Introduction

Hi, my name is Etienne, I’m 22, and I’m from France. I have been a Game Art student for 5 years now and I also work for Shiro Games as a VFX artist.

I started learning VFX last year because I was interested in it and that’s one of the fields my courses didn’t cover so I was very curious about how it worked.

To be honest, when I started my Game Art studies, I didn’t know what I wanted to do later. But there was something I was sure about: I wanted to create video games. So, at first we learned how to draw and I thought “oh, I want to be a concept artist that’s so cool!“. Then, we learned 2D animation and I was like “oh, that’s awesome too, so, I want to be a 2D animator now!“. As time went on, we learned 3D and my reaction was the same! I ended up loving all the fields and couldn’t choose one to specialize in. But, once I discovered VFX, I realized it covered everything I love. You need a solid culture of everything there, like 2D skills, 3D skills, shader, motion, timing, colors, composition, etc. That’s why I enjoy VFX the most!

Task approach

Before working on a VFX, I think about the theme so that I can do some research about the style and the relevant codes. In the case of the Riot Creative Contest 2017, it was Star Guardian. Then I think about the timing, how many parts the VFX is going to have and the way it is all going to move. So, I divided the work into 6 parts: