I’m heading to bed now, but how would you go about making it rounded? I aim to project it on the ground using Horizontal Billboard, but no way I can leave it looking like a quad!
Ohhh it’s a pretty inteligent solution. For this night I experimented with Polar Coordinates, but will try this one too. It ocurred to me that, in this method, the smoothness of the roundness is dependent on the amount of geo, right?
Oh my, I think I went past by this when I first read your reply! Thanks for sharing it
model a circle that is flat rather than revolved and use vertex color to feather it. provided you already use vertex color which is good for particles.
a texture of a ring/circle (not polar uv that) to make the whole thing a mask
more circle math objects which can be attached with sliders/variables to play with feathering and size etc
I like the overall structure and the looks, but I feel there is plenty of room to make it better…specially when it comes to timing. For me it lacks that “snap”, that “kick” when it goes boom.
For me it lacks that “snap”, that “kick” when it goes boom
mm yes that pop - to noddle that needs some classical animation timing on the initial burst
Jason Kyser has a very succinct video
anticipation without a buildup object is a touch tricky so here is a break down of its beat(s)
here slowed down - it’s pretty much a Flam, a double-wack intended to be the same effect that thickens the crunchy feel.
this is not a prescription for exactly how it works, that is you don’t need a big white ball with harsh edges, sometimes you can use rings and dark colors as well
Oh my I never noticed it! I didn’t even know what a Flam is.(thanks for the illustrative video, it was key for my understanding)
I usually put things together thinking it if they go boom all at the same time, it would actually increase it the pop feel.
The Flam also happens in most of the effects here, right?
I watched many videos of VFX Apprentice, including this one here and the rest of the playlist. I really like it!
I will watch it again because I might have let something slip by. Plus, I watched it right after I started messing around with VFX…meaning I might be able to get more of it now than when I first watched it
Hmmm yeah, it does increase the impact/pop. I like it, but, in my mind, I aim to make the effect as close as possible as it will be in the game (the imaginary game in my mind hahaha).
Is it really okay to go all in on these more “intrusive” effects, like big flash and contrasty stuff, camera shake…?
The Flam also happens in most of the effects here, right?
it is
Gab has those shapes start as burst/dots bigger than the shockwaves at first - if you use Chrome “Gif scrubber” let’s you go through gif by right clicking. neat plugin
it’s an exaggeration of scope - the object seems bigger; like a supernova
light hits first and overpowers the eye
then colors compensated by your brain regain fidelity and you get the energy/shockwave after
like putting your hand in super hot water and you’re not sure if it’s cold at first.
here’s a crude mock contrast of shape and color
frankly I don’t think the bright yellow works, it’s too much but something to experiment with, having 2-4 frames of POP in the beginning might be what you are looking for.
timing on the pop is good, what is hurting the effect is the clipping, you can try a lensflare object instead so it sorts over the ground,
or set the ground to have sorting / depth test check that places it on a priority like -1 behind your VFX
both of those rings have some tricks I can’t quite nail down from experience, but I have some ideas
smoke - 2 cone mesh
soft cloud texture
subtraction operates vertically to erode the texture as it pans up,
i say subtraction first then multiplication with the output clamped to sharpen the shape into outlines while the top is also darker from the static reduction.
the one with angles i think is sawtooth shapes
the panning is largely unified to rotate against the rotation of the mesh
mesh is rotating with some UV stretching to get the shapes to pull fwd and back
panning interference is offset with a small sin wave that caues 1 texture to undulate fwd and then back
but the exact method we need a better set of eye that has seen this before to break it down accurately
Unless necessary for portfolio, tackling sorting over geo effectively can cost a lot of time, not to mention it can be ad hoc (made for this 1 example)
VFX ability to sort in a game is largely a team effort; Many of our sketches are personal art… so in my opinion for time don’t try to behave like a comprehensive team.
-----unless sorting is a direct goal for the sketch and portfolio…sometimes optimization and comprehensive TD (technical direction) is part of the objective.
in your example the ability for a glow to go over the entire ground might be worth a quick trick rather than trying to work out a more optimal system.
These options are shown here.I think I still have to enable these options somewhere. I remember I downloaded it from a link you posted the other day, but got carried away and forgot to actually set this up hehe. Will do later.
Hmm I see. Like masking out part of the geo with a gradient?
another idea : add a glow horizontal only…trying to hide that break is a small touch that will help your pop moment, And if it is fast enough is satisfactory. like this