Question for experienced guys

[lolkin]

Good day. Question to all those who are already working in the field of VFX. I was very interested in this field of activity. I have experience in creating 2d illustrations, I also study anatomy, I decided to change the vector of development, but looking at all those fantastic works, my hands drop) I don’t even have a rough understanding of where to start. Perhaps someone could advise where to start for an absolute noob?

[Sig]

Hello Lolkin

I’m no pro but I think I can help.

The real time VFX you see out there are made on a Particle Editor, which are commonly found inside Game Engines and other kind of softwares too.

At first, pick a course on Udemy or follow tutorials on Youtube. Don’t stress about which Game Engine you’re gonna start with. Did you put your eyes on a tutorial/course that do some cool stuff on whatever engine? Go on, download and install it, and just start!

About the skills you have already developed: all that will help you!
2D painting will help you a lot on hand painting textures on Photoshop/Krita or any similar software.
What I mean by textures, I’m refering to stuff like this:

You will be painting all kinds of things like organic, elemental, magical, abstract, ethereal

I don’t know about anatomy, but I’m sure you have developed good observing skills by studying it and improving it. Your keen eye will definitely help you.

Course recommendation:

This is the first course out of 4 courses by Gabriel Aguiar. It’s on Unity engine.
https://www.udemy.com/course/vfx-for-games-in-unity-beginner-to-intermediate/

This is the same course, but the Unreal version of it.
https://www.udemy.com/course/ue4-vfx-for-games-beginner-to-intermediate/

I recommend starting on Unity because I feel it’s easier to find VFX tutorials for Unity over Unreal (even though I started with Unreal). Plus, Gabriel Aguiar also has a Youtube Channel with a bunch of Unity tutorials, so you can mix the courses with the Youtube tutorials from his channel.

But really, don’t stress about picking an Engine! Any course/tutorial video will do tons of goods for you! Gabriel courses alone will help you get you going by yourself in no time

Once you’re done with Gabriel courses and want to go deeper, plan on taking https://www.vfxapprentice.com/

I know @Hovl is making a course too, but I don’t know when it’s going to be released.

There are these awesome posts and you should definitely take a look. If something doesn’t make sense for you, just comment and people will come and clarify (this forum is pure love). Plus, don’t mind checking every link at once, else you will get overwhelmed! Slowly go through the links as you progress on your learning journey

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[lolkin]

Thank you very much for the information)

[Partikel]

Out of curiosity, how did you find the forum? Since this question is covered in the two pinned threads at the top for anyone who joins or isn’t logged in. Is there something we could do to make it even more obvious?