I’m learning to become a VFX artist. This is the first effect I’ve taken through the full creation process from start to finish. I aimed for a stylized approach, where I could apply animation principles more intentionally.
I’ve heard countless times how crucial timing and motion are, so I decided to make that my first focus. This effect doesn’t have a specific theme—my only goal was to create a stylized explosion. I adjusted the timing purely based on intuition, without using references, hoping to sharpen my sense for it. I spent around 25 hours working on it.
I know you’re busy, but if you have a moment, I’d really appreciate your feedback on how I could improve my timing in this effect. I’d love to learn from your insights.
Great idea to focus just on certain fundamentals! It’s a way to go!
I feel like you almost got a timing right here! It feels powerful as it should, though because of that additional spawn rate of those small sparks, the momentum is lost.
If you would want the effect to feel impactful but have a nice fade out what I would do instead is to stop that spawn rate and maybe slightly extend on life of the sparks that come from initial explosion. It will feel more cohesive
First of all, thank you for taking the time to provide me with your valuable feedback. I really appreciate it!
After reflecting on your recommendation, I realize that the additional sparks do indeed break the momentum. My intention was to add an extra layer of visual interest, but looking back, I can see that I misused them in this case. In a high-paced environment, where the explosion should be the focal point, these additional sparks might create unnecessary noise and distraction rather than enhancing the effect’s intended impact.
If you don’t mind me asking, do you have any general guidelines on balancing secondary elements without losing impact?
A perhaps weird way to think about vfx is think about how they sound. I do this a lot when thinking about how something should look, and feeling out the timing. I’ll often be thinking about the sound at the same time, or be literally making the sounds with my mouth. Doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the sound it’ll end up with once the audio peeps take it, but I find the timing for how long I need to take a quick breath, or change the shape of my mouth to make a different sound, is pretty close to the amount of time things should be spaced apart at a minimum.
For your original effect, the extra embers could still work, but they’d need to be delayed more. Give them “a breath” as it were between the initial explosion and when they start to appear. You almost need to think of them as two separate effects that play in succession with a brief intermission rather than one effect. Immediately after an explosion, the air around it would still be swirling, maybe contracting back on itself violently. It doesn’t feel right the way you had it before because it’s too calm for what would be expected. But if you give that moment of breath, you give the effect time to relax and some embers to make it feel like it’s still burning can make it feel hot rather than like it fizzled out.
But you also need to be mindful if that’s something that makes sense for this effect or if it needs to just get out of the way as quickly as possible.
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. I don’t find it strange at all to think about sounds when working on visual effects. When creating the foundation of the effect, I also used similar playful sounds to feel out the rhythm. However, I stopped using them towards the end of the effect. I find your approach really insightful, and I appreciate you guiding me in this direction.
Since there isn’t a specific theme for the effect, I tried your suggestion and also added a bit of smoke to enhance the post-impact feel.
A secondary element that isnt sparks could help fill it up a little more and have it feel more unique : ) Like a curling fiery smoke piece . Just to help ease out the effect further. You have really nice punch on the main impact and I really like your color transitions. I liked the deep reds you were getting on the sparks in your second post
Thanks so much for your feedback! I really appreciate it. A curling fiery smoke piece sounds like an awesome idea. I can definitely see how that would help enhance the effect and make it feel more unique. I’ll experiment with that and see how it flows with the overall impact. Glad you liked the color transitions and deep reds. I’ll keep pushing those elements further. Thanks again for your insight!
