Hi everyone!
I have a bit of time so I’m happy to participate this month.
So here is a first step of my effect, hope you will like it. 
Last update (Youtube link below in the topic ) :
Wip_1:
https://gph.is/g/4owwGjK
Oh by the way if someone have a good process to create decent gif capture , I’ll be thrilled. 
I use screen to gif but I am not very satisfied…
I like it! but… what strange shadows or glow? Is it your ideas or just not high-quality gif?
Its… Beautiful! Awesome metaball. Its all about shader on mesh?
Hi @Archie I don’t know if you are talking about those weird stepped areas. If yes that’s coming from the gif compression. Because the core is surrounded by a “light smoke” I think those kind of tiny details are complicate to interpret… So be sure I’ll make a correct video when I’ll be a bit more advance in my effect.
@Un1horn thank you! For sure It’s just deformed mesh and shaders tricks. If some parts are confusing I can provide a breakdown for these. 
yeah, i was talking about this stepped)
it’s look like toon sheder 
well, i’m looking forward to your updates)
Wow,That’s really amazing work!!! I like it!!!
Is this made with shaderForge?
I hope I can learn this.
I think its a same trick with parts of meta and long trails + small particles, just different speed, mass. Anyway, good job!
AHAH ok @Archie. I made a quick screenshot to show you what it should look like at the end.
Hi @FishBall I use unreal engine so the shader editor is native. But that’s realy close ,
So it could probably be reproduced in shader forge exept for some helpfull nodes included in UE4.
thx, i really enjoy it 
Thank you, I will try it.
Here is a little update with an animation.
Polishing and full resolution version in coming next week
So here is probably the final version with a YouTube for a better experience. After fighting against sorting issue I think I’m done with it. If I have some time I’ll add some remaining elements after the collapse and animate a bit the refraction who create a boring circle.
https://youtu.be/0TTaU6aEZT0
Feel free to ask if you have any question. (a bit specific it’s better for a breakdown)
I’ll probably share some shader tricks I found which could be useful. 
Love the end, good job 
Didn’t notice on the other GIF the little “bubble” explosion, adding the brighter color was definitly a good idea !
I loooove it ! i can feel the impact and i like how you use the vertex offset !
This shapes, this colors… I like it
woooow, it’s amazing!
super cool! i feel that the flash before it collapses is a bit too subtle. maybe 1 frame of full bright white would convey the energy a bit better which is collapsing at this point?
Hey thank you for your feedback I was also thinking about this, I’ll try to make something like an old TV shut down flash. I don’t know if I would have the time to do it before the dead line but I’ll provide it anyway even if it’s a bit to late
Here we go breakdown time. /o/
First, I wanted to show you how my setup looks like without materials .
Ok now about the Intro Loop Outro. I set I up like this. Intro value grow to one and stay at one. One will be my loop value . For the outro It’s similar except that the value return to 0 ones it’s done and the loop can restart. So in this function the key is Fmod (modulo) my time will incrase to my total duration and return to 0. Now I can use these result in different lerp to switch between different states and to manage the dynamic of the transition you can use a Pow(er) or a curve atlas if you want to have more control on it .
And now I want to share you a recent discovering. This node call Virtual Plane Coordinates can save you.
The main use case for me is when I want to do a projection in function of the camera.
Basically I used it as a kind of screen position coordinate with the particularity the (0;0) of the UV is not on the top left of the screen but a defined anchor point.
I this case the pivot of my object will be my (0;0) . Here I wanted to have UV scale feeting with my sphere so one and minus one should be on the border of the sphere. To debug it I recommend you to use an Abs (absolute value) followed with a floor (to see the step when the value is higher than one) and a saturate on a min(1) (to don’t burn your eyes in the first time ) , this debug should be applied after the divide. In the effect I used it to create a background facing the camera, so it’s applied on the sphere with the reverted normal .
I hope that can be useful for some of you and preserve you long hours of research. 
Beautifully done! 
