Hi guys, I have written a VFX breakdown of an effect called “Pulse Cannon” for all of the VFX community. This effect I created some months ago for the monthly sketch challenge here and it turned out quite good. I would like to share the breakdown here. I hope this step by step guide will be helpful for the VFX artists for their respective interests.
The Pulse Cannon Effect
The Breakdown
There are total 18 emitters employed in this effect. I have broken down the entire thing into three big categories. These are as is:
-
Energy Buildup
- Energy Burst
- Energy Rays
- Energy Mist
- Energy Noise
- Magical Twister
-
Energy Release
- Bunch of burst ring
- Sparks burst
- Grounded Flash
-
Energy Beam
- Energy beams
- Beam glow
- Thunder beam
- Charged particle beam
- Noise Streaks
ENERGY BUILDUP
- Energy Burst
These layers of flashes appear with the burst of rings & streaks. That help to fill the core burst & glow. It energizes the space where it will concentrate inwards for a buildup ready to release that energy.
- Energy Rays
Energy rays gravitating towards a center point shows the core of the buildup. These are velocity aligned stretched particles emitted from the spherical surface and in my case I had to set a negative velocity setting to make the particles move inward against the normal vector direction of the sphere surface.
- Energy Mist
With the combination of two emitters & textures, I produced a magical mystic look circle that rotate & dissolve in center of the core effect. This layer energizes the space and animates it to show the strength of the core effect.
- Energy Noise
Magical traveling of feather like textured particles that makes the core buildup behavior.
- Magical Twister
Magical Twister that twist with random behavior that also make the core buildup behavior nicely.
ENERGY RELEASE
- Bunch of burst ring
With the help of single emitter produce a bunch of busted rings of different sizes to give a feel of forward shock wave.
- Sparks Burst
Outward burst of sparks after burst the whole other layers.
- Grounded Flash
Finally this flash appear on the ground to give a feel of whole effect light up.
ENERGY BEAM
- Energy Beams
This is the combination of two layers with same streaky texture but different in transparency and properties of particles. These makeup high energy laser like beams moving at high velocity. The different transparency levels give the beam depth and dimension.
- Beam Glow
A glow beam travels with the energy beams to enhance the light emitting from the beams. It fills the space with energy and animates the air.
- Thunder Beam
Thunder beam appears at the time of core burst which gives life to the whole burst. We have the space looking charged enough that it causes electricity generate and travel along.
- Charged Particle Beam
Another laser like beam that makes the core of the pulse. The stretched particles have animated UV coordinates to make the beam animate in the direction of beam. The empty parts of the texture produces the holes.
- Noise Streaks
This layer adds noise and blur to the energy beam and increases its density.
I hope this would be beneficial. Feel free to have your feedback on this effect and any questions are welcome. Thanks