As I'm back, I've started working again on effects and such. I need feedback, so here I am. Keep in mind; some of these explosions (those who fit, obviously) will make their way to bigass. That's pretty much it, now rate things.

Fuel rod gun explosion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nscITlqsx8M
Wraith mortar explosion (old)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04pyl5IvOXc
Needler supercombine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WDGBVcpNL4
Anti aircraft shade turret firing and explosion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bx6-uJU6NU
New rocket explosion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAlYyTG_lk4
Wraith (antigravity, mortar firing and projectile detonation)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KepFyWXOIjI
Scorpion shell detonation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7neVyEkqj1M
Plasma grenade attachments and detonation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QctOnNSTjhQ

NEW VIDEO UPLOADED

Frag grenade detonation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtz--T4aLj8
Edited by notrododo93 on Mar 26, 2016 at 05:14 AM

Glad to see somebody still remembers me <3

Yooooooooo effects are gorgeous.

scorpion cannon kind of looks like halo 3 shell detonation nice

plasma grenade can't see it from all angles so I can't say much, are you going for halo 3 fx?


Fuel rod gun explosion wow that's looks better the what zteam put in there tag pack

nade explosion dose not look as good

Ohhh boy
I am loving your explosion effects

It's the most WIP thing I've uploaded. It doesn't look bad, but I don't feel like it has a strong personality.



NO. NO. NO. Halo 3 plasma grenade was BAD. I was first going for a Reach-like explosion, but it was too small and quick to fit my taste, so I mixed elements from various Halo games. It has various features from Halo 1 (a big blast radius, with a longer-lasting flare than other Halo games), but with elements from Reach and other Halo games (the ember sparks, the shock wave, the sparks trail and the electric bolts, along with higher-res textures for the fireball)


It is the best effect I made, along with the needler supercombine. I've really fallen in love to it.



Glad to see that I'm not the only one who is not entirely persuaded by that. Problem is, I don't have any idea to improve it. If others share this feeling, I may just port the explosion from Reach as it is.

ahh just took a look at your Needler supercombine not bad not bad at all

ahh so your going for Reach{-}like explosions, you could take a look at some maps here, at halo maps, that may help

just took at look at Wraith (antigravity, mortar firing and projectile detonation;)
not the best ever saw, but wowza all the same, however the fx seems a tad big no?

fx means mortar firing.

Edited by DOOM899 on Mar 26, 2016 at 08:09 AM

Stop giving the title that the effects are ugly, because if I didn't had a GF I would marry them :3

Probably, but the antigravity particle has been a pain in the *** for a whole lot of reasons and I ain't gonna touch it for a while. About the mortar firing I wanted the thing to be huge. I want players to be hella scared by the oversized flash... but I guess it's way too oversized lol. I'll work on that.

HNNNNNNGH Glad to see you coming back! Your effects still rock, that wraith mortar flare made me jizz in my pants!
Any chance for an in-depth tutorial? And are you gonna taking requests?

Yes and yes. Feel free to pm me any time, I'd gladly work with you.
Edited by notrododo93 on Mar 26, 2016 at 09:04 AM

Yes it would be nice to know how the bitmaps are made.

WB mate!

Those sprites don't seem custom to me.....

I missed you...

On a second look it seems most of your "fx" use the same .effect tag with minor flag tweaks here and there.

Though the first result deserved some recognition the constant loops of the near repetitious effects being utilized over and over with additional particle subterfuge felt both tedious and dreary from the second video upwards.

