VFX Good Night Reading

Curated collection of good reading about VFX and CG. Mostly TD-level stuff, but not too hardcore.

Links are pointing to PDFs when available for free, or to acm digital library. Note that ACM Digital Library content is sometimes available for free, more info here.

ℹ️ Note that some links might break after some time. You can still check if they are indexed in Wayback Machine though.

ℹ️ Bournemouth links are mostly dead. You should be able to find the content here though: new website.

Feel free to improve/extend this library and contribute with your findings. Pull requests are welcome.

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Number of entries: 258, categories: 41

Formats

book (25)
paper (134)
presentation (48)
thesis (49)
video (2)

List

Abstract

APPLICATION OF 3D PROCEDURAL ANIMATION TO THE VISUAL PRESENTATION OF MUSIC thesis houdini scad
Creating Abstract Motion Sculptures Through Simulation thesis clemson
Using Visual Effects as a Creative Tool for Contemporary Art thesis houdini scad

Animation

Achieving Real-Time Playback with Production Rigs paper disney
AutoSpline: animation controls only when and where you need them paper pixar
Dear angelica: breathing life into VR illustrations paper houdini
Designing an interaction with an octopus paper pixar
Implicit skinning: real-time skin deformation with contact modeling paper
MoSh: Motion and Shape Capture from Sparse Markers paper
Procedural wrinkles generation in the implicit skinning framework paper bournemouth mpc
Robust solving of optical motion capture data by denoising paper
Self-similarity Analysis for Motion Capture Cleaning paper
Sketch to pose in Pixar's presto animation system paper pixar
Smooth Skinning Decomposition with Rigid Bones paper
Total Moving Face Reconstruction paper
Warping the space around an animated object paper mpc

Biology & Trees

A STUDY OF PROCEDURAL GROWTH ALGORITHMS AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION IN HOUDINI thesis bournemouth houdini
A hybrid approach to procedural tree skeletonization paper houdini pixar
Algorithmic Beauty Of Plants book
Applying aggregation over 3D surfaces thesis bournemouth houdini
Art-directing Disney's Tangled Procedural Trees paper disney
Art-directing procedural vegetation in Houdini using a space colonization algorithm thesis bournemouth houdini
Modeling Trees with a Space Colonization Algorithm paper
Modeling and visualization of leaf venation patterns paper
PROCEDURAL GENERATION AND RENDERING OF TREES AND LANDSCAPES IN THE STYLE OF EYVIND EARLE thesis
Simulation of Morphology Changes in Drying Leaves paper
The Jungle Book: art-directing procedural scatters in rich environments paper mpc

CFX

A position-based dynamics system for animated character effects paper dwa
Position Based Dynamics for Character Effects thesis bournemouth houdini

CG

3D Math Primer for Graphics andGame Development book
Advanced Animation and Rendering Techniques book
Computer Graphics - Principles and Practice, 3rd edition book
Fundamentals of Computer Graphics 3rd ed. book
Learning Modern 3D Graphics Programming book
Mathematics for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics book
Mathematics for Computer Graphics (Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science) book
Physically Based Rendering FROM THEORY TO IMPLEMENTATION book
Texturing and Modeling, Third Edition: A Procedural Approach book
The CG Cinematography book

Case studies

APES & BLOCKS OF FOAM presentation tdforum
Dear angelica: breathing life into VR illustrations paper houdini
Fido overview presentation
Forging a new animation pipeline with USD paper al
Huawei Pegasus & Free Radio 'Hamster' presentation tdforum
Rendering Worlds with Two Triangles with raytracing on the GPU presentation
The LEGO movie: bricks, bricks and more bricks paper
Walter: an open source VFX framework for USD and alembic paper houdini
Zero to USD in 80 days paper dwa

Cities

Procedural City Generation and Techniques for Game Designers thesis houdini scad

Coding

CGAL: the computational geometry algorithms library paper
Dive Into Python Python from novice to pro book
Extending Houdini with HDK presentation houdini
Game AI Pro book
Getting started with webGL and three.js presentation nvidia
Learning OpenCV book
Programming Computer Vision with Python book
Rendering Worlds with Two Triangles with raytracing on the GPU presentation
State-of-the-art webGL 2.0 presentation nvidia
Supercharge Houdini with Python presentation houdini
libigl: prototyping geometry processing research in C++ paper

