Thread by Thread

Project

Fabric Flounder

Role

Concept, procedural setup, simulation, lighting, rendering and grade

Tools

Houdini (VEX, Vellum), DaVinci Resolve

Format

25 seconds, 9:16, four shots

A plush flounder that builds itself out of thread. I wrote a procedural system in Houdini that converts the toy's geometry into individual threads, which appear over the course of the animation: it starts with no fabric at all and ends with the complete fish. The build-up runs alongside a Vellum simulation in which the fabric slowly lifts itself upright.

Credits
flounder model: “Soft Toy Flounder” by wugla via CGTrader;
music: “March of the Spoons” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0.