Personal taste I guess, but I find this way to busy. I would pull back on some of the intense value contrasts and choose a focal area, like the face fx.
God damn that art just wrecked me. The character designs are so unbelievably good, across the board. Animation is amazing. FX are effective yet restrained. I can't handle it.
Shader FX is node based, so it's not as hard as you might imagine now. Sorry if I gave the wrong impression. Perhaps just take a quick look at it and decide for yourself.
Jon : thanks :) a character is in the works to go with it :p another update on the renders, added some FX and touched up a few other things think I'll call it done now :
Take a look at Shader FX. I used that a ton when I was doing game work. Very customizable. This one is super simple. http://ericchadwick.com/img/robot_rising.html#utility_shader
After Effects has an awesome particle fx system. I had to do a scene of a door exploding. All the flames, smoke, and dust were done in there. Saved a lot of time.
From what I've seen, people that can do advanced scripted rigs are always in demand at larger companies, there's always more demand then supply. Similar to the situation with FX Artists.
Got no reason to attend since I'm not aware of anything fx-related, but as always, I'm in the south bay so if anyone's got some free time drop me a line!
Just wondering, as I'm delving into cascade right now: Is it possible to use a (static) mesh surface as spawn location? I'm guessing it's not, since it's nowhere mentioned and there don't seem to be any ribbons for it? Would be a cool feature to have for dissolve type of effects (together with material FX)...