In this post, I will be experimenting with particles and developing some of my own for my commercial’s effects. To begin, I decided to make a list of what types of effects/particle systems I want to construct and what they would be used for.
Effects/Particles –
-Smoke/Dust, this will be used mainly as a trail or to show the speed’s impact within scenes. To create this effect I will be using the playground system to spread particles evenly.
-Lightning, lightning is going to be the main power source of the character’s speed power. This will be radiating off of the body of the character as they are running, made using shapes of colour with a lower opacity. To extend this further I could also add a spark system to it.
-Motion blur, I do have a directional blur on my character however but I want to take this one step further and add an overlapping effect to help exaggerate the speed more. Using the rainfall particle system, I should be able to use this rotated to show potential movements greater.
-Wind, I want to generate gusts of wind surging from the character as he runs. To achieve this I will have to combine the playground particle system with a wave system.
Things to consider:
-Parameters, think about the limitations and physics of the FX. What are the variables or movements that could be used to influence the particle?
When creating parameters you will have to play with direction, rotation, and velocity to form the shape of the VFX. Using multiple emitters can help other particles blend seamlessly together.
Timing is very important when working with particles, this can show the intensity of the FX which can match the anticipation. It can also create a specific emotion, the slower it is the more calming the atmosphere could lead to.
Lightning –
To construct the lighting effect I had two different methods of tackling this, one being using a wave-particle system to fluctuate over time and the other being generating my own shapes with a directional blur. The one I started with was using shapes to create the illusion, this method unlike the others was pretty simple to do as it was mainly getting one area lined up and finished and then duplicating the rest in a variety of sizes.
Next, I experimented with the wave system, this particle tool was the closest I could get to the shape and movement that I was after. The only thing that I disliked about using this effect was the constant spiral effect that it creates, the beam spins around and thickens over time which is less streamlined than what I was aiming for.
In my opinion, the shape layer was the most effective as it contains the right levels of energy that I could want, I may use the waves however layered upon it with a lower opacity to create a unique visual style.
Smoke –
For the smoke particle effect, I used the playground system, this allowed me to make my own clouds of smoke being able to alter them as I please. I also added a gaussian blur onto its particle also to decrease the thickness and improve the visual performance in reality.
Motion Blur –
The motion blur was one of the simplest particle effects that I had to make, this effect will be mainly used to exaggerate the character’s speed and trail. To construct this effect I used a rainfall system and rotated it using different tones of green to build up depth.
Liquid Particle –
To produce this effect I used 2 different particle systems which complement each other in appearance with similarities. The systems Mercury and Bubble both use the same elements of shapes and movements, the bubble rises up to any pace and Mercury does this but can rotate in any direction.
Mercury was used mainly for the impact of the can, releasing a short fizz from the product. It can also be seen again when the bubble particles fall and slash back into the can. For the bubble, I used a low quantity and differed the tempo with a short travel path.
In my opinion, I really like the outcome of this particle its probably been one of my favourites to make as it involves precise timing and when right just falls together smoothly. If I were to improve this edit I would most likely slow down the character in the background slightly as you can see the shake that almost breaks the slow-mo illusion.