Chthonic Lightning

For this personal project prompted by the Riot Games Creative Contest, I hoped to achieve a real-time effect that conveyed a snappy aggressive impression. The idea is that chthonic forces are utilized to generate two separate areas, filled with opposing charges. This way, a credible imitation of the way lightning works is replicated and a relatable phenomenon is achieved. The practical purpose of this effect would be to visualize a damaging area of effect ability that has a hybrid theme related to both 'lightning' and 'underworld'. The style is heavily inspired by the works of Alex Redfish.

This project took me approximately a week to get to the current result. It is a testament to all the exercises and research I performed during the past two summer months in context of real-time effects. I am quite happy with the attained timing and the flipbooks that I drew.

The majority of the meshes used for this effect were generated in Houdini to maintain a non-destructive workflow and to speed up the process. Please do check out the break-down of the effect for further information regarding the process, the more technical aspects and components of the effect.

Gabriel (Gabi) "Nibilli" Boileau gave me feedback during the polishing phase. Their feedback helped me to get the polish to the next level. For this I am most certainly grateful to them.

Main Shot

Main Shot - High Framerate

Process

The cracks were achieved by combining three components: the main fractured rocks, the cavities in between the rocks and the rims of these broken pieces of earth.

Each phase of the effect requires a different crack texture. These were grey packed into one texture file.

The same counts for the veins. Each phase demanded a different way of modifying the emissiveness of the veins. Each version was also assigned to a channel.

The rim mask's main purpose was to prevent using any real-time lighting calculations. I wanted to challenge myself to be able to create the illusion of the bolts emitting light on the rock's edges without the use of actual light.

Generating the mesh that corresponded with the cracks of the texture was quite crucial. It would support the effect on so many levels. Houdini allowed me to automatically adapt the mesh each time I changed something about my crack texture.

Three different types of lightning were used to convey a different type of motion and/or interaction between elements. Each type has its own flipbook.

Another type of lightning effect flipbook was created for anticipation and blending purposes rather than the more explosive nature of the previous set of lightning flipbooks.

As is custom in real-time effects, dissolve maps play a great role. Here are a few of the ones I used. My main concern with the dissolve maps for this effect was to maintain the snappy and aggressive tempo and shape.