Home Contests & Challenges Archives Riot Creative Contest 2017 Riot Creative Contest 2017 - VFX

[Riot Creative Contest 2017] - Yanni

Yanni
polycounter lvl 6
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Yanni polycounter lvl 6
Hello,

I decided to also take part in the competition. I'm a bit late to the party but I may be able to create something worthy in two months time. 

My work will be under the realistic category, with a hint of stylization. 

Details and WIP to come soon.

Thank you

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Replies

  • Yanni
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    Yanni polycounter lvl 6

    Hello, 

    The past week has been spent pondering ideas and doing a lot of RnD, the time is limited and I tried to keep things simple and straight forward.  

    As I said in the previous post I will be taking part in the Realistic category. However, I do want to include stylised elements and a lot of magic. The subtle stylization will not only be reflected in the textures used, but also in the colours and in the animation. 

    I am doing everything in UE4. 

    The idea is that Sphere one creates a couple of runes from which a big projectile is generated and travels towards Sphere two. A big impact is generated on Sphere two and all the energy of the projectile fades away. 

    For the second effect, it will either be a burst heal with a heal over time or a shield buff. The heal over time is technically considered a buff right? 

    Below is my first pass; I focused mainly on the animation and timing of the anticipation. A lot of tweaking and refining is needed, but this is the first pass on the expansion/timing of the runes and the foundation of the projectile. Various experiments were done to find the right technique and approach to the projectile's trails, and I think the ones its currently using work the best so far.

     The impact is currently just a flash, as a place holder. 

    Thank you


    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Np87EE9sun0Z8Og3SoZy7cqSehu3XdSe







  • Yanni
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    Yanni polycounter lvl 6
    Hello again,

    a lot of work has been done to the attack and there's a lot more left to be. My second update includes an updated/reworked anticipation and projectile as well as the addition of an impact. 

    Thank you



  • Kassyndra
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    Kassyndra triangle
    I love this! The color palette is my absolute favorite and the impact is so beautiful! My only suggestion is that you might want to add some effect on 'Launch'. Right now the projectile is just kinda pop out. And I think that if you could make the rune circle dissipate (like expand and fade away?) on 'Launch' it would be very cool. Can't wait to see more!
  • Yanni
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    Yanni polycounter lvl 6
    Hello,

    thank you very much for your kind words. Indeed when I captured that video a lot of WIP elements were disabled. I will be sharing an update of that ability soon. 

    For now, here's the first version of my second ability, the status effect. Sphere two casts a burst heal with a heal over time on itself. This WIP shows the general direction that I'll be heading towards. Colours are shades of gold with tha hint of green. It's meant to be a holy effect with links to a sort of natural theme. It's currently lacking anticipation, as well as some ground elements that I'm planning on adding.

    More to come.

    Thank you


  • Yanni
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    Yanni polycounter lvl 6
    Hello,

    I have been making a lot of changes to the projectile and the impact, mainly trying to make them much more powerful. The projectile is close to be finished and the impact has a lot of WIP emitters deactivated. The anticipation/muzzle flash is aso heavily WIP. Hopefully on Friday I'll be able to share more. 

    Thank you


  • Yanni
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    Yanni polycounter lvl 6
    Hello again,

    here's another quick update to the main ability. I also improved the lighting in the scene and made it more "friendly". 

    I hadven't gotten a chance to create a muzzle flash yet. I will be doing that tomorrow hopefully or later tonight if I have time. 

    Thank you


  • Yanni
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    Yanni polycounter lvl 6
    Hello,

    focusing mainly on Sphere Two effect today. I'm doing a different take on a heal effect, I'm trying to make an "intimidating" looking one. It may be a support effect that heals the player instantly and then over time, but I want it to be one that if it was in an actual game and you saw it, you'd think twice about wasting your abilities on that support by yourself.

    Basically.. Sphere Two is not joking either.. It's on between them two.


  • Yanni
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    Yanni polycounter lvl 6
    Hello again,

    a bit more progress on the heal effect. Trying to "play" well between primary and secondary colours without making it noisy or seperate from each other. Can I also just say how much I love Random Seed in UE4? It's rarely used in-game but for something like this it works like a charm. Being random has never been more safe.. my thought for the day.

    Sphere Two is almost done, any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Sphere one will get some love tomorrow and improve its FX. 

