Branch out with Houdini

Mojtaba Oriuee, creator of the Houdini plant growth toolkit GrowInfinite, answers our questions about the tool development process and his inspirations

It’s about 20 years now since I started learning computer graphics, and I have done everything from creating digital environments, hard surface modelling, look development to today, where I create 3D motion design, TV commercials and NFTs.

In recent years, I also focused a bit more on the generation of fractals and growth motion. While it may seem abstract, this topic has always fascinated me and it is one of the main driving factors that led me to become not only a digital artist, but also a toolmaker. I developed the tool GrowInfinite, which allows you to create flora, animate plant growth and generate complex structures.

What drove you to create the GrowInfinite tool?

I had the chance to work with several plugins that could create vegetation, but as I wasn’t a developer on those plugins, I couldn’t reasonably expect that it would meet my needs as an artist, depending on the project I was doing at the time. I was creating growth animations, but they always had flickering technical issues and in some cases, vegetation growth would just fail. Since that time, I had the desire to find a better way to handle growth and motion.

Meanwhile, I had an eye on Houdini. I took on a gig using Houdini, after ten days of digging into the basics of SOPs and VOPs(!). The project was something between fun, work and nightmare. What crazy guy would start learning Houdini, on a commercial project? But I beg you to believe it: this is the fastest way. After that, I had a better idea about how things work and what I could do with it. And once more, my mind flashed back to that desire of doing growth and motion.