Coloso contacted me about a year after I published my frist course. This time they wanted something shorter but more specialized. I decided to focus on Niagara and Chaos, specifically how they integrate wtih sequencer.
I started off by making the central Niagara FX asset which is the pivotal piece at the beginning of the clip. I used circuit board textures to make custom meshes. The FX itself combines a variety of meshes, materials and sprites. Probably one of the more complex and interesting ones I've worked on.
Digital kaboom anyone? Concept of this 'bomb' was a temporary power boost device that bends the rules of the matrix.
Yes it was definitely inspired by the power stone shot from the Avengers. I took reference from when it was held inside the fingers. In my sequence, when the hand closes, the fx is replaced by a series of meshes to resemble strong lightleaks.
Hold tight... this will sting only a little bit.
And of course what would be a matrix fanclip be without the coding trails. For this effect, I made a custom texture using reversed characters to spawn sprites in random order and speeds.
Kids thesedays, do they know what CDs are for?
I really liked the prism light dispersion effect that I created with some textures and Niagara, I got a bit sidetracked.
Testing set up with Chaos destruction effect and Niagara integration. Chaos system spawns spacial data from stuff that breaks or collides which Niagara can then use to spawn things like smoke or debris.
Utilizing geometry collection mode to break a mesh into broken concrete slabs. I then took the broken pieces, shoved some bent metal pipes in them to create custom broken pieces to spawn during the destruction effect.
The tricky part with Niagara FX with custom meshes is getting the collision settings correct. How they bounce around determines how heavy or light they feel. Getting the correct settings dialled in takes a bit of trial and error.
I took references from the movie, took a variety of assets from the Epic Marketplace and set dressed the rooftop with a whole lot of different props, building pieces and custom smoke FX. Most of the background buildings were taken from the Marketplace as well.
I made custom textures for the Niagara smoke FX which was another fun one to make.
Under the roof, is the warehouse room where our protagonist wants to get into. I took references from Neo's room and yes CD pile photos. I used to have so many CDs DVDs and cases lying around my room but I threw them all out at one point. I had to google to remind myself of all the intricate angles that a CD pile stack can display.
I started building the room with custom lighting actors and meshes taken from the marketplace. I made one special cameo prop with a simple texture to celebrate my book being published around the same time.
Yes this is the room where the secret code lies dormant, agents unaware of the anomaly.
I used control rig to animate the character. And with sequencer I weaved all the different pieces together to assemble the shots. Because a lot of different moving parts were all coming together at this stage, I had to be very mindful of performance.
