Growing Roots with WPO

[@BucketKingu]

Not only did you show how to make the material and effect, you also showed how to make the mesh. Absolutely amazing detail man, excellent as always.

[@themeskimoze]

man i cant get enough of your content truly one of my best resources for learning about VFX

[@tssirivantalu4188]

Thanks. We need more

[@CKostopoulos]

This is awesome, thank you a million times!

[@doomstarrobo7807]

This is very very cool. Thanks for sharing.

[@danielslamon]

Is there a way to then make this climbable once the animation finishes.
Thinking of making a root ladder that grows from the ground to allow player to then climb it?
Awesome video

[@tharlevfx]

your climbing logic should probably be split off from your visuals anyway so there's nothing stopping you spawning a root ladder and then enabling a trigger box in the same place that lets the character climb up.

[@danielslamon]

@@tharlevfx thanks so much for the reply! Hope you're doing well ❤️

[@AllesLatte]

super nice! thanks for sharing the knowledge. im wondering if that technique could be applied to a spline mesh, so you could even generate the mesh in-engine and maybe even modify on runtime. definitely gonna check that out!

[@tharlevfx]

Yup. All those things are possible with this technique

[@srknAyn]

thanks

[@cgimadesimple]

great video ♥

[@CaptainWeirdBeard1]

Thanks so much!

[@fragelius]

aaa yiiis ty for tutorial

[@TOMAvatars]

Hi! Thank you very much for your great content. It always helps me. But I don't understand something here: when I use negative values multiplied by the Vertex Normal WS it doesn't shrink, it grows.

[@theman7050]

Inside out.

[@danielslamon]

struggling with how to add the ramp texture to the vines in maya. is this a nescesary step?

[@tharlevfx]

@@danielslamon nope - as long as the uvs are laid out correctly then it should work

[@danielslamon]

@@tharlevfx thankyou so much for replying! I'm currently studying game design at university and stumbled upon some of your videos, been a great help, much appreciated

[@tharlevfx]

@@danielslamon anytime! Any questions just reach out and I’ll help if I can

[@baryafe]

if i want to do it on an enemy? does it matter how i warp it around the object?

[@tharlevfx]

@@baryafe it depends if how dynamic you want it. Easiest thing would be to have a pose the enemy goes into when rooted and then use a static mesh using this technique.

[@baryafe]

@@tharlevfxRocks!!!!!!!

[@LastIberianLynx_GameDev]

Thanks. We need more of this stuff.
One thing i have some difficulty when dealing with these effects is how to control them from Blueprints.
I normally lerp the material parameter but this doesnt seem ideal.
Is there any way to trigger this animation, without having to lerp the variable manually in BP?
Or thats just the way to go?
Kind like there should be way to do it in the material itself.

[@Tylru]

Best to animate it in sequencer and save that out as an animation you can play from Blueprint :)

[@kettenotter]

The best way is using a timeline in an actor. Then you have the most control.
You can also just update the custom primitive data instead of using an extra Material instance.
Actually the best way is probably using Niagara particle system. Then you have the most Flexibility and Performance. You can just spawn a single particle for the root mesh. (This is actually the setup I use for this kind of effect)

[@Fafmagic]

Would using material parameter collections work better?

[@tharlevfx]

You can animated the parameter directly in sequencer if it’s just for a cinematic or portfolio piece. Or a material parameter collection could work too.
In blueprint I would probably use a timeline and drive the parameters that way, or if it’s something like a gameplay effect you could use niagara and spawn these as mesh particles with animated material parameters - lots of options, it just depends on your use case :)

[@kettenotter]

@@Fafmagic I am not a big fan in this case. Because if you later want two instances with different values it gets messy.
Use it more for things which are everywhere the same: Light direction, Fog color, Time of day, season...

[@ImaginaryCreation-jm4xf]

9:08

[@carlosrivadulla8903]

is a pity that someone like u doesn't use houdini to leverage all that math and fundamentals knowledge.

[@tharlevfx]

I’ve tried to learn it a few times but I just don’t need it for most of what I do. It’s a great tool for films but a bit too much for most games projects

[@YAXHY]

I have started learning houdini but figured that i can do the things i imagine in blender and unreal. Was learning it for destruction as i have a giant destruction scene in one of my shots which i figured i could just also make in blender. Can you tell me why i would still benefit from houdini? Is the workflow just better in a sence that you can get the desired effect faster and with less processing, or is it about the quality of effects, or is it just because it’s a standard? I will start learning houdini again but i just dont have a big incentive on why i would spend my time now trying to learn it because i can get to the results i want now…

[@carlosrivadulla8903]

@@YAXHY I left 3D because of ai, I don't know what to tell u anymore, good luck

[@YAXHY]

@@carlosrivadulla8903 oh i thought you were a professional on this... Thanks anyways!