Colors

APPLYING COLOR THEORY TO DIGITAL MEDIA & VISUALIZATION presentation
Cinematic Color - Visual Effects Society paper
Color Correction Handbook: Professional Techniques for Video and Cinema book
Color in advanced displays: HDR, OLED, AR & VR presentation
Fundamentals of color science paper
OpenColorIO Open Source Color Pipeline presentation tdforum
OpenColorIO and its usage with The Academy Color Encoding Specification (ACES) in a modern visual effects pipeline thesis
Procedural Fluid Textures paper
The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction book
The CG Cinematography book

Computer Vision

Programming Computer Vision with Python book

Crowds

A System For Crowd Rendering paper mpc
Art Directed Ant Crowd Simulation in Houdini thesis bournemouth houdini
CrAM: artist-friendly crowds on "Edge of Tomorrow" paper spi
Creating the flying armadas in Guardians of the Galaxy paper mpc
Flexible pipeline for crowd production paper dneg houdini
Flocking system mimicking fish school behaviours thesis bournemouth
Game AI Pro book
Real-time Simulation and Rendering of Large-scale Crowd Motion thesis
SCALABLE, CONTROLLABLE, EFFICIENT AND CONVINCING CROWD SIMULATION thesis
Simulation, Animation and Rendering of Crowds in Real-Time thesis
Stadium Crowd Tool in Houdini with Key-Frameable Motion Controls thesis houdini scad
Walking Penguins Crowd Simulation thesis bournemouth

Deep comp

Deep Image Compositing @ Nordic TDForum 2011 presentation tdforum
Deep image compositing in a modern visual effects pipeline thesis

Environments

Building detailed fractal sets for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" paper al houdini
Graduation report: Procedural environmental design thesis
PROCEDURAL GENERATION AND RENDERING OF TREES AND LANDSCAPES IN THE STYLE OF EYVIND EARLE thesis
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Jedha destruction paper houdini ilm
The Jungle Book: art-directing procedural scatters in rich environments paper mpc

Erosion

Fast Hydraulic Erosion Simulation and Visualization on GPU paper
Fast Hydraulic and Thermal Erosion on the GPU paper
Realtime Procedural Terrain Generation paper

FEM

Integrating FEA physics in a non-linear workflow for "Edge of Tomorrow" paper spi
Kali: High Quality FEM Destruction in Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch paper mpc