I understand within a production environment no matter how over or understated that the use of modular entities is both cost effective and time saving but if you are unable to pick and choose what to re-use and recycle in an suitable manner, then you are much better off creating something very close to individually unique with only the pre-existing raw fundamentals as your foundation.
Edited by Super Flanker on Mar 27, 2016 at 05:47 AM

You are right on that, but in my defence I can safely say that each and every Halo Game did that. Halo 1 based every explosion effect on effects\particles\energy\bitmaps\cloud c fire and variants with some smoke eventually added, whereas later halo games made all their explosions on fireball sprite + fireball palette with different RGBA settings and minor tweaks (I'll explain that when I'll publish the tutorial I was asked for, but you got to trust me on this one: particles were rendered this way this way with Halo 3, Halo Reach, Halo CEA and, though to a lesser extent, Halo 4 as well; don't know about Halo 2 and H2A, as I have never gave much attention to them; Halo CEA was the only game where explosions had something more than just these few elements, but I'm still unsure about how should I render them). The particle is indeed the same, just as it happens in every Halo game I could look at, but it is used in different ways (the first things I can think of, beside the colors, is the spawning method; some explosions continuously spawn the particles for a brief amount of time to grant a higher degree of randomization and a longer lifespan, whereas others, like the one from the scorpion, spawn them just at the beginning; some of the particles are spawned on all 360 degrees, others are thrown along the normal, so on so forth; except the anti aircraft shade, which uses a completely different particle altoghether). I'm still experimenting and learning, of course, but don't be unfair to me.

Anyway, following Altheros' advice, I've been giving more personality to my explosions by adding flaming debris, and I'll definitely add more variations to my particle, as you are right indeed when you say that this repetition may be boring.
Edited by notrododo93 on Mar 27, 2016 at 06:40 AM

As I mentioned above there is absolutely nothing wrong with incorporating modular works if you are having trouble with reaching a memory budget, time constraints or ideas.

However.

Since the 1st and perhaps the 3rd argument bear no stead with you or what you have produced I encourage you to seek out alternative methods of variation.

Rather than adjusting and amending fields of colour, angle, velocity and radii your efforts would be best served dealing with the actual core of the effect it'self. (sprites)

You can mess around with events, layering particle over particle but when all is said and done your finished product would be no more than an minor amalgam at best.

To put it simply slapping a fancy hood ornament and new set of rims on a dodge neon still does not change the fact that it's a dodge neon. (albeit a jazzier one)

If you are struggling with Image based particle creation as my gut suggests then I recommend you enlist into a community which addresses the entire VFX and particle engineering spectrum.

Or you can pm me for any spare sprite's I may have laying around. Either way you've shown your ability to practice on the in-engine side of things now focus your intentions on the actual artistic side of motion graphics.

As an alternative you could browse through and "borrow" the bitmap files sporadically located within "Another Stupid Campaign Mod" & CMT's "SPv3" both of which were under the direction of ifafudafi once upon a time.

As for coming across as unfair I beg pardon if that was indeed how you perceived me to be.

I only meant to aid, not to demean.
Edited by Super Flanker on Mar 27, 2016 at 06:53 AM

Every criticism is more than welcomed; I came here to find ideas and advice about how should I improve, not to be told how good I am. I have some more ideas, and I'll put them to use, then I'll get back here with more videos and hear what you have to say about them. My problem is not with memory budget, time or ideas... it's just that I'm alone working on that; I may have many good ideas, much time at my disposal and as much memory as I want, but, ultimately, if I'm alone, I can have just as many ideas as a single man can, and as much time as a single man has. (SOI knows this better than each and every one of us... I don't know how the hell did he get this far all on his own)
Edited by notrododo93 on Mar 27, 2016 at 07:21 AM

Asking for effects/particles ideas & help around halomaps or indeed most other halo modding sites won't get you anywhere unfortunately. I'm not sure as to why but particle modding specifics seem to have dropped off a cliff after 2011 :( as such most of the contributions will pertain to:

"this doesn't look right make it bigger"

"that color looks weird"

"when are you going to release this"

This isn't the fault of halomaps it'self or any other worthy alternative, the issue lies with either the lack of transparency, trust and discoveries made between individuals or perhaps the gene pool for caring about flashy explosions has dried up?

Whatever the case I'd be surprised if anyone other than my self steps forward to volunteer anything of particular note. Which is why as I have suggested before hand to arm your self with knowledge outside BLAM before venturing back in.

Some of this may be of assitance though it it may come across as haphazard and past due:

Foundation

&

Implementation

Are

Key

To

Progression.