[This post will be heavily edited with new content as I update it, I plan to just dump whatever I have at the end of the day.]
Intro:
The effect that I’ll be creating is a cutesy/cartoony chained Area-of-Effect spell typically seen in mobas such as League of legends, Dota and Smite. I considered several themes but no other theme/style inspired me more than a cutesy/cartoony one due to the exaggeration that often comes with the style. I aim to show an understanding of the principles of animation and a controlled use of colour to visually communicate gameplay.
I'm fairly new to creating VFX so I hope my current process isn't too misguided. I have about two weeks to get this done so managing my time and approaching this effectively is a personal challenge I want to overcome.
Moodboard:
Initial feeling:
Breakdown:
Effect Ideas:
Ethereal Bubble Ranged AoE Attack (linear-targeted).
- Idle; [Generating Object] Personified Bubble surrounded and filled by ethereal clouds.
- Charging; Bubble squashes down as it absorbs energy around it while a soft glow fills the bubble.
- Release; Rapidly moves upwards in an arching path in it's facing direction.
- Impact; Bubble pops on impact with the [Secondary Object] releasing the glowing energy.
Ethereal Bubble AoE healing/buff (self-targeted).
- Idle; [Generating Object] Personified Bubble surrounded and filled by ethereal clouds.
- Charging; Bubble squashes down and begins to glow, surrounded by magic cylinder of energy.
- Release; Magic cylinder expands and stretches the bubble popping it.
- Impact; Bubble pops on impact with the [Secondary Object] releasing the glowing energy.
Magically Charged Marshmallow Portal Ranged AoE Attack (ground-targeted)
- Idle; [Generating Object] Ethereal clouds floating above ground.
- Charging; Spinning magical cylinder pushes clouds away from the center replacing it with a portal.
- Release; Personified marshmallows begin to fall from the portal.
- Impact; Marshmallows explode into sparkles leaving a slight ethereal aura that dissipates.
Sketches:
Process:
Did a test to see if I could actually achieve something similar to my concept, I found it hard to make it look cartoony so I might have to change style or just exaggerate the movements. I feel like I nailed down the cute/spacey look of the effect though.
Testing out how I would go about deforming the sphere to make it look like a bubble and adding a cute face.
I didn't really like the text type face as it felt and looked too neon when I want to go for a more space vibe to match my initial concept. First time testing flipbooks as well as a possible work flow for the face. I'm having difficulty trying to push both pink and blue colours from my concept drawing so I might back track and reconsider a simple pallet due to time constraints.
I decided to drop the blue and double down on the pink as well as increasing the glow. I really like my first attempt but to match the concept I tuned down the overall chaos of the effect. Everything was too fast and stormy and the 2nd attempt didn't really have a separation of outer bubble, inner bubble and eyes. The third attempt was overall underwhelming and kind bad if I'm honest. I really want to personify my effect so I decided to look up characters I remembered. I love the expressive nature of the superintendent from Halo 3 ODST (left) and the magical shape of Vivis eyes (right) helps me separate the eyes so they aren't just more circles. I also added star shape particles and decided to create two colour variants to break it up more.
I think I can start blocking out the stages of the effect now I have my "center piece" nailed down.
Quick note about fonts, the correct terminology for fonts escapes me but matching what I found from my pre-production was rounded shapes often look cuter. I might edit this post when I know exactly what I'm saying but I just wanted to point out the type of things I'm thinking regarding design and my effect.
Along with creating the transition from idle to charge I added a change in colour from Idle to Awake and eventually I'll get the effect to fade to those sleep colours to visually display the effect is done. I used secondary motion to transition the eyes from surprised to angry as it moves down from the spin as if its eyebrows move down with it, just to help that transition.
Finally got the full [Idle -> Charge -> Release -> Impact] beats done. Now I just gotta refine the effect down and make sure it feels and looks right/cute.
I kinda got stuck on how to transition the bubble from charge to release (Which could've been solved with proper story-boarding) so I decided to get the bubble to move back which fits nicely with the eye roll and it gives anticipation to upcoming forward release.
Testing different camera shots while I work on adding detail to the blockout.
Testing post processing to make the effect clearer, added extra detail below the bubble as it's charging to emphasize it's going fast.
Added eyes to the explosion along with lighting for the "Zoomie n Boomie" parts. I wanted the impact to feel big so I've increased the initial star sizes that gradually get smaller. To further add impact to the boom I added a shockwave that's pretty basic atm, I might have time before submission to make it more interesting but we will see. I should really get working on that sketchbook, shoudn't be too hard to put together as I kept somewhat updated here.
Study:
Some of the things that I looked at to keep in mind while creating my effect.
Why are things cute?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0zConOPZ8Y
Exaggeration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfFj-VQKiAM
Squash & Stretch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haa7n3UGyDc
Anticipation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8OtE60T8yU
Pre-Production Sketchbook - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aTB2VC7M1Xn07Jhct92BK88IyTLjpH-fnlQI0BjM...
Inspirations:
Pinterest collection: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/reecekuby/rising-start-vfx-cute/
P.S. I like to create music playlists on any project I work on to get a general vibe & feeling while working. I don't really see it valuable but maybe something you're interested in exploring if you're anything like me. It changes all the time if I find better songs etc.