FX

3D Particle in Cell / Fluid Implicit Particle Fluid Solver using OpenMP directives thesis bournemouth houdini
A Fluid Implicit Particle Approach to a Pyro Solver in Houdini thesis bournemouth houdini
A Multiscale Approach to Mesh-based Surface Tension Flows paper
A Programmable System for Artistic Volumetric Lighting paper disney
A STUDY OF PROCEDURAL GROWTH ALGORITHMS AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION IN HOUDINI thesis bournemouth houdini
A hybrid approach to procedural tree skeletonization paper houdini pixar
ART DIRECTABLE TORNADOES thesis houdini
Adaptive Nonlinearity for Collisions in Complex Rod Assemblies paper disney weta
Adaptive tearing and cracking of thin sheets paper
Applying aggregation over 3D surfaces thesis bournemouth houdini
Art directing particle flows with custom vector fields paper r&h
Art directing rigid body dynamics as a post-process paper dwa
Avalanche! snowy FX for XXX paper dd
Building detailed fractal sets for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" paper al houdini
Capturing Thin Features in Smoke Simulations paper spi
Cloud Modeling and Rendering for 'Puss In Boots' paper dwa
Controlling Fluid Simulations with Custom Fields in Houdini thesis bournemouth houdini
Coupling 3D eulerian, heightfield and particle methods for interactive simulation of large scale liquid phenomena paper nvidia
Creating realistic CG honey paper dwa
Creation of a Procedural Crack Generation Tool thesis bournemouth houdini
Diffusion Limited Aggregation Inside 3D Models thesis bournemouth houdini
Efficient and Seamless Volumetric Fracturing paper dwa
Environmental FX for Multiple Productions thesis clemson
Fluid simulation In a visual effects context presentation
Frozen on ice: rendering frost and ice on Frozen paper disney
GETTING SANDY: CREATING COLLAPSING SAND EFFECTS FOR AN ODE TO LOVE thesis clemson
Geometric fracture modeling in BOLT paper disney
I Love It When A Cloud Comes Together paper r&h
Implementation of Artistic Curly Hair Dynamics in Houdini thesis bournemouth houdini
Jack's Frost: Controllable Magic Frost Simulations for 'Rise of the Guardians' paper houdini
Jam: Major Project Report Peter Claes thesis bournemouth houdini
Keyframe Control of Smoke Simulations paper
Large Scale Simulation and Surfacing of Water and Ice Effects in Dragons 2 paper dwa
Levelsets in Production: Spider-Man 3 paper spi
Moana: Foundation of a Lava Monster paper disney houdini
Modeling and Animating Gases with Simulation Features paper
Narrow Band FLIP for Liquid Simulations paper
Nubis: Authoring Real-Time Volumetric Cloudscapes with the Decima Engine presentation
OpenGL GPU Features and SPH Fluid thesis bournemouth
Particle Expansion Tool thesis houdini scad
Physical Simulation of Fire and Smoke Masters Thesis thesis bournemouth houdini
Position Based Fluid thesis bournemouth houdini
Procedural Fluid Textures paper
Racing to the finish line: effects challenges on Cars 3 paper houdini pixar
Real-Time Fluid Dynamics for Games paper
Real-Time Volumetric Cloudscapes of Horizon Zero Dawn presentation
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Jedha destruction paper houdini ilm
SIMULATION OF THE MIXING OF INK AND WATER IN HOUDINI thesis clemson houdini
Screen Space Fluid Rendering for Games paper nvidia
Shaping particle simulations with interaction forces paper dwa
Smooth Skinning Decomposition with Rigid Bones paper
Star Wars: The Last Jedi - effects simulation paper houdini ilm
THE EXPLOSION EFFECT- A Custom Volume FX Production Pipeline thesis clemson houdini
Target-Driven Smoke Animation paper
The effects of The Jungle Book paper houdini mpc
The water effects of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell no Tales paper houdini mpc
Volume Rendering for Visual Effects presentation
Vortex of Awesomeness paper dwa
Wrath of the Titans: complex models with voxel greeble paper method
Wrath of the Titans: creating CG lava with advected sculpts paper method

Fluids

3D Particle in Cell / Fluid Implicit Particle Fluid Solver using OpenMP directives thesis bournemouth houdini
A Fluid Implicit Particle Approach to a Pyro Solver in Houdini thesis bournemouth houdini
A Technique for Art Direction of Physically Based Fire Simulation thesis clemson
ART DIRECTABLE TORNADOES thesis houdini
Art directing particle flows with custom vector fields paper r&h
Avalanche! snowy FX for XXX paper dd
Capturing Thin Features in Smoke Simulations paper spi
Controlling Fluid Simulations with Custom Fields in Houdini thesis bournemouth houdini
Fluid simulation In a visual effects context presentation
I Love It When A Cloud Comes Together paper r&h
Keyframe Control of Smoke Simulations paper
Moana: Foundation of a Lava Monster paper disney houdini
Modeling and Animating Gases with Simulation Features paper
Nubis: Authoring Real-Time Volumetric Cloudscapes with the Decima Engine presentation
Physical Simulation of Fire and Smoke Masters Thesis thesis bournemouth houdini
Racing to the finish line: effects challenges on Cars 3 paper houdini pixar
Real-Time Fluid Dynamics for Games paper
Real-Time Volumetric Cloudscapes of Horizon Zero Dawn presentation
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Jedha destruction paper houdini ilm
Star Wars: The Last Jedi - effects simulation paper houdini ilm
Target-Driven Smoke Animation paper
The Implementation of 2D Fluid Solver plugin for Houdini8.0 thesis bournemouth houdini
The effects of The Jungle Book paper houdini mpc
The water effects of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell no Tales paper houdini mpc
Volume Rendering for Visual Effects presentation

