To begin with, I had many ideas for my VFX project and so I decided to make a moodboard for each of them, whilst weighing up potential pros and cons of each one in the process.
Idea 1: Space Ship
My initial idea when thinking about scenes to do, was some sort of space scene – mostly because I was playing through Dead Space at the time.
I liked the lighting that a spaceship scene could create. The top right image from Dead Space creates a dark, scary atmosphere through the singular light at the end of a long hallway, whilst the bottom right image has a nice contrast of orange and blue, which is aesthetically pleasing to the viewer.
However, whilst I was intrigued by the potential lighting options for this environment, I struggled to say the same for the VFX aspect. The only VFXs I could think of was some electricity sparks from broken wires and some space particle effects if the camera looked out of a window.
Idea 2: Cyberpunk
For my second idea, I tried to think of an environment that could include multiple VFX elements, as well as have nice lighting. Immediately I was drawn to a cyberpunk enviornment.
As you can see in all of the above images, rain is an important part of a cyberpunk environment. This, alongside some sort of hologram effect would make for great VFX inclusions in my environment.
The lighting in the image on the right would be my goal if I were to choose this environment. The wet ground creates amazing reflections which, with the use of Unreal Engine 5, could look stunning.
My only concern would be potentially being able to find the correct assets for this environment to look good.
Idea 3: Volcano
Another idea I was quite keen on from a VFX aspect was a volcanic scene.
Many VFXs could be created for this environment, such as smoke, fire embers, lava, and a volcanic explosion. This could lead to an exciting scene in which the climax is the volcano exploding.
One concern about this environment may be the lack of lighting opportunities compared to the cyberpunk environment where there are hundreds of buildings all lit up vibrantly. In this environment only the lava and the volcano itself could be potential light sources.
Idea 4: Battlefield
For my fourth and final idea, I thought that some sort of war scene could potentially include many different VFX, whilst still maintaining good lighting opportunities.
Smoke and fire could be potential VFX used in a scene like this, as well as gunfire. A tank firing could also be an intriguing VFX to work on, with many different elements to it.
One concern with this environment would be the fact that it could feel monotonous as, even in the examples above, everything as far as the eye can see looks fairly similar – potentially leading to the viewer becoming bored.
Conclusion:
To conclude, I think the space ship idea was by far the weakest in terms of potential VFX to utilise. The other three ideas all intrigue me, either through lighting or VFX potential, and I would like to find a way to include all of them in my final piece.
References:
EA Redwood Shores (2008) Dead Space [Video game]. Available online: https://store.steampowered.com/app/17470/Dead_Space_2008/ [Accessed 2/12/2022].
CD PROJEKT RED (2020) Cyberpunk 2077 [Video game]. Available online: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1091500/Cyberpunk_2077/ [Accessed 2/12/2022].