UE5 Sci-Fi VFX Series - Part 1 - Respawn & Ammo Pickup VFX

Name: UE5 Sci-Fi VFX Series - Part 1 - Respawn & Ammo Pickup VFX
Rating: 4.9 (37 reviews)

Create & Prototype Real-Time VFX for Game Production

Created byJesse Henning

Last updated 8/2023

English

What you'll learn

Create Real-Time VFX in UE5 using current video game studio production pipeline practices
Understand FX asset creation using Blender, Houdini, Substance Designer and EmberGen
Become proficient in Unreal materials using industry techniques for FX creation
Create Blueprint logic and Niagara Systems for executing FX in gameplay

Course content

4 sections • 38 lectures • 6h 12m total length

Series Introduction2:45
VFX Production Process and Pipeline10:30
Follow the vfx production process and pipeline from task brief and reference gathering to r&d and asset creation. Learn how to prototype, test, optimize, and polish for smooth gameplay integration.
Unreal Project Setup8:24

Section Introduction2:08
Concept Overview2:45
Concept Timelapse1:31
Texture Creation - Substance Designer13:09
Mesh Creation - Blender9:19
Importing Assets to Unreal5:33
Import assets into Unreal, adjust mesh and texture settings, apply vertex color replacement, and use bulk edit via the property matrix to keep textures optimized and organized.
Materials Part 1 - Scrolling Energy for Base Mesh22:52
Materials Part 2a - Character Overlay30:13
Materials Part 2b - Character Overlay Erosion and Distortion setup15:32
Learn character overlay erosion and distortion in Unreal Engine 5 to drive a respawn effect, using smoothstep, erosion amount, softness, and a material parameter collection for synced animation.
Materials Part 3 - Polygon Spawn Particles17:55
Create a reusable polygon particle material for respawn and ammo pickup, with hero orange, enemy red, and blue shield colors. Add time-based blinking and erosion-driven outline with emissive intensity.
Niagara Part 1 - Platform Energy Base11:31
Niagara Part 2 - Character Polygon Spawn Particles12:03
Blueprints Part 1 - Level BP for Slow Motion and Respawn4:56
Set up the level blueprint to enable respawn via the Respawn action (R) and test the character, and implement slow-mo with a flip-flop using Z to adjust time dilation.
Blueprints Part 2 - Character BP Spawn Logic10:08
Blueprints Part 3 - Platform BP interactivity28:33
Assignment1:13

Section Introduction2:04
Concept Overview3:37
Concept Timelapse1:29
Texture Creation - Substance Designer4:46
Mesh Creation - Blender2:49
Importing Assets to Unreal1:31
Import the mesh in Unreal with preset settings, replace vertex color, ensure smooth normals, reimport textures as effects at 2048, save level as backup, and begin ammo pickup material creation.
Materials Part 1 - Ammo Icons8:52
Materials Part 2 - Energy Cone17:49
Materials Part 3 - Material Instances and Finalization8:20
Niagara Part 1 - Continuous Polygon Particles19:25
Create a new Niagara system for continuous polygon particles to power ammo pickup effects, integrate with blueprints, and configure mesh renderer, materials, cone angles, growth, drag curves, and curl noise.
Niagara Part 2 - Energy Cone and System Balance18:47
Niagara Part 3 - Rotating Ammo Icons8:00
Create a rotating ammo icon in Niagara by binding a lerp to ammo color with a scalar parameter, switching materials via a blueprint-driven material interface, and bursting in local space.
Niagara Part 4 - Deactivation Polygon Particles8:04
Blueprints Part 1 - Preparing Ammo Pickup Material1:43
Blueprints Part 2 - Construction Script18:17
Blueprints Part 3 - Gameplay Logic27:24
Blueprints Part 4 - Child Blueprint5:31
Create a plasma ammo pickup as a child blueprint, update its color via lerp and global material parameter collection, clean redirectors, test in scene, and organize VFX for part 1.
Assignment1:34

Requirements

Basic knowledge of Unreal
Beginner level experience with modeling, creating textures and simulations.

Description

This is part 1 In a 3 part series where you will learn how to take an effect from a concept to ready for gameplay implementation. You will learn my production pipeline that has been used in many of my FX throughout AA and AAA game production.

You will learn how to create assets in industry software packages and prepare them properly to be imported into Unreal with optimization and performance in mind. Then you will learn different techniques to build simple to complex materials for FX that will give you great amounts of control for satisfying gameplay and art direction. These materials will also communicate with Niagara and Blueprints through the use of carefully planned parameters and bindings.

This course will also show you how to prototype Blueprint logic that will enable you to connect your effects to your character, props and weapons in order to run them in a gameplay ready gym for proper testing of functionality, timing, gameplay communication and visualization that satisfies art direction.

You will receive a project file with game ready assets to use along with this course. You will also be given score and sound design elements, courtesy of the talented Brian Michael Fuller, to hook up to your effects for a complete and well rounded prototype. The assets you will have at your disposal will simulate what it is like to work with other disciplines in a production.

This is a feature rich course and by the end of the series you should have a more advanced knowledge of how to pull off AAA quality FX for Game Production.

Who this course is for:

Advanced beginners to intermediate
Those looking to get a job in the game industry as a VFX Artist
VFX Artists looking to develop their skills further in Unreal
VFX Artists looking to switch to Unreal and understand pipelines for game production

UE5 Sci-Fi VFX Series - Part 1 - Respawn & Ammo Pickup VFX

What you'll learn

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Course content

Series Introduction and Setup3 lectures • 22min

Respawn VFX16 lectures • 3hr 9min

Ammo Pickup FX18 lectures • 2hr 40min

Series Part 1 Conclusion1 lecture • 1min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: