AFX - Some Effects

Jeff Faust contacted me a while ago. In the course of things he gets a lot of requests for custom spell/effect work. Unfortunately, AFX development keeps him really busy so he was looking to see if there were any community members interested and capable of handling some of the "overflow".

I told him I was fairly busy with SoW development, but I'd be willing to give it a go.

Now, I'm obviously not as proficient as Jeff is with the system but I do have a fairly good understanding of how it works. I felt I could do a good enough job to satisfy and in the process really dig into the more subtle and complex aspects of AFX. So it's a win-win, someone gets custom effects and I get money and practice. Well, it's a win as long as it doesn't interfere too much with SoW dev. I'm willing to give this some time, but not to the complete exclusion of my own game dev.

The other good reason to do it is that it's an efficient exchange of services. I am good at programming/scripting, but not so much at art or sound. I can do something I'm good at and earn money to pay people to handle the things that I'm not so good at but they are. So while this isn't SoW dev, it is, in a way, for SoW.


These effects are for the MMO Verdant Shadows (www.verdantshadows.com/) being developed at the moment. Mikal and his team are working towards a beta soon, with that in mind he's trying to get the basics in the game so that people can get hammering at it. So for now the effects I've made aren't too elaborate, trying to get that foundation done before we add in extra detail or the like. Also, being an MMO, you want to ensure the system doesn't chug with dozens of people hurling around effects, so we'll tune these as we go.

Anyway, enough talky, more showy! I made some youtube vids. You will notice some animations from the stock AFX kit. They're placeholders while Mikal's artist finishes the player models.

A bite effect, used when an beasty chomps you :



Wolf Spirits, fires 3 ghostly, snarling wolf heads at a target :




A Dazzling Dust effect, Mikal wants purple dust :



But me, I like this version, it's neat, puts the Dazzle in Dazzling Dust, that's for sure :) :



Anyway, that's all for now. I'll leave you with a higher def pic of the wolf spirits. Stupid wolves, funny shaped heads, took ages to make them look even half decent.