Tutorial: Creating Incendiary Burn FX for Game Characters
The Gnomon Workshop has released Creating Incendiary Burn FX for Game Characters, a beginner’s guide to creating in-game VFX, recorded by Gearbox Software’s Ashley Lyons.
The detailed introductory workshop provides over six hours of video training in Unreal Engine, Houdini and Substance 3D Designer.
Get started creating in-game VFX with Unreal Engine’s Niagara toolset
In the workshop, Lyons reveals how to create a production-ready in-game effect, using Unreal Engine’s Niagara toolset to create a particle system that ignites a character, before dispersing them into a cloud of smoke and ash.
He begins by creating the burn material in Unreal Engine’s Material Editor, demonstrating how to build flexible master materials and expose parameters that allow artists to iterate on the look.
Lyons then moves into Niagara to build the particle effects, covering emitter setup, particle spawning, movement and timing, and explaining how to create reusable systems.
He uses Substance 3D Designer to create procedural textures used by the Niagara ember system, demonstrating how multiple tools can work together within a production workflow.
The workshop also provides a detailed breakdown of how to use Houdini’s Pyro toolset to create volumetric simulations of smoke and fire, including how to render flipbook textures that can be used in Unreal Engine.
As well as the training videos, viewers of the workshop can download supporting Houdini and Substance 3D Designer project files, as well as all textures used in the workshop.
About the artist
Ashley Lyons is a Lead VFX artist at Gearbox Software, and has worked in the games industry for over 15 years.
He has contributed effects to multiple games in the Borderlands franchise, including Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Borderlands 3 and 4, and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands.
Price and availability
Creating Incendiary Burn FX for Game Characters is available via a subscription to The Gnomon Workshop, which provides access to over 300 tutorials.
Subscriptions cost $57/month or $499/year. Free trials are available.
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