I want to learn Houdini!
I want to learn how to integrate VFX on my own!
I want to learn Blueprint!
It’s a new year VFX buddies!! That means necroing this thread to check in with progress and learn about what you’re up to this fine 2021!
It’s always great to look back and see how far you’ve come. I hope all of you spend some time to reflect on your awesome selves and give yourself a pat on the back (or whatever else you do to congratulate yourself) on your growth. Remember, even a small amount is still meaningful!
This 2021 I’ll be very focused on growing the VFX team for RnD at Riot. Part of that is feeling out ways to make the VFX testing process more streamlined. One of my takeaways from my VFX testing thread was to create Unity and Unreal scenes that has a basic setup. I still plan on doing that this year along with copious amounts of FX sourcing.
I’ve been working more in Unreal and Unity and gosh is there tons to learn. I’ve been skimming around Niagra tutorials puttsing my way around. Part of a successful onboarding is assisting artists to bridge the technical gap between engines so I’ll also need to focus on creating Unreal and Unity onboarding documentation. There are a few threads I’m already hunting through but if you’ve had a particularly helpful tutorial for onboarding to either please send them my way. 
What are you buddies up to this year?
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Looking back on my first couple of posts here from ~2 years ago it actually blows my mind how far i managed to come with the help of this forum. I have been working full time as a VFX artist for almost two years now and i still remember sitting at my desk at my old job registering my account here and thinking “meh, nothing will probably come of this but let’s give it a go”, and here i am now, doing what I’ve dreamt of doing since first making pixels move in Freebasic 30 years ago.
To the point, up until now just opening this forum has taught me a million different things everyday and at this point i’m starting to feel confident enough to actually be able to open any thread and be able to dissect the content and still understand most of it, at least enough to attempt it myself.
My goal for this year is to keep improving my Niagara skills, after two years of working with it full time it feels like I’ve still only scratched the surface. I specifically want to target Simulation Stages and realtime simulations, the possibilities are more or less endless with the current power of Niagara and I really look forward to seeing where I’m going to be the same time next year.
Keep up the good work everyone and best of luck to you!
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I think the same as last year, as I made basically no progress * shakes fist at 2020 *
2d FX learning, and my goal is to get through all the lessons in VFX Apprentice’s Booms n Blasts and Tradigital learning courses.
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I’ll definitely put some effort into time management and spending more time taking care of myself
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oh that’s what I’m aiming for right now
Huh? You are aiming for whatnow?
Planning to first of all get into Embergen, really need to get started with that and learn how to simulate and get some nice flipbooks going.
Also want to get started with Niagara, barely touched upon it and it still feels weird trying to get used to it. Don’t even want to get into the complex stuff yet, just want to be able to easily recreate things I’ve done in cascade at least.
Working with too many different particle editors fks with the workflow sooo much, so many different mindsets. So if I do get started with Niagara I really need to drop cascade completely, can’t keep track of 4 different particle editors at the same time 
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Hello Everyone! Let’s have a great new year!
This year I want to take on my 2nd attempt of getting into VFX.
Basically I want to graduate from creating basic PFX with simple textures, materials and standard shaders onward to making my own basic shaders with shader forge (I guess). And make somewhat more complex effects with this. so basically:
- learn shuriken pfx editor and VFX basics.
- learn how to use alpha erosion and such (in own basic custom shaders if I can get this far)
- learn basic scripting to launch FX via script and maybe make collision detection.
Let’s do this! 
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I want to become someone who is confidence in his VFX skills, and I wanna be a better painter and become a faster, more efficient 3D modeler if possible. I’m not the best at time management and going through with my plans or staying happy/positive. So I’d like to work on that too!
I also would like to learn how to dance so I can have something fun and physical to do.
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I want to learn hlsl this year and I know there are not much content on internet but I will learn it any how. Little by little I am getting familiar with it.
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I want to set up a workflow for creating decals based on RDB or just procedural generation, as in your video. I also try to learn how to work with parallax
www.artstation.com/artwork/rAedeE
Really want to work on making sharper easier to read materials in my particle systems like this example:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/qA0AJD
If anyone has any tips or suggestions please let me know!
I want to learn to wield EmberGen and and make some more realistic effects and try that field out. Been hanging out in a grey zone between stylized and realistic now and want to push the realism a bit.
It might be pushing it to say that I want to take 1 course in programming too…
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Being amazed by animation stuff and particularly by communities like Hyun’s dojo & a lot of artists (Gildedguy, DaSassyOwl, etc), I mainly want to continue to focus on rigging and animating stuff, and be able to translate their 2D world in 3D (through Unity) allowing me to add super cool effects 
And in a more distant future, I hope I’ll motivate myself to learn some DAW software, I would love to compose.
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I really want to learn and solidify my understanding of the natural world and its energy. I read a lot on theory and watch plenty of practical tutorials through the Internet. But I feel my weakness of timing in my effects could be greatly improved through the power of observation. So I’m making a more conscious effort to live in the present and take notice of the everything things.
Water splashing when I wash my hands.
Steam rising from my tea.
The texture of the broken concrete on the sidewalk.
When COVID dies down, I hope to make more field trips to see some of the natural elements in our world. I’ve heard of studios that take their employees to the beach-- sounds like a dream.
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I’m not sure how many company use raymarching dust but I’d like to learn how to make volumetric smoke / dust with low cost.
Happy new year.
It’s already February though
This year I want to get back into using UE4, learn Niagara with the goal of creating character effects.
For work I am aiming to learn more about shaders and improve my workflow, while aiming to treat myself in a healthier way.