Replicating this texture in Unreal

Joshua Smith-Johnston

Hi guys,

I'm currently looking to texture a character of mine, who I've concepted to have robotic arms with energy flowing through them. The kind of energy I had in mind is very similar to Algalon from World of Warcraft (linked below) which features a translucent, astral kind of texture.

http://www.wowwiki.com/File:Algalon.jpg

I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice on how to execute this element of the texture, it looks like there will be some shader work involved, but I just don't know where to start.

If anyone has any tips or advice, I'd be hugely grateful!

AdvisableRobin

Yes, it would be some work in the material editor. The basics of it would be additive transparency and high emissive.
For the construction of the character you could do something as simple as creating a geometry skeleton. The clothing could be actual mesh with really low additive transparency. Bloom postprocessing.

RN

If you don't want to use a skeleton geometry for those internal beams of light, you can try something that involves the view direction and the surface normal, like this:
http://simonschreibt.de/gat/world-of-warcraft-balloon/

passerby

Kryzon that won't work for a non round shape since it will break the illusion when you see it from multiple angles

RN

If his robotic arms are cylindrical then I think it should work, but you are absolutely right in that flat areas won't work with that effect.
Some experimentation is required.

Joshua Smith-Johnston

Hi guys, thanks so much for the suggestions, I'll be sure to post back the results if I have success

In terms of the hand design, the use of this shader would be on a flat plane as well as on the weapon she's carrying, the idea is to have the material in a similar fashion to what the green lantern has in terms of visuals. Here's a rough concept I did just to give you an idea. It's not much to look at, I'm not much of a drawer :P

http://i.imgur.com/yLwLyRh.jpg