Explosion FX in UE4 - Looking for feedback please

radm0bile

Hey All,

I rarely see any FX stuff here so this may not be the most ideal place to put this, but I was hoping to get some feedback on some FX I was currently working on in UE4.

I just wanted to get some fresh eyes on it and see if I was heading in the right direction with this one.

Thanks!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du6jGU7K25Y"]Unreal Engine 4 Explosion Test - YouTube[/ame]

urgaffel

Can you put up a mov of the explosion so we can scrub it? Would make it easier to look at the elements of the explosion and hopefully eliminate any stuttering. When I look at the youtube video it's a bit jerky and I don't know if that's down to youtube, my computer or your video

DireWolf

I don't know much about FX but I think it looks pretty decent. A bit out of place tho, maybe an empty level would be a better stage.

Emanuel_palalic

I think it's coming along pretty nicely, I would work on the trails a bit, have them turn into smoke after a little, instead of them just being a flame trail. Haven't messed much with cascade, but I know within the starter content with UE4 there is a Visual effects project, that has a flame to smoke example I would recommend. Other than that it's looking awesome!

Joost

Yeah not an fx guy but I think it looks cool. Though it has a mushroom cloud look to it which kind of makes the scale seem weird?

Grusti

mmm to fast I think. Smoke after explosive going not so fast

NegevPro

It looks pretty nice so far, but as stated above, the smoke should probably last longer because it disappears at the same time as the fire spark part. Also, increasing the lifetime of those black explosion chunks that can be seen once the smoke clears would probably give it more of a destructive effect since it gives off the idea that the explosion actually left a dent in the ground.

On a side note, the fire part seems a bit saturated. It may be perfectly fine but you could experiment with that also.

Good luck!

adam

How is this effect being used in the game? That'll determine whether it needs to be quick and snappy or long and lingering.

Vailias

Nothing wrong with vortex rings from a small explosion, however a shockwave strong enough to create that kind of noticeable atmospheric lensing demands a much larger, and or more persistent core explosion.

The explosion itself is pretty good, but it feels small for the shock you've given it, however if you removed the atmospheric lensing, and just had a camera shake with some kind of radial falloff from the center, that would sell just fine as some sort of small explosion.

What kind of explosion are you going for? The color of the smoke reads like a gasoline explosion, but the firey color dies out too quickly for that and the overall effect seems to be very smoky, but not very hot.

Joopson

I love it, except for the trailing bits. They're a too prominent for my taste, compared with the relatively small flash of the explosion itself. I love the smoke, though it might be a tad dark, at least compared with my idea of what color smoke should be.

radm0bile

Holy crap, wow thanks for all the ideas and responses so far. Definitely a giant help.

@Direwolf: Yeah, the level is for sure a weird setting and probably screwing up the sense of scale for this. I' ll probably change it to be more open.

@Emanuel_palalic: Thanks! Yeah I was debating having the fire trails change to smoke as well, I'll give it a shot and see how it looks.

@komaokc: Hmm, I could see now how that may be a little strange. I was going for a bit of a stylized over the top bomb look, maybe the scale could be looked at.

@lyaIvanovArt: The idea is to have this be an explosion that would be caused by a small bomb in game so it would need to fade at a decent speed. Which part to you think fades too quickly? All of it or just a part?

@NegevPro: Thanks for the detailed response. I will definitely be looking at tweaking the length of parts of the explosion based on a few of these responses and yeah I am seeing what you mean about the debris parts. They seem to be gone too quickly and almost not noticeable. The fire was supposed to be a bit saturated as this explosion was somewhat stylized but its still early in the process and I'll have a look at that too.

@adam: This effect would be the result of a small bomb being used by a player so I'm thinking it would need to fade at a decent rate for gameplay sake, but I'm open to more suggestions on the timing.

@Vailias: Thanks for the ideas. The lensing was added to it to make it feel a bit more stylized and over the top as opposed to realistic but I can try and see how the camera shake works instead or even add that to it, it's definitely a good idea. The idea for the explosion is to be a small bomb and yeah with regards to the smoke color, I'm now thinking its too dark as well, it does come off as gas smoke. I'm going to try and tone that down a bit.

@Joopson: Thanks! Maybe making the trails smaller overall would help them not be such a focal point. And yeah, I agree with the smoke color being too dark for sure, gonna change that up a bit to be lighter.

Ged

pretty cool work! would this explosion work if someone looked down at it from above? or would it never be used in that context. I often have trouble making flipbook explosions look good from multiple angles.

Grusti

top part I think and try to make smoke fade not in the same time.
btw good work!

radm0bile

Hey again, just thought I'd post some progress wit the effect. It's been longer than I'd like but I've been slammed at work recently.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6SOK0rrUuA&hd=1"]Unreal Engine 4 - Explosion Test (Version 2) - YouTube[/ame]