Introduction

My name is Øyvind Fiksdal, I am a Norwegian artist with a background in more or less traditional art. In my late 20s, I decided to focus on 3D full time and enrolled in a 2-year eduction in 3D and animation. A short time after this I landed a job at one of the larger advertising agencies in Norway.

Working with the advertising industry was a door opener, but the lack of exciting opportunities serving a single company led me to become a freelancer. After two years of freelancing me and a previous college decided to team up and formed a company named Trollskog.

Procedural Approach to the Project

Houdini‘s procedural nature always intrigued me, but on an artistic level more than the typical use common for the program. After watching a large number of tutorials and presentations I started to comprehend the power housed within the open frame.

When working with fully procedural assets in Houdini or any other software there is very little room for artistic input other than to change seeds and hope you get something that is to your liking. Working with art directors or even your own direction, being at the mercy of randomization might work for background assets, but for hero assets or even a carefully crafted village this will be an insufferable challenge for the most of us.