Fractals

Building detailed fractal sets for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" paper al houdini
Fractal anatomy: imaging internal and ambient structures paper
Fractal multiverses in VR paper framestore

Fur & Feathers

Adaptive Nonlinearity for Collisions in Complex Rod Assemblies paper disney weta
An Energy-Conserving Hair Reflectance Model paper weta
Building Efficient Fur Pipeline for a Low Cost Production of Creature-based Feature Film paper
Feathers for Mystical Creatures: Creating Pegasus for Clash of the Titans paper mpc
Furtility: Dynamic Grooming for Wolfman paper mpc
Implementation of Artistic Curly Hair Dynamics in Houdini thesis bournemouth houdini
Volumetric Methods for Simulation and Rendering of Hair paper pixar

History

Brief History of Special Effects in Film presentation
Fido overview presentation
SFX - Tricks of the Trade The Beginning 1895-2006 paper

Lighting & Rendering

3D Fractal Flame Wisps thesis clemson
A Comprehensive Framework for Rendering Layered Materials paper weta
A System For Crowd Rendering paper mpc
Advanced Animation and Rendering Techniques book
Advanced RenderMan 2: To RI_INFINITY and Beyond SIGGRAPH 2000 Course paper disney pixar spi
Advanced Scenegraph Rendering Pipeline presentation
An Artist-Friendly Workflow for Panoramic HDRI presentation
An Energy-Conserving Hair Reflectance Model paper weta
Background: Physics and Math of Shading paper
Building Efficient Fur Pipeline for a Low Cost Production of Creature-based Feature Film paper
Building detailed fractal sets for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" paper al houdini
CLOUDS AND RIMS presentation tdforum
Camera Space Volumetric Shadows paper weta
Capture Color and Depth From All Around of A Live Set thesis scad
Capturing the infinite universe in "Lucy": fractal rendering in film production paper ilm
Cloud Modeling and Rendering for 'Puss In Boots' paper dwa
Cloudy with a chance of rendering paper mpc
Dear angelica: breathing life into VR illustrations paper houdini
Effective Toon-Style Rendering Control Using Scalar Fields paper pixar
Fully automatic ID mattes with support for motion blur and transparency paper
Gaffer: an open-source application framework for VFX paper [video]
Geometry into Shading paper pixar
Graphics Shaders: Theory and Practice book
HYDRA Pixar's Real-Time Render Engine for Feature Film Assets presentation pixar
High-contrast Computational Caustic Design paper
Instant Points: Fast Rendering of Unprocessed Point Clouds paper
Interactive Lighting of Effects Using Point Clouds in "BOLT" presentation disney
Learning Modern 3D Graphics Programming book
MANIFOLD NEXT EVENT ESTIMATION presentation weta
Machine learning and rendering paper disney nvidia
Manifold Exploration: A Markov Chain Monte Carlo Technique for Rendering Scenes with Difficult Specular Transport paper
Measuring and Modeling the Appearance of Finished Wood paper
Multiple-Scattering Microfacet BSDFs with the Smith Model paper
Nubis: Authoring Real-Time Volumetric Cloudscapes with the Decima Engine presentation
PROCEDURAL GENERATION AND RENDERING OF TREES AND LANDSCAPES IN THE STYLE OF EYVIND EARLE thesis
Parallel Processing within a Host Application presentation disney
Photogrammetry Workflow book [video]
Physically Based Rendering FROM THEORY TO IMPLEMENTATION book
Point-Based Approximate Color Bleeding paper pixar
Point-Based Color Bleeding presentation pixar
Point-Based Global Illumination for Movie Production paper pixar
Production Volume Rendering: Design and Implementation book
Real-Time Volumetric Cloudscapes of Horizon Zero Dawn presentation
Real-World Measurements for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare paper
Realistic, Hardware-accelerated Shading and Lighting paper
Rendering Worlds with Two Triangles with raytracing on the GPU presentation
Renderman Point Based Effects Lighting Approach thesis houdini scad
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Jedha destruction paper houdini ilm
Screen Space Fluid Rendering for Games paper nvidia
Separable Subsurface Scattering paper
Sky Browser: Search for HDR Sky Maps paper weta
Spherical Harmonic Lighting: The Gritty Details paper
Stupid Spherical Harmonics (SH) Tricks paper
Technical Art of Uncharted 4 presentation
The CG Cinematography book
The Path to Path-Traced Movies paper pixar
The path tracing revolution in the movie industry presentation disney nvidia pixar weta
The water effects of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell no Tales paper houdini mpc
Using raycasting in GPU shaders to enhance real-time graphics thesis
Visualizing Astronomical Data in Houdini thesis bournemouth houdini
Volume Rendering for Visual Effects presentation
Volumetric Methods for Simulation and Rendering of Hair paper pixar

