How To Make a Motion Trail Effect

[@oatmealman1586]

Damn. Computers are wacky

[@DragonStem44]

No, it’s just blender. (laughs in horrific blender flashbacks)

[@WilburJaywright]

I wouldn’t say they’re wacky, they’re just completely inflexible. Every time you find a thing in a computer where you can do something slightly different ways and still get the same predictable output, a programmer had to specially put that in.

[@lil_iberia]

​@@WilburJaywrightdidnt realize 😢

[@IIStaffyII]

As a technical artist, I usually approach it differently, but I must say, this method works quite well! It's surprisingly efficient and customizable. The only downside I can think of is that skeletons/bone mesh will impact draw call batching which could be noticable on mobile games if you have groups of soldiers.

[@Ahzealion]

Yeah, I don't think this is really designed for out of blender use, though. There's Def easier ways to achieve this in game engines

[@TheSicklyWizard]

I do want to say I learned the technique from a gamedev who complained on Twitter about the Vfx work she was doing in-game

[@rmt3589]

What approach do you use?

[@IIStaffyII]

@@rmt3589 If I wanted it to look like this I'd use a Ribbon particle setup.

[@rmt3589]

@@IIStaffyII Ty so much! Gonna look this up!

[@flossfish6249]

I love absorbing Blender knowledge through little bits and pieces like this

[@Gazing-09]

Same here

[@Spirelord122]

wasn't expecting to hear some ape escape music today

[@Arcomuc]

YES! THANK YOU!

[@denizium.]

U EXPLAIN SO WELL HOLLY

[@Lottabaggage]

I like your funny words, magic man

[@김민지학생자유전공학]

Great tutorial 😮😮😮

[@pikachufan25]

Thats a Lot of Steps xD

[@WilburJaywright]

The goal is that the trail mesh stretches between the moving sword, and an empty that has the same motions of the moving sword, but slightly delayed.

[@bmd_videos]

​@@WilburJaywrightstill alot of steps gss

[@smallface_]

I needed this so badly thank you 🙏🏾

[@Superfriendgamerworld]

Wow so cool I wanted to

[@kurovah5475]

I remember seeing a similar method to this on twitter

[@TheSicklyWizard]

Yes that's the one I used and showcased here

[@Jackal_Neck]

Idk why people seem to think this is a day 1 blender course or something

[@royareyzabal823]

This short went so fucking fast it killed my passion for everything. Just chill, man, people need to digest first

[@Jackal_Neck]

It’s not for beginners

[@TheSicklyWizard]

@Jackal_Neck It is not, I wouldn't recommend it to someone first learning blender 😅

[@darkscorp4415]

Cool

[@FineappleRyan]

Comment for the trailgorithm

[@TheSicklyWizard]

The trailgorithm giveth today 🙏

[@jafarshiha]

Bro THE BACKGROUND MUSIC Is that from Ape Escape ?!

[@TheSicklyWizard]

Yep

[@Hgkbukk]

In roblox: Add two attachments and a trail object, done.

[@kolupsy]

This is why we have addons for trail generation. It’s a lot of hassle. Also for the people asking about this in game engines: it’s a lot easier as you can script the trail behavior and unity and unreal have default systems for these types of VFX

[@TheSicklyWizard]

What addon 👀

[@kolupsy]

@@TheSicklyWizard mesh trails for example

[@pikachufan25]

Hmm let me see: Make and Array of Bones > Use Modifier "Target Constrain > Influence Added by 25% *0-25-50-75-100 Step Two > Compress the Bones and Mesh to 1 "Point" Step three Confusing... Coin too fast even for me xD.

