Creating Chaos Case Study

Creating Chaos - Case Study

Credits

Designers & Animators:
Enrique Santa Maria & Andrew Han

Models:

KitBash3D: Manhattan NYC World Kit, Military Helicopter
Fab: Vehicles & props

Role

Design
Animation

This project focused on learning how to use the Pyro Solver to create a realistic explosion and think like a VFX artist. My classmate, Andrew Han, and I collaborated to build a photorealistic explosion simulation and design a small 3D scene to showcase it.

The goal of the assignment was to work in a team of two to practice collaboration and organization, simulating a real industry production pipeline. Taking on the roles of Junior VFX artists, we developed a short action film concept to give context to the explosion and studied real film references to match cinematic compositions and camera movement.

Project Roles and Responsibilities

My responsibilities: building the explosion and setting up the collision physics that occur when the blast blows away parts of the glass and exterior of the building. I also handled the scene layout and camera setup for the final shot.

Andrew's responsibilities: creating the building destruction, missile ignition, and trail effects, as well as optimizing and troubleshooting the project’s textures.

Shared responsibilities: animation - I handled most of the animation for Scenes 1 and 3, which included the helicopter, camera movement, explosion, and collision sequences. Andrew focused on Scene 2, creating the missile animation and the building destruction.

Tools

Houdini
After Effects

Year

2025

SCENE CREATION

My part of the project started with building the scenes and crafting the compositions that set the foundation for the shot.

SCENE LAYOUT & ANIMATICS

CREATING THE LAYOUT

Using the Kitbash3D assets we purchased, I tried to make each composition feel as full as possible while envisioning where the explosion would take place. I framed each shot so the explosion became the most important part of the piece, using negative space in some shots to give room for the hero element — the explosion itself.

LIGHTING EXPLORATION

LIGHTING

For the lighting of the main building, I aimed for a clean and simple color palette while maintaining a polished, high-end feel inspired by modern museums and upscale architectural spaces.

FOG EXPLORATION

ANIMATING THE HELICOPTER

To get the helicopter’s movement feeling smooth and realistic, I animated it along a spline and fine-tuned its rotation so it looked like it was truly turning and flying in that direction.

HELICOPTER SPLINE ANIMATION

TEST FOR FINAL

REFERENCE

Since we were both working in the same scene to combine all our elements, I started thinking about how to make the layout clear and efficient for both Andrew and myself. So, I came up with an organized node setup that labeled everything clearly, making each shot easy to follow and allowing anything unnecessary to be quickly toggled off.

Below you can see how my organization system was set up, labeled, and color-coded for both Andrew and I to use throughout the project.

COLOR CODING AND SHOT SYSTEM

VALUE OF AN EFFICIENT WORKFLOW

This system proved to be extremely helpful in keeping our workflow fast and organized, making sure neither of us got confused throughout the process.

EXPLOSION SOURCE NODES

SETUP

As I learned throughout this project, creating a realistic explosion involves many layers working together to make it feel believable. Here’s a look at the process I used to bring it to life.

CREATING THE SPIKES OF THE EXPLOSION

LIGHTING AND ANIMATION EXPLORATION

Next, I introduced base lighting to add depth and dimension while continuing to experiment with expressive movement and timing in the scene.

I further explored the ripple effect in After Effects using a displacement map, reinforcing the concept of the Super Bowl as the final stepping stone after a hard, rigid, and demanding season.

CREATING THE DIRT AND MAIN BURSTS OF THE EXPLOSION

CREATING EACH INDIVIDUAL SOURCE

As you can see, creating the explosion required building separate sources for each component — the spikes, small burst, main burst, trails, and shockwave. Each element added another layer of realism to help sell the final effect.

The next step in my process was creating the trails to enhance the sense of motion and impact.

CREATING THE TRAILS

EXPLOSION WITH COMBINED ELEMENTS

FLIPBOOK RENDER TEST

ADDING COLLISION PHYSICS TO THE EXPLOSION

CREATING THE COLLISION

Once Andrew finished the building destruction, I took over to merge the explosion and destruction, making both elements collide naturally. The collider helped the explosion feel truly grounded in the scene, adding depth and realism that really brought the sim to life, and honestly, it came out so cool.

Now all that was left was to add the finished explosion into the scene.

PLAYBLAST + FLIPBOOK RENDER OF EXPLOSION IN SCENE

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