Shatter Crystals

For this project, I wanted to create a combined weapon and destruction effect. I conceptualized an in-game, destructible asset that the player could interact with. These 'shatter crystals' would reward the player with experience points when destroyed.

Inspiration

For this effect, I took inspiration from a game I love- Super Mario Galaxy! I went for a similar cosmic aesthetic, using crystals and stars as the basis for my design.

Fx Breakdown

Unreal Crystal Shader

Houdini RBD

Shatter + Exp Effect

Base Shatter Effect

Crystal Shatter + Base

Crystal Base Fx

Bullet Trail

Muzzle Flash

Crystal Blueprint

To start, the skeletal mesh of the crystal is hidden (because the crystal material would show the cracks), and the crystal is randomly rotated. In addition to the random rotation, the crystal has an array of breaking animations, both of which help to mask the fact that the destruction is pre-baked.

Once the bullet hits the collision object, it swaps out the visibility of the static mesh with the skeletal mesh. The breaking animation is chosen randomly from an array of animations I exported from Houdini, all with the Niagara fx and material animations layered on top.

Until it breaks, the crystals have a floating animation- which I have set up as an exposed variable so the crystals can have different floating heights. The animation is also offset, so they do not float in synchronization. The height of the skeletal mesh always matches the static mesh, so when they swap it is seamless. When the crystal breaks, no matter how high it is floating, it will fall back to the ground.

Weapon Blueprint

I started with Unreal's first-person projectile blueprint, but I made modifications after replacing the default weapon with my own and integrating fx.