Completed summoning & attack VFX
Overview
Role: Solo Developer
Tools Used: Unreal Engine, Blender, Photoshop
Intent
This project was inspired by a random sketch I made for Inktober a few years ago, a skull shaman/witch doctor type character (seen below). I wanted to learn the basics of making real-time VFX and also start learning Unreal Engine more properly, so I created a VFX concept for an attack that might be realistic for this skull shaman character!
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/de213f617e6d24d010a50a9f4172c895/092b3889-b1c3-43a7-a981-35c22d481040_rw_600.png?h=6a3b501e902d96a217f7af3c3e63dd82)
Inktober sketch of Skull Shaman
Process
Concept
This attack VFX is driven by the idea of the skull shaman having summoning magic. The attack follows a sequence of events where the skull shaman does a summoning ritual to materialize a giant skull spirit, which then takes a life of its own and launches itself towards the target and explodes on impact!
The original concept had a swirling cone of magic emitting from a magic circle, but in the final version I changed it to open a hole in the ground as if the skull spirit were being summoned from the underworld instead.
3D Models
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/de213f617e6d24d010a50a9f4172c895/36b15aca-ca21-4ddc-9e4b-bbd7f44f6f95_rw_1920.png?h=4209a8acfc8074e06249eb8b4d81f12b)
Render in Blender of Skull Shaman character fully textured
360 of the summoned skull spirit
Shaders + VFX Process
Planar dissolve in ghost material
Swirling noise in ghost material