Hi everyone! 
I have a special plan for this sketch… I wanted to learn POPs in Houdini for a while. So I’m taking this challenge as a motivation. Ultimately I will put the effect in Unreal Engine though, so it’s realtime 
Final Effect:
lower quality GIF
Feedback appreciated!
My reference is pretty simple, but I am happy enough if I can make that work and look good in time:
First pass of the effect in Houdini:
It is a simple set-up in Houdini, but it took some learning and research beforehand, because I have never used POPs before.
In case someone is interested, these videos and tutorials were my resources to learn. I also tried replicating the Firework shelf-tool in Houdini, which taught me alot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfXqD4nLxa0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDcCWRsg2AA
Just a small update: It works in Unreal now!
(I had some troubles with the Vertex Animation material not working…)
Made it work in a Particle system and tweaked the colors today 
Final Update:
I tweaked the timing in Houdini. Before it looked like the trails dissolved from the middle. But i wanted them to jump outwards quicker and then dissolve.
Also added a boom in the middle 
That looks awesome! It’s great that you learned something new, and helped others by showing which tutorials you used
