Theory of Big and Small Explosions

  • Tutorial
For a long time I did not write materials, but all the damned Houdini with his simulation of everything and everything, as well as the damn VFX graph. It so happened - the development of visual effects is my hobby, but it brings me the most money and a lot of pleasure - it's cool.


If someone in the game needs a shocking explosion, they come to me, they need to optimize the effect, here I go again, you need to burn everything to hell in virtual space and let lightning strikes on the surviving unfortunate?

And we will touch upon the issue of realism of effects, but very superficially ...

Disclaimer - the article does not carry a heavy semantic load and is designed to light a fire in the hearts of pixel pyromancers. Is the sick imagination of the author, who did not make a single effect and writes nonsense)

WELCOME

Okay, since you are also a fan of pixel blasting, let's see where such talents are needed.

Video editing (advertising and blogs)


Mount your videos with cool explosions, if you can blow something up then why hold back?
Hit the viewer on the forehead with lightning, everyone loves beautiful things, especially if they are in place.
Well, and of course advertising, simulations of falling ice cubes in water and other beautiful things.

Film industry


No well, have you seen? There are cool VFXs in Marvel movies, but look at Tom Cruise’s latest mission, everything is done in Houdini, smoke and fire in Pyro FX, as Hunt knocks a car and he flies head over heels, and there are also stones for which the helicopter hook has hooked. If making Tom Cruise's pirouettes is not very easy for an unprepared person, then everyone can start burning, and literally in a couple of months. Provided 2 hands with 10 fingers, a head with working hemispheres and, of course, motivation.
And yes, the effects there are not very good and whipped up, are not inscribed in the environment and photorealism is lost from this and the prepared eye sees the difference. But the mass audience may not notice the catch, but still he will not like it and he will not understand what exactly.

Gamedev


Favorite topic, it is in this area that the author throws his fireballs. If in the video you just need to adjust the effect according to the frame and set the perspective plus light (well, of course it is very simple, like two fingers, that’s right, huh) That in the gaming industry issues of a different nature:

  • in what form it is derived and how to implement it in the project
  • how to achieve cool optimization with good visuals
  • what tools will help us improve the result and complement it
  • how to fit the effect into the environment / whether several versions of the effect are needed for the environment

Clear business to enter effects into an environment is aerobatics. How? Fundamental knowledge of the basics, this is what distinguishes the master from others. Light, composition, physical properties and more.

Why do we drag physics here?


Suppose there is an explosion, an explosion of a mine or a grenade, has anyone seen this phenomenon? Is there a lot of fire?
No, not a lot, but turn on any FPS and the screen starts to melt from the effects. This is due to the spectacle, often an ordinary explosion is not so spectacular as to cause the player to profuse salivation. Here, as with the increase in the chest or the fifth point in the heroines of computer games, this is a selling point. Yes, there are basic foundations, imitation of the initial movement or propagation of particles, but only imitation and very highly embellished. In addition, now there are a lot of stylized effects and few people make realism. The problem is that any physically plausible effect needs to be embellished / change color / add glow or dynamics, slow down some and speed up other moments, in a word - finalize. The knowledge of physics will help to do cool, but the real world does not have the gloss that is needed in the virtual, so the next point.

Cool effects - selling point for your game


This can be denied, it can be argued with, but it is just so in practice. Steep and juicy explosions, impacts, lightnings - this is one of the selling points of your game. I see a cool action, an X-ray attack and a sea of ​​blood - give two. Mortal combat. What about Subnautica? Pseudo rays under the surface of the water, bubbles, fire, reflections on the water, well, who might not like this? The effects in MMOs are especially important, look, for example, Black Desert, a grinder with a grinder, but thousands of hours spent in the action are not tiring, of course the action itself is beautiful, but the effects complement it and make it more pleasant for the eyes. Okay, one last argument for effects. Doom Eternal, did you see the last gameplay video? Doomgai just cuts the enemies into pieces, tears off pieces of armor with shots, everywhere lumps, clots of plasma, boom, crash, KABOUM!

Our tools:


Particle systems in engines (Unity and Unreal) and work in runtime

Programs for creating and rendering:

AE
Spine
Houdini
Fume FX

The point of the article is to say that everyone can explode pixels, desire and perseverance are important.


And the most popular effects are stylized, of course there is a great demand for hyper-realistic explosions with complex shaders, collisions and other terrible things, but the world is changing. Cute and simple, bright and recognizable effects are the face of the game and today it is casual / stylized and it is easy to learn how to create such VFX and start a career in game dev.

Rantime or render? We will analyze in more detail in the next article.

An example of working with pyro FX in a Houdini with a default shader and 3 pokes by nodes.


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