Jesse Henning – Real-Time VFX for Games (Standard)

We are going to dive head first into this course by treating it like a real game production. ‍

You will be given a project that already has gameplay logic, the Hero character, the main prop, an environment, the cinematic blockouts and temporary placeholder VFX. Then you will be briefed on the Lore of the game and the VFX tasks needed for this EPIC hero moment.

We will move through each week in a way that will help you stay focused, build your morale, allow you to maintain consistency in Art Direction through iterative asset creation techniques and keep you on track to ship on time with High-End AAA level quality.

This course will give you the understanding you need to collaborate with multiple disciplines in a production environment by navigating Blueprints for gameplay logic, Animation Montages, Level Sequences for both gameplay and cinematics, 3D prop mesh and material manipulation, advanced Niagara systems with Houdini, Blueprint and Sequencer integration and experience with building tools and advanced asset creation pipelines in industry software like Houdini, Substance Designer and EmberGen. This course is loaded with content and has everything you will need to become a Real-Time VFX Wizard and help you enjoy a long career in the Video Game Industry!

‍What You’ll Learn In Real-Time VFX for Games (Standard)

WEEK 1: Learning the Game – Project Brief, Concepts and Quick VFX Production Wins

What we will cover:

This week we will dive into the Project brief where you will get a synopsis of the Lore for the game we are making. You will be given a list of VFX that the Game Director is tasking you with to create this epic moment. Then you will be guided through theproduction Pipeline to make sure you stay on track with your tasks to move through thisproduction in an efficient and effective way to deliver high-end AAA level effects.

You will then start tackling some Character and Prop VFX for our Rune Embers and Character Glow to get some quick, early wins under your belt to boost morale as you move forward into the thick of production. We will also explore the power of our Level Sequences for looping animations and keeping our effects active after we return togameplay from our cinematics.

WEEK 2: Figuring out the Good Stuff – Establishing VFX Pipelines through the R&DProcess

What we will cover:

This week is all about getting into the Research and Development process for creating some of our more complex VFX Assets.

We want to explore and tackle the technical methods we need for creating our VFX to make sure we have a clear path forward. We will dive into Houdini and set up our pipeline for fracturing, animating and exporting our Activation Crystal for Unreal.

We will also explore using Point Cache Data from Houdini to Niagara for spawning our Dark Energy Tendrils to our fracture animation. We will create a Material Function to handle our Disintegration FX across multiple materials used by our character and explore how we can control it through a global set of parameters.

Then we will wrap up the week by establishing another Houdini Pipeline formore advanced VFX mesh creation. We will use techniques to make beautiful twisting helix like meshes that can be influenced through the use of Vertex Color information in our Unreal Materials.

WEEK 3: Becoming a Master Craftsman – Creating Master Assets for Iterative andEfficient VFX

What we will cover:

This week has a simple and clear goal. We will create Master VFX assets that can be reused, iterated on, or instanced across multiple VFX. We will do this by thinking through what assets will have multiple use cases for reusable textures, materials, meshes and Niagara Systems.

We will tackle pyro simulations and texture packing methods for getting more frames into our flip books while still maintaining a good level of fidelity.

We will build textures for our portal beams and lens flares and finish by creatinga Master Material that will be used across a vast majority of our VFX.

WEEK 4: Powering Up – Diving into Our Prop and Character Based Gameplay andCinematic VFX

What we will cover:

Now it’s time to dive deeper into our Level Sequences, Gameplay Logic and Cinematics.

We will focus more on creating with Art Direction in mind to build out VFX that adhere to a cohesive style and design. This is where we will start employing ourworkflow strategies for using our Master Assets to iterate quickly.

We will dive deeperinto Niagara to spawn ribbons that emanate from our prop and attach to our character as he animates during the cinematic. We will also use our Vertex Color on our Xmeshes we created in Houdini to randomize a single mesh.

We will also employ strategies for attaching mesh FX and particles to specific character bones while sampling specific regions on a characters mesh.

Then we will finish up our gameplay ability that we created through our Character’s Animation Montage to activate our stairsand build out an infinite looping system we can use to add some extra detail to our level intro looping effects with controls to integrate them into our Houdini Animation.

Of course we will also be very heavily involved in our Blueprint logic and Level Sequences.

WEEK 5: Power of the Portal – Use Advanced Niagara Systems and VFX Techniquesto Complete our Portal Cinematic

What we will cover:

In week 5 we will focus healy on our Activator Beam, Portal Beam and EnergyImpact / Kick Off effects.

We will build out the systems and FX for all of our Portal assets. We will dive into composition for our Portal Beam and Activator Beam Impact FX and explore ways to build out directionality into them that will maintain the illusion of depth, randomness and avoid repetition.

We will tackle different ways to use dynamic beams for diversification of effect types and round out the week with the additional creation of our Dispersion Tether effects through a more bespoke creation approach in Houdini.

This will address needing additional assets in production and how we can still maintain consistent art direction when we need to add to our library.

We will focus on exporting the right assets from Unreal to Houdini to maintain proper composition and balance forour new mesh creation.

WEEK 6: Shut it Down! – Finish the Final Cinematic VFX with Our CharacterDisintegration, Soul Travel and Complete Portal Shutdown

What we will cover:

THIS. IS. IT.

Time to finish it all up and shut it down.

We will round out our DisintegrationFX for our character by adding particles to be absorbed into the Portal Beam that are emitted directly from our characters emissive materials.

We will balance our animation timing, expose material and Niagara parameters for greater control in sequencer, and build out the deactivation systems needed to fully shutdown our Portal after our Character’s soul has reached its destination to begin the journey for this game’s story.

Our focus will be on working quickly and efficiently through reusing and iterating on our Master Assets so we can cross the finish line and ship this game on time.

We will go through a final balance pass and discuss some optimization techniques we can use to help our FX stay optimized and performant.

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