Hi there fellow VFX’ers and really impressive entries so far!
It’s great to see so many talented people from all over the world create amazing stuff at a common place
The past month has been really busy for me but I’m glad I still found some time for this challenge.
My entry is inspired by the final animation at the end of friendly match of League of Legends. The shards from a defeated team’s exploding Nexus are re-assembling to form an emblem that shows your victory or defeat.
Looks so awesome!
For now I only made a quick gif since it’s the first WIP but any type of critics is much appreciated!
Things I’d still like to add:
better visual sorting to help guide the viewer’s eye (a lot is happening at once at the moment)
more colors!
emphasize the motion to make it look more stylized and energetic
maybe reduce the particles a bit to focus on the most important parts of the picture
Thanks in advance for all kinds of feedback you might have and kudos to all those beautiful entries!
Wish you all the luck and inspiration to have fun with this challenge!
Wait, that screen can show something else than Defeat?
Joke aside, I love your entry! It looks sooo pretty and shiny! Absolutely love all the motions you have going on.
The gems remind me a lot of the PS1 game Spyro! Is it inspired by it?
Only feedback I would have would be to refine and change your particles textures a bit. They seem very very simple for now. Adding some variations could help make it look better. And that’s the kind of effect that might go well with a tiny bit of Bokeh particles, imo. Also, the shockwaves at the beginning probably shouldn’t move up and stay on the “ground”. ^^
Thanks @Sirhaian and great idea!
I only played later Spyro games so it probably was a coincidence they look similar but I’ll check the original out!
I love your Bokeh particle suggestion, it’ll also be an interesting challenge to get that one done properly
Oh, and about the shockwave: you’re definitely right! Guess I accidentally added some gravity or… what’s the inverse of gravity called?
Thanks again, I’ll keep you updated!
Many thanks @CellarPhantom!
I used Unity and quite a bit of custom shader work. Still feels most comfortable for me since although I’d love to try VFX in Unreal some day
Hey everyone!
Luckily I found some time this weekend to polish my entry!
I added some materials, just to get rid of the plain box and sphere object Also added some color to the effect. Felt like doing a transition from a bright blue to a more purple color. For the segments that are charging up I added some rays.
Still got to tweak the final re-integration, feels like it’s the weakest part of the whole thing at the moment
Please tell me what you think!
Awesome man, feeling very fun and playful! I really love that block bouncing and blowing up, the timing is very nice and it feels very satisfying. My only feedback is with the balls flying around. I think the shapes they make as they fly could be simplified to make more appealing shapes with their motion. Just off the top of my head the fire effect in this video is a good example. The motion in the video feels very intentional and creates these cool swooping almost graphic shapes.
Ha, thanks @NateLane! I remember that one from the Riot contest!
I eagerly followed that on one on the Polycount forum, there were so many amazing entries!
I felt like the motion is a bit too crazy, too so it’s assuring you have similar feedback, thanks!
I’ll do my best to squeeze every second of my spare time into project, the challenge is really fun!
Looking good, full of personality and character! Some minor feedback from me:
I would place more emphasis on the 3rd bounce (which results in the rectangle breaking apart) - maybe have a slightly longer pause and higher bounce before really slamming down compared to the previous 2 bounces? The shockwave in this case would also be a little larger.
When the final “gem” is created, it looks a little jarring to have dust (the purple, slightly stretched ones) still moving towards it when there is dust emitting out with force from the gem - perhaps they could come to a relative stop sooner (before the gem has fully formed) and then be pushed outwards by the force of the gem creation?
Personally I wouldn’t have the random rotation on these stretched dust motes; just looks a little messy to be (but I’m nit-picking there).
This is great feedback! Thanks @Snowy!
I really like the idea with the dust! I’ll probably re-work that one and the shockwave to make it a little more responsive to the forces happening in the effect.
Also, nit-picking is totally fine,imo at some point it’s the small things that make a difference between good and great. Hope I can reach that point with this entry
Hey guys! Another update here
I finally took the time to upload a video since it’s starting to feel a bit more complete. Next thing I’d like to work on is the timing, especially o the anticipation of the individual pieces assembling. Please tell me what you think!
Really nice effect!
Just a thought: I expected to see all the small particles to enter the orb before it finished the transmutation. It felt part of a build up that got completed before I thought it would. Instead a couple of them a blown away at the end, which is also a nice effect. I like that you thought of those left-over particles. Hard to say what would look better. Great job anyways.
Long time no update but I’ve been working on it eagerly!
Also some sad news, I lost some of my work that I saved on an external drive. First time this ever happened to me but it was motivated me to make it better than before!
And some final thoughts
This challenge was a lot of fun and inspirational to see so many great pieces of work and talented people join the fun. Hope everyone gets to finish their entries in time and everyone’s satisfied with what they did. Thanks for hosting this challenge and looking forward to the next one
