COffee Break
HOUDINI · KARMA · NUKE
Created as part of my graduation project, an animated music video centered around the theme of hope, this scene shows addiction and relapse through a character falling into an oversized cup of coffee. The shot transforms an everyday object into a surreal visual metaphor for being pulled back into a familiar cycle.
The scene was built in Houdini using FLIP fluid simulation, procedural foam and bubbles, as well as wetmap-based staining, and material-driven coffee and porcelain shaders. It was rendered with Karma and composited in Nuke.
The coffee scene was created in Houdini using an oversized FLIP-based fluid setup. For the MetaHuman, I built a ragdoll simulation for the character to fall into the cup. One of my main challenges was keeping the liquid readable as coffee, so I adjusted the simulation to feel like something being dropped into a cup rather than a body falling into a pool.
For the surface detail, I created a foam and bubble setup which stays near the edge of the cup and breaks up in the more active center of the liquid. I shaded the coffee and porcelain in Karma, using a dark, slightly grainy look to match the atmosphere of the scene. I also created a wetmap system to transfer stains from the fluid onto the porcelain, connecting the splash to the cup and saucer.
