Poison Spit VFX
Unreal Engine 5
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FILIP KULL
I wanted to challenge myself by creating an in-game effect that involved fluids. For reference I looked at the games from the studio “FromSoftware Games”.
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LIQUID SIMULATION
HAND-DRAWN PARTICLE
WARPED MESHES
SETUP
TRAIL
This trail effect is made up of two emitters.
The bright green one is velocity aligned with its velocity cone angled towards the "SpawnDirection" variable that the projectile actor updates every frame.
This way the trail is constantly angled along the projectiles trajectory.
This is one of four hand-drawn textures which are baked into one texture on each color channel.
The more subtile part of the trail effect is compriced of a rain of particles with a texture from substance desginer.
Impact
FILIP KULL
Liquid simulation
Houdini
To create a convincing viscous liquid I decided
to challenge myself and use an unfamiliar program, Houdini
You are seeing a flip book texture that I rendered out in houdini and animate through the material in Unreal.
The flip book has all PBR render channels baked in so it was only necessary to sample one texture.
Houdini breakdown
First I set up the geometry that the simulation will use to create new geometry with.
Here I also set the initial scatting.
Next, Houdinis flip solver node takes this initial geometry and scattering to create new geometry and calculate where each point should go next.
For example, this is where I
would set the "viscousness"
of the simulation
After that, adding a "particle fluid surface" node adds a surface between the particles.
It is then possible to give the surface a material with the "quick material" node.
To create flat textures for the flip book a plane is projected onto.
Most of the heavy lifting is done by the "maps baker" node.
Finally, with the textures from every frame rendered out I use of the mosaic node to create
a flip book that can be rendered out to a texture.
Here I bake all the channels
into one texture for Unreal to sample all in one go.
NIAGARA
BREAK DOWN
Houdini simulation.
Hand-drawn texture that erodes
Hand-drawn textures that erode.
These are offset by world position
to give them a wavey look.
( only visible in use )
Mesh made in Maya, texture in substance designer, and offset by world position for another layer of variance.
This gave the effect as a whole a lot of volume.
Hand-drawn textures.
Complements the decal well to
make it seem like the liquid is
acidic and erosive.
Decal
The decal is a hand-drawn texture.
I have learned the most from this project.
Between the dabbling in Houdini to the
creative little nuances in each emitter
I have expanded my toolset immensely.
If I hade more time I would like to
have to learn Houdini.
There is so much untapped potential and
I have only skratched the surface.
“I am part of The Game Assembly’s internship program. As per the agreement between the Game Industry and The Game Assembly, neither student nor company may be in contact with one another regarding internships before April 23rd.
Any internship offers can be made on May 6th, at the earliest.”