Getting Started in Real Time VFX? Start Here!

That might scare some new people off haha

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Thanks so much for kicking this off @Travis!

We’re going to switch this over to a WIKI, allowing every user of trust level 2 or higher to edit, and pin this to the site so each new user sees it.


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Thank you for this information!

I am a newcomer to VFX and have been searching for ways to start for a time now. I still have a hard time finding my own workflow and to decide which tools to use. But this post really gave me an idea of where to look, exactly what I needed.

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Great topic!

Pathways to VFX is a topic for an upcoming bootcamp panel discussion. Stay tuned!!!

There is a similar discussion happening here…This is more from the educators POV but if you’re just getting into the field, this is a great view into what the pros are looking for and what skills are valued.

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I completely forgot about that topic. I’ll run through it and see what kind of across-the-board info I can add to the wiki here that would be beneficial for brand new people

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If you ever have any questions, feel free to post them here or you can message me directly!

Not quite on the toppic of this post, but I was wondering what a good place to start learning the more technical side of VFX would be. I have little scripting experience but really want to get some more flexibility out of my effects, as at the moment I feel kind of held down by some of cascades limitations

What kind of technical/scripting stuff are you looking to learn? Do you mean driving effects with Blueprint or Sequence, or more advanced material tricks and post process stuff?

That’s partly my problem, I’m not sure what a good place to start would be. I have an understanding of the material editor cascade and blueprints. Anything out side that and I’m honestly not sure where to start, maybe I should focus more on just those three things but I kind of want a better grasp of what exactly I can do with what. Just a good place to start would be great.

Outside of materials and Blueprints, I’m at a loss on how to help, and I think our resident tech artists on here are pretty busy. That’s really as tech as it gets for us as vfx artists, the rest is either engine rendering stuff, C++, optimization, or bleeding edge stuff from conferences like Siggraph.

I’d check out Ryan Brucks’ blog Shaderbits there might be something you’re looking for there.

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Thanks for the response, I’m really just looking for some direction right now. The blog definitely looks interesting

Yeah Ryan does that bleeding edge “can technically run in real time” stuff that will be more prevalent when the hardware can support it. Sorry I couldn’t point you to what you were looking for, maybe check out Tech-Artist.org ? Looks like they still have a decent amount of activity on there.

Hi Travis!
i am a beginner vfx artist, can you show me where i can find a online course of vfx for mobile game??
Thanks u :slight_smile:

Hey Max, there aren’t actually “vfx for mobile” so to speak. AAA, Indie, VR, Mobile, they’re all the same thing: real time fx. All of the resources provided can get you started on fx for mobile. The only difference among all those is your target platform, and the performance you need to get out of your effects. Mobile just needs to be much more streamlined than say something for PC. You’re not going to have 2048 textures and expensive materials and tons of polys in your geo.

Unfortunately, even working a lot with our tech artist I still don’t know much about profiling performance or what the limitations are for different platforms and how to profile for them specifically :frowning: that will probably be a Unity or Unreal forums question. I’m sure there are a few people on here who may be able to give you a better direction on that, so maybe posting in General Discussion would get you better answers.

The TL;DR is that vfx for mobile and vfx AAA PC are the same in process, the difference is the cost of the effect, and how to trim it down for mobile.

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Thanks for your support! i’ll post my question in General Discussion
Thank u :slight_smile:

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Thank you for that. I’m a beginner motion designer from Brazil, and I want to start to work with vfx for games, I just didn’t know how to start. You have just shown me the path to follow this dream.

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You could also check out CG Master Academy I have taken a couple of the FX courses and they have been well worth it.

https://www.cgmasteracademy.com/programs/7-houdini-fx-program

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That’s a really good content. Thank’s, buddy

I’m following the Pluralsight content transposing it to Unity and it’s great! My only question is: I think that the two Eat3d courses looks great but as they looks quite old from software pov, can be translated effectively on Unity3D now? I mean, without getting mad :slight_smile: