I love mastering magic in Unreal Engine and Houdini. Actually, I think fantasy is my favourite setting and I often get an inspiration of various games and cinema with magicians and dragons. Perhaps, this is because I am a medievalist according to my diploma. Anyway, stories about magic always took my attention and I enjoy creating magical effects in graphics.

Here is a final result of my magic effect, inspired by Elden Ring.

Elden Ring in contrast to Dark Souls was very bright, very shiny in my opinion and I liked magic spells in that game. Indeed, in Elden Ring lore magic plays a much more important role than in Dark Souls, remembering a wonderful location Academy of Raya Lucaria. Certainly, for my project  I wanted to create something on the basis of Elden Ring references, especially the Comet Azur and various magic rains. 

My references with gathering energy into an orb and various moving trails.

Then I started my work with Unreal Engine and Houdini. 

First of all, I created a sphere material and emitter. For this element material should have a dynamic parameter with glowing effect. 

Next step I created rays of energy, using a fbx mesh and two kinds of materials: pseudo fluid and starlike materials. Real Niagara fluids or VBDs are not necessary for this effect and consume enormous resources. I do like Houdini Pyro for making high quality TextureSheets. However in this project I decided to test FluidNinja tool, which has Houdini Pyro templates and allows to create animated sheets and ready to use materials inside Unreal. I was very satisfied by the results. 

In the end, I got this beautiful effect by combining all elements. 

All emitters together.

A starlike material is very simple and contains two textures, one was created in Substance Designer and another is just a picture of stars I liked. Then I added some additional elements like a flash and an effect for space distortion in the moment of explosion. 

Finally, I decided to add more fluidity, something like magic fog before the explosion that give an impression of the eve of great energy. 

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For the trails I used material created in FluidNinja Tool that gave me a very nice ghosty effect. In total there are three emitters which are combined into one big trail. 

For the impact effect I used a particle FX I created in Houdini. I wanted to add something like waver of particles remaining after a hit. 

A similar particle effect I used also for a vortex effect in order to get more fluidity. 

I enjoyed a process of creating this effect and advancing my skills. Hope to make more magic in the future. 

A while ago I started learning C++ in the context of Unreal Engine having some basic knowledge of C++ programming in general. I found this study quite exciting and in fact more understandable for me than programming in Blueprints. Here is a repository of this project. 

In my learning I used a great course made by Yuri Popov for C++ programming in Unreal Engine 4, focused on 3rd person shooter game. Also I really enjoyed further courses of this author on automatization and testing in Unreal Engine using Jenkins. I highly recommend this channel. 

What I really enjoy in this development is transformation of C++ lines into something very cool that actullay inspires me. 

This work started with some basics using UE4 shooter character and animation. I programmed movement, shooting, damage, death, weapon, enemies, etc. 

Further I switched the project to Unreal Engine 5 as I wanted to work more with vfx features offered by Unreal Engine 5. Step by step the project started looking more like a real game with gameplay features like the battle royal regime, rounds, teams, etc. 

Houdini Levels 

Since the game is an arcade shooter, I wanted to learn more about creating the procedural levels, which will be generated randomly in the begining. For this I decided to use Houdini power for procedural generation. I applied a tutorial of Radu Cius for creating levels in Houdini and Unreal. The base of the level is a random generation of geometry, visualized as points in Houdini. 

Paramaters depeding on parameters, depending on paramaters.

And then... KitBash3D opened the access to Mission to Minerva set and of course I decided to test this Houdini geometry with this amazing mesh collection. 

Then I modified Houini geometric base to fit the asset paramaters better and imagined something Polar. 

Then I took some martian aesthetics. Though it looks very simple, I found this test satisfying as it was my first experience with making big procedural levels in realistic setting. Previously I worked only with Godot pixel dungeons. 

That was fun to make though there is still many things to do with the generator, because I would like to add several floors in the level and more variaty in the landscape. 

