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UE4 VFX - Death Knight Blast

Jimster092
polycounter lvl 4
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Jimster092 polycounter lvl 4
bsiFsud.jpg

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!

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  • Jimster092
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    Jimster092 polycounter lvl 4
    [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_eLDJe6k1g[/ame]

    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.
  • Jimster092
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    Jimster092 polycounter lvl 4
    From some early feedback that i received, I will probably tweak with the timing for the startup and speed up the burst and remove the black ring.
  • TomGT
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    TomGT polycounter
    Cool looking effect!

    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.
  • Jimster092
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    Jimster092 polycounter lvl 4
    I gotcha! This effect would be used for crowd control purposes, which would slow down enemies within the area of effect. I would say it is high burst, so the damage depends on the distance from the center. Far = least damage, close = more damage dealt. Non-canceleable once the effect is called upon.

    I hope that gave it some context!
  • Jimster092
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    Jimster092 polycounter lvl 4
    [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kBTk1wq2AY[/ame]

    Here's the update. I hope the timing is better! I also added a top-down view and sound for context.
  • TomGT
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    TomGT polycounter
    Looks even better top-down! I'd be tempted to add a few more particles at a faster rate as it drains energy from its surroundings. That way there would be more buildup to the eventual explosion.

    I'm not exactly a vfx person though, but I like explosions! Good on you for adding the sound effects.
  • Chronicle
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    Chronicle polycounter lvl 5
    I like the explosive portion a lot. The glyphs and the ring look excellent. That said, it feels like the whole ring just suddenly appears instead of expanding outward from the epicenter. I'd love to see that explosion feel like it came from the center instead of suddenly appearing in it's entirety. I really like where you're at so far though, this is an excellent effect.
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    cool, main issue I see is the big smoke ring is too uniform, vary the sizes and lifetimes of the particles and allow some to fade off a bit slower, that should make it feel less contrived
  • Jimster092
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    Jimster092 polycounter lvl 4
    Good callout guys, there were some things that I didn't catch on my first glimpse. I'm going to do another pass and change up my timing and shape of the effect, as well as vary up the effect overall.
  • Julien Noel
    looks good, but the smoke ring could vanish more randomly, in time and shape.
  • Jimster092
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    Jimster092 polycounter lvl 4
    [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnDrg7Tt3Vw[/ame]

    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.
  • skodone
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    skodone polycounter lvl 2
    it has a lot of power :D
    i just have the feel the charging is a tad too long but maybe its just right :) and the vanishing of the crystals looks very good i think it can even stay longer and just melt icelike in a slow way
  • THendersonVFX
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    THendersonVFX polycounter lvl 6
    This sure looks familiar :P
  • Jimster092
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    Jimster092 polycounter lvl 4
    @skodone I'll keep you updated with what I add and tweak pretty soon!

    @THendersonVFX Have you been following me!? haha
  • Jimster092
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    Jimster092 polycounter lvl 4
    [ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITlckQeD_8Q[/ame]

    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?
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    looking much better, put it on a nicer background to really show it off. The expanding sphere could have a slight ring/edge effect where it hits the ground to make it feel more part of the game world.
  • Jimster092
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    Jimster092 polycounter lvl 4
    Ohh you mean have a ring/edge effect around the expanding mesh around the rune, right? I had a small thought of that in my head about that, so I might make that change.
  • skodone
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    skodone polycounter lvl 2
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    its a minor nitpick but yeah it just seems like that icy flame sphere around the rune is coming out of nowhere, I thought it might be nice if it looked like it was coming out of a subtle animated glowing edge on the ground(basically a ring with a scrolling masked texture on it using additive blend), hard to describe this stuff in words isnt it haha.
  • urgaffel
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    urgaffel polycounter lvl 17
    The problem with the flames for me is that there's a vortex pulling energy in at the center and you have an expanding ring of flames that converge towards a point far above the vortex. There's also the way you have the vortex pulling energy in and a slowly expanding circle of wavy things which contradicts the build up you're illustrating. You could change the timing so that the flames burst out together with the smoke.

    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 :)
  • Jimster092
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    Jimster092 polycounter lvl 4
    I've gotta stop being lazy and be able to push my work further haha thanks for the ideas guys! I think what I'm going to do is have my rune appear at the moment the orb is going to burst. That way, I can have sort of a ring of energy scaling towards the center on the floor like a vortex, which won't compete with the rune. It'll also work better than having something thats contradicting the whole vortex motion. Once the burst happens, I'll use what you guys suggested by having the flames expand outwards, whic I think will have a better belonging for it. I always felt the burst was missing something. Everything you guys suggested so far is great!

    oh and heres the smoke texture I've painted:

    Yuif8EF.jpg

    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.
  • Jimster092
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    Jimster092 polycounter lvl 4
    [ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=unx4nTgu0XQ[/ame]

    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!
  • Jimster092
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    Jimster092 polycounter lvl 4
    Alright guys, I'm going to call this my finished product. Thank you to everyone that provided feedback and critiques! If it wasn't for you guys, I wouldn't have learned and improved to make this effect better from just my own perspective. Hope you guys like it!

    [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtMpJR0x-Kc[/ame]
  • skodone
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    skodone polycounter lvl 2
    nice to follow your journey and well done piece :)
  • urgaffel
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    urgaffel polycounter lvl 17
    That turned out really cool in the end, good job!
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