[Riot Creative Contest 2017] - Jessie Sansoucy-Jasmin

mrblimack

Alright!

So my first contest and I don't have much time either (I'm a little bit late and going in vacations in 4 days...). That's why I'll do something relatively simple: A Spell Ability that could be in League of Legends. It will be a spell that lift leaves in the air and then surround them with energy before throwing them at the opponent (Kinda like Azuma's Chakra Blades), it will be stylized and close to League of Legends look.

Hope you'll like it!

mrblimack

I worked on it today that's what I got for a base ^^ So basically this is the timing i want (or really close) I'll work on the aesthetic tomorrow, change the sphere gradient for a real texture, add a trail to the leaves, etc. One thing that bothers me is that there's not a moment with big interest, and since I'm creating it for a game purpose where you don't want to wait 3 seconds for the effects to do what's it's supposed to do, I don't have much time in my timing for the "release energy" effect.



C&C are welcome :P

Kassyndra

I would say that you shouldn't be worried about the 'gameplay' part too much (2014's 1st place takes about 1 second to wind up the attack). The 'gameplay' part that I would concern is the clarity, visual noise, so basically all thing visual. The 'cast time' and 'linger time' is not super important in this context, and you should experiment and have fun with it! 

mrblimack

Yeah I'll try to figure something out with that tempo (I prefer doing something that could be in the game), I added the classic sparkles going out and it helps a little ^^. If I see at the end that I really need to take the gameplay part away I will  

Yeah I didn't look the winners in 2014, just looked at them I'll need to raise the level a lot ^^

But yeah you're right, everything visual comes first :P

Thanks for the tip

mrblimack

Hey everyone!

Just letting you know I watched your threads... everyone is doing something awesome, I'm sure it will be hard for the judges to decide!

Here's a small update of mine :P Hope it will reach your level soon :P 

mrblimack

After looking many time that gif I noticed that it needed something on the "charging" part, I started with something more on the ground (a plane effect kinda like an incantation circle) but didn't worked out so I tried with meshes that would propose a lifting action.

Then I wanted to put the same thing on the impact but didn't looked to good, while playing with it (trial/error) I got something that added secondary movement that I like.

Sorry for the mouse xD



On thing that I'm really not sure (that's my problem on most of my effect) Is it clear? Kassyndra pointed out the clarity importance and that's something I think I should work on it but often don't know how. If you have some tips on what I could do to improve the clarity or if you think I'm too hard on myself would be nice to have feedback

Also do you think I should remove some leaves I tried removing some, readded them, not sure, there's no big difference but since they appear at random positions, when I have less there's more chance that they are all stuck together:

mrblimack

Added refraction, trying to get that impact effect again of release XD
Added a status effect (bleed)
Not sure about the leaves that fall on the ground after the release

mrblimack

Alright I worked a lot on it this time, I would really appreciate feedback ^^

https://youtu.be/OZ7yoduyHdo

I have still 2 days left to do some polish/changes

Kassyndra

Okey. I'm taking a break from my project so I think I'd poke my head around

1. I think your missile lack internal movement. Your leaves are static and does not have any movement besides toward a target. I think you could have it move around a little bit within the clump itself.

2. The dissipate effect is super abrupt. Try slow-out the swirl or make the explosion fades as it dissipate.

3. Under most circumstances, particle should fade away. Either reduce its size to zero over its life or makes it fade away.

4. This is my personal opinion but I think your background should be un-textured. The bleed effect is hard to notice against the background I think.

Keep up your good work!

fakado

To add on to Kassyndra, for the sake of working out timing properly, I like to setup a blueprint for Time Dilation so that I can hop into 'Play' and either play it at normal speed (2 on keyboard), slow it down to check specific timing (1 on keyboard), or quickly skip past what I already have developed to reach a point I want to check (3 on keyboard). 
When you start fixing up the projectile hit to disappear as soon as it hits the target, having those controls could end up being really handy for timing as UE4's pause and 'frame skip' just aren't very good atm.

https://imgur.com/a/dvxV4

I think that for your missiles, they're also too large, or too far apart as at the moment some of them barely graze the sphere but still get killed off. Might be worth taking a look if making the space between them a bit smaller and reducing their size slightly so that they all hit the target helps.

Keep it up

mrblimack

Thanks a lot for your comments!

1. I saw that but thought it wasn't that bad ahah XD I'll try something! I thought making them spread and then homing back to the target, but I don't want the attack to be a target one but more a beam one.. maybe I'll do two versions, one for me and one for the contest XD

2. Yeah.. and what's worst is that I worked on that XD was more abrupt before! I'll add something like you said, a dissipate effect that last longer ^^

3. They do get smaller, but really fast it's like a 2 frame animation, I'll try adding a fade out too

4. Oh maybe I adjusted too much the blood color, in fact when I switch to a textured background, since it's a lot green the blood was way too "bright red", so I've darken the color ^^

Thanks for the time dilatation tip fakado ^^ I was using the command slomo but shortcut could be helpful!

Projectiles aren't getting killed on hit, but by lifetime, it's just that the sphere two is slightly at the end of the lifetime. Do you think I should increase the lifetime to remove ambiguity?

mrblimack

I'm a little stuck here..

I've focus on the dissipate effect which I don't find perfect but it fits and adds something.

I've set the lifetime of the projectiles longer.

I tried adding some movement to the projectiles (I don't really need to change the trajectory, I know I can add something to make it work) And that's where I'm stuck, I tried the thing on the floor, which isn't bad but isn't good, Gameplay wise it's useful because that will be the area where you get damage so I let it there. I tried some smoke, more dust, I tried something in the front like a meteor, etc. Can't find something cool.

Even though there's a lot more to do, this is close to the final, tomorrow is the last day I can work on it

Also I just noticed that on my right screen the blood isn't really visible but on my main screen it's ok (And calibrated correctly, everything is darker on my right screen ^^)

https://youtu.be/Lhr18Wo1SqQ

mrblimack

Finally I got less time left that I thought, going on vacation in a few hours.. I only manage to do some tweak to the last update but here is what will be submitted:

https://youtu.be/eLX9WyqWUtU