Reviving this thread.
I’m working with a professor at a university now to develop their “Intro to Real Time Visual Effects” class. Not sure if I should split this off to it’s own topic, or just continue here… let me know if there’s opinions. These students are 2-4 semesters into the program, so they already know the basics, not need to start from jump. It’s a 15 week class, with 2 classes a week.
I’m starting with 2 things. 1) An overview of what each class will cover. 2) Some “philosophy” of how to approach the class in general to maximize getting kickass portfolio pieces in the end.
Then, as they come up upon each week, I intend to do a deeper dive writeup into what I’m thinking the class will look like.
So, here’s the rough outline of #1. Feel free to give feedback / critique / additions / swaps / order, etc… on the list:
15 weeks
- Overview
-Make new - Spark
-Help - Discord
-Use Reference
-Montage
- Environment - Mist
- System - Gun / Muzzle
- System - Gun / Impacts
- Blueprint triggering - Weapon setup. Looping FX. Triggering FX on proximity.
- Destructible - Crate of fruit
- Aesthetics and critique of FX
- Shaders - Projections, Vertex, Sci-Fi
- Shaders - Shield (UV distortion, refraction, multi-UV’s, soulercoasters) ++ Shield/weapon interaction
- Stylized - Torch
- Stylized - Weapon Trail
- Stylized - Spell
- Final: Trailer Moment + Sequencer.
- Trailer Continued + Lecture on Performance.
- Trailer - Fin.
#2, The approach / Philosophy. These are a smattering of ideas for how/why the above is organized in the way it is, and suggestions for getting the most out of the students.
A) The above layout is intended accomplish a few thing. It is expected that each week a new technical topic is being presented. But always with an attached "Make this thing, and you will learn the tech topic along the way.
-The spark is intended as a “make effect exist, tune a few params” intro to the ui.
-The Mist is a similar… very basic effect. Here’s a texture, not need to get into materials. Just spawn them over time, select the texture, give random spins, etc… Still familiarizing with the ui.
-Etc… Each bit builds upon the previous, adding complexity.
-In the end, we’ll cover the basic types of fx work… Environment, Gameplay/Systems, Destructible, Trailer.
-We’ll hit major genres along the way. Realism, Stylized, Sci-Fi.
B) I recommend spending 15 minutes at the beginning of every single class… to do a critique of random fx X. maybe it ties into the effect you’re going to do later in that class… maybe not.
Get a video of an effect from some game. And spend some time running through the checklist of Aesthetic critique. Discuss how it nails, or could improve upon each principal. Get them thinking from day 1… what makes an effect good. Rather than just “how it’s made”. We have an internal “FX Critique” guideline page that will be provided (and I’ll start a thread for, when we get to that).
The goal is not to just train them to make FX. The goal is focus heavily on the aesthetics of what makes a good effect and teach them to execute that as part of their routine process.
Other topics, that I haven’t really fit into the list, but are important topics that have been brought up elsewhere in this thread… suggestions on how/where to incorporate these would be appreciated:
- Sequencer
- Vector Field
- EmberGen
- Animation for VFX
- Math for VFX
- Deadlines, pacing and staying on schedule
- Color Theory
Questions:
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Scope. Does this seem reasonable? Is 1 new effect each class seem viable or is that too much?
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What did I miss?