How realistic does it look? Is there anything I can do to make it look more real?
How realistic does it look? Is there anything I can do to make it look more real?
5 Likes
It looks like a good basic explosion effect, if you are going for more realistic, heres what I would consider:
- Smoke should come out of the explosion probably about 2 - 4 frames after frame 1, flames don’t transition in to smoke, thats not how it works
- Fire should be on the ground after the smoke sets in, otherwise its just a combusting ball of fire.
- Consider that explosions are not kept within a certain radius, particles have to fly out from all different directions and the flames have to instantly rise from where the explosion starts, to slowly decaying as it sets.
- Consider the impact the ground would take, maybe a dust cloud form around it to show the pressure of the explosion, or a ring of dust flying away.
- Unrelated to the particles but still worth mentioning, part of an explosion is the camera work, showing the shakiness to show the impact is has on its surroundings. Otherwise it just looks kind of weak.
You have a nice base, keep building on top of it
3 Likes
That’s what I was kind of thinking, but I went TF2 style for the explosion effect that I made.
Pretty solid just I would add some fire sparks after the explosion.
1 Like
Update: I added a shockwave and a light to the explosion.
How does it look now?
6 Likes
Hey There,
Pretty solid on my side, I think you could definitely add some fire at the bottom after the explosion. I think it would give it a more solid figure for a realistic explosion even for a TF2 reference. Overall, great job on blending the smoke with the fire. Keep up the good work.
1 Like
Update: I used a sprite sheet then cut it up to animate texture ID
Which version is better?
3 Likes
Hi, fellow visual effects artist here. You should consider adding separate textures specifically for the blast, debris, and smoke. It does not look good when you try to put all of these together, trust me I know. Yours look nice despite being simple but I’d still reconsider. Try to use Zoffset for parts of the smoke that would be lighter/darker, for the blasts, etc. For example,
The blast can have a Zoffset of 1,
The smoke having a Zoffset of .5
And the debris having a Zoffset of .25.
Hope this helps.
1 Like
Can you show me an example of what you just specified
Sure. Here is an example:
The explosion’s blast to the left has no ZOffset changes, so it may appear darker. However, the blast of the explosion to the right does.
You can find the Zoffset setting under the transparency of a particle emitter.
When you attempt to overwork a particle and make it do all of these jobs at once, you may not be getting the quality you can be getting. Smoke is usually darker, and fire is usually bright. So, letting one do its job and the other do its job, you can get better quality out of an effect.
So which is better, using animated sprites or using zoffsets?
It depends. I prefer using particles with different Z-offsets, but if you’re looking for a less laggy and sometimes more detailed option then you can do spritesheets.
Here is an example of a good spritesheet I’ve seen recently (The lag while recording is from my end): https://gyazo.com/78d8daca0af598c4c72d79a647f305f7
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That sprite sheet actually looks better than mine. I searched everywhere on google for a good explosion sprite sheet that I can use, but the one I used was the best of the results google gave me, yours is better though.
Are there any other good explosion sprite sheets you have seen?
The one I sent you is not mine, but yea thats one of the better explosion spritesheets I’ve seen. There is a battleship game that utilizes it as well.