    I'm also uncertain as to which camera angle I prefer for my beauty shot. It's a bit tricky as Camera 01 "focuses" on the impact but Camera 02 shows more of the status effect. 

    Thank you


  • Yanni
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    Yanni polycounter lvl 6
    Hello,

    today I'm working on the main effect and improving pretty much everything. I started with working on the Anticipation/Muzzle Flash/Dissipation. I wanted to give more life to the rings so they aren't aimlessly hovering there; they have a sort of personality/motion and interact with the actual ability. 

    Still much more left to do.

    Regarding the status effect, I see a few things that really annoy me about it. I'll try and make some time to address those too before I submit it. 

    Thank you


  • Yanni
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    Yanni polycounter lvl 6
    Hello again,

    last update for today. I further improved the Anticipation/Muzzle Flash/Dissipation of the casting as well as the impact and the projectile. Apparently it's a bit dusty in the level, maybe them two spheres are fighting over who will be hoovering the floor.. (bad joke about of the dust kickup :|

    I also improved the status effect - I removed the straight harsh lines and the flares from the sphere. The lines didn't really fit, and the flares made Sphere Two look like a mini sun, that wasn't something I wanted. Also added a bit of green in the burst, I felt like it was lacking it. 

    Lastly I'm trying different camera angles for my beauty shot. Currently there are inconsistencies between the two camera angles, some elements look slightly different, that's because of Camera Offset and Fresnel. I'm currently leaning towards the second one, it may not show the front of the impact but frankly most of the stuff is happening behind and around the sphere, plus it makes the projectile more ominous. 

    Any comments, ideas or feedback please feel free to share. 

    Thank you


  • Yanni
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    Yanni polycounter lvl 6
    Hello,

    it turns out Sphere Two will be doing the hoovering.. I misunderstood the task and thought that the status effect didn't necessarily have to be a result of the impact. It says "shield, buff" - those two words confused me how an attacking impact would generate a shield or a buff to the receiver, so I went with a self-cast status effect.

    Anyway, I'll be removing the heal/heal over time effect and replacing it with either a snare or a burn effect caused by Sphere One. I've got the elements, I just need to re-work them and adapt them, shouldn't take too long. 

    Thank you
  • Yanni
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    Yanni polycounter lvl 6
    Poor Sphere Two is doomed to feel Sphere One's wrath, unable to do anything about it! I changed the ability slightly to implement the looping status effect which is burn!

    The main difficulty was making the effect to work in two directions - vertically and horizontally; transitioning from the impact which moves on the X to the looping moving on the Z axis. So rather than rotating using rotation, I used the material instead. I tried to fake that effect that fire has when it's really windy and it tries very hard to remain attached to the source. Considering the force that it receives from the impact's shockwave, naturally you'd expect it to try it hardests to remain attached to the sphere and burn it... 

    Here's the first pass.. I may or may not have turned Sphere Two's defensive status effect into what it's actually damaging it..

    Thank you


  • radm0bile
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    radm0bile polycounter lvl 9
    Awesome!! Love the flame status effect, the movement of it is so well done. How are you accomplishing it? Is it keyed or is there some vertex animation happening in the shader? 
        
    Great stuff :)
  • Yanni
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    Yanni polycounter lvl 6
    Hey,

    thank you so very much! It's all in the shader, masking world X and stretching the mesh towards that direction  with some noise and with a mask to keep some of the vertexes grounded. Then transitioning with a parameter to a different vertex offset to bring it back and give it it's waviness.

    Last update for today, closer to what I have in mind. I still want to fix a few things and then I'll call it done. 

    Thank you


  • parag
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    parag polycounter lvl 4
    Oh i loved it .. the impact looks sooo awesome
  • Yanni
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    Yanni polycounter lvl 6
    Hello,

    I'm glad you like the impact! Thank you!

    So before submitting, one final pass.

    I edited a great number of things in all four particle systems. Mainly making the FX look better for the new primary camera angle and fixing colours/fresnels, camera offsets etc etc.

    The biggest changes were made to the status effect. I wanted to bridge the gap between fast dissipating impact and the much slower moving fire. So I (fakely) turned the impact into the licks of fire that are pushed back by the shockwave, in an attempt to improve the transition from fast moving elements to slower ones.

    That's all! Thank you and it's been an awesome project! 


  • ibanez_cc
    Wow! The motion on the fire at the end is amazing
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