Author Date

2025-04-18

Degree Name

Department

Computer Science

College

Physical and Mathematical Sciences

Defense Date

2025-04-21

Publication Date

2025-06-06

First Faculty Advisor

Seth Holladay

First Faculty Reader

Craig Van Dyke

Second Faculty Reader

Parris Egbert

Honors Coordinator

Seth Holladay

Keywords

computer science, animation, simulation, houdini, pyro, visual effects

Abstract

This thesis aims to document the fire FX work completed on this year’s senior capstone film, Love & Gold, for the BYU Center of Animation. The story of the film is brought to life with many different types of effects including snow, sparks, lava, rock shattering, magic, hair, cloth, and the topic of this thesis, fire. The film has three main fire simulation needs: torches, braziers, and fire traps. The FX team on the film created these with Pyro simulations. Pyro simulations are a common type of simulation supported by Houdini FX, the software program that BYU Animation primarily uses to create the visual effects for their films. Houdini’s Pyro tools can be utilized to create explosions, smoke, flames, steam, etc. For the purpose of this thesis, we will focus on the creation and art-direction of flame and fire for our film using the Pyro tools.