Mountain Dew, Smoke & Explosion FX

Houdini  ·  VFX / Pyro Simulation  ·  Commercial

Software

Houdini  · Arnold

Explosion FX

• Simulated explosions bursting through windows, capturing the force, pressure wave, and debris behavior of high-impact explosive events
• Built pyro simulation systems in Houdini with controls for explosion scale, intensity, directionality, and timing to match the energy of the spot
• Balanced visual drama with physical believability, ensuring explosions read as powerful and dynamic without overwhelming the commercial’s composition

Smoke Simulation

• Developed smoke simulations emerging from explosion events, capturing the density, turbulence, and dissipation behavior of post-explosion smoke
• Built smoke systems with art-directable controls for density, temperature, rise speed, and spread to support shot-by-shot iteration
• Integrated smoke with explosion FX into a unified pyro pipeline for efficient production workflow

Technical Approach

• Used Houdini’s pyro solver to build layered explosion and smoke simulations with procedural controls for fast iteration
• Collaborated with the compositing team to ensure FX integrated seamlessly with the rest of footages
• Delivered high-energy FX sequences under tight commercial production deadlines