How AAA Games Animate EVERYTHING (Blender VFX)

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In this Blender Tutorial, we will be creating high quality game VFX and animations!
I'll demonstrate the foundations, so that you can take these teachings and experiment with them on other primitive objects and create near infinite variations!
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#blender #blendertutorial #smeaf

[@Smeaf]

📚Let me know if this helped you out!📚 💪Join The Patreon💪 patreon.com/smeaf oh....you're still here? Check out this other video, I think you'll enjoy it! kzbin.info/www/bejne/sKnOlJ1pbcaWiM0

[@opshredderytp]

Too bad im poor

[@angiemaestre638]

It really didn't

[@ZenithAstral]

How would you do this if it was expanding, like an explosion?

[@iangchang]

(VFX Game Artist here) First: I really like the comedy aspect of your videos and how easy really you make some of this Blender stuff to be learned, specially for beginners. That said, I would really appreciate clarity on the video title and introduction: This is specific to Visual Effects animation in games, not how "everything" is animated (characters, and others), and even then, this is a specific solution of how only a part of games VFX is usually solved/created (meshes with custom shaders). It'd have been nice if you mentioned that some of the concepts that you explained in the video would normally require to be handled in the Game Egine instead of Blender (like shader/materials creation and animation/particle systems), since the effect (as you made it in the video) would not be "exportable" to said Game Engines otherwise (unless baked into a sprite sheet or something like that). In other words, the mesh and UVs are the only thing what you would do in Blender for this case (I might suggest using extruded curves as they are non-destructive and have nice UVs, instead of a subdivided plane) I'm in no way saying the title of the video is clickbait or anything, but I know your viewers would be greatly appreciated when they would eventually want to specialize in certain topics. I know these videos probably take a lot of time to produce and what I'm asking might be a lot, but adding appropriate resources in the description to the stuff I'm referring would be enough. Thank you if you read this and sorry if this sounded rude in some way, english is not my native language.

[@ogmadigital677]

I'd say you could definitely argue the title is clickbait. Additionally, as you say, this methodology would have to be recreated in (for example) the Unity HLSL language or shadergraph, instead of a simple export from Blender. It's an interesting topic, well presented and thought-provoking, but not directly helpful for gamedev (short of using the Blender game engine... somehow...) and that title's... odd.

[@iangchang]

@@ogmadigital677 I didn't want to jump to arguing that this is clickbait since this might be just Smeaf ignorance on this topics. It just the video bothered me enough to make a comment about this since I can see how this content can indeed confuse more than help to beguiners beyond the point of if this is clickbait or not. (But I would definitely would agree with you if lack of knowledge from Smeaf part is not the case)

[@ogmadigital677]

@@iangchang I think your post was worthwhile. Clickbait or not, the title is factually incorrect and misleading. 'All'? More like 'one fractional aspect, only tangentially related to practical applications in modern game engines'. I mean, what expectation does the thumbnail create combined with the title? As you say, the motivations here may be entirely benevolent, but if I were just starting, the information presented could lead to hours of confused frustration. Nicely executed video, though! =D

[@angiemaestre638]

I came here to write this exact comment, except I would say the title is definitely clickbait. He knows enough to understand this is NOT how you animate everything. the fact that most of the comments are positive leads me to think this is purely entertainment and not for learning at all. Calling this a tutorial is a big stretch.

[@LastNight0]

dude i was about to say the same thing lol, in game design we do things like this in shaders , sprites, or Niagara or a combo of all the above. blender is for modeling assets and actor animations.

[@RocketPunches]

Implying that VFX Artists and other gamedevs have been lying about the difficulty of their job, even as a joke, is a bit rich for a video about UV animation that has a bunch of high cost transparency. If anyone wants a better idea of how VFX is implemented in a game, the developers of Rime have a very good breakdown of what more complex VFX actually look like when you need to fit them in the render cost of an entire real-time environment and not alone in Blender's viewport.

[@ErichToven]

Exactly how I felt about it.

[@purpleey]

thanks for the comment im interested in checking out the breakdown now

[@archmage1015]

Sauce pls

[@tardissins7512]

Dude it’s a meme, calm down

[@mmgame-devacademy3799]

true

[@PhasimPhoenix]

0:27 I know it’s not legal to let the default cube live, but dang you tore it apart!

