UE4 VFX - Death Knight Blast
polycounter lvl 4
Hey guys, I'm back!
So,
i'm starting a new effect based on the Death Knights in WoW, which means I'm going to be shooting for a stylized look. At the same time, I want to restrict myself of all the advanced techniques inside the material editor and focus on traditional sprites and pannering textures on meshes. This is a concept that I drew up, which is also my first concept that i ever drew but I'm going to follow it as best as I can. I hope to keep you guys updated as I dive in!
Replies
Alright, so here's the first update of my effect so far. I didn't use much in my materials other than masking my meshes and panners. All of my textures are handpainted(still learning) so my workflow takes a bit for textures.
What kind of spell does the vfx represent? Is it a slow? High burst? Does it freeze? Does it heal? Just something to give us more context so we can better critique your work.
I hope that gave it some context!
Here's the update. I hope the timing is better! I also added a top-down view and sound for context.
I'm not exactly a vfx person though, but I like explosions! Good on you for adding the sound effects.
Okay, I finally got a chance for an update on this one. I made a few changes to improve shape language, since I kind of want to view it as an animator and step through each frame to see if all the elements work together. A few notes I see already is that the core light is interfering with the rune on the floor, so I'll probably tone that light down a bit. My smoke needs to be re-masked since I had an issue with my alpha, so that'll be a quick change. Added some small streaks within the blast for more emphasis, might add some bloom to it.
I haven't made my frost mark on the floor reflective, since I found some difficulty getting reflections on a translucent material, so had to leave it as is for now. Just gave it some simple alpha erosion for the Ins and Outs.
My best hope is that the timing is on point.
i just have the feel the charging is a tad too long but maybe its just right
@THendersonVFX Have you been following me!? haha
woo, its tiring to work on this for so long haha hoping I could move on soon.
Anyways, here's another update. I changed up the timing the sphere to give anticipation for the burst and tweaked the velocity/life of the inward particles to give off that sucking in effect. For the ring itself, I kept the idea of a pannering material but i simplified the mesh and the motion of the textures. I emitted the ice meshes from the surface of a cylinder for a little breakup. I felt emitting the ice from inwards out would over complicate my effect. I hope this overall effect did its job. Any major issues to point out?
Or, an alternative would be to keep the flames but not scale them up vertically quite so much. Just keep them smallish and add the contact glow Ged suggested to indicate the growth of the rune (ideally they'd only flame on the rune itself but that would probably be quite tricky to pull off). Either way, I think that as they grow tall they start to take attention away from the main thing which is the vortex sucking energy in and the rune on the floor.
Speaking of the smoke, the concept has a smoke that is more uniform whereas the texture you're using is very chunky and contrasty with a straight line of brighter smoke which makes it easier to see the individual particles. If you do add the flames to the expanding ring just after the burst, then a less contrasty look could work well. Could you post the texture you're using?
Your swirling bands of energy that appear at the blast look really cool, you could increase the width of them at the beginning and maybe make them a bit more intense (but not more white, get the blues back in there, like your orb just before the burst) so they show up more and add to the power. Maybe add one or two more or make them live just a little bit longer?
Finally, the ice crystals at the end could be bigger or you could have more of them (or both!). They look good but are too small imo. And when they disappear you could either have them disintegrate and add some sparkly particles that float upwards or shirnk them as if they're melting rather than just fading them out.
Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty good effect but it can be pushed further
oh and heres the smoke texture I've painted:
I going to repaint it to make the darks a little lighter to have a nicer blend overall, since the contrast is too apparent. I've been using alpha erosion, so I played with the white and dark values a bit.
Alright guys, here's another update. I think it was a leap of improvement from the last iteration. I've got to make my new demo reel soon, so I'm hoping this is as awesome as it gets!
[ame]