Houdini - Rally Dust

Particle simulation project using velocity and direction from four sources (position of tires on road). Two approaches were tested. First was a single large simulation that was limited by my PC’s computing power and memory. My second attempt split the environment into four different zones. This allowed for greater density overall, but I encountered challenges with transferring a particle’s velocity from one zone to the next.

Inspiration for this project was based on years photographing rally racing in the Pacific Northwest.

Subaru Impreza model by Sokurik via TurboSquid

The dust was actually made up of two sims. The first is a standalone spinning wheel that provided tangential velocity data, and a slight bounce and variation.

The second sim used surface emitters that represented the tire’s contact patch wit the ground. These emitters followed the car’s keyed path.