UE5 Sci-Fi VFX Series – Part 2 – Laser & Plasma Blaster VFX by Jesse Henning

This is part 2. In a 3-part series, you will learn how to take effect from concept to completion and be ready for gameplay implementation. You will learn about my production pipeline used in many of my FX throughout AA and AAA game production.

In Part 2, you will focus more on weapons FX, how they interact with the world, spawn from player logic and animation montages, and go deeper into video game production practices. We will dive into using various projectiles and collision responses through blueprint logic. We will tackle different ways of handling pellets and focus on troubleshooting methods to help better navigate problems arising in a production environment.

We will dive deeper into materials, exploring more challenging techniques for creating FX and including multiple UV Maps on FX meshes, animating our muzzle flashes with only one parameter, creating more Material Functions, and exposing dynamic and scalar parameters for more profound animation practices for our Niagara Systems.

We will also tackle simulations in Houdini and EmberGen. You will be shown how to pack and export flipbook textures to help you stay optimized and performant while still delivering high-quality gameplay FX. If you do not have access to any of the external software packages used, all of the final textures and meshes will be provided in the course.

While starting with Part 1, you will still receive the project file for use along with this course; if you choose to skip several things, you will. There will be several things that carry over from Part 1, but you should still be able to manage without them.

Part 2 is the most massive section of this series and will provide a feature-rich learning experience that should give you a more advanced knowledge of how to pull off AAA quality FX for Game Production, so that you can create that stunning portfolio piece that will be sure to catch a recruiters eye.

So dive on in, and let’s get crafting!