Animondays - The Ebb and Flow of Magic

Using After Effects ‘Caustics’ to make Wisps of Energy

Published on May 10, 2011 By ScottTykoski In Elemental Dev Journals

Greetings,

Just a short entry this week, since I’m working on cutscenes, which need to stay under-wraps for a while.

One of the shots you’ll be seeing when FE hits 1.0 involves...GASP...shards of magic One polish points I wanted to pull off was to have the magic from the crystals wisp off and either dissipate or come back to to the shard.

I got pretty close to this effect at a different time when playing with ‘caustics’: the simulation of water refraction. It took around 5 tries, but I think I got the effect looking less like soap and more like flowing magic, all while keeping within the art style.

Keep in mind that this is only a small part of the scene, but these are the cool little effects that we’re giving more attention to in FE, making the overall presentation more polished.

I’ll try to have something more action-packed for next weeks animation journal

Comments (Page 2)

ScottTykoski

on May 11, 2011

onomastikon

reply 15

Was that what you were attempting to mimic?

Yeah, I was going for a subtle 'solar-flare' type of magical arcing across the shards. It's still not perfect, but at least at this point I'm not fighting the numbers, I'm just playing with the refraction map.

And your dope suggestion has been 'duely noted'

StevenRLynchAbundanceThatIAM

on May 11, 2011

Although that might cause some quality problems.

Best regards,
Steven.

ScottTykoski

on May 11, 2011

Eh, it's like those method actors..."Anything for the performance!"

And it may be the only way to get those 'Pink Space Ponies' that players ask for into a Stardock game

cephalo

on May 11, 2011

Take 1 was a little goofy, but I like it because it looks like the magic has a mind of its own. Very mysterious.

ScottTykoski

on May 11, 2011

LightofAbraxas

reply 10

I was kind of hoping that FE would have a slightly darker look to it- from what I've seen so far (which is just a little, so I might be wrong), this looks to be the case?

For sure...making a deliberate step towards a darker tone. Many of our cutscenes are loosly based on the 'feel' of this painting Leo did for fun...

Love this pict so much

EternalRequiem

on May 11, 2011

lol is that the Kraxis emperor I see there!?

LNQ

on May 11, 2011

I like the solar flare idea. Still looks a tiny teeny bit soapy to me in take 5because occasionally two "flares" combine into one "soap bubble", but it's nothing too serious. I really like the fact that you're focusing much more on presentation.

Here's one more player who would really wish for a more animated UI.

Cruxador

on May 11, 2011

BoogieBac

reply 18

Eh, it's like those method actors..."Anything for the performance!"

And it may be the only way to get those 'Pink Space Ponies' that players ask for into a Stardock game

Oh man it would be totally awesome to get pink space ponies as an event. Like, a meteor falls and its full of pink ponies with fairy wings, and you can use them instead of normal horses and they're better, but if you use them then eventually they'll pupate and then their final form will be shoggoths or something horrifying

Grizzyloins

on May 11, 2011

This is F*CKIN SWEET, oh & are these the ponies Lord Xia's been askin for the last 1/2 a year, he may have to change his pants

Thormodr

on May 12, 2011

Very cool stuff.

EFE is going to look awesome methinks.

Vandenburg

on May 12, 2011

Hm... am I going blind? There was a new thread with a video (this one) of the new land scapes, but it now has vanished? My bookmark to it points to nowhere now.

Yaxche

on May 12, 2011

Not blind, I saw it this morning, too. Showed some cool new terrain work from FE, but the post is gone from the front page now.

It's still up on youtube, though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv0PIxLTM18

onomastikon

on May 13, 2011

I replied in that thread you meant Vandenburg and am puzzled to see it has dissapeared, seems unusual

chrisbremer

on May 13, 2011

One big question I have is this: will the system requirements be the same as wom, I really hope so since I am playing wom on a laptop with an nivida 8200, and it would seriously suck people like me with there crappy computer got the game free or for a discount only to find out that they could not run it.

Campaigner

on May 13, 2011

chrisbremer

reply 29

You got Shader Model 4.0 so you're good to go.

Click features for proof.

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