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KineFX: Creature FX | Gabriela Salmeron - Framestore | KineFEST 2025
Framestore Head of Groom and Creature FX presents a full creature FX pipeline from muscle simulation through tissue and skin to fur coat dynamics in KineFX.
Abstract
Framestore's head of groom and creature FX gives an end-to-end tour of building digital animals in Houdini, framing CFX as the last department before render and distinguishing it from FX and from grooming. She emphasizes preparation and reusable HDA templates that handle scaling, colliders, pre-roll, time remapping and farm publishing, then walks through the standard simulation stack: muscle tension and impact computed via stretching lines and a custom SOP solver, tetrahedron attachment with delta-mesh correction, and solving in Vellum, FEM or third-party solvers. She covers three fat approaches (target-based, attachment-based, and fascia-and-collision), tetrahedron creation with solidembed versus tetconform plus FEM validate for inverted tets, frame-by-frame recreated constraints for skin sliding, FEM-driven wrinkles, and cloth draping with Marvelous Designer. The hair section uses guide-deform to glue guides to characters and back to the groom, custom two-channel wind forces, and FLIP-based water interaction, finishing with procedural shot sculpting and career advice on VEX and Python.
How to read this
- Category
- Production talk / creature FX pipeline breakdown
- Contributions
- End-to-end tour of building digital animals in Houdini, framing CFX as the last department before render and distinguishing it from FX and grooming.
- Walks the simulation stack: muscle tension and impact via stretching lines and a custom SOP solver, tetrahedron attachment with delta-mesh correction, and solving in Vellum, FEM or third-party solvers.
- Covers three fat approaches, tet creation (solidembed vs tetconform plus FEM validate), skin sliding via recreated constraints, FEM wrinkles, Marvelous Designer cloth, and a hair section with guide-deform, custom wind and FLIP water interaction.
- Context
- A practitioner sequel to the speaker's prior photoreal-creature work (Stags & Stripes), translating that craft into a KineFX/Houdini CFX workflow.Builds on: Stags & Stripes, Creating Photoreal Characters | Framestore | FMX HIVE Europe 2021
- Correctness
- Studio practice, not peer-reviewed; the techniques are production-proven at Framestore, so treat the recipes (reusable HDA templates, solver choices) as battle-tested conventions rather than validated, generalizable results.
- Clarity
- Dense but accessible to Houdini practitioners; a single attentive pass conveys the stack, but rewatching individual stages pays off when implementing them.
- How to read it
- Watch for the order of the simulation stack and the reusable-HDA philosophy; revisit the specific stages (muscle, fat, skin sliding, hair) you actually need to build.
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