Roles: Modeller, Developer
Production Team Size: 1
One of my first shders designed for VFX back in college.
Years alter these styles of shaders would eventually become very popular for tutorials.
My implementation focused on a rich-layerd burning effect and a sharable burning location.
By using a Vector 3 and compensating for object scale and rotation, this shader could create a more convincing burn across multiple close objects. This is a really great feature for large scale destruction.
To make the effect look better than just a glowing edge I used multiple layers of detail in the burning edge:
The heightmap gives it a per-pixel burn rate, and a contrast control lets you designate if you need flatting ‘islands’ of burnt or if you want homogenous burning;
A scrolling noise map feeds a falloff glow tgat shows in the lower areas of the heightmap around the burning edge to show heat spreading and breathing it’s way through the material.
Though this is a simple concept and has since become a common style, I think my effect holds up even all these years alter, and in many ways pushes beyond standard implementations to create a richer effect with more utility in game development.
