Long story short: I feel like the main issue about VFX is to figure out how the Main Texture is looking.
And I feel like there is a lack of High Quality Tutorials for this. I recently watch the Ink Brush tutorial ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7en8Y0GM55I )
And it was awesome,i learned so much!
I would pay a alot for more tutorials like this, like the one from cgwell.
Most of the tutorials on youtube are just focus on Particle systems and not on the texture. They just take they ready textures and than its done. ( some make it like Sirhaian and those are the best )
For someone like me who is new at VFX, is it just trail and error? Or it is me that i dont know how to make some cool poison skill effect?
What should i focus on to figure out what is looking good at the end?
Some one got experience for the CGWorkshops training? is it worth?
hey, you’re right that the texture is very important - and yes it can sometimes be a bit trial and error, it often depends massively on the style of game and fx you’re making. have you checked out Jason Keyser’s LoL FX breakdowns? https://www.youtube.com/user/jasonkeyser/playlists there’s a load of good reference for the sorts of textures they use there in their fx.
are there any specific types of vfx textures that you’re struggling with? there’s a lot of different techniques that can be used in fx creation - simulations, hand painted, simple masks with heavy shader work - it all depends on the type of visuals you’re going for.
You’re not going to like this answer, but it depends.
Effects are, at the end of the day, all about making textures, sprites, meshes, lights, and shaders all work together to create something cool. That’s why it’s hard to say “this is how you make the perfect texture for an effect”, because depending on the style and situation, your effect might not even need one!
What are you working on specifically? Is there any effect in particular you’d like to recreate? Like tharle mentioned, there’s too many different situations to cover to give a proper generalized answer I think. But the more effects you make, the more you learn about the different methods available to achieve the stuff you want.
+1 Chris’ comment. If it’s comforting to know, for me, a lot of the time I don’t have the clearest vision of what I want a specific texture to look like and end up slapping on a few different textures until something looks good. Perhaps it’s bad practice, but if it looks good and gets the job done in a timely manner then your probably doing your job decently .
There are times where I want something very specific and understanding how you have the UV’s setup on any given mesh, and thinking of how you want to scroll, erode etc. will help you understand how to paint any given texture. Try something, plug it in, if it doesn’t look quite right I think it’s always important to have a setup that will allow for quick iteration, i.e., the ability to save in Photoshop and see near instant results on your mesh, ideally in-game.
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