Liquids

A Fluid Implicit Particle (FLIP) Solver Built in Houdini thesis bournemouth houdini
A Multiscale Approach to Mesh-based Surface Tension Flows paper
Art Directed Fluid Flow With Secondary Water Effects thesis
Combining Rigid and Fluid Motion Using Point Clouds and FLIP Fluids thesis houdini scad
Coupling 3D eulerian, heightfield and particle methods for interactive simulation of large scale liquid phenomena paper nvidia
Creating realistic CG honey paper dwa
Highly Detailed Fluid Simulations on the GPU presentation
Interactive Water Surfaces paper r&h
Jam: Major Project Report Peter Claes thesis bournemouth houdini
Large Scale Simulation and Surfacing of Water and Ice Effects in Dragons 2 paper dwa
Narrow Band FLIP for Liquid Simulations paper
OpenGL GPU Features and SPH Fluid thesis bournemouth
Packing the water pipe paper dneg
Position Based Fluid thesis bournemouth houdini
Racing to the finish line: effects challenges on Cars 3 paper houdini pixar
Rat-Sized Water Effects in Ratatouille paper pixar
SIMULATION OF THE MIXING OF INK AND WATER IN HOUDINI thesis clemson houdini
SPH Fluid simulation presentation
Screen Space Fluid Rendering for Games paper nvidia
Shaping particle simulations with interaction forces paper dwa
Simulating Whitewater Rapids in Ratatouille paper pixar
Tangled Choreographing Destruction: Art Directing a Dam Break paper disney
The effects of The Jungle Book paper houdini mpc
The water effects of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell no Tales paper houdini mpc
Wrath of the Titans: creating CG lava with advected sculpts paper method

Machine Learning

Big data visual analytics: fundamentals, techniques, and tools presentation
Deep Learning book
Deep learning: a crash course presentation
Machine learning and rendering paper disney nvidia
Programming Computer Vision with Python book
Robust solving of optical motion capture data by denoising paper
Self-similarity Analysis for Motion Capture Cleaning paper

Maths

3D Math Primer for Graphics andGame Development book
An elementary introduction to matrix exponential for CG paper
Big data visual analytics: fundamentals, techniques, and tools presentation
CGAL: the computational geometry algorithms library paper
Color in advanced displays: HDR, OLED, AR & VR presentation
Deep Learning book
Deep learning: a crash course presentation
Fundamentals of color science paper
Getting started with webGL and three.js presentation nvidia
Machine learning and rendering paper disney nvidia
Mathematics for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics book
Mathematics for Computer Graphics (Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science) book
Programming Computer Vision with Python book
State-of-the-art webGL 2.0 presentation nvidia
libigl: prototyping geometry processing research in C++ paper

Misc

Procedural Generation of Rock Piles using Aperiodic Tiling paper
Total Moving Face Reconstruction paper

Motion Capture

Robust solving of optical motion capture data by denoising paper
Self-similarity Analysis for Motion Capture Cleaning paper

Oceans

A VFX ocean toolkit with real time preview thesis
Creating oceans using math presentation
Empirical directional wave spectra for computer graphics paper
The water effects of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell no Tales paper houdini mpc

PBD

A position-based dynamics system for animated character effects paper dwa
Position Based Dynamics for Character Effects thesis bournemouth houdini
Position Based Fluid thesis bournemouth houdini

Photogrammetry

An Artist-Friendly Workflow for Panoramic HDRI presentation
Photogrammetry Workflow book [video]

