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[Riot Art Contest] - Klemen Lozar

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Latest update:

Here's my final submission. Apart from some minor tweaks, the electricity is mostly the same, I've spent the remainder of time polishing the fire spell. I'm pretty happy with how everything turned out, I think I succeeded in reaching my initial vision of a simple concept with a lot of stylisation. I want to note it's meant to look the best from top-down LoL's gameplay perspective, I've included front and side views as per the competition rules.

I wish good luck to all of you, it's been great seeing everyone's progress, a lot of excellent effects all around!

Click the image to view the animation:
Klemen_Lozar_RiotContest_Final.jpg

Additionally here's a compilation of action shots I've submitted:
Comp.png


Hey everyone,

I'll give this a go as well. I suppose I'll start with a short breakdown of what I plan to do. As far as fantasy effects go, I'm really fond of the natural elements so I'll be mostly working with fire and electricity but try and avoid the usual stereotypes. I'll be working with UE4/3ds Max.

Electricity - I want this to look really impactful and sharp, like it could cut you apart.

Fire - I want to avoid the standard fireball look and go for something more fluid and stylised.

I did a first pass on the electric effect. At this stage I'm blocking out shapes and getting a sense of the timing, I will later go back and work on the animation and textures/treatment in more detail.

Click the image to view the animation:
Klemen_Lozar_RiotContest_1.jpg

That's it for now, I'm currently doing a first pass on the fire effect, I'll do an update when I have something to show. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with, good luck people!

Replies

  • C.K.Shepherd
    Awesome. Big fan of your website. Found it real inspirational as someone that's only about 1 year into FX myself. Can't wait to see your stuff!
  • AdamOstridge
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    AdamOstridge polycounter lvl 6
    Veeeery nice start Klemen! I really liked the lightning tests you were working on recently so I'm really looking forward to seeing how you proceed with this! :)
  • Helreaper
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    Helreaper polycounter lvl 5
    IMO Fits pretty well into the LOL style. really like the sparky build up
  • parag
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    parag polycounter lvl 4
    Wow.. Looks nice
  • DoubleLeaf
    I'm very much a fan of your work! I'm very excited to see what you do, your lighting effects are the best I've seen :)
  • Rusty_Gvfx
    Aw man that HDR bloom. Wish I had learnt Unreal engine before this comp : <
  • Klemen
    Thanks everyone! It's very inspiring to hear other artists are familiar with your work.
  • FhoopFX
    Sweet looking forward to what you do with this. Love the site!
  • ethwaites
    This looks great. It really reminded me of the style of the 2014 Worlds animation. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmI_Ndrxy14)
  • Klemen
    Thanks guys!

    I've made some progress on the second effect but I'm not too happy with it yet. I need to work on the timing, it's much too even now.

    Click the image to view the animation:
    Klemen_Lozar_RiotContest_2.jpg
  • Rusty_Gvfx
    Woh awesome! Are those all alphablended ribbons? Or are the additive stacked with multiplicative stuff. Seeing so much new stuff iv never seen before from this competition! There isnt tutorials anywhere for this kind of stuff haha.

    Or just show us the texture. That would be equally interesting.
  • jf_hereng
    awesome ! I want to see this in mouvement =D
  • Rusty_Gvfx
    Just click on it jf_hereng. Its a video :P
  • Klemen
    Yup, all images link to animations!:)

    Russell, I'm using custom static meshes with some shader trickery for the trails, I find ribbons in cascade a bit limiting for stuff like this. Blend mode is transparent, that's what you were asking right?
  • Rusty_Gvfx
    Oh ok so its just swirly meshes something like this ? I really have to get better at making these haha.
    czc7LyH.jpg

    Looks real fluid! Id be interested to see what the shader looks like. Dont worry im not working in Unreal so I wont steal your ideas :P I dont get to see how other effects artist work very often is all. So im trying to see all I can while this competition is on!
  • jf_hereng
    Haha I dont see link, thx ^^ . Very Good !
  • AirRun
    Nice style, I think the timing could use a little work. Its all the same pace. You could do a slow in either with affecting the time in your panner or just adjusting the UV's on the static mesh. But I am sure you know this. =)

    Great work though
  • Lokii288
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    Lokii288 polycounter lvl 3
    These are great so far! Have you thought about what kind of impact effect you're going to use for the second one? I'm very excited to see how these turn out.
  • Cyan_Fox
    Good start on the fire!

    I think the bloom might be a bit too intense though. Maybe tone it down a tad? (Not too much though!)
  • C.K.Shepherd
    Klemen these are great! I really like your style and hope to emulate it a bit in my own.
  • Klemen
    -Rusty, that's more or less what I'm doing yeah. I'm not trying to be secretive or anything, but everything is obviously work in progress. I'll do a more detailed breakdown at the end for sure!

