Lighthouse Bay – Fluid Simulation with LiquiGen, Houdini Whitewater, Rendered in Blender 4.5
Hey everyone,
I wanted to share my latest project: Lighthouse Bay, a fluid simulation scene that combines multiple tools to bring a dynamic ocean environment to life.
Simulation Breakdown:
- Fluid Simulation: Done using LiquiGen, which provided a fast and stable base for the ocean movement and splashes. It handled the bulk water interaction around the lighthouse rocks and shore.
- Whitewater: Exported the base sim into Houdini, where I added custom whitewater—foam, spray, and bubbles—driven by the motion of the incoming waves and colliders.
- Rendering: Final assembly, layout, lighting, shading, and rendering were all done in Blender using Cycles. I aimed for a realistic, slightly overcast lighting to emphasize the mood of the coastline and give the whitewater more contrast.
Workflow Notes:
- I used Blender for scene layout and camera animation to keep everything organized and intuitive.
- Assets were shaded with a mix of procedural and texture-based materials, using displacement for added realism on rocks and foam.
- Whitewater data was brought in via USD and integrated with Blender’s lighting and compositing for final polish.
Tools Used:
- LiquiGen – for base fluid dynamics
- Houdini – for secondary whitewater simulation
- Blender (Cycles) – for rendering, shading, and compositing
Check out my gumroad for the project files jknitt.gumroad.com