Love Blast

A VFX done for Unreal Engine and Niagara practice.
I wanted to do an overblown animeish effect, with a lot of that anime style of slow charging with multiple fases, to end up in an exagerated manner. Of course, to end up just being a love spell.
I have to thank my couple for the idea of making it love centered, it sure was a fun challenge.

I've used a cellshaded, stylized look, with flat, bright colors and sharp shapes, no postprocessing involved, and all rendered and composed in Unreal Engine.

The effect is driven by a blueprint, as it would in a gameplay scenario, and several Niagara systems, such as the main effect, trails, the blast charging on the finger and the final explosion.
The main piece of the effect, the succubus heart, is made by baking a heightmap to make the effect appear in the proper way, adding some noise, all driven by Niagara and the shader.

This has been super fun to make, and you can expect some more coming soon.