The Spartan's Darkest Hour

For my Senior Capstone Project, I took it upon myself to create this cinematic shot inspired by Halo's dark aesthetic. The project drew on a wide range of resources, with Voxyde's Ultimate FX in Houdini workshop proving especially valuable — many of the techniques he teaches shaped how I approached the work. My pipeline spanned the full production process, moving through Photoshop and PureRef for preproduction planning and lookdev, Maya for UV, animation, and blocking, Substance Painter for texturing, Houdini for VFX, environment, lighting, and rendering with Karma, and finally Nuke and After Effects for compositing.
Coming into this project as someone relatively new to both Houdini and Nuke, the learning curve was real. While I've spent three years working in 3D with a strong foundation in Maya, making the transition to Houdini required a different way of thinking — one I've been gradually building comfort with through hands-on problem solving throughout this shot.
Ultimately, this project gave me a meaningful opportunity to grow in two tools I'm genuinely passionate about and hope to build my career around. Beyond the skills developed along the way, it produced a shot I'm proud to carry into my portfolio and demo reel.