Learning VFX
I never have done any VFX before, but I am very interested, so I thought that you could give me some advices, what programs I need and what basic stuff do I need to know? Links to tutorials would be good. I need to start from the very basic stuff.
Replies
I talked about VFX in an upcoming CrunchCast (http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86513) . If you want to do VFX renders, ie movies, then you can do that in either 3dsmax, Maya or whatever 3D software application that supports particles and rendering.
If you want to do VFX for games, there are a ton of resources for you, either UDK (http://udk.com/download), CryEngine (http://mycryengine.com/), Hammer (source hammer comes with Half-life 2, Left 4 dead, etc) there are quite a few editors available to use. Just choose a game, and see if it has an editor that you can play with
Tutorials wise, there are a lot of free ones on youtube, vimeo, etc. I started a FX tutorials site, sadly I only have 1 tutorial at the moment, but its pretty in-depth. http://www.explosions-rainbows.com/ Eat3D also has some really great tutorials, http://eat3d.com/cascade/
What I like to do is when I'm playing a game I see an effect that looks really cool. I videotape it, if I'm playing on a console or use Fraps, and then try and recreate it on my own in say UDK since that's what I am used to using. But instead of copying it, I like to go a little further and make it a little different, enhance it.
Hope that helped you out in some way
[ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG0OnnkseQQ[/ame]
I think UDK is the best option since it allows you to create materials/shaders in such a convenient way(I don't understand why other companies don't do that). Eat 3D DVD's use UDK mainly too.
http://imbuefx.com/products/cascade-the-complete-beginners-guide/
I also have some free stuff on Youtube as well
http://www.youtube.com/user/imbuefx/
My beginner's guide assumes you have no knowledge of particles or materials in UDK, and goes over everything from start to finish. It's aimed at beginners like yourself.
Hope this helps!
UT2004 have less complex vfx and the particle editor is very self-explanatory. Just play around with the editor for an hour or so and you can start without even reading a tutorial.
When you feel easy about it, open the editor for UT3/GOW and look at the existing effects and try to learn how they are built up.
Something you want to think about when making effects is to make sure nothing actually looks like particles. Also that all effects should have a real Punch! to them for good game feedback.
Will take a look at this when I get home. Thanks for helping!