Edge Damage and Alien Flesh

Written By Karl Murphy

A procedural Tool Creation for environment artists.

09/01/25

Iv been learning the pipeline of creating tools in Houdini for use in Unreal Engine. After some more standard pipe/fence/rope-bridge systems, I found inspiration in a tut by @jooleanBoolean at Side Effects.

This really hit the spot as its complex and interesting both conceptually and to the eye, but also a useful and valuable tool to artists.

Making these complex flesh strands with non procedural modelling techniques would be super time consuming, likely even prohibitively so. And other methods would be visually repetitive with most methods I could think of. BUT this tool allows for the creation of this natural and alien-like flesh with a simple and the baking of each procedurally generated model into a static mesh. All designed with a few sliders that effect various parameters I selected from my experiments with the system, and then exposed in Unreal.

Its been an incredible experience to get into this Houdini Engine to Unreal pipeline. It has really demonstrated to me the power of what these tools are capable of, particularly when combined. Truly more than even the admittedly considerable sum of both their parts. Houdini’s viewport can feel a little cold in the early stages of a creation and bringing simple WIPs from Houdini to Unreal suddenly gives the creator a jolt of power as they see the possibilities unfurl before their minds eye.

Some shots of the tool in UE5.4 with a temporary material.

Damage Using the Edge damage node on Geometry created in Houdini, with the “Detail Mode” switched on and off… Paint damage onto the mesh with paint mode in Unreal, hit the “Detail Mode” switch to see what a final result might look like with full damage effected.

Reflections… This tool was incredibly fun to make. I love Houdini and I am finding the transition from Unreal very smooth and understandable. Lots more like this is coming! 😄

Potential Improvements to be made….

  • The simulation does not carry over from Houdini into Unreal for me just now and thats my no.1 priority, lets fix that. The weird yet subtle movement of the fleshy tendrils really give something extra to the scene and the tool!

  • I will adapt this into a cable tool that creates a cool cyberpunk cable tool. Great for an “Ai has taken over the world” vibe.

  • I will also get into a vine/roots tool for a more natural vibe

  • I had a thought of using this to create some fleshy enemies that exist as dynamic balls of this flesh, tentacles and all!

  • Actually first step is to make a Vertex painted material as I already made all the correct masks for it in Houdini…. so far Materials is one of my weaker areas in tech art but thats just a super fun thing I have not had enough time with yet so no complaints! 😃

***Big shoutout to Julian Bragagna at Side Effects for the Project Grot tutorials that helped guide me through this workflow and learn alot of cool skills.

Correct materials is next on my list but thats another blog for another day!!!

Thanks for reading!!! :D
Karl.

Karl Murphy