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My VFX art and breakdowns

THendersonVFX
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THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
Hi Polycount! This will be my first thread on here. I'm a vfx artist, and I thought I'd start sharing my work on here. Feedback and comments are welcome.

First up is a health pickup I made over a year ago. Why am I just posting this now then? Well, I was prompted to make breakdowns of some of my work, so I figured I'd include some of my concept as well as my first attempt at a vfx breakdown vid. Let me know what you think, I'm already in the process of applying some feedback I got from GDC this year.

Concept
AEx7eIa.jpg?1

Screen grab
cNFTBap.jpg?1

Breakdown [attempt #1]
http://youtu.be/yC7Q75Pkt7g


Thanks for stopping by! I'll be adding more breakdowns and FX work in progress on here soon.

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  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    Shield effect wip

    sov1SRC.jpg?1
  • Yilativ
    Hey, really interesting work, and so cool :)

    Keep it up :D
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    Update: Effect in a day! I will be trying to create a new effect each day for the next few days.
    Today's effect: Orbital Strike

    nova.png

    warhammer_40k_dawn_of_war_II_3.jpg

    I'll be making targeting textures and various textures for my materials in Photoshop, the few meshes that I'll need in Maya, and putting it all together in UDK. Hoping to have a playblast/screen grab of the final rough effect before 12pm pst tonight. Let the race begin! I'll be trying to post updates throughout the day
  • urgaffel
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    urgaffel polycounter lvl 17
    While speed is good, why not take more than a day to create the effect? Would mean you have a bit more time to work on timing and polish... Unless it's just meant to be a fast prototype thing in which case ignore what I just said :)
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    You're quite right, and I only got through the blocking stage yesterday as it was. I will re adjust my times tables for 1 new, polished effect a week.

    I was hoping to do a sort of "speed sculpt/model in a day" type thing, but with FX. I don't think I'm fast enough for that yet though.
  • Add3r
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    Add3r polycounter lvl 11
    As someone really interested in dabbling in the FX realm of game art to supplement his/her art pipeline, would be really cool to see your different steps of development of a custom effect. As for Engine, did you mean UE4? Or actually UDK?
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    UDK for now. I have some works in progress within that so far. Once those are done, I'll swap over to UE4 and learn that from the ground up. I have just under a week off, so I am trying to catch up with the feedback I got at GDC as well as get some new stuff going. Once I get back to work, I plan on learning UE4 bit by bit in my free time, including blueprint and the new features.

    I'll try and remember to take some progressive screen grabs and videos so you can see the process.
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    screen grab of the blocking. I'm mostly just duplicating emitters now, while making polished art assets for the final effect.

    L9xusgN.jpg?1
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    I've started concepting out the tech rings I'll be using as my targeting system ground decal. For anyone who needs inspiration for tech rings, my go to is always "Iron Man HUD" in Google image search. Here are some good references:

    mkVII_HUD_leviathan_jayse_hansen.png

    mkVII_dock_iconsVector_jayse_1400.png

    latest?cb=20140505174608

    And finally my rough concept. I'll be greypacking sets of the rings into RGBA so I can have more control over them in the material editor. My biggest consideration for my concept, and the effect itself, are leading lines that will match up to give the look of crosshairs. The sets of rings will rotate around at varying speeds when the effect starts, and will eventually stop and change color when they are all aligned.

    uUY8KaN.jpg?1
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    Shield breakdown post while I work on the orbital strike

    [vv]122051061[/vv]
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    Wip of the Orbital Laser. Would like any feedback on the timing and colors so far. Having the timing down for target would help before moving on to the timing of the laser, blast and additional elements

    [vv]123025906[/vv]
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    Added more elements (more to come) and put the wip effect in an environment. Environment is Epic's Epic Citadel map. There is some post process stuff in the map as is, so it may look a little blurry.

    To be added next: Dust ring from the impact, sparks, ground damage texture, residual smoke, residual heat/distortion particles.

    Critiques and feedback encouraged! I'm always looking to get better with my work

    EDIT: If video doesn't show up it may still be uploading on Vimeo, as I'm only a basic user. Try refreshing in 10-20 minutes

    [vv]123452610[/vv]
  • Eric Chadwick
    This is great, you're doing some cool work. There aren't that many FX people here on Polycount though.

    You might get additional feedback over on Tech-Artists.Org, where they have a dedicated section.
    http://tech-artists.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?35-VFX-Artists
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    Sweet! Thanks a bunch for the link :D
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    Finished designing my impact cracks. I'll be using this as a template in Maya to model the pieces of debris and orient them, as well as a mask for my plasma emissive in my material. After that I'll put that into zbrush to do some texturing work, then bake out a normal and displacement map. These will then go together to create my decal for the residual after the blast. The plan is to have displacement and normal values, and a lightly shaded material that modifies any ground texture underneath, instead of just the same texture decal over and over

    3CGQrrw.jpg?1
  • Add3r
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    Add3r polycounter lvl 11
    These break downs have been amazing so far! :) As said in my previous post, seeing the process is hugely informative. Orbital laser is my favorite so far
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    Thanks! The hp pickups and the holo shield are just over a year old now. I need to go back to them and apply what I've learned since then. Hoping to have more progress of some stuff by tonight
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    Updated version. Need to mask out the edges of the texture for the material. Waiting to hear back from someone on whether I use a mesh or displacement map for the ground scarring.

