Hello, I’m very new to VFX (just started researching about it today) and I’m currently looking for clarification on how VFX is actually made.
Some of the videos I found use particle emitter and textures to make their effects, while others use Blender meshes. Does the method of creating VFX depend on what you’re doing?
Like if you’re creating a giant dome type explosion effect, it would be better to use Blender meshes?
And if you’re creating a slash effect for maybe M1s or a sort of slash ability it would be better to use particle emitter?
In my case I’m looking to make vertical/horizontal slash type effects and possibly splash type ground effects as well, but I don’t know really which method of creating VFX to start with. Any help will be appreciated, thank you for your time.
Experiment! There’s no direct way of making anything, so making it in the way you want will always be the right answer. Blender is convenient, you can modify tons of values, but it’s harder to set up. Textures and particles are still convenient, but easier to set up. This is what art is all about, and VFX is an artistic medium.
Wanna make a cartoony sword slash? You can use both textures, particles, and models to achieve it. Don’t wanna use textures? Learn to code and add your own UI elements then.
People like to find their workflows, so whatever you’re comfortable with will be the best answer, but experimenting and changing up your style will help you learn everything. If you want some easy work/project, try recreating something that someone has already made. If you want to continue, take that idea you recreated and use it to create something else. It’s much harder to come up with a new idea than to use your skills on an existing idea, so that’s a good step to take in as well.
I misunderstood the original subject of this post, but this still technically answers your question. VFX can use anything to achieve what a person wants, it is an art to learn.
I see, I’ll find out which way of creating VFX fits my style. Unless I’m wrong, I notice that primarily using textures and particles with particle emitter will lead me to rely on open sourced textures cause I honestly don’t have anything like a tablet to make custom textures on, idk how far that would take me. I might start with Blender and go from there, thank you for your assistance!