Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• I think it's decent work. The effect has a fairly good final framing and impact, paired with the music and the big bright explosion. The research and development is OK. The idea you want to convey and the inspiration are very clear. I think you might have mistaken a bit the concept of having 4 states of the effect. In the documentation you make some of those states a bit forced, like the idle and recovery state simply being the village. I think the effect itself should have been your primary focus, and those states should be part of the effect, not the backdrop. Your effect starts in the "release" state with the lighting strike, then ends with an explosion and finally there is the recovery. For example: the idle state could have been something like a bunch of clouds in the sky that start to agitate and form some lighting sparks, to build up some tension. Then lightning strikes , lingering and flailing a bit, with the sphere of light growing and finally the big explosion and mayhem. And everything nicely fading off for the final recovery state. I hope that makes sense. Basically play with timing and extra elements to build up tension and then release it. Technically also okay. You decided to separate the effect in multiple Niagara Systems, which works but is not ideal in a real production environment. The whole effect should live in a single Niagara System, with all the emitters inside separating the different stages and elements of the effect. I would recommend looking into using the same emitter to create a whole set of randomized behaviour, for example you could try creating the lighting strike as one single emitter or 2 maximum. It's more tricky to set-up but it will make it easier to apply quick changes without having to touch 6 different emitters. It's especially important when working in a team. Artistically I believe it's a good start, but all the different elements of the effect could be pushed a lot more in terms of visual richness, layering and transitions. Look up some effects that you really like and notice how they use many secondary elements to add more interesing variety. You did it well by adding smaller lighting beams to the main one. You can add even more elements like air distortion, flying bright sparks, etc... Also very important is the transition states of all the separate parts. You did it well by making the lighting strike attach to those 2 blueprint spheres. You could add nicer transitions to the glowing sphere, for example by ramping up scale and brightness, and also when the explosion is over by fading out all the elements more smoothly, rather than making them disappear abruptly. I hope this helps! I believe you are off to a good start.
• Nice idea in creating a custom lightning system to it more art direct-able in the scene. End result has elements to make a great effect. One area to look into is, improving the timing of the explosion with the smoke being emitted from the impact. It doesn't make sense that the smoke continues to emit outward at a fast rate when the explosion has stopped. It would have been better to see the smoke slow down and dissipate over time. Since buildings are being destroyed by the explosion, medium and small debris particles would help sell the effect more. Things like glass, wood splinters and roof tiles etc.
• Your documentation lacks the explanation of destruction. Moreover, I believe it would be better if you have out put a MPEG video and present your video instead screen capture. Try to look in to more solid reference in the future before start a vfx project. Best of luck for the future.