Sanath Shekar
Dwarf Legend (Real-Time FX)
Breakdown
I developed a recent interest in Low Poly style art for video games. I was eager to test my skills in making a simple dwarf character and add some interest FX to it. I was responsible for all aspects of this scene.
The tools I used for modeling & posing were Maya, Headus UV Layout for UV unwrapping, and Photoshop and 3D Coat for texturing. The look development and scene construction were done entirely in the Unreal 4 engine. This includes scripting, materials and shaders and particle systems. In addition, I used After Effects to create particle sprites for the magic rings, smoke and fire. The sprites were then assembled in Photoshop to create a spritesheet to be used as flipbook.
I have used my fire propagation tool as described here. A 3D-grid is generated on the rock which the Dwarf is standing on. This grid checks for surface points on the rock which becomes the propagation points. Given an arbitrary spawning location, the fire expands from that source point.
Magic Circle
The magic rings above were first created in After Effects using the Trapcode - Particular plugin. After much tweaking, I got the desired animated ring effect which was exported as a image sequence. I used Photoshop to create a sprite Atlas to be used as a flipbook in Unreal. The result was a seamless looping effect as seen in the video above.
Magic Orbs
Material Transition
Stylized Fire
Similar to the magic rings above the flame sprites were created in After Effects using the Trapcode - Particular plugin to get the desired animated flame effect. Photoshop was used to create a sprite Atlas to be used as a flipbook in Unreal. The result was a seamless looping effect as seen in the video above. Given the stylized low poly design of the character, I opted to go for a stylized fire effect than a realistic one.
