3D Particle and Shader Effects

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3D Effects Demo Reel
Overview
This reel is a collection of in-game footage focusing on particles and effects for magic spells, environments, and monsters that I created for Horizons. It displays a wide variety of techniques to create effects utilizing the Horizons proprietary particle editor and the engine's fixed-function shaders. The video is also synced with music from Horizons to further demonstrate pace and timing. Music and all game art is from Horizons and artwork developed by me is denoted in the shot descriptions below.
Shot Descriptions
00:01 [kwellen monster and effects]
  • Monster shader and magic spell's particle and shader effects.
    • Particle vertex colors affect the flame shader allowing color variance.
    • Explosion ring uses combination of point sprites and quads for flames and trail effect.
  • Also created monster and weapon meshes, textures and animations.
00:13 [boss death]
  • Particle effects and shaders, camera and sky effects.
    • Effect emits point sprites and ribbon particle renderer from character mesh vertices.
  • Also created meshes and textures for character's armor and weapon.
00:15 [flame damage]
  • Particle and shader effects.
    • Flame/smoke shader is multi-pass shader affected by particle vertex colors and alpha.
00:18 [flame shield]
  • Particle and shader effects.
    • Using flame shader with different emitter and particle motion behavior.
00:23 [dark resurrection]
  • Particle and sky effects.
    • Emblem glow achieved using existing shader and emitting multiple growing/fading point sprites.
00:26 [dragon lairs]
  • Lava and water shaders and spark particles.
    • Hot/cool lava shader is a multi-pass shader affected by vertex colors allowing the cross-fading.
  • Also designed and modeled all dragon lair areas.
00:38 [dryad diorama]
  • Background diorama including shaders, particles, geometry, and some textures.
  • Also contributed to dryad character head and body meshes.
00:44 [eclipse region]
  • Eclipse shader effect and sky arrangement.
00:50 [vexator monster]
  • Rift and body multi-pass shader effects.
  • Also concept and construction of monster meshes, textures, and animations.
00:56 [blight anchor monster]
  • Rift and body multi-pass shader effects.
  • Also concept and construction of monster mesh, textures, and animations.
1:01 [stun effect]
  • Particles.