Pipeline

A Pipeline for 800+ shots paper mpc
Advanced Scenegraph Rendering Pipeline presentation
BUILDING AND LEVERAGING A CROSS PLATFORM VFX/ANIMATION DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT presentation tdforum
Can We Solve the Pipeline Problem? paper weta
Cloudy with a chance of rendering paper mpc
Cortex Open Source Framework video
Developing a unified pipeline with character paper
Extending Houdini with HDK presentation houdini
Flexible pipeline for crowd production paper dneg houdini
Forging a new animation pipeline with USD paper al
Fully automatic ID mattes with support for motion blur and transparency paper
Gaffer: an open-source application framework for VFX paper [video]
HYDRA Pixar's Real-Time Render Engine for Feature Film Assets presentation pixar
Large scale VFX pipelines paper weta
Managing thousands of assets for the Prince of Persia city of Alamut paper mpc
Packing the water pipe paper dneg
Parallel Processing within a Host Application presentation disney
Production Pipeline Fundamentals for Film and Games book
Supercharge Houdini with Python presentation houdini
USD-Based Pipeline (2016) video
Universal Scene Description presentation pixar
Walter: an open source VFX framework for USD and alembic paper houdini
Zero to USD in 80 days paper dwa

Production

CG 101 CG/VFX Production Theory presentation tdforum
Complexity, Productivity, Efficiency and Cost in Digital Production presentation tdforum
Fido overview presentation
Outsourcing And Its Pipes presentation tdforum
Production Pipeline Fundamentals for Film and Games book
SFX - Tricks of the Trade 2009 presentation

RBD

Accelerating Rigid Body Simulationon Today's GPUs presentation
An Object-Level Destruction Tool in Houdini thesis houdini scad
Art directing rigid body dynamics as a post-process paper dwa
Authoring destruction with the Dynamica Bullet Maya plugin presentation disney
Avatar : Bending Rigid Bodies paper ilm
Course introduction and overview of destruction and dynamics techniques presentation
Destruction System paper ilm
Elastic and Plastic Deformations with Rigid Body Dynamics paper dwa
Procedural Methods For Large Scale Destruction presentation dd dwa
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Jedha destruction paper houdini ilm
Star Wars: The Last Jedi - effects simulation paper houdini ilm
Transformers 2: Breaking Buildings paper ilm

Realtime

A VFX ocean toolkit with real time preview thesis
Accelerating Rigid Body Simulationon Today's GPUs presentation
Achieving Real-Time Playback with Production Rigs paper disney
An Artist-Friendly Workflow for Panoramic HDRI presentation
Coupling 3D eulerian, heightfield and particle methods for interactive simulation of large scale liquid phenomena paper nvidia
Dear angelica: breathing life into VR illustrations paper houdini
Fast Hydraulic Erosion Simulation and Visualization on GPU paper
Fast Hydraulic and Thermal Erosion on the GPU paper
Fractal multiverses in VR paper framestore
Getting started with webGL and three.js presentation nvidia
Graphics Shaders: Theory and Practice book
HYDRA Pixar's Real-Time Render Engine for Feature Film Assets presentation pixar
Highly Detailed Fluid Simulations on the GPU presentation
Interactive Water Surfaces paper r&h
Learning Modern 3D Graphics Programming book
Mathematics for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics book
Nubis: Authoring Real-Time Volumetric Cloudscapes with the Decima Engine presentation
OpenGL GPU Features and SPH Fluid thesis bournemouth
Parallel Processing within a Host Application presentation disney
Photogrammetry Workflow book [video]
Real-Time Fluid Dynamics for Games paper
Real-Time Volumetric Cloudscapes of Horizon Zero Dawn presentation
Real-World Measurements for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare paper
Real-time Simulation and Rendering of Large-scale Crowd Motion thesis
Realtime Procedural Terrain Generation paper
Rendering Worlds with Two Triangles with raytracing on the GPU presentation
Screen Space Fluid Rendering for Games paper nvidia
Simulation, Animation and Rendering of Crowds in Real-Time thesis
Smooth Skinning Decomposition with Rigid Bones paper
State-of-the-art webGL 2.0 presentation nvidia
Technical Art of Uncharted 4 presentation
Unreal Engine 4 Game Development Essentials book
Unreal Engine 4-Beginners Crash Course v1 book
Unreal Engine Game Development Blueprints book
Using raycasting in GPU shaders to enhance real-time graphics thesis

