Fire Projectile Breakdown

Hey there!

In this post, I'm going to give you the inside scoop on how I made the Fire Projectile VFX for my Patreon supporters and subscribers over at 1MAFX.COM.

I'm also going to share links to some cool Houdini and Substance Designer tutorials. They're perfect if you want to have a go at recreating the 3D mesh or if you're just keen to learn more about texturing in Substance Designer.

Teaser Video - https://youtu.be/HBkIYwhedgQ

So, how do I get started? Well, I usually kick things off with creating the 3D mesh. Once that's done, I go over to Substance Designer to whip up the remaining textures for the effect. But, before I dive into any VFX creation, I like to chill for a bit and jot down a list of assets I think I'll need for the effect.

At first, it was a bit of trial and error, but I've gotten pretty good at estimating what I need. Plus, it's also helped me get a better handle on how long the effect should take to create.

For this project, all I needed was a simple stretched sphere for the mesh. I knew I'd need a world position texture (WPO) to create that flame-like shape. I also added some side-projected UVs and vertex color data to the front of the projectile. Just in case I needed to create an intense glow only in vertex-colored areas.

Houdini mesh and WPO texture in substance - https://youtu.be/XykZ1ICPmCg

Once the 3D mesh was all set, I headed over to Substance to create the WPO texture.

I also knew I was going to need a sprite sheet of small flames. These would add extra detail and flame shapes to the projectile.

Flames texture in substance designer - https://youtu.be/XdGQclSg9wA

And last, but not least, I needed two textures for trails. One trail needed to have flame-like shapes and to really pop with an intense glow. The second trail would be a background trail, mostly smoke.

Trail texture in SD - https://youtu.be/cwKOU5aYTmI

Final breakdown of all the elements

If you want to learn how to create this projectile from scratch, you can subscribe to any Tier on 1mafx.com

Fire projectile part 2 update!

🔥 Added cast and impact effects, along with a blueprint for spawning and collision.

💥 I've used an extra texture for a cool shockwave effect on impacts. Repurposed some effects from Fire Projectile part 1

Teaser on youtube -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4gzs6kTN6k

Next step? I created an animation montage from the Paragon character (Gideon) and made blueprints for spawning and collisions. 🚀 All systems go!

Spent the rest of my time fine-tuning the timing and polishing the effects. It's all about those details! ✨

Here is a cast VFX.

Impact VFX

Here is a Substance designer tutorial on how to create this fire ring shockwave texture

https://youtu.be/DvqibG6va3o

Breakdown of each element created for this tutorial.

If you want to learn how to make VFX like this, head over to www.1mafx.com and subscribe to any tiers. 💪