Visual Effects in World of Tanks
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Textures for visual effects in World of Tanks. How to apply the fundamentals of the theory of color and composition. Visual effects evolution during the project’s growth. Features of creating VFX for MMO.
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Visual Effects in World of Tanks
- 1. НАЗВАНИЕ ПРЕЗЕНТАЦИИ Имя Докладчика Визуальные эффекты в Мире Танков Александр Яцукевич Художник по визуальным эффектам
- 3. • VFX это просто иллюзия. Что такое эффекты на частицах • Применение основ живописи и графики при текстурировании • Анимированные текстуры • Как улучшать эффекты шаг за шагом
- 4. Wargaming •16 офисов по всему миру •3000+ сотрудников Мир Танков •80 миллионов игроков •1.1 млн PCCU в России World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition •более 2.2 млн скачиваний • PCCU 75K игроков
- 5. Эффект на частицах. Пример
- 7. Простой дым без альфа-канала
- 13. Альфа-канал с вариативной границей
- 14. Альфа-канал с вариативной резкостью границы
- 15. Текстура с границей того же цвета
- 16. Пример дыма с текстурой одного цвета
- 17. Текстура со светлой границей
- 18. Пример эффекта со светлой границей на текстуре
- 20. Текстура с разнообразной границей
- 21. Текстура с разнообразной по освещенности границей
- 24. Дым с анимированной текстурой
- 25. Анимированная текстура. Частицы повернуты на случайный угол
- 26. Кадр из анимированной текстуры
- 28. Пример эффекта с темным дымом
- 30. Пример вспышки
- 31. Итого: •Как можно больше разнообразия •Разнообразие в четкости границы альфа-канала •Текстура с вариативной яркостью границы •Анимированные текстуры с направленным освещением
- 32. FragMovie 9.0 от Arti25
- 33. Александр Яцукевич E_mail: a_yatsukevich@wargaming.net О компании: http://wargaming.com Мир Танков: http://worldoftanks.ru
Editor's Notes
- Good morning. My name is Alexander Yatsukevich and I’m a Visual Effects artist on World of Tanks project. I joined game development industry in 1997 as a user interface artist. One year later Victor Kislyi invited me to join Wargaming.net.
- Wargaming.net logo, user interface design, web-design and all the web sites, concept art, visual effects, graphic design, booklets, handouts, manuals, visitcards, and lots of other staff till the company has become really BIG. So if you have any questions concerning company’s history and older projects feel free to ask. But this presentation is about exactly about visual effects.
- When World of Tanks was released it had 200 effects. Now it has about 1500 effects. The game has 1900 environment objects and almost each object has its own unique effect while tanks use about 400 effects. All this staff is being created and supported by 6 VFX artists. It’s a really huge team.
- When World of Tanks was released it had 200 effects. Now it has about 1500 effects. The game has 1900 environment objects and almost each object has its own unique effect while tanks use about 400 effects. All this staff is being created and supported by 6 VFX artists. It’s a really huge team.
- I will explain the main principles of particle visual effects for those who doesn’t make effects. Let’s look at smoke. All effects are just an illusion. And every VFX artist has two main aims: to create an illusion and to keep the player deceived till the very end. This smoke is just a set of the same sprites which are scaled and rotated random way. They are always turned into camera. In this case we mean that a particle is not a single dust but the whole sprite which shows a cloud. So if we turn all the particles back to its original angle and size we will break the illusion. Therefore to keep the player deceived we should hide the fact that all the particles are the same. It’s very important to remember that these sprites are flat pictures. While most of the objects in video games are real 3D objects. It means that the texture for a particle is a small square painting.
- Let’s discuss smoke again. To make an effect of smoke you should have a good texture of a smoke puff. Usually you find some photos on the internet and make a collage.
- If we just use this image we will have a set of flying squares.
- That’s why you should add some alpha channel to show the form of this puff. The easiest way is to make it round with smooth borders. Now it looks better. To get rid of this tiling affect we make our particles different size and turn them some random angle.
- Now it looks like real smoke.
- For many centuries artists have been fooling people around by showing volumetric staff on a plain canvas. They’ve come up with some great ideas how to expose volume and how to make it believable. It means that we should keep these fundamental ideas while texturing visual effects.
- And we could have stopped at this stage. But let’s look at some drawings.
- We can see that artists are making the edge a bit different along its border. At some places this edge is hard and at some places this edge is blurred and smooth. It’s one of the principles of showing volume. Harder edges seem closer to us and smoother edges are deeper. If you make the edge various you make your sprite volumetric. Thus you add the third dimension. It’s the question of composition to make the shape of different weight just to make it less boring, more realistic and volumetric.
- Thus you add the third dimension. It’s the question of composition to make the shape of different weight just to make it less boring, more realistic and volumetric.
- Let’s move further. Now our smoke looks better and now it looks like a part of this virtual 3D world. Now look at the texture itself. Usually it has some uniform lighting because we always rotate the particle to make the illusion of turbulence. So there is no exact light direction. If you make the edge the same color as the center your effect will be a bit flat.
