SailGP,
wind, sea, and
particle systems
Software Houdini / DOP particle systems / Octane
Deliverables 14 animations
Client GMGN Labs
Brand SailGP
Year 2023
SailGP wanted collectible animations for their community. Twelve pieces, each built around a natural force the boats encounter on water. Wind movement, surface turbulence, open sea. The brief had a built-in arc: the first animations simple and calm, the later ones increasingly complex, as if a storm is building.
Three flexible DOP particle systems in Houdini generated the full set of twelve. Alongside those, two larger animations were developed for broader campaign use. Client assets ( helmet, steering wheel, life jacket, hull ) were integrated throughout. All rendered in Octane.
The brief
Wind and sea as a visual language. The SailGP brand lives in speed, precision, and elemental force — the animations needed to carry that energy without becoming literal. No boats, no water. Pure particle behaviour as abstraction of the racing experience.
The particle systems
Three DOP systems, each with a distinct behaviour — one driven by wind force fields, one by fluid interaction, one by turbulence and noise. Each system was parameterised to produce four animation variants without rebuilding the network. The result is twelve outputs from three rigs, all coherent as a series.
The standalone pieces
Two larger animations developed outside the modular system, these were given more compositional freedom. Where the variant system prioritised consistency and scalability, these pieces prioritised identity and impact with the SailGP community.
Scalable systems,
not one-off outputs.
The SailGP project is an example of how I approach larger animation briefs, building reusable procedural rigs rather than individual pieces. The result is a coherent visual series that scales without losing quality. If your campaign needs volume without sacrificing craft, I can help you out
Let’s make something together.
Available for campaign work, look development, and brand collaboration. Based in the Netherlands, working across Western Europe and the United States.
info@stephanduq.com
+31 (0) 642481265