Hello people!
My name is Ferran and I’m from Barcelona. I’ve been checking this website for a while now, but this is my first post actually!
About 4 months ago I started practicing realtime VFX and then I took the VFX for Games Course with Fabio Silva (I finished a week ago and I really recommend it).
So I’d like to share my progress on some environment effects I’m doing and I’d love to receive feedback from you if that’s ok, since I’ve seen most of you are really really talented.
Hi everyone! Happy new year!
During this hollydays I’ve done some God of War inspired vfx.
It would be nice if I could get some feedback from you I feel I have a lot to improve!
Thanks a lot!
So reading this post form @chris (On Asking for Feedback) made me realise at least I should be more specific to the people willing to give me some feedback
So, my intention is to make realistic-rendered effects that could be applied to triple-A Console/PC games from companies like Dice, Santa Monica, Sucker Punch… you know what I’m talking about. I haven’t worked in the game industry, but I’m preparing a portfolio to apply to junior positions.
In the first video my biggest concerns are:
Are the base and the top of the fire shader too different? I think it looks fine in motion, but a bit weird when pause??
The black smoke column from the tank fire maybe dies a bit too abrupt? I’m happy with the movement and color, though.
Does the debris in the sandstorm move too slowly? Are there too many particles floating around?
In the second video:
Does the mist of the chest fall and die in a proper speed and movement? I’m going back and forth
Does the growing ice effect look too simplistic? How could I make it feel more natural?
Does the ice material look too stylized? Maybe too blueish?
Btw, thanks to @kanoba for this post (Paragon Material Breakdowns and Tutorials). I first was creating a realistic ice material, but at the end didn’t look ok and found this post. I didn’t want to just copy it (what would be the credit in that?) so I ended up using his blog notes to create a new one from there. It was great to see his pipeline.
And just FYI, the videos are rendered from sequencer (that I think it doesn’t work in real-time when exporting) but all the effects perfom at around 60fps 4k in-engine on my 5-years-old PC
First video:
1: Why is it blue? The torch doesn’t look like it contains any gas that would yield that color. Add a sleeve to the torch so it connects with the fire better. When the sandstorm hits, the torches are too big. The fire would barely make it off the source in that sort of weather. The fire isn’t lighting the dust around it.
2: This is a miniature tank yes? If not, the smoke animation is way to fast. It could potentially be that fast just as it leaves the fire but it would slow down fast. You need more diffusion. Sometimes you need to kill a smokepillar that quickly for performance reasons, but then you need to make sure that it has time to fade out first. Right now it goes from super thick to gone within a few frames. Try to make the fire light up the smoke more. Now it looks like the smoke is dust in the beginning with that beige color and then turn into gray smoke. It doesn’t read like the fire is lighting it.
3: I don’t know if they are too slow or not. The small dotted debris have one speed. The soft dust has one. The fire a third. Make sure the speeds belong together so it’s one, whole effect, and not separate emitters. Also, match the colors of the dust. There are some mustard colored dust puffs at 1.06 that doesn’t match the rest at all.
Second movie.
1: Looks good. Might die a bit too quick. Have you tried adding a secondary effect with mist rolling along the ground at the bottom of the chest?
2: It’s got a strange pace right now. It’s too slow to be a power activation, but it’s too fast to be a cinematic show off thing. Try adding something that singal the end of the transition, like a sheen or a ice crystal burst.
3: I like it. It’s a good middleground between realistic and readable.
I’ve posted the upgrades based on Partikel’s feedback in the first message of this post. Thanks again for your help @Partikel
I’ve also added one more project showing some weapon effects. I’d be happy if you guys could give me some feedback on the muzzleflashes, especially size/shape/velocity related.
Thanks @Asuran
I recently (about 6 months ago) graduated from college and I did a lot of motion graphics projects during 4 years, so I guess I had a bit covered. I feel that things like materials or timings can be adapted from one medium to the other quite quickly.
But yeah, the course helped me a lot to improve way faster than doing it by myself and see how the pros do it and learn good methodologies and workflows.
I feel I have a lot to improve!