- If you make the edge a bit lighter it will add some volume to your effect. Thus lighter parts of your texture will make some parts of your smoke move out towards us. It will bring some extra volume.
- We can see that artists are making the edge a bit different along its border. At some places this edge is hard and at some places this edge is blurred and smooth. It’s one of the principles of showing volume. Harder edges seem closer to us and smoother edges are deeper. If you make the edge various you make your sprite volumetric. Thus you add the third dimension. It’s the question of composition to make the shape of different weight just to make it less boring, more realistic and volumetric.
- But it’s better to make the edge different as it was mentioned earlier. Thus darker smother parts of your particle will grab the environment air while lighter parts will add volume making overall effect more volumetric and in the same space as other objects of the scene.
- Let’s discuss smoke again. To make an effect of smoke you should have a good sprite of a smoke puff. Usually you find some photos on the internet and make a collage. If we just use this image we will have a set of flying squares. That’s why you should add some alpha channel to show the form of this puff. The easiest way is to make it round with smooth borders. Now it looks better. To get rid of this tiling affect we make our particles different size and turn them some random angle. Now it looks like real smoke. And we could have stopped at this stage. But let’s look at some paintings. We can see that our ancestors were making the edge a bit different along its length. At some places this edge is hard and at some places this edge is blurred and smooth. It’s one of the principles of showing volume. Harder edges seem closer to us and smoother edges are deeper. If you make the edge various you make your sprite volumetric. Thus you add the third dimension. It’s the question of composition to make the shape of different weight just to make it less boring, more realistic and volumetric.
- We can see that artists are making the edge a bit different along its border. At some places this edge is hard and at some places this edge is blurred and smooth. It’s one of the principles of showing volume. Harder edges seem closer to us and smoother edges are deeper. If you make the edge various you make your sprite volumetric. Thus you add the third dimension. It’s the question of composition to make the shape of different weight just to make it less boring, more realistic and volumetric.
- In our case we rotate particles to get rid of tiling affect and to add turbulence. But if you have enough space for animated textures you can bake this turbulence into animation. In World of Tanks we use animated textures very often. We usually add some direct light into our texture making it more volumetric. Because if you have direct light you have beautiful self-shadows and reflexes. But this animation is not cycled. It means it can’t be rotated for a long time. If you have 24 frames per second it will limit the particle lifetime to 2.5 seconds. It means that your smoking effect will be very short. But if you add one extra emitter which uses the same texture as static you will prolong your effect.
- But this animation is not cycled. It means it can’t be rotated for a long time. If you have 24 frames per second it will limit the particle lifetime to 2.5 seconds. It means that your smoking effect will be very short. But if you add one extra emitter which uses the same texture as static you will prolong your effect.
- Usually people avoid adding direct light because the particles might misfit the scene light. But I’ve noticed that it’s almost invisible for our eye where the light actually comes from while the presence of self-shadows is more important. Somehow the brain explains to itself that there is some other source of light which is invisible currently. Anyway you still can rotate these particles without breaking the illusion.
- We can see that artists are making the edge a bit different along its border. At some places this edge is hard and at some places this edge is blurred and smooth. It’s one of the principles of showing volume. Harder edges seem closer to us and smoother edges are deeper. If you make the edge various you make your sprite volumetric. Thus you add the third dimension. It’s the question of composition to make the shape of different weight just to make it less boring, more realistic and volumetric.
- One more example of animated texture of dark smoke.
- One more example of animated texture of dark smoke.
- These ideas do not concern only smoke. If you have some light flashes you still can apply some of those principles to your light textures. If we have a flash of light usually we make the texture very simple with accurate round alpha channel. But it’s boring. The light meats lots of obstacles as smoke and rubbish and can’t be the same in different directions. It rather have some differences in its form and color.
- These ideas do not concern only smoke. If you have some light flashes you still can apply some of those principles to your light textures. If we have a flash of light usually we make the texture very simple with accurate round alpha channel. But it’s boring. The light meats lots of obstacles as smoke and rubbish and can’t be the same in different directions. It rather have some differences in its form and color.
- It doesn’t mean that you are obliged to follow these rules. It should go in harmony with the overall style of the game. If you have some flat color style in your game than you shouldn’t add unnecessary color to your textures but you can make the edge less boring. If the style of the game is about hard edges than you shouldn’t add smooth edges to your particles but you can still use different weight forms of you particles. These are not strict rules but a set of ideas which you know and use in case where it needed.
- It doesn’t mean that you are obliged to follow these rules. It should go in harmony with the overall style of the game. If you have some flat color style in your game than you shouldn’t add unnecessary color to your textures but you can make the edge less boring. If the style of the game is about hard edges than you shouldn’t add smooth edges to your particles but you can still use different weight forms of you particles. These are not strict rules but a set of ideas which you know and use in case where it needed.