Lost in Team Production

So, I figured out how to make the glowing pollen dust effect for the meadow. It’s REALLY hard to see, but it’s actually really pretty. It’s a light yellow color that drifts around slowly in a large radius. There’s two different particle emitters for the pollen. One is a tad bit larger and a warmer yellow, just to add a little bit of contrast. It kinda mimics drifting twinkling stars.

After this I began working on is the second fire with billowing black smoke coming from the top. Allen suggests to combine them together, but it just looks odd with two emitters going off at the same time because they don’t blend well. So, I have to mess around with it more to try and figure that out.

So, with my upk file not opening earlier and then deciding to open later (making me worry that my file was corrupt) all is settling back into place. I was able to figure out how to make the falling leaves with two emitters going at the same time. At first whenever I would start an emitter the image would be black and semi transparent. After asking Allen about the problem he suggested that I should plug the material into emissive. Then, it worked! Finally! So now I can trouble shoot the rest of the particles that were giving me the same trouble.

Moving on, the Falling leaves particles. I figured out how to set the emitter so that instead of going up it emits down. Then I slowed the spawning, made it generate over a larger area, and gave the material a slow rotation so it looks like the leaves are twirling down. At the end they gently fade out once they’ve fallen pretty far.

I’m going to tweak the previous smoke particles and make a second version of it, but darker for the fortress. On the scrolling text particle, I’m having trouble locating any proper tutorials for the effect. If I Google “UDK tutorial scrolling text particle” I get a bunch of results for creating a side scroller game instead. So, the search continues.

Actually, with many crashes. I have had the program crash on me enough to last my entire life now, but now I have two basic particles.

It seems the more tutorials I look up for help, the more ways they show me how I can do the same thing. This gets confusing. Learning the connections is hard. I have to constantly reference the original so I know what connects to what. I still don’t know what all the plugins are for, like vertex color or constant. The worst part is getting farther along with major steps only to have UDK crash for some unexpected reason.

I found it cool that I can have a gray scale image and tint it through Cascade. I applied that technique for the fire effect.

Every week I keep learning something new. This week I learned that PNGs will mess up in UDK. For some reason they will discolor at the edges. It doesn’t matter how you plug it in, the edges will not  go back to normal. It seems that PNGs don’t actually import properly, no matter what. I posted a picture to show the odd discoloration that it has when uploaded and when in the material editor. Funny thing is that the file itself if perfectly fine until UDK gets a hold of it. SO, I have to convert the files to Targas, and then create alpha channels for all of the files.

Also, the tutorial I’ve been watching is an enormous amount of help, BUT doesn’t show me how to properly import and set up some materials so I can move them into Cascade. I guess it expects you to have a good basic knowledge of UDK, which I barely have. Also, just saving and copying the file to a flash drive doesn’t work. You must actually save the whole content folder. If you forget to, then you lose all your work, or something like that. Since I am fairly new with UDK had to research and learn through trial and error. Many errors to be honest and I’m still learning.

FINALLY I was able to hook everything up properly and transfer it into Cascade. Now, I just have to edit the file to make it look like a flare from an explosion and layer it with perhaps two other effects. This is a breakthrough for me to finally get things working together after multiple crashes.

As I go over this tutorial I’m learning quite a bit, though I still need to fully apply everything. I’m changing some of the particles to mimic the ones in the tutorial. I’m searching all throughout Photoshop to find filters and effects that will make these look good. The first image (left) was my first attempt at a flare effect, I tried a second time (right) and it turned out much better in my opinion. Now I just have to keep messing around with the previous files and work with Cascade.

There won’t be too much of an update I can show this week. Most of my work will be in UDK, working in Cascade.

The other thing that provides a lack of updates and a minor set back is that I have to learn Cascade. I’ve never been a fan of UDK. UDK has an odd layout to me, crashes, and well… it all seems complicated. Cascade is located within UDK, but as as a separate window (similar to how Hypershade is in a separate window but still located in Maya). In my opinion Cascade is easier to decipher and grasp then all the other stuff in UDK. 

Nate provided me with a very helpful but VERY long Eat3D tutorial on how to utilize Cascade better for certain, specific effects. The tutorial has made me realize that I’m going to have to doctor up the previous particle effect files since they do not meet some of the requirements that are needed. What I find interesting is how you can combine different files together to create a layered particle effect and have them interact on MANY different levels. Most likely the biggest issue I’m going to have is remembering how to connect multiple particles in separate channels (see image).

As much as I have already watched, some of the knowledge from the tutorial will not stay in my head until I continuously apply it a few times.  So, at this rate progress might be slow for this week.

I will try to take screen shots of progress later this week.

(The image is from the Cascade tutorial.)

Flame effects. One is to mimic an explosion, or burst of flames. The other is a faint look, kind of like soft fire sparks. 

So here’s some nice simple effects that’ll play in the background or during certain scenes. Some leaves floating down and some dirt dust. Pretty simple, but will probably be tweaked depending on how they look in Cascade.

Next in line to try was creating an animated particle effect of a butterfly flapping around the scene. I decided to try and make two different types of butterflies with different colors and wing shapes. If you play them in sequence they look fine, but I’m not sure how to put an animated gif in UDK yet. After more research I’ll figure it out I’m sure. (More animated particles to come later on)