    -AirRun, fully agree yeah like I said, that's something I'm working on.

    -Lokii, I've actually done a first pass on the impacts, I'll probably do an update tomorrow!

    -Cyan_Fox, I might have bumped up the emissive a bit too much in that one yeah :)

    -C.K.Shepherd, thanks man, glad you like it!

    Thanks again everyone, really appreciate all the feedback!
  • C.K.Shepherd
    For the sake of learning and having more clean presentation of my own work, what are you using for the recordings?

    Also I agree with Rusty, if you could, offer as much exposure as you would be comfortable with. This is more of a learning experience for some of us and it would be awesome to see an honest breakdown of your process.
  • AirRun
    Sorry Klemen, I must of skipped your comment and just watched the video. Again nice stuff!
  • Klemen
    I'm using Fraps and compress the videos with H.264.

    Oh it's definitely a learning experience for me as well. I've been gearing up to do a tutorial for a while now and this seems like a good platform, but I would rather wait and do a comprehensive breakdown a bit further down the line when I have more spare time.

    AirRun, no worries at all :)
  • Lokii288
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    Lokii288 polycounter lvl 3
    I would love if you made a tutorial or some kind of breakdown. I like to see different people's workflows and what not. Not to mention I really like how your work comes out! Can't wait to see more.
  • Sirhaian
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    Sirhaian polycounter lvl 3
    I just love how you made this effect! Simple but soooo efficient and beautiful! Can't wait to see the final result! :)
  • sgtscience
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    sgtscience polycounter lvl 8
    I really like the effect too, awesome work! After analysis of the fire effect I'm going to surmise that you are using a static mesh with fire -type texture along it for the diffuse, then panning a comet like alpha along the length, multiplying the red channel of the diffuse. Possibly some other clamp like modules in there. I'm a first time Ue4 user , so I'd love to know how ur getting that effect too!
  • Klemen
    Hey everyone, thanks again for your comments.

    Sgtscience, you're a bit off as far as technique goes. I'm using a panning hand drawn tileable texture I made for the fire (3 variations, one in each channel) and I use a sphere mask to move it through the UV space on the static mesh.

    I've updated the trajectory and animation of the trails a bit and added some impacts.

    Click the image to view the animation:
    Klemen_Lozar_RiotContest_3.jpg
  • Sirhaian
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    Sirhaian polycounter lvl 3
    Woha! *^*
    This made my day. Awesome!
    Just one thing, maybe. The trails look a bit too slow compared to the impact, in my opinion. But well, it's really nice! *^*
  • Lokii288
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    Lokii288 polycounter lvl 3
    This is looking so good. I hope my effect manages to come out half as good XD. I think I agree too though that the trails in flight might want to be sped up just a tad. Usually once the ability has been released its pretty efficient to the target.
  • AirRun
    First off I love it!

    I like how they all converge on impact, but its missing a bit of the impact.

    The break away pieces start out too soon and because of this a bit away from that center area of impact. Also I feel like the break away flames are facing the wrong way. The hotter brighter part should be going away from the impact location not facing to it.

    The flames themselves go through the sphere instead of stopping. You could hide this with more spark/ember like effect. Kind of the way when throwing a hot coal at a wall or a bottle rocket hitting a wall.

    Again great stuff!
  • Klemen
    Thanks guys!

    Yeah, it's not meant to be really polished yet, right now I'm just spawning the impact stuff with a delay, just to get an idea that's why it's a bit messy. Impacts need more pop to them as well, you're right.

    I don't agree with the flames bouncing back away from the impact, that's how a solid would behave. I want this to be really fluid and keep that directional momentum after impact like you might imagine water would for example.

    I won't be speeding it up much more, I imagine this homing in on the target and blowing up short if you happen to escape it. I'm also thinking about having about 4 trails hit the target directly and have 4 shave off, fly upwards and come down around the target with aoe damage, just to break it up a bit. Does this sound like a useful dynamic to any of you more committed league players?
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    I would have the extras crash down around the base of the sphere, maybe a little bit behind it. If they fly up I feel like that would add too much time to the effect.

