Greeting: “Hi guys, I’m Asif Ali, and you’re watching CGHOW. In today’s tutorial, I’ll show you how to create a cool licking trail effect in Unreal Engine Niagara. Let’s get started!”
Call to Action: “First of all, subscribe to my YouTube channel and click on the bell icon to receive notifications for all new videos.”
Tutorial Steps:
Setting Up the Project:
The video begins with creating a new Niagara system in Unreal Engine 4.27.
Select “Niagara FX” and delete unnecessary particles, keeping only the Burst particle.
Adjust the Life and Size of the particle for visibility.
Set the color to red for better clarity.
Animating the Position:
Use Position in Niagara to animate the particle’s position.
Use a Curve or Sine wave to animate the particle along the X, Y, and Z axes.
For a spiral effect, add a Cosine curve to the Y-axis.
Animate the particle’s position to create a spiral motion.
Creating the Trail:
Duplicate the emitter and modify it to create a trail.
Remove the position animation and use Particle Reader Attribute to spawn particles from the first emitter (source).
Adjust Spawn Rate, Life, and Size for the trail.
Fixing Overlapping Particles:
To avoid overlap, create a Scratch Pad and use two particles with different indices (0 and 1).
Use a Vector by Index to read the position of each particle and adjust their positions to avoid overlap.
Adjusting Particle Offsets:
Apply an offset to the second particle using the Lerp function to make sure both particles are spaced out.
The Lerp function will blend between the two particle positions based on the index (0 or 1).
Adding Sine and Cosine Waves:
Duplicate the setup for additional particles and use Sine and Cosine waves for more dynamic movement.
Animate the position of the particles along different axes (X and Z).
Experiment with different values to get various animation effects, like spirals and waves.
Using Sphere Location for Particle Generation:
Use a Sphere Location module to generate particles randomly from a sphere, adjusting the radius to create diverse patterns.
Increase the number of particles and use GPU simulation for smoother results.
Enhancing the Effect:
Add Curl Noise to add randomness to the particles and make the trail look more natural.
Adjust the Size and Color curves to make the effect more dynamic and eye-catching.
Creating Multiple Rings:
Duplicate the particle system multiple times and rotate them to create multiple rings.
Use a Niagara Parameter Collection (NPC) to control the parameters globally for all particles.
Link the Angle, Distance, and Offset parameters to the NPC to make global adjustments.
Final Adjustments:
After creating the rings, adjust the parameters like Angle, Offset, and Distance to fine-tune the look of the trail.
Add extra parameters for the Trail Period and Trail Angle to control the overall behavior of the effect.
Conclusion:
The tutorial wraps up by showing how to adjust parameters like Angle, Trail Time, and Offset to get the desired trail effect.
I am Ashif Ali, Real-Time VFX Artist, I make Unreal Engine Niagara Tutorial on this channel. I've made it my mission to share my knowledge and expertise with the world through my YouTube channel. So why not join me on this exciting adventure? Follow me on my social links, subscribe to my channel, and support my growth as a creator. Together, we can create amazing things and take our skills to new heights. And who knows, you might even get access to some of my exclusive files for free!