Flowmap Water Shader – Houdini to Unreal Engine 5

PBR Water Shader built in Unreal Engine 5 and Flowmap Created in Houdini.

This project showcases a real-time water shader driven by a custom flowmap created in Houdini and implemented in Unreal Engine.
The shader uses:
- Flowmap UV distortion to simulate natural water movement
- Phase blending of animated noise textures for variation
- Custom opacity masking for soft edge transitions
- Animated normal maps to create surface detail and light interaction
The material is split into modular layers (Opacity, Base Color, Normal), each controlled with exposed parameters for artistic flexibility. Flow direction and speed are driven by the flowmap, enabling natural movement across the river.
Substance designer was used to create noise for the water shader to use.

Audio was added using SoundSnap to support the atmosphere of the water simulation and nature.
Quixel assets were used for the Environment.