Over the summer of 2018 I had the pleasure of working as an FX Art Intern at Ready at Dawn. During my time as an intern I worked on two of their flagship titles: Echo Combat and Deformers. Most of the work I did in Echo Combat was for their seasonal Halloween lobby. I was responsible for adding interactive elements and creating/implementing environmental FX for the level. Below you can see a few of the particle systems that I set up for the lobby as well as a demonstration of the interactive elements that I scripted.
FX and Interactivity: Collin Harris; Environment: Marjan Mahdjoubi, Lighting: Matt Cooke; Art Director: Nathan Phail-Liff
End of Round Celebration Effects
When a round ends in Echo Combat, all guns are disabled. Many players found this to be unresponsive considering the trigger is still able to be pressed even if the guns are disabled, so I created a few fun FX scripts that could replace the default weapon systems.
Below are a few of the more popular effects hooked up to the assault rifle and shotgun.
Halloween Lobby: Environmental FX
Every Halloween Echo VR swaps out their default lobby with a festive, seasonal variant. I took the existing Halloween Lobby and fitted it with an entirely new set of environmental FX, ranging from ambient fog, to cauldron smoke, to laser beams. Pictured below is the FX master file as well as a few FX systems I created.
Halloween Lobby: Cauldron INTERACTION
After I finished adding ambient FX to the Halloween lobby, I decided to start adding interactive elements. These ranged from animating the eyeballs of the in-level constructs to follow the player, to multi-person puzzles.
Below you can see a video demonstrating the most complex event, the cauldron. In order for players to reach the success state, it requires 10 unique objects around the level to be placed inside. Once all 10 objects are in the trigger volume, the success event is triggered. The success event activates several unique particle and animation systems in the cauldron, as well as animating all of the computer monitors and the eyes of the constructs.
Below is a video of an early prototype demonstrating the puzzle in action!
Halloween Lobby: Altar Interaction
Once you have all of the props inside the Cauldron, the altar (Apollo) activates. The constructs' eyes (which have been following you) now animate to look at the altar instead. A small FX system plays when the altar is active. Place any of the lobby props in front, and a beam shoots out of the center and lights the prop on fire for the duration of the lobby session.
Below is a early video of the mechanic in action!
Halloween Lobby: Misc Interactions
Below are some simple network-replicated interactions that any player can trigger. On the left is a cardboard ghost I made that plays an animation when a player enters a trigger volume. On the right is a simple button that triggers a series of particle and audio systems.