    League effects, even the lengthy ones, are really punchy and quickly executed in their effects. My thought is that if the attack misses its target, it just terminates itself into the ground or off to the side. If you decide you want to go the fly off rout, my suggestion would be to have all of the trails spread out from their ignition and not target dead center on the other sphere. Think directed rockets, instead of homing missiles. They should veer off center a bit, and some more than others. Have them "detonate" close to the sphere even if they do "miss". Again, too high up, or too far behind, and you run the risk of having an effect that looks too lengthy.
  • AirRun
    THenderson, I take your AOE point for both of my spells.
  • Minsk
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    Minsk polycounter lvl 8
    Great look and cool technique! Also build up and impact are impressingly cool.
    The mid part could feel a bit more dynamic though, maybe the UV animation could be less linear. Good old massaging of curves could do the job here.
    On the other hand the movement can be intended as it is and its absolutely fine... damn lovely ^^
  • Klemen
    Thanks for your feedback guys!

    I made a rough test for the recent idea I've had. So 4 trails do direct damage and 4 peel off and hit the area around it at random. Seeing it in action, I'm not that fond of it any more, it looks a bit too chaotic. I think I'll abandon it and just focus on hitting the target directly.

    Click the image to view the animation:
    Klemen_Lozar_RiotContest_4.jpg

    I'll probably go back to electricity now to change it up a bit.
  • Lokii288
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    Lokii288 polycounter lvl 3
    Personally... I think the ones that peel off are superfluous. If you wanted the ability to contain a slow the trails hitting the sphere would apply the effect in my opinion instead of these random ones hitting the ground. They're also a bit distracting from the sphere which is where I assume you want people to be looking. Still though, I absolutely love your effect :) Looks great.
  • Sirhaian
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    Sirhaian polycounter lvl 3
    Same as Lokii. If it's a "click-and-hit" spell, it won't miss anything. :)
    It looks really (REALLY) nice, but logically speaking, it sounds a bit off. ^^ Looks like some missiles are intentionally missing their target. :p
    But still, it looks awesome! \o/
  • Klemen
    Well that was the idea really, to deal half damage as direct and scatter the other half around as aoe. But you're right, it takes too much attention away from the target.
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    Maybe it's something like a skill shot Syndra ult?
  • C.K.Shepherd
    I think it would be awesome compromise if the AoE damage was dealt by the bits of flame and embers that fall off the splash created from the direct hits. If you were to pursue the same type of effect you currently have, I would recommend a greater number of projectiles to justify all the simulated inaccuracy.

    I have the perfect LoL based reference for you Klemen. I was considering the same behaviour in one of my concepts.

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZNdeGpf1xo&quot;]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZNdeGpf1xo[/ame]
  • Yanni
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    Yanni polycounter lvl 6
    Wow they look really good Kelman! Looking forward to seeing the breakdown!

    Nice one! :)
  • ethwaites
    You could have an effect on the target that builds up as each fireball hits and then have it do an AoE explosion/release. I'm really liking the look of this one so far though. Can't wait to see some more.
  • huynhke
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    huynhke polycounter lvl 6
    Dang this is so elegant! What are you using to make this in??
  • Mr.Nuget
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    Mr.Nuget polycounter lvl 6
    Amazing work you got going
  • danielzklein
    This looks amazing! One thing I'd urge you to consider though is how the separation of the different threads would read from game camera angle. It reads super clear from the side, but overhead?
  • Klemen
    Hi guys, thank you so much for all of your comments!

    danielzklein, I'm careful to keep actual gameplay in mind every step of the way, I'm making sure it's nice and readable from different angles and completely viable as far as performance goes.

    Apologies for being a bit distant lately, I'm going through some rough waters at the moment and won't be able to work on this for some time, I'll sort of have to play catch-up at the end.

    I've made some updates to the electric effect. I made a couple of new assets, the build up is much more gradual now and I've polished the main release. I'm also experimenting with a new colour scheme, I'm going with deep purple and orange for high energy parts.

    Klemen_Lozar_RiotContest_5.jpg
  • Sirhaian
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    Sirhaian polycounter lvl 3
    Woha... o_o
    You'll always surprise me more and more and more... This is looking... Eh, I don't even know how to say. It just looks perfect to me. xD
  • C.K.Shepherd
    From what I've seen of most of the League of Legends stuff, there is a ton of color in similar effects. I really like the extra detail in the build up. Sorry, to hear you're going through some tough times, hope all ends up well. It's always nice to see your work develop.
  • Klemen
    I was finally able to get back to this and I've made a couple of updates. I've added some more detail to the lightning and I'm experimenting with color offsetting at the impact location, I like the glitchy feel this produces. For the fire I dropped the aoe trails and focused on direct damage instead. The target sphere now catches fire, I'm still working on the impacts.

    Click the image to view the animation:
    Klemen_Lozar_RiotContest_7.jpg

    Following up I want to do some more general polish and balance the colors so the two spells compliment each other a bit better. I'm generally happy with the major elements now so I wont be doing any big changes.
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