[@Smeaf]

He committed crimes against my family, so I had to leave no evidence

[@gijungles2496]

@@Smeaf Bahaha

[@janstachu7744]

@@Smeaf Bro same

[@kironklay]

the way he deleted the cube hurt me for some reason lmao

[@mimivrc4148]

"Alright, first delete the default cube. Now, we are going to start out by adding a cube" every time

[@TheBludes]

my body is ready

[@sumuggum]

Haven't watched the video yet. Reading this without context.

[@navneetrout8193]

😂. Otakus supremacy.

[@STICKOMEDIA]

Lol

[@stevenslantrellious8322]

@@sumuggum same here

[@Jlewismedia]

A professional tip, after you delete the default cube you should have created a default cube again.

[@ErichToven]

Don't tell them that. It's what the cubes have been wanting all along.

[@ErichToven]

Yes I'll just stop modeling animation, compositing, shading and textureing and make games that use a procedural shader in a plane from now on. He figured out my dirty secret. 🙄 Everything is a baked shader on a plane.

[@SilasMckeeIII]

Being a game dev... so you decided to us blender to show something for game engines, the problem here is export settings, unfortunately the moment you used that color ramp was the moment you decided to be only using this in blender. 3.3 may of fixed it, but its an issue that users, especially ones using Unity or Unreal, have had for years with blender. I would suggest finding an engine you like and learning how to do this in engine if you want it for a game

[@ErichToven]

Agree I would do this in graph node or your just going to have to bake some things and waste space. Also animation is this? He just explained why it's all easy? Where all lying to them. Get real. Turn this light on a plane into the new GOW. Go ahead I'll wait. 🙄

[@dl0.0lb]

I mean, I took it as mostly a concepts video. Importing a mesh and animating that is simple enough for any engine, and writing a shader that animates a color ramp through a texture while moving it only take a couple tutorials to learn.

[@TheBendixSA]

I think there is an argument to make that these are more animation effects or hit effects than animations. And yes your are correct they are quite a bit easier to do. Rigging and animating a model is a whole different ball game.

[@user-fd8fe9hk9q]

yes this is how they do it people. characters, machines, vehicle, particles effects. Any thing you can imagine can be animated exactly like this

[@mahmoudmohie1624]

true

[@noah8162]

@@mahmoudmohie1624 bro he's joking, the video only shows one single effect, this is not how anything else than fire is animated

[@InnerEagle]

@@noah8162 Sarcasm at its best

[@Negurasis]

Fuck i almost belived it

[@butteredbro]

I can respect the content but I don't appreciate the misleading titles and thumbnails

[@Santi.Xx69]

Misleading?? What are you on bro, he is showing how most AAA companies make animations, nothing is misleading

[@mathislacroix5177]

@@Santi.Xx69”nothing” 😅

[@Santi.Xx69]

@@mathislacroix5177 read it again bud

[@JackSather]

Sheesh your editing is stellar!

[@TheSticknation]

YES, been waiting for a tutorial like this!

[@hipjoeroflmto4764]

I miss the era of KZbin where I could click on a random video in my feed from some guy I never seen before and they don't immediately try to tell me about there pateron or some random sponsor crap , can't people just make videos because they want to not because they have to so they can eat there next meal?

[@Ahmadabdal_]

Remember to enable node wrangler in addons for ctrl+t

[@garnishstudio3567]

Important!

[@FolderBop]

ur the goat

[@deweymartelcaringal1066]

Thank you so much

[@IronKore]

Animate everything huh?

[@ZacFarmer]

YES I’ve been looking for this

[@jorgemaggiolo6240]

Thank you for explaining this thoroughly!

[@KaizenTutorials]

Another banger!

[@Smeaf]

Thanks Kaizen!

[@imhelenzhou]

Love ur humour and love the video!!👍👍☺️☺️

[@dragerx001]

love it will have to try this tomorrow :D

[@dumebinkata]

bro you're a gem

[@ConaaaMC]

I wish that I could go back in time so that I could discover smeaf content again for the first time.

[@Smeaf]

Ok one sec! *unintelligible whirring sounds*

[@unskill5362]

I was looking for tutorial like this for so long. Love it!!!

[@Smeaf]

That's awesome, thank you!

[@lunarazure9969]

If you want a similar tutorial, I highly recommend checking out Pierrick Picaut's video on making FX's. He covers stuff like animating the plane itself and getting to to follow character movement, definitely worth the watch if you don't mind a longer video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJrGlZ2naMxnnc0

[@unskill5362]

@@lunarazure9969 Thank you, I will check for sure.

[@scatterbrainart]

Liked and subscribed. Thank you!

