The Primary Effect! There’s two different clips of the effect here, showcasing the various random elements that some of the Niagara systems emitters use; The most notable one being the launch of the dice bounce-off.
The Primary Reference. Taken from the character Aventurine from Honkai Star Rail. Specifically, his Basic ATK: “Straight Bet”. The reference is both used for the actual effect itself, but also to block out the key points for the camera movements.
Component Breakdown of the Effect. In total, the effect consists of around 24 various emitters split across 2 systems. Not all emitters are showcased individually, as some such as outlines or trails, require their base component to show off properly.
The two primary objects used within the VFX. Each object is quite bright thanks to the emissive of the material, and the shapes are rather basic. This helps each object stand out visually, as the effect is both very quick and has a lot going on at once.
The textures used for the primary objects. The core components of these textures were made using Vector Graphics, allowing design to be clearly communicated in a more simple manner. Each vector piece was then layered and combined in Substance Designer.
The main camerawork came in the form of turning every single curve “dynamic”, making the movement more satisfying and smooth. The final result was then adjusted by making additional keyframes and shuffling them backward or forward for polish.
For this project, I wanted to tackle an old project again with more experience, as well as have the opportunity to create something that makes me go "Wow, that has a LOT of stuff going on". The answer came in the form of a VFX Recreation from a Gacha Game that I worked on last summer, about halfway through my time at TGA.
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The majority of the work was done within Unreal Engine's Niagara Systems, but I also got to experiment creating Vector Art within Illustrator for the texturing process. The full project took a little less than 2 weeks to finish, with an additional half a week or so dedicated to creating satisfying camera movement, tweaking post-processing, and other "presentation" aspects of the project that Gacha Games often use to really elevate their effects.
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I am part of The Game Assembly's internship program. As per the agreement between the Games 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 5th, at the earliest.
