Since I’m lazy and don’t want to create another topic every time I post, I figured I would follow the trend of having a Sketchbook. Feel free to express your thoughts or critiques at any time! I would love to hear them!
So to start it off, a small plasma bolt projectile inspired by one of my most guilty pleasures, Lost Planet 2!
I used a mixture of hand painted textures and houdini for the electricity. So far, I’m quite happy with the effect.
https://youtu.be/4lNCFQ92cvU
https://youtu.be/9hMBhoJqjYQ
My only concern is that the texture that flashes on the impact stands out as different, but that’s what I get for yoinking a texture tailored for a completely different effect. 
A scrapped Energy Ball effect.
I saw that a lot of people were doing energy/lightning/plasma balls of their own, so I figured I would give it a try.
Idle-
https://youtu.be/MzwRq_fuFBI
Mature Detonation-
https://youtu.be/R6_T92I1mjo
Premature Detonation-
https://youtu.be/S3yVvU2yqwM
My reason for scrapping it was just that I worked on it off and on for close to a month because I had very little time to actually work ON it due to being busy with IRL stuff. I ended up spending more time thinking about it then working on it, thus leading to a complete loss of motivation for it. I also had discovered a lot of other cool things I wanted to try by the end of the month, so this kinda just fell by the wayside.
I’m back after a personal hiatus, and my first thingy back is another energy ball! I’m so creative!
https://youtu.be/jaOQNxPoV70
I’m sure with all that overdraw, it would run great in a game!
Joking aside, I wanted to do something more chaotic and really play with the tools and techniques I have absorbed these past few months, even if that means making my GPU sound like a jet engine. To my surprise, this included a lot of hacky workarounds to really get the effect I was aiming for. Then again, that seems to be pretty indicative of game development in general, so I really shouldn’t be surprised.
One of the things that I did a lot more of this time around was hand painting textures, especially for the electrical arc impacts. Was strangely fun to sketch a few frames in Photoshop, then watch it come to life in engine.
Another thing I did different this time around is I sketched a quick concept reference. Special thanks to @jasonkey for his VFX Apprentice series opening my eyes to this workflow, even if my drawing abilities are very… uh… 
I think for my next project, I’m going to focus a bit more on making good looking decals and smoke/fire, since they are the areas I feel I am lacking in at the moment. Even if trying to make an explosion look good leaves me with a sudden, and painful, lack of hair.
Anyways, enough rambling. Let me what you think! Can’t fix something if I don’t know its broke!