[@jonasmadsenkvols6141]

Holy funk! You made a blender tutorial funny to watch! Nice video:)

[@topxgaming9340]

Its working man!!

[@akelexone]

While it may be simple, it still takes understanding and craft to make it effective and beautiful

[@priuxls]

terraria music is the best music, change my mind

[@Test-iv4pm]

I don't understand what's "simple" here, but I respect it.

[@officialzinpai8843]

thank you very very very much, you help me a lot

[@triplezgames3882]

So this is how you create authentic physics based character movement with seemless transitions..?

[@samsungmobiletelefon7376]

Yes, it would be great if it worked both there and there, both in Cycles and in EEVEE

[@youtubetv1593]

strange why it doesn't work in EEVEE

[@samsungmobiletelefon7376]

I'm surprised too

[@cartoonforkids-usa725]

I'm surprised too 🧐

[@vitorazeredo96]

@@youtubetv1593 When we turn on the value of multiply in the mix shader fac it does not become transparent!

[@srepeterrak9095]

so sweet of you

[@reeceytaylor]

Been using Blender for a bit and I never knew about the Shift S thing

[@ArtyDc600]

Thaaattttttt iss theeee mosttt amazing and easiest way to make our own vfx of that type looll thanks for showing

[@kvngferg]

Smeaf for President

[@jasonclementraj6293]

I thought you were gonna make a vid about easy tricks to do character animations like in games..

[@regemdolorem]

My brain checked out after you said devide... i was holding your hand too i promise!

[@nikola5955]

Your videos are so well edited! Please do a video editing tutorial!!! 🙏🙏🙏

[@Smeaf]

That's a great idea! I'll have to at some point

[@nilotindoy981]

subscribed!!!

[@OversizedPringleToe]

I saw a Rec Room ad when the Rec Room music was playing… 💀

[@primearts5197]

Not this man using all the good OSTs bringing back memories

[@Peas3D]

You know I hate the default cube as much as the next guy... but that was brutal. +rep

[@opshredderytp]

Finally im not a noob anymore

[@blakewyrick4011]

amazing video editing lmao

[@mr.someone5679]

"So how many songs do you use per video?" "Yes"

[@taichou3391]

I've spejnt the day looking through blender videos, they just deleted the starter cube... you just murdered it lol

[@Smeaf]

He had information that I required and was not giving it up

[@backyy07]

your endings always be like: what you just learnt isnt worth anything if you dont watch this video right here. ill probably be 60 by the time i can use blender XD

[@plugster3086]

Seu lindo! amei o video! usarei de mais!

[@supremebeme]

bet this video has great retention

[@leylaturkmen2514]

Thanks you inspired me😭🤣👍✅

[@marqusee]

Sick! Now. I just need to get those puppies into unity

[@siddharthveer]

Nice endcard technique buddy

[@armedsteelstudios8582]

No mercy on the default cube 😢 he deserves better

[@paulJkiely]

Poor old ‘Default Cube’ 😢

[@alexhachu6415]

Bro really violated the default cube like that 💀

[@hinkatortilla8714]

The magic! I knew that!!!!!!

[@michelveraliot]

May the default cube rest in peace #save the default cube

[@DM_K7]

In unreal one would have to dive into material functions to do what you did in blender, with a different kind of approach to all the elements. the work flows described in this video, do not translate well into the video game realm.

[@ldl6053]

Love the Mario Kart Music

[@FCGColouristUK]

You could also just create the first and last keyframe and adjust the bezier interpolation in the graph editor to change the timing. Great video!!!

[@BigWavesKays]

That outro song slaps!

[@Jasmera]

My god, learning technical stuff like this always managed to make me sleepy

[@victorfioravante6787]

Muito Bom !!! Parabéns !!!

[@sherzoderkinov4498]

Thanks dude! Time for some Anime)

[@B1ngleB0mb]

I didnt even notice that i was learning 🖐😫

[@quentinvei]

Your videos are really helpful and interesting! It would be awesome if you could explain how to export them actually

[@juanfernandojimenezbuitrag2434]

Yes please, I will be waiting for the answer

[@Super_Hex]

If you mean export the shader to, lets say, Unity or Unreal, you can't. Blender is purely a modelling, texturing, and animation tool for game development. You need to recreate the effect of the blender shader in an actual game engine, using something like HLSL, or visual scripting. Creating shaders like this in Blender, when you know you want to use it in a game, is pointless. The most you could do, is to create the mesh/UVs, and then export that.