    [ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db8vwwG7Wns[/ame]
  • Jarran
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    Jarran polycounter lvl 11
    looking good mate, keep at it
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    While waiting for feedback on my orbital laser question, I decided to jump in and do some work with Ribbons/Trails. This is something I see in almost every game I've played, even a few shooters. I don't expect my first attempt will be all too crazy, but I'm going to try and get a cool ice trail going (see what I did there? :P) on a sword anim I have.

    10.jpg

    some concept and colors

    qTxt2kg.jpg
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    While in between working on my sword trails effect and the Orbital Strike thing, a friend wanted me to make a fog effect that fades when the player gets close to it. Here is the non-tweaked test of it. The camera/object world position nodes are connected to find their distance and use that number to drive the opacity and Alpha Erosion for the material. Effect pops in and out too quickly, but again, this is un-tweaked.

    [ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG9B1CqOQfI[/ame]
  • Myging
    Wow these are really cool.
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    Throwing stuff into zbrush for some texturing and sculpting. This will go over the glowing crack decal after the blast

    kNtwSfw.jpg?1
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    Rubble quickly textured and put in the particle system

    uR6a43c.jpg?1
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    Finally uploaded my beginning trails work on the Ice sword. Here's my basic run at it so far, though it still needs the mesh around the blade and some extra elements as well.

    [ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3xoZby1tuw[/ame]
  • urgaffel
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    urgaffel polycounter lvl 17
    The lignering particles look a bit weird. I'm guessing they are supposed to be snow but I'm not sure that it works all that well. If you're going for more of an ice crystal feel then you need to make them twinkle a bit and maybe have more crystaline shapes, sharper edges.

    For your ion laser thing, have you thought about generating actual meshes for the impact, a couple of rocky things that look a bit like your impact mesh? You can have them come up through the ground (or just appear behind the smoke) to give it a more 3d feel.

    The timing on the ion blast seems a bit off too, it lacks a certain oomph. I'm not sure if it's because it's all quite linear or too slow. Could you upload an mp4 or quicktime so I can step through it? It's easier to see what the timing is like when you play it slower/step through the frames :)
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    The problem with the snow feel on the sword is there's something in UDK that's going on. When the camera is pulled really far back, you can see them all, but up close a bunch of them disappear. If that wasn't a problem, I'd reduce the life on the snow a bit so it just sits closer to the blade for a more subtle approach. I'll take your advice on the ice crystals though. I sketched some out in my concept for it, and I think I will add some of those in.

    As for the impact, I do actually have a mesh in there, I just scaled it down too far on the Z I guess :/ I'll bump it up a bit and see how it looks.

    You are right about the "oomph' factor too. I have a few ideas on how to add some more to it and give it some punch. As it stands now, the beam is an un moving cylinder that just intensifies really fast. I was thinking of adding some downward moving element and some more initial impact pizzazz

    What would be the best way to upload a quicktime on here?
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    oops double post
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    PS, thanks for the feedback, it's appreciated! ^_^
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    I haven't done an update in a while, and I've been on a time crunch so I won't be able to post everything I want just yet to accompany this, but here is an update of the orbital laser: [ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=37TfNoiyxsI[/ame]
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    I do plan on adding in breakdowns and texture/material screen grabs to show how it's all put together, but that'll be for a later date.
  • St4lis
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    St4lis polycounter lvl 7
    You should use the dual of a Geodisic Dome for the shield effect. Ain't no good using hexagons if you're gonna pinch them at the poles anyway.

    G%C3%A9ode_V_3_1_duale.gif
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    nice work so far, orbital lazer is especially cool!
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    Camp fire I've been working on as well, still wip

    [ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1HlZGHP4nE[/ame]
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    Updating my "Health Pickup" atm. Trying to get a better fantasy feel with less generic elements. Currently re topologising (sp?) a quick crystal I made in zbrush that I will not only use as a mesh, but will render out and make a sub uv texture of for other uses later on (vfx kitbashing!)

    bDKik8O.jpg?1
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    Also St4lis, I tried the geodesic sphere, but it was really hard to make, and the scripts I found weren't very good. Also I still got pinching at poles just the same as using a regular sphere. As my holo shield uses a texture and texture manipulation for the effect, using the geodesic sphere with a fresnel just wasn't as versatile and gave me less control of the effect.
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    Health pack update!

    First, a comparison of my first go at it almost 2 years ago and the new one.
    cMeBuJc.jpg?1

    wip update of the effect itself:
    [ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2vsBonuPdc[/ame]
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