Hey guys! I’m starting a little sketchbook to help me stay accountable for creating manageable effects. The goal is to have a new smaller one up by every Wednesday. If I’m working on a more complex one, I want to post tangible updates on that effect.
To start with:
Merry Christmas! I created this at the end of my advanced shader workshop. Credit goes to Kayozz on sketchfab(now fab) for the cabin model and texturing and CGAxis over on Fab.com for the Firs. Nothing entirely crazy is going on with this but it was a lot of layering of textures for the inner part of the orb.
Here is week 2. I wanted to play with the idea of a stylized cloud burst. I’m not entirely happy with it, but I want to be strict with myself regarding time limits. I am learning to fail faster so I can get better results. My noodling heart is dying a little, but I know it will be worth it.
Things I would like to improve:
Timing (feels a little too soft for my liking)
Dissolve. For some reason, the back-facing portion dissolves at a different rate, despite using the same timeline. It would require more investigation.
Color fade and control on inner portion. I used LUT for the color selection of the different cloud types. I would love to experiment with more control on the timing of the color change on the inner portion. Right now it is controlled by distance from the heart of the effect. I like the effect for the toxic looking cloud on the outside but I feel like it weakens in the dissipation stage.
Dissolve map size: I think I would like to try zooming in a bit on the dissolve texture. I would want to have different coordinates sampled in that case though to help with it not being too stale.