[@noah8162]

@@Super_Hex exactly, title of the video is misleading in so many ways

[@pianoatthirty]

if you’re looking for video ideas I’d love to see your approach to claymation in blender. Also that purple jelly/gummy material from “how to animate a character in 20 min” would be super cool to learn how to create.

[@pianoatthirty]

He’a already got one and I just totally forgot about it. Jesus smeaf you’re unstoppable. For anyone interested - m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/jaquoJaVpsmUn5Y

[@pianoatthirty]

And once again..... if you want to learn how to make his jelly/gummy material he actually explains it in his Udemy Geometry nodes animation course. Doing the course right now and it's awesome. Go buy it.

[@Smeaf]

Bro, you are too kind! I'm glad you're getting to experience my more laid back in-depth teaching style haha

[@yingholchan6399]

Animation is simple IF ONLY do A SIMPLE ANIMATION.... do not discredit how much sweats animators put on their works! Animation has so many steps EXSPECIALLY character animation!

[@cartoonforkids-usa725]

hi, why doesn't it work in EEVEE ?

[@diegonascimento3317]

finally found thanks to the author

[@Musiclover6404]

The most important thing to know us how to get this in unreal engine

[@y0g_s0th0th]

He started off telling us the Animation industry has been lying to us, and he gracefully made his case. This is super cool.

[@hggabriel6176]

I really love u bro

[@Smeaf]

Thanks bro, ily

[@shitbreak2k]

i was high when making this , so trippy

[@tistalagosta3449]

That was funny 😂💙

[@rezalavasani3169]

Good luck importing that to Unity

[@diego.dmngez5398]

this shitpost style editing mixed with your extremely professional vlog shots is giving me whiplash

[@Smeaf]

This is precisely what I want

[@AiKakProsto299]

Спасибо за ролик !

[@Stuxed_]

non one is talking about the stone grinding sound effect when he uses the pencil? the style man

[@Smeaf]

The goats notice the little things thanks man

[@Stuxed_]

🥶🥶🥶👀

[@gijungles2496]

You monster. Poor default cube know what's going to happen but you went full evisceration 🤣

[@FizzyPops895]

me with 0 idea how blender works still watching videos like these.

[@lazybonesent9343]

hey smeaf love the video. if isn't too much can you please give me a break down of what the math nodes are doing. I really wanna understand what is going on there.

[@cameron.t]

Reminds me of the “floating” pen in 2001 A Space Odyssey

[@taylann]

comment for algorithm

[@Smeaf]

you are the goat

[@tbuk8350]

This is really cool! I was hoping more for the character animation part, as that's basically black magic to me, but this is still helpful.

[@KStarPR]

It'd be better if the title specifically stated it was about VFX, and didn't have Tears of the Kingdom Link falling. Good and informative video, but it was misleading until you specifically see he's only talking about VFX.

[@nitentv5142]

Mr. Smeaf Sir, I'm gonna try this now, if it really is as simple as you explined it, next time you hear about me I'll be the king of the pirates.

[@nitentv5142]

Well, guess what? I'm the king of the pirates now...only one thing: at 1:20 when you set alpha clip you also have to put clip threshold to 0 or yoour material will be invisible, how I know it? Beacuse I'm the king of pirates now.

[@BongbokCG]

🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@hamzathewalkingalive2714]

what are those math nodes for? How do they work? Alot of details unexplained

[@Test-iv4pm]

What an exciting gem of a channel looking forward to checking out the recommended videos

[@megutrp]

here before you blow up and get 1 mill

[@Nashfanfl13]

Too bad blender shaders only work in blender though right? If you wanted to make this in something like Unreal or Unity you would have to remake this in said engine.

[@testinghope8584]

i understand but can you please tell me why we must uses 4 math node and also can you tell me why you connect last math node to transparent BSsf node ....

[@lalilulelo7080]

I love that you delete the cube side by side until it became simple plane, delete it and create a simple plane 😎

[@jamaalsineke2405]

Hi Smeaf....I've followed along your VFX tutorials(3 of them) and I was curios to know how I'd get these VFX examples you made in Blender into Unreal Engine? Is there a way to make Flipbooks like in Houdini or do I make FBX exports? I think this would complete this series you've got going

[@Derpduck.]

I already know it will

[@Smeaf]

You already know

[@KreativeIndustry]

how do you make the animation game-ready?

[@santhoshsivan4693]

What is this doing with aaa gaming I don't understand?