Rigging

A hybrid approach to procedural tree skeletonization paper houdini pixar
Achieving Real-Time Playback with Production Rigs paper disney
AutoSpline: animation controls only when and where you need them paper pixar
Character Rigging, Deformations, and Simulations in Film and Game Production paper dwa
Designing an interaction with an octopus paper pixar
Implicit skinning: real-time skin deformation with contact modeling paper
MoSh: Motion and Shape Capture from Sparse Markers paper
Parallel Processing within a Host Application presentation disney
Procedural wrinkles generation in the implicit skinning framework paper bournemouth mpc
Rigging Octopuses in Penguins of Madagascar paper dwa
Sketch to pose in Pixar's presto animation system paper pixar
Smooth Skinning Decomposition with Rigid Bones paper
Total Moving Face Reconstruction paper

Set

An Artist-Friendly Workflow for Panoramic HDRI presentation
Capture Color and Depth From All Around of A Live Set thesis scad
Photogrammetry Workflow book [video]
Real-World Measurements for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare paper

Shading

A Comprehensive Framework for Rendering Layered Materials paper weta
Advanced RenderMan 2: To RI_INFINITY and Beyond SIGGRAPH 2000 Course paper disney pixar spi
An Energy-Conserving Hair Reflectance Model paper weta
Arnold Shaders Tutorial - Solid Angle paper
Background: Physics and Math of Shading paper
Dear angelica: breathing life into VR illustrations paper houdini
Effective Toon-Style Rendering Control Using Scalar Fields paper pixar
Geometry into Shading paper pixar
Graphics Shaders: Theory and Practice book
MANIFOLD NEXT EVENT ESTIMATION presentation weta
Manifold Exploration: A Markov Chain Monte Carlo Technique for Rendering Scenes with Difficult Specular Transport paper
Measuring and Modeling the Appearance of Finished Wood paper
Multiple-Scattering Microfacet BSDFs with the Smith Model paper
Nubis: Authoring Real-Time Volumetric Cloudscapes with the Decima Engine presentation
Photogrammetry Workflow book [video]
Procedural Fluid Textures paper
Procedural wrinkles generation in the implicit skinning framework paper bournemouth mpc
Real-Time Volumetric Cloudscapes of Horizon Zero Dawn presentation
Realistic, Hardware-accelerated Shading and Lighting paper
Rendering Worlds with Two Triangles with raytracing on the GPU presentation
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Jedha destruction paper houdini ilm
Screen Space Fluid Rendering for Games paper nvidia
Separable Subsurface Scattering paper
Skin Microstructure Deformation with Displacement Map Convolution paper
Texturing and Modeling, Third Edition: A Procedural Approach book
The Path to Path-Traced Movies paper pixar
The Rusterizer: An Art-Directable and Semi-Procedural Tool for Generating Rust Surfaces thesis clemson
The path tracing revolution in the movie industry presentation disney nvidia pixar weta
Using raycasting in GPU shaders to enhance real-time graphics thesis

Stereo

Seminar on Stereoscopic Production for Computer Animation presentation tdforum

USD

Forging a new animation pipeline with USD paper al
USD-Based Pipeline (2016) video
Universal Scene Description presentation pixar
Walter: an open source VFX framework for USD and alembic paper houdini
Zero to USD in 80 days paper dwa

Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine 4 Game Development Essentials book
Unreal Engine 4-Beginners Crash Course v1 book
Unreal Engine Game Development Blueprints book

VR

Color in advanced displays: HDR, OLED, AR & VR presentation
Dear angelica: breathing life into VR illustrations paper houdini
Fractal multiverses in VR paper framestore