[@TheSicklyWizard]

The last step was optional 😅 I kinda just crunched to fit it in, basically it was a way to create the trail effect without hand animating it. The motion of the base bone is baked onto the empty, and from there you offset the animation in time so when you constrain the tail of the motion trail to them empty, it creates a trailing effect

[@NamelessTripathi]

This was my same question, so I started ratting the comment So basically it means that the animation path is baked to the last bone, chopped from tail bone and offset in timeline, to follow, creating a trail effect..... Intresting, gotta try out Thanks for your help 😃

[@homborgor]

Bruh I love your channel but this feels like way too much to process from a short 😂

[@alexikabakilwa2663]

I don't understand how you got theks circle armature on your plane

[@DhavalDatarcomedian]

Never going to complain about delayed release of a videogame again 🙏🏻

[@ffgg-566g]

He did it all in a short

[@TheSicklyWizard]

Yea, not to mention this was a demonstration for making this in blender, not in a game engine where these things are typically made instead

[@jawadoumar]

share your Blemder theme 😤 please 😩

[@TheSicklyWizard]

Its called emerald from this themes pack on GitHub github.com/kame404/blender-themes/blob/main/README.md

[@visualdosage234]

How is there not a distribute spacing button...

[@psipivids]

Could this also be done in-engine using shaders?

[@TheSicklyWizard]

I believe so

[@pikachufan25]

Yes

[@Alternavitus]

. . . *ping Thats some fancy words you got there magic man.

[@parthjain5248]

Thank you, i didn't understand a single thing

[@jkmi9400]

Personally I prefer to do this effect in géométrie nods

[@TheSicklyWizard]

I'd love to know how, I've not seen a tutorial for it 👀

[@jkmi9400]

@@TheSicklyWizard Hmmm if I remember correctly, I think I saw this technique in a Cartesian caramel's live 53:05 kzbin.infot6kn_ti1PP4?si=QhF_evaYe3TIUVBE

[@jkmi9400]

@@TheSicklyWizard Yes, this one at 53:05 kzbin.infot6kn_ti1PP4?si=QhF_evaYe3TIUVBE

[@jkmi9400]

@@TheSicklyWizard Yes, in this one at 53:05 kzbin.infot6kn_ti1PP4?si=QhF_evaYe3TIUVBE

[@truelifek9221]

Ape escape music??

[@377omkar]

That a subject for a 10 min video 😂

[@TheSicklyWizard]

I probably should

[@kiyasuihito]

Wouldn't you normally use a particle?

[@TheSicklyWizard]

You definitely can, I think this method is a bit more simple than doing a particle

[@azuretooth]

can I apply this to bullet trail FX?

[@TheSicklyWizard]

I mean, you could, but since bullets typically travel in a linear direction and don't really swing you'd be better off just having a blend key of a trail that's part of the bullet object if you want something simple

[@Algardraug]

Is it worth doing this in blender if you're going to import the assets to a game engine?

[@TheSicklyWizard]

It would depend, I don't consider myself a game dev but this technique I showed off in the video I did learn from a gamedev on twitter, @LezTusi. The reason they gave was a.) it cut out the Vfx work out of the workflow b.) gave full control over the arc, that the procedural effect didn't. I don't know how it would affect performance, but it is pretty simple.

[@Ramie0Cat]

would this also translate to game engines like unreal engine?

[@TheSicklyWizard]

Im pretty sure it would work. But I don't use unreal

[@wyanga7770]

Ai Ian Hubert?

[@TheSicklyWizard]

This hurts on many levels

[@VoidPh0enix]

Me who watches but don't understand how to code 🗿

[@vehbiatallencrow]

Coding is not needed to use blender. That would only be if you needed to run custom scripts to do things like add additional menus. Really Coding in blender is something you'd only do if you were making an add on.

[@VaporCun]

To be fair this guy made it way more complicated than necessary

[@TheSicklyWizard]

What aspects of what I did do you think was unnecessary?

[@aliashraf2096]

​@@TheSicklyWizard u did a good job I don't know what the guy is talking about great tutorial btw !

[@shlokbhakta2893]

@@TheSicklyWizardno worries dude, that guy is just yapping, I literally don’t see any other way to do this other than maybe some janky cloth simulation or a geometry nodes setup that someone else made 😂

[@fluorideP9]

Wow that was… WAY TOO FAST!

[@baysidethe1st817]

And that's-

[@ElvisRoose]

no u dont do that u do those things in unreal engine :I

[@TheSicklyWizard]

This is blender, Not unreal.

[@xXUnhingedDevXx]

Unreal engine user found 🫵, opinions and thoughts rejected ❌️

[@bmd_videos]

Blender is easy 🙄