Ue5 Sci-Fi Vfx Series - Part 3 - Energy Shield & Grenade Vfx

Create & Prototype Real-Time VFX for Game Production

What you'll learn

Create Real-Time VFX in UE5 using current video game studio production pipeline practices

Become proficient in Unreal materials using industry techniques for FX creation

Create Blueprint logic and Niagara Systems for executing FX in gameplay

Create materials in a modular way for faster iteration and alteration

Use Niagara Beam emitters with Blueprints to create dynamic lightning VFX

Requirements

Basic understanding of Unreal Materials, Blueprints and Niagara Systems.

Have taken UE5 Sci-Fi VFX Series - Part 2 - Laser & Plasma Blaster VFX (Highly Recommended, Will need those assets)

Have Taken UE5 Sci-Fi VFX Series - Part 1 - Respawn & Ammo Pickup VFX (Recommended)

Description

This. Is. It. Part 3 and The final chapter in our UE5 Sci-Fi VFX Series for Game Production. And we’re going out with a Bang. We’ll be diving into more advanced material work with our Energy Shield and deeper methods for prototyping VFX in our Blueprints and Niagara Systems for our Energy shield.First we are going to focus on creating our sci-fi energy shield and hook up our automated Turret VFX.The focus will be all about more complex material creation through detailed, animated masks and implementing a modular based structure for faster iteration and alteration in order to strike a balance between art direction and gameplay needs. We will wrap that section up in our blueprints by creating spawn logic from our Player Character. We will work on defining proper collision logic and drive certain material parameters through timelines to animate our shield kicking on and off. And of course we will make sure to hook up all of our VFX for our turrets to properly test our shield against enemies.In the final section we will make a really satisfying Pulse Grenade.We will reuse assets we created in Part 2 of the course from our Laser Beam and Plasma Blaster VFX. You will still be able to follow along if you missed that part, but you will be missing assets that will be used heavily in this course. You may create your own, however, if you wish to fill in the gaps and apply knowledge you already have. We will have a lot of fun creating ways for our Blueprints to be used to create dynamically changing strike points for our lightning arcs by exposing parameters in our Niagara Systems. We will go through some preliminary tests to make sure our beams are working correctly.Then we will add more detail to our lightning arcs in our Niagara systems to give them some more shape and dynamic animation. We will even explore some additional material logic in our bonus section by creating a function to make sure our beams stay consistent in their emissive values from various distances.By the end of Part 3 you will not only have some really cool portfolio pieces, but a better understanding of how to create and prototype many other VFX by leveraging the power of Unreal Materials, Blueprints and Niagara Systems.So, hop on in and lets get crafting!

Overview

Section 1: Introduction

Lecture 1 Series Introduction

Lecture 2 Unreal Project Setup

Section 2: Energy Shield VFX

Lecture 3 Section Introduction

Lecture 4 Concept Breakdown

Lecture 5 Concept Timelapse

Lecture 6 Texture Creation - Shield Pattern

Lecture 7 Mesh Creation - Shield Mesh

Lecture 8 Importing Assets into Unreal

Lecture 9 Materials Pt. 1 - Mesh and Texture Setup

Lecture 10 Materials Pt. 2 - Opacity Masks

Lecture 11 Materials Pt. 3 - Texture and Color Masks

Lecture 12 Materials Pt. 4 - Refraction and Erosion

Lecture 13 Materials Pt. 5 - Mask Animation

Lecture 14 Materials Pt. 6 - Balance Pass

Lecture 15 Blueprints - Player Character Logic

Lecture 16 Turret FX Pt. 1 - Asset Setup

Lecture 17 Turret FX Pt. 2 - Blueprint Logic

Lecture 18 Final Balance

Lecture 19 Assignment

Section 3: Pulse Grenade VFX

Lecture 20 Section Introduction

Lecture 21 Concept Breakdown

Lecture 22 Reusable Assets and Setup

Lecture 23 Materials Setup

Lecture 24 Blueprints Pt. 1 - Player Character Blueprint

Lecture 25 Blueprints Pt. 2 - Pulse Grenade Blueprint

Lecture 26 Blueprints Pt. 3 - Initial System and Beam logic

Lecture 27 Blueprints Pt. 4 - Lightning Arcs

Lecture 28 Niagara Pt.1 - Lightning Arcs

Lecture 29 Niagara Pt.2 - Explosion Balance

Lecture 30 Niagara Pt.3 - Final Balance

Lecture 31 Assignment

Section 4: Conclusion

Lecture 32 Series Conclusion

Lecture 33 Material Function for Consistent Distance Based Emissive Values

Advanced beginners to intermediate,Those who want a deeper understanding of how to create VFX for games in Unreal,VFX Artists looking to switch to Unreal and understand pipelines for game production,Those who want to be production ready for video game development,Those looking to get a job in the game industry as a VFX Artist