Volumetrics

3D Fractal Flame Wisps thesis clemson
3D Particle in Cell / Fluid Implicit Particle Fluid Solver using OpenMP directives thesis bournemouth houdini
A Fluid Implicit Particle Approach to a Pyro Solver in Houdini thesis bournemouth houdini
A Technique for Art Direction of Physically Based Fire Simulation thesis clemson
ART DIRECTABLE TORNADOES thesis houdini
Advanced Applications of OpenVDB in Production presentation houdini
Art directing particle flows with custom vector fields paper r&h
Avalanche! snowy FX for XXX paper dd
CLOUDS AND RIMS presentation tdforum
Camera Space Volumetric Shadows paper weta
Capturing Thin Features in Smoke Simulations paper spi
Cloud Modeling and Rendering for 'Puss In Boots' paper dwa
Controlling Fluid Simulations with Custom Fields in Houdini thesis bournemouth houdini
DIGITAL DOMAIN OPENVDB ADOPTION presentation houdini
Efficient and Seamless Volumetric Fracturing paper dwa
FLUID SIMULATION SIGGRAPH 2007 Course Notes paper
Fluid simulation In a visual effects context presentation
I Love It When A Cloud Comes Together paper r&h
Keyframe Control of Smoke Simulations paper
MARCHING CUBES: A HIGH RESOLUTION 3D SURFACE CONSTRUCTION ALGORITHM paper
Moana: Foundation of a Lava Monster paper disney houdini
Modeling and Animating Gases with Simulation Features paper
Narrow Band FLIP for Liquid Simulations paper
Nubis: Authoring Real-Time Volumetric Cloudscapes with the Decima Engine presentation
OpenVDB at DWA presentation houdini
OpenVDB in Houdini presentation houdini
OpenVDB toolset presentation houdini
Physical Simulation of Fire and Smoke Masters Thesis thesis bournemouth houdini
Production Volume Rendering Fundamentals SIGGRAPH 2011 Course Notes paper dwa spi
Production Volume Rendering SIGGRAPH 2017 Course paper disney pixar spi
Production Volume Rendering Systems SIGGRAPH 2011 Course Notes paper clemson dneg dwa houdini r&h spi weta
Production Volume Rendering: Design and Implementation book
Racing to the finish line: effects challenges on Cars 3 paper houdini pixar
Real-Time Fluid Dynamics for Games paper
Real-Time Volumetric Cloudscapes of Horizon Zero Dawn presentation
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Jedha destruction paper houdini ilm
Star Wars: The Last Jedi - effects simulation paper houdini ilm
THE EXPLOSION EFFECT- A Custom Volume FX Production Pipeline thesis clemson houdini
Target-Driven Smoke Animation paper
The Implementation of 2D Fluid Solver plugin for Houdini8.0 thesis bournemouth houdini
The effects of The Jungle Book paper houdini mpc
Volume Rendering for Visual Effects presentation
Volumetric Cloud Rendering: An Animation of Clouds thesis clemson
Volumetric Methods for Simulation and Rendering of Hair paper pixar
Volumetric Methods in Visual Effects SIGGRAPH 2010 Course Notes paper dneg dwa houdini r&h spi
Volumetric dense mesh deformation in the Tengu Monk fight paper
Vortex of Awesomeness paper dwa

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Feel free to contribute to this project by creating pull requests.

Adding new entries

Create virtual environment
```
$ python3 -m venv venv
```
Activate it
```
$ source venv/bin/activate
```
Install dependencies
```
$ pip install -r requirements.txt
```
Edit library.yml to add new entries
Run code quality checks and re-generate README.md
```
$ make
```
- You can run code checks only with
```
$ make check
```
- Or re-generate README.md only with
```
$ make generate
```
- Alternatively re-generate README.md without make
```
$ python generate.py
```
Done!

Files

README.md

Latest commit

History

README.md

File metadata and controls

VFX Good Night Reading

Formats

Tags

Categories

List

Abstract

Animation

Biology & Trees

CFX

CG

Case studies

Cities

Coding

Colors

Computer Vision

Crowds

Deep comp

Environments

Erosion

FEM

FX

Fluids

Fractals

Fur & Feathers

History

Lighting & Rendering

Liquids

Machine Learning

Maths

Misc

Motion Capture

Oceans

PBD

Photogrammetry

Pipeline

Production

RBD

Realtime

Rigging

Set

Shading

Stereo

USD

Unreal Engine

VR

Volumetrics

Contributing

Adding new entries