggest challenges for me. Fixing stepping issues, controlling the shape of the smoke trail, and finding solutions to achieve the final look were some of the tasks that took time, but the result turned out great.

My favorite aspect of this project was having the opportunity to collaborate with my classmates and experience what it's like to work with someone else's files. It was enlightening to learn how to share my own cache and simulations to achieve the amazing result we attained with this project.

One of my favorite sports is Formula 1, and when my instructor asked for references for my particle project, I immediately thought of F1. In every race, sparks come from the cars, and I was so excited to bring one of my passions to life through the things I was learning.

Once again, I had a fast-moving source and found the solution to get the particles to work and look the way I wanted. It was fun and difficult at the same time. I used 3 pop solvers to create this spark simulation, creating multiple custom velocities on the points source to achieve the motion of the particles.

The Fire of Sincé.

In this project, my goal was to replicate a fire that occurred in a small town located in San Luis de Sincé, Colombia.

I used more than 12 Pyro simulations to capture the feeling of chaotic fire and one RBD to better match the reference.

I had never worked on fire before or creating this kind of scene, and recreating something so chaotic was difficult. "That fire should be fast" was one of the multiple comments I received during screenings, but thanks to my school instructor, Kyle Yoneda, and his constant feedback, I was able to bring this fire to life.

My first Houdini project, 'The Cempasúchil Flower,' means a lot to me, not only because it's my first official project, but also because I wanted to create something that represents me and my Mexican roots. This flower holds cultural significance in my heritage and is traditionally used during 'Día de Muertos,' celebrated on the 1st and 2nd of November.

At the time, my knowledge of the program was limited, as we had only been using Houdini for 2-5 weeks. The goal of this project was to demonstrate our understanding of how the program works, particularly procedural geometry and basic node usage.