Hi to everyone who will read this (i apologize already if my english is bad but i don’t want to use google translate, so i can also improve in the language lol). I want to share my journey from now on, about my start in the fantastic world of the VFX. Soooo, when i discover the gaming world i was always fascinated for the vfx, in general, the realistic one and the stylized, i love all the style lol. I had already some basic understanding of the shader and a litte more for the niagara emitters ( because i took a master of informati here in italy called BigRock ) but i wasn’t happy about my skill, so i bought a course of P2DesignAcademy called Ablaze held by Nicolas Trevisan. It was okay, i learn and understand more about the things i already new and he explain really good the working sector as a VFX. After i completed the ABlaze course i bought another 2 course from Udemy, and now i have started the course “Learn real time VFX and Niagara in Unreal Engine 5 from scratch”. At the start i was only watching the videos, because he was explaning thinghs i already knew. Now i finished the lesson about he was explaining how to make a portal, after i finished the lesson i thought “Wow, the portal it’s a really cool and good idea, maybe i can make something more complicated than his sprite portal”, and i made this thought like 5 minutes ago.
Soo here i am, i want to make a Water portal, using a sprite for the center and a mesh for the ring, and after that add some small detail, like water drops or foam. I take this picture as a reference for now ( It’s AI generated but i like the idea of this). As soon as I finish the vfx I will continue with the course, I will show you the result as soon as I complete it or if I have some problem that I can’t solve
Cool reference. But the image looks like ice rather than water, so id say try to tweak image if u are looking for water. The center orb looks water like tho. Good luvk. Cant wait to see progress
Hi again everyone!!! Soo i finished the portal like right now, my goal in this vfx was to:
1 Try to make it as similar as possible to the reference
2 Use the same emitter type as the vfx of the course, like the ring around the portal, particle that go outside and inside ecc…
Obviusly i add little small detail in the portal to make look cooler, like the drops effect with the collision of the particle, or the small light in the center that comes and goes. But also, i didn’t want to spend much time in this vfx because i want to continue the course, so I just wanted to like it more than the one in the course lol. But if i want to complain to something about my vfx, i don’t like the water donut/torus, it’s too… static. I was trying to make move some more with some normal or trying to make move the verticles, but the geometry of the ring was too “poor”, and for a small vfx like this i didn’t want to make something too complicated, maybe one day I’ll get back to this vfx and improve it idk. So i really liked to trying this thing by myself ( and sometime return to the lesson because i forget the name of something, LIKE ALWAYS, i have some issue with the name guys ) and here the result of this little work. I also upload the photo of the portal created by the course video lessons. Have a nice day and week, i can’t wait to post my future results !!!
Looks cool soo far. If u wanted to make it look more ripple like on the outer torus u could try adding a caustic texture in the material and a simple world offset. Just a suggestion to test out a quick improvement to get the look u wanted.
When i finish the online course i will absolutely try to put it on the vfx. I have searched online the caustic texture because i didn’t know what was it, but i think it’s work with the light ( as i see the video of “Ben Cloward- Water Caustics” ). I could be cool and improve it for sure. But the things i wanted to try really was like to make something like this:
Right now it’s too far for my abilities, and not ready for… Houdini…
That’s why i was trying to make things with the vertex and the normal, but it didn’t work lol. Anyway thanks for the suggestion, i really appreciate it .
Good Morning to everyone!!!
In this last days i was following the online video-lesson, but the thing that was explained i already knew that. Like how different mesh have influence with the shader, how to use the dynamic parameter/particle nodes and a vfx of an electric sphere ( i really liked how he creates the lighting with the material node called “GeneratedBend” and add some noise, instead of drawing it like some other tutorial ).
I practically was only seeing the video, and doing nothing because i already knew some things that he explained. But, the next video-lesson was about a shield vfx. Soo, i watched all the videolesson, i didn’t like how he create the portal, soo i create one with “my” style ( like the portal). I searched some reference in pinterest, i already knew that i want to create a “futuristic shield”.
After i searched the reference i started to create everything. Strangely I didn’t go back to the videos of the lessons to look for the names of some node, and I also noticed that I’m also more fluid in creating shaders from zero now (It’s really simple shader btw, but 2 week ago i wouldn’t have been able to do them so simply, I would have had a lot of difficulty lol) .
Soo here, i post the references that i take from pinterest, the niagara emitter and the final results
( also i wanted to add some sparkle at the base of the sphere, but i thought that was too much). Thanks for your attention, i hope you like it guys
Hello everyone!!
Soo i was in vacation in the last days, i returned yesterday and i’m continuing the online video-lessons.
The lesson i been following was about a water vfx like in the photo here:
The problem i encounter it’s the same i had with the water portal, that is, the mesh it’s too static, and i DON’T want to move the vertex in the shader and other. Soo i discover today i can also create procedural mesh with blender like houdini (i think). SOOOO i want to improve my skill in blender ( beacuse I sucks) and try to create a procedural mesh that really look like water o something like this. If you have any suggest about this, please tell me, because I’m going into undiscovered waters .
I think this things will cost me 1 week? Idk
Well, Have a nice weekend!!!
(at the end i give up, i thinks there is better way only with the shader, i think i will work to the next project)
It’s looking good so far. Do you plan on creating a cast effect for it? Also, I think that it could benefit from some of the energy arcing away from the sphere to break the silhouette. World Position Offset would be good for that or spawning particles
for now the vfx that i’m doing i do it only for training. probably in the future i could take some vfx that i’ve done and improve it, but for now i’m just following the online courses and modifying the vfx as i like it let’s say, modifying a bit the stuff from the course.
Initially i also thought of doing a cast effect, but in the end i didn’t want to waste too much time on it. Obviously in the future the vfx that i will do will be much more detailed, but for now i want to memorize well how niagara works and the rest. Anyway thanks for the feedback, i will remember it for future vfx .
Hii to everyone, soo, it’s passed like, 20 days?!?
In the last few weeks, in addition to doing VFX, I’ve had to help with family matters, so I haven’t been able to do much and I’ve barely attended the video lessons. In fact, I’m a bit down because certain things aren’t working, and blah blah. BUT, it’s normal to have problems along this journey and have peaks where you think and manage to do so many things and then you fall flat on your face from that peak, but the important thing is to get back up.
In the last few weeks, I’ve mainly done 3 VFX, following the course of course, but with my current skills, I couldn’t help but add a few small details, but I’ll share what I’ve done in the last few weeks below. (I’m currently working on an ice attack, again at the expense of the course.)
Hey guys, so over the last three days I’ve been following the video lessons about an ice VFX. By following the lessons, I discovered how to make the VFX move within the world (the node is called system location). I knew it could be done, but not how to apply it within Niagara. In the past, it would have been useful, but oh well, now I know. That said, I’ll post the two VFX below as they turned out. I hope you like them.
This week I’ll finish the first course and move on to the next one.
Have a good day!
) and here the result of this little work. I also upload the photo of the portal created by the course video lessons. Have a nice day and week, i can’t wait to post my future results !!!
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