VFX

Since I work mostly with visual effects, I also experimented with some effects for this game to make it cool. First I chose making a projectile effect for the launcher. I found a very helpful tutorial of Rebelway for real time VFX for games.  

A final result in test and game

Here is a Substance Designer sample for this project, which was later transformed into VFX in Niagara. 

I also created a regeneration point as a shield, which also can protect a character for a while. A shield consists of blue particles with some drops of red. I created this shield in Houdini. I was inspired by Rebelway tutorial for a shield and took a mesh from that lesson.

I also added a shield impact in Niagara for more realistic feeling of that strong mysterious material.

There are many things to do with this project, including better interface, more effects, better game mode and general more variety in enemies, weapons, locations, etc. Though I think it was a good starting point. 

In July-August I had a really fascinating opportunity to take part in Epic Bootcamp Animation 2023 - Europe, given by Epic Games, UT-HUB, INCAS, Prometheus Lab, Game Ready, ObjectIF3D. I was very excited as the main topic was animation and for me it is still an area to explore.

During 4 weeks we had very intensive learning sessions and lectures, which covered a major part of Unreal Engine production. I was happy to learn more about animation, lighting and post-processing in Unreal Engine. 

This was a very valuable experience for me and I would like to tell more about my project.

Week 1

I started to create a story, which should be a sacrifice and restoration, but later I changed the idea to a finish of a long adventure. My original idea focused on the restoring the ancient temple by a hero. The palette should be dark, grey, blue, cold. The light should emphasise on the heart of the temple. So I used such games as Senua's Sacrifice, Dark Souls and Elden Ring.

Planning a composition, I created a set of frames in order to organize the shrine and character in it. The main feature of my work was a restoring bridge and gates, which I created in Houdini and exported to Unreal as VAT.

Here is the plan of the bridge and gates in Houdini exported to Unreal and set up in Blueprints for creating an effect of restoration. As it's seen, I planned a path, which is rebuilt by magic and a hero crosses it.

However I changed my idea and focuses only on the gates.

I imagined a general idea of the cinematic in several frames, which should show a character's path, power and sacrifice. 

However later I changed the main idea of my project.

Week 2

During the second week I started creating a cinematic. This was new to me, because I've never did it before. So I learned more about Sequencer. I created a composition using assets from the epic store: Fantasy Cave Environment Set, Paragon Sparrow, Witch Animset, Gothic Megapack and then Fantasy Mushrooms Collection, Corals.

 

In the first scene I focused on how the gates are restored. The original idea was that the hero is a mage, who casted a powerful spell.

In the second scene a hero sees a sword and tries to grab it, but the magic does not allow her to do it. I also used Houdini particles for the sword aura and added some particles to the hero as I planned to make her dissolving. 

Week 3

However in the third week, I decided to change the main idea of my scenario, because my hero is an adventurer, not a wizard. So I changed the animation in order to show an astinishment of the explorerer before the powerful magic. 

I focused on the impression of happening something mysterious and significant before a character. Also I learned about cameras and reorganised them in a more cinematic way. I thought about environment and populated this cave with giant mushrooms, which enlight the dungeon with warm colors. 

Week 4

Finally, during the week 4 I finished my work with adding more magic and mystery in the enviroment. 

I added some simple effects, such as magic particles and fog for showing an atmosphere of the old cave, where only mushrooms can survive. Something like dungeon cities of Faerun, but warmer and less hostile, though still mysterious. Also I added some corals, because I think they do look like something alien, though at the same time realistic. I can imagine these organisms in the cave, even not underwater. 

I wanted to make this particle effect connected to mushrooms. This way I can imagine magic spores produced by giant fungi. 

Final video 

And here is the final cinematic. A story of a brave explorer, who achieved a goddess’ secret shrine. An ancient magic restored ruins of the gates and one is welcomed one to receive the goddess’ gift. 

I am very grateful to Epic Games, UT-HUB and INCAS for giving this unique opportunity! I did enjoy this experience and looking forward to continue my journey in Unreal Engine.