After narrowing down the previous ideas for the project, I realised that in order to get a better and more effective result I need to simplify the overall concept for the story. Instead of thinking of various shots for a fighting scene, which may require a lot of footage where hands and their movement will be tracked, rotoed and cleaned-up, I can focus on a less complicated set-up.
Having recently seen the “Choose Your Character” trend, I thought that this would be a great idea to implement. The focus would be on two characters, with a choice of their outfits, equipment and powers.
Following on from the last week I started to work on the first power which was inspired by Wanda Maximoff from Marvel universe. I managed to find this tutorial (see below), which I followed and rendered out first 120 frames of the effect. Then I set-up the scene in Nuke and using the camera tracker (3D) I got to place a card nearby the moving hand.
Quick Tips | Houdini + Nuke | Magic FX 01 – Magic effects tutorial
As I was simply following the tutorial, the way that particles are generated and interacting is not suiting my ideas. My next task would be to adjust the path and figure out of how I want them to follow around in the space, maybe of a more sphere shape. It is also quite important to understand how much that hand can move, as there is a problem of perspective and interaction with the hand.
I am still not quite sure of how I want the second character to look and what their power will be, so my next steps will include noting down their power, simulating it in Houdini, creating a moodboard for the second character, figuring out which shots would be needed for the gameplay and what choice of style, weapon and positions the characters would be shot in.