Fairy Magic Heal VFX

The effect that I created is a single target healing spell that could be used in MOBA's or MMO environments that have a fantasy theme. Having played MOBA's such as 'Smite' and 'Paragon' in the past along with the 'Final Fantasy XIV' MMO I wanted to try and create an effect that could be used in games similar to them whilst keeping their fantasy aesthetic. 

Since this was my first time doing anything VFX related it took me a long time at the start of the project to find an idea that would fit inside of my scope as I would need to spend a couple of weeks at least researching how to use Unreal Engine 4's cascade tools. This was very interesting and I was able to ask the other participants for any advice and if I had any troubles I was able to ask them and they'd help me through anything that I was struggling with, because of this I was learning a lot within even the first week of the project. 

That being said, I did encounter a lot of problems that I wanted to work out myself and so a lot of personal research was done into how to use the tools and how the use of 3D models can be used to aid in the creation of the effect, this research came in very helpful when creating the beam of light and the patterns underneath the characters feet.

If I were to have more time on this project there would be a few things I would like to make. First off, I would make the butterflies fly off in more varied directions away from the player and in world space instead of local space to make them look like they're flying away more naturally. I would also make the spiral of butterflies and orbs around the player more tight so it would go around the player more within the height of the effect. finally I would add more particles in between the butterflies so that there is less empty space between them as they go up the spiral to make it more aesthetically appealing to players. 

I think overall I did the best that I could within the time frame considering I've never used a particle system or created any VFX before let alone in a competition. Going into this project I was determined to use it as an experience to learn and I feel as though I've learnt a lot and have discovered how much I love creating effects like these and I can't wait to carry on creating them to improve my skills.