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UE3 Home > FX Artist

FX Artist

FX artists are tasked with recreating real-world, imaginary, and other dramatic effects for use within games. For instance, weapon projectiles and the trail effects from them, explosions, effects from magic spells, sword trails, etc. are all effects that would fall under the purvey of the FX artist. These effects are generally created using particles and materials. The FX artist must have a solid grasp of particle systems and the material system and how to combine them to achieve the desired results to bring the world to life.

Particles & Effects General Topics

Cascade User Guide - User guide for the particle system editor in UE3.
Particle System Reference - Complete descriptions of every particle system module.
Distributions - Overview of the distribution data types used for particle properties.
Lens Flare Editor User Guide - User guide for the lens flare editor in UE3.
VFX Optimization - Techniques for optimizing visual effects in UE3.

Particles & Effects Content Creation Topics

Particle Examples - A breakdown of some of the uses of particles.
Particles SubUV Tutorial - Creating emitters with sub-UV image selection for animation.

Fake Mesh Lighting - How to fake lighting on meshes and particles using materials.
Anim Trails - Guide to creating trail particles driven by AnimNotifies.
Per Actor Particle Collision - Setting up Per Actor Particle Collision Events.
Using Instance Parameters - Setting up instance parameters with Particle Systems.

Materials General Topics

Material Editor User Guide - Overview of the node-based Material Editor in UE3.
Material Instance Editor User Guide - Overview of the editor for Material Instances in UE3.
Instanced Materials - Overview of the material instancing system in UE3.
Material Instance Constant - Guide to using parameterized materials instances.
Material Instance Time Varying - Guide to using time-varying material instances.

Materials Content Creation Topics

Materials Tutorial - Guide to creating simple materials.
Materials Compendium - Descriptions of all expressions nodes available in the materials system.
Material Examples - Tips, tricks, and techniques for creating different types of materials.
Material Basics - Introduction to basic materials.
Custom Lighting - How to use the custom lighting model.